The Suburban Barnyard

World Book Night

2012-02-02T17:34:00.000-05:00

I am so excited -- I just got news that I was selected as a book giver for World Book Night! I am not entirely certain what book I will be giving away or where I will be giving it away, but it will most likely be a coffee shop in downtown Wayne, PA. World Book Night is an annual event that is held in the US, Ireland, and the UK on the same date in an effort to spread the love of reading and books within our communities by giving away quality paperback books. On April 23rd and I will be hanging out at my location with a box of books and giving them out FOR FREE as I join in on this wonderful effort to promote literacy within our community. For more information check out www.worldbooknight.org/.

The Books Being Featured this Year Include:

Meet British Author Marcus Sedgwick

2012-01-14T18:44:00.001-05:00

Photography © Kate Christer

http://www.marcussedgwick.com/Marcus_Sedgwick/Home.html

Among the manyauthors I met while at ALA in New Orleans this past summer, I had the distinctpleasure of meeting the dashingly handsome and utterly charming Marcus Sedgwickwho won a Printz Honor for his YA novel Revolver. I had a short chat with Marcus as he signed my copy ofRevolver and then was able to chat with him further at the Printz AwardsReception later in the conference. Marcus immediately draws you in as you speak to him with his soft-spokenBritish accent and a warm intensity that shows he is clearly listening toyou. He graciously agreed to do ane-mail interview with me and it is in the second half of this posting.

Prior to doingmy interview, I read through Marcus’s blog . (http://marcussedgwick.blogspot.com/) When you read his blog, you get agood sense of Marcus as an author with a great deal of intelligence and a quickwit. It doesn’t get mired down inheavy details about his personal life, but does talk a bit about his passionfor music and art, also evident as you read his novels. He doesn’t blog constantly, but seemsto write when the mood strikes him or when he gets the time in his hecticschedule (hmmmm, I know that feeling!).

In addition toreading his blog, I read more of his novels. I loved Revolver and wanted to see how some of his othernovels fared in comparison. What Idiscovered is that Marcus Sedgwick is one of the finest YA authors writingtoday. I anticipate that as moreAmerican teachers become familiar with his work, he will be added to middleschool and high school English curriculum. What I like about Marcus’s writing is that he is a consistentlygood storyteller, he is clearly well-read in classic literature, he uses strongvocabulary and writing structure, his books are not all the same (and yet Ihave loved every one I’ve read), and he is able to fit in “quotable moments” sothat they fit naturally with his story.

One of theexamples I love of a “quotable moment” is from Blood Red Snow White.

“There wastragedy all across Europe.Tragedy in theshape of war.If you lookedat the family trees of the royal houses of Europe, you would find more threadsbetween them than in a busy spider’s web. The Tsar had a cousin who was a king of another country. His name was George. Nicholas, the Tsar, and George hadanother cousin, William, the Kaiser, who had gone to war against Nicholas andGeorge’s countries. It made nosense, but then when has a war made sense?”

The quote fitsperfectly with the storyline, but even when taken out of the context of the story as a whole maintains adeeper commentary on war and peace. I am guessing that Marcus would probably be toting a peace sign ratherthan pushing the red button to send everyone off to fight the cause. The book is a fantastic read. It is a historical fiction novel aboutthe Russian Revolution and I couldn’t put it down until I had it finished.

In addition the Blood RedSnow White, I read The Dark Horse, a novel about a native tribe that finds ayoung girl in a cave of wolves and takes her into their tribe. The story is riveting and not nearly asstraightforward as you might think it would be. Marcus Sedgwick doesn’t seem to tell tales that don’t havesurprises hidden somewhere! InWhite Crow, he tells a fascinating story of a girl who moves to a small townwith her police detective father after he is accused of negligence that has ledto a young girl’s death. The storyis told in multiple voices, one of which hails from the small town’s past. Finally, with my penchant for vampiretales, I couldn’t resist reading Marcus’s take on vampires. In My Swordhand is Singing, Marcustells an old vampire tale that is creepy and wonderful. His monsters do not sparkle in sunlightor have wonderful deep emotional lives. They are horrible dead things that come out of their graves and need tobe put back for good. It’s aterrific story and sits proudly in my vampire collection.

In my interview, Marcusmentions some upcoming projects. Iam truly looking forward to reading more from this talented author. I hope many of you will pick up some ofhis books and give him a try – you won’t be disappointed!

