11 years of blogging--looking back with 11 posts

So I have a post due for the Barnes and Noble Kids blog on books for fans of a Wrinkle in Time, so I just spent a good chunk of time scrolling through eleven years worth of posts (though I gave up in 2013).  In doing so I realized that not only is it almost impossible to find good read-alikes for W in T, it is February, which means my blog is now eleven years old.

So I've pulled 11 posts from the 3500 plus I've written, to air them here again today.   Only one is a book review.  I haven't written much in the way of thoughtful posts for the past two years, and I feel vaugly inspired to do so more though since I didn't write any because of being busy with other things, and those things are still needing to be done, this inspiration is more or less a moot point.

--my ten year anniversary post, which I enjoyed writing very much

--a post on when small annoyances turn you against the whole book

--a environmentally inspired post exploring how "green" books are or aren't

--a recap of my Kidlitcon 2014 talk on finding passion in blogging

--a look at a book I'd never have heard about without blogging that I still think is utterly marvelous-the ABC of Fabulous Princesses (nb--they are birds)

--consternated thoughts about gender and middle grade books

--my Kidlitcon 2013 recap post--"2 cute pictures of my cat, or what I learned at Kidlitcon"

--Middle Grade Bloggers as Fans, Gatekeepers, Partners of the Industry, and Members of a Gender-Imbalanced Community, Part 1, and Part 2 

Something I didn't explicitly talk about which I've been thinking more about these past few weeks is the extent to which women in Kidlit do the bulk of the unpaid gatekeeping things that bloggers do (posting, comment, running Kidlitcon, volunteering for the Cybils).  So there's more food for thought here.....

--a post titled "why indexing is hard" which is really not so much about indexing as about what constitutes a "review"

--A post titled "why I wish I could be a guest in my own home" which I found amusing partly because of a comment i left on it--“My dear boy ended up throwing up, so it was all worthwhile....”

In any event, thank you all for a great eleven years, and if you have any recommendation for books with all of the following things, send them my way!

-brilliant girl unhappy in middle school
-the importance of sibling relationships
-making friends with other odd-ball kids
-travelling through time and space
-meeting helpful angelic like beings
-good vs evil, with inspiring message that we can choose love and fight darkness not just with love but with the arts and sciences
-overthrow of dystopia where utter conformity is required
-visiting strange planets, and learning to love aliens by looking past their monstrous appearance

thanks!