Friday Afternoon Visits

I've run across a few things of interest this week in the blogs, in addition to the tremendous outpouring of Harry Potter-related posts and reviews.

• Jenna from the Escape Adulthood team recently named me a "Rockin' Girl Blogger." It was actually my second "Rockin' Girl Blogger" award (the first was from Amanda at A Patchwork of Books), and this fact pleases me tremendously, because it makes me feel like I must be doing something right. Jenna is the "Chief Sales Servant" for Escape Adulthood products, and she is an absolute goddess of customer service and fun.
• Saffron Tree reviews a variety of magazines for kids, saying "We have always been riveted to books as a nourishing source of learning and fun for children. An equally amazing alternative to books are magazines - a periodic dose of information and amusement."
• Congratulations to Liz Garton Scanlon on signing a contract for her next picture book. Liz says of writing children's books: "I would say that I’d found my dream job, but that’d mean it felt like a job when really it feels more like a love affair." It's great to see someone doing what they love, and achieving success.
• And speaking of authors who have achieved success in the world of children's books without letting it go to their heads, Rick Riordan has been posting an original short story about Percy Jackson in installments on his blog. Currently Part 1 and Part 2 are available. What a nice treat for Percy Jackson fans.
• At the end of one of many reviews and musings on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, MsMac from Check It Out discusses "the impact that this series has had on kids and reading. Kids age eight when first starting to read Harry Potter, are now the same age as Harry. They are on the brink of adulthood.  For many, this is the book that made a significant impact on their reading life. Island of the Blue Dolphins and the Tolkein trilogy did that for me." She asks: "What books impacted you?"
• In the midst of all of these posts about books and reading, Read Alert has published a set of statistics about the state of reading in the U.S. that, if accurate, are very depressing. Can it really be true that "80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year"? I get kind of down if I haven't bought or read a book in the last few days. I can't even imagine what it would be like to go a year.
• But back to the upbeat, Ananka's Diary (of Kiki Strike fame) links to several online quizzes that you can use to test your sleuthing skills. Fun stuff!
• I've been enjoying HipWriterMama's series of inspirational posts on Mondays. This week she encourages people to take themselves seriously, and work towards their dreams. She says: "Take yourself seriously. Treat your dream seriously. And by the way, it is totally okay to allow people to treat you and your work with respect." Makes sense, doesn't it?
• And I saved the best for last. I learned from Fuse (tireless source of movie news) that DIsney is planning to remake Escape to Witch Mountain. The original 1975 Disney movie is one of my all-time favorites, despite the movie's differences from the wonderful book by Alexander Key. (I own the DVD, thanks to my brother Steve). Alexander Key also wrote one of my favorite comfort reading titles: The Forgotten Door. I'm a bit nervous about the remake, but won't be able to resist watching it. There was actually a made for TV version of Escape to Witch Mountain published sometime in the 90's, but it was completely different from the book and the 1975 movie.

Incidentally, I was traveling this past week, and got a kick out of noticing people at the airport, and on the plane, and in the breakroom of the high-tech company that I was visiting all reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Isn't it amazing to see such wide-spread interest in a children's book? Happy reading!