Moving right along - BooksYALove's new home base (reflective)

courtesy of Dover Publications - free clipart for teachers

After 325 posts, over 275 books recommended, and a goodly number of blog challenges, the BooksYALove blog is finally moving to its own website - BooksYALove.com - taking all its back-stock of enhanced book reviews, comments, and queries over there, too.

So if this final post on the Blogger iteration of BooksYALove reached you by email or RSS, please come to BooksYALove.com and subscribe there - takes just a moment.  And do change your bookmark to the new address, as I won't be adding any more book recommendations here.

Yes, I still have a large bookcase filled with last year's books which I'll be recommending on BooksYALove.com as the TBR2012 Challenge continues through this year, new books arriving daily that I can't wait to tell you about, and 26 never-seen-before reviews for the April Blogging AtoZ Challenge that will appear on BooksYALove.com every day in April (except Sundays).

The WordCount 2013 Blogathon begins June 1st and will include at least one guest blogger recommending a favorite young adult book, some book haiku, word clouds, and a "favorite five" post. Check back with Michelle in April for free registration; it's a great way to start your blog, enhance your blog-writing skills, and meet bloggers in your field and beyond.  In fact, BooksYALove got its start just in time for the WordCount 2011 Blogathon!

Happy reading continues at BooksYALove.com - c'mon over!
**kmm

TBR2012 Challenge Marches On (reflective) - more 2012 titles recommended, more to go!

Onward!

Another swath of my to-be-reviewed-2012 bookshelf cleared in March, bringing my total to 28 this-year recommendations of last year's books, including my January and February lists.

Just in case you missed a few, try these 2012 titles:

The Dark Unwinding - Sharon Cameron

Exposure  - Kim Askew and Amy Helmes  

Mothership - Martin Leicht and Isla Neal 

The Secret War (Jack Blank #2) - Matt Myklusch 

Sisters Red  - Jackson Pearce 

Tempestuous  - Kim Askew and Amy Helmes

Making pretty good progress on the TBR2012 Challenge at Evie's Bookish blog, but wait till you see the list after the Blogging from A to Z Challenge in April!

(sketch of Stickyman Tired courtesy of OpenClipArtLibrary
http://openclipart.org/detail/86137/stickyman-tired-by-cybergedeon)

April's AtoZ Blog Challenge (reflective) - 26 letters, 26 new book recommendations

April showers of books!

Twenty-six letters.
Twenty-six blog posts.
Twenty-six new book recommendations.
April showers - of books!

You've heard the expression, "If you want something done, ask a busy person." That must be the reason that I'm taking on the Blogging from A to Z Challenge again this April (especially after my so-so experience with it last year). Mainly, I'm using the A through Z theme to help clear more off my To Be Reviewed shelf of last year's titles, so that will get me further along on the TBR2012 Challenge, too.

Most are fiction books (over half with pre-2013 copyright dates), with a couple of brand-new nonfiction titles to keep it interesting.

AND my new website is nearly done, so all BooksYALove posts (old and new) will be there very soon. I'll let y'all know when it goes live and will leave a notice at this site to make sure folks find it if they come to the party later.

**kmm

Rocketing through the TBR2012 Challenge (reflective) - February update

With February being the shortest month, I had fewer TBR2012 Challenge titles on BooksYALove than in January (as listed here), but I am moving on through my to-be-reviewed stack at a fairly decent pace.

Check out a few recent titles that you might have missed:

Fantasy:
Down the Mysterly River  - Bill Willingham
Something Red  - Douglas Nicholas
The Treachery of Beautiful Things  - Ruth Frances Long

Graphic Novel:
Peanut  - Ayun Halliday, art by Paul Hoppe

Paranormal:
Dangerous Boy  - Mandy Hubbard
Spookygirl: Paranormal Investigator  - Jill Baguchinsky

Sci-fi/thriller:
Altered -  Jennifer Rush
A Girl Named Digit  - Annabel Monaghan
Safekeeping  - Karen Hesse

So far in 2013, I've recommended 22 of my old-year titles for y'all  (and no spoilers) - hurry to your library or bookstore to get some today.
**kmm

TBR - books To Be Read AND books To Be Reviewed! (reflective)

Well, the holiday season is almost complete, the old year nearly done, the new year peeking around the clocktower... and soon I'll be back in the saddle, writing BooksYALove blog posts, recommending YA books that you might miss if you rely on the big-box stores' displays and promotions.

