The Morning RSS - Wednesday 7 February 2024
A collection of share-worthy items from our morning blog scroll.
We have to do something to keep us busy until next weekās announcements ā¦ so why not do a round-up?
For Writers & Creators
- has a newsletter series called Picture Books 101. If you are writing for children, Debbie is the gal to follow. She is all about community and she has is always sharing her knowledge with others.
Do you subscribe to
? Darcy Pattersonās new newsletter is all about self-publishing books for young readers. Hold that thought and read it when you have time to inhale all the good stuff.How would you visually re-imagine a Newbery Award-winning book? Thatās the question posed every year for the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. Now in its 13th year, kid filmmakers ācreate super-short movies that tell the entire stories of Newbery-winning books in just a few minutesāpreferably with a fun twist.ā There are live screenings with real live kidlit authors, too! Learn all about it [and see a few samples from yesteryear] here.
Whatās in a book rating? Rachel Brittain answers that question in her post The Most Underrated Sci-Fi Books on Goodreads (via Book Riot)
New Books & Book Lists
Speaking of Sci-Fi ā¦ Liberty Hardy shares 8 Rad New SFF Books Out February 2024. She says āthereās magic, robots, supernatural creatures, fantasy, and more on these pages.ā [also at Book Riot]
Hey audiobook lovers, this oneās for you: The 2024 Audies Finalists have been announced. Find the books in your favorite genre, see if your favorite fiction or nonfiction narrator is on the list, check to see if youāve read ābest of the yearā finalists. Full list here on the Audio Publishers Association website.
Rainbow Reads for Kids has just published a list with their 24 most anticipated LGBTQ+ Childrenās Reads for 2024. We personally love that the first book listed is poetry and the second one nonfiction. Young readers these days have the best books.
Book Bans & Censorship
For 2024, weāre going to flip the perspective on book bans and censorship. Instead of sharing the head-shaking news, weāre going to share head-nodding ideas!
Y-A-S! Another state on the book access wagon: Washington, with pending legislation in both the local House of Representatives and the Senate. The bills focus on school libraries, but there is similar legislation for public libraries also in the works. Read all about it in this edition of Literary Activism.
Do you know about Authors Against Book Bans? We didnāt until we read
ās newsletter Bartography Express.
Other Bookish Stuff
While bans continue to be a problem that we need to fight against, the positive news is that it seems the publishing world is bringing us more consistent and varied LGBTQ+ representation in middle grade fiction. ~ Rachel Rosenberg
Rachelās post at
is a gold mine! Yes, there are numbers to back the trends, but the best part? Itās a ready-made booklist of recommended titles for your queer middle-grade bookshelf. Check it out: Just How Much Has LGBTQ+ Representation Grown in Middle Grade In The Last Half Decade?Hereās hoping that your February is off to a great start! ~ Team CYBILS