Tag Archive | books

We did it! Blogathon2015 is in the books

Jul1
clipart of Fireworks by rduris from OpenClipArt.org

Fireworks by rduris via https://openclipart.org/detail/167949/firework-ns

If you are reading this, that means that I conquered the Blogathon2015 challenge and posted every day in June! [cue the fireworks!]

And it means that I’m smackdab in the middle of the International Association of School Librarianship‘s annual conference. This year IASL2015 is in lovely Maastricht, Netherlands (near the borders of Belgium and Germany), so I hope to post pictures here soon.

It also means that I am leading a workshop today on IASL’s GiggleIT Project for global student writing through school libraries. If you know/are a librarian or teacher, check out this fun and free way for your students to share their personal knowledge and sense of humor with the world: GiggleIT Project.

See y’all soon, and thanks for enjoying Blogathon2015 along with me!
**kmm

A beautiful Dutch bookstore beckons in former church

Jun29

Photo of Domincaen Bookstore in Maastricht, NetherlandsLarge or small,
New or old,
A bookstore or library can take you anywhere.

Greetings from the Dominicaen Bookstore in Maastricht, Netherlands – named one of the world’s loveliest bookstores by Architectural Digest!

What’s your favorite bookshop?
**kmm

Slowdown Sunday with wordcloud – visual learners, unite!

Jun28

A favorite Blogathon activity is creating a wordcloud based on your blog.

The more often that a word appears in your chosen text, the larger it appears in your wordcloud.

I’ve used Wordle and other tools, but have the most fun with the shapes and ‘spin color’ options on Tagxedo.

Here’s how Tagxedo “sees” BooksYALove posts over the past few weeks:

BooksYALove 2015 Tagxedo wordcloud in LOVE shapeHave you wordclouded lately?
**kmm

Haiku for you

Jun17

booksyalove-blogheader-31.pngThree cheers for theme days!
Hooray for Haiku Day!

Yes, we Blogathonners love playing with that 5-7-5 syllabic pattern, especially when a poem gets us that much closer to our goal of blogging every single day of June!

Again, a blank page.
Desperation? Reflection?
Poetry saves us.

My Blogathon haikus from past years are here and here and here and even here.

Do you haiku?
**kmm

Blogging tools – accessibility edition

Jun15
clipart of eye with global map by cam morris at OpenClipart.org

“Eye Can See the World” by cam morris https://openclipart.org/detail/65845/eye-can-see-the-world

Interesting – check.
Timely – yes.
Understandable to everyone – maybe?

As a blogger or website owner, whether you just dash off a quick daily note or craft a series of longer posts, do you ever think about

…readers with visual impairments being able “see” your images?

…people with color-blindness easily navigating your blog?

To help you reduce potential barriers for your readership, check out some free assessment tools and adopt simple practices for your blog.

For every image, photo, or video on your page, include an alt-text description. This allows screen readers to say aloud what it is. For instance, I use book covers from publishers in almost every BooksYALove post, so I always include alt-text like “book cover of Cool Book by Great Author published by Fancy Publisher” – which also gets picked up by search engines.

Be sure to bookmark and refer to the checklists on the Website Accessibility Project’s site so that you can institute the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines recommended changes one at a time (and monitor how they affect your site for viewers). The very first one is providing text descriptions for non-text elements.

Read a brief background on color-blindness and web design here, then use some of the free online tools listed by Sitepoint here to check your site. Good color contrast when a website is greyscaled also helps older readers better distinguish things there.

Free and easy ways to help more people read what you’ve worked so hard to write!
What accessibility tips do you recommend?
**kmm

Make your hands happy – crafting books on Slow-Down Sunday

Jun7

With so much rush-rush and 24/7 connectivity, it’s good to sit back and work with our hands for a while.

Choose a time to give yourself permission to slow down and make something special – for yourself or for someone else (hint: Father’s Day is 2 weeks away).

Click on the title for my recommendation of these fun craft books to try new materials, new ideas, new techniques:

book cover of At Home With Handmade Books by Erin Zamrzla published by Shambhala Booksbook cover of Sticky Fingers by Sophie Maletsky published by Zest BooksAt Home With Handmade Books – think beyond plain white paper as you make books from shipping tags or use postcards as covers.

 

Grab your favorite colors and designs of duct-tape and let your Sticky Fingers craft new accessories and adornments.

What crafty creations would you like to try on a slow-down summer day?
**kmm

When Books Went to War, by Molly Guptill Manning (book review) – readers in WWII trenches

Jun5

book cover of When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning published by Houghton Mifflin HarcourtIn transports, tanks, and trenches,
packed into troopships and training camps,
ready to read while waiting to fight!

During World War II, librarians were determined to get books into soldiers’ hands. When publishers agreed to help, millions of pocket-sized Armed Services Editions of classics, plays, memoirs, and novels were eagerly shared by service people, sparking a reading culture that led to large participation in GI Bill higher education opportunities after the war’s end.

The ASE program also spurred the paperback publishing that we know today, you’ll learn from this fascinating book. The author provides a free excerpt here so you get a taste of her engaging prose style.

