Authors and Publishers, I am happy to receive ARCs and published children's, middle grade, and YA books for review. When I finish it, I will review it. If you need the review posted in a certain time period, please let me know and I will move it to the top of the stack. Please note: my reviews are honest, but they are my opinion. If you don't want that, please don't ask. Email Me for reviews.
Don't you just love that logo? Many thanks to Lee Wind and MotherReader for hosting this year's comment challenge. Lee created the logo which is made up of the mastheads from the 131 blogs that participated in this year's challenge. Can you find mine? Do you see headers from other blogs you read?
The goal was to comment on at least 5 blogs a day for 21 days. At the end, we should have made 100+ comments on various bookish blogs. So, how did I do? Well, I didn't make 100, but I wasn't far off.
Over the 21 day challenge, I left 99 comments on blogs.
I was introduced to some new to me blogs.
Not commenting on the weekends kept me from meeting my goal.
Taking time to clean out my reader every night has become a new habit. It's manageable and helps me to stay connected with my friends in the blogging community.
I am now responding to comments left on my blog.
I am now hopping over to other bloggger's posts when they comment on my blog and reciprocating the comments.
I feel reconnected to my kid-lit blogging community, which I had lost by getting lost in my work.
New habits have been formed and the momentum will keep me going.
So, even though I didn't reach the goal of commenting 100+ times, I still feel successful with this challenge. Will you join us next year?
Okay, okay, I know I said I wasn't going to join any challenges this year, but I can't really fail at this one, since it's what my blog's all about. So, I'm joining the Read to Me - Picture Book Reading Challenge!
This is the first of it's kind challenge, and I'm so glad that Danielle Smith, aka The1stdaughter, over at There's A Book created and is hosting this one. For all the details, check out her challenge page. Here is the overview:
The objective of the Read to Me Challenge is to read with the kiddos in your life and/or enjoy picture books in general.
Books must be ones written expressly for children ages 9 and under. Board books, early readers, picture books, etc.
Print or eBook format is acceptable.
Anyone can join. You don’t have to be a blogger, and you don’t have to live in the United States. Open worldwide.
You do not have to have an blog to participate.
You can join at anytime. Deadline to join is November 20, 2011. (not 2010 you still have PLENTY of time to sign up!) The challenge runs from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011.
There are different levels to the challenge, some for Reading with a Child and some for Reading On Your Own. I am going for the Reading On Your Own set of levels. Many of you know that I have grandchildren, but I don't want to count on them being around enough for me to play in the Reading with a Child zone. So, I will enjoy the picture books on my own as I read and review them for this blog. Here are the levels for Reading On Your Own:
Reading on Your Own:
“Board Book” – Read 12 picture books on your own during the year.
“Unjacketed” – Read 36 picture books on your own during the year.
“Jacketed“ – Read 72 picture books on your own during the year.
“Early Reader” – Read 120 picture books on your own during the year.
“Chapter Reader” – Read 200 picture books on your own during the year.
I will be going all out, for the Chapter Reader level. After all, if you're going to get into the challenge, you might as well go for the gusto! So, 200 picture books it is, along with all the other books I'll be reading this year...what a goal! I love it!
Will you join us in the challenge? Grab a button, create your own post, and link up with Mr. Linky on the challenge page!
Thanks to the summer holidays, I've been able to spend a lot of time on Twitter catching up with my blogging buddies and making many new friends. The conversations as of late have been wonderful, including the #dearpublisher one that many of us have been following and participating in. Publishers want to know what we, bloggers, want from them, how they can help us. Can you believe that? It is a topic for a whole other blog post, so I won't go on about it here, except to say that it's been awesome!
So, during the course of conversations, I've met some great indie bookstore folks and have to tell you about one of them, along with another challenge. Aaron's Books, in Lancaster County, PA, hosts a KidLit Fest, and it's happening in 2 months. If you're in the area, you should check it out. It's pretty far for me, but I would if I could because I have it on good authority that it's pretty cool! Anyway, back to the challenge. So, to get themselves and others ready for the festival, they have issued a challenge: The Lititz Kid-Lit Challenge. Here are the details, straight from the Aaron's Books' blog:
Read any five books from the list below by the end of September (Yes, five books in two months, but some are picture books), and let us know what you've read and enjoyed. Then,at the end of September,one lucky participant will receive a signed copy/copies of some of the featured KidLit Fest books!
