Sunday Afternoon Visits: December 10

Hello blog friends! I'm back from a week in Disney World. Though not so restful as vacations go, it was a lot of fun. Mheir scheduled lots of excellent dinners for us, and even some other surprises. As the check-in lady at The Wilderness Lodge said, on reading our schedule, he's definitely a keeper. A highlight of the trip was going on Splash Mountain three times in a row, first thing in the morning, with no waiting. We paid in wet clothes for the rest of the day, but it was worth it. We also went three times in a row on the new Expedition Everest ride in Animal Kingdom, after strong recommendations from our niece.

I haven't had a chance to catch back up with the other blogs yet (work also required a fair bit of catching up, funnily enough). But here are a couple of things that I noticed for one reason or another. I'll try to catch up more tomorrow, before leaving on my next business trip (sigh!).

• Alan Silberberg has a new Book-Toon available on his blog. He's promoting books as holiday gifts. It's well worth checking out. Note also the subtle Cybils reference near the end.
• And speaking of ideas for holiday gifts, Ian Ybarra sent me a link to his 10 Great Gifts for Baseball Nuts post. If you're looking for gift ideas for baseball fans, he has some great stuff listed (despite the high density of Yankee's examples, for which I will forgive Ian in the spirit of the holiday season).
• Mitali Perkins has captured people's imaginations in her post (and follow-up) about blog crushes in the kidlitosphere. There are lots of great blogs highlighted, and it's a fun discussion.
• Another question going on around the 'sphere concerns the inclusion of bibliographies in fiction books. Monica Edinger started the discussion at Educating Alice, and Liz B. added her own thoughtful comments at A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy. Personally, I love having a bibliography in a historical novel, and some indication of what is and isn't based on the truth.
• And, thanks to Liz B. for this link, Esme Raji Codell muses about the nature of children's and young adult literature, in response to a review of Octavian Nothing. Be sure to read the comments, too.

And oh, how I wish I had time for more right now, but I have to run. Happy Reading!