Kids Lit is a blog run by Tasha Saecker, the director of the public library in Menasha, WI. This blog is focused on issues relating to children’s literature. Kids Lit has archives dating back to August 2003 and has been updated in November 2010. Most of the posts appear to be book reviews; however, there are also posts about different awards, various authors and posts related to reading (iPads versus books and the importance of reading). There are also posts about movies and television. There is also a link to Saecker’s tweets.
The posts are divided into categories, which makes it easy to find posts about specific topics. There is a great variety of books reviewed, also separated into these categories. Categories include audio books, picture books, nonfiction, graphic novels, and easy readers among others. There is a total of 23 categories. The book reviews are thorough and 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 to tag, comment or like a post; however, these features do not appear to be used extensively.
The website itself is easy to navigate. The categories appear along one side of the page and the archives appear at the bottom. The only issue with navigation is that the labels appear over some of the text. For example, the label “About Me” appears slightly over the link “Learn More About Me.” The link is still usable but the appearance is a bit off-putting.
Overall, Kids Lit appears to be an interesting read and a useful resource for anyone interested in issues relating to children’s and young adult’s literature. It is a good place to go to gather reviews about a new book, as Saecker links to other reviews of the book. If you visit Kids Lit, you get a lot of information provided in not much time. Kids Lit is a worthwhile blog to keep abreast of for children’s literature updates.
Kids Lit was named one of the 100 best blogs by “The Daily Reviewer.”
http://kidslit.menashalibrary.org/