First of all, Ihave to say that I love reading your blog. It’s got great quotes,commentary, and is often quite funny. It clearly reflects yourpersonality. My first two questions are actually in regard to quotes Ifound on your blog…

“Оцелелелите.Теса онези,които не бих искала да поглеждам,макар че в много случаи нямамизбор.Аз умишлено съзерцавам цветовете,за да отвличам ума си,но от време навреме зървам как някои от тях рухват сред разпокъсания пъзел наосъзнаването,отчаянието и почудата.Те имат спукани сърца.И смазани белидробове.”

— Marcus Sedgwick<http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/110234.Marcus_Sedgwick>

I found thisquote on your blog and am just dying to know what it actually says!

I have no idea what thatpiece in a foreign tongue is! Google tells me it's Bulgarian but I have no ideawhere it came from or what it says! Odd!

Hilarious answerMarcus! Now you know you can't say that to a librarian without sending usoff on a wild quest to find out what the answer is… That's why we sitthrough classes called "reference" which involve hours upon hours oftorture trying to find answers to patron questions that are seemingly impossible. It's all training for things like this, puzzles that librarians live for. Questions unanswered can never just sit there unanswered.

Yes I tried tolook it up on Google translate but have to say the results bore little relationto anything I've ever said, and quite possibly to anything anyone's ever said….

I’ll be sure topass on the answer when I eventually find it…even if it’s 2 years from now… And it is Bulgarian by the way.

From Marcus Sedgwick’s Blog…

“There werevampire novels before Dracula, there have been many since, and there will undoubtedlybe more to come in the future, but I doubt Dracula will ever be bettered. Why?Largely because it's a product of the time it was written, and the man whowrote it - Bram Stoker, a member of high society in Victorian Dublin. Stoker isthe epitome of Victorian society - clearly a rather repressed and oppressedindividual on the surface, his fiction betrays a rather different character,implicitly and sometimes explicitly, full of sexualities of dubious natures.And this is at the heart of why Dracula was, and is, so successful - it strikesto the very core of the contradiction that is the vampire - the attraction tosomething potentially fatal, not just to your mortal self, but your immortalsoul as well. True, the charisma of the vampire had been set up by Polidori'sallusions to Byron, and another Dubliner, Sheridan Lefanu had already thrownLesbian vampires into the mix in Carmilla, but Stoker worked these themes, andmore, up into a slow burn of a novel that arrives in a final frenzy ofblood-letting. Along the way it uses multiple narratives, a relatively noveltechnique at the time, to weave a story of obsession, lust, menace and thesupernatural. It is one of the few books I have read several times, and everytime I do, I enjoy it more, and it horrifies me more, not just as a reader, butas a writer too, because nothing else that Stoker wrote, before or afterDracula, comes close. He worked for years on the book that was to become hismasterpiece, and it's a frightening thought for a writer to fear that realcreativity might abandon you altogether.”

I am a huge fanof the vampire myth and enjoyed your post on your blog about the classic BramStoker Dracula and why you view it as the best. I have an entire shelffull of various vampire stories, including the Stoker version, and alwaysthought it would be great fun to host a book club just to read and debate aboutvarious versions of the myth. My Swordhand is Singing is one of thenewest additions to my collection and a wonderful take on the myth. What started your interest in Draculaand are there other supernatural/monster stories that interest you?

I got into vampires fromscreenings of early movies like the Bela Lugosi Dracula and Nosferatu by F WMurnau. Then I grew up a bit and started to read the classic vampire novels. Ilike lots of other things too, but I think vampires have a timeless fascinationfor us since they are both attractive (these days) and dangerous. I don't findother monsters as interesting, the only other thing would be ghosts, which areoften very similar to vampires in the original folklore.

Those movies weregreat! Ghosts do have that awesome scary appeal. I think one of thegreatest scary books written recently was Rick Yancy's The Monstrumologist. It was really creepy and very evocative of Poe to me. I do find thewhole zombie thing that's taken off very funny though and I like to have a goodlaugh with the whole monster thing. One of my favorite short story booksrecently written in the YA genre is Zombies vs. Unicorns. I took theunicorn side.

I've not becomea zombie fan myself but I do quite like a couple of funny zombie movies -Zombieland and of course Shaun of the Dead. I agree about humour and I thinkit's the best way to go with zombies - there's not the psychological depth inthere to make it worthwhile as serious stuff, in my very humble opinion. Yes,it makes good scary fiction, but without the depth that a moody vampire cangive you!

