Skip to main content

A Little Info on the Kidlitosphere

I often find that my students do not know what a blog is. Even if you do read a few blogs, you may not be familiar with the kidlitosphere--the world of blogs about children's literature. I'm relatively new to the whole experience myself, but over the past couple of years, I've learned a few things that might also be of interest to you.

First, you should take a look at an article written by Betsy Bird, a NYC children's librarian and blogger magnifico, titled: Blogging the Kidlitosphere. You will also want to subscribe to her blog, A Fuse #8 Production.

Another fabulous thing about the kidlitosphere is that they have their own annual awards, The Cybils. Anyone can submit nominations for books in the categories of fantasy/science fiction, graphic novels, middle grade and YA fiction and non-fiction, fiction and non-fiction picturebooks, and poetry. Children's and YA bloggers volunteer to serve on the selection committees. This year, the awards were announced on Valentine's Day. Take a look at all of the finalists as well as the winners and I'm sure you find great books to add to your reading list.

The kidlitosphere also has it's own online magzine, The Edge Forest, edited by Kelly Herold, a wonderful children's literature blogger (subscribe to her blog, Big A little A). The Edge Forest is published monthly and is full of book reviews and interviews with bloggers and authors of children's literature. You must check it out!

The Children Book Reviews wiki is place where you can find dozens of children's book reviews in a variety of categories by children's literature bloggers all in one place.

Another interesting happening in the blogging world is blog carnivals. The children's literature carnival is "a collection of posts about children's books: book reviews, interviews, stories from parents and teachers about their kids' adventures with books, peeks into the studio of children's book authors and illustrators, and more." You can find a list of previous carnival posts and where the next one will be held at A Carnival of Children's Literature.

As you look at these blogging resources, you'll find a group of very dedicated authors, teachers, librarians, parents, and others working together to bring current news and information along with their own thoughts and insights to all of us who are interested in children's literture.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fun and Inspiration

In this post, I'm sharing a few YouTube videos that have been quite inspiring and some that are just fun. Below is a TED presentation by spoken word poet and teacher, Sarah Kay . You MUST watch it and be inspired! I also watched a documentary titled, Louder Than A Bomb , about the spoken word poetry contest held in Chicago Public Schools. It was also extremely inspiring. Below is the trailer : Finally, does everyone but me know about the book, Goodnight iPad , a parody of the original by Margaret Wise Brown? Hilarious! See the YouTube video below...does it not perfectly capture what goes on in the homes of many of our children today? Reminds me of a colleague who told me she texts her children to tell them to come to dinner. The video below it is in stark contrast, titled: The Joy of Books . Enjoy!

NCTE was AMAZING!

I loved NCTE --not the "getting ready to go" part, which I hate, but the actual "being there" part. I learned so much from many great educators and authors. One of the many highlights of the conference for me was the Authors' Blog session, which I chaired. Laurie Halse Anderson, Maureen Johnson, Justine Larbalestier, Barbara O'Connor, and Lisa Yee were all on the panel and let me tell you -- these women are amazing! I didn't have my camera but several of the authors have already blogged about the session--check out Laure Anderson , Barbara O'Connor , Lisa Yee and Justine Larbalestier's blog posts. During the question/answer phase of the presentation, the authors discussed and raise very important issues that I think all teachers should consider. One of the questions I asked was about receiving posts that contained personal information. Children and young adults become very connected to these authors through their books and the authors' blog...