Time to plunge in and start writing my posts

Well, I think I better start posting if I want to have a blog. Clearly I am not going to be able to make myself write something awesome for a first post. What I do want to do on this blog is to share some of my passions in the field of children's literature. One of the things I love about Google is its alert system. Via Google Alerts I am notified of articles and blogs that discuss children's literature. Sometimes I just need to share the wonderful articles I discover, so I will do regular posts providing links to these articles.

I love articles that discuss authors and illustrators and give information about how they create their books. They give me insight into the incredible creativity of these folks.

Here are some links to recent articles:

Here's an article from EADT, which is an online newspaper for Suffolk and Essex, about the British author and illustrator Helen Oxenbury. It includes personal stuff about her family and her childhood in Ipswich and Felixstowe. For more information on Oxenbury, with an amazingly long list of her books, see this link.

Here's an online interview with Lois Lowry, where she discusses her books and particularly her new book, The Willoughbys.

Here's an interview with Jeanne Birdsall, author of The Penderwicks at the Orange County Register.

Full confession. I have yet to read either book but the buzz is certainly making me curious about them!

Tracy van Straaten sent me a Newsweek interview from last month with Meg Cabot, discussing her new series for tweens, the Allie Finkle series. Sounds fun. I never got into her Princess Diaries but I love her Mediator series and the 1-800-Where-Are-You? series. I also adore Avalon High which transplants the King Arthur story to a modern high school. It's now being continued as a Manga series and the first volume: Avalon High: Coronation is not bad, though I prefer the original Avalon High book. For more information on Meg Cabot and her books, see her website.

Here's another Newsweek article, an interview with Blue Balliett on her latest book, The Calder Game. She's my hometown author but I have yet to read her books, shame on me! She does make the book sound intriguing and I love mysteries. Hmmm.

The Guardian, an UK newspaper often has very interesting articles on children's books. Here's one on Maurice Sendak. Reminds me that I have sitting on my desk the book, The Art of Maurice Sendak, that I need to read and return to the library. I love ILL (interlibrary loan) where I can get all kinds of wonderful books about children's books! A subject for another post there....

I really enjoyed this article by Alison Lurie. It describes recent books based on the folk tale of Rapunzel. I've read one, Golden, by Cameron Dokey. It was an interesting take on Rapunzel but I prefer her retelling of Cinderella, Before Midnight, and of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty Sleep. I have to go find the book by Sara Lewis Holmes, Letters from Rapunzel, since I met Sara last October at the Kidlitosphere conference and I enjoy her blog.

Oh, here's a bit of children's book history in Publisher's Weekly which discusses an event I knew nothing about, the 1974 Macmillan Massacre. This caused the demise of Macmillan's children's book publishing section and led to the start-up of Greenwillow among others, which has published some of my favorite children's books. This article reminded me of a book I read last year by Jacalyn Eddy, Bookwomen: Creating an Empire in Children's Book Publishing, 1919-1939. It's fascinating and I recommend it to anyone interested in the subject. Here's the publisher's description.

I better stop now but I hope people like these links.