Just One More Book by Andrea Ross and Mark Belvis

According to the creators, Just One More Book is “a thrice-weekly podcast which promotes and celebrates literacy and great children’s book.”  The website appears to be updated with a blog post concurrent with each podcast.  Users can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or RSS feed.  The podcast is a combination of discussions of favorite children’s books and interviews with authors, illustrators and experts.  The podcast also uses listener-submitted audio reviews.  

The website features an archive of podcasts divided into many specific categories dating back to July 2006.  The podcast appears to gone on hiatus from October 2009 to November 2010 as Ross battled cancer; there were several posts during this period related to her progress.  However, there is a promise of regular updating beginning again in December 2010.  A few special features of the website include a list of books reviewed as well as lists of featured authors and illustrators.  These lists are found down the side of the webpage.  The lists are quite lengthy, which makes browsing rather cumbersome.  Having the authors and illustrators divided into alphabetic links or pull down menus might improve browsing.  

Down the other side of the webpage is a lengthy list of categories.  Some of the categories are divided into subcategories.  These categories facilitate finding podcasts about a specific topic.  For example, the category “values” is divided into 21 subcategories including hope, respect, courage and curiosity.  Another category is “tips and tricks,” which seems to relate to self-publishing children’s literature and finding and buying good books.

Navigating Just One More Book is a bit cumbersome because the user has to scroll down quite a bit to access all the available information.  Dividing this information onto separate pages may improve the navigability.  Interested users can keep up to date, not only by subscribing to the podcast but also through email, Twitter, Flickr, and GoodReads.  They are also encouraged to contact Ross and Belvis through several different means.   Just One More Book also includes a long list of related blogs, podcasts and other institutions that may interest the user.   If Just One More Book is updated regularly again, it would be an interesting podcast to subscribe to.

Just One More Book was named the American Library Association “Great Web Site.”

www.justonemorebook.com