Starring Sally & Dave

Sally and Dave, the slimy and silly slugs from Australia are now featured in their very own cartoon blog - Starring Sally and Dave - courtesy of author / illustrator Felice Arena.

Be one of the first to sign up for the RSS feed. I guarantee that these two will make your day complete. Don't believe me? Check out the 4th of July post which seriously made me LOL.

Great Websites from ALSC

ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children) is just one division of the American Library Association. They have their own blog, their own list serv (is this one word, or two?) and their own parties!

They also have a committee which suggests Great Websites for Kids and have recently made several additions to the list.

I personally enjoy this list as I share these sites with other parents I know who want their children to have a safe, fun and educational on line experience.

For the curious (like myself), you can read their selection criteria on line.

Working Dad: An Unauthorized Guide to Parenting

I follow many blogs these days - about literature, parenting, education - you name it! One particular Daddy blogger, who writes for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, wrote a post this week that surprised me. Apparently, the internet is not a threat to children's reading habits:

The majority of kids, 62 percent, would rather read a book on paper than on the Internet, and even more, 68 percent, said they love or like reading books for fun.

Read more from the Working Dad...

LOL

The Blogabilities are Endless

Every time I blink, another blog is created. I continue to discover noteworthy blogs dedicated to children's literature or reading, in general. Each one is just as creative as the next since its the personality of the writers that make them each what they are.

Here are just a few blogs that I discovered in the last few days:

BITCHING ABOUT BAD BOOKS

This is quite fun. It's one reader's thoughts as she dissects the words she reads and what occurs in her mind as she reads them. Her site does come with a few warnings:

Some Warnings
Bad books and bitching combined can get mean. If you can’t stand it, don’t read it. Nobody forces you to. I do respect the determination and efforts of the authors who manage to finish and publish a book. But that doesn’t mean that the book is good. Nobody’s perfect and some people just can’t write.

I speak and write English pretty well but I’m no native. Errors and faulty grammar will occur.

I also got sidetracked on her other site (equally amusing).

On a completely separate subject, I also found READ TO ME, DAD, A Blog for that New Dad in all of Us to be quite entertaining. Check out this recent post about this dad's first full day with his daughter, Eva.

Don't you wish all dads were like this? My dad has never changed a diaper in his life. Seriously.

BLOG CENTRAL

Author, blogger, consultant, and teacher, Anastasia Suen has just completed yet another fabulous project. Blog Central is her latest creation and she's done an amazing job putting together this directory for all things kidlit related.

Where does she find the time?

New Year and New Resources

I can't tell you how much time I spend reading. I read blogs, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, email announcements and websites to keep myself informed of the latest news, reviews, events and happenings in the book world.

Over the holiday, there was a plethora of mail that had been stacked up, waiting for me to read (and discard). I browsed through it all (mostly) but was very excited to discover some interesting lists in the NAIBA Newsletter:

GREAT BOOKSTORE WEBSITES:
Beauty and the Book (Jefferson, TX)
The Bookloft (Great Barrington, MA)
Book Soup (Hollywood, CA)
Breathe Books (Baltimore, MD)
Devaney, Doak & Garrett Booksellers (Farmington, MN)
Fountain Bookstore (Richmond, VA)
McNally Robinson Booksellers (New York, NY)
Village Books (Bellingham, WA)
Wordsmiths Books (Decatur, GA)

BOOKSELLERS BLOGS:
Rachel & Benn of Atomic Books (Baltimore, MD)
Megan Sullivan of Harvard Bookstore (Cambridge MA): Bookdwarf
Lori Kauffman of Brookline Booksmith (Brookline, MA): Brookline Blogsmith
Arsen Kashkashian of Boulder Bookstore (Boulder, CO): Kash's Book Corner
Jessica Stockton Bagnulo of McNally Robinson (New York, NY): The Written Nerd
Lauretta Nagel of Constellation Books (Resisterstown, MD): Constellation Books' NEW BLOG

And because I don't have enough to do (and read), I'm always interested in discovering new sites and resources. If you're a bookseller who blogs or have a great bookstore website to share, post the link in a comment here, or send me the link directly. I'm happy to include your blog or site in a future posting.

Happy New Year!