Wednesday Afternoon Visits: April 22
Children's Literacy Round-Up: April 27

Saturday Afternoon Visits: April 25

Happy Birthday, Mom and Dad! (Yes, my parents have the same birthday - it's pretty cool. And easy to remember.) I know I just did a Kidlitosphere round-up post a few days ago. But, I don't know what to tell you. People keep posting interesting things. Plus, you know, these round-up posts make for a good task while watching baseball (Red Sox - Yankees this weekend!).

Zombie_chicken_award First up, I received another award this week. Angie from Angieville was kind enough to give me a Zombie Chicken Award, in particular recognition of my Reviews that Made Me Want the Book features. Here's the scoop: "The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken - excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all..." Hmm.. do I risk the wrath of the Zombie Chickens, or do I stick to my policy of saying that everyone who I mention in my visits posts is a blog that I'm giving recognition? Quite a dilemma. Either way, I'm grateful to Angie - this is a particularly fun award.

Kidlitosphere_button At Lectitans, Kimberly has a helpful post with 5 Ways to Use Kidlitosphere Central. I especially applaud her suggestions to use the resources at Kidlitosphere Central to make friends, and get involved in the community.

I'm thrilled to be in the middle of a few weeks at home between trips. However, Betsy Bird made me a bit sad that I'm not going to BEA this year, when she described at Fuse #8 a Day of Dialog that School Library Journal is putting together. It's "a free, day-long program where librarians, editors, authors, and vendors meet to discuss the changing world of books, reading, and libraries", complete with food from Little Brown, and a panel session moderated by Betsy. Maybe next year...

Caps for SaleSpeaking of Betsy, she's up to #17 in her Top 100 Picture Books announcements (Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina). This list is already filled with amazing, amazing books, and you know that the remaining 16 are all going to be popular favorites. What I'm interested to see is how many of the top 15 are newly published books. Will there be any, or will it be all old favorites? Stay tuned!

Oppositeday Over at Scholastic's Ink Splot 26 blog, Karen W. has come up with a list of clever book titles in honor of "Opposite Day". In my favorite, Because of Winn Dixie becomes In Spite of Safeway. Your suggestions are welcome in the comments.

In other made up book title news, the winner of the Bottom Shelf Books / Saints and Spinners Unnecessary Children's Book Titles that Never Were contest was announced. Congratulations to Book Aunt Kate Coombs for coming up with "Harry and the Can of Purple Spray Paint". Click through for the delightful illustration. 

Speaking of delightful illustrations, Eric Carle was just featured in Newsweek, with an article titled "The Surprising Dark Side of the Very Hungry Caterpillar". Travis has the scoop at 100 Scope Notes.

At Original Content, Gail Gauthier has an interesting post pondering adult characters in children's books. She asks: "Have we always felt that children should be center stage in children's books? Or back in the day when books for children were more instructive were they filled with adult characters for them to model themselves upon?" There's quite a discussion in the comments, including a response by author Tim Byrd, whose work is mentioned in the post.

As reported on many blogs, the shortlists for the Carnegie Award (the oldest children's literature award in Britain) were announced this week. Charlotte has the list at Charlotte's Library, and was the first person I saw to point out the fact that in all seven, the main characters are boys. Alison Flood of the Guardian also called it a "boysy" list. UK-based blogger Bookwitch is happy to have read and liked all seven titles, and approves of the boy-friendly slant, too.

StarclimberMeanwhile, over in Canada, the 2009 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards short lists were announced. You can find the list at Kids Lit. Tasha is always up on the award news. Chester's Back, which I loved, is on the picture book list. Starclimber, which I just reviewed last week, is on the young adult list.  

Two posts caught my eye this week from moms who are clearly doing well with the whole raising readers thing:

  • At Paradise Found, confronted by a son who finished four middle grade novels in one day, Kris Bordessa asks: "Do you ever tell your kids to stop reading? Would you, if they read four books daily? How much is too much?" There are bunches of comments in response to this question.
  • Jennifer from Snapshot shares her progress with daughter Amanda in their Read Together Challenge. She says of the challenge: "I have found the accountability great in encouraging my perseverance. When we finished this book, Amanda said, "We need to get another book we can read together." I was glad that she is enjoying this effort as much as I am." 

And a few other quick hits:

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