Monday Metablogging (and a Call for Help)

Did you know there's a blog devoted to blog quotes? Well, there is. It's called Blogtations and it's a fascinating endeavor. And, I was quoted today!
-----------------
The Children's Book Review wiki is chugging along, with new reviews being added daily. Thank you all for contributing and making CBR a great resource for readers. I do want to emphasize that Children's Book Review wiki is a resource for the community and not my project. So any and all suggestions and improvements (and, yes, even complaints) are welcome.

-----------------

Call for Help: And speaking of Children's Book Reviews...its existence has spawned a new creation called Redux Review. You see, the centralized wiki resource has inspired more than one author to ask me whether or not a print review of their book could be archived as well. So...in order to make this happen, a new blog was born. I've sent letters to journals asking for permission to post published reviews of individual books, and two journals (so far) have agreed! Reviews will only be posted upon request of the author, illustrator, or a reader and only by permission of the publisher.

Here's where I'm looking for help: 1) A co-blogger or co-bloggers: Someone who is willing to throw a review up there once or twice a week; 2) Graphics: I'd love a cool black-and-white header for the blog, ideally with an image of one of those old-fashioned reel-to-reel tape players.
-------------------------
I missed Non-Fiction Monday this week, but you can find all the fabulous entries at Anastasia Suen's place.

Fun online

During yesterday's busy and, I think, ultimately fruitful debate about blog reviewing over at Read Roger, I neglected to post on a number of interesting things happening in the kidlitosphere. Reviewing aside, blogs are an easy, fast, and flexible way to present news and information. Here's what's up:

• Don't forget to submit your links to the 13th Carnival of Children's Literature being held this weekend over at Jen Robinson's Book Page.

• Over the past two days I've listened to the first seven chapters of L. Lee Lowe's Mortal Ghost. In this first part of Lowe's novel, Jesse, a teen runaway, is taken in by Sarah and her mother, Meg. Jesse, who is traumatized in a way we don't know about until Chapter 7, is suspicious of their intentions and Meg's almost miraculous healing powers. Sarah--an accepting and intelligent girl--wants Jesse to seek shelter with them, but Jesse remains uneasy. Maybe they'll hurt him in their good intentions? Oh, and strange things begin happening in Chapter Seven. Great listening (the reader is a young Welsh musician) and a compelling text. You can cheat by reading ahead, but I'm holding out for more audio. Mortal Ghost is highly recommended and FREE online.

• The first-ever wiki children's novel is chugging right along. Four chapters are up now and Moctor Fall (so christened by A Fuse #8) is in all kinds of trouble. I just put up pages for chapters five and six and they're waiting to be filled with text. If you're interested in participating, send me an e-mail.

Out and about in the Kidlitosphere

It's a busy morning in the kidlitosphere. Here's what's going on:

• Don't miss the 12th Carnival of Children's Literature over at Midwestern Lodestar. ML did a fantastic job putting the submissions together! (My cholesterol is up by 10 points just by reading.) Speaking of carnivals, Susan at Chicken Spaghetti gives us the 411 on running and submitting to carnivals.
• The fantabulous Jen Robinson has been 7-Imped. It's a fascinating interview.
• Margo Rabb (Cures for Heartbreak) begins her blog tour over at Colleen Mondor's Chasing Ray.
• The children's book wiki is now located at a lightning fast server.
• For those of you who have been archiving your reviews at Children's Book Reviews, I've switched over to PB wiki's new editing platform. Now adding your links is as easy as posting them in a blog entry or e-mail. Let me know if you have questions.

Happy Monday!

Save Witches and Wiki

Witches and wiki has stalled. It went down in the ice storm for five whole days and now poor Moctor is left in an attic hearing an approaching creak. What will happen to him? Will he be caught?

Ask me for the password and write away!