Welcome to 2020!

Happy New Year and 🎵hello from the other siiiiiide🎵 of a new decade!

I like to do a little New Years post every year to set some goals for myself and my blog. I'm gonna try to keep it kind of simple this year since I always overestimate how much reading and blogging I will have time for. (The whole being an adult/parent-to-a-small-human thing is still taking some time to sink in... the fact that I cannot just spend my life reading 24 hours a day is still very disappointing to me... although I do get to make a lot of block towers and Duplo buildings and pretend food in a day so, there's that.)

Anyway, here are some of my goals and plans for my blog for 2020!
  
Reading Goals:

• Double last year's reading goal: try to read at least 104 books this year. That's 2 books a week... I feel like that's doable, but I only managed 54 this year, so we'll see! 
• Read all the picture books on the 2020 Amelia Bloomer List. It's an annual list of "the best feminist books for young readers, ages birth through 18" (source). Since I discovered the list, I've wanted to try to read some of the titles, but I've never committed myself to doing it... Well, now is the time and this is the year! The 2019 list came out last February, so as soon as 2020's  list is announced I want to get reading! I want to read some books on the list for older readers too, but I feel like limiting my goal to picture books is more realistic.
• Read more classic children's books. I want to introduce my son to some of the classics I enjoyed when I was young, and I want to rediscover them for myself. And I want to try some new classics I've never read too. We'll probably be reading mostly picture books since he's firmly in the picture book category right now, but I want to try to read some classics for older readers too.
• Get my NetGalley feedback ratio up to 80%. Probably not totally realistic in one year, but I'm setting it all the way up at 80% as a challenge. I got a little over-eager in my requesting for a while there, and while I'm doing much better at limiting my requests now, I still really need to devote some time and energy to picking my ratio back up. We'll see how well I can do in a year! 

New Blog Features Coming/Returning in 2020:

• I want to bring my { bon voYAge! } feature back to life, but turn it into a kidlit friendly version. I was doing just YA books set in countries around the world, but I'd like to include everything from board books up through middle grade too, so I'm going to try to come up with some other kind of "reading around the world" feature that includes kidlit for every age.
• I'd also like to wake up the { Something Old, Something New } feature. This year, I want to do better about keeping up with new releases, but I really need to catch up on my backlog too. This is a great way to make sure I read at least one "old" and one new book a month!
• I'd like to try to come up with some kind of feature for awards and lists of great books. I've been following a lot of awards and booklists for a while, and I just started a weekly wrap-up post where I share some current lists and announcements I've come across each week. But I'd like to do maybe a monthly feature where I share some more detailed info about an award or booklist, maybe even try to read and review a book from the list. I discover a lot of great books by checking these awards and lists, and I love finding new lists and awards to keep up with. If you have any favorites you follow, please share them in the comments!

So there are my goals and plans for this year at PPBN! Trying to keep it simple and doable... we'll see how things change as I go along! Good luck to you on your reading and/or blogging plans this year, and I wish you a very happy 2020!

And as I always do on New Year's each year, I'll leave you with my favorite quote that always puts me in a hopeful and positive mood for everything the year has in store...

(image via Pinterest)

New Year, New Blog!

(... ok, same blog, but some new blog policies!)

First of all, Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a very happy holiday season and that 2019 turns out to be a great one for you all!

I've been doing some thinking about how I could improve my blog this year. I would love to commit to posting daily, but since that hasn't worked out for me so far, I doubt that's going to work out anytime soon. I need to accept the fact that I'm a wife and mommy now, and I just do not have the spare time that I used to have, no matter how much I wish I did.

But, I can commit to posting some new types of things! There are certain topics and genres that are important to me, so I'd like to highlight those on my blog, such as...

