You may have noticed I didn’t post my diverse reading progress for April or May. Both months are very busy on the education beat at a newspaper (my day job). I’ve been doing exciting stuff like going to the National Spelling Bee and rounding up local schools’ tax rates. … Okay, the latter isn’t actually so fun, but the bee was. I met a former Sports Illustrated reporter there who was working on a middle grade novel about a competitive speller. Sign me up to read that.

There also have been other life events that have thrown my mental concentration off kidlit a bit, but I’m re-focusing now, and I will have more regular updates here in the coming weeks.

As a teaser, here’s a photo of me and I.W. Gregorio, author of the new YA novel, None of the Above, at a local bookstore. In addition to being an author (and a surgeon! and a mother!), Ilene is vice president of We Need Diverse Books. One of my upcoming posts will be about the wisdom and stories she shared when I heard her speak last month.