Oh MG News

Standing Up against the separation of families: Kidlit Says No Kids in Cages. This fundraiser started by authors Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz now totals twenty kidlit authors, who released a statement on Monday, June 18, condemning the U.S. policy of separating children from their immigrant parents as they cross the border. “We believe the “Zero Tolerance” directive issued by Attorney General Jeff Sessions is cruel, immoral and outrageous. We believe the Department of Justice is engaging in practices that should be restricted to the pages of dystopian novels.”

Contributions will be divided evenly between Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, the ACLU, the Women’s Refugee Commission, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), and Al Otro Lado.

NOTE: Error correction: this article previously stated that the amount raised by this group was $1.6 million. That was incorrect. As of Wednesday, June 20, the group had raised nearly $161,000 with a goal at that time to reach $175,000. We apologize for the error.

It won’t’ be about Harry Potter, but J. K. Rowling says she’s planning to write another middle-grade book soon. She teases the news on her website, saying she’s been “playing with the …. story for about six years…” She says the new book won’t be about wizarding either.

Richard Peck, author of middle-grade classics such as The Best Man, A Year Down Yonder, and A Long Way from Chicago, has died. He was 84 years old.

Book Marks has launched and already has two partners. The literary review aggregation site says it aims to be something like film’s “Rotten Tomatoes,” but for books. The American Booksellers Association will put the widget on the IndieBound.org. As of now, the widget does not have a children’s book category.