{"id":2518,"date":"2013-02-21T09:47:15","date_gmt":"2013-02-21T15:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2518"},"modified":"2013-02-25T16:26:44","modified_gmt":"2013-02-25T22:26:44","slug":"introducing-the-niblingsor-more-numbers-than-im-used-to-before-breakfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2518","title":{"rendered":"Introducing The Niblings
(Or, More Numbers Before Breakfast Than I’m Used To)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The hubba-WHOs? you may be asking … <\/p>\n

The Niblings is a new blog consortium, over at Facbeook and Twitter, representing Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast<\/em> (Yours Truly), A Fuse #8 Production<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Betsy Bird), Nine Kinds of Pie<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Philip Nel), and 100 Scope Notes<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Travis Jonker). <\/p>\n

We considered calling this page “100 Notes on Why 7 8 9,” but it sounded too much like a math page. And when Philip Nel suggested “The Niblings,” we all fell hard for it. <\/p>\n

This Facebook page (at www.facebook.com\/TheNiblings<\/a><\/strong>) will be our space for sharing in one spot links from our blogs and other writings, as well as for sharing other interesting links related to the field of children’s literature. For my part, instead of posting children’s-lit links at my own personal Facebook page, I’ll now share them at this new page, a sort of one-stop resource center for information on children’s literature. <\/p>\n

This was initially my idea, ’cause I’m not happy unless I’m collaborating with others, and I have immense respect for these three other blogs. They’re gonna class up the 7-Imp joint, just by association. Oh, and I couldn’t pass up the fun numerology in these four blog titles. <\/p>\n

The Twitter presence is here: twitter.com\/TheNiblings4<\/a><\/strong>. (I will also still use my 7-Imp Twitter presence<\/a><\/strong>, however, to share links.)<\/p>\n

“The Niblings” comes from Tove Jansson’s<\/a><\/strong> Moomin<\/a><\/strong><\/em> series: <\/p>\n

\u201cDo you like educational games?\u201d Hodgkins asked cautiously.
\n\u201cI love them!\u201d said the Nibling.
\nI sat down and didn\u2019t know what to say.
\n\u2014 Tove Jannson, final chapter of Moominpappa\u2019s Memoirs<\/em> (1968, revision of The Exploits of Moominpappa<\/em>, 1950), translated by Thomas Warburton, p. 147\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why this name for our group?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Tove Jansson’s Niblings love educational games and are, of course, often hungry. And we four children’s-lit bloggers have a comparably rapacious curiosity.<\/li>\n
  2. It is the nature of blogs to take small bites of things. Niblings like to gnaw on things, too. (Niblings also chew off noses they think are too long. We vow not to do this.)<\/li>\n
  3. “Niblings” is a term for nieces or nephews and thus offers an additional link to young readers.<\/li>\n
  4. The word evokes other literary groups, such as the Inklings<\/a><\/strong> (C.S. Lewis<\/a><\/strong>, J.R.R. Tolkien<\/a><\/strong>, et al), as well as Fanny Burney’s<\/a><\/strong> 1779 play The Witlings<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (which satirizes the literary world).<\/li>\n
  5. It’s slightly absurd, rather like Monty Python<\/a><\/strong>, Moxy Fr\u00fcvous<\/a><\/strong>, Boing Boing<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (the blog), or A Fuse #8 Production<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Betsy’s blog).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n


     

    \nWe hope you enjoy our consortium over there in Facebook Land, should you be a Facebook-user. <\/p>\n

    The Niblings art here was created by the great Megan Montague Cash<\/a><\/strong> and is \u00a9 2013 The Niblings (Betsy Bird, Julie Danielson, Travis Jonker, Philip Nel). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The hubba-WHOs? you may be asking … The Niblings is a new blog consortium, over at Facbeook and Twitter, representing Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast (Yours Truly), A Fuse #8 Production (Betsy Bird), Nine Kinds of Pie (Philip Nel), and 100 Scope Notes (Travis Jonker). We considered calling this page “100 Notes on Why 7 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-etcetera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}