So it's a great time to make resolutions - especially ones that you can successfully keep! I'm taking my cue from Evie over at her Bookish blog and concentrating on my overflowing TBR piles and shelves.

For me, that's the To Be Read shelves, whose covers I haven't even opened yet, as well as the other TBR shelves, my To Be Reviewed/Recommended books, the ones that I've read and enjoyed, but haven't quite gotten around to crafting my recommendations for... yet.

And they're really good books! Otherwise, I just chuck them into the giveaway box. Y'all don't have time to read ho-hum, formulaic books, do you? So I have stacks of 2012 copyright books that I haven't told you about...yet.

So that's my priority for BooksYALove in 2013: to efficiently tackle my 2012 awesome books while bringing you the best debut titles and books from smaller publishers as they arrive, hot off the presses throughout the year. TBR Challenge, here I come!

To keep me honest, I'm registering my intent over on Evie's blog: http://www.evie-bookish.blogspot.com/p/welcome-to-2012-tbr-pile-reading.html and will be checking in with a linked post monthly, highlighting my 2012 must-reads, as shared with y'all through BooksYALove (and usually on Barb Langridge's abookandahug site, too: www.abookandahug.com).

Promising an exact number of posts each week seems unrealistic, but I'll do my best to make you hungry to read these wonderful books at your local library or purchased from your favorite indie bookstore (keep your money in town, okay?) - and please, let me know if I'm bringing you titles that sound intriguing, unmissable, or out-of-the-ordinary.

Indeed, 2012 was a great year for Young Adult books, so let's hope that 2013 is equally stellar.
Which genre is your can't-wait-to-read favorite? Happy New Year, and happy reading!

*kmm
(celebratory cat cartoon courtesy of DesignedToaT: http://www.designedtoat.com/newyears.shtml)

Being Friends With Boys, by Terra Elan McVoy (fiction) - "one of the guys" in the band or more?

Being "one of the guys" is better than being ignored by former-best-friends...
Being unadorned is better than her stepsisters' cloud of perfume and makeup...
Being shut out by her best friend of all time is pain unbearable...

Charlotte has long been content to be the behind-the-scenes arranger-of-everything for the band, but when lead singer Oliver takes credit for all her lyrics, she starts to question the status quo.

Is it time for Char to break away from Sad Jackal like her best pal Trip did or should she stay and grab the spotlight for her own talents?

Dealing with insiders and outsiders,with people who've moved away and those who refuse to move on, with seeing past the surface to discover the truth, Charlotte's golden summer moves into cooler weather and changes in the band, its members, and her outlook.

While not a novel in verse as her earlier After the Kiss  (my no-spoiler review here) McVoy's newest book features true, realistic spoken and unsaid dialogue along with Charlotte's soul-baring lyrics. Find  both books at your local library or independent bookstore.
**kmm  

Book info: Being Friends With Boys / Terra Elan McVoy. Simon Pulse, 2012. [author's website] [publisher site] [book trailer]  

My Recommendation: Being considered “one of the guys” by Oliver, Trip, and Abe is fine with Charlotte, as she gives them the girl-perspective on life and keeping their band together behind the scenes. When a new guy joins the band and encourages her to grab the mike, their whole dynamic changes and Char isn’t sure if the guys can handle it.

She and Trip have been friends forever, but after he and lead singer Oliver have “creative differences” Trip leaves the band, and Sad Jackal must audition a new lead guitar player. Now who’s going to create all the melodies for Char’s lyrics?

Char has to deal with Trip’s sudden distance at school, her stepsisters’ giggle-pop taste in music at home, and weird vibrations at band practice, as new guitarist Fabian starts treating her like a girl. New lyrics just stream from her pen as her stepsister has a messy break-up, as other friendships ebb and flow… and Sad Jackal is hired to play at the school’s Halloween dance.

