Tuesday Afternoon Visits: Snowflakes, Halloween, and Comfort Books

I'm having a bit of trouble catching back up after the Kidlitosphere conference last weekend. The conference was completely worth it, of course, but right now I'm drowning in posts I want to write, books I want to read, and, of course, work for my actual job that needs doing. But what I really want is to feel more caught up on the doings of the Kidlitosphere. So, here is the result of some time spent catching up.

• Shaping Youth, a forum about media and marketing's influence on kids, has a feature about the Readergirlz 31 Flavorites event, complete with an interview with the readergirlz divas, and links to many resources, including the postergirlz' blogs.
• If you have need of a smile, do check out Elaine Magliaro's post about the recent Robert's Snow Artist Open House event. There's a wonderful photograph of Grace Lin taken by Pennington (Penny) Geis. It's called, aptly, Warmed by Snowflakes. Elaine also has links to some lists of Halloween books. See also Kim and Jason's list of 31 Ways to Escape Adulthood this Halloween.
• Bottom Shelf Books has a lovely list of reasons to write for children. The first 10 are from Isaac Bashevis Singer, with others added in the comments. I like Number 8: "They (kids) love interesting stories, not commentary, guides, or footnotes."
• LibraryLady offers a passionate defense of Halloween celebrations for kids. She says: "Kids love Halloween for two things--dressing up and CANDY!" and calls on adults to let kids have their fun.
• I'm very late with this news, but Sam Riddleburger has posted a Gigantic KidLit Blogger Word Find. I'm there, along with approximately 127 others. This would have been a great thing to print out and bring to the conference last weekend, but I found it too late, alas.
• Daphne posts about Comfort Books (from the 80's) at The Longstockings. Her list includes A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle and Fifteen by Beverly Cleary. My list includes: pretty much anything by Alexander Key, Georgette Heyer, D.E. Stevenson, Elizabeth Enright, or Inez Haynes Irwin, among many others. On a related note, Franki from A Year of Reading shares books that she's saved from childhood. Oh, I want to go read Return to Gone-Away right now.
• HipWriterMama announced the winners of her 30-Day Challenge. Congratulations to M. Thompson, Liz Garton Scanlon and Alkelda the Gleeful.
• Cheryl Rainfield continues to find neat stuff. This week she's got a picture of a life-size book reaching out and hugging a reader. This one is a visual - click through to see.
• Terry from The Reading Tub has put together an annotated directory of children's book award programs in North America, broken out by National vs. State and Regional programs. Her list includes more than 150 awards. It's a very comprehensive list (in handy printable PDF). And yes, the Cybils are included.
• Open Books just announced a new literacy program and volunteer opportunity called Open Book Buddies. Here's the invitation: "Spend half an hour a week as a Big Buddy to your own Little Buddy at a Chicago elementary school. Meet your buddy in their classroom or school library once a week, get to know them, act as a positive adult role model, and most of all, listen enthusiastically as your buddy reads aloud to you from their favorite books (and yours!)." What a great program! Almost, but not quite, enough to make me wish I lived in Chicago (there's that whole weather thing).
• Liz B. from Tea Cozy confesses about her TV boyfriends.
• Anne Boles Levy shares a detailed recap of her conference presentation about Book Reviewing at Book Buds. It was a great talk, and I highly recommend that if you write book reviews you take a few minutes to check out the post. This post also inspired Susan Thomsen to write at Chicken Spaghetti about Faint Praise: The Plight of Book Reviewing in America. Interesting stuff.

I'm feeling so much better now that I'm a bit more caught up on the news. I hope to be back tomorrow with more thoughts about the conference.