I'm thrilled to welcome you to opening day of the Horn Book's newest blog -- and eager to start uploading the first real posts about books and issues. Our focus will be using children's trade books (which includes everything up through YA) in educational settings, and we plan to post two or three times a week.

We have a great group of bloggers to start us off. Most are former students of my children's and adolescent lit classes at Harvard Graduate School of Education. All are book lovers and teachers of some kind working in a variety of schools in the US and abroad.

In fact, this blog is a result of teaching at HGSE. Over the years, I've tried a number of ways to help students stay in touch and share books after graduation, but nothing really stuck. Last year Danielle Hayden, one of the adolescent lit students, was so eager to find a way for us all to stay connected that it gave me new hope that we could find a suitable permanent platform. Not a listserv, not a Facebook group (been there, done that), but something better. Here is the result, and I'm happy to say that Danielle will be a strong presence behind the scenes. She also plans to blog occasionally.

While class is in session -- February 27 to April 10 for the children's literature module -- I'll post about the books we are reading and my students will comment on them. And I hope former students and all of you will comment, too. Tell us what you think of the books we're reading. Have you read them? Used them with kids? The more opinions we get here, the richer our in-class discussions will be.

Every new venture has its risks. Will we find enough readers? Will they keep coming back? Will they comment on the posts? To a large extent, the success of this blog is in YOUR hands. Let all your teacher friends know we are here. (Tweet us! Share us on Facebook!) Tell us what you want us to cover via our Suggestion Box. And by all means, please join the conversation in the Comments.