100 Scope Notes is a blog authored by Travis Jonker, an elementary school librarian and sometime reviewer for School Library Journal. This blog is focused on “children’s literature news and reviews.” 100 Scope Notes has archives dating back to November 2007 and has been updated in November 2010. There are posts about new books, articles relating to children’s literature, authors, covers, and a link of the day, news and reviews.
The posts are divided into broad categories, which make it easier to find posts, although the categories are not as specific as on some blogs. One interesting feature is a picture of Jonker’s library hold shelf as well as pictures sent in by readers. Since these are school libraries, the hold shelves do not have a ton of books on them. These pictures provide and interesting look at what books are in demand.
The book reviews are thorough and, like those on Kids Lit, include a picture of the cover, book trailers if available as well as links to other reviews of the same book. There are opportunities for users reply to or like a post. Another interesting feature is the “Link Du Jour.” Each day Jonker posts a link of the day. These links are things such as CNN’s coverage of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and announcements of various awards.
The website itself is easy to navigate. The categories appear as tabs along the top. However, the first thing one notices when navigating to 100 Scope Notes is the slideshow showing the posts for that day. The slideshow is a bit distracting from the rest of the page because it cycles through rather quickly. The archives appear through a drop-down menu on the side of the page along with links to other blogs on similar topics. Users can also subscribe to 100 Scope Notes via email.
100 Scope Notes is a blog that would behoove someone to follow if he or she were interested in keeping up to date on children’s literature. It is well organized and regularly updated.
http://100scopenotes.com/
