Saturday, October 10, 2009

Around the interwebs

There are still a few spaces for KidLitCon, so if you've been wavering, stop it and register right now! Come hang out with me in DC next weekend!

Signups for National Novel Writing Month have opened! NaNoWriMo is an annual writing event in which participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. It doesn't matter if the novel is terrible; all that matters is word count. If you've thought about participating, I urge you to sign up! It is great fun! And since I have decided not to do it this year, you need to sign up so I can write vicariously! Since I have decided to sign up, you need to be my writing buddy! C'mon. We can sleep in December, right?

The Brown Bookshelf is accepting nominations for the third annual 28 Days Later. From their site:

28 Days Later is the flagship initiative of The Brown Bookshelf. It is a month-long showcase of the best in Picture Books, Middle Grade and Young Adult novels written and illustrated by African Americans to help parents, teachers, librarians and booksellers recommend good reads.


Link via The ALSC Blog.

Speaking of nominations, remember to nominate your favorite books of the year for the 2009 Cybils awards! Last day for nominations is October 15.

Everyone and their DOG has reported about the Exquisite Corpse Adventure over at Read.gov, so I figured I might as well report on it, too. We always did Exquisite Corpse with poetry, but this sounds fantastic! Do check it out. Link via, well, thousands of people, but the one I starred was Confessions of a Bibliovore.

Here is a confession: I don't know much about children's music. Which is why Becky at Libri Delectio is so awesome - she's started Fanfare Friday, a weekly feature of a children's album. It's pretty new, but I do hope she keeps it up so I'll know which children's CDs I want to seek out.

Speaking of CDs, Kelly at Stacked is blogging about audio books! When I started my new job, I also started something of a commute (well, the longest commute I've ever had, unless you count when I worked in grad school and had to take the bus). So audio books really get me through it. She's got some interesting tips about evaluating audio books and some great recommendations.

And do get over to The Reading Zone and read Sarah's passionate post about inspiring tween readers. I had decent teachers in middle school, but if I had to go back to sixth grade, I'd totally want to be in Ms. M's class. ;) Her kids are lucky to have her!

Did you know that President Barack Obama has declared October National Literacy Awareness Month? Now, if only he could do something about my library's budget so that we're able to keep promoting and enabling literacy... Link via Sylvan Dell Publishing.

Catherine Gilbert Murdock let us know this week that Front and Center, the third DJ Schwenk book has been spotted in stores! The official release date is October 19, but keep an eye out for it. If you are a fan of Dairy Queen and The Off Season, you will not want to miss this!