18th Blogiversary

I started a blog for a graduate class on February 6th, 2006. I've blogged longer than I've done other important things in my life.

The blog is my auxiliary memory. It gives me purpose and keeps me up on new books. It's allowed me to write for School Library Journal, to review books for Young Adult Books Central, and to work with the Cybils Awards.

It doesn't reach as many people as I would like. Reading and reviewing consumes almost as many hours as my full time job.  I have good content. There are people on Instagram (@msyinglingreads), Twitter (@msyingling), and Bluesky (http://msyingling.bsky.social) who read far less but reach far more people. 

Blogging is just what I do now. I'd love to lose my filter and tell everyone what I really think, but I'm not a fan of people hating me, which would certainly happen. But, you never know. I'm ten years from retirement. When will I get fed up? When will I no longer care what people think? Loyal readers, that's what will keep you on the edge of your seats.

To investigate my Place in History, I looked at the great Betsy Bird's blog, and researched bloggers from the cover of the November 2009 School Library Journal. They included Betsy Bird, (Fuse 8), Monica Edinger (Educating Alice, last post 2021), Cheryl Klein (Brooklyn Arden , last post 2016), Jennifer Hubert-Swan (Reading Rants, ceased most posts in 2023), and Liz Burns (A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy, by invitation only on this date). So, Betsy is indeed the Last Blogger Standing.

I also looked at her post about the state of blogging in 2014. Six of sixteen remain.

2014 Great Children’s Literary Blogs : A New Sampler Set

https://afuse8production.slj.com/2014/08/08/the-state-of-childrens-literary-blogs-today-prepare-to-update-your-blogroll/

32 Pages (ended 2021) 

The Book Smugglers (ended 2021)

Bookie Woogie – (ended 2015)

Books Around the Table (2012-present)

Disability in Kidlit -(Ended 2018)

The History Girls (2011-present) 

How To, How Hard, and How Much (ended 2014)

Latin@s in Kid Lit (ended 2023)

Lolly’s Classroom (ended 2014)

Nerdy Book Club (2012?-present. Group effort.)

Nine Kinds of Pie (??- present)

Pop Goes the Page (?2014-present. Craft blog.)

The Show Me Librarian (ended 2019)

The Uncommon Core (Several blogs have this name, so wasn't sure.)

Views from the Tesseract (ended 2016)

Watch. Connect. Read. – (?2010?- present)

I was going to update the list below, but I couldn't bear the thought of seeing another passel of blogs go under, so take this for what it's worth. 

For now, I will have a quiet, sad celebration for five minutes, then go back to reading and reviewing all the middle grade literature, and in the words of my first blog tagline, "shooting my mouth off about it." 

Please let me know years of floruit of your blog, if I have missed it. 

Current (mainly #MGLit) Blogs (As of 2022)

Individual Bloggers (In alphabetical order!)

https://beaglesandbooks.com/ @lauramossa

http://bluestockingthinking.blogspot.com/ 

https://thebookwyrmsden.com/ 

http://buxtolicious.blogspot.com/

https://charlotteslibrary.blogspot.com/

https://childrensbooksheal.wordpress.com/

https://thechildrenswar.blogspot.com/

https://thechroniclesofachildrensbookwriter.wordpress.com/
https://cjmilbrandt.com/blog/ 

https://cocoawithbooks.com/ @BooksCocoa

https://www.crackingthecover.com

http://writingya.com

https://elymnifoquent.com/ (Middle Grade Carousel)
https://elzakinde.com/

https://gatheringbooks.org/ @GatheringBooks

https://gpattridge.com/

http://insatiablereaders.blogspot.com/ 

https://jkrbooks.typepad.com/

https://jeanlittlelibrary.blogspot.com/

https://jkrbooks.typepad.com/

http://www.kidlit411.com/

https://kidsbookaday.com/

https://kissthebook.blogspot.com/

https://alibrarymama.com/ 

https://www.literacious.com/

http://logcabinlibrary.blogspot.com/

http://www.mariaselke.com/ 

http://www.maryrlanni.com 

https://mgbookvillage.org/ 

https://morebookspleaseblog.wordpress.com/

https://www.mrsbookdragon.com/ 

https://ofmariaantonia.wordpress.com/
https://popgoesthereader.com/ 

https://rapunzelreads.weebly.com/

https://www.readerpants.net/ 

https://readingmiddlegrade.com/

https://rosihollinbeck.com/

http://www.semicolonblog.com

http://storymamas.com/ 

https://thecontentedreader.ca 

https://thestorysanctuary.com/

https://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/ 

https://www.teacherswhoread.com/

http://www.teachmentortexts.com/ 

http://www.unleashingreaders.com

https://valinoratroy.com/ @valinoraw 

http://wendimlee.blogspot.com 

https://writersrumpus.com/ 

https://yabooknerd.blogspot.com/ 

Groups of Authors

https://bitaboutbooks.wordpress.com/

https://fromthemixedupfiles.com/

https://smack-dab-in-the-middle.blogspot.com/

http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.com/ 

https://www.anovelmind.com/ 

Libraries

https://pclkidsbooks.blogspot.com/

https://ysbookreviews.wordpress.com/

Organizations

https://www.cybils.com/

http://richincolor.com/

https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/

https://thebrownbookshelf.com/ @brownbookshelf