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.. The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas by David Almond Oliver Jeffers, illustrator Candlewick Press 4 Stars Inside Jacket:  Since all the jobs on the quayside disappeared, Stan’s Uncle Ernie has developed an extraordinary fascination with canning fish.  Overnight, life at 69 Fish Quay Lane has turned barmy.  But when Uncle Ernie’s madcap obsession takes …

3 Stars Autobiography of a Duck John Arnold 36 Pages    Ages:  7 and  up …………. Autobiography of a Duck is just that, the life of one Pekin Duck, not a chick, as told by the duck. Duck hatched and then lived with his siblings and his mother on a farm. Then one day, some humans [...]

The May Carnival of Children’s Literature is up at Into the Wardrobe. (Isn’t that an awesome blog name?) Tarie has done a beautiful job of presenting a whole lot of interesting kidlitosphere reading for your enjoyment. So go enjoy!

In case you've missed the news, I'm hosting the January Carnival of Children's Literature here at Under the Covers.

A blog carnival is basically a round-up of links on a particular theme (in this case, children's and teen literature). Bloggers submit their URLs, the host writes them up, and voila! Lots of interesting stuff to read, lots of new blogs to check out, etc., presented in one (hopefully) tidy package.

Suggested topics for this month's carnival: any of the myriad children's media awards that have recently or will soon be given; the Inauguration; Martin Luther King Day of Service; winter; great books for nasty, cold, soul-sucking days; or simply your favorite children's/teen-lit-related blog post of the month.

You can contribute your link at the BlogCarnival.com by clicking the "submit your blog article to this carnival" link. Deadline is tomorrow (January 28), and I'll post the round-up on Friday (January 30)!

This month’s host is Jenny’s Wonderland of Books. Enjoy!

sparrow's chatter: "school's out for summer!" "ripe cherries!" The cherry tree outside the computer lab is full of sparrows these days. The make quite a ruckus! It's the last week of school and excitement is in the air. Here are the berries on this tree last January, and here they are in October. Melissa Wiley has the May 2008 edition of the Carnival of Children’s Literature up at her place.

After ten days back in the States, I'm still playing catch-up. I read a couple of really fun books this weekend that I'm planning to post about, but in the meantime, here are some links worth following!

The May Carnival of Children's Literature is online, thanks to Melissa Wiley of Here in the Boggy Glen. Enjoy highlights from the Kidlitosphere's past month of posting. Add some new blogs to your blogroll while you're at it!

This weekend saw the launch of Guys Lit Wire, a new blogging effort spearheaded by Colleen Mondor at Chasing Ray. Colleen and a couple dozen other kidlit bloggers will be posting daily with book reviews and other news of particular interest to boy readers and those who work with them.

Finally, the Summer 2008 issue of the Prairie Wind, the SCBWI-Illinois newsletter, is up with my article about Print Library Resources for Authors. It's a follow-up to my Spring article about Digital Resources and focuses on public library resources that should particularly interest, but are not necessarily familiar to, children's book authors.

The Tenth edition of Learning in the Great Outdoors is up at Alone on a Limb. There are so great posts linked there all about what fun people are having outdoors with kids birding, organic gardening, roaming the hills, doing a 'green hour', looking at bugs, playing and learning. Check it out! The February Carnival of Children's Literature is up over at Picture Book of the Day. Lots of great

Leap on over to the February Carnival of Children's Literature, hosted by children's book author Anastasia Suen at Picture Book of the Day!

Deadline is 8 p.m. tonight. The Carnival's tomorrow at Liberty and Lily.

The New Year's edition of the Learning in the Great Outdoors Carnival is up, hosted by Terrell at Alone on a Limb. Terrell writes,

Learning in the Great Outdoors is intended as a trading center for those who use, or want to use, the environment as an integrating context for learning. If you are a teacher, a nature center educator or naturalist, a homeschooler who wants to use the environment in your studies, an amateur or professional botanist or zoologist or geologist or other science buff, a parent, a student --- anyone with an interest in sharing the environment with children, please join us!

I had a very nice note this morning from teacher Terrell Shaw, to let me know that he has put some original poetry to my photograph of a robin's egg. As I replied to him, the kids got quite a kick out of seeing my photo accompanied by his poem; and in the midst of a Canadian winter, the idea of robins and their eggs gives me a little thrill, not to mention hope for Spring. In addition to his

Both online and off.

I missed announcing the December Carnival of Children's Literature, which was hosted by Kelly Herold at Big A little a. The theme was giving and favorite books, and it's quite a collection of posts. If you haven't visited yet, do drop by for some very good reading.

The 105th Carnival of Homeschooling is up at CoH founding blog Why Homeschool. This edition marks the second anniversary of the CoH.

I'm waaay behind in my reading of the delightful Charlotte Mason Carnival. The current issue can be found at Freedom Academy.

One of my favorite carnivals is Unschooling Voices. The new edition is here.

