Inspired by Montambo's thread, in which she recommends Esme Raji Codell's children's literature blog, I thought it might be a good idea to start a permanent thread for such suggestions. This is the place to recommend a really good blog, website, journal, or other resource pertaining to children's literature.

It's only appropriate to begin with my inspiration, so here (again) is a link to Esme Raji Codell's blog, Planet Esme:

http://planetesme.blogspot.com/

Carrying on with this theme, one children's literature blog I read with great regularity is Debbie Reese's "American Indians in Children's Literature" site:

http://americanindiansinchildrensliterat...

There's a lot of material out there about Native Americans, and it's not always easy for the outsider to sort the good from the bad. Reese's site is very helpful in this respect.

Great idea Abigail!

I like reading the blog entries at School Library Journal

I've recently become interested in vintage girls' series, from the late 19th through the mid 20th centuries. Information on the later periods is not that difficult to obtain, but the 19th century series can be more obscure. I was very happy to stumble upon this site devoted to them:

http://www.readseries.com/

Thanks Abigail. That's a great resource.

Nice site, Abigail! Speaking of series, I often use the KDL What's Next database for keeping up on all sorts of series titles - although I'm not sure if they include vintage books.

I was just sent this website link from a goodreads friend and I think you would all enjoy it:

http://www.vintagechildrensbooksmykidlov...

I see a lot of vintage books there that I remember from the farm I grew up on.
We had several generations of children's books in our home so the cover images bring tender memories with them!

Yes, I like the Vintage books website too. There are so many good older books that get lost in the stacks; you can't have enough people blogging on them.

There are SO many great children's lit blogs! I like Educating Alice http://medinger.wordpress.com/
and Fuse #8 http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog... and please check my blog to see others on my blog roll - Eva's Book Addiction http://evasbookaddiction.blogspot.com/

Thanks Eva, I do like Educating Alice!

Emily just posted a link to an interesting site over in the thread about books for one-year-olds, and I thought I'd add it to our list here. Beginning With Books:

http://www.beginningwithbooks.org/

I'm in the process of adding books listed by AR (accelerated reading) level to my blog. Right now I just have Suess books and Thomas and Friends sorted out.

Suess can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/BooksforKids-Practice...

And Thomas and Friends at: http://tinyurl.com/BooksforKids-Thomas-R...

http://www.hbook.com/ is one of my favorites.

If you go to the Los Angles Public Library's site, http://www.lapl.org/ and click on "Kid's Path" then in the ebooks for ekids section, click on Tumble Book Library, where you will find children's ebooks. It reads it aloud and highights the text being read. There's games and puzzles on that site too.

I have used my laptop to "read" to my daughter at night when I've had a sore throat or laryngitis!

If you go to Renaissance Learning, http://www.renlearn.com/whatkidsarereadi... Click on "What Kids are Reading" and a pdf file will upload. It breaks the stats by grade level and male/female. You can order a pamphlet which arrives very quickly.

First Grade starts on page 21.

April Ann: Great post. It's a cool report.

Abigail, have you read any "Betsy-Tacy books"?

http://www.betsy-tacysociety.org/

Has anyone checked out www.lookybook.com? Someone just sent me the link and, although I haven't had time to totally explore it, it looks pretty neat.

I'm not familiar with http://www.lookybook.com/ but I will definitely take a "looky." ;)

I've already been able to look through a couple of books that I was interested in. It's a great way to preview a book to determine if you would like to own it. You just can't find every single book at a library or bookstore so it's a nice alternative. It's better than amazon's 'look inside' feature in my opinion. That's a nice feature, but it's limited. I'm sure a big drawback is that it's not as comprehensive as amazon.

Wow, LookyBook is pretty cool. I'm surprised though that they can show all of a book given the trouble that Google has had with publishers and authors.

And definitely better than Amazon's much briefer look-inside.

Hi!

This is a very good blog with plenty of interviews with authors and illustrators:
http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/

Sergio

Barbara, your post on book fairs is really great - I hope lots of parents read it! As a former book fair organizer/mom myself, my biggest complaint is against the fair companies that sell too much STUFF. The children want posters, pens, whatever, and it isn't a BOOK fair any more.

