Tied for BBAW Best KidLit Blog with The Well-Read Child

This morning I learned that I tied with Jill from The Well-Read Child for Book Blogger Appreciation Week's Best KidLit Blog. BBAW was organized by the remarkable Amy from My Friend Amy, and the winners in our category were announced this morning at Stephanie's Confessions of a Book-a-holic. Thanks so much to the people who nominated me and voted for me! (And special thanks to Kate who emailed me for BBAW.) Your support means a lot.

And I am really thrilled to be sharing this award with Jill. The Well-Read Child has only been around for about 10 months, but it became one of my favorites right away. It's clear, on the quickest glance at Jill's blog, that she cares very much about helping children to become readers. She maintains a little slideshow in her sidebar of children reading. She was one of the first to jump in on the Kidlitosphere Yahoo Group, when I needed advice for an article about helping kids learn to enjoy reading. She writes great reviews, and she often includes little blurbs from other people's reviews (which I think is a particularly nice touch, and I love to read those). Jill also recently put out a call for guest reviewers, so that she can broaden the number and variety of reviews at The Well-Read Child. It's great to see her hard work, genuine concern for kids and books, and community focus recognized.

Of course we all know that "best" is highly subjective. The other blogs on the BBAW short-list were all all wonderful. Amanda from A Patchwork of Books kept her blog strong even while visiting her very premature baby son in the hospital. She does giveaways, and reviews picture books on most Saturdays. Her enthusiasm for books and life is contagious. And Christian Children's Book Review is clearly a labor of love from a group of Christian moms, who work to highlight the books that they like, and raise kids who enjoy reading. And as for Young Readers, that's just one of several blogs maintained by Becky Laney. If she didn't do her fans the courtesy of separating out her blogs by type of content, I'm sure that she would have been the winner.

And don't get me started on all of the other amazing blogs in the Kidlitosphere. You can see many listed in the sidebar to the right-hand-side of my blog. Or just read any of my Visits posts and follow the blogs linked there. I'm just happy to be part of this wonderful community of people who care about, and blog about, children's books. Thanks so much to the people who welcomed me when I first started the blog, and all of the people I've met along the way.

Hope you all have a great day! I certainly am so far.