Thursday Afternoon Visits: January 22nd, Part 2
January 22, 2009
Earlier this afternoon, I started to share some recent news from around the Kidlitosphere. I had to close that post early, before I was able to write about all of my saved items. Here are the rest:
There's an updated Cybils flyer available from the Cybils blog, complete with the new shortlist titles. Sarah Stevenson did an amazing job putting this together. As Sarah explains, we made this double-side flyer "so you can get the latest information out to your nearest libraries, schools, bookstores and eager readers. As always, we thank you all for your help in spreading the word!" You can also find a printable version of the 2008 Cybils shortlists, with blurbs for all of the titles, in the upper right-hand corner of the Cybils blog.
The Horn Book Magazine has a new owner, the parent company that owns the Junior Library Guild. You can find the details here. Link from Read Roger.
Cari from BookScoops recently shared a fun idea. At her daughter's birthday party, she gave out Curious George books, with bookmarks, for party favors. She found it a positive experience, and urges: "If you have children and plan to do a party give books out as party favors and/or give books to your friends and family for their birthdays. It can’t hurt the publishing industry and over a whole year of giving books that’s got to do something to help. Most important your sharing your love of books and promoting literacy in the people you care about most."
Two people were kind enough to pass along blog awards to me this week. Kate Coombs from Book Aunt gave me a Butterfly Award for being "most helpful". Book Aunt is a brand new blog that I've been reading. I love Kate's tagline: "Because OTHER people give you clothes and video games for your birthday!" I've always been the "book aunt" in my family, so this award resonated with me especially.
As if that wasn't enough for one week, Margo Dill from Read These Books and Use Them gave me a Premio Dardos award. I love Margo's reviews, and this was a lovely compliment. I am very fortunate in my blog friends. Thanks Kate and Margo!!
I know I've mentioned this before, but don't miss Kelly Gallagher's Readicide blog tour. So far he's been to A Year of Reading, The Tempered Radical (where it's been a 4-day conversation, I'm thus not offering direct links), and The Dream Teacher. He'll also be at The Reading Zone and The Book Whisperer next week. I really am going to have to read this book soon. Sarah from the Reading Zone says that the book is so compelling that she read the whole thing online.
Meg Ivey at the National Center for Family Literacy's blog offers "a peek at NCFL’s 18th Annual National Conference on Family Literacy (March 1-3, Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, Florida)!". Keynote speakers at the conference include Henry Winkler, Greg Mortenson, Peter H. Reynolds, and Lolly Winston. Registration information is here.
And finally, Lisa Chellman will be hosting the January Carnival of Children's Literature at Under the Covers. She has no special theme, but suggested (via email) that "some ideas might be ALA media awards, the Cybils, or any of the other children's lit awards... winter books... the Inauguration... Martin Luther King Day... or just your favorite post of the month." Submissions are due January 28th, for the Carnival on the 30th. You can submit posts here.
It feels good to be caught up on the blog news. Hopefully this means that this weekend, I can focus on some reviews. Happy reading!