800!

Written by Catriona Coote Sunday, 15 April 2012 19:14

A very quick blurt, rather than a blog, to say hooray! Today I loaded the 800th review.

I still have a backlog of mostly pre-2004 reviews to write, which means that the 800 is really only 7-8yrs' worth of writing but it's a nice, round, number and very satisfying to achieve. Look out for those early reviews of books from my personal collection, local libraries and bookseller friends as I'll be loading them in between reviews of recent releases.

In this, the National Year of Reading, it's wonderful to see so many libraries and schools celebrating the many great Australian writers that bless our country with their literary talent. Living here, it's easy to take for granted the enormous range of literature available to our children but we need to be grateful: we have some of the best writers for children in the world and a publishing industry that, in general, is far more open-minded than those found in other countries. Why not find out what's happening in your community to celebrate the National Year of Reading? Try this link to get you started.

I'll post about this in a later blog but as your children may have already told you, the Children's Book Council of Australia has released the 2012 shortlist. Don't limit yourself or your children to these good books (and while I don't always like the CBCA choices there are some very good books this year) but also check out the notables list. Many schools participate in the Junior Judges programme but if that's not happening at your child's school, perhaps you could read through the shortlists at home and make your own decision before the official results come out in August.