Sunday Afternoon Visits: December 17
December 17, 2006
The next couple of Sundays are Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, and I don't expect to have any time to blog. So this will be my last Sunday visits post of the year. This weekend is pretty crazy, too, actually, but here are a few tidbits for you:
- Mo Willems (author of the wonderful Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, and the terrifically fun Edwina, The Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct) now has a blog. Thanks to A Fuse #8 Production for the link.
- If you're looking for gift suggestions, check out MotherReader's suggestions (here and here) for non-book/book pairings and also Book Moot's suggestions for Books that Guys Love. See also A Year of Reading's most recent Poetry Friday entry, a Merry Literary Christmas, which has links to some other "books as gifts" posts, especially Franki's list of adult book suggestions. Personally, I know that Mheir and I will be buying many books for the kids we know for Christmas this year. I have lots of great ideas, from all of the reading that I've done over the year.
- And speaking of holiday gifts, Rick Riordan has posted an audio recording of the first chapter of the next book in the Percy Jackson series (not due out until mid-next-year), as read by Rick.
- Over at Chicken Spaghetti, Susan has compiled an impressive list of Best Books of 2006 lists. If you're in need of reading ideas, it's an excellent starting point. Sherry has a list of lists at Semicolon, too. See also Little Willow's own Best Books of 2006 list, nicely categorized and detailed. The Longstockings are also discussing their individual choices for best books of the year, as their question of the week.
- Monica Edinger has a detailed review of the movie Charlotte's Web, and a comparison with the book. She saw the movie with a bunch of fourth graders, and also speaks to their responses.
- You should definitely check out Emily's list at Swarm of Beasts of what she would like to see in children's literature as a Christmas gift for next year. She has some excellent and important suggestions.
- Read Roger has an interesting post in response to a Guardian article about "whether or not to give children books whose moral assumptions have become dated". It's a good question, and I don't have much of an answer for it, but you should check out Roger's thoughts, and the comments.
- And finally, I'm a little late, but Happy Hanukkah to those of you celebrating! And if you aren't celebrating Hanukkah yourself, but would like to know a little bit more about Jewish customs, I highly recommend Dana Reinhardt's A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life.
And while I truly wish that I had time for more, I have guests literally at the door, and this will have to be it for a while. Happy reading!