Introducing The Niblings
(Or, More Numbers Before Breakfast Than I’m Used To)
February 21st, 2013 by jules
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 8 9,” but it sounded too much like a math page. And when Philip Nel suggested “The Niblings,” we all fell hard for it.
This Facebook page (at www.facebook.com/TheNiblings) 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.
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.
The Twitter presence is here: twitter.com/TheNiblings4. (I will also still use my 7-Imp Twitter presence, however, to share links.)
“The Niblings” comes from Tove Jansson’s Moomin series:
“Do you like educational games?” Hodgkins asked cautiously.
“I love them!” said the Nibling.
I sat down and didn’t know what to say.
— Tove Jannson, final chapter of Moominpappa’s Memoirs (1968, revision of The Exploits of Moominpappa, 1950), translated by Thomas Warburton, p. 147
Why this name for our group?
- 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.
- 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.)
- “Niblings” is a term for nieces or nephews and thus offers an additional link to young readers.
- The word evokes other literary groups, such as the Inklings (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, et al), as well as Fanny Burney’s 1779 play The Witlings (which satirizes the literary world).
- It’s slightly absurd, rather like Monty Python, Moxy Früvous, Boing Boing (the blog), or A Fuse #8 Production (Betsy’s blog).
We hope you enjoy our consortium over there in Facebook Land, should you be a Facebook-user.
The Niblings art here was created by the great Megan Montague Cash and is © 2013 The Niblings (Betsy Bird, Julie Danielson, Travis Jonker, Philip Nel).
Moomin!! I think I let out a slight sequel when I read the name of your new blog. Looking forward to reading what you all come up with. A fabulous powerhouse of children’s lit knowledge all rolled up into a giant sushi roll of a blog. It sounds fantastic!
by Rebecca Zarazan Dunn February 21st, 2013 at 10:32 amThis is a great idea… and seems like a good time to also say THANK YOU so much for the Seven Imp. blog and what you do. Your passion and humor and knowledge add such a wonderful element to the Children’s book world. I am a big big fan- I check 7 Imp pretty much every day and really appreciate what you do. The other blogs are great too, and I do try to get to them also, though not nearly as often… so it will be wonderful to find it all in one place. Though 7 Imp will stay at the top of my bookmarks!
Keep up the great work.
by Corinna Luyken February 21st, 2013 at 3:33 pmThanks, and thanks for the super kind words, Corinna!
by jules February 21st, 2013 at 10:43 pmThe best thing about a collaboration is that you know you’re sharing things with people who are equally crazy about the topic (and in this case, possibly just equally crazy). That’s the way to DO a FB thing, and I think you’ll be promoting more fab people and picture book stuff to a larger audience, so huzzah and kudos. FB is now a joint officially “classed up.”
by tanita February 22nd, 2013 at 11:23 amEqually Crazy. Love it. Yes.
Mwahahahahah….[evil laugh, fading out]
by jules February 22nd, 2013 at 11:31 am[…] Introducing The Niblings(Or, More Numbers Before Breakfast Than I’m Used To) February 21st, 2013    by jules […]
by Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast February 27th, 2013 at 7:47 am[…] that it’s a sort of one-stop resource center for information on children’s literature. (Here’s more […]
by Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast » Blog Archive » The Niblings: Bigger and Better February 3rd, 2015 at 12:01 am