Jill S.'s fun fact of the day: The classic 1946 collaboration between Margaret Wise Brown and Garth Williams, The Little Fur Family, was originally bound in real rabbit fur. Almost the entire stock was destroyed when moths infested the HarperCollins warehouse, leading to the unsurprising decision to bind later editions in fake fur.

KIDS' Q&A: DUGALD STEER
You say you loved Dragonology and The Dragonology Handbook? You wish you could meet Dr. Drake and learn dragonology directly from him, and maybe while you're at it have an adventure like helping Dr. Drake foil an evil dragonologist? Well, wouldn't we all! Daniel and Beatrice Cook get to do just that. Live vicariously through them as they attempt to save the Dragon's Eye jewel in the first of the Dragonology Chronicles. Learn about the mastermind behind Dr. Drake in our Q&A with Dugald Steer, and save 30% on his latest creation, The Dragon's Eye.

KIDS' Q&A: JULIUS LESTER
Julius Lester received a Newbery Honor Award in 1969 for his historical compilation To Be a Slave. In 2006, he won the Coretta Scott King Award for Days of Tears, a powerful novel about a family torn apart by slavery. In between, he has written dozens of books for various ages, often focusing on black history and culture, though touching on many other topics, as well. The scope, beauty, and thoughtfulness of Julius Lester's writing cannot be too highly praised, and we are lucky he is still writing. His latest is a young adult novel that reinvents the ancient Roman myth about the god of love: Cupid: A Tale of Love and Desire. The warm, folksy tone immediately captures the reader. Find out for yourself: purchase Cupid at a 30% discount. And find out more about the brilliant Julius Lester in our Q&A.

Beloved fans of the Clan cats, don't mourn too much over the end of the Warriors: The New Prophecy series; there is to be a third Warriors series called Power of Three, publication date as yet unknown.

KIDS' Q&A: MARGARET PETERSON HADDIX
Margaret Peterson Haddix writes suspenseful, thought-provoking middle readers and young adult novels, such as the Shadow Children series and Don't You Dare Read This Mrs. Dunphrey. More recently, she has expanded into the younger chapter book realm for seven- to ten-year-olds. Her third such offering, Dexter the Tough, is due out later this month. Never one to shy away from tough social issues, Haddix explores a boy's struggles in dealing with being the new kid in school and having a father with cancer. Read about what makes Haddix tick and preorder Dexter the Tough at 30% off.

BOARD BOOKS: BUY 2, GET 1 FREE
The tactile experience is half the point of board books, and now with our handy buy 2 get 1 free offer from Simon and Schuster, you can afford to let your little one delight in banging together two practically indestructible books while you read to her from a third. From Boynton to Carle to Falconer, some of our most beloved board books are included in this fabulous limited time offer.

STAFF PICKS
Yes, we're at it again, with the reading and the loving what we've read and the attempting to sway everyone in our paths to read what we love. This is an especially long list because there are so many especially lovely books around here lately. From a bizarrely hilarious picture book about monkeys peeing to a soulful parenting book about celebrating Mother Earth with our children, there isn't much that isn't covered in our new round of staff picks.

Is this old news by now? Well, it's big news, and it's all we've had on the Harry Potter front for so long, so let's harp on it just a tad: the title of the next — that is, the last — Harry Potter book will be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. No, we really don't know yet when it will be published — though preliminary plans for the release party, are, naturally, already being made.

CELEBRATE WINTER!
Around here, we know better than to mope about winter. Instead, we embrace it. We don't wish for the spring flowers or for the white-gray January sky to turn blue again. We wish for snow instead, and light fires while we still want to huddle around them, and read our books before the sun lures us outdoors. That will come, but for now we will revel in winter, and here are some books to help.

VALENTINE'S DAY
Like many people, we still find ourselves acting like children when it comes to love. Why, just the other day, Alexis sent Karen across the room to ask a guy if he liked her, and if so, in what way exactly? Karen, meanwhile, was finding it hard to concentrate on anything other than what the cute new cashier had meant, exactly, when she winked at her. So it works for us to read children's books about love. Some of them are all about the complicated mortification and gratification of engaging in such an emotion, and we can relate to those; others are simpler idealistic tales that actualize all that we covet and swoon for. Pick your poison from these offerings.

NEW ARRIVALS
It's a new year, and what better way to celebrate than with new books? At the top of our list of must-haves for 2007 is Sunset, the final installment in the Warriors: The New Prophecy series. Meanwhile, a new adventure-fantasy series is just taking off with The Navigator by Eoin McNamee. Go along for the wild ride as our hero Owen fights the Harsh and their evil plan to reverse time. In the young adult aisles, explore first love and first heartbreak in Daria Snadowsky's novel Anatomy of a Boyfriend. She dedicates the novel to Judy Blume, which we think is a good sign. Or, if you're more of an X-Files kind of fan, try Kevin Brooks's new novel, Being — is our protagonist human or not? Even he's not sure.

ALEXIS'S ADVICE FOR THOSE READING AT A HIGHER LEVEL:
We often hear this from parents who visit the Kids' Section: "I have a fifth grader who reads at an eighth-grade level, but I don't want him/her to be exposed to 'young adult content.'" Well, we have a number of authors to recommend. L. M. Montgomery's lesser known works, including Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs, and Emily's Quest, a series about aspiring writer and orphan Emily Starr, are considered by some to be even better than the Anne books. Ralph Moody's Little Britches starts off a series that compares to Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, but with a male protagonist. For fantasy lovers, Diana Wynne Jones's novels never fail to please (my favorites are The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume 1, and Howl's Moving Castle). Alan Garner's classic The Owl Service is just British enough to give one pause over the language, but the story is so beautifully imagined that soon you're lost in the magic of Wales.

KIDS' BESTSELLERS

1. Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper 2. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli 3. The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer 4. Family Pictures (Cuadros De Familia) by Carmen Lomas Garza 5. Monster by Walter Dean Myers 6. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems 7. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling 8. Gingerbread Land (Sticker Stories) by Grosset and Dunlap 9. The Freedom Writers Diary by Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell 10. The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again by J. R. R. Tolkien

On January 22, the American Library Association will be announcing the 2007 winners and honors for the Newbery, Caldecott, King, Printz, and many other awards.  Check Powells.com to view the winners.