Elizabeth Bird's blog & top 100 books lists...

Oh, I've come across a wonderful blog which I can't wait to share with you - please check it out if you haven't seen it already !

Elizabeth Bird writes a blog at School Library Journal called Fuse # 8 - so many great reviews, news, links and wonderful insightful comments... It is a bountiful blog which I am really enjoying exploring...

Elizabeth is a children's librarian at the Children's Center at 42nd Street of the New York Public Library system.
Here is a link to her blog : http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1790000379.html

At the beginning of this year, Elizabeth Bird asked her readers to tell her, in order of importance, the children's books that "changed their lives"... their top ten children's novels of all time...

What she has collated isn't just a list of titles though - along with the title, author and date of publication are some of the passionate and personal nominations by readers, a synopsis of the story, it's reception and reviews, context and controversy, links to author interviews, teacher's guides where available, websites, various covers and editions chronologically and internationally, awards, movie and tv trailers, and links to websites, youtube videos and blogs where relevant. I think it is a FANTASTIC resource and am loving the countdown - so many of my own favourites but also others I want to get on and read...

Here is the link to the first post - Top 100 Children's Novels : Books 100 - 91, working backwards towards number 1.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1790000379/post/1190052519.html

The year before, 2009, Elizabeth did a poll on the Top 100 Picture Books - here is the link http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1790000379/post/500042850.html and you can see the whole list at once as well as exploring each title... How many have you read ?

A poll like this could be something you do in your school, and if you have a school library blog, picking a book title and building a rich resource around it with all the background and links et would be a good way to promote resources...

As well as these lists, Elizabeth's blog has heaps of reviews, links to "kidlit bloggers" she likes and author / illustrator blogs, and even the comments are usually good value too, from fellow children's literature enthusiasts.