* CONGRATULATIONS to the master storyteller Rukhsana Khan for winning the 2011 Charlotte Zolotow Award for her outstanding writing in the picture book Big Red Lollipop (illustrated by Sophie Blackall and published by Viking Juvenile in 2010). * The Filipino-British children's book Tall Story by Candy Gourlay (David Fickling Books, 2011) is now available in the U.S. Buy now! * Watch out for the Feb. 22 release of Orchards , a young adult novel in verse about a Japanese and Jewish American girl, by Holly Thompson (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2011). I have an advance reading copy and the book is so lovely! * New on my wishlist is Anya's War by Andrea Alban (Feiwel & Friends, 2011). Anya's War is a young adult novel set in 1930s Jewish Shanghai. JEWISH SHANGHAI! * Click here to read my interview with Sarah Darer Littman , winner of a Sydney Taylor Honor for her young adult novel Life, After . The Sydney Taylor Book Award is for outstanding children's