Carnival of Children’s Literature: A February Round-Up and More

It’s the end of February and as per usual we are doing a round-up of the activities that we have done for the month. This shall be our contribution to the Carnival of Children’s Literature hosted this month by Margo from The Fourth Musketeer.

Circus, Carnivale, Paranormal Twists

Since our theme would extend until the 10th of March, I will hold off doing a round-up for this one and postpone it instead for end of March when we make a list of books that have Circus, Carnivale and Paranormal Twists. We would just be sharing with you a few updates from our Academic Nook, Quill Junior and Illustrator Interviews.

Haunting Truths (or Love, Life and Light From Stories of Demons, Decay and Darkness) by Mitch Ong, Ph.D. Cand.

A Video Review by 4 year old Rio Aguirre – Olivia Forms a Band by Ian Falconer

As part of the Sydney Taylor Honor Award Blog Tour, we also interviewed Anne Timmons and Mo Oh. Our interview with these two award-winning illustrators can be found here.

Black History Month

Since February is Black History Month, we decided to join the international community in celebrating this time of diversity through highlighting African American literature from 20-27 February 2012. Here are some of the titles that we have reviewed. Click on the thumbnail image to be taken to our reviews.

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford and Illustrated by Kadir Nelson

Coming On Home Soon by Jacqueline Woodson and Illustrated by E. B. Lewis

Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold – as reviewed by Fats

Cornrows by Camille Yarbrough and Carole Byard – as reviewed by Fats

Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale by John Steptoe

Mirandy and Brother Wind by Patricia McKissack and Illustrations by Jerry Pinkney – reviewed by Fats

My Hands Sing the Blues: Romare Bearden’s Childhood Journey by Jeanne Walker Harvey and Illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon

Blog Memes – February Edition

We do take part in quite a number of blog memes in the kidlitosphere and the YA blogosphere. Here is a summary of our posts this January.

1. IMM (32): B & N Post Holiday Sale
2. IMM (33): Library Loot and books for Black History Month
3. IMM (34): More Book Bargains and Library Love
4. IMM (35): The Day I Said I Would Not Go Online Shopping
5. IMM (36): Bargain Books Are Love

1. Little Rabbit and the Meanest Mother on Earth by the Kate Klise and M. Sarah Klise
2. Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
3. Dracula adapted by Nicky Raven and Illustrated by Anne Yvonne Gilbert
4. Coming on Home Soon by Jacqueline Woodson and Illustrated by E. B. Lewis

1. Shel Silverstein’s He Tried to Hide
2. Circus! Circus! Poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and Illustrated by John O’Brien
3. The Day the Saucers Came by Neil Gaiman
4. Poetry Friday Round-Up
5. Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman and India Arie’s Because I am a Queen

Reading Challenges 2012

365 Reading Challenge. We continue with our tradition of documenting the books we have read for the year and making sure that collectively, the three of us should be able to read 365 books this 2012. Here are the books we have read for January/February of this year. So far, here are the numbers:

• January – 30
• February
  • Myra – 17 books
  • Iphigene – 5 books
  • Fats – 11 books
  • Total: 33 books
• Grand Total: 63

We need to read 302 more books til end of December to complete our own personal challenge. Here’s our running update for the other reading challenges we have participated in for the year:

• Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: 5 of 12
• Picture Book Challenge: 29 of 120
• AWB Reading Challenge:  17 of 35
• Caldecott Challenge: 5 of 24
• Reading the World Challenge: 1 of 7
• Persons-of-Color Reading Challenge: 7 of 25
• Novels in Verse Reading Challenge: 3 of 10 (no progress since last month)
• No progress in the following challenges: Newbery Medal Challenge and Immigrant Stories Challenge

**!Award-Winning-Books Reading Challenge Winner!**

And our winner for the AWB Reading Challenge this February is Amy from Hope is the Word for her review of Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray. Congratulations, Amy!

To our winner, Amy, please choose from the remaining available prizes here. I also invite everyone to go over Amy’s blog which contains a wealth of resources on children’s literature and YA fiction.

Many thanks again to Pansing Books for donating the book prizes. Please visit our AWB Database  if you wish to check out other reviews this February from the participants of the reading challenge. Everyone is welcome to sign-up for the reading challenge which is still ongoing. Join us!