Welcome to the link posts at Word Balloons! This is where we gather the best of the news, commentary, and reviews of children’s books from all over the web and present it in a handy set of links for you to pick and choose. We’re just getting started here, so if you know of an outstanding site that covers kids’ books regularly, drop us a line at the e-mail address on the upper right.

The big news of the week is the launch of Francoise Mouly’s imprint for beginning readers, Toon Books, and Christopher Mautner has a meaty interview with Mouly at his blog, Panels and Pixels, in which she discusses the challenges of starting what is basically a new publishing niche. Over at Read About Comics, Greg McElhatton has a glowing review of Otto’s Orange Day, one Toon’s three releases for spring, and ICv2 has the details of their fall lineup.

Salt Water Taffy, due out next month, is another title that’s getting some buzz; this week, Will Moss interviews creator Matt Loux for Publishers Weekly Comics Week, and at Comic Book Resources, Shaun Manning takes a long look at it, complete with sample pages.

Also at CBR: Tim Callahan reviews Tiny Titans #3, which both his kids find delightful.

The manga publisher Viz has just announced they are licensing the two-volume Legend of Zelda series, and it’s going to be rated All Ages according to this report at ICv2:

Viz Media has had considerable success with another “all ages” series based on a popular Nintendo game — the Best of Pokemon Adventures: Red made the “BookScan Top 20″ list for March (see “BookScan’s Top 20 Graphic Novels for March”) and the property has become a fixture in top 10 on ICv2’s authoritative “Top 50 Manga Properties List”.

The books will sell for the (relatively) kid-friendly price of $7.99 per volume.

Kristy Valenti has a two part article up at ComiXology about the gender divide among middle school readers, with some interesting insights into differing reading habits and how the industry reflects that.

Newsweek’s Malcolm Jones remembers Classics Illustrated Comics and looks at a few of the modern incarnations, even going so far as to read the original of The Wind and the Willows alongside the comic book version.

At the French zine du9, Jeanine Floreani writes about Ce que je sais de ma maman (What I know about my mother), a children’s graphic novel with surprisingly somber overtones. (The review has been translated into English.)

If you haven’t already, check out the new Amelia Rules! website, complete with blog.

Librarian/blogger Tangognat posts brief reviews of two children’s titles, Swinging for the Fences and The Lonesome Puppy.

I grew up reading The Beano, and I still have some vintage weekly issues as well as the full-colo(u)r annuals lying around, so I find this very disappointing: Kids in the UK voted The Beano one of their ten Most Loathed Reads, along with homework, Shakespeare, and music scores (eh?).

Dave Karlen’s Original Art Blog takes a look at the work of Steve Muffatti, artist for Little Audrey, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and many of the other Harvey comic books I loved as a child. (Via Journalista.)

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