But back to blogs - I like those mentioned above too. Also Just One More Book:
http://www.justonemorebook.com/

OK everybody! There is now an announcements thread! I have "stickied" it, so it will always stay near the top of the general folder. I'm going to ask that anyone whose post is more in the way of an announcement (rather than something they would want to contribute to a permanent reference list), please copy and paste it to that thread, and delete the post here! I'll go through in a few days and double-check. Thanks everyone!

No problem, Abigail. I sort of wondered where that particular post belonged (I'm referring to the giveaway).

btw, I had thought of starting a new thread but that seemed to be overkill.

Regards!

Great idea Abigail!!!

Hey, everyone! I'm new to this community so pardon for all this posting. BUT I LOVE WHAT YOU GUYS ARE TALKING ABOUT! And I'd like to add, that if you need a master list of really great blogs focusing on Children's Lit you can find a very comprehensive one at http://www.authorsnow.com. Right sidebar ... I haven't had time to organize it better, but I have checked to make sure they're all popular blogs with strong followings. A quick scan of the blog titles and you might find just what you're looking for.

There are blogs focusing on just boy books, some on audio books, some on fantasy, many just on teen, some on picture books. If you need help with recommendations, let me know!

Hey Cynthea,
Thanks for sharing the information! I have a blog where I review children's books: Jill Pickle's Reveiws at blogspot.com

Thanks, Cynthea and Jill, for those contributions! I'm hoping this thread will be a central place for goodreaders to access great children's literature blogs and web-sites.

Here's a new one:
KIDLITOSPHERE CENTRAL
THE SOCIETY OF BLOGGERS IN CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
http://www.kidlitosphere.org/KidLitosphe...

"KidLitosphere Central strives to provide a passage to the wonderful variety of resources available from the society of bloggers in children's and young adult literature."

Fuse #8 Production is a great blog for staying current with children's literature. It's done by Betsey Bird, a children's librarian at NYPL. She also has a very through list of child lit blogs. It's at

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog...

READ ACROSS AMERICA RESOURCES FOR TEENS

www.whatkidscando.org
What Kids Can Do, INc. (WKCD) is a national non-profit organization founded in 2000 for the purpose of making public the voices and views of adolescents, WKCD collaborates with students around the country on books, essays, booklists, curricula, research and teen activism.

www.grouchy.com/angst/index.html
Grouchy Cafe is a fun website created for teens and offers favorite teen angst books, cool bits, and links.

www.noflyingnotights.com
No Flying, No Tights is a comprehensive site reviewing graphic novels for teens.

www.teenreads.com
Teenreads is a terrific site offering teen reading surveys, interviews with Young Adult authors, book reviews, and much more. Teens are able to log on and share their own views about the books they're reading.

http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsaw...
This site, created by the Young Adult Library Services Association and sponsored by the American Library Association, features recommended reading lists, teens' top 10 lists, and book recommendations for reluctant readers.

March is Women's History Month.

Some Internet sites related to women in science include:
4000 Years of Women in Science Biography Listing
http://www.astr.ua.edu/4000ws/summary.sh...

Internet Public Library: Scientists and Inventors
http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/re...

Her Lab in Your Life: Women in Chemistry
http://www.chemheritage.org/women_chemis...

Women of NASA
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/women/intro.ht...

Historia: Historical Women in Science
http://www.women-scientists-in-history.c...

Women in Science: 16 Significant Contributors
http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/

Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceof...

READ CHILDREN'S LITERATURE FROM AROUND THE WORLD ONLINE FOR FREE!

The International Children's Digital Library
http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

This is one of my favorite sites, especially as access to quality children's books is limited here in Egypt. The ICDL hosts full color copies of previously published works but the books must be read online; they cannot be downloaded or printed.

If you're looking for a gift for a child's birthday or for a new baby check out I See Me Personalized Children's Gifts (http://www.iseeme.com/) you can create a story about a child's name. There's one for boys and one for girls. The books are colourful and larger sized hardcovers. They also come in a carry folder. Very cute for a special keepsake I thought.

