'a beautifully presented tale'

A four-star review of The Bear with the Sword from book reviewer Larissa Chapman on her blog, i read therefore i am. Here’s an excerpt:

The Bear with the Sword is a beautifully presented tale that allows young readers to easily grasp the concept of actions having consequences. Through ignorance and lack of respect bear recklessly destroys more than just a few trees when he takes his sword to the forest, but realising his mistake bear is able to take responsibility for his actions. A strong role model for all young children, this is a book every parent should have on their shelves.

Time was a publisher wouldn’t have considered sending a review copy of a book to a ‘mere blogger’, but the era of the book blogger has now truly arrived.

This is perhaps less so in Australia than in the US, but it’s clearly another way of getting the word out there, especially with children’s books, which tend to receive only scant coverage in the mainstream media (because? well, who knows? Parents and grandparents—the buyers of kids books—do buy newspapers, watch TV and listen to the radio, after all).

For a publicist, it’s all about reaching a sufficiently large and appropriately targeted audience for a particular book.

Know of any other skilled online book bloggers? We’d be interested to know of them.