Here is a list of some of the books from our KidLit Fest featured authors and illustrators:
Easy, right? I think I have at least 3 of these books, so I'm in. Here's what I know I have in the house that I haven't read, but will read for this challenge: Fairy Tale, Sleepless, The Dust of 100 Dogs. I may still have The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, if I haven't passed it on to my favorite teen reader, and I have read some of the Milo and Jazz Mysteries. If they're still here, I'll reread those as they are fast and easy. Titles that pique my interest are: Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains, Cupcake and Somebody Everybody Listens To. What are you waiting for? Don't you want to join in on the fun?
If you've been following my blog for any length of time, you'll know that I don't usually do book challenges. It's not because I don't like them or don't get inspired by them, it's just that I don't usually complete them and that makes me feel guilty. I feel like I've not finished something I started, and that's not like me.
But...There's always a but isn't there? I've been on Twitter a lot in the last week, thanks to summer vacation, and I've added many new book titles to the TBR pile, blogs to the reader, and friends on Twitter. I've also been able to reconnect with some great blogging buddies that I have missed due to the busyness of the school year with my new job. That being said, I was on Twitter this morning and happened to see a post from @jodipicoult raving about a book: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. Having just gotten that book last week, I replied that I would have to move it to the top of the TBR pile based on her recommendation. Well, what do you know? @BookingMama or Julie of is hosting a challenge that involves just that book, and she tweeted that I should join. So, here I am writing an introductory post to join the 2010 EW Summer Books Challenge that I probably won't finish. No, wait, I will because it's not an all or nothing book challenge. This I can do! Besides, I already have some of the books. Here are the details:
Read any or all of the books on Entertainment Weekly's 18 Books We Can't Wait to Read this Summer list. You have the rest of the summer to do it because the challenge ends on September 6th. It started on May 1st, so if you read any of these from then to now, they would count for the challenge. The best part about this challenge is that it allows you to read at your own pace and not feel stressed about reading ALL the books. Here are the levels of the challenge, just like swim lessons when you were a kid.
Levels:
1-3 Books: Polliwog
4-6 Books: Guppy
7-9 Books: Minnow
10-12 Books: Fish
13-15 Books: Flying Fish
16-18 Books: Shark
The books are listed below, and if I only read the ones I have in my TBR pile, then I will officially be a Polliwog. But...There it is again, the inevitable but. I have it on good authority that So Cold the River is fabulous, so I'll be picking that one up to read and therefore, I will be going for Guppy status!
All day on Twitter I have been hearing about a challenge titled The Reagan Arthur Books Challenge. Well, to say it intrigued me is an understatement. The tweets kept going out, "Have you joined yet?" I'm not real fond of challenges, because last year I entered many but finished none. I just couldn't keep track of it all. So, I decided that I just wouldn't join any challenges this year. I just wanted to read what I had and as much as I could.
Can you say sucker? Yes, I am, I'll admit it. I'm being sucked into this one because I just can't resist what it's about! Reagan Arthur Books is an imprint of Little, Brown & Company, whom I love. So, I'm excited about the titles this new imprint has to offer. This challenge was the brainstorm of two of my blogging friends, Kathy of Bermudaonion's Weblog and Julie of Booking Mama, after seeing the Shelf Awareness newsletter dedicated to the Reagan Arthur Books imprint.
The challenge is easy: read Reagan Arthur Books. Right now, there are three titles available, with 16 more on the way. On the challenge site, you can see the full list of titles. Here are the first three books:
The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris
Marriage and Other Acts of Charity by Kate Braestrup
Doors Open by Ian Rankin
There are really no rules to the challenge except to read any and/or all of the Reagan Arthur Books. There is no timeline as this is a perpetual challenge. It starts when you post your write your challenge post, so when are you starting? I'm starting now, with The Unnamed, since I happen to have that one. Won't you join me?
