Eight Years

Posted by: Allison Helps Cats on: December 28, 2018

• In: Teasers
• 6 Comments

Books introduce us to new friends and new homes. I have loved sharing favorites and not-so-favorites with readers from all over the world. But the time to say goodbye to Allison’s Book Bag is long overdue.

In 2010, when I still taught, I started Allison’s Book bag as a way to share my love of books with my students. I used to invite students to write titles of recommended books on our white board and to promise that I’d read each book they listed. Over spring break of that year, I carted home about a dozen Golden Sower books that my students had read. After I finished reading the last of the books in my pile, my husband suggested, “You should start a blog of children’s book reviews. You’re always reading children’s books anyway. You might as well review them.” And so, I did.

Over the next several years, reviewing children’s books became a personal passion. I wrote teasers for books, interviewed authors, and collected links to children’s book sites. I broadened my reading tastes to include best sellers, award winners, diversity novels, and other categories. I wrote about literary sites and festivals. In addition, I monitored my list of followers and my blog’s unique hits. I adjusted how often I wrote and the topics I covered, partly based on what I viewed as audience interests. I even conducted surveys to confirm my guesses. Blogging was a love affair.

But as I began to delve into animal welfare, my passion for reviewing books began to dwindle. I began to allow myself to write about my other interests. At the time, I still had a stack of Advanced Reader Copies, and so I decided to return to writing strictly reviews. However, I also cut back to posting once or twice a month, which allowed me to balance review commitments with other writing interests. During the past year, I’ve read some fun books and become acquainted with new authors. There are times when I’ve thought about continuing with Allison’s Book Bag but at a slower pace.

But all good things must come to end. Otherwise, there isn’t time for other good things such as pet education and pet therapy.

Thanks to everyone who followed Allison’s Book Bag. At one point, my blog reached over 40,000 hits in a year. This might seem insignificant to some, but I’m floored at the interest my blog generated. To this date, I still receive compliments on my blog from authors, editors, and publishers. And I’m still declining review requests. It’s been a meaningful eight years.

You can continue to follow me at:

• WordPress: Lincoln Pet Culture
• Instagram: Rainy The Therapy Cat

Tags: Allison's Book Bag, Lincoln Pet Culture, reviews of books for young people