Carnival of Children’s Literature and Round-up for August

This is my first round-up post since Iphigene is a bit tied at the moment. We are also doing this a few days early so that we can likewise join the Carnival of Children’s Literature which is being hosted this month by Great Kid Books.

Fractured Fairy Tale Special

We have reviewed quite a number of fractured fairy tales for this month and we will be extending this ’til the first week of September so do watch out for other exciting titles that we have in store for you. In August though, here are the links to our reviews:

• The Good Little Wolf by Nadia Shireen
• Images of Beauty (The Ugly Duckling and Beauty and the Beast) by A. A. Milne and Marianna Mayer
• Cinder Edna by Ellen Jackson and Illustrated by Kevin O’Malley
• Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
• Cinder-Elly by Frances Minters and G. Brian Karas
• Sleeping Bobby by Will and Mary Pope Osborne and illustrated by Giselle Potter
• Wingless by Paro Anand and Illustrated by Atanu Roy
• Once Upon a Fairy Tale, a Benefit for the Starbright Foundation
• Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox and Lydia Monks
• Charles Perrault’s Cinderella as Illustrated by Kveta Pacovska

Reading Challenge Update

Since we were ambitious at the beginning of the year, we thought that we could take on FOUR reading challenges, we are doing good so far (ok, some better than others). And here are our numbers.

• Picture Book Reading Challenge Update: 99 out of 120 – I must confess that this is my favorite reading challenge. Lovelovelove picturebooks!
• Persons of Color Reading Challenge Update: 41 (out of targeted 25) – we have long since completed this challenge so we are just including our links as part of the PoC’s database – and to hopefully win a few more book prizes (teehee).
• Murakami Reading Challenge Update: 2 of 7 (check out Iphigene’s review on What I talk about when I talk about Running) – this reminds me I need to help Iphigene on this one
• South Asian Challenge Update: 4 of 7 (finally, I was able to post something here with Paro Anand and Atanu Roy’s Wing Less).

365 Reading Project: 2011

We never seem to run out of creative ideas here in GatheringBooks – and I am very happy that my two lovely ladies indulge me with these bursts of creative insights. One such idea is our intention to collectively read 365 books for 2011. Here is our progress so far:

• January-February – 94 books
• March-April – 96 books
• May-June – 62 books
• July: 65 books
• August
• Myra – 37 books
• Iphigene – 3 books
• [Fats – To be Announced and posted in September]
• Total: 40 books
  
  

This means that for eight months, the three of us were able to read 357 books in all. We would then need to read 8 more books in the next four months to reach our 365 goal. Dare I claim that we might even exceed our 365 Target! That’d be awesome. Let’s keep our fingers crossed with that one.

Quill Junior

We are privileged to continually represent children’s fresh young voices in our site. We try to publish one post from a tweener, teenager, a child’s voice every 7th of the month. Click here for more details.

For August, our GatheringBooks Quill Junior Contributor is Nurul Iiman Bte Said, a 15 year old girl from Hougang Secondary School in Singapore. Here is her review entitled: “Mighty Men – Heroes who Made a Difference.“

Poet’s Sanctum

For the months of July and August, we are privileged to feature Tita Lacambra Ayala’s Poetry which we share during Poetry Fridays. Here are some of our posts for the month of August:

• A Brief Conversation with Tita Lacambra Ayala (posted during the latter part of July)
• The Handcrafted Poetry in Tala Mundi
• Suite Saxophone Windows of Tala Mundi
• Suites Ungarbled and Pearl and Blue Raincoat
• Suite Hip of the Earth from Tala Mundi

Blog Meme and the Kidlitosphere

We continue being active in the kidlitosphere and the blogosphere through our participation in themed-days as hosted by wonderful bloggers/ librarians/ bibliophiles as could be seen below.

Nonfiction Monday

• Who’s Horrible in History by Terry Deary and Martin Brown
• Mighty Men by Low Jat Leng
• What I talk about when I talk about Running by Haruki Murakami
• Rosa by Nikki Giovanni and Bryan Collier

Book Talk Tuesday

• Beyond the Flesh: A Discussion of Beauty in A. A. Milne and Marianna Mayer’s Images of Beauty
• Exploring Life’s Little Ironies in Ellen Jackson’s Cinder-Edna
• Urban Poetry meets Classic Fairy Tale in Frances Minters’ Cinder-Elly
• A Starstudded Once Upon a Fairy Tale

Interview Wednesday

It is exciting that for a particular week, we actually hosted Interview Wednesday here at GatheringBooks. We have a 2-part feature on Graphic Novelist Paolo Fabregas this August as could be seen below:

• The Filipino Heroes League: A Review and Q and A with Graphic Novelist Paolo Fabregas
• Creative Journeys of Paolo Fabregas

With Paolo and his Graphic Novel

Here is the round-up post for Interview Wednesday which we hosted on the 3rd of August.

In My Mailbox

We have also participated quite regularly with the meme In My Mailbox as hosted by Story Siren every Sunday. Here are some of our posts and recent buys for August:

• Welcome to the Singapore Library Warehouse Sale (while technically posted during the last week of July, we were not able to include this in our round-up previously, so we’re including it here)
• Loot from Borders Storewide Closing Sale… and then Some
• Titles from the 1001 Books you Must Read before you die
• Treasure Trove from the Biggest Little City in the World

Academic Nook

Last but not the least, we are particularly proud of Prof. Tuting Hernandez’ piece entitled “Done Kissing Frogs” over at Behind the Books which fits perfectly with our Fractured Fairy Tale Bimonthly theme. This incisive, sharp, and witty essay was likewise reposted in an online progressive Filipino Newspaper (P3) as could be seen here.

Academic Nook: Prof. Tuting Hernandez

Wow, that was a long round-up post. Looking forward to the last four months of the year. 2011 would be over before we know it.