Happy to be here!!!

Wow! It has been nearly three years since I've posted anything on this blog... I really dropped the ball on that. Initially, I had intended to use this page as a way to supplement my classroom language arts teaching. However, now I'm thinking it might better serve as a general blog dedicated to children's literature and fantasy worlds.

In that spirit, I have three updates:

• Last fall, I presented a paper to the Georgia Educational Research Association about utopian children's literature and the idea of cognitive mapping. For those of you who don't know, cognitive mapping is the idea that utopian novels are popular forms of social and political philosophy that help readers to orient themselves to current cultural conditions. The paper examined, in particular, Oz, Narnia, and Middle-Earth, discussing differing conceptions of modernism in each. I had a great deal of fun, and I'm hoping to do something bigger with the paper soon. I'll keep you updated.
• Currently, I'm researching and writing a chapter for my book on horror films that take place in educational institutions. I have about four or five films left to watch in my colleges and universities chapter, and I'm looking forward to presenting my findings next week in Charleston at the Southern History of Education Society annual meeting. I hoping to wrap up writing for this entire project in the next couple months, and I'll be looking for a publisher quite soon. Again, I'll keep everyone posted on the successes and failures in this process. (I'm sure excited about it!)
• I recently finished reading this year's Newbery Award winner, Moon over Manifest. I really enjoyed it (especially the last 50 or so pages). I wasn't as enamored with this book as I have been with some of the other recent winners (The Graveyard Book and The Tale of Desperaux come to mind), but it was quite good. Perhaps I'll write more on the subject later.

I know that as a result of letting this blog go for so long, that it'll take a while to start rebuilding some readership. Let me know if you have any suggestions, and thanks for reading!