For some great reviews check out the Horn Book online. They also have a magazine but it's pretty expensive. However, you can subscribe to their online newsletter and also just see the list (if not the full reviews) on their recommended and award-winning books. It's a pretty neat site. Enjoy!

http://www.hbook.com/

I think this is a really neat idea:

Children's Choices Booklist
"A booklist with a twist! Children themselves evaluate the books and write reviews of their favorites. Since 1974, Children’s Choices have been a trusted source of book recommendations used by teachers, librarians, parents—and children themselves. The project is cosponsored by IRA and the Children’s Book Council."

http://www.reading.org/Resources/Booklis...

Kathryn,
Thanks for posting the link for Children's Choices Booklist. I didn't realize that the 2009 list had been posted yet. Thanks for sharing!
Vicki



Kathryn wrote: "I think this is a really neat idea:

Children's Choices Booklist
"A booklist with a twist! Children themselves evaluate the books and write reviews of their favorites. Since 1974, Children’s Choice..."

In message 31 Liz mentioned the Fuse8 blog and I want to give another shout out for that one! It really is great!

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog...

Also, another children's book blog that I have a lot of fun with is:

http://www.vintagechildrensbooksmykidlov...

I've also just recently gotten into reading author/illustrator blogs. One that really grabbed my attention was Lois Lowry's blog. Some days the updates are rather mundane tidbits about her life, but other days she has some zingers like this one about a little African American boy named Anthony who visited her family for several summers. It's short and worth the read, check it out:

http://loislowry.typepad.com/lowry_updat...

And Lane Smith recently started this wonderful blog on picture books from, I think, his own shelves:
http://curiouspages.blogspot.com/

I love it! "A site for all your reading disorders" - my kind of site. Sergio, I've added both to the list of links on my (author/illustrator) blog, which are all picture book related:
http://deborahfreedman.wordpress.com/lin...

That was quick! Thanks!

Our favorite author websites are:
www.davpilkey.com for fun
www.janbrett.com for crafts and learning

What are yours?

Katie mentioned a fabulous online resource, for those looking for reading ideas for boys:

http://guyslitwire.blogspot.com/

Thanks, Katie!

I want to share a website that Kathryn shared on another thread:

www.daddyread.com

A great resource for reading aloud to your kids!

April is National Poetry Month, so I'd like to toss out a few children's-poetry-centric links....

For the second year in a row, I'm hosting 30 Poets/30 Days which features a previously unpublished poem by a children's poet every day of April. Jacqueline Woodson, Alan Katz, Liz Garton Scanlon, and Eileen Spinelli are just four of the thirty this year. The information's all here:

http://gottabook.blogspot.com/2010/03/an...

Over at the Miss Rumphius Effect, there's a series called Poetry Makers that features interviews and info with and about 30+ poets this year, starting today with Mary Ann Hoberman. The info, including schedule, is here:

http://missrumphiuseffect.blogspot.com/

Finally, a list of lots of poetry related events in the children's literature blogosphere is up at

http://www.kidlitosphere.org/poetrymonth

The kidlitosphere.org site is a great resource all year long, actually.

Greg
http://gottabook.blogspot.com

Hello all,

I write a blog for fun where in each post I review a book for kids and write up the play it has inspired in me and my own kids:

http://www.playingbythebook.net/

Writing it is a hobby, I make no money from it, but I do enjoy it a great deal! You'd all be most welcome if you popped by to visit.

Zoe

For children's books by and about African Americans, http://thebrownbookshelf.com/ is very good, particularly in February, when they feature a new author or illustrator each day of the month. I am also a fan of Elizabeth Bird's Fuse 8 blog, as mentioned by others.

Thanks for all these great blogs and websites, everyone! Keep 'em coming!

Zoe--your blog is full of delightful books and adorable pictures! :-) Thanks!

And, Wilhelmina, that's wonderful resource. Wow! Thank you so much. I would really love to do a segment over in our Picture Book Club featuring books by and about African Americans sometime--maybe next February for Black History Month (although I our UK audience celebrates Black History Month in October)--like we are doing next month for the Latino authors/illustrators. Meanwhile, this is a great list!

Sounds great to me, Kathryn!