Trying to balance her commitment to the band with tough school classes, she agrees to be brilliant slacker Benji’s study buddy despite Trip’s dire warnings. As Halloween nears, Charlotte allows her stepsisters to give her beauty treatments and lets Fabian coax her into singing harmonies that turn into full-blown solos.

Does Fabian really see her as a girl instead of just another member of the band? Can Oliver deal with Charlotte taking the microphone or does he want her to stay out of his spotlight? What if her need to sing the stories she writes as lyrics is stronger than the band’s need for her to smooth out all the details for them? And why is Trip avoiding all her calls now, when she needs his viewpoints most of all?

Rooted in Atlanta’s alternative music scene, Charlotte struggles to decide if it’s time to stop just Being Friends With Boys and get going with her life in music and beyond. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, by Marc Tyler Nobleman (nonfiction)

Gotham City,
Bruce Wayne,
The Dark Knight.

These words make us think immediately of Batman. Fans of the DC Comics series or the 1960s television show might even name Bob Kane as the character's creator.

But Batman had two fathers - and now his co-creator's story is finally being fully told through Marc Tyler Nobleman's careful research. Using the "Golden Age of Comics" style, illustrator Ty Templeton presents the pivotal events in the superhero's journey into print.

Whether you're a fan of comics in general or Batman in particular, you owe it to yourself to get this book to learn the true story behind the legend. Available now at your local library or independent bookstore.
**kmm

Book info: Bill the Boy Wonder: the Secret Co-Creator of Batman / Marc Tyler Nobleman; illustrated by Ty Templeton. Charlesbridge, 2012.  [author's blog]     [illustrator's blog]     [book website]  [publisher site]    [book trailer]  

My Recommendation:

Bill Finger was so good at crafting secret identities that he co-created Batman, one of the greatest super-heroes in comics, while remaining in the shadows himself.

He changed his name from Milton to the less-Jewish-sounding Bill to avoid the widespread anti-Semitism in 1930s New York City. Although he wanted to be a writer, he took any job available during the Depression. Then he met cartoonist Bob Kane who asked Bill to write adventure stories that he could illustrate, just after the epic debut of Superman.

Challenged by their editor to create a new superhero, Bob sketched all weekend, but needed Bill’s inventive mind to make the character come to life. Taking Bob’s drawing of a red-clad Bat-man with large wings, Bill told him to change the small mask into a face-covering cowl with slitted eyeholes and pointed bat-ears, make the rigid batwings into a swirling cape, and clad their hero in all-black. This new superhero made DC Comics into a very successful company.

Bob took all the credit for Batman – in those times, it was common for a comic to use several illustrators and inkers to complete the drawings with just the main cartoonist being named. But even as the success of Batman grew, Bob refused to give Bill credit for being the series’ writer.

Bill’s strong storytelling skills gave Batman all the details that we recognize today – a human without superpowers, orphaned during a terrible crime, a vigilante detective protecting his city from master villains like the Joker and Catwoman. Bob called Bill a “boy wonder” because he kept coming up with ideas for the series; when Bill decided that the Dark Knight needed someone to talk to, another boy wonder came into being, Batman’s sidekick Robin.

It was widely known in the comics community that Bill wrote all the Batman comics stories, but it took decades before he was publicly recognized for his work in creating Batman’s character. Today, the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing honors the best story creators in the business.

Fittingly, the main events of Bill’s life and Batman’s origins are told in graphic novel format in this book, followed several pages of detailed information about Batman’s history and Bill’s family – a fascinating mystery finally brought to light in classic comic book style. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Other stories, other poets (fiction) - novels-in-verse

Much like eclipse-viewers look indirectly at the sun, we can get a glimpse into life situations which may or may not mirror our own through novels-in-verse.

Click each title link to open my no-spoilers recommendation in a new window/tab for each of these BooksYALove favorites.
**kmm

Camille and Becca don't realize that they share a school, a coffeehouse, and one boy's kiss... until an ill-timed cellphone photo makes all the connections fall into place.

Told in alternating chapters by each teen, their free verse ranges through the emotions that they must deal with as they try to reconcile what they thought was true with what reality is, After the Kiss of Alec, the haiku-writing baseball star.