I quiteagree! Shaun of the Dead is excellent mindless humor! (All puns intended...) That’s why I take theunicorn side… I think they fool you with their pretty nature, but demons likelylurk beneath that beautiful exterior. Besides, it’s so much fun to pit them against something so ridiculous asa zombie!

Having now readmultiple books of yours in addition to Revolver, which won a Printz Honor Awardlast year from YALSA, I am a true Marcus Sedgwick fan. You are aconsistently good writer. The Dark Horse, Blood Red Snow White, My Swordhand is Singing and WhiteCrow are all on my bookshelf and I can hardly wait to read more of your work. What are your favorite books that you’ve written and why?

Oooh, I don't really havefavourites of my own books - it's a bit like choosing favourite children! Butif I had to pick, I would say I'm fond of Revolver, because it was the firsttime that the book that was in my head before I started was what came out onthe paper when I'd finished! I also like My Swordhand is Singing, because it'ssold the most copies (!) And I am pleased with my new book, Midwinterblood (notout in the US for a while yet) It was an ambitious book to write in some ways,and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Ooh! Canyou tell us a little bit about Midwinterblood?

Wellllll okaythen, since you ask! Deep breath: it's a novel set in seven times, from thefuture to the ancient past, with two protagonists who become seven differentpairs of people, i.e. 14 protagonists in all. All the stories happen in thesame place - a strange island where it appears people have begun to liveforever. Though what the book is really about is two things: love (in allsenses of the word) and sacrifice (ditto) - the novel was inspired by a fewdifferent things, one of them being this painting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midvinterblot

which I saw on atrip to Stockholm 5 or 6 years ago. It's awesome. An overused and therefore,spoiled word, but for once, appropriate, because awe is what I felt when Ifirst saw it. And still do.

Carl Larsson Midvinterblot, Sacrifice at the Winter Solstice 1915

OK Marcus, I’mhooked. I’ll be in line for anautographed copy and I’m reasonably certain it will have my vote for a slew ofawards.

I recently readan article in an educational journal that talked about the importance of theliterary cannon to curriculum development and urged teachers to defend theclassics rather than the more recent trend to move away from them. I tendto move toward more of a blended curriculum myself, but obviously as someonewith an English degree have a solid background in classics and can see bothsides of the argument. As a writer, you are clearly well read in theclassics. When I read your work, I am often reminded of the work of Honoré deBalzac and John Steinbeck. I know that seems odd since Balzac was Frenchand Steinbeck American, but it is more the way that you write and the substanceof your writing. You are an incredibly solid writer and an excellentstoryteller! That being said, who do you see as your greatest influencesand what are your thoughts on how we should teach kids to read and write today?

Thanks for thosevery kind words - I'm flattered. I have a few big influences - and onethat might seem surprising is Hemingway. I love the simplicity and directnessof his writing. No pointless florid nonsense there! And yet at the same time Ilove Moby Dick because of the beauty of the prose, which is so poetic in manyplaces. Other influences include Mervyn Peake (British author, sadly a bitunderrated still) and Dickens. As for teaching reading and writing - the bestand most powerful thing you can do is to help a child become a lover of books,which means finding what's right for them - the right book at the right time,and helping them believe that books are for them, even if they haven't foundthe right stuff yet. if you get them to fall in love with reading then the restfollows easily. It means hard work and individual attention on the part of theeducator however.

Actually I'm notsurprised at all that you say Hemingway and Dickens. Your writing has avery strong tone of someone who is well read and knows how to tell a story. You also have a very solid use of descriptive language. I can'tagree with you more about getting children to fall in love with reading. I believe it's essential. It's not an easy task if we don't workwith children as individuals from the very beginning. Do you have anypersonal experiences from your childhood that you can remember that madereading special for you?

I do - onepositive and one negative: the good thing was that my Dad loved reading andbecause books had been so precious to him when he was a boy, he made sure thatmy brother and I always had books for Christmas and birthdays. It was a rule ofhis. So we became readers. The negative memory is from school, where I was madeto sit by myself in a hallway to read. I thought I'd done something bad foryears, until eventually I found out that it was because I was reading too welland it was bothering the other children.

Oh stab me in theheart Marcus! I pledge upon myteacher’s certification never to make that mistake! My goal is to get a book into every child’s hand that theyenjoy reading…even if they don’t think it’s possible.

