The Cybils only come around once a year. Fortunately for all of us, it isn't the only cool virtual event out there celebrating children's and YA literature. If you're relatively new to the kidlitosphere, or just need a reminder, check out the resources at the Kidlitosphere Central home page, or read on for a few major recurring events you might want to participate in. They're open to anyone, so don't be afraid to throw your hat in the ring.
- Poetry Friday: Each Friday, a different blogger is responsible for "hosting"–rounding up poetry-related posts from around the kidlitosphere and beyond. For archives and a schedule of upcoming hosts, click here.
- Nonfiction Monday is a roundup of posts about great nonfiction for kids and young adults–the schedule's here.
- The Carnival of Children's Literature is a monthly-ish blog carnival collecting all sorts of favorite links from the previous month's posts throughout the kidlitosphere. Each host puts a slightly different spin on things, so don't miss a single one! More info is here; to join in, click here.
- Reading Challenges: There's such a plethora of book challenges and reading challenges throughout the book blogging world, and even if you narrow that down to kidlit, you've still got tons to choose from. A Novel Challenge links to a great many of them, and our own Pam Coughlan, aka MotherReader, pioneered two favorites: the 48-Hour Book Challenge and (along with former Cybil-ite Lee Wind) the Comment Challenge. Other popular challenges are Leila's The Big Read and the POC Reading Challenge. And there are tons more. Really.
These are just a few of the more widespread kidlit challenges–there are more out there, and you'll see current and former Cybils participants liberally sprinkled throughout. So go read, participate, and connect. We'll see you out there!
–Sarah Stevenson, blog editor