docs: blogpost for 1.17 release (#906)

## 📜 Description

Added blogpost for new release.

## 💡 Motivation and Context

To keep people aware about new changes and give more info than release
notes 😊

## 📢 Changelog

<!-- High level overview of important changes -->
<!-- For example: fixed status bar manipulation; added new types
declarations; -->
<!-- If your changes don't affect one of platform/language below - then
remove this platform/language -->

### Docs

- added blogpost about `1.17.0` version.

## 🤔 How Has This Been Tested?

Tested locally.

## 📸 Screenshots (if appropriate):

<img width="1028" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/61f01aa9-cef8-4f4c-b049-cf96d4edee37"
/>

## 📝 Checklist

- [x] CI successfully passed
- [x] I added new mocks and corresponding unit-tests if library API was
changed

Author: kirillzyusko

docs/blog/2025-04-09-release-1-17/index.mdx

@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+---
+slug: use-keyboard-state
+title: Meet new 1.17 release with useKeyboardState hook 👋
+authors: [kirill]
+tags: [react-native, keyboard, useKeyboardState]
+keywords: [react-native-keyboard-controller, useKeyboardState]
+---
+
+Say hello to new `1.17.0` release of `react-native-keyboard-controller` 👋
+
+This update brings a powerful new hook, custom C++ shadow nodes, and of course, plenty of bug fixes 😎
+
+Let’s take a closer look at what’s new 👇
+
+<div className="playwright center">
+  <img
+    className="svg"
+    src={require("./use-keyboard-state.png").default}
+    alt="Phone with visible keyboard and arrow to useKeyboardState"
+  />
+</div>
+
+<!-- truncate -->
+
+## 🔥 New `useKeyboardState` hook
+
+Since the very first version, this library has provided keyboard events via the `KeyboardEvents` module. But many developers ended up writing their own wrappers to sync those events with `ref` or `state` variables.
+
+In version `1.15.0`, the `KeyboardController.state()` API was introduced to read the keyboard state without needing a listener. However, if you wanted to react to keyboard changes (like conditionally rendering a component) you still had to use `KeyboardEvents` and deal with boilerplate code.
+
+**That’s no longer the case!** With this release, you can use the new `useKeyboardState` hook to track the keyboard in a clean, declarative way. 🎉
+
+Also, `KeyboardController.state()` has been improved — it now always returns a defined value, so you no longer need optional chaining to safely access the keyboard state.
+
+## 🧱 Custom C++ Shadow Nodes
+
+When `OverKeyboardView` was introduced, there was an issue on Android/Fabric: the view couldn’t stretch to full screen. That’s because layout is now calculated in C++, and resizing your component requires updating state in C++ as well.
+
+At the time, I released `OverKeyboardView` with this limitation since there were a lot of other moving pieces — and gradual rollout was the right choice. But now that the new architecture is the default in React Native, it’s time to address the problem.
+
+Starting with this release, custom (non-auto-generated) C++ shadow nodes are included. This makes `OverKeyboardView` work as expected under the Fabric renderer.
+
+> ⚠️ **If you hit any build issues, make a [clean](https://github.com/kirillzyusko/react-native-keyboard-controller/issues/786#issuecomment-2741464142) build and try again. Still having problems? Open an [issue](https://github.com/kirillzyusko/react-native-keyboard-controller/issues/new?template=bug_report.md) and I’ll help you out.**
+
+## ✨ Summary
+
+This is a relatively small release focused on tightening up the internals and laying the groundwork for future updates.
+
+While it doesn’t introduce any game-changing features, it plays an important role in ensuring that custom C++ shadow nodes can be successfully integrated across projects using the new React Native architecture. Think of it as a bridge release — stabilizing key parts of the system to unlock bigger things coming soon 🙌
+
+## 🚀 What's next?
+
+As always, my top priority is resolving open issues. Beyond that, here’s what’s coming up:
+
+- Support for `react-native@0.79`;
+- A new `KeyboardExtender` component that gets embedded directly into the keyboard;
+- KeyboardToolbar.Group` component to split multiple inputs into groups, each with its own navigation and state;
+- A complete rewrite of `KeyboardAwareScrollView` that will use cursor position instead of layout-based detection.
+
+Stay tuned and follow me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/ziusko) and [GitHub](https://github.com/kirillzyusko) for updates. Thank you for your support! 😊