105 Ways to Give a Book

November Carnival of Children’s Literature and Tips

Are you ready for a Carnival? I know I am. I’ll be hosting the November Carnival of Children’s Literature and I’ll be looking for your submissions through my email (using the ever-exciting Email MotherReader! button) or through the Carnival site. There is a theme and it is...

Wait. Let me introduce it this way. (Readers who like to get to the point can skip the next two paragraphs.) As a mother, I feel like I have lots of knowledge to share, but it tends to come out in clichés. Nap when the newborn naps. Pick your battles. Homework before playtime. The hints are true, but so general as to not really be helpful. But if I had to pick one specific tip, one lesson learned, there’s one at the ready. Buy your child’s violin on eBay.

See, I rented a half-sized violin for a year to the tune of $250. Of course, the rental goes toward a violin over, like, a period of years, but it didn’t seem like a good deal to me. But what could I do? Apparently, violins cost hundreds of dollars. Made sense to me. Except that they don’t necessarily cost hundreds of dollars, since I was able to buy a new 3/4-size and later a full-sized violin for about sixty bucks each, including shipping. They were both new and both from a music store. I assume that they are not of the highest quality, but as long as their construction didn’t involve rubber bands and they weren’t stamped with Fisher Price on the side, they are good enough for us.

Back to the Carnival theme. For this month I want a tip as a reader, writer, illustrator, reviewer, publisher, or editor of children’s literature. I want a lesson learned from a teacher, librarian, author, or parent with regards to kids’ lit. It doesn’t have to be a post that you did in November or October, though you may consider tweaking and re-posting an older entry to use. You can pick a post from any point this year. The deadline for submission is Saturday, November 24th, and I’ll post the Carnival on Wednesday, November 29th. Send your links through my email or the Carnival site — and please indicate, if possible, whether the tip/trick/hint is more for reader, writer, illustrator, reviewer, publisher, editor, teacher, librarian, or parent. (Yes, I know that there is plenty of overlap, but it would save time for me in organizing the posts if the suggested category were included with your link.)

For today, just for fun, share a tip in the comments. Any tip to save time, money, or energy. Frankly, I’ve been having a little bout of the blog crisis flu and could use a little comment noodle soup to make me blog-healthy again.

16 comments:

MotherReader said...

I'll even add another tip to get the ball rolling. One of my new favorite food things is these new packages of rice that can be put in the microwave and ready in 90 seconds. They're not cheap compared to regular rice, but there are times that they have saved my butt, dinner-wise.

Sara said...

My friend, Donna, posted some hi-larious "redneck parenting tips" for Halloween. http://donnakoppelman.blogspot.com/2007/10/trick-or-treat.html

So my tip is: always have friends that are smarter and funnier than you. (That includes you, too, MotherReader. I LOVED your article in The Edge of the Forest.)

Megan Germano said...

Sorry I don't really have a tip, but I need some help here. I always tell my kids to ask when they don't understand, so I am going to follow my own advice. I am confused on the theme for the carnival. Is there any way you could explain it to me differently to help me understand better? Sorry if this is a dumb question.

Anonymous said...

Not you too with the blog flu! Oh, no. To get well, you must log off the computer and read lots of books.

I wish I knew a good tip for you, MR. Um, get chickens? They're really funny. Our rooster answers the barking puppy next door.

Kelly said...

Hmmm...

I'm still thinking about your ebay tip, MR. I have a violinist playing a 1/4size and I'm still renting.

How about "Kids are on their own for breakfast." Does that count as a tip or just basic cruelty?

Melissa said...

I'm a big "do one thing a day"er. One load of laundry. One event per day during the Christmas season. One extracurricular activity (ah, that's a per week, thing). Keeps my sanity. The only thing I can't seem to do is read one book per day.

MotherReader said...

Oh, there are no dumb questions, Megan. (Though "Where are the copiers in your library?" when they are clearly right behind the patron, does come very, very close.)

Theme explanation:

This post from Big A on writerly tricks is perfect. Or my own post not long ago about booktalking to teens. Or Sara's post about the process of writing a poem. Robin Brande had a post about writers and money that was very helpful. If you review books, do you have a special way to keep track of things? If your an editor, is there something you could let potential authors know about?

I want to keep it broad, but anything that shapes what you do, tricks you've learned along the way, what you'd want to share with others in the kid lit community.

tanita✿davis said...

Allow yourself Do-Overs.
Since you're one of the most balanced persons I know, I won't include the second of those tips, which is usually, "If it's not fun, don't do it." Usually, you've got that one down...

Jen Robinson said...

I'm going to steal from Robin Brande for a tip for the week: get rid of shoulds. Personally, I'm trying to classify things that I must do and things that I want to do, and focus on those. The shoulds that aren't fun ... bah humbug, I say.

I like this theme, Pam. I think I'm going to have to work on a new post for it, but that's ok. I mean, I want to, it's not like I "should."

Good luck with the blog crisis flu. Mine is pretty well over, but it can take a while...

Kelly said...

WooHoo, Pam! I was thinking, "what the hell will I submit?" Now you've told me :)

Sara said...

Make that another Woo-hoo. Consider my post submitted. Okay, I'll run over and do it officially, but you know what I mean.

AMY T said...

My favorite recently found cleaning tip: to clean the microwave, put a cup of 1/3 lemon juice and 2/3 water in a glass and microwave it for a minute. beep. then simply wipe down all the surfaces inside the microwave. WAA LAA-- Easy Clean Microwave.

Megan Germano said...

Okay, I get it better now. I am going to really have to think on it, but I will come up with something.

Susan Taylor Brown said...

Oh what a great theme! I was laughing and feeling better myself just reading your comments. I'm floundering in so many places and so many ways that I don't feel like I have any tips worth sharing.

All I've got for now is that having breakfast for dinner is often a lifesaver for me.

Andromeda Jazmon said...

Oh I love that violin tip. I am going to do that for sure. (I have a five year old begging for a violin). Now can you get a good violin teacher on ebay? Just kidding. I would never say that about a teacher. I AM a teacher. I wouldn't want anyone looking for one of me on ebay.

nomi said...

When you spend too much time doing things you prefer, and company is coming, just pick things up and blow, instead of dusting. Looks better. Just be sure to put things back in the same place. Wonderful tips like these often make me realize that it takes nearly as long to do it the crummy way. Maybe I'll think of a real tip later. I'm off to think about the carnival!