Friday, April 20, 2007

Blogging Reviewers

Finding Neverland has an excellent toon on the topic of blogging reviewers. It cuts to the chase!

I have had a chuckle reading the discussion at Roger Reads about the role of blogger reviewers vs print reviewers (currently 63 comments and climbing.) The comments evolved into a multifaceted conversation about the motives of blogging reviewers and swag and cupcakes.

With family members who are journalists I have been aware of the supposed tension between the "news professionals" aka "journalists" and the "amatuers," aka "bloggers in pajamas" for some years now. (I am fully dressed thank you, although, I am wearing Ugg slippers, oops!)

So the question of professional vs amateur (DO pronounce it with a French accent) their motivations, agendas, and gushings etc. have been well hashed out in other blogging realms.

This has been fun to read though and there are many very thoughtful posts and comments about why we kidlitospherians do what we do.

As usual, Roger made a point in the discussion that resonated with me.

I'm guessing that most blog reviewers would say, "I review what I want to review." That's fine, too, and attractively anarchic. But I find, anyway, that those reviews tell me more about the reviewer than they do about the book. And I hasten to say I've met some pretty interesting minds this way.
8:35 PM, April 17, 2007

This comment is exactly why I enjoy kidlitosphere reviews. They do tell us about the voices in this community. I have never heard any of their voices, (well, actually , I have the voices of Chris Barton and Cynthia LS and Fuse #8 (on NPR) but Miss Erin's perspective is different than LizB's and MotherReader makes me laugh and Jen is often focused on literacy and reading and Kelly always has an insight that never occured to me and Indefatigable Kelly just does it all.

Michele is who I would probably be if I had been born in Angleterre and Sheila always finds a book my girls and I need to read as does Susan . There are new blogs and voices to add to my blogroll everyday.

A few years ago, there was a big push to teach 4th graders about "voice." Fourth grade is the writing test year here in Texas. The teachers were always in search of novels with a strong "voice." Well, ok. I don't know what the writing pedagogy flavor of the month is this year. I daresay it is something new.

I asked a student once if they could tell me what "voice" was and the child answered, "It is the sound I hear when I read a book."

I do hear the "voices" of the kidlitospherians when I read their reviews.

6 comments:

MotherReader said...

Thank you Camille, for that perspective.

While you can't hear the actual sound of my voice, know that my friends in my "real life" say that my blog writing is exactly how I talk. Except if it were truly accurate, it would have more italics. I think I talk with lots of tone, as resprented by italics in this here comment.

Michele said...

That's an intriguing idea - that you'd be me if you'd been born in England...

I've stayed out of the whole Bloggers vs "Professionals" discussion, largely because I've been too busy with other things this week, but I've been following it with interest and curiosity...

Unknown said...

Great post, Camille! You're right that voice is what I enjoy the most about the different blogs (and I keep adding more to my reader!)

Anonymous said...

Excellent post, Camille! I totally agree. I like to read people's 7-Kicks lists at 7-Imp and try to guess who the person is, before I get to their name at the bottom. I think it was MotherReader who said, in her article about becoming a B-List blogger, that people should be able to recognize our posts without our name attached, and I really agree with that. I love the different voices that people have, and the different slants that they bring to things. Thanks for the food for thought!

Chad W. Beckerman said...

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www.chadwbeckerman.com

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Chad

Camille said...

Chad,
I think it is one of the best looking series I have ever seen. When will we see book 3?