Saturday, May 31, 2014

2014 Book Bloggers Conference

I was off at BEA in NYC this week, but I feel like I have been gone from here since forever (and now you all know I don't schedule posts ahead of time, which is really surprising for someone a little on the OCD side).  Today is the official last day, and I was really hoping to be there, but it turns our that yesterday was my last day.

What did I do at BEA for three days, besides stand on long, long lines?


On Wednesday, I went to the Book Blogger Conference, which was more a lot more useful this year.  I met up with my friend Elizabeth from Silver's Reviews and she introduced me to Laura, a blogger from Library of Clean Reads and a senior coordinator at iRead Book Tours.  It's always nice to see old friends and meet new ones.

The day began with opening speaker was Maureen Johnson, YA author of 10 novel and contributor to two short story collections.  She was very funny, has an adorable new puppy named Zelda after Zelda Fitzgerald, and told us that book bloggers have and use their ability to shake up conventional reviews that tell us not to read a particular book and counter denouncements such as today's YA literature is too dark (Maureen started the YA Saves Campaign back in 2011 - read her article about UA in the Guardian HERE).  In short, bloggers can and should shake up the status quo.

After Maureen's keynote speech, we broke up into different sessions.  The first one I went to was Design 201 - Taking your Blog to the Next Level with Hafsah Faizal of Icey Designs and David Piakowski of BookLikes.  The basics of a great design were covered and include:

1- Color - use color to match your blog's theme: use dark colors, if your blog is dark; light if your blog is light.  But always use hues that you really love and don't limit yourself to one color.  Hafsah recommends using kuler.adobe.com

2- Branding - this defines your blog.  Make sure to have a nice square logo that encompasses your blog and you, and be sure to include your blog's name in it and don't keep changing your logo.

3- Layout - make sure you have a responsive design which is a layout that accommodates all screen sizes: desktop, tablet, phone or any other device.

4- Themes - if your blog is on Wordpress, you can find themes at themeforest.net, starting at about $3.00, or at creative market.com.  I don't recall anything being recommended for Blogger.

5- Design - it's all about you and how your readers feel while visiting your blog.

Some more pointers from Hafsah:
1- Do make your content area 1000px
2- Do place icons for all your social networks in a visible location
3- Do make sure you have easy to follow navigation
4- Do add a search function to your site
5- Do make sure your site loads easily
6- Do ensure your graphics across social networks match your blog
7- Do use web fonts to spruce up your content
8- Don't clutter your sidebar with too many gifs and worse, animated gifs
9- Don't have annoying pop up messages

We were give 5 tips and tricks:
     1- Use gifs, you can find some at giphy.com
     2- Be social - interact with your readers
     3- Have a proper photo of yourself
     4- Show what you read - put a bookshelf on your site
     5- Introduce yourself on your sidebar (longer intro goes on your about page)

The next session was on Software 101, Best Blogging Tools with Thea James of Book Smugglers, Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, Stephanie Sinclair from Cuddlebuggery Book Blog, and Becca Brennan from Mad Mimi.  The panelists talked about histing, RSS feeds, scheduling posts, plugins and things that again mostly pertained to Wordpress, including Akismet for spam control, Jetpack and  Co-Scheduler and sucuri.net for male ware control, which gives you a free scan but the rests cost $$$.

Next was Blogging and the Law with Amanda Brice, Allison Leotta and Katie Sunstrom

The gist of the session was to know what is copyrightable and make sure you have a copyright on your blog.  You can register your blog with the United States Copyright Office and of course, there is Creative Commons.  Be sure to display your copyright on your blog.  The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a lot of information, including a Legal Guide for Bloggers which might be very helpful if you aren't sure of something.  If you think someone is stealing your stuff from your blog, you can find some help at PlagarismToday

Finally, the last session was called The Publishing Process: How Bloggers Have Changed the Game with Merrilee Heifetz, Senior VP, Writers House Literary Agency, Emily Meehan, Editorial Director, Hyperion Teen, Alexandra Bracken, author of The Darkest Mind series, Christine Riccio of Poland Bananas and Andrew Sansome, online Marketing Manager, Disney Publishing.

