Welcome to the Carnival!

This month, the carnival posts are varied and wonderful.  I searched for a theme to hold these together, but kept coming back to the quality of the writing and the strength of the ideas presented.  I decided to keep things simple and let the posts speak for themselves.  (As I write this I realize it sounds like the easy way out, but if you were able to see all of the drafts I've worked on, you'd be quite happy that this is a straightforward carnival month!)

I'll start with the reviews, round-ups and lists:

Becky over at Young Readers has a great review of a book for younger readers: Splat the Cat. At Becky's Book Reviews, she treats us to a review of No Cream Puffs.  I love Splat the Cat, and can't wait to read No Cream Puffs!

Megan Germano shares her thoughts on a book for older readers called Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor at Read, Read, Read.  This is another book that I've added to my list of must-reads...

For A Child: Great Poems Old and New edited by Wilma McFarland is beautifully reviewed by Suzanne over at Adventures in Daily Living.

Over on PaperTigers, Janet has a review of Amadi's Snowman.  The book sounds great and the review is so well-written and detailed that I've added yet another book to my list of must-reads.

Sarah from The Reading Zone shares her review of Karen Hesse's latest book, Brooklyn Bridge.  Like Sarah, I have missed new novels from Hesse and am thrilled to hear that this one is even better than one might expect!

Eva Mitnick shares an helpful round up of graphic novels (Graphic Novels for Kids - a Partial Round-up) over at Book Addiction.

Sarah Rettger of Archimedes Forgets presents Smart and strong? Bring it., a post about smart, strong female characters.  Her list is one that I know I'll return to time and time again!

A round-up of lovely books to share with young readers (Quality Children's Literature) was posted by Kristy at Our Life in Colorado.  I've added a number of these books to my list of books to read with my son...

If you're not familiar with the Moffat family books by Eleanor Estes, you'll be eager to read them after reading Susan Gaissert's post, What the Moffat Family Means to Me, on The Expanding Life.

Jenny Schwartzberg, of Jenny's Wonderland of Books, presents The Tiger Who Wore White Gloves and Other Thoughts.  This is an informative and thoughtful post about the work of Gwendolyn Brooks, and one that is a must-read.

Now, moving away from the reviews, round-ups and lists, we come to 2 interviews. 

The first is Jen Robinson's participation in Gail Gauthier's Early Reader Blog Tour over on Jen Robinson's Book Page.  The interview is fantastic -- her questions are thoughtful and the conversation is quite satisfying from the perspective of a reader.

The next interview is a part of a new series over on Chicken Spaghetti.  Susan's new series asks about the books people are reading and this first installment, "On the Books," with Marc Tyler Nobleman, gets me excited to read more!

Finally, we come to some interesting articles, newsy pieces and bold thoughts.  Here they are, in no particular order.

Pam over at MotherReader has a post I love about summer reading (Shhhh! Summer Reading).  I've gone back and forth on how I feel about summer reading, and found this post to be helpful in clarifying my own thoughts. 

Naomi Stevens is in with THE FONZ LAUNCHES NATIONAL YEAR OF READING, posted at Diary From England.  I didn't know about the Fonz's plan, and I was happy to learn about it here.

Elizabeth O. Dulemba shares her experience with Amiguitos!, a 2-week Spanish immersion program for kids, over on Dulemba.com.

Susan from Wizards Wireless shares her experiences at this year's ALA conference.  As someone who loves reading about things like this, her post was much appreciated!

Lee Wind of I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read? posts some interesting and perhaps controversial thoughts on the Declaration of Independence in his post, Do Native Americans Celebrate

Lisa Cellman of Under the Covers posts her thoughts on reader-friendly book spines in Spinal Exam.  I've never given much thought to the subject, and learned a lot from this post.  It's always exciting to think about something you hadn't considered before...

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I hope you've enjoyed this month's carnival as much as I did!  Next month, Susan over at Chicken Spaghetti will be hosting.

Comments

[Wizards Wireless]

Thanks so much for hosting! The carnival looks great, I can't wait to read all the posts.
-Susan

[Megan Germano]

What a wonderful collection! And I see a lot of blogs I have never read. Great reading for the day!

[Susan T.]

Lots of books to check out. Yay! Thank you for putting this together. Fun carnival.

[Jenny Schwartzberg]

Thank you for calling my post a must-read. I really enjoyed reading everybody's posts. The carnival is always so much fun!

Have a great day,
Jenny

[Aline Pereira]

So many great posts! I'll make sure to peruse them all soon! Thanks for featuring Janet's post about Amadi's Snowman. It masterfully captures the power and beauty of the book.