With almost 80 million households in the United States owning a pet as of 2015, it should come as no surprise that our calendar year is filled with holidays celebrating our animal companions. These holidays might be a little too obscure to grant anyone a day off from work, but they still might give ideas about how to have fun with or honor pets. Last year to help my Lincoln Animal Ambassadors visitors keep track of those very special dates, I began posting information about them. Here are links to all of the events you might have missed in January.
Happy Mew Year! was created by Ruth and Tom Roy. The two host a website called Well Cat where they celebrate quirky holidays.
Pet Travel Safety Day was created by Colleen Paige. It seeks to educate pet owners about ways to make vehicle travel safer for their pets.
National Bird Day was created to shine a spotlight on issues critical to the protection and survival of birds. Born Free USA warns that nearly 12 percent of the world’s almost 10,000 bird species are in danger of extinction.
Dress Up Your Pet Day was created by animal advocate and pet holiday creator extraordinaire, Colleen Paige. This special day is designed to celebrate pets and to support the pet fashion community.
Squirrel Appreciation Day was created by Christy Hargrove, a wildlife rehabilitator in North Carolina. No matter how you feel about squirrels, January 21st has been set aside annually to honor them.
Answer Your Cat’s Questions Day recognizes that cats communicate in different ways. They communicate vocally and through body language. It’s up to us as their caretakers to learn how to interpret their communications.
The Seeing Eye Dog celebrates our world with service dogs. On this date in 1929, the school for Seeing Eye Dogs was opened in Nashville, Tennessee. This guide school trained dogs to assist the blind and since then has influenced programs all over the world. From those roots arose our service dogs of today, whose duties can extend to helping people with not just physical but also emotional and medical needs.
Missing from my roundup are: National Train Your Dog and National Walk Your Dog, both of which are monthly events.
To read more, check out Pet Calendar Dates. There you’ll find details not only about the above, but about pet-related dates that fall from February through December.
Book Blogs
members read, blog, write, and publicize books
Children's Book Review
helping adults to grow readers by offering reviews and book lists of the best books for kids of all ages, as well as interviews and literacy-based articles
Fourth Musketeer
Reviews of historical fiction and nonfiction for young people
From the Mixed-Up Files
group blog of middle-grade authors celebrating books for middle-grade readers.
Kid Reads
info about favorite books, series, and authors for kids
Kids Right To Read
Offers support, education, and advocacy to people facing book challenges or bans and engages local activists in promoting the freedom to read.
Midwest Review
major Internet resource of reviews for publishers, writers, librarians, booksellers, and book lovers of all ages and interests
Nonfiction Monday
Rounding up the best nonfiction for children and teens.
Teen Text Talk
reviews and teacher advisories for young adult literature
Américas Award for Children’s & Young Adult Literature
CLASP founded the Américas Award in 1993 to encourage and commend authors, illustrators and publishers who produce quality children’s and young adult books that portray Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the United States.
American Library Association Awards
awards include Caldecott, Newbery, Coretta Scott, Sibert, Theodor Giesel, and Laura Ingalls Wilder medals
Children's Book Awards
The Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards is the only national book awards program where the winning titles are selected by children and teens.
Christy Award
The Christy Awards are awarded each year to recognize novels of excellence written from a Christian worldview.
Cybils
children and young adult blogger literacy awards
Dolly Gray Children’s Literature Award
The Dolly Gray Children’s Literature Award was initiated in 2000 to recognize authors, illustrators, and publishers of high quality fictional and biographical books for young people that appropriately portray individuals with developmental disabilities
Hans Christian Anderson Award
The Hans Christian Andersen Awards is given to a living author and illustrator whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children’s literature. The award is the highest international recognition an author can receive.
Middle East Book Award
The Middle East Book Award recognizes quality books for children and young adults that contribute meaningfully to an understanding of the Middle East and its component societies and cultures.
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award
Honors fantasy books for younger readers, in the tradition of The Hobbit or The Chronicles of Narnia
National Book Award
Established in 1950, the National Book Award is an American literary prize administered by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization.
Red House Book Award
The Red House Children’s Book Award is a series of literary prizes for works of children’s literature published during the previous year in England.
Sydney Taylor Award
The Sydney Taylor Book Award is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience.
Top Ten Tuesday
Born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
YALSA Awards
YALSA honors the best teen literature each year with its six literary awards, including Alex, Morris, and Printz.
Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind
blog about children’s and YA books set in Asia, with Asian characters or characters of Asian descent, and with Asian authors and illustrators or of Asian descent.
IBBY
international network of people from all over the world who are committed to bringing books and children together
Jewish Book Council
book list curated by the Association of Jewish Libraries, which fosters access to information, learning, teaching and research related to the Jewish experience
Latinos in Kid Lit
Exploring the World of Latino YA, MG, and Children’s Literature
Oyate
educational organization that reviews children’s literature and advocates for Native Americans to be portrayed with historical accuracy and cultural appropriateness
Paper Tigers
emphasis on books set in Pacific Rim and Asia
Sea Stacks
information about Atlantic Canada books for children and young people
The Brown Bookshelf
push awareness of the myriad of African American voices writing for young readers.
Saturday Snapshot
To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and write a caption for it.
Six Word Saturday
All that’s necessary to participate is to describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words.
Wish List Wednesday
Post about one book per week that has been on your wishlist for some time, or just added, that you can’t wait to get off the wishlist and onto your wonderful shelves.
Feline Friday
All you have to do is post a picture of a cat on your website.
Saturday Review
Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week.
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