Now Entering the Blogosphere…
Hi all,
I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a children’s literature blog for several months. Seems like there are homeschool blogs and kid lit blogs, and some traffic between them (Yea for Melissa Wiley at Bonny Glen!). And now, there’s a little more traffic, me: Marta Ferguson, freelance writer and editor, homeschool mama.
Seems like I’m always churning over article ideas in my head or on paper–and I thought that blogging some of that prewriting might prove useful to other folks interested in the same issues. And, of course, useful to me in shaping the articles. Blogging on something like *Strategies for Wordless Picture Books* before I submit an article query might, for example, help me figure out that a)Big Important Magazine X just ran an article on the same thing; b)hey, there’s a new e-zine devoted exclusively to your topic; c)there’s lots more approaches than I had seen or considered; or d)the topic is a total yawner.
So, provided all’s well in the household, I’ll be blogging about once a week. I’d love some feedback from homeschoolers on what you’d like to know about children’s literature and some feedback from the kidlitosphere on what you think homeschoolers need to know about kid lit.
BTW, I’m new to the whole blog interface, so if anything seems amiss, please let me know.
Peace,
;-)M
Homeschool Kid Lit 
Why aren’t picture books more worldwide? Beautifully drawn books or books with universal themes (“Everyone Poops”, anyone?) ought to do as well with young children on one continent as another. Or are picture books mostly a phenomenon of the developed world?
Amdijefri
January 10, 2007
Yeah, Marta! I look forward to reading more.
Elaine
January 10, 2007
Marta
This is great. I’ll definitely be checking in!
Michelle
January 10, 2007
Hi Marta! Great blog idea! With my 3yo it is hard to know what to look for. I never know what will interest her at any given moment. 😉 But with my 9yo, I give preference to books that I can find prewritten quizzes for. He is such an avid reader that I can’t keep up with him. But I find I need to check to see that he is comprehending what he is reading. 🙂
I’ll be a frequent reader here!
Hope
January 10, 2007
Hey Hope,
Did you know that lots of the bigger publishers are getting into automatically printing reading/discussion guides with their trade books? I found out about it when one of the small presses I work with starting doing it. You might have to fish around a little bit, but both the Random House and Penguin sites (other publishers too, though I just verified these two) offer lots of extras for their tradebooks–interviews with the author, discussion questions, teaser summaries of other books by the same author or in the same genre.
Have fun!
;-)M
Marta
January 10, 2007
Congratulations on Homeschool Kid Lit! It’s a great idea, and I look forward to keeping up with the blog. As a mom of second-grader in public school, I’ve enjoyed the back-and-forth between the kid-lit and homeschool blogs.
Welcome to blog-ville.
Susan Thomsen
January 10, 2007
Welcome! We are also unschoolers. What age(s) is/are your kid(s)? Wow, dig that impossible sentence.
Wendy
February 8, 2007
Hey, welcome to the neighborhood!
Sheila Ruth
February 8, 2007
Hi there, Marta — I’m late to the welcoming party, but as an unschooling dad and children’s writer, I sure am glad you’re here!
Chris Barton
February 9, 2007