MotherReader

As folks return from their vacations, it’s time for a total reminder about the KidLitosphere Conference, taking place on October 17th, 2009, in Washington, DC. The conference is open to bloggers — and wannabe bloggers — in children’s and young adult literature — which includes YA/Kidlit authors, illustrators, editors, and publishers who blog or would like to blog.

The day starts with breakfast from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m, where you can catch up with old friends or meet new ones. The sessions go from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and will cover:

• The Blog Within: An Interview With Your Inner Blogger
  
• Building a Better Blog: Best Practices, Ideas, and Tips
  
• Split Reviewer/Author Sessions:
  It’s All About the Book: Better Book Reviews
  It’s Not About Your Book: Writing Ideas for Blogging Authors
  
• Split Reviewer/Author Sessions:
  Social Networking for Fun (and Profit?)
  
• Authors, Publishers, Reviewers (and ARCs): A Panel Conversation
  
• Coming Together, Giving Back: Building Community, Literacy, and the Reading Message (KidLitosphere Central/PBS/RIF/Literacy)

There will also be a “Meet the Author” time during the day, where writers and illustrators can share their books. A fun dinner to mix and mingle is scheduled for 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. with the continuing party moving to the hotel bar. The registration fee for all of this — including the breakfast and dinner — is only $100. It’s a total bargain.

We have tour of the Library of Congress scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon and a tour of the children's section at 3:00. On Friday evening, we’ll gather for dinner near the hotel around 6:00 p.m. Sunday’s expedition may involve a local DC bookstore, Politics and Prose. We're still working on the details.

Rooms are currently on hold at the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel for the amazing rate of $109 a night. They will only be held until September 16th, and if our block is filled before then, that low rate may not be available.

It should be noted that the hotel is a mile from National Airport and free shuttle service is available. A Metro Station is on the same block, allowing travel to Washington in minutes. In fact, downtown DC is only two miles away. The hotel is right next to the Crystal City Shops and a few blocks from the upscale Fashion Center at Pentagon City. If you want more information about the hotel, visit the website of the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel.

The registration form is available at KidLitosphere Central. There are a limited number of spaces available, so please sign up soon. Here are some of the bloggers who will be coming to the conference:

• Abby — Abby (the) Librarian
  
• Sarah — Archimedes Forgets
  
• Jennie — Biblio File
  
• Melissa — Book Nut
  
• Rachel — BookPikks
  
• Anamaria — Books Together
  
• Kim — Bugs and Bunnies
  
• Liz — A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy
  
• Charlotte — Charlotte’s Library
  
• Maureen — Confessions of a Bibliovore
  
• Carrie — Dog Eared and Well Read
  
• Amanda — The Fictionistas
  
• Michelle — Galleysmith
  
• Greg — Gotta Book, Happy Accident
  
• Lara and Julie — Grow Up with Books
  
• Jen — Jen Robinson’s Book Page
  
• Alicia —LibrariYAn
  
• Bill and Karen — Literate Lives
  
• Tricia — Miss Rumphius Effect
  
• Pam — MotherReader
  
• Alexa — Not Enough Bookshelves
  
• Gina and Ann — PBS Booklights
  
• Paula — Pink Me
  
• Laura — Pinot and Prose
  
• Terry — Reading Tub
  
• Wendy — Six Boxes of Books
  
• Sondy — Sonderbooks
  
• Dawn — Teaching with Picture Books
  
• Sheila — Wands and Worlds
  
• Jill — Well Read Child
  
• Wendy — Wendy on the Web
  
• Susan — Wizards Wireless
  
• Kelly — Writing and Ruminating
  
• Mary Lee — A Year of Reading

And authors and publishers including:

• Sally Anderson — Mother Goose Programs
  
• Pam Bachorz — Candor
  
• Ernestine Benedict — Reading Is Fundamental
  
• Mary Bowman-Kruhm — The Leakeys: A Biography; Busy Fingers; Busy Toes
  
• Tami Lewis Brown — Soar, Elinor!
  
• Paula Chase-Hyman — Who Are You Wit'? That's What's Up! Flipping the Script
  
• Susan Cheng — Tor Books
  
• Sue Corbett —Last Newspaper Boy in America, Free Baseball, 12 Again
  
• Cynthia Cotten —Rain Play, Some Babies Sleep, Fair Has Nothing to Do With It
  
• Moira Rose Donohue —Penny and the Punctuation Bee, Alfie the Apostrophe
  
• Tracey Daniels — Media Masters Publicity
  
• Dee Garretson —Escape from Camp David
  
• Olgy Gary —Children Come First
  
• Sharon Hancock —Candlewick Press
  
• Helen Hemphill —Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones, Long Gone Daddy, Runaround
  
• Joan Holub — Groundhog Weather School; Shampoodle; Knuckleheads
  
• Caroline Hickey — Cassie Was Here; Isabelle's Boyfriend
  
• Sara Lewis Holmes — Letters for Rapunzel; Operation YES
  
• Jennifer Hubbard — The Secret Year
  
• Varian Johnson —My Life as a Rhombus, Saving Maddie
  
• Jacqueline Jules —Duck for Turkey Day, Unite or Die, No English
  
• Wendy Martin —Mother Goose Programs
  
• Diana Peterfreund — Tap & Gown, Rampant
  
• Wendie Old —To Fly; The Wright Brothers;
  
• Lisa Paul —Lands Atlantic Publishing
  
• Candace Ransom —Tractor Day, Giant in the Garden, Magician in the Trunk
  
• Jama Rattigan —Dumpling Soup, Woman in the Moon, Truman's Aunt Farm
  
• Madelyn Ruth Rosenberg — Freelance writer
  
• Justine Rowden — Paint Me a Poem
  
• Marisa Russell — HarperCollins
  
• Elizabeth Scott —Something, Maybe; Love You Hate You Miss You; Living Dead Girl; Stealing Heaven
  
• Wendy Shang — Freelance writer
  
• Shelena Shorts —The Pace, The Broken Lake
  
• Laurel Snyder — Any Which Wall; Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains; Inside the Slidy Diner
  
• Sarah Sullivan — Passing The Music Down; Root Beer and Banana; Dear Baby: Letters from Your Big Brother
  
• Amy Thomas — Burning Money