Growing Bookworms Newsletter: Valentine's Day Edition

Today I will be sending out the new issue of the Growing Bookworms email newsletter. (If you would like to subscribe, you can find a sign-up form here.) The Growing Bookworms newsletter contains content from my blog focused on children's and young adult books and raising readers. There are 1513 subscribers. Currently I am sending the newsletter out once every two to three weeks.

Newsletter Update: In this issue I have one book review of a young adult novel and one children's literacy roundup (with full details at Rasco from RIF). I also have an announcement about some of my being quoted in Parenting Magazine, and a post about the winners of the 2011 Cybils awards.

Interview! I'm also happy to share with you today that Linda McInnis interviewed me for her blog, The Baby Book Nook. Linda focuses on books for babies, ones, and twos, and she interviewed me about my reading experiences with Baby Bookworm. The interview includes some specific recommendations for books that Baby Bookworm is enjoying, as well as more general thoughts on questions like when to transition between picture books and board books. I do hope that you'll take a moment to visit the Baby Book Nook, and check out the interview.

I posted ten reviews of Cybils-nominated picture books in the past three weeks (I was a round 1 judge). I have NOT included the full reviews in the newsletter, because I thought that they would collectively make the newsletter too long. However, here are the links to the Cybils reviews (with a few more to come over the rest of February):

• Michelle Knudsen (ill. Andrea Wesson): Argus. Candlewick.
• Michael Kaplan (ill. Stephane Jorisch): Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake. Dial Books for Young Readers.
• Mary Lyn Ray (ill. Marla Frazee): Stars. Beach Lane Books.
• Jan Thomas: Is Everyone Ready for Fun?. Beach Lane Books.
• Susanna Leonard Hill (ill. Jeffrey Ebbeler): April Fool, Phyllis!. Holiday House.
• George Hallowell & Joan Holub (ill. Lynne Avril): Wagons Ho!. Albert Whitman & Co.
• Emily Gravett: The Rabbit Problem. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
• Leslie McGuirk: If Rocks Could Sing: A Discovered Alphabet. Tricycle Press.
• Bethanie Murguia: Buglette: The Messy Sleeper. Tricycle Press.
• Nicola Winstanley (ill. Janice Nadeau): Cinnamon Baby. Kids Can Press.

Reading Update: Since the last newsletter, I read 3 young adult and 3 adult novels. I'm planning on a middle grade reading binge soon.

• Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler: The Future of Us. Razorbill. Completed January 30, 2012, purchased on iPad. Compulsively readable - a book that really makes you think, about time travel, and about how decisions you make in high school can affect your future.
• Jordan Sonnenblick: Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip. Scholastic. Completed February 5, 2012. My review.
• John Green: The Fault in Our Stars. Dutton Juvenile. Completed February 7, 2012. Review to come.
• Taylor Stevens: The Innocent: A Vanessa Michael Munroe Novel. Crown. Completed January 23, 2012. Compelling, like the first book in the series. I look forward to seeing where Taylor takes this character.
• Carol O'Connell: The Chalk Girl (A Mallory Novel). Putnam Adult. Completed January 27, 2012. The Mallory books are one of my all-time favorite adult mystery series. The Chalk Girl did not disappoint. I bought this one in hardcover, because I collect these.
• Michael Connelly: The Drop (a Harry Bosch novel). Little, Brown and Company. Completed February 9, on MP3. Vintage Harry Bosch, enjoyable for fans of the series, but perhaps not one that would quite stand on its one. A bit more bleak than some in the series.

I also, of course, continue to read picture books and board books aloud to Baby Bookworm. We're currently about about 416 books read for 2012. This, however, includes many, many re-reads. She's in a stubborn phase, and likes to be the one to choose each book that is read. She's given the books that she requests the most nicknames. Her current favorites are The Lady with the Alligator Purse by Nadine Bernard Westcott (aka "Lulu"), Buzz, Buzz, Busy Bees by Dawn Bentley (aka "Bee!"), Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathman (aka "keys"), and The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood (aka "Boom!"). She's also showing a rising interest in It's a Little Book by Lane Smith, but it's too soon to say whether that trend will have staying power.

I'm currently listening to Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich (audio escapism). I've just started Natalie Babbit's The Moon Over High Street. I'm reading Deborah Crombie's No Mark Upon Her on my new Kindle Touch. It's funny - I was quite resistent to reading ebooks. But I am madly in love with my Kindle. I take it everywhere, and bought a little light for it so that I can read in bed. Who knew? The Kindle Touch also has the benefit over the iPad (and a major reason why I bought this model) that the black and white screen is not nearly so enticing for Baby Bookworm. I can never read in front of her on the iPad - she demands Nosy Crow's Three Little Pigs all the time. But the Kindle, I can occasionally get away with. 

How about you? What have you and your kids been reading and enjoying? Thanks for reading the newsletter, and for growing bookworms. Happy Valentine's Day!

© 2012 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved.