Blogger Award - Thank You!

Charlotte Taylor of Charlotte's Library, my favorite sci-fi/fantasy site for children's books, recently gave me a blogging award, the Pertinent Posts Award. Thank you very much, Charlotte!

So whose blogs do I find pertinent? Well, Betsy Bird of Fuse #8 hardly needs me to commend her blog, and Charlotte GAVE me the award, so I can't very well name hers. I have also honored some of my other favorites in the past with previous awards.

I will therefore refer you to a few different children's book or fantasy blogs that I currently consider pertinent:

The Miss Rumphius Effect and poet Laura Salas's blog both offer poetry workshops/challenges that I look forward to happily each week.

Then there's Diamonds and Toads, a blog that focuses on fairy tales in a grown-up, university-ish way, where I've found some interesting tidbits and conversations.

I find I'm becoming increasingly hooked on another blog I'm sure is well known, but I'll say it just the same: Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast has the most gorgeous interviews, mostly with children's book illustrators, though occasionally with authors.

And a new favorite, Kinderscares, promises to fill a niche nicely, blogging about horror for children, MG and picture books with the occasional YA thrown in for good measure.

You may have noticed that my blog roll is very long. I blame Jen Robinson... No, really, I just think there are a lot of great blogs out there in Kidlitosphere! And every so often I check them all, or update by adding something new and fun. So if you're ever bored on a Saturday afternoon or can't sleep some night, try a few of those blogs.

My Books, the Return

In rambling around Kidlitosphere during the past week or so, I discovered that not one, but two bloggers have either reviewed my books or given them a shout-out. My thanks to poet Laura Salas, who enthusiastically recommends The Runaway Dragon in her "One Book I Love" feature, and to librarian Jennifer of the Jean Little Library, who nominated The Runaway Dragon for the Cybils and went on to review it, also providing a refresher on the previous book, The Runaway Princess.

Blog Award from Charlotte's Library

Thanks to Charlotte of Charlotte's Library for giving my site the beauteous “One Lovely Blog Award”! I will note that Charlotte seems to be a fellow fantasy fan and posts reviews of so many books I’ve either read or am wanting to read that I feel like reading her blog instead of working on my own posts. However, I beg to differ with Charlotte’s About Me, formatted as “X by day, Y by night.” You see, traditonally the X would be something mundane (e.g., Clark Kent’s day job), while the Y would be something a bit odd (e.g., Clark Kent’s night job). Yet Charlotte’s About Me reads, “Archaeologist by day, president of the Friends of a small New England library by night.” Setting aside the fact that “Friends of a small New England library” sounds like an Illluminati-type secret society, how cool is that? “Archaeologist by day!” Now I'm wondering what slice of history Charlotte studies, of course.

In thinking about passing the award along, I quickly realized that Laura Salas has been adding to my personal joy with her 15 Words or Less Poems--I really like reading everyone else’s poems, as well as adding one myself every so often. (And where does she get those intriguing photos?) Her other posts are also a delight. It’s official: Laura Salas has created “One Lovely Blog.”