Apparently they didn't get the memo about the session topic.  It was all about YouTube blogging, which nobody in the audience was interested in.  Alexandra Braken was part of a vlogging video to promote her book, and that was OK, she was interesting to hear and we got free copies of The Darkest Mind, but the message we got from the rest of the panel was that vlogging was better that blogging.   People walked out!

The day ended with lots of giveaways, music from Tiger Beat and a free beer or soda.

It was a busy day, and for the most part productive.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Memorial Day 2014: In Flanders Fields recited by Linus, written by Major Dr. John McCrae





In Memoriam to all those who served and are not longer with us, and a special thank you 
to those still serving their country.


Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Hudson Talbott

Most of us know at least something about our family's history.  Even if we have never indulged in any kind of genealogical search, we know stories that have been handed down from generation to generation.  Jacqueline Woodson's picture Show Way is based on some of the family history handed down to her, mixed in with imagined history to create this beautiful tribute to the African American girls and women who sewed patches into quilts, recording not just their family history in the fabric they used but also showing the way to freedom with their patterns and stitches.

Woodson's story follows seven generations of African American girls, some born in slavery, some born into freedom, some whose name has been lost to history, some who, although born free, still found themselves fighting to really be free, all witnesses to history, all freedom fighters.  They are seven generations of storytellers who told their stories the best way they could, each creating their own kind of Show Way.

Show Way is the name Woodson gives to the quilts that the girls made that show the moon, stars and roads that were coded maps for freedom seeking slaves to follow along the Underground Railroad.  She wrote Show Way for her own daughter Toshi as a way of holding on to their personal history after the great grandmother Toshi would never know passed away.

The book is written in a kind of free verse style, with a similar refrain for each new baby:
Loved that baby up so.
Yes, she loved that baby up.
The love each mother has for her child is one of the very tender threads linking the generations.

The mixed media illustrations go far to add to this story.  At times bold, at other time soft pastels, they all conveying the sense of family and history, incorporating real photos in the illustrations.  Talbott uses watercolor, chalk, muslin, and other fabric to create a feeling of changing times.

There is some contention about whether the quilts made by slave women really held coded messages about the road to freedom.  Whether you believe they did or not, Show Way is a work of love, celebrating the woman that came before Woodson.

This book is recommended for readers age 6+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL

Sunday, May 18, 2014

The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing by Sheila Turnage

In this sequel to Sheila Turnage's Newbury Honor novel Three Times Lucky, Mo and her best friend Dale find themselves embroiled in another mystery after Miss Lana, one of Mo's guardians, accidentally places a high bid on an old dilapidated inn, complete with a certified ghost.

Another mystery for Mo and Dale of the Desperado Detective Agency to solve?  Maybe, after all, they have one successfully solved mystery under their belt.  And when Sixth Grade begins the next day, their teacher, Miss Retzyl, hands them the perfect way to solve the mystery of just who the ghost might be: a three page paper based on interviews with Tupelo Landings eldest citizens to mark the town's 250th anniversary.  What could be better than interviewing a ghost, after all, "ain't older than dead."

But interviewing the ghost for an A in history isn't Mo's only motivation.  If renovating the Inn fails, not only will Miss Lana and her financial partner Grandmother Miss Lacy Thornton face financial ruin, but so will many others in the town, including Dale's mother.  To make matters worst, there is something or someone underfoot sabotaging the renovations, and it doesn't appear to be the ghost.  And there are any number of possible suspects.

Like Mr. Red Baker, whose grandson Harm Crenshaw, 11, has come to live with him, has his own reasons for not wanting the Inn renovated.  Rumor has it that he is still making moonshine in a hidden still that has been in his family since the Inn was first opened so many years ago.  How else would he get the money he always has without a job?

Or maybe it's Harm's brother Flick Crenshaw, and his girlfriend, bank employee Miss Filch a/k/a Rat Face who also have an interest in the Inn.  But why remains a mystery until the end.

