Upcoming Kid Lit Carnival + What Is a Blog Carnival?

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Today is the last day for submissions to the March Carnival of Children's Literature, which takes place at the blog Midwestern Lodestar on Monday. Here are the details at Midwestern Lodestar.

A little more than a year ago, the author Melissa Wiley started the Carnival of Children's Literature.  Blog carnivals have been around the Internet for some time. A "carnival" takes place at one blog; it is a conglomeration of links (from many different blogs) to posts on a certain theme.  Children's books and reading are the focus of the Carnival of Children's Literature. Carnivals generally include one post from each blog who wants to join in.

Do you have a post on children's books or reading that you want everyone to see? Your blog does not have to focus solely on kid lit/children's books for you to participate. The theme of the post is what's important—children's books and reading. You can submit an entry (the URL for one post on your blog) to carnival host of the month, and in fact, Melissa set up a super easy device at the mega-blog-carnival site called Blog Carnival (catchy!) to simplify submissions. You can access that by clicking here.

Many bloggers have participated in past kid-lit carnivals, including but not limited to parents, teachers, librarians, scholars, homeschoolers,  illustrators, authors, editors, and various combinations thereof. So far no school principals that I know of, but we would certainly welcome Lamar J. Spurgle (of The Cut-Ups) and his ilk.

Some carnivals are put together by the same person each month (or week) and many are constructed by a rotating group of volunteers. The latter is the case for the Carnival of Children's Literature, which takes place monthly. Since she is the founder, Melissa coordinates the carnival hosting. I put together the  March 2006 carnival, and had a blast.

If you have any questions, please ask away. The comments are open and waiting. When I first started blogging, I was confused by any number of things, and asking questions is a good way to gain knowledge.  If you want to spread the word about the Carnival of Children's Literature, feel free to copy this post; please credit Chicken Spaghetti (no need to link back here, though).

Comments

[Melissa Wiley]

Susan, thanks for this informative post. You did a great job hosting the carnival last year!

[Susan]

Melissa, you're welcome. After comments here, there, and yonder, I wanted everyone to what blog carnivals are and know that newbies are welcome!

[ZG]

Thanks for the reminder post and THE CARNIVAL IS UP.