I took a long weekend to get my little boy (excuse me, big boy) off to Kindergarten. Now to get back to reviewing all of the books we have enjoyed together over the last few days!

The View from the Ferris Wheel is the LiveJournal of Sara Latta, author of books for children.  Her blog contains interesting websites, a glimpse into the process of getting a book published, and more. 

The Absorbascon is a blog dedicated to comic books.  You can find news, opinions, articles and more about comics and the comic book industry.  Also check out his blogroll filled with other comic book sites.

Many of you may recognize Fairrosa, the great children’s lit site.  She has now added a blog, her Reading Journal that is filled with reviews of the books she has just finished.  Very nice.

Maine’s Times-Record has an article that made me swoon with pleasure:  Frederick the mouse had it right.  The article is based on Leo Lionni’s classic picture book, Frederick, where a mouse doesn’t work all summer long to prepare for the winter cold, but instead gathers images and stories from the summer to keep the other mice warm during the winter.  The article encourages people to do the same for themselves, savor summer and capture your own memories to keep yourself warm after the summer sun leaves. 

The Independent has an article about Little Chef, as teen cookbook author Sam Stern is known.  This 15-year-old from the UK has written a cookbook for teens: Cooking Up a Storm.  The article takes a look at how Stern got started cooking and gives librarians a heads-up about a second cookbook coming out in October. 

Big A little a has posted a book meme, and on this slow Friday afternoon I think I will give it a try. I look forward to reading everyone else’s after I post this. I didn’t want to cheat and read them first. 🙂
1. One book that changed your life?
This is going to sound preachy, but really I read because each book I love changes my life a little. I gain a new perspective, see things from a different pair of eyes, and understand something a little deeper. To narrow it down, I would say that The Giver by Lois Lowry changed the way I viewed my own colorful world, giving it more depth and more wonder.
2. One book you have read more than once?
I am not a re-reader by habit. My husband is and it can drive me wild that he would rather re-read a book than try something new. But when I was a child, I read the Little House on the Prairie series so many times that even being very careful I wore out an entire set. I still have my tattered and taped set from my childhood.
3. One book you would want on a desert island?
I don’t know. I was an English major in undergraduate school and loved a lot of the books I read. I use that as my excuse for now reading children’s books almost exclusively. I did my time in the classics. So I would say that it would probably be something by one of the great English authors and it would be nice if it was an anthology by someone who did novels as well as poetry. I’m not sure I could live without reading poetry.
4. One book that made you laugh?
Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen. I consider this one of the funniest books ever written. I recommend it to all male readers. If you haven’t read it, you must!!
5. One book that made you cry?
I tend to be a weeper. Lovely books that aren’t sad at all can get me crying just because they end.
6. One book you wish had been written?
I wish I had written down more in a journal when my sons were tiny. So that I would have a book for each of them to treasure.

7. One book you wish had never been written?
This will probably seem strange. But I wish that Lowry had never written a sequel to The Giver. I loved the ambiguity of the ending, the gasp that would escape readers, and the fact that they alone had to wrestle with the possibilities of what may have happened.
8. One book you are currently reading?
I am reading Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan.
9. One book you’ve been meaning to read?
I have such a huge list of titles I mean to read. But top of the list are:
Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox
Wide Awake by David Levithan
Last Days by Scott Westerfeld
Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin
This Is All by Aidan Chambers

A big thank you to A Fuse #8 Production for mentioning that we are both featured in the Cites & Insights article Looking at Liblogs: The Great Middle.
I also want to thank Walt Crawford, author of the article, for looking at the deep dark middle ground of library blogs. That’s exactly where you will find the children’s librarians. 🙂
My blog scored high in number of posts along with my other blog, Sites and Soundbytes. Of course, no one could come close to Fuse on that or several other categories. I am constantly amazed by Fuse’s ability to post so much each day. And such wonderfully clever stuff too.
Fuse wonders why other kidlit bloggers are not listed. Me too. Perhaps they are sometimes not easily identified as librarians? After all, we can’t all go on and on about the original Winnie the Pooh living right in our library, can we? 😉 Thus further securing her reign as posting queen of the Great Middle. 😛

I have been focusing on reading new books for awhile now. I love the crispness of the pages, the crackle of a spine, and the gleaming plastic covers of new library books. I am going to be reviewing the third book in a very popular series for School Library Journal. I moaned knowing that I would have to read the first two books before writing the review.
But I am not moaning anymore. First, because the books are wonderful. Second, because I had forgotten the joys of well-loved and well-read library books. I am loving the creaminess and softness of the pages that become furred and vellum-like. I enjoy the way the spine happily flops open. And I like all of the little marks on the pages that show how enjoyed this book has been in so many different places and ways. I think I would take a well-loved, used book over a blindingly-white uncracked book any day.