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I've been a member of BlogFrog for awhile. I haven't used my community much, but I see how this community could bring readers of Beginning Reading Help together. I'd love for you to join and start or add to discussions! There is a welcome discussion and a discussion to ask questions about reading with babies to young adults. Ask a Question Discussion . Welcome! Discussion . I'm still

I just set up an account with Pinterest. I found it through a linky party. Here's the link.Pinterest Linky Party Please sign up and follow me at Pinterest. It looks like an easy place to make connections, share information, and find information. I know many of my readers have blogs or like to share with others. I'd really like to connect with you at Pinterest. Let me know what you think about

Abby (the) Librarian said this perfectly on her blog this morning. So I'm blatantly copying from her:

"September 14-18, 2009 is Book Blogger Appreciation Week! Bloggers will be posting on different themes each day, so check those out and participate if you're into it. I think this week can also be a time when we really show our support for one another. It's the community that makes book blogging so much fun, so have you told a blogger you love him/her this week? If not, this just might be the week to do it. ;) "

Stay tuned!

People have been encouraging me to get onto Twitter for quite a while. It seems like every week more of Terry Doherty's leads for our shared children's literacy round-ups come from her sources on Twitter. I've seen several interesting posts about Twitter on Greg Pincus's new blog, The Happy Accident, and various updates originally from Twitter on people's Facebook pages. Even my library foundation board is thinking of getting in on the act. 

So today I finally decided to pop my head in, and sign up for @JensBookPage. It's been fun so far, if a bit overwhelming. It's like I'm joining a party, a bit late, but with a bunch of my friends already there, and already knowing their way around. Honestly, I don't know that I've ever had such a warm welcome anywhere. Thanks, Twitter friends!! I'm still finding my way around, faintly surprised that there seem to be people here already who want to meet me, and thrilled to see so many familiar faces. But I think it's going to be a good thing. Once I figure out how to re-tweet, anyway...

My current plan is to use Twitter mostly to collect and disseminate children's literacy and reading news. Obviously, I do a lot of that on my blog already, but I think that there will be value in the immediacy of Twitter. In being able to see a link that's interesting, and share it with people right then, in addition to saving it up for inclusion in a larger round-up. But we'll see how it evolves, or if having one more thing to follow sends me right over the edge, sanity-wise. Meanwhile, you can find me on Twitter (and still on Facebook, where I'm now at www.Facebook.com/Jen.Robinson).

Via the Sylvan Dell newsletter, tomorrow (December 18th) has been declared (by someone) Bake Cookies Day. According to the Holiday Insights website, this is a non-denominational holiday in December, one that anyone can observe and enjoy. All you have to do is bake your favorite cookies, alone or with friends or family members. Stock up on butter, sugar, and chocolate now, that's all I have to say... And be sure you have a copy of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie handy, too.

Are you in need of some warmth and perspective as Thanksgiving approaches? Head on over to HipWriterMama to read Vivian's post A Thanksgiving Feast of Sorts, and the other posts that she links to. Trust me, it's worth your time, and a fine way to usher in the holiday weekend. I especially enjoyed Christine's post about holiday traditions.

As for me, I'm thankful that the Red Sox were able to sign Mike Lowell for three more years. But, on a more serious note, I'm thankful for Mheir, and for our families (although sad that we won't be able to spend Thanksgiving with them), and for the friends with whom we will be spending the holiday, and for the other friends who we love and don't get to see enough. I'm thankful to have a job that challenges me and pays the bills, and to have this blog to feed my soul. I am happy to have found so many kindred spirits in the Kidlitosphere. And I'm more grateful than I can say to those of you who take the time to read my blog, and especially to those of you who are on the front lines, putting books into the hands of kids.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Last week, I had the good fortune of meeting Kim and Jason Kotecki, the husband-and-wife force behind the Escape Adulthood website (and book, and blogs, and online store). Here's an excerpt from their About page:

"Kim & Jason is all about an idea. It's the crazy notion that there is more to life than the hectic busyness, cynical melancholy and overwhelming stress that is typical of most modern lives. Adultitis tricks us into missing out on the best parts of life and causes us to take ourselves WAY too seriously.

We believe that life is meant to be lived to the fullest, that our lives should be bursting with big dreams, oodles of passion, and an enthusiastic playfulness. We believe in curiosity, delighting in the little things, and a faith that knows things always work out for the best. We believe that a life that embraces a childlike spirit is a life that is less stressful and way more fun."

And I'm here to tell you that these two walk the walk. We met for breakfast at a local IHOP, and I wasn't even a little bit surprised when Jason ordered chocolate milk instead of coffee. And check out their fun t-shirts:

In case you can't read them, Jason's is "Where the Wild Things Are" and Kim's is "What's Up Toots?", with a picture of a tootsie roll character. My shirt is very boring. Anyway, we had a great breakfast, talking about our blogs and our visions and why we live where we live. I felt like I had known them for years. And I hope to have a chance to chat with them again in the future. It's so nice when you meet people in person for the first time after having email interactions, and they completely meet your expectations.

Last Thursday I mentioned the Robert's Snow blog event to fight cancer that's being organized by Jules from Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. The idea is that kid lit bloggers will write individual posts about illustrators who are creating custom art snowflakes for the Robert's Snow effort, and use the posts to drive traffic to the auctions for the snowflakes. Today I am so pleased to report (after word from Jules) that the more than 150 illustrators on the original list have already all been snatched up by more than 60 participating blogs. You can find the complete list here. What an amazing testimonial to the power of the Internet, and the strength of the kid lit blogging community. Not to mention the organizational prowess of Jules herself. It's a wonderful thing to be part of.

