BBAW - Connecting Makes The Books Go Round

Kellee: Until you become a book blogger, you can never understand how wonderful the community of book bloggers is and how powerful it is to be part of it. One of the things that Jen and I have done to help us build our TMT community is starting the Kid Lit to YA version of “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?” meme.

Jen: I’m not afraid to admit how much I am in love with the IMWAYR meme!!! It’s another way to see what others are reading and to hear what they think of those books. It’s fun to see how the great friends who are joining in seem to read what others are reading. I noticed a bunch of people reading Hattie Big Sky knowing that Colby Sharp and John Schu would be hosting their Hattie Big Sky book club. There are other books, too, that I notice someone has raved about and then later a few people are reading it. It truly has become a book community that shares and discusses books and people read books to have read a book in common. It’s amazing.

I’m so glad to see how IMWAYR has taken hold in the blogosphere of kidlit! It has a great following on Sheila’s blog Book Journey and I hoped it would be just as successful with a kidlit focus on our blog. It’s has become more than I had imagined.

Kellee: One of my favorite things of IMWAYR is that I see the readers learning about phenomenal books and then the next week, they are reading them. Seeing Wonder and The One and Only Ivan spread throughout the blogosphere was so great to watch!

Jen: It’s pretty amazing to see how building communities works in schools and classrooms but also how it works in real life for adult readers. That’s how school should be, kids practicing what works for reading in real life.

Kellee: My favorite thing this week was the interview Tuesday because we were able to share all of the great blogs we love, people we love and who inspires them.

Jen: I think I would agree that Tuesday was my favorite day, too. I loved reaching out to our favorite bloggers and learning more about them. It was nice to highlight them and for our readers to find new blogs. It just really felt like more community-ness...and that’s what Book Blogger Appreciation Week is all about!

(I did also love reviewing The Fault in Our Stars by John Green finally...that’s a close second favorite thing of the week for me. I just love John Green and that book. It’s brilliant. If I was teaching high school students I would be booktalking that book all the time. Okay, I’m done, I know I already gushed enough yesterday.)

(I love The Fault in Our Stars!!!!)

(Seriously, I’m done.)

Kellee: Overall, I think this week was a great success and so much fun! We got to share our favorite blogs/tweeps, talk about how we started and why we choose to review like we do and share one of our favorite books. BBAW couldn't have been any better!

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