Monday Blurb: Bling, Booklights, and a Survey

“Let this groove set in your shoes … [background singers: just move yourself ] …” [lyrics from Earth, Wind and Fire’s “Let’s Groove Tonight” from the Raise! album]

Yep! It’s Monday, the first full week of school and I’m grooving.  I am starting to tackle the reader, got my Hootsuite dashboard up, I’m polishing up a post by one of our volunteers, and cleaning off the desk! So, here are a few groovy things (okay, I’ll quit now) I have found so far.

Let’s start with some Cybils bling.  Nominations will begin shortly, but in order for it all to work, we need panelists and judges! If you are interested in participating in the process, the Call for Judges for the 2010 cycle has gone out. You can also keep up-to-date with @CYBILS or search #cybils on Twitter.

Continuing with event announcements, Michelle wrote a Save the Date post at the Book Blogger Convention blog! BBC 2011 will once again be affiliated with BookExpo America, which is held the last full week of May. The innaugural event was terrific, so if you’re going to be in New York (or thinking about being in New York), be sure to keep Friday 27 May 2011 open!

Over at The O.W.L. (Outrageously Wonderful Literature from the Middle Grades), Jill has a survey about book reviews. She created the survey to figure out how best to tackle ten reviews, but naving now seen oh, maybe 50 review of Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, I am happy to share a few thoughts on seeing the same book reviewed over and over.

In the last couple weeks, Mitali Perkins has been talking about selling multicultural books over at The Fire Escape. In her first post, she asked for ideas about selling multicultural titles.  It is worth reading Mitali’s post and the comments, but if you only have time for a digest version, then check out Tips on selling “multicultural” kid/YA books. Although Mitali’s described audience are publishers and booksellers, her tips are valuable for the library and even at home, too!

Last but not least, I have posted the second part of my series about reading together as a family over at Booklights. As you may have seen, Gina Montefusco (our cheerleader and PBS mentor) announced that we’ll be finishing up our run at Booklights in the next few weeks. I can’t say enough about what a great opportunity this has been, and I’m looking at this as shalom, not goodbye.  So for now, I’m just going to keep on dancin’!