An off by one error....

What's one Saturday among friends, right? Good. So even though I'm a week late, I must point y'all to the most recent Carnival of Children's Literature hosted over at A Year of Reading. As usual, lots of good links and highly recommended....

Another search Fib...

OK, I'm not missing this Poetry Friday (nor failing to mention the roundup hosted at Shaken & Stirred), despite the slog mentioned below. Luckily for me, there has been a recent flood of largely inexplicable search terms that have brought folks here which I can compile into a Search Fib. Some terms aren't splicable cuz I don't know why they were typed and some because I cannot imagine why they got folks here and some because they use search engines/sites that I've never, ever heard of and can't imagine why they're used... but that's just the joy o' the net, I suppose.


Fib
Fiiiiib
Flib flab
Gottafib
Fib is what the hell
Ringing the Fibonacci bell

June Slog

I will be glad to see June end. I've posted infrequently, read blogs less frequently, and have even gone days without checking email. Yes, that's true! And this is even before vacation in a land of limited online access....

This is probably good, of course, as anyone who's attended the SCBWI Summer Conference can tell you that you need weeks of prep time to be able to milk the maximum amount of fun and knowledge out of the four days.

I'd also note, by the way, that my newly minted shortcut turned poor today when an accident caused traffic to back waaaaay up. And where was this traffic before? Hmmm. This does not, of course, doom the shortcut. It merely shows the power of the blogosphere....

Ziiiiiiip

So, this is what life is like in the city -- I'm excited because I've found a new route that's shaved minutes off an otherwise not-really-so-bad-anyway drive. I have told others about said route, even though they never need to go where I'm going. But they applaud my achievement anyway, understanding the joy.

I am not so sure that kids are wired this way, so my picture book idea "Greg Skips Four Traffic Lights and Finds a Street that Cuts at an Angle" is likely to stay in draft form for awhile longer yet....

A sure sign of summer:

I have no idea of the date.

Yes, it's true. I haven't known the date for awhile. I've known the day of the week (more or less), but it's the time of year where my brain views a week as a collective amount of time rather than seven discreet units with limited hours in each. Oh, sure, the summer week actually has less workable hours than the rest of the year, and there's an arcane formula involving sunshine, school time, and ice coffee availability that proves this beyond a reasonable doubt, but I'll spare you. The point is simply that blog posting will be bursty, news will be late, observations will related to ice coffee availability, and in general we're gonna sit here and get virtually tan.

And on the plus side, each time I post here, I'll see the date!

Sneaking in!

Still Friday on my coast, so lemme do a lame participation in the wonderful Poetry Friday tradition and simply point you over to A Wrung Sponge for the roundup o' today's posts.

Didja go yet? Huh? Didja?

What about now?

Good. I'd be more poetic but I GottaSleep!

August, I tell ya....

I keep hearing from more and more folks who are going to be at the August SCBWI conference out here in currently-a-tad-too-warm LA. I'm really looking forward to reconnecting with a lot of folks as well as meeting a whole bunch o' fellow denizens of the kidlitosphere. And so, I propose a version of what I've seen in NYC and now DC -- a drink night! Now, it can't be a Kid Lit Drink Night, cuz that's silly since all 1000ish attendees are around for kidlit stuff. But us onliners in particular should meet at some point on Friday so we know who's who.

Anyone wanna be one of the N (where N is hopefully large) co-organizers/co-hosts/co-everything along with me? Please??!!! Drop me a line or leave a comment and let's hatch a plan. Friday night seems right... but what else?

It's not all vacation fun, ya know...

Nope. As you journey elsewhere around the kidlitosphere, you'll find a hive of activity, including a whole bunch of author interviews.

Why, look -- here's a schedule of who's talking where!

It's mighty fine stuff, so get thee hence and read....

Boo!

Did I scare you after a three day quiet period? Huh? Did I? As it turns out, I was in a place with (drum roll please) NO internet or cell phone service!

OK, I'm sure there were ways around both, but at the end of the day... why fight it? It was quiet. Peaceful, other than the cows. Food was plentiful, and caffeine was available in warm, brown, coffee form. There was good company, a yellow pad which basically remained unused, and absolutely NOTHING that needed to be done.

In other words... down time!

But now I'm back, and I missed y'all. I'll resume a normal posting schedule of some sort hereabouts... until the next down time, whenever that might be!

A Poetry Friday Fib -- a poetry Friday poem

In case you didn't go see Susan's Poetry Friday article, I'm re-linking it here. And just for fun, I'm extracting and reposting my Poetry Friday Fib from it as my contribution to this week's fun. Multiple birds with one Fib! Gotta love it.


Post.
Link.
Unite.
Spread the cheer:
Fridays through the year,
Poetry fills the blogosphere.

It's Poetry, ya see....

