One Million hip hip hooray

 

My little blog has reached one million page views 2008-2023. YES one million. Actually it has crept past the million.

I started this blog in 2008 in response to a challenge by a school Principal who saw NO value in school libraries or the role of the Teacher-Librarian. He altered my library position in drastic and life-changing ways but when he said he knew more about technology (and the things we now called Social Media) I decided to strike back.  I could not reverse his dreadful decision to completely change the way our school library was organised but I could show him the power of  blogging, and Instagram, and Twitter and even a platform like Pinterest. This Principal is long gone. I imagine he has no idea that he created such personal and educational havoc but here I am, all these years later, still blogging and advocating for the importance of children's books in the lives of our children and the importance of putting outstanding books into the hands of teachers. I am very proud of this blog and I do hope you find it useful for your library or personal reading journey.

This is the list of my top posts - there are a few surprises here! Old worlds New worlds was a Children's Book Council of Australia Book Week slogan in 2021. I read The Amazing Adventures of Chilly Billy to every child in Grade 3 and later Grade 2 from 1984 til 2017 so I am not surprised to see it here but I wonder why Peggy is in the top 8 list?

Mr Archimedes Bath by Pamela Allen (December 11th, 2012)

Happy Mouse Day by Dick King-Smith (November 20th, 2012)

Peggy by Anna Walker (April 22nd, 2013)

The Day Saida Arrived by Susana Gomez Redondo illustrated by Sonja Wimmer translated by Lawrence Schimel (November 15th, 2020) 

Possum Magic by Mem Fox illustrated by Julie Vivas (November 27th, 2012)

The Amazing Adventures of Chilly Billy by Peter Mayle (October 19th, 2008)

I now have 2970 posts so I am edging closer to my goal of 4000 by the end of 2024. I now blog nearly every day but when I started my plan was one post per week.

My first post was on Sunday, September 7, 2008. I think my style and formatting have come a long way! I have been so lucky to access so many utterly wonderful books thanks to my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything and her splendid library and also thanks to Beachside Bookshop and Libby for all the wonderful advance book copies. Sadly this terrific independent book shop will close at the end of June. 

I am often asked what is my own favourite book. I cannot answer this but here are a few standouts although for every book I put here I could easily think of an extra ten or twenty or thirty. Of course there is also Momo by Michael Ende. We are so lucky to have access to so many fabulous books in Australia from UK, USA, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and also a wealth of books from other places that have been translated into English.  

If any of these look interesting just type the title into my side bar:

Where to next? I hope to continue posting nearly every day. I need to do a lot of work on my indexing (labels) adding star ratings and author/illustrator names. It would also be good to edit and tidy up some of my early posts. I'd also like to investigate a way to promote my blog to teachers, teacher-librarians and keen readers.

Happy Reading to all.