SLJ Article Up and Running
This month, should you spy a copy of School Library Journal, you will notice that on the cover are five bloggers. One of those bloggers is myself. Which on the general scale of awesomeness, is way up there. The reason we are on the cover is because I wrote an article for the magazine about blogging in general (which you can read here, should you feel so inclined). It also includes a little end section about the ten blogs you cannot live without.
Now I would like to be very clear that this is a teeny tiny itsy bitsy sampling of the total number of fabulous children’s literature blogs out there. The list was tinkered with over and over again, and some folks I dearly love got left out.
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Here then, is my suggestion to you. Though I mention that anyone interested in other blogs of this sort should go to Kidlitosphere Central and check out the goodies there, if you would like one blog or another listed, leave a comment on the article with your own top picks. Some folks have already started doing so, and I think it’s a marvelous idea. I couldn’t include them in the print edition, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t write ’em down for the online version.
Fun Fact: Apparently the only bit of Photoshop done on this cover was on the floor. Bar floors = ick.
I’ll make this an official email soon as well, but we will be hosting a Kidlit Drink Night at that very bar (the Globe Bar on 23rd St. between Lexington and 3rd Ave.) starting at 6:00. Anyone and everyone is welcome to come. I’m hoping to have overly dramatic readings of the article (particularly the final list).
And many thanks to Monica Edinger, Cheryl Klein, Jennifer Hubert-Swan, and Liz Burns for agreeing to be in this photo.
Filed under: Uncategorized
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Kirkus, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on BlueSky at: @fuse8.bsky.social
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Ooolala! Ya’ll look great. Congrats!
Nice job, as always. I wish there were more blogs written by men, more male librarians, male teachers, etc., but that’s an old problem and no one’s fault.
I know there are many women bloggers/teachers/librarians who care deeply about boys and are always on the lookout for material that will appeal to boy readers. But it still requires a leap that is not a direct emotional response. It’s just a visceral perspective that is lacking, that deep identification of feeling exactly the same way, and some days I wonder if it’s a bigger problem than we realize.
There’s a great line from one of Charlotte Zolotow’s books, reprinted in the now out-of-print SNIPPETS, that I can only paraphrase. A boy turns to his mother and says, “You were never a boy. You don’t know.”
Does anyone know which book that came from? I interviewed Charlotte a long time ago — what a remarkable woman.
Yup. The Brown Bookshelf and 100 Scope Notes and Collecting Children’s Books ALL are written or co-written by fellers, but I agree that I’d like more. There’s David Elzey at The Excelsior File, J.L. Bell at Oz and Ends, Lee Wind at I’m Here I’m Queer What the Hell Do I Read?, and more. But none live in NYC so that didn’t help me find folks for the cover, alas.
Don’t know the Zolotow quote but I’d love to find it.
That quote is from A Father Like That. Terrific book.
So Awesome!! Bloggers are prime time! Now if we can JUST get the school districts to quit blocking them!!