In which Annie (high school teacher, mother of two young girls and a younger boy) and her aunt Deborah (children's bookseller, mother of two young women in their 20s) discuss children's books and come up with annotated lists.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

A little love for our fellow kid-lit bloggers

Dear Aunt Debbie,

Interesting question about the current reputation of Strunk & White.  We have a bunch in the English Dept. bookroom (or at least we used to), but I'm not sure how often it's taught in high school.  My guess would be that most of my students don't know about it.  Perhaps it's time for me to break it out again....

Last week, Ali B. at Literary Lunchbox honored us with a Liebster Award.  Thank you, Ali!

It's a lovely thing -- an apparently grassroots way for small bloggers to spread a little love for each others' blogs.  I haven't been able to find the origin of the award, but there are a lot of blogs out there who have given it to each other, and it seems warm and nice. Think "pay it forward" rather than "chain letter."

Here's what I have found:


Liebster is a German word that means dearest,and this award is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers who deserve more recognition.

The rules:
  1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
  2. Link back to the blogger who awarded you.
  3. Give your top 5 picks for the award.
  4. Inform your top 5 by leaving a comment on their blogs.
  5. Post the award on your blog.
So this is what I'll be doing tonight.

My top 5 picks are all blogs we've been linking to in our sidebar for quite a while; I encourage readers to check them out.

Even in Australia is written  by a friend of mine who is also the mom of two small girls.  She covers a wide variety of subjects and asks thought-provoking questions about them.  I also love the photos she posts of her library book stacks -- totally inspiring.

Storied Cities is written by another Brooklyn mom who reads a ton with her kids and reviews books about cities, set in cities, or in some other way connected to the urban life.  Her reviews focus on how the book connects to the city.  She has a great, no-nonsense voice.

Vegbooks focuses on books which help parents and teachers support vegetarian and vegan kids in their lives.  The reviews are written by several collaborators, each with his or her own perspective; they're thorough and interesting.  Jessica Almy, the creator of Vegbooks, lives in your neck of the woods, and has been a frequent and insightful commenter here.

LitLad is focused on the reading life of a mom blogger and her two sons, ages 9 and 5.  Especially on days when I feel we're skewing a little girl-heavy here, this is a great place to go.  The Boy-Tested Book Bonanza! page gives you a good sense of the feeling here.

Smiling Like Sunshine focuses on natural family living.  Much of the blog is devoted to lifestyle ideas, but there's a good amount of talk about books, especially on Book Sharing Mondays.

And I need to add one, who's strictly over the 200 followers limit, but whom I adore: Playing by the Book, hands-down the most creative book blog I know.  Zoe is the mom of two girls just a tad older than mine, and along with reading them extraordinary books, she excels in creating and documenting funky craft projects.  The latest: a pair of golden underpants meant to be worn on the head.

Inspiring, awesome stuff.

Love, Annie

5 comments:

  1. (I've put the golden underpants on my head specially to write this) [TRUE!] Thankyou, thankyou! I really appreciate your kind words and your support. We do try to have fun in a way that allows me to feed my book habit ;-)

    I can second what you've written about all the other blogs above - with the exception of Vegbooks, which is new to me, but which I shall certainly investigate - I know and love them all. They all focus on creative, interesting book choices and are lovely people!

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  2. Thanks for your kind words, I enjoy reading your blog, too!

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  3. Thank you so much for the award!

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  4. Thank you soo much for your kind and lovely words.I enjoy reading your blog,too and thanks for participating to Book Sharing Monday.

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  5. Thank you very much -- we're honored to be in such good company.

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