With half their History grade riding on a ghost interview, you have to wonder if the Desperado Detective Agency, Paranormal Division has bitten off more that it can chew as they delve into Tupelo Landing's past history and the people who were part of that history.  After all, everyone knows there is no such thing as ghosts.  Right...?

The day I picked up The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing, I hadn't been able to really get into any of the other books I had piled up and which had to be read, so I didn't hold out much hope for this one, especially since it was a sequel that literally picks up where the first book ends.  Well, a few hours later, when I finished it, I had that wonderful feeling of satisfaction that comes after reading a good book.

Turns out that The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing is the kind of sequel that can be read without having to read the proceeding book.  There is enough information given about Mo and Dale's background to understand what you need to without retelling the first book.  Which is nice, although now I want to read Three Times Lucky anyway.

There are also some very nice elements about acceptance and getting along that really appealed to me.  Although Mo and Dale start out not liking Harm very much, which isn't an unusual problem for new kids, little by little they begin to find the kind of common ground that leads to friendship.

And I loved the way the generations interacted and treated each other.  There is a mutual respect and acceptance between most of the adults and kids.  Adults are not the brunt of snarky remarks by the kids, who think they are smarter that the grown ups around them.  Mo is definitely a charismatic character, but not at anyone else's expense.

The characters a well-fleshed out and the mystery is fun, making The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing is a novel with lots of personality.  It is the kind of story that makes you hope that you will see Mo and Dale, Harm, Miss Lana, Grandmother Miss Lacy and Mo's other guardian the Colonel again in a third Tupelo Landing story.  Fingers crossed!

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was ARC from the publisher

FYI: This is a map of Tupelo Landing on the front and back endpapers of the hardback version.  It wasn't included in the ARC but would have been very handy.



Monday, May 12, 2014

2014 Children's Book Week Celebrations Begin Today! Are you a children's book champion?


Today marks the first day of 2014 Children's Book Week.  Children's Book Week has been celebrating books for young readers for 95 years now.  A new poster is created every year by a children's book illustrator and this year's poster is by Robin Preiss Glasser, who was also a CWB 2013 Children's Choice Illustrator of the Year winner.  

And what's a book without a celebratory bookmark?  This year's bookmark was created by nonfiction picture book author/illustrator Steve Jenkins.  You can print as many as you like when you go HERE


We are all Children's Book Week Champions at heart, but here are some that authors and illustrators who want you to know why they are champions. (Be sure to hit PLAYLIST) to hear all the champions).




Speaking of Children's Book Week posters, Leonard Marcus, children's book historian par excellence, published a book called 75 Years of Children's Book Week Posters: Celebrating Great Illustrators of American Children's Books.  There are 69 posters included and each page contains one poster in full color with brief commentary about it.  When I reviewed this book, I wrote "This is a book well worth close examination, if you are a reader who really appreciates the work of each illustrator in the books you read.  According the publisher's description, these posters are not only first rate illustrations, but they also reflect the history, social climate and wider concerns of the country at the time each was created."


The book was published in 1994, so the posters only go up to the mid-1990s, I think you will find this book to be very informative.  You can probably get this book through Inter-Library Loan if it isn't in your local library.  

And if you are going to be in NYC this summer, maybe going to BEA or for a vacation, be sure to take some time and visit The New York Public Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, where you can see the free exhibit curated by Leonard Marcus called The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter.  It's a wonderful exhibit with lots of surprises and Leonard really knows his kidlit.

How many times have you read Goodnight, Moon?
And while you are at the library, take the free docent guided building tour.  These run at 11 and 2 Monday thru Saturday.  Trust me, you will find it positively enlightening.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

MotherReader's Upcoming 9th Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge


That's right!  It's that time of the year again - time to start thinking about what you might like to read if you decide to participate in MotherReader's legendary Ninth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge.  The challenge will begin on Friday, June 6, 2014 at 7:00 A.M. and end not later than Monday, June 9, 2014 at 7:00 A.M.