• picture book biographies (and nonfiction picture books in general!) - I love these! I'd love to read more, and I'd love to highlight the great ones I've discovered so other readers can enjoy them too. There's a weekly Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge that I'd love to join in on to share these types of books! I'll try to review one of these on the first week of each month.
• books about nature for younger readers - I love books about nature... animals, plants, national parks, you name it - I will read it. I've had some jobs in environmental education and I've loved them all, so I'd really love to bring a little of that to my blog too by sharing awesome kidlit books about nature. I'll try to review one of these on the second week of each month.
• books about different cultures for younger readers -  I have a lot of varied interests, and I also have a thing for learning about all the amazing cultures in the world. I love books that make learning about people and cultures who are different from yourself a really positive and exciting experience. I love reading folk tales and fairy tales from other cultures as well. I'll try to review one of these on the third week of each month.
• books about strong girls - There are so many books coming out now with stories of girls today and in the past doing awesome things, written for younger readers, teens, and adults as well. I'd love to read some of them and share my favorites on my blog! I'll try to review one of these on the fourth week of each month.

I also have a pretty major policy change to announce. I've been doing some thinking about the kind of place I want my blog to be, and the kind of reviewer I want to be, and I realized I just want my blog to be a positive, happy place and that I want to be a reviewer who shouts from the rooftops about books that I love. With that in mind, I have decided not to post negative reviews on my blog. I'd rather spend my time and effort sharing books that I really loved, spreading the word about them and getting other readers excited to try reading them for themselves. So here's what that means:

• My rating system won't involve stars anymore - each book will get a verdict of "I liked it," "I loved it," or "I'm obsessed with it." I'll be removing all the reviews from my blog that don't fall under those categories.
• My reviews will still be honest! If I don't like a book or don't have anything nice to say about it, I simply won't review it.
• This does not mean that I won't be providing constructive criticism. If I think a book could improve somewhere, I will say it in what I hope is a nice and helpful way. It just means that I won't be bashing books or saying nothing but negative things about them.

I have nothing against blogs or reviewers that post reviews that bash a book - everyone is entitled to their opinion, and those reviews can be fun to read. But the world is feeling a bit unkind and angry to me right now, and I'm making my own small stand against that by pledging my blog to be a place of kindness and positivity.

Wishing you all a happy 2019! I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes that I share each New Years - it helps me get in a positive, fresh-start mood, and I hope it helps you feel the same!

From Pinterest

Happy 2015!

Hello, new year! It seems like 2015 is shaping up to be a big one for me and my hubby. Here's what I have on my to-do list for the year:

- Start grad school. In library science! :D  I got accepted to my top choice school, and it has one of the best programs in the country for school media, which is what I'm going for. I'd love to be a school librarian and have such an impact on helping kids to develop a love of reading. Fingers crossed I can make it through grad school and then find my dream job!

- Get a house. One that we own, instead of rent.

- Start a family. What?? I can't believe it! I'm so excited to add a little one to our family. :)  It was so crazy to think that this past Christmas might have been our last one without a baby or a bun in the oven!


To start off 2015, I've decided to look back at my resolutions from 2014 and see how I did over the course of the  year...
- Lose weight. Didn't do so great on this one. In fact, I need to lose more weight to get back to my goal than I did when I started 2014. :(  But hubby and I joined a gym towards the end of 2014, and we're planning on going a lot more in 2015. So hopefully I can do better on this one in the upcoming year.

- Blog more. I guess I did better at the beginning of last year, but real life got in the way once again towards the end of the year and I definitely didn't blog as often as I would have liked. Now that I'm starting library school with the goal of becoming a school librarian or a YA/children's librarian, I definitely want to blog more to keep up on new and noteworthy YA&MG books.

- Blog differently. Here was my idea for 2014: "So maybe I won't try to do so many reviews. Maybe I'll post more news stories, or more discovery posts where I share new books I've found. Because I get as much happiness out of finding new books and drooling over covers and making collections of books with similar features as I do actually reading them and reviewing them." I don't think I did as much of that as I had planned to. I definitely need to share more news and lists that I find. And I still have a long list of books that I planned to read and review and never got finished. So I'm going to work on making my blog a more informative place, and I have a few ideas to mix things up a bit.

