Wednesday Book News: 7 Links For Your Morning Coffee Break (4/6/11)

Mir gets ready for Easter

Good morning, book people! It’s sunny & kinda-sorta warm in Cambridge this morning – I actually ran outside! And now I’m home, with my boys, coffee, warm beignets, and a pretty fun day ahead, showing my cousin around town. What more could a girl ask for? Oh, wait…Easter eggs! Fortunately, the Mir-Cat has a few to offer around…

Yesterday, ex-Agent (wow, that makes him sound like a Bond villain) Nathan Bransford posted about virtual witch hunts and respect within the writing community. A must-read.

Agent Kristin Nelson has a short video (1:58 minutes) with a couple of useful query tips. She also has The Book Lantern, an in-depth look at the supporting characters in a story. It’s broken down into “Parents,” “Mean Girl,” and “The Friends,” and is very, very useful. Works as a great checklist for avoiding stereotypes.

SLJ’s A Chair, A Fireplace, & A Tea Cozy has a very well done review of Melina Marchetta’s The Piper’s Son. Marchetta is an Australian author; her first book, Looking for Alibrandi, is on a lot of reading lists back home. SLJ’s review is very positive–which I mostly agree with–though I don’t think Marchetta’s “teen/twenties guy” voice is as strong as her “teen/twenties girl.”

Check out The Big Kahuna Round of SLJ’s Battle of the Kids Books. So far, I’ve only read A Conspiracy of Kings–which I loved–but all these books look good.

In case you missed it, The NYT has a list of the best children’s book apps on the iPad. And here’s a guest post at Scholastic’s On Our Minds, musing on the future of such apps.

And finally, another must read–Library Journal’s Annoyed Librarian on the Devolution of Public Libraries, and privatization. It’s a little old in internet time, but an essential post.

And that’s it, folks. I’ll try and take some more pics of Borders while I’m in town, so we can see how the remaining stores are holding up. Have a great day!