wooooooooooo... woooooooooo.....

(Those were spooky woo noises, if you couldn't tell.)

Jen Robinson is hosting the THIRTEENTH carnival of children's literature, brave woman that she is. She isn't planning a theme, but perhaps we should choose our luckiest posts. Or our unluckiest ones? I, of course, am all set with my review of Bean Thirteen.

a question for the kidlitosphere reviewers

This post from Roger Sutton's blog about people uncomfortable with writing negative reviews reminded me of something I've been wondering about lately: now that so many authors and illustrators have their own blogs and are hanging out in the kidlitosphere, does it ever become uncomfortable to review?

This hasn't really come up for me yet--I did write a less than fully complimentary review of Meg Cabot's Party Princess, like she's ever going to notice or care what I think--but it probably will at some point. I have had more authors thank me for reviews in the last year than ever before, usually politely ignoring anything negative I've said. (Julius Lester holds the title for his exceptionally gracious correction of a misconception in one of my review.) And I can't help thinking, someday I'm going to review a book by someone whose blog I read and comment on, and maybe I'll have something negative to say, and what's that going to be like?

Has this happened to you? What was it like? What, if anything, happened?