Well, technically I'm not part of it, because I'm not featuring any of the illustrators, but, along with several other blogs (like Read Write Believe; Robin Brande; Journey Woman; JacketFlap; The Reading Tub; Miss Erin; Bottom Shelf Books; Roz Fulcher; Liz In Ink; and Mitali's Fire Escape), I am going to help Jules to promote the event as much as I can. Because I think it's a great thing, and one that deserves lots of attention. You can read more here.

Jules and Eisha have started a contest at 7-Imp this week, inspired by questions from Australian illustrator Trudy White. If you answer the following questions, you could (courtesy of Kane/Miller Book Publishers) win a copy of Trudy's book: Could You? Would You? Even though I'm drowning in picture books, I like the questions, so I decided to play.

How would someone find you in a crowd? I don't think that I stand out much in a crowed, but I am likely to be wearing a Boston Red Sox shirt. Or maybe a New England Patriots shirt. 

If your house had a secret room, what would be in there? Books, books, and more books. And a comfortable couch to lie on to read them. Next to the couch would be a big box of Swiss chocolate. And in the corner, a wine refrigerator, filled with excellent red wines. I could hide out in this room for a long time.

Where do you like to walk from your house? There's not much of interest within walking distance of my house. Probably the best thing is being able to walk to Blockbuster.

How will you change as you grow up? I'll probably continue to become ever more introverted. But I'll get better at knowing what I need to do to protect my recharge time.

What sort of animal would you like to be? None. I prefer to stay a person. Even as a kid, being an animal never interested me much. Animals can't read books.

If you'd like to play, post your own answers to these questions. And leave a note at 7-Imp.

I learned today that my blog has been declared an Adultitis Antidote Blog Winner by Kim and Jason of Escape Adulthood fame. According to Jason and Kim:

"When it comes to the blogosphere, an Adultitis Antidote is a blog exhibiting a childlike spirit that helps counteract the effects of Adultitis by using honesty, curiosity, passion and playfulness to encourage its readers to delight in the little things, dream big, and stress less."

About my blog they said:

"Not only does she encourage the love of books for kids, but Jen also promotes the continued reading of children’s books by adults!"

Which makes this a great time to link back up to my Why You Should Read Children's Books as an Adult. I'm repeating my top 10 reasons here, but there's lots of other background in the original post.

Top 10 Reasons for Reading Children's Books as an Adult

1. It's fun.
2. It keeps your imagination active.
3. It strengthens your relationship with the children in your life who read.
4. It sets an example for the children in your life, making them more likely to become readers.
5. It clues you in on cultural references that you may have missed (both current and classical).
6. It's fast. Children's books are usually shorter than adult books, so if you don't think you have time to read, you DO have time to read children's books.
7. It allows you to read across genres. Children's books aren't limited to mystery OR science fiction OR fantasy OR literary fiction. They can have it all.
8. It's like time travel - it's an easy way to remember the child that you once were, when you first read a book.
9. It's often inspirational - reading about heroes and bravery and loyalty makes you want to be a better person. And couldn't we all do with some of that?
10. Did I mention that it's fun?

Actually, I have one more reason (which seems ok, since 1 and 10 above are the same):

11. Reading children's books as an adult gives you the chance to participate in the amazing kid lit blogosphere (the Kidlitosphere), and discuss books with many wonderful people.

Many, many thanks to Kim and Jason for making my week. Also, be sure to check out their other two 2007 adultitis antidote winners:

• Make it Great! | Phil Gerbyshak’s infectious and cheerful mission is to help you unleash the greatness within!
• Success from the Nest | Tony D. Clark is helping the dreamers out there who are — or want to be — working from home.

I've added them both to my blogroll. Wishing you all a weekend filled with childlike joy and wonder. And may Jason and Kim be successful in their quest to make the world a happier place.

This post is (c) 2007 by Jennifer Robinson. All rights reserved.

It's a beautiful day here in Northern California, though the sky is not quite so blue as it was in New York six years ago. I was in Austin, Texas that day. It took me a while to get home, and I had to cancel a planned vacation a few days later. Of course these were very small prices to pay. My brother ended up in Kuwait for a year with the National Guard, but he's home now, too. No direct damage for us, just ... wounds to the spirit.

The primary change in my day to day life from 9/11 has been increased security measures when I'm traveling. And this I do not complain about (though I complain about many travel-related things). When the screeners call me aside for an extra check, I say "Thanks!", and I mean it. They're trying to keep us safe.

One thing that I remember about the days after September 11th (besides the searing images), is realizing that in a 48 hour period I had talked to everyone I was close to. How often can you say that? Not often, for me. I live 3000 miles from most of my family and friends. So that was a good thing out of 9/11. And something that I try, not not always successfully, to do better about now.

Here are some September 11th musings and remembrances from the blogs that I visit:

• Chicken Spaghetti
• Charlotte's Journey Home
• Kim and Jason
• The Simple and the Ordinary
• Educating Alice
• Two Writing Teachers (here and here)
• Becky's Book Reviews
• Semicolon

Updated to add:

• World of Words
• The Shady Glade (the putting up the flag photo)
• The Library Lady Rants
• And, not to be missed (with thanks to Miss Erin), Meg Cabot

Thanks! I wish you all a peaceful day.

