Saturday Afternoon Visits: March 27

There continues to be lots going on around the Kidlitosphere. Here are a few quick highlights on this beautiful day:

The winner of the 2010 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award was announced this week (I first heard about it from Tasha Saecker at Kids Lit). Congratulations to Belgian illustrator and author Kitty Crowther, who won a prize of 5 million kronor ($620,00 US). I love that this award celebrates the creator of Pippi Longstocking, and the importance of children's literature. The size of the award is a strong statement about the value of children's literature and its creators.The ALMA website explains:

"Astrid Lindgren is one of Sweden’s most important authors. Her works have been translated into more than 90 languages. She renewed children's literature and combined artistic integrity with commitment to the rights of children and young people. Astrid Lindgren passed away in 2002 at the age of 94, but her stories will live forever. To honour her memory and to promote interest in children’s and young adult literature around the world, the Swedish government has founded an international prize in her name, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award." 

Gregory K has announced the lineup for his upcoming 30 Poets/30 Days celebration of National Poetry Month. It's quite a star-studded list. And I love the new logo, created by Greg's kidlitchat co-host, Bonnie Adamson.

Lots of people are raising a rallying cry for libraries this week. Dawn Morris has a heartfelt post about libraries at Moms Inspire Learning. And Jennifer R. Hubbard from writerjenn inspired a whole library-loving blog challenge, which has spread to dozens of blogs. The basic idea is that the participating bloggers promise to donate to libraries based on the number of comments that they receive. There are too many participants for me to highlight them all here, but I did want to mention that The Texas Sweethearts will be making a donation to the Reading Tub for their challenge. How great is that?

Trevor Cairney has a fun post today at Literacy, families and learning on choosing great educational toys for children. He breaks the post down by type of play, from timeless construction toys to toys that allow kids to create things. He concludes with a few principles that he follows when choosing toys (like "Do they stimulate creativity and learning?").

Based on the responses to her recent survey about blogging books for boys, librarian Ms. Yingling has started sharing some themed booklists, aimed at middle school age boys. This week, she shares a host of books about war, neatly categorized according to which war is covered. She says: "While not all of the books on this list have a lot of fighting, they have all been popular with my boys."

There seems to be a bout of spring-induced sports fever spreading in the Kidlitosphere:

• Doret from TheHappyNappyBookseller is doing a fantastic Baseball Lineup series in which she asks nine authors of baseball stories for kids a series of 12 questions each (3 per day). Personally, I haven't been able to resist chiming in on the first two posts, to share my responses, too. They're great questions for baseball fans of all ages.
• Colleen Mondor takes on sports books in the latest installation of her What a Girl Wants series at Chasing Ray. She asks her band of author friends: "What books can you think of about famous female athletes in history? Do we honor them on the same level as male athletes? And what about game playing girls in MG & YA novels? Can you think of some great ones and do familiar teen girl tropes (like mean girls and romance) play into those novels? In other words, is a book about boys playing ball crafted the same as one about girls playing ball? Is the sport enough when selling a book about girl athletes?" Thoughtful responses abound.
• At The Miss Rumphius Effect, Tricia features a baseball poem about Forgiving Buckner. She speculates that baseball just might be "the true harbinger of spring." I can't disagree with that. Speaking of poems, this week's Poetry Friday roundup is being hosted by Julie Larios of The Drift Record.

Other quick hits:

• I enjoyed The Reading Countess' recent "Have a Seat!" post, in which she shares pictures of the many reading nooks that she has available in her classroom.
• Betsy Bird has a detailed recap of week 2 of School Library Journal's Battle of the Kids Books at A Fuse #8 Production.
• At Shrinking Violet Promotions, Mary and Robin have an excellent interview with Lee Wind about his new blog, The Zen of Blogging.
• At Roots in Myth, P.J. Hoover shares five reasons (for authors) to visit a juvenile detention center.
• And for more links, check out Tanita Davis' Sequel Rambles post at Finding Wonderland, Cynthia Leitich Smith's latest Cynsational News post at Cynsations, or Abby (the) Librarian's latest Around the Interwebs post.

And that's all for this weekend. Happy reading, and happy spring. Only 8 more days until Red Sox Opening Day!

© 2010 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. All Amazon links in this post are affiliate links, and may result in my receiving a small commission on purchases (with no additional cost to you).

Comments

[beth kephart]

As always, a fantastic compilation. Thank you for this.

[Jennifer@5 Minutes for Books]

I was wondering if Gregory was doing the 30 Days of Poetry again, so thanks for the reminder. I'll have to check it out. I've gotten a few poetry review titles that I'm looking forward to highlighting in April.

[Jen Robinson]

Thanks, Beth and Jennifer. I can't even tell you how much it helps, in finding time to do these, when people let me know that they're useful. Have a great weekend!

[Jon Bard]

Lots of great stuff Jen -- I'll share this with my Tweeple.....

[PJ Hoover]

Thanks for the shout outs, Jen! I hope you and your tummy are doing great!

[Jen Robinson]

Thanks for sharing this, Jon. And Tricia, you are very welcome. The baby and I are doing well. Thanks!