Friday Blurbs

It has been a crazy – amazing, but crazy – week. It’s already Friday, and with Bill gone this week I feel like I’ve been doing touch-and-go drills. A few minutes here, a few minutes there, but no real time in the office. Here are a few things that caught my eye.

In recognition of Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW) Natasha Maw has a wonderful post how book blog reviews have influenced her reading.  The mosaic she created with the covers really helps you visualize how broadly she reads … far more than just a list.  Today she is posting at the BBAW blog about blogging friendships and Utah bloggers. Regrefully, the best I’ve been able to do is read other people’s posts talking about the events and star a lot of them for later reading. You probably have a ton of new blogs in your reader, but there’s one more spot you need to check … Online College just published its 100 Best Blogs for Book Reviews.  You’ll probably see lots of familiar faces, so maybe the reader won’t bulge t-o-o-o much more.

In other news, I am honored to be guest blogging at Booklights. For the next several months, Susan Thomsen (of Chicken Spaghetti fame) and I will be joining the Booklights: Gina, Ann, Jen (Jen Robinson’s Book Page), Pam (MotherReader), and Susan K. (Wizards Wireless). Susan is hoping to get Elmo’s autograph. I’ll settle for her Chicken Spaghetti recipe. Do you think it has enough meat in it to win over Lionel and Leona? Please stop by and say hi to Susan and yours truly.

Speaking of Pam … Time is running out to register for the Third Annual Kidlitosphere Conference (aka KidLitCon ’09). Little did she know that she when she volunteered that she would be organizing the Conference in some of the toughest economic times we’ve seen. She has extended the deadline into next week, so there’s still time to register, and get the truly excellent hotel rate. The conference will be held October 17th in Arlington, VA. This will be my first KidLitCon … I would love to see you there. If you live in or around Charlottesville, drop me a line … we can talk carpool!

You may have noticed a new series of posts titled “Links for …” These are the daily posts that pull in the updates Jen and I have added to the Reading News and Raising Readers bookmark feeds on Del.ic.ous.  They seem to be having some trouble this week, so there haven’t been many. I am in the process of finding a permanent home for the Literacy and Reading News Roundups blog on a platform that supports the automatic feeds.  The easier way to keep up is to use the widgets. I’ve got several on my sidebar now to keep you up to date with literacy-related events, raising readers, and literacy news.  I have also consolidated the content from the previous Scrub-a-Dub-Tub platforms into this blog. It’s helpful, but now I’ve got a tangled pile of tags and categories that I need to clean up … Ah, to find just ONE day that has 36 hours in it!

Jen will likely have more news in one of her Friday Afternoon Visits. If not, we’ll have plenty to share in Monday’s Children’s Literacy and Reading News roundup. Jen is hosting this coming week over at Jen Robinson’s Book Page.

Happy Friday, all!