This week is National Suicide Prevention Week. You can find a short summary of statistics related to teen suicide here at Blah Blah Blah (with thanks to Little Willow for the link). For instance:

Teen suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death among young adults and adolescents 15 to 24 years of age in the U.S., following unintentional injuries and homicide.

The CDC's suicide prevention site has lots of additional resources, as does the Young Suicide Prevention Program (YSPP) website.

Recommended Reading: It's not out yet, but if you have an advance copy of Jay Asher's book Thirteen Reasons Why (reviewed here), this would be a great week to read it, share it with teens, and/or order a copy for your library. Jay does a wonderful job of addressing a difficult issue, while putting the characters and story ahead of the message.

I've had some good feedback to the Self Care for Introverts post that I wrote on Thursday (and which was inspired by a post at Shrinking Violet Promotions), and it's led to some other interesting discussion. Monica Edinger commented with a link to an Atlantic Monthly article by Jonathan Rauch on this same topic. The article was actually new to Shrinking Violet Promotions, and they wrote about it and found a follow-on interview with Jonathan Rauch titled Introverts of the World Unite.

The Rauch articles are both excellent - I kept nodding my head as I was reading, and eventually printed them both out to share. I feel like this whole discussion is making clear something that I've struggled with for my whole life.

Alkelda from Saints and Spinners also took up this topic and wrote about her own experiences as an introvert who goes in front of audiences to do musical storytelling. She talks about her "camouflage techniques for coping in an extroverted world".

Rauch says about introversion: "it's not a choice. It's not a lifestyle. It's an orientation." I find this liberating. And some of you, who love books and particularly enjoy interacting via blogs and the Internet, might find it liberating too.

Even though I don't have a book of my own to promote, I always enjoy reading Shrinking Violet Promotions, a blog about marketing for introverts by Mary Hershey and Robin LaFevers. I especially enjoyed a recent post by Mary called "Self Care for Introverts". Publishing highlights from a book that doesn't (but should) exist, Mary includes five tips for introverts to help maintain sanity in a "maximum volume world". My favorite, the one that really resonated with me, is Tip #3:

"Honor and celebrate the quiet, low volume, solitary activities that you love and need. They aren't non-activities, and they aren't a sign of your stunted social development."

It's funny. I didn't always know that I was an introvert. I put up a good show in high school and college. I was frequently found at parties. In looking back, however, I realize that I have always required my alone time. Not just enjoyed it, but actually needed it. By senior year of college I was desperate to have a single dorm room (and had to jump through quite some hoops to achieve one), even though I was perfectly willing to go out for a little while every night.

At some point (I'm pretty sure it was on the Shrinking Violet site, but it could have been somewhere else), I read this definition of introvert and extrovert.

• You are an extrovert if you gain energy by spending time with other people.
• You are in introvert if spending time with other people depletes your energy, and you require time to yourself to recharge.

This made everything clear to me. I like to spend time with people. Of course I do. But it does drain me, and I need my time alone (or just with Mheir) to restore and repair. And I need my personal quiet low-volume activities, too. The best one is being in a beautiful place, ideally facing an ocean, and reading, with only the sound of the wind and the waves for company.

I have only recently realized that whole introvert thing is why I have so much trouble with travel. I just can't summon enough recharge time when I'm on most trips, and after a few days I start to really fray around the edges. I have started trying to build in the recharge time when I'm on business trips. I do things like fly in a bit earlier, so that I have time for a quiet dinner and some reading in my hotel room before bed. And it seems to help. But what helps more is understanding, through the help of people like Robin and Mary, that this is just how I am. I'm working on accepting it, and not beating myself up over it so much.

If you need help with the care and feeding of your introvert self, check out Mary's other tips at Shrinking Violet Promotions.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there, especially to my own Mom, who passed along to me the love of books, and always makes me feel special, and to Mheir's Mom, who has passed along many wonderful meals to us, and who always makes me feel welcome. I would also like to send special Mother's Day wishes out to two friends who are mothers for the first time this year. Happy Mother's Day, Nic! Happy Mother's Day, Carla! Mheir and I hope that you are basking in the glow of this day.

Our own Betsy Bird of A Fuse #8 Production has an article about Blogging the Kidlitosphere in the May/June issue of The Horn Book Magazine. I haven't received my print copy yet, but the full article is available online. My favorite quote from the article is this:

"Every day more parents, teachers, librarians, scholars, authors, illustrators, and readers are discovering and creating blogs of their own in an effort to add something to the general discourse surrounding books for kids. You can avoid blogs and suffer few consequences, but this new technology offers a remarkable way to talk about children’s literature while adequately supplementing already existing media."

Way to go, Betsy! The website also include a list of Kid-lit Bloggers to Watch, with short descriptions of each site. Welcome, to all Horn Book readers who have clicked through to visit this page. And thanks, Betsy, for making us all look good with your well-informed piece.

