Yesterday I was standing in a bookstore and overheard a woman trying to pick out a book for her nine-year-old niece. Naturally, I entered into the fray. My only difficulty was that when I asked the child questions about her reading habits and interests, the aunt kept trying to answer for her (incorrectly). I finally got a few words from the girl herself and managed to seal the deal with Half Magic by Edward Eager, though we decided that E.D. Baker's books would be a good option to look for at the library. And so it goes: Book Aunt may not be posting, but she's still lurking in the shadows of the local bookstore, leaping out to hand books to unsuspecting and presumably grateful children plus the adults they haul along with them for purposes of paying for things.
I will keep the site up for a while so that people can access the archives, most notably my large posts overviewing a genre or different versions of the same well-known story or book. Here are some of the more useful posts in various categories:
About Fairy Tales and Folktales
Standout Fairy Tale Books, Collections, and Retellings
Fairy Tales and Books about Witches (A Halloween Post)
Classic Fairy Tale Retellings
An Overview of Trickster Tales
Versions of a Well-Known Story or Book
Versions of A Child's Garden of Verses
Versions of Mother Goose
Versions of Cinderella (Plus Notes on the Possible Demise of Picture Book Fairy Tales)
Versions of Beauty and the Beast
Versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Versions of the Snow Queen
Picture Book Themes
Picture Books for Grieving
Picture Books to Sing
Picture Books about Water
Picture Book Lessons about Being Yourself
Thoughtful Picture Books You've Never Heard Of
Oddball Picture Books:
--Not Your Grandma's Picture Books
--Picture Books with Bite
--Feeling Kinda Crazy: Three Unusual Picture Books
Other Book Batches
Many Mouse Books
Poetry Anthologies for Small Children
A Selection of Christmas Books
Books by Authors about Writing for Children
Best Book Lists
Best Picture Books Ever (2009)
Best Middle Grade Books Ever (2009)
Final Favorites Lists (2013)
How to Pick Books for Kids
Secret Weapons: Choosing the Right Books
Ten Books at a Time
The Pistachio Awards
First Annual Pistachio Awards (March 2011)
Second Annual Pistachio Awards (April 2012)
In Case You Didn't Know...
Why I Love Picture Books (Anarchy of the Imagination)
Again, thank you to all of my visitors. I've made so many nice blog friends. I hope to be able to keep in touch through comments, tweets, and e-mails. And of course, let's continue to rejoice in children's literature and the love of reading!
For those of you who follow my books, I have a picture book called The Tooth Fairy Wars, illustrated by Jake Parker, coming out in Spring 2014 and a poetry collection called Monster School that will probably be out in Spring 2015. No middle grade fiction at the moment, but I'm working on something, so we'll see what happens next. (Isn't that always the case with life and everything?)
Note: The first image above is a detail called "Young Woman Writing" from a wall painting in Pompeii. The second image is a detail from "Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid" by Vermeer. The third painting is "Three Reading Girls" by Walter Elmer Schofield. A print of it used to hang in my grandmother's home. She was a very good first grade teacher and reading tutor as well as a voracious reader who passed the love of books on to her children and their children. The picture now hangs in my office.