Round up for September and Carnival of Children’s Literature

This is the third time that we are joining the Carnival of Children’s Literature which is being hosted this month by Texas Librarian. This would also function as our round-up post for September. And since we usually post our round-up a little earlier than usual, we do have a few tidbits left here and there from the previous month that we have to take into account.

Fragments from our Fractured Fairy Tale Special

For our July and August theme, we have reviewed a number of fractured fairy tales. During the tail-end of August and first few days of September, we continued to share a few more. Here they are:

• Rapunzel by Rachel Isadora, Hansel and Gretel by Rachel Isadora, The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Rachel Isadora
• The Girl who Spun Gold by Virginia Hamilton and Leo and Diane Dillon
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Lauren Child
• Little Red: A Fizzingly Good Yarn by Lynn Roberts and David Roberts
• Rumpelstiltskin by Paul O. Zelinsky
• The Three Little Pigs by Frank Muir and Graham Philpot; Goldilocks and the three Bears by Frank Muir and Graham Philpot; Jack and the Beanstalk by Frank Muir and Graham Philpot

Dahl and Magical Theme for September and October

We also announced during the first week of September that we would be featuring not only Roald Dahl’s works but also books that speak about magic and enchantment. We would also be doing an every-other-Wednesday trivia post about Roald Dahl. Here are some of our reviews and posts so far:

• The Garden of Abdul Gasazi by Chris Van Allsburg
• Tidbits and Trivia about Roald Dahl
• Instructions by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess

Reading Challenge Update

Here’s our update for September:

• Picture Book Reading Challenge Update: 115 out of 120 – 5 more books to go! Yipee! Great progress, if I may say so myself.
• Persons of Color Reading Challenge Update: 46 (out of targeted 25) – While technically finished, we wish to add our reviews to the PoC’s existing database – so we continue to participate and share our reviews.
• Murakami Reading Challenge Update: 2 of 7 – still the same figure as last month’s. Sadly we have made little progress in this one.
• South Asian Challenge Update: 4 of 7 – same figure as August. No progress with this one. Hmm.. Should address this soon.

365 Reading Project: 2011

As Iphigene has indicated in our September/October page, it is no longer a race to reach 365 books within the year. We have reached our mark – yipee! The challenge is now how many books we would be able to finish reading by end of year.

• January-February – 94 books
• March-April – 96 books
• May-June – 62 books
• July-August: 105 books
• September
• Myra – 12 books
• Iphigene – 11 books
• Fats – 20 books for August, 6 books for September = 26 books in total
• Total: 49 books
• Grand Total: 406 books

Unbelievable. What an amazing journey this 365 Reading Challenge has taken us. I wonder how many books in total we would have read by end of 2011.

Quill Junior

This September, it brings us great pleasure that our GatheringBooks Quill Junior Contributor, 9 year old Carissa Yeo has actually reviewed a book that fits our Dahl and Magical theme. Here is her review on Roald Dahl’s The Magic Finger.

Poet’s Sanctum

This September and October, it brings us great honor to feature Professor Gemino H Abad whose poems we share during Poetry Fridays.

Here are some of our posts for the month of September:

• An Introduction to Gemino H Abad – guest posting by Dax Cutab
• Gemino Abad’s In Ordinary Time and the much-coveted Premio Feronia Award

Blog Meme and the Kidlitosphere

We continue being active in the kidlitosphere and the blogosphere through our participation in several themed-days as hosted by wonderful bloggers/ librarians/ bibliophiles as could be seen below.

Nonfiction Monday

• The Journey that Saved Curious George by Louise Borden
• Duke Ellington by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney
• Odd Boy Out by Don Brown

Book Talk Tuesday

• A 3-in-1 Rachel Isadora Special
• A Frank Muir and Graham Philpot 3-in-1 Special

Teaser Tuesday

We also thought of giving another meme – Teaser Tuesday – a try. This one is hosted by Miz B from ShouldBeReading.

• Teaser Tuesday: GatheringBooks Joins In!
• Graphic Novel, YA Love, and Poetry

Interview Wednesday

We are happy and privileged to feature award-winning and prolific Australian YA Author, Ken Spillman for the months of September and October. We have featured the first tidbit of our 4-part Feature on him:

• All about Ken Spillman – Part One of Four

In My Mailbox

Here are some of our posts and recent buys for the month of September. In My Mailbox, hosted by The Story Siren is also one good way for us to keep track of books that we have bought, borrowed from the library, or received from generous friends.

• Titles from the Science Fiction Book Club
• More Titles from Borders and the Discovery of a New Thrift Store
• Library Love
• Quick stop at Barnes and Noble
• More Library Love