First things first, Happy Birthday to Cory! And belated Passover greetings to my Passover-celebrating friends. Here are a few things that caught my attention, that I didn't think should wait for the weekend:

• First of all, don't forget to make your submission for the lucky 13th carnival of children's literature. Submissions are trickling in, but there are many blog friends who I haven't heard from yet.
• LitLove has an interesting post at Tales from the Reading Room about the future of the book, written in response to an Economist article. She particularly takes exception (and rightly so, I think) with the idea that "Certainly, some types of fiction – novels as well as novellas – are also likely to migrate online and to cease being books. Many fantasy fans, for example, have already put aside books and logged on to “virtual worlds” such as “World of Warcraft”, in which muscular heroes and heroines get together to slay dragons and such like. Science fiction may go the same way, and is arguably already being created by “residents” of online worlds such as Second Life."  She's evoked some vehement responses in the comments.
• Vivian has issued a challenge over at HipWriterMama. She asks us: "What Would You Do If You Knew You Could Not Fail? Create your own Mission Statement and be as specific as you can. Identify the who, what, where, when and how, if possible." She's offering prized for people who share their mission statements and hold themselves accountable. Strong stuff! I wish her well in her own stated goal, too. I was especially taken by Robin Brande's words of encouragement to Vivian and others in the comments. Well worth checking out.
• If you are interested in the present and future of young adult publishing, Liz has a can't miss post over at Tea Cozy. She discusses two articles on the subject, and posts her own opinions, and has many other shared opinions in the comments. See also TadMack's response to these articles, and her passionate and informed response to yet another article about YA books at Finding Wonderland.
• I also recommend Colleen Mondor's Stories for Boys column at Booksl*t. How did I miss that Robert Parker just published a YA mystery? Oh, maybe because it won't be released until later this month. But Colleen reviews several other titles, too. If you're looking for books to recommend to older boys, it's well worth reading. 
• Tricia continues her insightful posts over at The Miss Rumphius Effect. First, she writes about the amount of time that teachers spend focused on reading in the classroom, and whether or not science and social studies are getting short shrift. Her mantra is now "Where's the science?" See also A Year of Reading's response. Tricia also has a non-book-related post that I identified with about the fact that children don't play outside as much now as they did when we were children. I find it sad, too. Some of my best childhood memories are of climbing trees, and exploring woods.
• Fans of Beverly Cleary (and really, who isn't?) should definitely check out this post by Jennifer at The Kiddosphere. She says "In celebration of Beverly Cleary’s 91st birthday, I am challenging myself to read all of her books by her birthday, April 12. It’s been an interesting experience, to say the least." She proceeds to discuss several of the books, complete with nostalgic cover pictures.
• At Fuse #8, Betsy revisits the frequently-addressed question of whether or not book reviewers should write negative reviews, with a new twist inspired by comments from Gail Gauthier. Gail said that while she would prefer not to have bad reviews, at least they tell a writer that their book is worth discussing. Betsy asks whether or not it might help the author for us to publish negative reviews, as compared to the current widespread policy of not writing at all about the books that we don't care for. It's the old "all publicity is good publicity" thing. I have done this a couple of times (written about a book that I wasn't personally wild about because I thought that even my luke-warm words would at least get some exposure for the book), but I think that it's tough on author and reviewer.
• Check out Blog from the Windowsill for a hilarious Kidlitosphere-based spoof of the Little House books. I rarely actually laugh out loud while reading blog posts, but this one did it for me. Here's a tiny example, but you really should go check out the whole post: "Miss Robinson told them she was a tutor for a young girl in the nearby town, but when she wasn't busy Educating Alice, she loved to share books with her neighbors. "Prairie life is so busy" she said with a smile, "But There's Always Time for a Book."" You do have to be a Kidlitosphere aficionado to appreciate it.
• Cynthia Leitich Smith reviews a book that I simply must read. It's called Don't You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes. Since I know many of these movies by heart, more or less, this is a book that I'll simply have to read.

OK, so this wasn't so very quick. But there's some interesting stuff. Happy reading!

A few more things for you to ponder, as you wait eagerly for Valentine's Day, and the Cybils award announcements:

• Franki at A Year of Reading takes up the question raised at The Miss Rumphius Effect, and asks why it is that some older books just don't interest current students. She includes a classroom experience with From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler as an example. There's some interesting discussion in the comments. At least, I think it's interesting, because I've had this experience with my nieces, too. I was so excited when they were first old enough to read books I loved, but I found that often these would fall flat. I do better if I'm up on current books to recommend and discuss. You may also want to read Tricia's follow-up to her original post about this.
• Gail Gauthier links to a wonderful article in the Burlington Free Press about the real-life story behind Katherine Paterson's A Bridge to Terebithia. I knew vaguely that the book was based on a true story, but this article goes into enough detail to make me really understand. Wow! It's also a testament to the impact that the right childhood friend can have on someone's life.
• Jennifer at Snapshot has initiated the very cool Read to Me 2007 challenge, to encourage parents to set tangible goals for reading more with their kids. What could be better than that? Well, there will also be an Amazon gift certificate awarded as a prize.
• If you want to see a great story about how writers support one another, check out this post at Cynthia Lord's journal. And while we're talking with writers, you can read Shannon Hale's thoughts on why reading negative reviews of her books isn't helpful for her.
• I've been avoiding the whole Maureen Dowd column about chick lit debate (this Galley Cat entry, which I learned about from Liz B. at Tea Cozy, sums it up quite well). But I was taken with Bookseller Chick's response to this and some other recent instances of book snobbery. She offers a strong defense of people's right to read whatever they want to, saying "My time, and what I do with it, is my time and until it affects the great and judgmental you in some detrimental way you don’t have a right to infringe upon it." She also adds a solid yet witty defense of genre novels, asking: "If it expands my vocabulary, does it count? If it educates me in pop culture, something that our world trades upon as heavily these days as solid facts, have I wasted brain space or increased my knowledge in other areas more accessible to those around me?" It's great stuff. Well worth reading.

And now I'm reasonably caught up, and off to go finish my last unread title from the MG and YA Fiction shortlists for the Cybils.