Sara feels like her life at the ballet academy, far from her small New England hometown, is a never-ending Audition, as the dancers constantly compete for lead roles, for advanced classes, for the eye of handsome student assistant Remington.

Is he really interested in Sara? Can she continue to keep up with her schoolwork and her dance lessons and her hidden relationship with Remington? Only her poetry journal hears her fears and dreams.

Religious turmoil becomes armed warfare in 1980s India, and Maya is caught in the upheaval almost as soon as she arrives with her father and the ashes of her mother, brought "home" to the family which disowned them when they married, a Sikh and a Hindu who thought that love would overcome all.

Is it Karma that brought their only child to a place she's only heard of, far from her birthplace on the Canadian prairies, that separates her from her Bapu, that makes her versified memories a clouded mirror?

(all review copies and cover images courtesy of their respective publishers)

"We now return to our regular programming" (reflective) - BooksYALove posting schedule update

from Library of Congress *

We did it!

I wrote and y'all read every BooksYALove post through April's AtoZ Blog Challenge and May's WordCount 2012 Blogathon (at least, I hope you read them all).

Highlighting so many great YA books in a such a short time has indeed been challenging. I read books quickly, but really take my time writing recommendations to give readers a good taste of the book without revealing any vital plot twists or the ending (I personally hate spoilers in reviews!).

So BooksYALove goes back to its normal posting pattern on June 1; you'll get lots of great books to choose from, but on a more-relaxed summertime schedule.

Watch for Mysterious Mondays and tales of the paranormal, fantasy, whodunits, and such - like Wizard of Dark Street, Between Sea and Sky,  and Hereafter.

We'll have World Wednesdays, with historical and contemporary books set in places outside the United States, including Australia (Butterflies  and Dying to Tell Me), Africa (Now is the Time for Running  and Mamba Point), and Southeast Asia (Nowhere Girl  and Dogtag Summer).

Fun Fridays can bring humorous books, crazy settings, and non-fiction faves, from yummy Insanewiches  and Ask Elizabeth about anything, to the summertime wackiness of Withering Tights  and Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots.

Occasionally, books will slip in on other days of the week, especially for "book birthdays" (marking their first day of sale) and holidays. So many great books being published this summer and fall - just you wait!

So, which BooksYALove titles have been your favorites? What sorts of young adult books do you want to see more of? Which upcoming titles have you bouncing on the edge of your seat, anxiously awaiting their publication? Let me know, and I'll see what I can wrangle from the publishers...
**kmm

* Black Cat reading, from vintage Diamond Dye advertisement, Public Domain image uploaded to http://openclipart.org, available for creative reuse with no fees or restrictions.

Word Cloud Day! (reflective) - important words and the big picture

Making word clouds is so much fun!

Today's WordCount Blogathon challenge was to create a word cloud using our recent blog posts.

The more often that a word is used in the text selection submitted to the word cloud generator, the larger that the word appears in the word cloud. You can omit extra-common or extraneous words from the word list, choose one or more fonts to use, horizontal or vertical or mixed-up word orientation, and other creative options.


Using the free online Tagxedo word cloud generator allowed me to go past the original cloud-shaped display that Wordle makes and select from dozens of shapes, including four different hearts and the iconic LOVE graphic.

I couldn't choose only one Tagxedo, just like I can't limit myself to just one YA book beyond the bestsellers to recommend per week!
**kmm

If BooksYALove started today... (reflective) - blogging lessons learned in a year

Not my typewriter.

Today, the 2012 WordCount Blogathon theme asks us to consider what we'd do differently with our blogs: “If I started blogging today I would….”

Hmmm... I'd compare WordPress and Blogger more closely before deciding which one to use. I started BooksYALove just hours before the 2011 Blogathon began, so I went with Blogger where I already had a personal blog for an online technology update course and it was a snap to add another blog. 

From reading other bloggers' experiences with plugins, going to self-hosted blog platform, etc., it sounds like WordPress has an edge over Blogger once it's time to take off the blogging-training-wheels. But I have gotten used to Blogger's interface (even when it changed right in the middle of a blog challenge for me) and really like the theme colors and layout that I selected, so I'm staying with Blogger for now. 

