I’ve always loved school librarians. How much? When I was in eighth grade, I chose “library helper” over art class as my elective so I could spend more time in the school library with the librarian. (Okay, I also loved having first dibs on the new book arrivals while they were still in pristine condition before anyone else got their grimy hands on them.) Therefore it should come as no big surprise that a blog over at the School Library Journal’s website called A Fuse #8 Production should nab this week’s coveted Friday Find spot.

Elizabeth Bird, a children’s librarian at the Children’s Center at the 42nd Street of the New York Public Library system, blogs on the School Library Journal website. While her blog is filled with many great resources related to children’s literature, what really grabbed my attention is her current series of posts that report the results of a poll of her readers to find their Top 100 Children’s Novels. Starting at the bottom of the list and working her way toward the #1 spot, every day she metes out reviews, comments, fun facts, cover photos and more on five titles, and every day I check to see what five books came up next on the list.

As Elizabeth explains in her first post of the series:

So as we embark on this massive countdown, I would like to remind all of you that there will be many emotional humps and surprises along the way. There are heroes and villains here. I guarantee that in the course of the countdown you will see one book that makes you boo, and another that makes you cheer, perhaps in the same post. This is a passionate list. There are books included here that I adore and there are definitely books here that I abhor. My job is to never show the difference. So sit back and get ready to complain or cheer in turns. It’s totally within your rights.

We’re currently about halfway through the list, and I’m so anxious and excited to find out what books are at the top. Aren’t you?

Learn more

Visit A Fuse #8 Production blog at the School Library Journal website.

Wondering what makes Elizabeth (Betsy!) Bird’s blog so darned good? There’s an interesting analysis at The Value of Blogging, a post found at Dan Blank: Publishing, Innovation & the Web.

Follow the School Library Journal (@sljournal) on Twitter.

Want to read about more Friday Finds?

As parents, we’re always looking for ways to help our children develop those crucial literacy skills that they need to be successful in life. Cheerios would like to help us work toward that goal with their Spoonfuls of Stories program. I first learned of the Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories program on their Facebook page “where reading, nutrition and you come together.” I clicked on over to the program’s main website where I learned that,

Cheerios’ commitment to kids doesn’t stop with breakfast. Reading is a key building block for learning and life. That’s why we created the Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories® program to help get books into kids’ hands and encourage parents and kids to read together.

There are a couple of reasons why I chose Spoonfuls of Stories as this week’s Friday Find. First of all, they have given away more than 40 million high-quality new books to children by placing them inside specially marked packages of Cheerios. That’s right, 40 million books! And when I say high-quality books, I mean award-winning books like All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon and Marla Frazee:

Here’s the book trailer for All the World:

As if that weren’t enough, Cheerios is also sponsoring First Book, a non-profit literacy organization that provides new books to children in need. They’ve already donated more than $3.2 million to the organization. In addition, they are hosting a 6 Million Minutes Read-a-Thon and challenging parents to read to their children for 15 minutes a day. Once they reach the 6 million minutes mark, Cheerios will donate 250,000 books to First Book.

There’s just something about a big, corporate entity giving back to the community that warms my heart. Hurray for Cheerios’ Spoonful of Stories and thank you for your commitment to nurturing the whole child.

For the debut of our new Friday Find feature, we have selected NextInLearning.com, a blog by the people at Wizz-e.com, the award winning publisher of interactive eBooks for children. I learned of the NextInLearning.com blog when a Twitter post by Jeanette McLeod, one of the publishers at Wizz-e, caught my eye:

Children who blog, text, use social networking websites more confident writers: National Literacy Trust http://www.nextinlearning.com

Fascinating! I quickly retweeted and began following Jeanette on Twitter (who very promptly sent me a DM introducing herself) and from there explored her blog and her ebook site. According to the blog’s About Us section,

Next In Learning is a platform from where we will shine the light on what’s next in learning for our young ones. The blog is a product of Wizz-e.com, an online community which strives to instill the love of learning and reading by providing top quality eBooks for children.

But more important than who we are, is our mission to make learning accessible and fun for the new generation.

So, who should be paying close attention? Parents and Educators.

I agree, we should be paying attention. The intersection of technology and education is where it’s at (so to speak) for our children, and it’s people like Jeanette who will help us stay on top of things. Thank you!