Usually I save round-up posts for the weekends, when I have more time. But there is so much great stuff going on this week, that I simply must bring it to your attention right now.

• First of all, there is only one week left to wait for the announcement of the Cybils winners! Liz B. from Tea Cozy has an excellent article about the Cybils published today in School Library Journal. A fine companion piece to her article about the kidlitosphere from the other day, I think. You can also find a teaser over at the Cybils site about the status of the various groups, and a post about how to better spread the word about the awards, with suggestions in the comments. If you have thoughts about how to promote this award, head on over and give your feedback.
• You'll also recall that I wrote the other day about maintaining a childlike spirit, even while working at a responsible adult job. Well, Alvina has a post at Blue Rose Girls about remembering your childhood and finding activities that bring you back there in spirit. And Grace Lin wants to have a party. Such a fun crowd, those Blue Rose Girls.
• Meanwhile Whimsy Books reports on the Top 10 Hazards of Being an Obsessive Reader. Let's just say that I can relate. I also relate to her obsession with all things Stephenie Meyer (author of Twilight and New Moon), and enjoyed this detailed list of notes from a recent Stephenie Meyer talk. And can I just say that I totally picked up on the Pride and Prejudice vibe in the first book, as mentioned in my review.
• I learned from Wendy at Blog from the Windowsill that it's Library Lover's Month. She urges people to celebrate by checking out books. I say, be nice to a librarian, or volunteer, or donate books, or all of those things. Libraries are a critical part of our communities, and we should be appreciating them year-round. It's no coincidence that the Foundation and Friends organization that I volunteer for has the url www.LoveTheLibrary.org.
• In a tremendous show of modesty, MotherReader has declared this MotherReader Week. It must be true, because in addition to her interviews on the Cybils site and the 7-Imp site, her Blogger's Against Celebrity Authors plan was mentioned in the Orlando Sentinel Parenting Blog.
• It's not too late to take part in the first Scholar's Blog Book Discussion Group. If you've read Susan Cooper's King of Shadows, head on over to the Scholar's Blog Spoiler Zone to put in your two cents. There's some great discussion going on.
• And if you're thinking of becoming a writer, check out Kirby Larson's thoughts on what people should ask themselves before answering the call to write children's books. Best sentence: "If you take up writing for children because you think it's easy, because you have a message to send or because your grandchildren love your stories about Opie Oppossum whose tail doesn't curl, please do the world a favor and go on tour with Madonna instead." Kirby is the author of the Newbery Honor winning Hattie Big Sky.
• And while we're talking about this year's Newbery Honor winners, please join me in congratulating Cynthia Lord for selling her second, third, and fourth books! Yay, Cindy!
• And while we're still talking about Newbery Honor winners from this year, I received a lovely package from Jennifer Holm this week. I'll be posting a picture and details soon.
• In case you haven't seen it yet, Overdue Media's Unshelved comic strip recently featured Kiki Strike! Thanks to Gail Gauthier for the link.
• For a different take on literacy, check out Jess's post over at Frontline Books. She writes about how newer technologies (like html and videos and podcasts) affect our ability to read, and our pleasure from reading. You can see some of my thoughts in the comments. I met Jess at the BlogHer conference in San Jose last summer, and enjoy her academic perspective on the digital culture, and the role of women in said culture.

And that's enough for today. Whew! It's hard to keep up with all this Kidlitosphere activity.

The past week or so has been a bit hectic for me, work-wise, compounded by the fact that I got a new laptop, and I had to spend quite a lot of time getting it set up and working. (It is gorgeous, and only weighs 3 pounds!). But this has kept me largely absent from the kidlitosphere for a few days. And boy, you disappear for a few days, and you miss all sorts of interesting things. Here are a just a few highlights, from a very quick glance. I'll be back with more soon.

• Jennifer discusses When to Quit over at Snapshot. She includes a list of "signs that it might be time to quit (a relationship, a job, a ministry, a committee)." Having struggled with this at times myself, I found comfort in her words, as did a variety of commenters.
• Jennifer Schultz of The Kiddosphere at Fauquier is starting a new feature: Around the World with Your Library Card. She begins with Indiana, complete with maps, tourist information, and, of course, various children's books that take place in Indiana. It's a fun trip!
• I am very late in reporting this, but Lisa Yee has announced the winners in her fractured book title contest (in which you change the first letter of one word of a children's book title, and come up with a short description of the resulting book). The winner is: "Billy's Purple Plastic Purse: When Billy brings his latest fashion accessory to school, Mr Slinger helps the kindergarten class understand that it's okay for Billy to march to the beat of a different drummer." If you find this funny, head on over and check out the full list of nominations. It had me giggling so much that Mheir was actually concerned for my sanity (OK, the jury's still out on that).
• And, for another quick dose of amusement, check out Journey Woman's photos of computers that you can use while comfortably lying down. They are a bit scary, actually. But tempting. Very tempting. I don't think that my new 3-pound baby computer would hurt me.
• On a more serious note, there's been quite a bit of discussion going on regarding the nature of awards, and of the Cybils in particular. You can read some of Colleen's thoughts at Chasing Ray, or you can find an intense discussion in the comments of this A Fuse #8 Production post. Midwestern Lodestar also has some thoughts in response to the Fuse post. For my part, I think that Cybils co-chairs, Anne and Kelly, have done a tremendous thing in a short amount of time, and with a lot of help from the Kidlitosphere. I'm equally sure that next year, with the benefit of experience, will be even better.
• There's also a prolific discussion going on over at Read Roger about the Newbery awards, diversity, picking books that kids want to read, and more. It's all well worth thinking about, especially for those of us judging for the Cybils. Thanks to A Fuse #8 Production for the link. See also Leila's response to the Read Roger post, over at Bookshelves of Doom.
• And as a nice counterpoint to the awards discussion, Gail Gauthier writes about Why Blog Reviews are Important. Among other excellent points, she notes that "Blog reviews bring books to the attention of readers who had never heard of them, but they also remind readers of books they'd been meaning to read but had forgotten about." She challenges blog reviewers not to replicate the print journals by always scurrying to review the newest thing, but to take time out to review other, older gems, also. Thanks to Liz B. for the link.
• And, on the topic of what kids like to read, check out this guest article at Chicken Spaghetti, by Deborah J. Lightfoot, about the Accelerated Reader program. It's eye-opening stuff! Some of the comments are quite vehement, too.
• What with Mary Lee and Franki from A Year of Reading having reached their goal of finding 100 Cool Teachers of Children's Literature, Franki is proposing a new list: 100 Great Children's Books About Books and Reading. Let her know if you have anything to add.
• Also on the scene with a new list, Wendy from Blog from the Windowsill and Lady Schrapnell from So Many Books... are compiling a list of "our favorite tough, selfish, mean, even downright rotten kids." So fun!