I wish I'd had enough time and confidence to register my domain name from day one so that all my outreach, publicity, and business cards had pointed to that web address from the very start. I probably will go self-hosted soon to give me more control over my own writings, since BooksYALove is meant to be a searchable archive of great books for young adult book fans.

Some things that I wouldn't change: I was immensely fortunate in finding my first choice of blog name available; the "YA" in the middle can mean "young adult" which is the book category that I cover or "ya" like the casual "you" since I'm writing recommendations directly to young adult book readers (rather than to librarians or those who purchase books for others).  And every book has to be one that a significant group of readers will love - I don't review every YA book that I read - so only the books that would rank 4-5 stars get the nod for BooksYALove. 

During my first month of blogging in May 2011, I settled on a blog format that suited my writing style, taking some of my YA recommendations posted on Barb Langridge's www.abookandahug.com website and adding commentary with relevant subject links. Since I hate reading reviews that give away the ending or significant plot twists, I vowed to never do that to my readers - so, no spoilers, ever!

Longtime followers/subscribers have probably noticed some stylistic changes on BooksYALove in recent weeks, as I adjusted font sizes for better readability, added a new logo and blog background (courtesy of my talented daughter, the graphic designer), and started some easy-click book lists in tabs at the top of the page.

And I'll continue to participate each May in WordCount Blogathons, where I've found community (some of us posted in the Blogathon GoogleGroup for an entire year, not just the month of May!), advice, support, and the spark that set me off on this blogging adventure in the first place. Thanks, Michelle & the whole Blogathon crew!
**kmm

(clipart of antique typewriter courtesy of Florida Center for Instructional Technology, University of South Florida)

Haiku (reflective) - the sun and not-the-sun

courtesy of techeblog.com

It's Haiku Day for the WordCount 2012 Blogathon, so I took yesterday's (invisible-from-Florida) annular eclipse as inspiration:

Strangest afternoon,
Sun-disk nibbled by the moon -
Hiding in plain sight.

Yes, I know that haiku isn't supposed to rhyme - it just happened...
**kmm

(annular solar eclipse photo (c) http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/solar-eclipse-2012-ring-of-fire-pictures)

Happy Mother's Day (reflective)

This small boy in his "I'm the big brother" shirt is a grown man now.
His tiny baby sister recently became a bride.

These days, their worklife involves communication, crafting word pictures, using pictures to tell stories.

I read aloud to them before they were born, on long car trips, before bedtime, and just because, the way that my mother the creative writer read to me and my siblings, the way that her mother the journalist read to her and her brothers.

A house full of books, a house full of stories, a home full of memories.
Happy Mother's Day!

**kmm

A to Z Blogging Challenge - done and done (reflective)

Today's bonus post is about my recent experiences with the A to Z Blogging Challenge, so please skip over if you wish. Be sure to visit BooksYALove tomorrow to see why Myra firmly believes that Girls Don't Fly.

Clip art  © 1998 Mark A. Hicks*

Questions in bold were asked by the A to Z Challenge organizers (bless their hearts for putting up with hundreds and hundreds of random bloggers), with my reflections following each one.

How did your journey through the alphabet go? Doing 26 posts in April was difficult because I promised all-new content and didn't fudge along the way, despite hectic travel and conference schedule.

Did you meet new bloggers with similar interests? Not really, because there was no categorization of the blogs in the challenge & finding potentially worthwhile blogs was very hit-or-miss, based often on how well the blog name reflected its content and focus.

What were the highlights for you? (lowlights too...we want to hear it all) By posting all-new content twice as often as usual, I went through my To-Be-Reviewed shelf of books twice as fast as normal, but received fewer subscribers/followers than during other challenges. Many visitors were "drive-by" commenters who (like me) had landed on my blog even though it wasn't in their interest area. A glitch in Google Analytics wiped out my statistics for 3 weeks of the Challenge, so I couldn't even see if people visited other posts on my blog after landing there.

