Blizzard Site Updates

The first snow day of the season came yesterday, a month earlier than the past couple years when the snow and bitter cold waited until January. But why let a good ole’ fashioned blizzard go to waste? So after getting the hay twisted into sticks for the night’s fire, I decided I might as well do some site updates.

First, I finally got around to adding a disclosure policy. It sounds so serious. Disclosure policy. But apparently I need to tell readers all the ways I am compensated for the content on this site so you can decide if my opinions are being influenced by the big bucks that are a-rollin’ in. Or not. Basically, there’s no advertising or paid product placement. Once in a while I receive a free book or advanced readers copy from an author or publisher (thank you!), but that doesn’t mean it will end up recommended on the site.

Second, to follow up the disclosure policy, I tagged all book reviews with one of four tags to identify where I obtained the book.

1. Book - Personal Copy
2. Book - Library Copy
3. Book - Advance Readers Copy
4. Book - Free Copy

Most of the reviews I publish come from books in my personal collection. A good number of books came from a local library, either public or school. The ARC and Free Copy tags refer to books I received from authors or publishers.

And that’s it. Thanks to everyone who visits Help Readers Love Reading! and thanks for all you do to get great books into the hands of kids.

Oh yeah, click here to read the disclosure policy.

Disclosure Policy

In an effort to be completely transparent, not to mention in compliance with FTC guidelines, here is the Help Readers Love Reading! disclosure policy:

Help Readers Love Reading! is a personal site written and edited by me. Please contact me with any questions. The email address is in the header and sidebar.

Help Readers Love Reading! does not accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. (1)

Whatever compensation is received will never influence the content of Help Readers Love Reading!. (2)

The owner of Help Readers Love Reading! (3) is not compensated for his opinions. (4)

The views and opinions expressed on Help Readers Love Reading! are mine and mine alone. (5)

If I appear to be an expert on a certain topic, I will only recommend books that I believe, based on that expertise, are worthy of said recommendation. (6)

(1) Mostly because I’ve never been asked. Let’s face facts. If someone drove a dump truck full of money up my driveway, I’d consider their offer. Wouldn’t you? Until that happens, I’ll graciously settle for the heretofore occasional and infrequent free book or advanced readers copy provided by an author or publisher.

(2) I’ve received free books and not recommended them. If I claim to recommend books kids will love, and parents and teachers trust me, then I’d better not let something like a free book influence my recommendations.

(3) Me

(4) But it’d be a nice gig if you could get it.

(5) Oh, boy.

(6) The inclusion of that bit of legalese was advised. My preferred edit would read, “If I appear to be an expert on a certain topic … um, what?”

Recognition Again?

Any sort of confirmation that someone is actually reading your stuff is cool. It really is.

But to receive an award from a reader, to have someone personally sift through the gazillions of websites on the Internet and select yours as worthy of recognition, now that's something different.

Even if it's pink.

Now, I'm not against pink in general. It's a legitimate color, worthy of roses, pencil erasers, and raspberry sherbet. I'll even allow for it's migration into baseball, but only with good reason. But as an award, I must take issue. Awards should be shiny - gold or silver preferably - and tastefully named. Awards should not, to the best of my understanding, contain either flowers or teacups, unless said award is for an individual's talent or achievements in gardening and/or tea consumption. (Neither of which I am especially adept at.)

The links above reference actual trophies. Since it is difficult to email trophies, and impractical for blog award winners to display three dimensional objects on their websites, I'd like to display something else. Something that says, "Yes! That's what I'm talking about!" And yes, I'm allowing attitude to trump shininess in this situation. So if it's alright with Ms. Houghton's Class, who awarded me this distinction, I'd like to display the following picture to represent a more "me" feel.

So whaddya think? Will that work?

The last time I received an award I admittedly bent the rules of acceptance, choosing to look backward at worthy recipients rather than forward the award, so to speak. This time, well, "bending" the rules would be a generous description. I'm giving great thanks and a tip o' the hat (or a pump o' the fist, considering the above picture) to Shannon from Ms. Houghton's Class ... and that's it. I'm using books to read and posts to write as (hopefully) worthy excuses. So I tentatively accept the One Lovely Blog Award, recognizing that in order to do so one should follow the rules and probably not disrespect said award's pinky icon, and I pray that some sort of e-karma doesn't come back to get me.

One Year Site Updates

One year ago today Help Readers Love Reading! found its home on the web. Okay, not really, not one year to the day exactly. Last January we had a snow day from school, and I took the opportunity to start the website. Today, nearly one year later, we have another snow day.

Sort of. It's actually a cold day. Last night temperatures hit the -25 to -30 range. Factor in the wind chill and you're looking at -50ish. Buses aren't running, and nobody wants kids standing outside waiting for one anyway when frostbite can start in only ten minutes. Temperatures yesterday morning were -10 to -20 and hovered in the negative single digits all day. Yeah, we were home yesterday too.

So. January 2008 to January 2009. Snow Day to Cold Day. One year.

