The 10th Carnival of Children's Literature

Welcome to the 10th Carnival of Children's Literature.

It's winter, folks. Thankfully, we have plenty of toasty posts to keep us warm this January. Let the Carnival begin!

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The turn of the year made some bloggers introspective:

Liz B. shares her blog resolutions (and inspires many other bloggers, like yours truly) at A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy.

Author Grace Lin (The Year of the Dog) discusses racism, multi-culturalism and books for children in a post called Pin Cushion at PacyForest.

Grace Lin also shares her writing resolutions (including "blog less," a bad one, in my opinion) at another site, The Blue Rose Girls.

Colleen Mondor asks the question--why is terrorism in books okay, but not teen sex?--at Chasing Ray.

Elaine Magliaro suffers (not alone, I may add) from Fatal Distraction at the Blue Rose Girls.

Kim Winters of Kat's Eye discusses writers and depression in her post by the same name.

Franki and Mary Lee tell us why 2006 was a great year to be a blogger at A Year of Reading.

Jen Robinson asks a hypothetical question at Jen Robinson's Book Page.

Wendy considers a picture book in translation (toilets, anyone?) at Blog from the Windowsill.

Genre and categorization come up as kidlit bloggers move into the new year. Take a look at the following posts in which bloggers look for definitions:

Chris Barton talks fictionalizing in Non-fiction at Bartography.

Little Willow discusses problems with categorization (Middle Grade? tween?) at Bildungsroman.

Betsy considers the difference between corporate and personal blogs at A Fuse #8 Production.

You know what every new year brings? That's right, the "best of" lists and awards galore.

Sherry is making predictions of the Newbery variety at Semicolon.

Emily rounds up her favorite books of 2006 at Whimsy Books.

HipWriterMama talks cool strong girl role models in children's literature.

Susan Thomsen compiles a handy-dandy guide to the Best Books of 2006 lists at Chicken Spaghetti.

Book reviews are popular this season as bloggers are reading some of the best of 2006 and revisiting old favorites.

Elena reviews the Illustrated Classics version of The Christmas Carol at My Domestic Church.

Cloudscome reviews Porch Lies: Tales of Slicksters, Tricksters, and Other Wily Characters at A Wrung Sponge.

Eisha and Julie contribute Eisha's spoilerish review of Octavian Nothing at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

Michele Fry reviews Charlie Fletcher's Stoneheart at Scholar's Blog.

Jeanne raves about a drop-dead gorgeous new version of The Snow Queen At A Hen's Pace.

GrrlScientist reviews David Wiesner's Flotsam at Living the Scientific Life.

Kara Maia Spencer takes a look at an old classic--This Little House, by Virginia Lee Burton--at Kids Literati.

Reviews of books grouped together by theme or topic are also popular this season. Check out these reviews:

Jennifer Shultz celebrates circus week with a few good books at The Kiddosphere.

Anne-Marie relieves snow fatigue with some snow-themed picture books (who can blame her? She's from Colorado!) at A Readable Feast.

Dana discusses Children's Books about Martin Luther King, Jr. at Mombian.

Lynn Rodriguez considers those celebrity picture books at The View from My Window.

Mindy posts about Adventures in Art Class at Propernoun.net. It's a great post for anyone who works with children.

Sonja reviews--in video format--children's books set in the 19th century at Book Wink.

Some kidlit bloggers talk more extensively about reading certain authors or books, sometimes aloud to others.

Michael discusses reading Robert Frost with a four year old at Family School.

Gerard talks about reading Jostein Gaarder’s The Christmas Mystery with his family over the holidays at Family of Five.

Mark and Andrea Ross provide an audio review of Nutcracker Noel at Just One More Book!! Oh, and the author stops by to comment.

Other bloggers have chosen to consider certain aspects of a given book...

MotherReader talks about one of the hottest Young Adult titles of 2006, Hattie Big Sky, at MotherReader (and the author responds!)

Praveen finds a Tao of Simplicity in Little Bo Peep at Tao of Simplicity.

Gail Gauthier (author of the hilarious Happy Kid! and other books) considers the adult protagonist of Horatio Lyle at Original Content.

...while for other bloggers, the author is the focus:

Laurie Bluedorn profiles Richard Doyle in her Artists and Their Creativity: Historical Sketches series at Trivium Pursuit.

Cynthia Leitich Smith shares her interview of Sarah Dessen (author of Just Listen) from Cynsations .

Dana profiles young author Nancy Yi Fan at Principled Discovery.

Two artists--one writer, one illustrator--share vital information about the creative process:

Melissa Wiley tells all about her picture book baby, Hanna and Me, at Here in the Bonny Glen.

Illustrator Dani Jones shows The Mouse, in Layers (video demonstration) at Dani Draws.

And, some bloggers just want to brighten the season with a little fun and escapism.

Mitali Perkins asks Who is Your Blog Crush? at Mitali's Fire Escape.

Robin, Jay, and Eve celebrate their blogiversary at The Disco Mermaids.

Dan Hurst asks "Feel like something a little odd?" at The Oddies.

In the spirit of the holiday season, Gregory K. makes a list (with community help) of gifts you'd get your favorite kidlit characters at GottaBook.

Lisa Yee (author of two of my favorite books--Millicent Min, Girl Genius and Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time) creates a book title contest. The results are hilarious.


Thank you all for attending the 10th Carnival of Children's Literature. It's been a pleasure to be your host. I sincerely hope the posts brought sunshine into your world. Here's to a happy 2007!

Previous carnivals can be found here.

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Are you interested in hosting the February Carnival of Children's Literature (#11)? March and April are all lined up, but Melissa Wiley is still looking for a February host. Do consider it. Carnivals are a lot of fun and not nearly as much work as they may seem. I'm happy to share what I've learned from hosting 2 of them.

If you're interested, please drop Melissa Wiley an e-mail.

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