The Fifty-first Book

I finished reading my fifty-first book of the year this morning before getting out of bed. The Gate to Women's Country is not a children's or YA book even though the main character is a child in various points in the story. I mention this because a children's book must have a child as a main character. But a book with a child main character is not necessarily a children's book. One tipoff is if the main character is an adult recalling her childhood, as is the case with Women's Country. Lots of times you get the feeling that the adult is recalling her childhood because, as an adult, she recognizes some event as significant. Thus there is an adult point of view having its way with the story somehow.

And Another Literary Event

If memory serves me, just yesterday I said something about being unable to spit without hitting a literary event of some sort. And sure enough, I heard about another one today. A group called The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance is sponsoring In Celebration: A Conversation with the NCBLA Authors and Illustrators on December 10th at the Mount Holyoke College campus in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It's described as "an informal, freewheeling, and highly entertaining conversation on writing, illustration, children’s literature, the arts, reading rights, and citizen activism."

The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance says at its website that its "main goal is to make issues related to young people's literacy, literature, and libraries an ongoing priority on our national agenda. We act as a freelance, nonpartisan advocate, creating and developing special projects and events that promote literacy, literature, libraries, and the arts; educating the public about practical literacy and education solutions; and ensuring young people's right to read."

I thought I'd heard of The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance, but I may be getting it confused with Children's Literature New England, which exists "to promote awareness of the significance of literature in the lives of children." Though according to its website, it won't be existing for long, since it plans to close-up shop in 2006.