And oh, I know there's a lot more. But this should keep you all busy for a while.

Time is short. The Patriot's play at 3:30 (PST), and we are going over to a friend's house to watch. Usually, we watch football at home (thank you, DirecTV), and I can sneak in work on my weekly visits post during the slow parts of the game. But not today - not in the AFC playoffs. Still, here are a few things that I saved up from during the week. Fortunately for my ability to keep up, a lot of people are at the ALA, and aren't posting as much as usual.

• First of all, I have a question for you. A visitor to my blog was asking me about how to find information on a book that she dimly remembered from her childhood. And I would like to have a more general answer to give to this question. Does anyone have any experience with Book Stumpers? Or, do you have other sites that you can recommend? I've heard mention of such sites, but I wasn't clever enough to write them down, so I'm hoping for your help. Thanks!
• Over at Chicken Spaghetti, Susan responds to Janine Wood's article "Please, I Want Some Dickens" in the Christian Science Monitor, a woman's plea for her son, and other preteens, to read more Dickens. Susan comments: "I'm going to go out on a limb here, say, about an inch, and suggest this: the subtext of this kind of piece is always "I'm smarter than you are." Which is too bad, because toward the end of the  article, Wood makes some good suggestions for creating more interest in the classics."
• There is a ton of speculation about the upcoming Newbery announcements. To get yourself in the mood for the award, check out A Year of Reading's Mock Newbery Round-Up post, where Mary Lee and Franki summarize several people's projected picks. You can also find twenty-some people's top picks in the comments of this post at A Fuse #8 Production.
• Also not to be missed is Franki's article about the Cybils for Choice Literacy. Thanks to LibrariAnne for the link. And speaking of Anne, she has a great post about the recent Best Books for Young Adults meeting, and a discussion about "books published for adults and their place in this list of best books for teens." She also includes comments about some specific books, and has lots of other posts about the conference, too.
• As a fan of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series (adult historical mysteries), I enjoyed Colleen Mondor's recent article about Paul Nash and Maisie Dobbs. In other news, Colleen also reports: "Fans of Kiki Strike be aware that the latest Bloomsbury catalog included a teaser that a sequel will be listed in the Fall catalog. No word - anywhere - as to what it's about but I'm delighted to see a return to this story." I say, YAY, Kiki Strike! (Which in no way indicates whether or not I'm going to vote for Kiki Strike for the middle grade Cybils award - I like the other books too.)
• Proud new mom Shannon Hale asks about Seuss for the teenage mind. She's responding to an article about efforts back in the 50's to get authors to write "an alternative reading primer that first graders wouldn't be able to put down." She asks "And what about high school students? Don't they have the right to read books that aren't boring? There's little comparison between the banal Dick and Jane books and the renowned classics that make up a high school English class curriculum. But still, I find a correlation. Dick and Jane were the unquestioned reading material of elementary schools for years until people started to say, hey, wait a minute, why can't we have other choices? Literacy at the high school level is very much threatened. Wouldn't it also make a difference to have stories that capture the older reader's interest?" I think that it's an excellent post, and it has generated her usual dozens of comments in response.
• HipWriterMama is back with more Strong Girl Role Models, including, coincidentally, Miri from Shannon Hale's Princess Academy. She should have another list out soon, too, because this one is from last Sunday.
• TadMack has some additional follow-up thoughts on book reviewing and the Cybils. I'm having some trouble with the site's permanent links, but head on over to Finding Wonderland, and scroll down through the last couple of posts. See in particular her comments, and her link to Not Your Mother's Book Club's comments, on the fact that the Young Adult fiction shortlist ended up with four out of five books from the same publisher. TadMack said: "The second painful thing was that shortlist -- and discovering that four of the final five are from one publishing house. We hadn't noticed until we 'heard' that house described as having a stranglehold on the category. Ouch!" Personally, I believe that the fact that four out of five titles were from the same publishing house shows that the team WASN'T taking the publisher into account in selecting the books, because if they had known, they would have been tempted to balance things out a bit. And I don't think that would have been right. They picked the books that they thought were the best. Period.
• Thanks to the Disco Mermaids for linking to the first issue of the Class of 2k7 eZine. You can find it here. If you subscribe, you could win a selection of Advance Reading Copies of books by Class of 2k7 authors.
• The Longstockings Question of the Week is "what children's book character would you want as your best friend?" They always have such appealing questions. Not that they asked me, but I would have to say that I'm torn between Pippi and Hermione (both of whom where selected by Longstockings, too). I would not choose Lyra, because look what happened to her first best friend... The Longstockings also gave out their new award, the Flappie Award, to Absolutely Positively Not..., for best jacket flap copy. The book was nominated by Jay from The Disco Mermaids, and is one that I've been wanting to read.
• Wendy shares some thoughts about writing book reviews at Blog from the Windowsill, here and here. I've never given much thought to the concept of reviewer's block, but I definitely have it from time to time. Right now, for instance, I have a bunch of books that I read around the holidays, and didn't have time to review. It would appear that I have time now, since I'm spending all this time visiting other blogs. And yet... I can't make myself sit down and write the reviews. I think it's because I'm putting some pressure on myself to write "better" reviews, and as a result, I don't write them at all. But I will. Soon. Wendy has helped motivate me.
• Little Willow has a new list of Books for Sports Fans. They aren't all books about sports (e.g. The Westing Game), but are books with characters that sports fans will identify with. She's also updated her list of Funny Fiction for Kids.
• If you're not a fan of this book, be sure to check out The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane: Readers Theater at MotherReader. And if you are a fan, well, then you might not think that it's funny. I haven't actually read Edward Tulane, but I think that the Reader's Theater is hilarious.
• Over at Original Content, Gail Gauthier relates an experience that she and her son had with The Westing Game. While she and her son liked the book, when his class at school read it, the other kids complained that it was too hard. Gail concludes: "I'm always concerned about whether kids like the same books the adult kidlit community does, so I found this incident worrisome. That's all. But it made me think. And still does." I sometimes wonder about this question, too, so I thought it was an interesting post. Though I have no intelligent conclusions to make on the subject.
• Jennifer discusses three different versions of Mary Poppins (book, movie, and Broadway show) over at Snapshot. Definitely enough to make me want to go back and re-read the books.
• Eisha and Jules over at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast have their first of a planned series of interviews available. This one is with Liz B. from A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy. My favorite part (because I feel the same way) is where Liz says: "While I do post mostly about books, my broader interest is in stories. The stories we tell, the stories we believe, the ones we read and the ones we watch. The ones we want to believe in, the ones we’re afraid of, and the stories we tell because we’re afraid and we want comfort. I think stories are important, and whether it’s a picture book or a T.V. show or Gossip Girls, it’s important." Bravo to that! And it's exactly how I justify watching TV and loving books.
• Kristen has put together a list of "awesome resources for reading and kid lit" over at Pixie Stix Kids Pix. She includes both printed and web resources. It's well worth checking out.
• I wrote a bunch yesterday about raising readers (in the context of Jim Trelease's visit). But I've also always been interested in young kids who are interested in writing (hello, J. from Lexington and N. from Westwood). So I was particularly interested to read Adrienne's recent post about Raising a Writer. She says "Personally, I can't get enough of watching this barely seven-year-old using writing to express himself, to communicate, to entertain, and for all manner of practical applications." I feel that way about a couple of kids I know, too.

