BooksTogether shares a birthday with Swedish author Astrid Lindgren; I started it in 2007, on what would have been her hundredth birthday, and it's ten years old today. It was a fortuitous date, as over the years I've come to specialize in the field of international and translated children's literature. While the blog hasn't always kept pace with my work (I hardly posted at all when I was on the Batchelder committee, for example), a tenth anniversary seems a good time to recommit!

[I wasn't aware of it at the time, but November 14 is also Frederick Banting's birthday. Banting is a personal hero, a Nobel prize winner for the discovery of insulin. Since I started this blog, my son Leo was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, so this date--World Diabetes Day--has added significance--not necessarily for BooksTogether, but definitely for me.]