So, of course it belongs on the Poetry Foundation website. What am I talking about? An excellent article about Poetry Fridays written by the kidlitosphere's own Chicken Spaghetti (also known as Susan!).

Check it out!

You go, you Laureate you...

Michael Rosen was named the UK's new Children's Laureate (a post soon to exist in the US, by the way). And what sayeth he?

"I want to see children’s poetry loosened from its shackles and for people to become freer and easier with poetry," he says.

Right on. Here's to two years of shackle-loosening!

Moving, shaking, and blogging

So, today was the day for Fuse #8's big move.

Find her doing her rockin' blog thang at School Library Journal now. Or wait til later in the week when I update my blogroll and click on that link. But you don't want to wait, do you?

People always ask me "why blog?" There are a ton of great reasons, of course, but I think Fuse's success (getting paid to blog, the high profile position, the cupcakes) is a nice encapsulation of some of the things that can happen if you're blogging the kidlitosphere (or any 'sphere you want, I suspect). Yes, the social aspect of blogging is still the big draw for me... but that social aspect also explains why everyone I've run across is thrilled about Fuse's success. It's a nice place, this kidlitosphere. I hope you'll all stick around....

GottaBook -- the fragrance?

I'm doing some heavy duty magazine reading this weekend, and all of a sudden, there's Antonia Banderas staring back at me from one fine tome in a full page ad for "Antonio -- the fragrance." So I start thinking of all those lists I made up back in the day of things I'd like to accomplish/do/be, and I gotta tell you that having a fragrance bearing my name was never one of them... which is probably a good thing, come to think of it, as I'd probably fall short of that goal.

Still, I propose to you all the idea of virtual scents. You know, rub a little GottaBook on for the "essence of Fibbery." The possibilities for Virtusmells (TM pending, as is Eau du Web) seem limitless. Or something like that, anyway.

I admit I'm happy that we haven't seen a Harry Potter cologne with some sort of wizard or magic tagline... but who knows what July will bring? Other than that distant possibility, I think this is one area where kidlit will steer clear of any involvement. ...

Sign o' the times....

Yes, when I miss Poetry Friday completely (links collected this week by Hip Writer Mama), you know that things were busy around here. Luckily, Friday returns with great regularity....

I also realized it's been some time since I gave any insight into how I waste my time online, in those rare moments I do so. Oh, sure, there's always Babble, but for elegance and amusement (and frustration!) combined, check out Stick Remover. The games listed along the side there are all worth checking out, in fact. If I had time to waste, I'd certainly give Double Wires a try. And Golf. And.... Only if you have the time, of course, and I know how busy you are....

And your weekend plans?

Do they involve the Mother Reader 48 Hour Book Challenge? Hmmm? You gotta go check out her sidebar to see how many folks are doing her challenge this year. It really shows the explosion of the kidlitosphere over the last year, I think. Or it shows that more people are willing to admit to spending 48 hours reading books. But in either case, it's a good thing.

When in need of posting material...

... my strategy is simply to borrow from Fuse (soon to be SLJFuse!). OK, that she borrowed from the equally borrowable Kidslit merely makes my post all the better, I say.

But really, how can you not just point to a book aimed at kids called...
The Sky's Not Falling!: Why It's OK to Chill About Global Warming.

No, I'm not making that up... though I must say a "enjoyed" the blurb, clearly not written by an unbiased source!

Poem Face

Sometimes in your sitemeter you get a search term that fills you with glee. Let me introduce you to "poem face" the most recent on my list.

Is it an insult?
A compliment?
A search for poetry about a face?

And what would a poem face look like? "Oh you with your iambic eyes, sometimes in trochee ye disguise"? Or is that Ode Face?

Inquiring minds want to know....

Oh, sure. Be that way.

You know I speak highly of the Disco Mermaids from time to time. Heck, I even tagged them recently (hint, hint) in a sign of respect (and taking advantage of their three-for-oneness). But this time... well...


Go read their "most expensive post ever" to see why they truly are the bee's knees.

They continue to raise the bar, though I'll continue to work diligently to lower it for the rest of us....

Hello, Summer! -- a last day of school poem/a summer vacation poem

'Tis the end of the school year in many parts, and I thought I'd celebrate this poetry Friday by tossing up a summer vacation/last day of school poem. And why not, I ask? Ya, I couldn't come up with a reason either.... Check out the Poetry Friday roundup over at adventures in daily living!

Hello, Summer! -- (A Last Day of School Poem)
by
Gregory K.


Goodbye, classroom!
Goodbye, Teach!
You can find me at the beach...
Or in the park or at the pool
Or any place that isn’t school.

Goodbye, quizzes!
Bye, reports!
Hello days packed full of sports
And days when I’m just lazybones
While eating melty ice cream cones.

Goodbye, homework --
Lunchroom, too.
There’s so, so much I wanna do.
I know the school year flew on past…
But please, please summer -- last and last.


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