Did you enjoy posting daily? I wish that I hadn't chosen to do this Challenge during a hectic travel and conference month for me - I was delighted when April was over.
What was your biggest hurdle? Staying true to my commitment to provide 26 new book recommendations in April when I saw that others had opted for a different level and could use repeat posts, cute photos, short poems, and still feel satisfied.
What was your easiest task? The writing itself.

Was time management an issue? (I know, silly question, when isn’t time management an issue - but, it is worth reflecting on) Having to pre-schedule and write 10 days of posts in advance prior to travel and conference was stressful.

And what about your content - did you have a theme or did you wing it? BooksYALove is recommendations of young adult books beyond the bestsellers; A to Z Challenge didn't change that.
Was it easy to come up with ideas for each letter, or were some harder? Finding the right book for each letter was a pain. Being stuck weeks in advance with writing about those particular books when others came along - but didn't fit the alphabetic pattern - was an even bigger pain.

How about commenting - did you stumble upon lots of sites still using word verification? yes.
Did this prevent you from leaving a comment? Absolutely yes. If your blog is so popular that you insist on having word verification enabled to protect yourself from a spam deluge, then why are you in a blog challenge?
What worked for your blog? I don't use word verification or other sign-in stuff. Oddly, the first comment-spam that I ever received came during A to Z Challenge.

What will you do different next year? (Yes, you are doing this next year, you know you are, even if your brain is telling you to run for the hills - it appreciates the exercise) IF (big if) I decide to do A to Z next year, I will recycle some content instead of doing 26 new books. And I will be very, very selective about which personal creative writing blogs to follow.

What pearls of wisdom do you want to share with the Co-Hosts of this event? (We would love to hear from you and know what you think would make this awesome event even better) - (1) Have bloggers self-select into a category & list blogs under those categories (crafts, kids, health, books, writing, personal creative writing, art, etc) at A to Z.
(2) Provide brief description of each blog (written by submitting blogger) so we know what it's about! For instance, Michelle Rafter (WordCount Blogathon sponsor) had Jan Udlock help her make this useful list of 2012 Blogathon participants.

I know that it's TONS of work to organize and run a blog challenge, and I appreciate the A to Z folks for freely providing this opportunity to bloggers. For me, it was probably just not the right time to lock myself into such a rigid structure.
**kmm

*Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com - clip art image of woman chained to desk Copyright © 1998 Mark A. Hicks

Lessons in blogging from classic movies (reflective)

Today's Blogathon2012 theme is "5 movies that have inspired my blogging," so here are 5 classic movies that remind me of what to do and what NOT to do on BooksYALove - the movie title links go to Internet Movie Database.

Coincidentally, these movie-based lessons also reminded me of Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science, the pithy truths that underpin everything I do as a "librarian-at-large" on BooksYALove, as a contributor to www.abookandahug.com, and when I recommend books to family and friends.

Clipart courtesy of webweaver.nu

1) Blue Hawaii - yes, the Elvis movie. During a family visit in spring 1969, all the kids got packed off to see this movie so the grownups could have some time without us. It didn't matter if we liked Elvis or not, we had to go. Decades later, I still regret those 102 minutes spent at the Saturday bargain matinee when I could have been reading! So I want to make sure that I never say that "everyone will just love this book" on BooksYALove - because it just isn't possible! Ranganathan's Second Law states "Every reader his/her book."

2) Planet of the Apes - wow! Seeing this movie as a young teen in the late 1960s was powerful and disturbing- because I had absolutely no idea of what it was about until we were in the theater watching it (another well-meaning extended family outing with all the kids, regardless of their ages). Ranganathan's Fourth Law is "Save the time of the reader," so BooksYALove aims to give enough taste of each book that readers can decide whether or not it's one they'll want to try.

3) Star Wars - the first one, the real one, the one that I saw 7 times (twice in French!), and I still have the 1970s t-shirt. The power of story was evident in this movie (known as A New Hope to youngsters)- classic struggle between good and evil, between doing the expedient thing and the right thing, choosing friendship and loyalty over the easy way out. Hmmm... sounds like the best themes in young adult books today. Ranganathan's Fourth Law = "Every book, its reader."

