… that was the challenge my sister brought my way today.  It seems that the Disney Princesses have landed in her no-licensed-characters-please household.  My niece, an insatiable, ravenous, non-stop reader, is in love with the book. She calls it “the singing book,” as you can push buttons to hear audio. 

We think it’s the audio, and not the pretty dresses, that is the source of the appeal, but it got my sister a bit worried about the inevitable onslaught of Disney characters who don’t find happiness until they are connected to a man.  It’s just not who our already-had-a-broken-leg-and-stitches daredevil niece is. Especially at 2-1/2 years old.

The princess-ification of young girls is everywhere in current children’s lit — guides to how to be a princess, Fancy Nancy, and the ‘Licious picture books (Pinkalicious, Purplicious, Goldalicious).  But what new princess books are out there, for the picture book crowd, that feature strong heroines who aren’t looking for Prince Charming? Alas, even Heide & Smith’s delightful new Princess Hyacinth, though (like us) height-challenged, is saved by a Boy. 

What recommendations do you have for us?

(In the meantime, my niece and I read this book TWICE in the library today and then spent the next few hours saying — no doubt to the annoyance of others in the car — “How do YOU wokka-wokka?” “Like a clock-a ticka-tocka.  How do YOU wokka-wokka?” And yes, having had the day off from school, I did spend it going to a public library.  Sigh.)

UPDATES

Via Twitter, Joanne reminded me of Munsch’s Paperbag Princess (many others suggested it, too, as did Lydia in the comments below) and suggested Cuyler’s Princess Bess Gets Dressed).

Miriam recommended Babette Cole’s Princess Smartypants (see the author reading it here).  I see on Amazon that there are a few follow-up titles, too! 

Lydia (below) also suggested Fa Mulan, Robert San Souci’s version of Mulan.

Laura (below) recommends the Do Princesses … series and points to this link.

Hey there! We’re looking for your lesson plan tweaks that would help move two stodgy projects closer to inquiry. Submit your ideas, and you could see your name in an upcoming issue of School Library Monthly!

• Pet Research - How can you help move a teacher past a list of pet facts on a poster?  (This is the same scenario we discussed at AASL in Charlotte a few weeks ago.)
• Overly-Narrow Research Topics - The teacher proposes a research topic that is too narrow and too shallow. How can you take the learning deeper?

Please share your thoughts by Sunday, November 29.  Thanks (and please help spread the word!).

As part of our work on the AASL Learning Standards and Guidelines Implementation Task Force (aka Learning4Life or L4L), many of us prepared presentations for the 2009 AASL conference that focused on how we can implement the L4L vision in our libraries.

I was to give a Webinar and a live presentation on small steps that can lead to big instructional design changes.  But alas, the Convention Center’s broadband rebelled, and the poor Web attendees had no images and no voice — just me maniacally typing my entire presentation into the chat window! The Webinar organized said they could podcast my live event, but alas, they were called away elsewhere.

So I recorded the session on my iPhone and synced it with the slides.  You can see it on Vimeo.  We had some amazing conversations about instructional design, working with traditional and/or difficult teachers, etc.

Enjoy!

Update 11/25/09: At Sharon’s request (see below), I’ve added the slides here. Having seen the faces of my exhausted grad students in class this week, I am reminded of what it feels like not even to have 45 minutes to watch something!