BookBlog Thoughts

I started BookBlogFun for a few reasons.  First, to connect with my daughter who has shown me an amazing ability to read and enjoy reading.  Second, to reach out to parents and other children besides mine with an enthusiastic attitude about reading books and having fun sharing books.

After 8 months of BookBlogFun, I began to venture out to see who else is out there blogging about books.  I had visited Jen Robinson's Book Page a few times but began to go back more often and then I actually made some comments.  From Jen's page I visited KidLitosphere and the Cybils and it was amazing to me to see this community of book enthusiasts other than the library association members I was used to.  They even have their own book awards and conventions.  I wanted to learn more and see what these bloggers talk about.  Lucky for me, on my 45th birthday, I came acrossed the MotherReader Comment Challenge 2011.

The comment challenge opened my eyes to the tremendous amount of book bloggers out there.  Each with a slightly different twist or focus but many talking about children's books.  Just a few actually included the children themselves in the process of discussing these books.  I want to keep the focus of BookBlogFun on the kids.  Getting them involved with reading and blogging and sharing their ideas about books.  Yes the parents/teachers/adults in their lives are very much a part of motivating the kids.  Not just motivating but exposing kids to books as a hobby as a sport as a recreational activity.

I also very much enjoy discussing literacy issues and ideas with those who are out there exposed to this field.  My library science degree is part of who I am and I hope to remain active in the discipline.  However, it is important for me to seek, keep and fine tune my thoughts, attitudes and focus around reading and books.  I have to admit that some librarians can be soooooo stuffy and that is just not me.  The KidLitosphere community is a place I have discovered that brings an alternative option to communicating and relating about books. 

So, I am now kicking off this blog as my area to discuss issues, associations, and ideas that revolve around reading.  BookBlogFun will remain the space I use to get parents and kids involved in reading.  I have debated and have added more issue related content to BookBlogFun at times but I really feel that it takes away from the focus of the kid's involvement.