4) The Empire Strikes Back - We took my youngest brother to see this movie for his birthday during its first theatrical release (long ago...). As the opening  filled the screen, he leaned over and whispered "You know that Darth Vader is Luke's daddy." No, I did not! Why would I want to know the ending? Ruined the whole movie for me (at the time, it was the last in the Star Wars saga). So I will never give away special plot twists or the ending in any book recommendation on BooksYALove - a no-spoiler site by design and choice! "Books are for use" says Ranganathan's First Law, not to stay on a shelf or be locked away - and I never want to make a book stay unopened because I spoiled that delicious journey of discovery for even one reader.

5) The Sound of Music - My Girl Scout troop went to see it on the big screen in the mid-1960s (and broke into song during meetings regularly thereafter - "the HILLS are aLIVE with the sound of muuuuuuusic") - we thought we were just going to see a nice musical. But we also got a glimpse into war's perils, not graphically or violently, but at age ten began seeing that there were many unfair things that happened to good people, that there was a big world outside our Air Force base housing, and that ordinary people can make a difference. "The library is a growing organism" is Ranganathan's Fifth Law, and I hope to help readers grow their personal libraries through BooksYALove, as we discover other worlds and other lives through books together.
**kmm

Children's Book Week - for everyone (reflective)

Happy Children's Book Week!  Read-to-me kiddos and independent readers, little ones to teens - this week is for you!

There are so many great books - and great book blogs  - out there that readers can find great suggestions for what to read next, be it something brand-new or a classic. Give www.abookandahug.com a try - take a short quiz to find out what Reading SuperHero you are or browse books for babies, kids, tweens, and teens by keyword, genre, and more. (Full disclosure - I contribute many recommendations to abookandahug, but receive no compensation for them).

courtesy of Random House

Even young readers can be reviewers as the hilarious family conversations about books captured on the Bookie Woogie blog show. Just "some kids and their dad, talkin' about books" their reviews even include the kids' art about the book they've read together. Enjoy their impressions of the wacky and inventive middle-grades book The Order of Odd Fish, by James Kennedy (Random House, 2008) here:  http://bookiewoogie.blogspot.com/2012/04/review-117-order-of-odd-fish.html.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not), I found an interview with Odd-Fish author James Kennedy on another blog last week, following his lengthy visit with the middle school and high school students of Springfield Township, Pennsylvania. He was excited to read what students had written, view their fan art based on his books, and talk with them about writing. 

Whether you're lucky enough to meet authors in person, enjoy a class visit through Skype, follow them on Twitter/their blog/their website, or just learn a bit about them through the blurb on their book covers, you'll find that knowing more about your favorite authors can enhance your reading experience.

Which authors have you met "in real life" and who would you like to meet next?
Happy reading!
**kmm

Bloggiesta? (reflective) - gearing up for book blogging challenges ahead

Where did the first quarter of 2012 go?
How can it be time for TWO back-to-back blogging challenges to start already?
Bloggiesta to the rescue! (love that logo)

Time to make sure BooksYALove is ready for the full-speed blogging journey ahead, so I'm doing some Bloggiesta mini-challenges this weekend.

My To-Do List:
1. Set up my first giveaway! Decide whether or not to use Rafflecopter - using Competitive Bibliomaniac's tutorial/mini-challenge here
2. Add pages of titles & review links with big themes (dystopian, romantic, funny, etc) as another way for readers to connect with books - as noted in Charlotte's mini-challenge - some done, more to come!
3. Add policy page about accepting books & formats, contest rules- thanks, Squeaky Books.
4. Prep every post for April with title, tags/labels, cover image & book info - put in queue for proper release day A-Z
5. Write & save tweets for each daily post to add to Bufferapp queue on night before post
6. Start investigating SEO (search engine optimization), with help from Good Books & Good Wine's mini-challenge
7. Make sure it's easy to find my contact information on the blog.

Whew! That's plenty for one weekend, but should help me be ready to roll on the AtoZ Blog Challenge which begins Sunday, April 1st!
Stay tuned...
*kmm

Ready, set, blog! (reflective) - blog challenges ahead

Did you ever get a "little set in your ways"?
Is it time to push your writing muscles a bit?
A blog challenge may be just what you need!