Thank you all for visiting. This is my 500th published post. I look forward to 500 more! Happy reading!

This weekend I read three of the Cybils shortlist titles in Middle Grade fiction (Heat, Framed, and Weedflower). I still have plenty of other books on my to read stack, starting with a re-read of Kiki Strike, which I read several months ago. I haven't spent a lot of time visiting the other blogs this weekend, because I've been wrapped up in reading. But here are a few things worth noting:

• In case you missed it, last week was National Delurker Week. I posted about it, and have so far had comments from 13 people. A few are old friends who couldn't resist an invitation to comment (and who can blame them?), and some are newer friends. I was also pleased to hear from several previously unknown lurkers. Blogs that I wasn't previously acquainted with include: Left Coast Mama, The Sixth Essential (which would be books, of course), and Whoopittydoooo. And of course, the first thing I did was check out everyone's blog, and/or email them as appropriate. And just so you know, this is what nearly everyone does who has a blog. So, if you have a new blog, and you want people to notice it, the best thing to do is comment on other people's blogs. Stepping off of soapbox now. Thanks to all of you who visited!
• And speaking of commenting, Monica Edinger has an interesting post over at Educating Alice about how the commenting that she's seeing on her students' blogs reflects already existing social dynamics. That is, the number of comments that people receive is an indicator of already existing popularity levels. There is, naturally, some discussion in the comments of this post about how we handle this, and feel about this, as adults.
• TadMack has some additional Cybils Young Adult fiction followup thoughts over at Finding Wonderland, with musings about several of the books that did, and did not, make the shortlist.
• I learned from LibrariAnne that there's going to be a new book to follow Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy. It will be called, appropriately enough, Extras, and it won't feature Tally Youngblood as the main character. Also via LibrariAnne, the family reading chair (you'll have to click through for pictures). She finds the coolest stuff!
• Anne-Marie Nichols has a post asking people how they create their personal libraries, over at A Readable Feast. No responses/suggestions so far, so if you have any thoughts about how you build your library, head on over and share them. And really if you don't have thoughts on how to build your personal library, you should head over anyway, because Anne-Marie has some great suggestions.
• The Kidlitosphere's own Liz Burns, from A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy is one of eight candidates for four slots on the 2009 Printz Award Committee. Send her your happy thoughts, and/or votes, as you feel are appropriate!
• A Fuse #8 Production is happy to break the news about the awarding of the 2007 Sydney Taylor Book Awards, while Roger Sutton announces the Scott O'Dell award winner. Yellow Star, which I loved, was an honor winner for the Sydney Taylor award for older readers. And finally, Michele over at Scholar's Blog brings us some local (to her) news, and announces that Philip Pullman has been awarded The Freedom of Oxford.
• Speaking of awards, Franki over at A Year of Reading has a great post about her selection criteria for her list of Newbery predictions. If you haven't seen Mary Lee and Franki's list of Newbery predictions, they are well worth checking out. A big part of why they started their blog was because they hoped that they would have read the eventual Newbery winner by the time the award comes out. Aren't you curious to see if they succeed?
• For the record, even if Pippi Longstocking tells you to, you shouldn't eat mushrooms that you find in the wild. True-life story from author Jennifer J. Stewart via A Fuse #8 Production. There's a current non-fiction-related story from San Jose here.
• Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast has an idea to start the new year. They are interviewing bloggers from around the kidlitosphere, starting with each other. Their questions and responses are a riot, and we all look forward to seeing who they'll feature next. You can also find a series of interviews of Cybils judges taking place over on the Cybils site, starting with Kelly's interview of Gregory K. 
• I couldn't say exactly why I dropped out of Poetry Friday (too many balls in the air, I guess), but it continues to grow in popularity every week. Kelly has a round-up of this week's contributions over at Big A little a.