- Choose books differently. Here was my idea for 2014: "From now on, I'm only requesting books that I'm freaking dying to read. If I don't dance in my chair when I see a book pop up on NetGalley, I'm not requesting it - I'll wait till I can buy it or get it from the library to read it. And on that note, I'm going to do more buying/librarying. Because there are a lot of books that are already out (and have been out for a while - like, in some cases, years) that I am freaking dying to read!" I did a little better on that front - I definitely did not request as many books from NetGalley, and I did get a lot more books from the library. But I still ended up with a long list of "to be reviewed" books that I never got to in 2014. So I still need to work on this, clearly. I'm hoping I can try some new things in 2015 that might cut down my list.


I don't really have anything new to add to my goals for this year - I'd just like to keep on working towards meeting my 2014 goals. So, just like last year, I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes ever and a wish that you have a happy and wonderful new year!


“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art ― write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”

     ― Neil Gaiman

Happy 2014!

I feel like even-numbered years are better than odd-numbered years for me. Don't ask me why. I don't even know if I have any evidence from previous years to back that up. But I get excited when an even-numbered year comes around on January 1 because I just have this feeling that it's going to be a good one. Not that 2013 wasn't good - I got married, which was good! :) - but there were some other things in 2013 that could have been better, and I feel like 2014 will be better. I've made some resolutions, in case you're curious:

- Lose weight. Because this is kind of standard, and also because I do need to. Maybe 10-15 lbs. Good start.

- Blog more. I keep saying this. But I do want to blog more, and blog more regularly.

- Blog differently. Because just repeatedly saying "I want to blog more" clearly hasn't fixed anything, since I only put up 3 posts in December. December is a busy month, but that's still shameful. I've realized that feeling like I need to post reviews often starts to weigh on me, because I'm one of those people that kind of shut down under a long to-do list. With a flawed reasoning along the lines of, "omg I have so much to do, if I just did something instead of sitting here thinking about how much I have to do, part of it would go away... but there is too much to do and I don't know where to start so I'm just going to do nothing." So maybe I won't try to do so many reviews. Maybe I'll post more news stories, or more discovery posts where I share new books I've found. Because I get as much happiness out of finding new books and drooling over covers and making collections of books with similar features as I do actually reading them and reviewing them.

- Choose books differently. Because my NetGalley habits have gotten a little out of control. I started requesting every new book that popped up that I was vaguely interested in, because I wanted to keep up with all the new stuff coming out. I did the NetGalley Wellness Challenge because I fully intended to read and review all the books I request, and I wanted to shape up my profile to get approvals from some of those big publishers that haven't let me into their club yet. However, as much as I hate to say it, I don't just read. I have a full-time job, among other obligations that suck time away from reading. So I found that keeping up with all my requests was not easy. And, looking at my To Read list which is still a mile long, clearly I did not do a very good job. And some of those books on that list... I hate to admit this, but I'm not even that excited to read them. So I need to start choosing differently. From now on, I'm only requesting books that I'm freaking dying to read. If I don't dance in my chair when I see a book pop up on NetGalley, I'm not requesting it - I'll wait till I can buy it or get it from the library to read it. And on that note, I'm going to do more buying/librarying. Because there are a lot of books that are already out (and have been out for a while - like, in some cases, years) that I am freaking dying to read! And I feel like I can't read them because I need to get through all these other books (that I'm not necessarily freaking dying to read) first. Which is frustrating. And I feel like I'm missing out on good books. Which is really frustrating. So. Change of strategy.

I guess that about sums it up. So I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes ever and a wish that you have a happy and wonderful new year!


“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art ― write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”

     ― Neil Gaiman

Happy 2013!

“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art ― write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”

     ― Neil Gaiman