About

About the blog:
The Bookish Elf is a book blog devoted to reviewing books for children, teens, parents and educators. It is a companion blog to Cozy Little Book Journal.

About me:

My name is Mary Lavers. I am a writer, a poet, a performer, an Early Childhood Educator and a mom. I am also the blogger behind Cozy Little Book Journal, which started as a spiral notebook next to my bed in which I would jot down my thoughts on books that I had read, and evolved into an online journal in 2010. In 2012 I decided to start The Bookish Elf, a companion blog devoted to reviews of children's books and educational materials.

My daughter, Magda, was born in 2009 and is being raised in a book-rich environment. The desktop computer is one of the few "gadgets" we have (that, and my newly acquired Kobo), and she thinks of it mostly as a thing Mommy uses to write book reviews. She even has her own book journal, though it's not online. It's a ring binder in which we put pictures of chapter books we have read together, along with her book-inspired art work and transcripts of conversations we have about the books we've read. I will be posting copies of these here from time to time. Also, any book that I review on this blog will include a "Magda's reaction" feature (if Magda has also read the book).

About the name:

Because I review a lot of books, I frequently receive advanced reading copies (ARCs) of upcoming books from publishers and authors. My daughter looks forward to checking the mail to see if I've gotten any new books. One day my partner and I bought a new book for Magda and decided, instead of just giving it to her, to wrap it up and put it in the mailbox so she would have a new book too. She was so excited! She wanted to know if we had sent it, or if it was from the author or the publisher. Her dad said maybe it was from a Book Fairy or a Book Elf. And thus the Bookish Elf was born. We figured it was no more unusual than the Tooth Fairy and at least the Bookish Elf brings free books instead of stealing teeth.