Sunday Afternoon Visits: April 29

Another week, another hectic business trip, and once again I've been feeling out of touch about what's going on in the Kidlitosphere. But I did have time to read four books this week, so that's some consolation. I'm almost through Margaret Peterson Haddix's Shadow Children series (just finished book 6 of 7).

I am woefully behind on writing reviews over the past couple of weeks - please don't take this as any lack of appreciation for the books that I'm been reading. I find that I can't write reviews when I'm feeling rushed and stressed out - I need to write them when I'm in a certain book-focused mental state. So, reviews will be coming soon. The travel should be easing up for a little while.

Meanwhile, I spent some time today catching up on the news while watching the Red Sox / Yankees game (the Red Sox have taken 5 out of 6 so far!), and I have some highlights for you:

• I'm very late with this news, but MotherReader has announced the date for her second annual 48-Hour Book Challenge. To my devastation, I'm going to be traveling that weekend, so although I'll be reading on the plane, I don't think that I'll be officially participating, and certainly won't be winning any of the way-cool prizes (OK, those prizes are a joke, but there will be prizes.)
• I'm also late to report a new Kidlitosphere fad - a quiz at the Golden Compass movie site that lets you find your own daemon. You can find the roundup at Wands and Worlds.
• Betsy Bird got quite possibly the coolest anonymous birthday present ever, a tiny fuseman. You have to click through to see the pictures to understand.
• Katherine Thomsen writes about five baseball books at This Just In, rating them using baseball terminology. I'm saddened that she didn't enjoy Heat more, but I'm prepared to look into the other "home runs" that she mentioned.
• Sherry shares her best of the best list, culled from the Carnegie Medal and Newbery Award lists at Semicolon (and inspired by a Fuse #8 post that I mentioned last week).
• Via h20boro lib blog, the Today Show is launching a Al's Book Club for Kids. From the press release: " On Friday, April 27, "Al's Book Club For Kids" will kick-off and the first of four books that kids can read and discuss over the summer on "Today" will be announced. At the same time, the Scholastic Summer Reading BUZZ! gets underway - a campaign that gets kids reading and champions the important role parents, educators and librarians - and even Al Roker - can play in helping kids find books they will love to read." I say, whatever works to keep kids reading over the summer is a happy thing.
• Mrs. K at Readathon has a new series of student reviews that have been catching my eye. She says "I often have people ask me for advice on good books for their middle school readers (hence this site). I have my ideas, but it's always nice to hear from such readers themselves! I've been lucky enough to have some students offer their writing talents to this blog."
• I'm late in reporting this, but Miss Erin (a fellow Readergirlz Postergirl) has issued a new challenge. Specifically, she challenges readers to create some sort of Shakespeare-reading related goal. Hers is to read all of the plays. She already has an impressive list of participants.
• A winner was announced for the Disco Mermaids' 3-2-1 contest. Congratulations to Natalie for her celebrity children's book title Hop on Pop, by Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn.
• Leila from bookshelves of doom speaks well of the Georgette Heyer romances, which are one of my personal favorite comfort reading series.
• Over at Chasing Ray, Colleen responds vigorously and eloquently to some recent new articles that are dismissive towards bloggers. Be sure to read the comments, too, where Colleen says "I just want everyone to co-exist with some mutual respect." I'm so glad to have Colleen out there defending our sphere. See also her second article about review books and reviewing, about where she gets the books that she reviews.
• Susan has announced the Fourteenth Carnival of Children's Literature, to be held at Chicken Spaghetti on Monday, May 21st. The theme is Fiesta: A Multicultural Celebration. Don't miss your chance to participate.
• The next Scholar's Blog Book Discussion begins on Tuesday over at Scholar's Blog Spoiler Zone, featuring Lady Friday by Garth Nix. See also Michele's thoughts on what's going to happen in the final Harry Potter book.
• Tricia writes about why she blogs at The Miss Rumphius Effect, and invites commenters to share their reasons. So many wonderful reasons...
• Kirby Larson has named her second Hot Woman of Children's Literature: the fabulous Jennifer Holm.
• Lectitans asks her question of the week: "What is the purpose of a book review?" She also links to several responses to last week's question: "How much can we know about the author herself based on the content of the book?"

And now I'm feeling much more caught up. Thanks for listening! I hope to get to reviews and coming up with questions for some upcoming interviews very soon.