I was intrigued by Angela's post at Mother Crone's Homeschool about the 888 Reading Challenge—you come up with a list of 8 books in 8 categories you plan to read in 2008. You can overlap 8 titles in multiple categories so that your target to-be-read total is 56 books. I don't think I'm up for this challenge myself, because I have learned that the minute I put a book title on a list of books I plan to read, I suddenly want to read everything but that book. So no lists for me, but I'm enjoying reading other people's. It's especially fun to see what categories people come up with. Maybe I'll do the project in reverse and write a categorized retrospective list at the end of the year.

In the meantime, here's a challenge I can rise to meet! Elizabeth M. at Charlottesville Words links to FOMA, who has proposed, with tongue firmly in cheek, the observance of NaJuReMoNoMo—that's National Just Read More Novels Month. "All you have to do is read any novel from start to finish within the month of January."

I'm pretty sure I can handle that.

I did a bit of updating at GoodReads (note the new sidebar widget over on the right) and hope to stay more on top of that this year. My 2007 reading list is woefully incomplete. I did enter a few of the books I had the pleasure of enjoying during the holidays: a revisit of Edith Schaeffer's The Hidden Art of Homemaking, two Barefoot Contessa cookbooks (mmm), and two utterly delicious needlecraft books I found under the tree: Aimee Ray's Doodle Stitching (on embroidery) and Amy Karol's Bend-the-Rules Sewing. (Amy's blog, Angry Chicken, is one of my favorite crafty blogs. I want Amy to move next door to me.)

A TBR title I'm not afraid to commit to: Noel Perrin's A Reader's Delight. I have been wanting read this for months, and I was deeply moved to receive a copy as a birthday present from a beautiful blogging friend who picked up on my interest in it from one of my posts. That was one of the best surprises of my year. Thank you, darling Jennifer. (You should move next door, too.)

There's only six days left until Christmas. Head over to Big A Little a for the December Carnival of Children's Literature. It's all about gift books. And I have gift book ideas for budding writers.

Mother Reader has the November Carnival of Children’s Literature: Tips Editionup today and it's a doozy!! I feel smarter just browsing the descriptions. It's going to take me all week to read them all. Here's your haiku for the day: White birch stands in the center of the mist; a dance of joy.

Head over to MotherReader this morning for a terrific collection of posts from children's book authors, editors, reviewers, and readers: the latest Carnival of Children's Literature.

(And the joke's on me: I got so wrapped up in forwarding the BlogCarnival code & stuff to this month's gracious host that I forgot to submit a post of my own. Ha!)

It's that time again! This month's Carnival of Children's Literature will be hosted by MotherReader, who has a theme in mind:

For this month I want a tip as a reader, writer, illustrator, reviewer, publisher, or editor of children’s literature. I want a lesson learned from a teacher, librarian, author, or parent with regards to kids’ lit. It doesn’t have to be a post that you did in November or October, though you may consider tweaking and re-posting an older entry to use. You can pick a post from any point this year. The deadline for submission is Saturday, November 24th, and I’ll post the Carnival on Wednesday, November 29th. Send your links through my email or the Carnival site — and please indicate, if possible, whether the tip/trick/hint is more for reader, writer, illustrator, reviewer, publisher, editor, teacher, librarian, or parent.

So there's your mission for this holiday week. A much nicer way to spend Black Friday than fighting the mall crowds, if you ask me.

The November edition of the Bookworms Carnival is up at Armenian Odar Reads. The theme is short stories and there are some really interesting posts linked. Check it out! Mother Reader is looking for submissions to the next Carnival of Children's Literature. She says, "For this month I want a tip as a reader, writer, illustrator, reviewer, publisher, or editor of children’s literature. I want a

Take a Ride on the Reading Railroad: the latest Carnival of Children's Literature is up at Charlotte's Library. It's an adventure in reading for sure! Go hop on board.

Take a Ride on the Reading Railroad: the latest Carnival of Children's Literature is up at Charlotte's Library. It's quite a journey! Many thanks to Charlotte for hosting.

Wow, where did September go?

Meanwhile, see what's been happening at your favorite blogs (and discover some new ones.) The September Carnival of Children's Literature is over at Charlotte's Library.

I'm ashamed to say that time got away from me and I forgot to submit an entry. But, I can enjoy everyone else's!

Mentor Texts is hosting the next Picture Book Carnival, coming up in a week or so. She says:

"Let's put together a compendium of great books that we use to help lift the level of children's writing. Submissions for grades K - 8 are welcome. Be sure to include a grade level, as well as a description of how you use the book to make kids' writing better (i.e., what does the author do that you want your students to do) in your post. I am looking forward to yoursubmissions

It's up at Po Moyemu- In My Opinion.
While you are enjoying summer's last week-end, go browse some wonderful book selections!

The August Carnival of Children's Literature.

Many thanks to Silvia for putting this together so quickly!