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I was good. You'd be proud of me. I limited my book buying spree to merely THREE.This was at the Mixed Remixed Festival, which took place over this past Friday and Saturday at the Japanese American National Museum in downtown L.A. (Read a great... Read the rest of this post

The one and only Floating Head of Shannon Hale! It rocks! It talks! It silences its viewers! I didn't take as many notes as I should have, when author Shannon Hale "visited" KidLitCon on our second day. Mainly because I was on edge, hoping against... Read the rest of this post

This weekend's word is actually a phrase - Cultural Appropriation. I've blogged a bit about KidLitCon over the last week, and talked about how last weekend, Charlotte Taylor, our program director, came up with a great way to keep us thoughtful... Read the rest of this post

Charlotte Taylor, our program director, has clear Leadership Skillz, and came up with a great way to keep us thoughtful during those brief moments when people were at loose ends. She put a note pad up in the foyer space of the library, right next to... Read the rest of this post

KidLitCon: Brought to you by these fine people.l-r: Maureen Kearney, seated. Standing, me (aka tanita), Jen Robinson, Charlotte Taylor, Melissa Fox, Reshama Deshmukh, and Sarah, aka aquafortis. Can't remember the last time I was more excited that... Read the rest of this post

because there's something in side youthat made you keep tryingdespite everyone who told you to quityou build a cast around yourbroken heartand signed it yourself          you signed it"THEY WERE WRONG"...we are... Read the rest of this post

Charlotte's been dropping programming peeks down on the Bookshelf lately, so I felt I had to throw down with another mini-poster, now that I know that Stephanie Kuehn is going to be at the Con on Friday! Knowing how socially limited I am, I'm just... Read the rest of this post

From Booklist, who knows good literature, a star for WILD THINGS: ACTS OF MISCHIEF IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE. Congratulations, you guys! May this be the first of many accolades. Haven't got your copy yet? For a most EXCELLENT review from Kelly, pop... Read the rest of this post

Click to embiggen! Author photos courtesy of their personal blogs. This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless... Read the rest of this post

"Difference. Unlikeness. Variety. Multiformity. Diversity. It’s not even really easy to define terms. When one person says “diverse” another person nervously hears race, or ethnicity, or gender. But diversity in children’s lit can be – and... Read the rest of this post

OH, my word, it's the weekend -- and it makes us want to flee! Anywhere! Well, anywhere there's water and sun, probably. Or, barring that, lovely rain, and a good bookstore with a nice coffee shop. And tights. Even if we can't pop off to Futurama in... Read the rest of this post

Registration is OPEN. Call for session proposals is OPEN. The 2014 Kidlit Con, BLOGGING DIVERSITY: WHAT'S NEXT?, to be held at the stunning Tsakopoulos Library Galleria in Sacramento, California, October 10-11 is only EIGHTY-SEVEN DAYS AWAY.Rumor... Read the rest of this post

You know it's a bad week when a friend writes you a condolence note and includes a link from the paper... Sir Terry cancelling his appearance at the UK Discworld Convention, due to his ongoing (since 2007) embuggerance, Alzheimer's, has just gutted... Read the rest of this post

So, Tech Boy and I recently spent some four days in Portland, the one in Oregon, anyway, and for those of you who have been there or heard it called The Berkeley of the North, it isn't; Berkeley is still offbeat and a little dirty, and Portland is... Read the rest of this post

Have you had a chance to hear what went on at BEA? This morning I listened to a podcast of the panel at BEA made up of Ellen Oh (PROPHECY Series), Aisha Saeed (Written in the Stars, 2015), Marieke Nijkamp, founder of DiversifYA, Lamar Giles (Fake... Read the rest of this post

Happy Friday, Peeps! Man - it's been awhile since we've been cushion-diving for change around here, so today we are going to be ALL over Teh Internets. Lest you feel sad that rummaging through your couch only produces stale chip crumbs, we assure... Read the rest of this post

One of our stated goals in the Wonderland treehouse is to up diverse books.We've cheered and made a lot of noise about the diverse books we've found and enjoyed, in all genres and we both read a great deal, but... there are serious holes in the... Read the rest of this post

Love, love, love, love, LOVE THIS MAN.Hat tip to Jules. This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise... Read the rest of this post

Yes, it's March, my birthday month, but far more importantly, Women's History Month. A bit later in the month, I'll be posting over at Stacked and talking about some of my favorite strong YA girl characters, but for now, I'll just suggest you go... Read the rest of this post

Welcome, all of you who have wandered this direction from various tweets and posts, and to our regular Wonderland crew. We're here with author Shana Mlawski, author of THE HAMMER OF WITCHES, and today, Shana's gonna give us some author-chat on...... Read the rest of this post

So, remember Karen Sandler's TANKBORN? And how much I loved it? And the endless gushing of my review? Sequel season, coming SOON to a shelf near you... Hat tip, Lee & Low Blog. Not a sequel, but another YA SFF featuring characters of color is Sherri... Read the rest of this post

On what should have been the best day of sixteen-year-old Tegan's life, she dies—and wakes up a hundred years in the future, locked in a government facility with no idea what happened. Tegan is the first government guinea pig to be cryonically... Read the rest of this post

Grateful that the ALA doesn't have a red carpet - short of that unofficial Betsy Bird thing. EVERY YEAR I have thoughts on who should win various bits of the ALA awards; every year I think people were unfairly excluded from various lists of honors... Read the rest of this post

What would it mean to livein a city whose people were changingeach other's despair into hope? --You yourself must change it. --what would it feel like to knowyour country was changing? --You yourself must change it. --Though your life felt... Read the rest of this post

Periodically I share things with my writing group that I think are a great idea to share with people across the board, as it were. So, from us to you: your periodic Bechdel Public Service Announcement.A quick refresher for those who don't know what... Read the rest of this post