Most of yourbooks have a historical fiction basis to the storyline, so I am assuming youhave some interest in history. How do you go about the research processfor that aspect of your stories and how is it that you seem to be able tocreate such suspense-filled historical tales?

I love doing theresearch for my books, though many of them have less research than you mightimagine, simply because I am interested in various periods anyway, and alsobecause, at the end of the day, they are fictional, mostly. Research comes inmany forms, from visiting far off places, to private libraries, to theinternet. The trick is knowing when to stop researching and when to start writing,and also never to put a piece of research into a book just because you like it- it has to belong to the plot or people will notice!

So how do youmake the decision between fact and fiction so that the story sounds natural andnot contrived? For example, Blood Red Snow White flows beautifully and itis almost impossible to tell which is which. How do you determine what tocut out and what to leave in and what to change to suit your own story?

These are justthe skills of the writer, I guess. That juicy fact you've just found can onlygo into the book if it's integral to the story. So if you really like it, youneed to base the plot around it. If you don't do that, then you just need toaccept that it doesn't belong in your book, as painful as that might be. As for changing things, I don't have an issue with that in general -books are fiction. That's kind of the point! And what matters in a story isthat you tell a good story that tells the 'truth' about life, not that what yousay is actually true. The exceptions to this are matters of physics and so on -unless you're writing fantasy I can't accept novels that get things like thiswrong. As great as Lord of the Flies is, it's always bugged me that Piggy'sglasses are for short sight, and you can't use such spectacles to focus thesun's rays into light fires, as they do in the book.

Those sorts ofmistakes annoy me too. It tells mean author didn’t bother to talk to a librarian…You have been a very successfulaward-winning author in the United Kingdom. Why has it taken so long forus to get wind of you in the United States?

Well! That's ahard one to answer. There are many big authors on both sides of the pond whofor whatever reason take a while to get noticed - it's understandable since weboth have VERY strong domestic traditions in children' literature. I changedpublisher a year or two back to the wonderful Roaring Brook - they've done areally good job at getting my books noticed more in the US, which is wonderful.

It's true,Roaring Brook has done a wonderful job because Revolver won the Printz Honorand YALSA has their eye on you now. You are on the US radar for good! I'm a new librarian, but have already been doing committee work forYALSA. It's the group that you want to know your name as an author. I am certainly one librarian who will be following you as an avid reader!

I'm very pleasedto hear it, and will do my best to send interesting novels across the water.

What do you havebrewing next for readers as you cloister yourself away at your writing tablesin Cambridge and Switzerland?

I'm thinkingabout five different projects at the moment - a novel or two, some youngerreaders, a film with my brother, a comic with a friend… The hard thing isfinding the time to devote to the writing!

Ach! YouARE a busy man! But that is way too short and way too exciting of ananswer! Five different projects! Can you tell us more? Whatare the general ideas for the upcoming novels? Have you ever worked on acomic before? Have you ever worked with your brother before? Whatdoes your brother do? Have you ever done a film before? I see onyour blog that in addition to writing, you draw and paint, and I read The DarkHorse, for which you apparently did the artwork. Are some of theseprojects a way to culminate your love of art with your love of writing? (I have a minor in fine arts myself, so I can understand the need to feedthe artist.)

Well, like manywriters, I have silly superstitions about talking about unwritten books, soI'll have to be irritatingly mysterious about the novels. However, the graphicnovel is at illustration stage, so I can tell you about that: I've co writtenit with my brother Julian. It's called Dark Satanic Mills (after Blake) and isa story about the perils of fundamentalism, in all its forms, even thefundamentalism of atheism… It's one part Wizard of Oz, one part V for Vendetta,and one part William Blake. We have a great artist working on it - John Higgins- and it should be out early next year. The film we're working on together toois 'fun' - it's about death, and our attitudes to it. It's set in Manhattan andis about a cultural anthropologist who's mounting a show at the Met on DeathRitual. I can't say much more as our producer might kill me!

Taking onfundamentalism and calling the subject of death “fun”? I, for one, am definitely lookingforward to seeing what those projects are all about. You have me completely intrigued. Thank you for sharing with the Suburban Barnyard and we alllook forward to not only reading your next book, but the others in the works,your upcoming comic, and your film!

Thanks so much! It's been a pleasure and thanksfor the nice questions. And the flattery! All the best to you and your readers.

