MotherReader

This is a strange morning for me, sitting here waiting for the ALA Youth Media Awards to begin. With the conference being on the west coast, the announcements won’t begin until 10:45 a.m. EST. What to do for the next hour?

I certainly could fit in a little blog reading — and commenting — before all the fun begins. With a full day on Saturday and a head cold on Sunday, I haven’t been online that much. But I suspect that will change today as I follow the excitement in the book world around the Internet.

I can take a moment to remind everyone that it is certainly not too late to join Comment Challenge 2011. In fact, I hope that the influx of librarian folk will bring us up to a hundred participants, and maybe beyond. If it seems hard to catch up, just think of all the places you’ll be able to comment today. Oh, especially if this is one of those years of real out-of-nowhere books. We are kind of due for that.

I won’t get into discussions of the Arizona tragedy. I am relieved somewhat that the gunman was not a Tea Party follower, because I think that direct connection would have been too much to bear and even more divisive. However, I still stand on the idea that the hateful, incendiary rhetoric of the times is destructive and dangerous. I can only hope that this horrible event will bring us closer to understanding that it is time to take it down a notch — for America.

But for now, I’ll be distracted by setting up my computer to watch the awards and getting warmed up for the discussion to follow them.