What's a #kidlit "Easter egg?"

It's been a while since I've written for the ALSC Blog, but you can find me there today with a piece on *Easter eggs in #kidlit.

Hop on over 😉 and read it, please. [http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2018/07/18648/]

*Urban Dictionary: easter egg

And of course, Happy Independence Day!

Photo by Bryce Barker on Unsplash

I'm blogging for ALSC today!

I'm blogging for the Association for Library Service to Children today with winners, news, and an invitation - all from ALA/ALSC's Great Websites for Kids Committee.

Please hop over to the ALSC Blog to see what's new!

Nursery Rhymes - the horror genre of the preschool set

Today you can find me blogging at the ALSC Blog with a post titled, 

"She did what?! Nursery Rhyme Horrors"

I've opened up a discussion about using some of the more gruesome nursery rhymes in storytime.  If you'd like to weigh in on the topic, or have your own particularly horrific favorite, please click over to the ALSC Blog.

In the meantime, here's my own childhood favorite,

Ladybug, ladybug, 

fly away home.

Your house is on fire.

Your children will burn.

 Note:
I married a firefighter. ;)

Images in the Public Domain and available from Project Gutenberg.

See what makes me facepalm -- #librarylife

I'm blogging for the Association for Library Service to Children today, 

and I've got summer reading on my mind.

See what makes me facepalm in another of my ongoing series

 "You know you're a children's librarian when ..."

Click on over and check it out.

 [http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2016/08/you-know-youre-a-childrens-librarian-when-10/]

Miscellany on stuffed animals and audiobooks

I'm over at the ALSC Blog today - complaining about stuffed animals.  

Max Braun CC BY-SA 2.0 *

Feel free to join me if you're so inclined. 

In other news, I hope you've been downloading your free books from SYNC.  Two free books are available each week beginning on Thursday.  The books for that week are available for one week only.  Books are yours - forever - no strings attached.

"SYNC is a free summer audiobook program for teens. Starting May 5th 2016, SYNC will give away two complete audiobook downloads a week - pairs of high interest titles, based on weekly themes. Sign up for email or text alerts and be first to know when new titles are available to download at www.audiobooksync.com."

Today is the last day to get Zac & Mia by A.J. Betts, and I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson.  Tomorrow, it's How it Went Down by Kekla Magoon (with a full cast narration!) and The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson.

Below are the titles for the next few weeks (there are more to come after these!):

* Photo credit:  Max Braun – 60 Jahre Allgemeine Erklärung der Menschenrechte, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37203687

Great Websites for Kids

I'm back from vacation and blogging for ALSC today.
 
Click on over to the ALSC Blog and check out the list of eight new sites added to ALA's Great Websites for Kids, the online resource featuring hundreds of links to exceptional websites for children. [http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2016/02/eight-new-sites-added-to-great-websites-for-kids/]

Have a great weekend!

Some library humor at the ALSC Blog

You can find me over at the ALSC Blog today with a little bit of library humor.  Please stop by and read about one of my favorite library patrons.  [http://wp.me/p5Z0QG-32Q]

And if you know of a good, new, middle-grade book trailer, please tell me about it in the comments.  My book club is meeting this afternoon.  Thanks!

Book reviews for kids, by kids

As I do from time to time, I'm blogging at the ALSC Blog today.  Stop by if you want to read some humorous kids' book reviews, written by kids.

Off to San Francisco!

I'm off to the annual American Library Association Conference today!  For conference news, updates, and insight, be sure to follow the ALSC Blog.  I (and many other ALSC members) will be live blogging from the conference on the ALSC Blog.  If you prefer, follow the hashtag #alaac15 on Twitter.

Cheers!

Great Websites for Kids

If you're looking for useful, fun, or educational websites to share with your children, students, or library patrons, I urge you to check out Great Websites for Kids,

 sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).

Image from http://opencliart.org

Sites chosen for inclusion on Great Websites for Kids are curated and maintained by the Great Websites for Kids Committee.  Sites are searchable by eight main classifications (Animals, The Arts, History & Biography, Literature & Languages, Mathematics & Computers, Reference Desk, Sciences, and Social Sciences) or by keyword.

If you have a suggestion for a great site, you can submit it from the "Suggest a Site" link on the Great Websites for Kids page.

ALSC Blog

I'm over at the ALSC Blog today with a post on my recent stint as a "virtual teacher."  Please hop over and read it. 

