Saturday Night Visits: May 30

I fell quite behind on my blog reading while I was on vacation last week. I spent some time catching up this weekend (though I was by no means able to actually read all of the posts that I missed), and I do have a few Kidlitosphere highlights for you today. I'll be back Monday with some more literacy-focused news, both here and at Booklights.

People have started receiving ARCs of the Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire (talk about an accurate title - this book is catching fire in the market already). PW has an article about it here. The first review that I saw (a positive one!) was from Tasha Saecker at Kids Lit. Sadly, I have not been among the lucky ARC recipients. But I am glad to hear that the book is being well-received. Really. And perhaps my copy is just slow making it out to California, don't you think? Or, I should have gone to BEA.

Great news! Kelly Herold, of Big A little a and Cybils fame (and one of my very first blog friends), is back after a bit of a blogging hiatus. She's started a new blog called Crossover. She explains: "This blog, Crossover, focuses on a rare breed of book--the adult book teens love, the teen book adults appreciate, and (very, very occasionally) that Middle Grade book adults read. I'm interested in reviewing books that transcend these age boundaries and understanding why these books are different." I love Crossover books, and I'm certain to enjoy this new blot.

The Kidlitosphere's own Greg Pincus from GottaBook has a new blog, too. It's called The Happy Accident, and it's about using social media to help create happy accidents. [If you need proof that Greg understands how to use blogs and other social media tools well, The Happy Accident already shows up as the #3 entry when I Google search.] Although this new blog is not about children's literature, I'm introducing it here because I think that it will have value to anyone who has goals that in some way include using social media (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.). I'll certainly be following Greg's progress.

And speaking of people from the Kidlitosphere doing great things, Betsy Bird and Liz Burns were both featured in a panel at BEA last week (with Libba Bray, Cheryl Klein, and Laura Lutz). School Library Journal has a mini recap of the session, written by Debra Lau Whelan. Debra begins: "When Betsy Bird and Liz Burns speak, people listen." Certainly I always do. BEA also featured a blogger signing booth this year. Pam Coughlan and Sheila Ruth are scheduled to be there tomorrow, and Lenore was there earlier in the weekend. (And perhaps others - I'm too demoralized from not having been at BEA to read any more coverage.)

Betsy also recently received her first author copies of her upcoming book: Children's Literature Gems, Choosing and Using Them in Your Library Career. She has pictures here. And she was recently interviewed by James Preller.

And still speaking of Kidlitosphere members doing great things, the Cybils were included in a recent list of the Top 100 Poetry Blogs (along with several of our other friends). Sarah Stevenson has the full scoop, with links, at the Cybils blog.

Esme Raji Codell recently reviewed Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer last week at PlanetEsme. She begins with: "I don't usually stray from reviews and recommendations of books for kids, but in the interest of children's literacy I need to shout out about a title that might do for independent reading what Jim Trelease's READ-ALOUD HANDBOOK did for read-aloud." She moves on from there to compare and contrast Donalyn's results with her own teaching experience, concluding on a positive note with "Oh, Donalyn Miller. You go, girl."

At Jenny's Wonderland of Books, Jenny Schwartzberg traces a history of ghosts in children's literature, from the 1600s through the 1960s (I remember Ghosts Who Went to School, too) right up to 2008 Newbery winner The Graveyard Book. She concludes: "Over the last two hundred years children's books have shifted from showing ghosts as frightening images used to teach morals to ghosts as a common theme in all kinds of books for children, whether they be scary or friendly." Like many of Jenny's posts, this one is well-researched, and well worth checking out.

I recently discovered the blog YAnnabe. Kelly has a fun post called 5 Ways You Can Convert YA Scoffers, about methods for getting other adults to start reading young adult books. She begins: "We all know adults who read YA have nothing to be ashamed of. But I’m not content to read YA just for my happy little self. You see, I’m a pusher." In addition to Kelly's five tips, there are other reader-suggested ideas in the comments.

At the Reading Rockets Sound It Out blog, Joanne Meier shares several "relatively painless ways for teachers to stay in touch with teaching and learning this summer, besides of course browsing Reading Rockets!" I was honored to be included (along with Anastasia Suen) on Joanne's recommended resource list.

Speaking on honors, Mrs. V awarded me a One Lovely Blog award at Mrs. V's Reviews, for new blogs and blogging friends. She agrees with my mission statement, about how "helping establish life long readers has the power to change the world." It's always a joy to find a new kindred spirit.

And that's it! After resorting eventually to "mark all as read" in my reader, I'm declaring myself caught up. Happy weekend to all!