Besty Bird, a librarian at the New York Public Library who blogs about children's literature on her popular A Fuse #8 Production website, suggests checking out these blogs to find out more about kid's books:

Read Roger run by Roger Sutton, the editor of Horn Book Magazine

Bookshelves of Doom run by Leila, a librarian of Kennebunk, ME

Big A little a run by Kelly Herold, a midwestern language professor

Mother Reader run by Pam Coughlan, children's library assistant in northern Virginia.

Oz and Ends run by J.L. Bell, a writer, editor and researcher.

Veneta Masson has practiced nursing for 35 years, mostly in inner-city Washington, DC. Along the way, she found an outlet to express everything she was witnessing and experiencing -- poetry. Veneta started putting together essays and poems about her nursing life and today has two collections in print, Ninth Street Notebook (short pieces) and Rehab at the Florida Avenue Grill (poems). She's also part of a community of nurses who write verse influenced by their profession. Call them Nurse Poets.

VT: How did you get started writing poetry?

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Veneta Masson, the nurse and poet we interviewed recently for our "Word Count" section, recommends these anthologies to get a taste of nurses' writing:

Between the Heartbeatsand Intensive Care, both edited by Cortney Davis and Judy Schaefer, were published by U. of Iowa Press. They include nurses' stories in both poetry and prose.

The Poetry of Nursing was edited by Judy Schaefer and consists of poems and commentary by fifteen nurse poets.

I love the name Blackbelly because it's mysterious -- some people suspect it's erotic, some that it's racist. It is, in fact, a breed of sheep with black bellies that hails from Barbados. Like my protagonist, Chas McPherson, I raise Blackbelly sheep. He raises them for meat, but I just use them to keep down the blackberries on my Oregon farm.

I was working on another novel (my fourth unpublished) when I woke up in the middle of the night compelled to write Blackbelly. When people ask me where my ideas come from, I have to say they come straight out of the darkness like a bolt of lightning. Or, at least the best ideas do. There was a connection in Blackbelly that was more personal to me than just the fact that I raise sheep, though it wasn't evident until I'd finished the first draft. That's when, stepping back, I could see the web of themes I'd knitted together and their striking relevance to my life: faith vs. religion, sin and forgiveness, prejudice and rural Idaho.

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BuzzWhack defines "buzzwords" as important-sounding words used to impress laypeople, and "buzzwhacker" as a person who gets pleasure out of bursting the bubbles of the pompous. Buzzwhackers out there, this one's for you! BuzzWhack demystifies one buzzword after the other on its site, including this delicious morsel: "Lawn mullet: A lawn that's neatly mowed in the front but uncut in the back." Read more buzzwords debunked here.

We here at the Visual Thesaurus receive a lot of emails from subscribers around the world. Not long ago we got a nice note from Sandra Dolores Becker of Porto Alegre, Brazil. She wrote:

"The Visual Thesaurus has become a friend, a colleague, and my companion when I'm trying to find the specific word that will fit perfectly in a verse of my early period poetry or when I'm writing another chapter of my book. It's wondrous! I spend my time researching, finding and reflecting on the meaning of words. Simple words? No, words are never simple. They can move mountains, change a nation, make a friend or cause pain. Words can make us dream, see what isn't there at the moment? Accept my gratitude for showing me how to increase my vocabulary with ease!"

Thank you, Sandra! Her note got us curious about her work and the challenges she faces writing in both Portuguese and English. We wanted to ask Sandra for her advice to writers whose native tongue isn't English. So we contacted Sandra in Brazil. We were surprised to learn she had lived the first half of her life in Indiana and works for an American multi-national company, in addition to writing poetry and fiction in both languages. With this unique perspective, here's what Sandra shared with us:

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This week's "Word Count" features Sandra Dolores Becker, a Visual Thesaurus subscriber and writer from Brazil who works in both English and Portuguese. We asked Sandra to tell us about books that help her write better in English:

The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation by Jane Straus. I always have this one on hand. It's very practical, with simple rules and easy examples.

Felicity: Summer by Janet Tashijian . Pure American English and delightful reading! It's perfect for reading everyday, normal, spoken English.

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss's books are a must for anyone wanting to learn English -- even adults! There are no words to describe them. You learn, you play, you see, you enjoy.