"An Unusual School Visit"

[http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2015/05/an-unusual-school-visit/ ‎]

Thoughts for a Thursday

I'm blogging at the ALSC blog today with a post on "Putting it all together" - books, technology, creative space, diversity, and kids.  Please hop over and check it out. 

[http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/?p=10553]

In other news, if you haven't checked out the new lineup yet, SYNC will  be returning on May 7th.  As they do every summer, they will offer free downloads of classic books paired with current books with a similar theme.  Each week features a different pairing. Week #1 begins with Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, paired with Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

Click here to see all of the SYNC titles available this summer. 

[http://www.audiobooksync.com/2015-sync-titles/]

And finally, here's a link to an audio book review that I wrote for AudioFile Magazine.  I don't think I ever posted it here. The Julian Chapter: A Wonder Story by R.J. Palacio, read by Mike Chamberlain.  Brilliance Audio, 2014. 

[http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read/93231/]

Women's History Month and other things

March is always a difficult time for me to be blogging here because I spend many hours working on KidLit Celebrates Women's History Month! I do hope you'll check it out.  We spend a lot of time curating and maintaining the site, and our contributors are phenomenal authors, artists, librarians and bloggers that share a passion for women's history and children's literature.  So, if my posts are sparse in March, you know the reason.

That being said, I have been busy in other areas.  Today, you can find me just goofing around - blogging on the ALSC Blog.  I write a monthly piece there and try to keep it fun! 

Oh, and big newsfor Wendy Mass fans - there's going to be another book in the Willow Falls series - more on that after I've read it!

Just goofing around today

You can find me goofing around on the ALSC Blog today - having a little fun. 

 As politics makes for strange bedfellows, Dewey Decimal Classification can make for strange shelf-fellows. 

Hop over and take a look.

Oh, and did I mention that I'm a Cybils judge this year for Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction? :D

Visit me at the ALSC blog

It's Wednesday. I'm blogging for the ALSC Blog today. Stop by and see what you think.

Today is the birthday of author, Lisa Yee.

If you're a librarian or book blogger, the Cybils are looking for judges.  Check it out here. I've done it in the past.  It's hard work, but a great opportunity and some fun as well!

Have a great day!

In which I receive a lesson in book reviewing ...

If you'd like a good laugh for the day, hop over to the ALSC Blog, where I'm featuring a "best of" list for book reviews written by children.

"A Lesson in Writing Book Reviews"

You can see all of my book reviews (even the ones that haven't made it to the blog) on my LibraryThing account. 

ALSC and BEA

I'm headed to Book Expo America today!  

While I'm away getting great new books to review, you can find me blogging for ALSC today.

Check out "Is Science Funny?" 

And don't forget to read today's STEM Friday posts.

Have a great weekend!

It's Friday

Happy Friday!

It's been a very long and busy week for me (and I've been sick with bronchitis), but things keep moving on, and so will I.  Here's your news for Friday.

I'm blogging at ALSC today.  I hope you'll check out,  "You know you're a children's librarian when ...

Our annual celebration of Women's History Month and literature for young people continues.  Today features artist Jill McElmurry and her new book, The Tree Lady, which I reviewed earlier.  Please check out all the wonderful author, artist and librarian posts at KidLit Celebrates Women's History Month!

And finally, it's STEM Friday, the weekly roundup of posts dedicated to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math in children's literature.  

Have a great weekend.

Laziness (mine) and librarian humor

I've been slow to get back to blogging since my vacation.  I'll get some new posts up soon.  Books I've read recently include The Final Present (the upcoming finale to Wendy Mass' Willow Falls series), The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire Legrand, Simon's Cat vs. the World by Simon Tofield, Shark Girl and Formerly Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham, and the Boxers and Saints set by Gene Luen Yang. (I met him at BookExpo this year - he seemed like a really nice guy!)  I'm in the midst of The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (love it!) and a long awaited copy of Hit by Pitch by Molly Lawless.  I'll have something to say about all of them - either here or on LibraryThing.

If you're waiting to hear about any of these in particular, let me know and I'll move it up on my list.

Today, however, I'm over at the ALSC Blog, the official blog of the Association for Library Service to Children.  My post is directed to librarians and concerns librarian humor.  If you're a librarian or would like a peek at what many librarians find humorous, hop over to the ALSC blog and read "Librarian Laughs."

I'm blogging @ALSC today

I am blogging at the ALSC blog today.  Please stop by and find out why I think "Nobody does it better" than librarians.

Here's the link: http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2012/12/nobody-does-it-better/

Have a wonderful weekend!