Around the interwebs

Oh my gosh, y'all. I feel so behind. I've been a little under the weather lately and I feel like I haven't actually written a blog post in forever. What I have been doing is rereading The Hunger Games (and I loved it even more the second time around, if that's possible). Who is going to be a dear and swipe me an ARC of Catching Fire from BEA? ;)

So let's catch up on the blogging world, shall we?

This wonderful thing's been going on - the Share a Story, Shape a Future Blog Tour. I'm a little bit late as it started, um, two days ago, but that link will take you to the complete schedule. Bloggers around the Kidlitosphere are posting about early literacy, selecting books, reading aloud, libraries, and reading & technology. Definitely worth checking out.

Mary Lee's just posted the 2009 Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts. From her post:

Books considered for this annual list are works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry written for children, grades K-8. The books must meet one or more of the following criteria:

• deal explicitly with language, such as plays on words, word origins, or the history of language;
• demonstrate uniqueness in the use of language or style;
• invite child response or participation.

In addition, books are to:

• have an appealing format;
• be of enduring quality;
• meet generally accepted criteria of quality for the genre in which they are written.

Looks like a great list! I'm quite happy to see Ringside 1925 on the list as that's one of my favorite 2008 books that didn't seem to get much recognition.

Sarah's posted A Day in the Life of a Teen Librarian, which was lovely to read. One fascinating thing about librarians is that we each spend our days very differently. (Or maybe that's not fascinating... It's fascinating to me, anyhow.)

Waaaaay back in February, 100 Scope Notes posted an interview with author/illustrator Laurie Keller. I love Ms. Keller's books (especially The Scrambled States of America) and it's a great interview.

Sarah Miller pointed me to Editorial Anonymous's series - Definitions for the Perplexed. How exactly does an advance work? What's an F&G? If your book is strippable, is that good or bad? What do the numbers in an ISBN mean? If you've ever wondered about any of that, head on over there.

And also waaay back in February, Jennie posted about why she thought We Are the Ship shouldn't have won the Sibert Award. (Finally! Someone else who was bothered by the omission of the women who played in the Negro Leagues! Although she has many more reasons than just that!) Now, I liked We Are the Ship and I don't know that I completely agree with Jennie, but she's definitely got some interesting points.

Last, but not least, Shannon Hale posted (over three weeks ago.. sigh. I am not on the ball) about Confusion vs. Mystery in writing. I think it sums up pretty perfectly why I did not like Jellicoe Road. I didn't trust the author to explain everything, so I felt confused and frustrated instead of intrigued and invigorated. Maybe it's all my own fault because the Printz committee and most of my Cybils panel vehemently disagreed with me... Ah, well.