With over 150 book recommendations, BooksYALove heads into its 12th month with a wow, as I participate in the A to Z Blog Challenge in April.

Rather than just posting 3 books a week, I will be posting on 26 of April's 30 days according to the Challenge's alphabetical schedule, starting with A on Sunday, April 1 (no fooling).

Naturally, trying to align the alphabet with the stack of great YA books that I want to recommend isn't as easy as I'd hoped. Using book titles would be simple - if I had some that began with X or didn't have multiple titles that all start with the same letter. Ditto for authors' names, last or first. So, there will be a few entries that get shoehorned into a letter slot because of their subject or a major character.

But why do a blog challenge in the first place? You've heard that it takes 30 days to acquire a new habit, so a month-long challenge with a set framework and some coaching will make your success more likely, as will being accountable to the challenge organizers and fellow bloggers as we exercise our blog-writing 'muscles' and encourage each other.

On April 30th, my blog's first birthday, I'll take another deep breath and plunge into the full 31-day Wordcount Blogathon, with a big thank-you to its host Michelle Rafter. Yep, I finally began blogging so that I could participate in the 2011 Wordcount Blogathon. Lots of excellent advice, a forum to share our posts, guest post exchange - you should sign up for the 2012 version, too! It's free, you won't get any sales pitches, and your blogging muscles will get great exercise. Sign-ups will begin soon, so I'll remind you!

Ready, set, April!
**kmm
(photograph of lichen on oak branch (c)2012 H.B. Massingill Jr. - thanks, Dad!)

Whose Internet is this, anyway? (reflective)

If today (January 18, 2012) is "Internet Blackout Day" to protest SOPA/PIPA bills under consideration by the US Congress... then why am I still online? Why are you online, if you're reading this post on the 18th?

Is it because we cannot go a single day or hour or minute without our entertainment and news and communication? Perhaps - but there are still movies and print newspapers and telephone calls that can fill those voids.

More likely, we're online - now and any time - because we must share something. I mean that we are truly driven to share good news, bad news, cute kitten pictures, tidbits of information, and titles of books that someone else will just love; we are humans, and our culture of sharing is part of what makes us human.

To me, giving credit to the originator/creator/performer of a painting, a song, a book, a charming and witty sentence is a moral obligation, according to my upbringing and my education as a librarian. This was much easier when books and paintings were "one-off" and there was only one original with no easy way to copy it. Then along came the printing press, camera, tape recorder, photocopier and so on. Thank goodness for US copyright laws.

Yes, piracy of intellectual property is a real and growing problem. Yes, there do need to be legal ways to stop and punish intentional internet piracy. But I agree with many others that SOPA/PIPA is the wrong way to accomplish this.

This tweet today from Erin Bow (author of Plain Kate, which I recommend) puts it in perspective for me: "I'm an author; I make a living because of copyright, and piracy takes its toll. But SOPA would stop piracy by poisoning the ocean." @ErinBowBooks

Google has started a petition to protest passage of SOPA (the House of Representatives version)/ PIPA (the Senate version); you can sign it here.

The bills are scheduled for Jan. 24th vote, so you have time to read them yourself (PIPA here, SOPA here) and contact your Representative and your Senators to help them understand that censoring the Internet through SOPA/PIPA will not stop piracy of intellectual property online.

If we do not speak out, how can we help our lawmakers decide?
**kmm

The Big Picture (reflective)

Have you ever WORDLED? I used their free app to create the nifty word cloud here, using my initial blogpost about MotherReader and Lee Wind's annual Comment Challenge for kidlit bloggers, 2012 edition.

What fun it's been to "meet" illustrators, authors, and book bloggers through the Challenge! Getting out of my "writing silo" where I see only my computer screen and the books that I'm recommending so that I interact more with the diverse and supportive kidlit community online - priceless!

Since BooksYALove is a fairly new blog, I'm grateful for new visitors (and new followers - yay!) who will help spread the word about the wonderful YA books from debut authors and smaller imprints that I'm discovering.

After all, I'm writing these recommendations (no spoilers ever! I promise) for YA readers... right book for the right reader!
**kmm