“A story has its purpose and its path. It must be told correctly for it to beunderstood.” From My Swordhand isSinging

Me & Marcus at ALA in New Orleans

The Future of Books: All-Digital or Not?

2012-01-08T09:51:00.001-05:00

The debate goes on: will the future of books be anall-digital future or will we still have a place for the printed page? There is a growing population that sees an end of libraries and bookstores anda future of all digital content. As an information specialist, I see adifferent world, and I see a gradual approach toward it with some definitepluses for some applications. I don’t, however, see the dear old bookcompletely going away. I see a new world that expands literacy indifferent directions and asks authors and artists to try new directions.

First of all, I believe that libraries and bookstores are actuallycritical to the growing future of books but that the current model will justadjust to meet the needs of the information format that is beingdistributed. We are already seeing this adjustment in ebook lending &sales. Cloud computing* is enabling libraries to open up huge digitallending libraries quickly and efficiently.

(See 3M Cloud Library

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOYSQv-12RY&feature=player_embedded#!)

About 33% of readers read both digital and print right now. About 26% of readers are thinking about reading digital books. eBookscurrently make up about 13% of publisher’s revenue.¹ Forecaster’s predict ² that the percentage will continue to rise sothat in 2015 the market is 40%,  2020 the market is 60%, and by 2025 the marketis 75%. I recently attended a virtual conference on eBooks sponsored byLibrary Journal with a keynote address by award-winning author MTAnderson. MT made many excellent points during his address, among themthe shift in payment authors are beginning to receive as a result of thedigital revolution. Keeping in mind the traditional pricing format of $25(adult)/$16 (juv) for hardcover books and $12 (adult)/$6 (juv) for paperbackdigital significantly reduces income for authors as it is releasedsimultaneously with hardbacks therefore reducing hardback purchases and in asense starting to eliminate the paperback purchasers. This point doeshave me somewhat concerned as to whether or not authors who really put inthorough research and write for a living will be able to earn enough to surviveunder the new conditions put upon the market. I suppose only time willtell.

On theother hand, digital is opening up all sorts of new publishingopportunities. Authors wanting to break into the field have all sorts ofways to try their hand at writing even if traditional publishing isn’t workingfor them. Blogging is probably the best way to start out. In addition, multitudes of self publishing, editorial, and independentmarketing companies are cropping up within the industry for aspiringauthors. Some of the better known companies include Xlibris, iUniverse,AuthorHouse, Dog Ear Publishing, & WordClay. A good friend of mine,Gennie Tolliver, recently published a beautiful book via Xlibris and has beenquite successful. Her book is called Petraand tells the story of a beautiful family of dark complected fairies. Myfamily doctor, Lucy Hornstein, also self published several books before beingdiscovered by her current publisher, Kaplan, and publishing Declarations of a Dinosaur: 10 Laws I'veLearned as a Family Doctor.

As acertified teacher librarian, I see significant changes coming to the schoollibrary with the digital age. The reality is that it makes economic sensefor a portion of our books to go digital. Some books simply requireconstant updating. Reference is a perfect example. Encyclopediamaterial is constantly updating and difficult to keep up with. It takesup an enormous amount of space in a library. Likewise there are dictionaries,foreign language reference books, history, science… For many of these booksdigital makes infinite sense. However, digital isn’t the same as areally fine art book. Digital cannot replicate the beauty of some of theprinted plates. In addition, It is often easier for art students to sitwith a book in the library than to sit next to a computer monitor. Theprocess of replicating a drawing is different than learning Spanish.

Integrationof curriculum with resources is already a skill that school librarians hold andas the future moves toward digitizing curriculum, I see librarians gaining morecurriculum skills and curriculum itself moving under the realm of thelibrary. It is the most cost effective solution for the future of curriculum. In the corporate world, librarians are often called knowledge managers. Ilike this title because it implies a centralized, collaborative person whohelps get the right information moving to the right people. That’sexactly what librarians do. As things move into a more technicaldirection, schools need to rethink having separate technology departments,separate curriculum departments, and separate libraries. Instead theyshould look to combine them and build strong collaborative problem-solving staffsthat can work within the schools to really provide the best information needsfor schools at the best possible cost.

