Sunday Afternoon Visits: November 2

I don't have TOO much Kidlitosphere news for you today, because I did a visits post on Wednesday night. But a few things since then have caught my eye.

There's lots going on at the Cybils blog (thanks to fabulous Deputy Editor Sarah Stevenson and the equally fabulous committee organizers). I'm especially enjoying the Meet the Panelists posts. So far we've met the YA Fiction nominating panelists, the Fantasy/Science Fiction nominating panelists, and the Middle Grade Fiction nominating panelists.

Cynthia Lord mentioned a neat new literacy program on her blog this week. The New Hampshire Humanities Council is using children's books in discussion groups with new American citizens. The Connections program "discussions offer adult new readers an opportunity to read interesting, beautifully-illustrated books and discuss them with other adult new readers and a trained facilitator." Titles mentioned on the Connections website include The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen, by our own Mitali Perkins.

OK, still no politics on the blog, but I did appreciate this post by MotherReader about how there were three references to reading in Barack Obama'sinfomercial the other night. I'm glad that Pam is on top of this stuff.

Susan has a way fun Children's Book Pop Quiz at Chicken Spaghetti. How can a pop quiz be fun, you ask? Well, there's a gorgeous graphic of a pencil... OK, I'm a geek. But I thought it was fun. There are blanks for the answers, and if you click on them, they're really links.

Maureen from Confessions of a Bibliovore linked to a Chicago Tribune article by Tara Malone about how schools are trying to balance classics with contemporary fiction. What's a bit sad, though, as Maureen points out, is that the contemporary fiction mentioned is all adult fiction, rather than YA. Like Maureen, I would prefer to see a balance there, too.

From Linda Ernst at the ALSC blog I learned about the Maureen Hayes Author/Illustrator Visit Award. "The award provides up to $4,000 towards the honorarium and travel costs of a writer/illustrator to visit a location where children might otherwise never have this amazing opportunity."

I have good news for all the non-MySpace people out there. The Readergirlz Divas are now also blogging at BlogSpot. And they have a new Diva - Melissa Walker of the Violet on the Runway books. The new Readergirlz featured title for November is, appropriately, Long May She Reign, by Ellen Emerson White (about the daughter of the President). It's a great book (plus Ellen is a die-hard Red Sox fan, so I'm extra happy to see her featured). Finally, congratulations to the newest Postergirl, ShelfElf.

I also have good news for Babymouse fans. I learned from Matt Holm's blog that the Babymouse series has the number one graphic novel circulation in Metrowest Boston's library network (according to School Library Journal and Robin Brenner.

The Blog the Vote roundup is now available at Chasing Ray. Tons of bloggers have shared their stories about voting, and their reasons behind and enthusiasm for getting others to vote. I have to admit that I don't have anything to add to their contributions. But I'm happy to send you to Chasing Ray to read other people's smart workds on this topic.

And finally, the November Carnival of Children's Literature will be held at Mommy's Favorite Children's Books. The theme is The Gift of Reading (including gift books). Coincidentally, I wrote a post on that very subject yesterday, though it's a guest post that will be up at Shelf Space, instead of here. Anyway, I'll be hosting the Carnival in December.  

And that's all for today. Happy November!