What better day to make some updates? Here's what's new:

• Replaced the old recommendation labels with Recommended 5 Stars, Recommended 4 Stars, and Recommended 3 Stars labels.
• Added the Recommended Exceptions label. These are books that don't necessarily match the criteria I set forth, but nevertheless deserve recognition. It just didn't work writing a complimentary review but then labeling it Not Recommended.
• Added information about conference sectionals, teacher inservice, and school visits.
• Updated Site Information. Changed a few boring, little things.

So that's about it. Thanks to all my visitors over the past year, especially those of you who return on a regular basis. Hopefully each visit - whether it's your first, second, or three hundred forty-fifth - will give you another book or two that will Help Readers Love Reading!

Recognition? Are you kidding me? Thanks!

I'm not sure if the best website news of yesterday is the fact that a fellow reader/reviewer/teacher, Megan at Read, Read, Read, has chosen to recognize Help Readers Love Reading! with an Arte y Pico Award or the fact that I know, I really know - with proof and everything - that people are reading my stuff!

So, yeah. I received an award. Peer recognition. It does make me a bit nervous that I can't read the majority of the Arte y Pico website. I don't see any blatant promotion of global warming, demands to trade Brett Favre, or anything else equally as offensive, so we'll roll with it. Arte y Pico. It's art...let's take a peek...apparently.

All kidding aside, there's like a bajillion (give or take a gazillion) websites out there. Thanks, Megan, for choosing to recognize mine.

On to the award rules, the paying it forward:

1. Select 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award, based on creativity, design, interesting material, and contribution to the blogger community. The blogs can be in any language.

2. Post a link to each blog so that others can visit.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and link to the blogger that awarded it.

4. The award winner and the one who has bestowed the prize have to show a link to the Arte y Pico website.

Okay, I'm going to be honest. If I'm reading, it's books. I'm not a big blog-o-phile. I'm more of a Google-what-I'm-looking-for type of guy, get the needed information, get back home. Sort of like when I go to the mall. I want to follow the rules, I really do, but I'm going to have to do it creatively.

Since I don't really have a fav-five, I'm going to search backwards through the links of the Arte y Places that have been honored before me and rerecognize the Arte y People who run them. So here are my five links, paying it forward...backward:

1. Read, Read, Read - Any teacher that reads like crazy and wants their students to do the same deserves a link or two. This would be two.

2. Author Deb Renner Smith - Writing and reading lessons from a former teacher...and current tooth puller, or so it would seem.

3. A Year of Reading - More teachers who read. A lot. (We'd all probably read a lot more if we didn't write so doggone much. Consarnit.)

4 .There is No Such Thing as a God-Forsaken Town - An interesting name to start. Ruth is at a Christian International school teaching seventh and eighth graders. What's harder, teaching in a foreign country or teaching seventh and eighth graders? I know where my vote is.

5. Quill Cottage - I found a lot of scrapbooking and Laura Ingalls Wilder. I know more about one than the other. Guess which one? Oh! And the peaceful music has just loaded. Haunting and mysterious. Makes me want to go to the spa.

This is kind of fun! Sort of a six degrees of Kevin Bacon type thing. In six links or less, can you get from your website to one about scrapbooking? Done! Here's a bonus link:

6. Six Clicks: Devin Hester

That's all I got, folks. Whew! I hope I didn't break the rules or break the chain of goodwill being passed along the web. I'd like to thank Megan who gave me this award. I'd like to [sniff] thank Ernie and Bill and Jeff and Sheri and [sniff] all the good people at...

New Category

Having just read The Wall by Peter Sis, I realize now that I need a new category for books on the site. Here’s what I currently have:

Highly Recommended Books – These are the books that I eagerly thrust into the hands of students, confident that that they will be well received. They’re funny or exciting or adventurous or take students to a place far away from everyday life.

Recommended Books – Pretty must the same as above, except my confidence in how well students will receive them isn’t quite as high.

Not Recommended – These are books that I don’t believe will be quickly accepted by students. They’re not bad books – many times it’s just the opposite – but something about them makes me hesitate to recommend them.

So now I need a new category. A category that says, “According to the conditions set forth by this website, I cannot in good conscience recommend this book, however, there are certain extenuating circumstances that negate the website’s qualifications and nevertheless earn this book a high recommendation, regardless of what is contained therein.”

Or, in other words, “This book doesn’t match my rules, but I like it anyway.”

Neither?

Maybe I should just say, “It’s my website and I make the rules so I can recommend what I want to recommend!” (Nanner, nanner, nanner!)

Okay, I agree. That doesn’t work either. But that still leaves me in need of a new category, a new label with which to classify the unclassifiable. Recommended Anyway? Unclassifiables? Recommended But…? Exceptions? Exemptions?

I have to do some thinking about this. If you have any suggestions or thoughts, send me an email (address to the right) or leave me a comment below.

Update: 1/16/09 - Six months later I changed the whole works: the recommendations, the recommended exceptions, all of it. Good thing I'm so decisive.