If you could only have a handful books with you during stressful times, as these fighters did, which titles would you choose?
**kmm

Book info: When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II / Molly Guptill Manning. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [author video interview] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Fighting World War II with more than bullets and bombs, an armada of pocket-sized free books created a positive “war of ideas” and values as they were eagerly read and shared by American soldiers and sailors around the globe.

Librarians began collecting books for American troops in the war’s early days, but couldn’t gather and ship enough suitable volumes for the demand. Working with publishers and authors, a compact format reprinting of classics, popular novels, memoirs, plays and other reading material was developed, using very small print and less paper.

The program put Armed Services Editions of over 1300 separate titles into the hands of countless soldiers, sailors, and airmen during its 3-year existence, with these pocket-books being shared and shared again all over the world.

This fascinating book recounting the history of these little books of big ideas also highlights the Council on Books in Wartime’s efforts to prevent censorship of ASE titles and the impact that this program had in preparing America’s fighters to become higher education students when the war ended.

 

Book Scavenger, by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman (book review) – books, puzzles & mysteries in San Francisco

Jun2

book cover of Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman published by Holt Books for Young ReadersMoving again? Another new school?
Oh, well – more places to hide books…
and to find the most unique book of all!

Emily wishes that she could be as laid-back as her big brother about her family’s constant moves, but at least San Francisco is headquarters of her favorite books-puzzles-searching game. Maybe she’ll find someone to search out hidden books with her, too.

Happy book birthday to Book Scavenger, filled with puzzles, books, bad guys, and the joys of friendship!

I’m happy to see that the author was inspired by Book Crossing, which encourages readers to ‘release books into the wild’ with BookCrossing ID labels so their travels can be logged in (fun and free!).

Read an excerpt here at publisher’s site for free, then go get your own  copy – anyone can play the Book Scavenger game (learn more here)! Let me know if you’ve been lucky enough to find one of the copies hidden in each of the 50 US states already!

What other book are you intent on sharing?
**kmm

Book info: Book Scavenger / Jennifer Chambliss Bertman, with illustrations by Sarah Watts. Holt Books For Young Readers, 2015.  [author site]  [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: If Emily’s family hadn’t moved to San Francisco, the 12 year old puzzle fan would never have met James or found The Gold-Bug book – or been chased by bad guys who attacked the creator of her favorite book game and will do anything to get that book!

Blame it on her parents’ blog about living in all 50 states – here Emily is in another new school. At least she can solve the Book Scavenger puzzles and find hidden books in beautiful San Francisco.

Luckily, James next door goes to her school and gets interested in Book Scavenger, so they team up with her big brother to find out who attacked the game’s creator Mr. Griswold, following puzzle clues all over town.

What’s different about this copy of The Gold-Bug?
Why do those non-literary thugs want it so badly?
Can they solve the mystery in this book before it’s too late for Mr. Griswold and before Mom and Dad decide to move again?

Filled with puzzles, tributes to authors in the City by the Bay, and lots of action, this adventure-mystery will have readers itching to disguise and hide books like Emily and James do. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Hello, Blogathon!

Jun1
sketch of book on computer screen by boxfordlibrary on openclipart.org

image courtesy of boxfordlibrary at https://openclipart.org/detail/174651/book-on-monitor

If it’s June, then it’s time for Freelance Success/WordCount Blogathon!

I’ll be posting every day in June to build up my blogging muscles and help clear out my to-be-reviewed bookshelf. On Thursdays, I’ll highlight the new pair of free audiobooks for download, a great service of @AudiobookSYNC.

We should have some theme days (gotta do haiku and word clouds, as in years past!), and I hope to have a guest reviewer or two who’ll share their no-spoilers recommendation of outstanding young adult books that you might have missed.

If you’re interested in writing a guest post, please give me a buzz at Katy@BooksYALove.com.

Happy June and happy reading, y’all!
**kmm

Is it Blogathon yet? Blog strong – every day of June!

May23
sketch of paper wrapped inkpen by Vinsche from OpenClipArt.org

image courtesy of Vinsche https://openclipart.org/detail/148327/paperpen

Is it June yet?
Can you haiku?
Wanna wordcloud?

Long-time BooksYALove readers (or any who show up this time of year) will recall that the WordCount Blogathon in May 2010 was the impetus for starting this book recommendation site. I set up my first Blogger site on April 30, then leapt into blogging on May 1, buoyed by how-to-do-this guidance from Michelle Rafter, some theme days to give structure to the month (31 whole days to fill!), and even guest posts.

Now, for my 6th year participating, I give big thanks in advance to Jeannie Phillips and the Freelance Success crew who are once again leading this supportive and enriching blogging experience, following Michelle’s lead.

If you want to build up your blogging muscles by posting every day of June (your choice of subject, of course), be sure to sign up by May 31 here, then reply to the email that Jeannie sends you. Also, like the 2015 Freelance Success/Wordcount Blogathon Facebook page where participants will share blog post links, find new blogs to follow, and seek guest bloggers.

It’s free!
Participants who post every day of June can win prizes!
And you’ll love the theme days, camaraderie, new followers, and sense of accomplishment that participating in this blog challenge brings.

C’mon over! Sign up here and blog along with us!

**kmm