• Sherry from Semicolon links to a wonderful post over at Coffee, Tea, Books, and Me, about the joys of re-reading books. Brenda says, in defense of her large personal library: "For one thing, my books are my old friends as well as new friends whose acquaintance I have yet to make. My old friends give me warmth and stability in a very chaotic world. The books I haven't read entice me with anticipation." The rest is great too, for those of us who love our books.

Has anyone else noticed that I start these posts saying that I have a few items of interest, and then I go on and on? Sorry about that. It's just that there's so much interesting stuff out there, it's hard to leave things out. Happy reading! And Happy Martin Luther King Day tomorrow! And finally, GO PATRIOTS!!

Here are a few things that I've run across this week that I simply must share with you all right away:

• I learned from LibraryAnne about a new board game that's sure to be a hit with book lovers. It's called LieBrary. And although, like Anne, I think that the name could be better, I do like the concept. It's like Balderdash, where you make up definitions for obscure words and people have to guess the right definition. In LieBrary, you are given the name and title of a book, and you make up a convincing first line. You get points if someone votes for your made-up line. The box, needless to say, looks like a book. This is now on my mental "I want" list.
• I found this post by Kim (of Kim & Jason Lemonade Stand / Escape Adulthood) inspirational. Kim discusses the concept of retirement (in context of Brett Favre), and how unnecessary that can be when you're already doing something that you love. She proposes that people "make that long list of things you want to do when you retire and start doing them…today!" A worthy goal, I think.
• If you were interested in that discussion of age ranges as they apply to middle school (not middle grade) kids, you may be interested in the Yahoo group (middle_school_lit) that Richie Partingon is putting together. Thanks to Mitali Perkins for the link.
• OK, this doesn't have to do with books, but I thought it was funny (and true). Check out this list at FeatherBee of signs that you are living in 2007. My favorite is "You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3."
• Also not related to books, for all you sports fans out there here's a post by Julius Lester about "why the emotional lives of so many people, including me, are tied to the fate of our favorite sports team." I liked that his example is the New England Patriots, but his conclusions certainly generalize.
• There is a hilarious new contest in the works over at Lisa Yee's blog. She challenges you to change the first letter of one word of an existing book title to make it into something new and different. The results are highly entertaining so far, though I haven't had creative energy to think of something myself.
• HipWriterMama, a new blog that I've recently discovered and quite enjoy, has what I think is a great post about identifying strong role models for girls in literature. Of course I'm a bit biased, because she references my Cool Girls list. But I think that many of you will enjoy her musings about why this is important (she has three young daughters), and why she chose the characters that she did. I know that MotherReader was pleased to see Junie B. Jones on the list. This post is the first of what HipWriterMama promises will be weekly lists (very ambitious!) so check back.
• Colleen Mondor has a lot of great new review articles up. Liz B. has the summary at A Chair, A Fireplace, and A Tea Cozy.
• There's a new Hot Man of Children's Literature over at A Fuse #8 Production. You'll have to click through to see who he is.   

And, on the Cybils front:

• Little Willow has an interview with Kirby Larson (author of Cybils shortlist title Hattie Big Sky), and a followup post about the Young Adult Fiction nominations process, and her favorite eight titles. You can also read Kirby's reaction to her nomination here.
• Also, this just in, Little Willow has an interview with Garret Freymann-Weyr, author of Stay With Me, and another with Lauren Baratz-Logsted, author of Angel's Choice (both Cybils nominees, and both also reviewed by Little Willow).
• Mindy also has some followup thoughts on the Young Adult Fiction nomination process, and a top 12 list, over at Propernoun.net.
• Wordswimmer addresses the Poetry nomination process, confessing to reservations about picking a shortlist at all.

And now, I'm off to the library to volunteer, something I didn't have time for at all in December. Here's to life being a little less busy this year. Happy Tuesday!