This Blog's for You: Ten of the Best from Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird has an excellent article about children's literature blogs in this month's School Library Journal (it's actually the cover story). She discusses how and why she started her own blog ("a magazine article changed my life"), and the difference between what blogs offer and what professional journals offer. She says:

"Blogs replace nothing and will never replace professional review journals. They supplement them instead. And if the publishing world happens to be listening that's wonderful, but it's not what's driving these sites. Bloggers blog because they love literature written for youth, and they want to share that love with others who feel the same way."

I agree completely.

The article is accompanied by a list of "ten of the best blogs for folks who take kids' lit seriously (but not too seriously)". I don't envy Betsy at all in having to come up with a list of only ten, and I think that she did a great job.

I also love the photo in the article, as well as the cover photo. Click through to see.

Articles like this are important, because they reach out to a broader audience (in this case the readership of the print School Library Journal) and give them entry points into the Kidlitosphere. Kudos to Betsy and SLJ for doing such a great job with this one.