This year's challenge is a little different.  In response to the WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign on the Internet, this years 48 Hour Book Challenge will be dedicated to reading, sharing books that show diversity in all ways.

Sound good? Sound like something you want to do?  Just hop on over to MotherReader to read the super simple basics about this challenge and than leave a comment to let her know you will be participating.


And speaking of diversity, if you are going to BEA this year, you might want to be on the lookout for some new and wonderful books that show diversity for your reading challenge.

You might also want to attend the Diversity Panel of acclaimed children's authors that has been added to the Book Con agenda.  This was a hard won panel, set up after #WeNeedDiverseBooks initiated an Internet protest over the fact that there was no diversity among the authors that were scheduled to be at Saturday's all day Book Con event.

The panel, called The World Agrees: #WeNeedDiverseBooks will be held Saturday, May 31, 2014 in Room 1E02 from 10:00 to 11:00.  If you are going to BEA, you do not need to buy a separate BookCon ticket to attend any of the panels, including this one, and you can also go to the BookCon Show Floor.  And this is NOT a ticketed event so anyone can go.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond by Brenda Woods

Sometimes it can be mighty hard to be biracial in the almost all white town of Moon Lake, Washington, especially when you are part of an otherwise all white family.  Which is why more than anything, Violet Diamond, 11, wishes her dad hadn't died just before she was born.  Maybe, if he hadn't been killed in that auto accident, people wouldn't look at her like she didn't belong to the family she's with - mom, a neonatal doctor, older sister Daisy and grandparents Gam and Poppy - the family that loves her very much.

Violet also knows almost nothing about her dad's African American family, so when she discovers that his mother, a well-known artist, would be having a gallery show in Seattle, she convinces her mom to take her to meet her grandmother, Roxanne Diamond.

It is very clear that Roxanne still has a lot dislike and hard feeling towards Violet's mom at that meeting in Seattle, which could have gone a bit smoother, but seeing her granddaughter for the first time did help melt Roxanne Diamond's heart a bit.  So much so, that ultimately, Violet ends up spending a week visiting her at her home in Los Angeles and meeting the rest of the the Diamond family.

But Violet is in for a rather rude awakening.  She may look like part of the Diamond family from the outside, but that doesn't mean that she isn't discussed by them privately in terms race.  She discovers this by eavesdropping on a conversation at a family gathering whether she looks half white.  Her cousin Ahmed is a little more blunt about things - like her hair, her 'white' name, and did she come to LA to learn how to be black?

Violet may be a girl in search of her whole self, but she wonders if the two sides of her family that she carries in her DNA will ever be reconciled to that.  As she says, "to white people, I'm half black.  To black people, I'm half white.  50% black + 50% white = 100% Violet!  Is that what I am, a percentage?" (pg 148)

I liked The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond for a number of reasons.  First, I found Violet a believable, realistic protagonist.  She is basically a good kid, but not totally without a few snarky, negative thoughts and definitely not above eavesdropping.  She is also a collector of words, dreams, and wishes.  I wouldn't necessarily call this a coming-of-age novel, but rather a novel of discovery, a quest of sorts to find her other cultural half in an attempt to feel whole.

I also liked that both families are educated, economically stable, well meaning and supportive.  Even Ahmed, who feels a little bent out of shape when this stranger enters his life and he no longer has Auntie Roxanne all to himself, has Violet's backs when she needs it.  Both sides of Violets family were refreshingly different, not the usual stereotypes.

But the thing I liked the most is how Brenda Woods really managed to present a real problem so accurately.  And there is a need for books that address biracial issues and identity.  Also, this is a story that really hit home for me.  I have a biracial niece who has gone through some of the same things that Violet has also experienced.  And often those cutting remarks revolved around her complexion and her hair in much the same way that Violet experienced them.  In fact, as soon as I finish this review, I am going to send her my copy of The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond.  She's already told me she can't wait to read it.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was originally purchased for my personal library, but now, it is being passed along.
 
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