Sunday Afternoon Visits: September 16

Today's Sunday Visits will be relatively brief, because I posted about a lot of the recent news on Friday. Still, a few new things of interest have come up this weekend:

• Over at Library Stew, Kathy (a fellow Red Sox fan, and "a school library media goddess") asks: "what kind of program could I instill at my school that would motivate those kids who really HATE to read. Those kids who really struggle to read and because of that HATE to do so." In Kathy's case, with her position, she's looking for programs that will motivate the masses, and she doesn't think that author events are the best lure for the struggling readers. She's going to use this school year to do some research into this question, and I, for one, am looking forward to hearing her results.
• Terry Doherty from The Reading Tub has been interviewed again, this time by Jewel Sample for Sharing with Writers and Readers. Terry talks about what motivated her to start The Reading Tub (a nonprofit dedicated to promoting reading and literacy), and how authors can submit their books for review. Since I first mentioned The Reading Tub last week (in the literacy roundup) I've spent a bit more time checking out what they do. And I would like to point this site out as a resource for parents looking for book recommendations for kids. The site is very well-organized and has simply tons of book profiles (more than 800). You can search for a keyword, like baseball, and it will return results for you, classified by age range.
• Susan Beth Pfeffer (author of the compelling dystopian title Life As We Knew It) has started a new four-part series on her blog about writing. The first entry is about coming up with an idea. Her main thesis is that instead of writing about what they know, writers should write about what they feel. She suggests that you think about your favorite stories, and then "melt those favorites down to their bare essence. What we're looking for is the themes you are most responsive to." Makes sense to me!
• Via Becky, the next Carnival of Children's Literature takes place at Charlotte's Library on September 26th. The theme is "Take a Ride on the Reading Railroad". The deadline to submit entries is Friday, September 21st. You can submit entries here.
• Kimberly Pauley has a disturbing post at Young Adult (& Kids) Books Central about the response that she received (a "torrent of hate and name calling") when she posted at Teachers.net about GLBT month. For a more positive view of GLBT month, see Tea Cozy.
• Mary Lee and Franki will be promoting Constitution Day tomorrow (Monday) at A Year of Reading. They share a variety of books and links, and discuss why we should celebrate this day.
• At Farm School, Becky shares highlights from a Guardian interview with The Dangerous Book for Boys author Conn Iggulden. I love this book, partly because I agree with it in spirit, and partly because bunches of people have clicked through from my site and purchased in from Amazon, giving me lots of referral money to use to buy more books (and my most recent purchase: the wonderful BBC/Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice).

Happy reading to all!