So. Will books go away? I don’t think so. Not for a long timeanyway. I think we will have a blend of paper and digital resources forsome time to come. Collectors will still want their hardbound copiessigned by authors. You just can’t sign an ebook and place it proudly onyour bookshelf. Trust me. It also isn’t the same walking into alibrary or bookstore if you can’t pick up a copy of a book and flip through itto give it a “test drive.” You need a certain number of shelfcopies. Cover art is becoming increasingly important in this world ofbook marketing where books really ARE judged by their covers. Finally,what about the bookstores? Amazon seems to be doing a booming businessand Barnes & Noble seems to be keeping pace. Niche sellers likePowell’s and Abe’s have found their own markets. Independents like thefamous Strand in NYC and The Tattered Cover in Denver also seem to be holdingup based on their rich histories. I see a definite future for independentand online resale shops as patrons search for favorite books and specialeditions.

And hopefully we’ll all live happily ever after.

*What is Cloud Computing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EvIEVRQAPM&feature=related

1) Publisher’s Weekly,May 2^nd 2011

2) Forecast for e-books as apercentage of total books sold (source: David Houle) http://www.mediabizbloggers.com/evolution-shift/100027269.html

3) Ebooks or Printed Books:Which Are Better for You? October 20, 2011 by Veena Bissram http://mashable.com/2011/10/20/reading-ebook-versus-print/

Maggie Stiefvater's Top Reads for 2011

2012-01-03T09:46:00.000-05:00

http://maggiestiefvater.blogspot.com/

Maggie Stiefvater starts off the new year on her blog by posting her top five favorite reads of the year. I read several of her reviews throughout the year and always enjoyed them as she is one of my favorite YA authors. In fact, her most recent book, The Scorpio Races, was one of my favorite reads for 2011. It is a wonderful fantasy that I wrote about earlier in the fall that brings life to the myth of the water horse through the tale of two wonderful young people.

Maggie's Top Reads of 2011 were:

Shipbreaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
The Big Bad Wolf & Me by Delphine Perret
Flyaway by Lucy Christopher
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

I have to admit to only having read half of this list myself, although those that I have read, I agree wholeheartedly with Maggie's reviews. Shipbreaker was the Printz award winner this past year and one of the best written dystopias I've read to date. The Night Circus almost sits in a category all of its own. Anansi Boys is probably my favorite book by Neil Gaiman aside from The Graveyard Book. The Monstrumologist scared the dickens out of me -- I decided after reading it that Rick Yancy is our modern day Poe.

Thanks for sharing your reviews Maggie! Not only are you a terrific author, but you recommend other terrific authors!

The latest craze on magic since Harry Potter hit the stands...

2011-11-11T17:34:00.001-05:00

The Night Circus

By Erin Morgenstern

http://erinmorgenstern.com/the-night-circus/

Every once in a while I read a book thatis written so beautifully that I find myself stopping periodically to rereadpassages and ponder them for a few moments before continuing on with thestory. The last book that trulycaptivated me like that was Markus Zuzak’s The Book Thief. I have yet to meet him with my specialLondon 1^st edition hardback copy for him to autograph, but I do hopeto get the opportunity one day. Two week’s ago I read another book that stopped me in my tracks multipletimes over the course of my reading with its lyrical prose. This time it was a new book byfirst-time author Erin Morgenstern called The Night Circus. Erin’s magical Victorian black &white circus and fantastic array of characters has certainly captured thislibrarian’s heart and her book will stand proudly in my permanent collection offavorites.

The story takes place between 1873 andprimarily the early 1900’s. Itfollows a competition of sorts between two different teachers of magic andtheir chosen protégées. All of theaction pivots around Le Cirque des Reves, a sensational travelling circus thatopens at dusk and closes at dawn and is dressed in a glamorous black &white theme. At the entrance tothe cirque is a custom-made black & white striped clock by a master Germanclockmaker. Matching tents withunusual circus performances are built behind the clock. Erin delivers a story rich in detail sothat as you read her words you can see it, feel it, taste it, smell it… Thefoods are intoxicating and exotic and the sights are like no other place. One can find a maze made of clouds, agarden made of ice, and statues that come to life.

“The woman’s skin is shimmering pale, herlong black hair is tied with dozens of silver ribbons that fall over hershoulders. Her gown is white,covered in what to Bailey looks like looping black embroidery, but as he walkscloser he sees that the black marks are actually words written across thefabric. When he is near enough toread parts of the gown, he realizes that they are love letters, inscribed inhandwritten text. Words of desireand longing wrapping around her waist, flowing down the train of her gown as itspills over the platform.
Thestatue herself is still, but her hand is held out, and only then does Baileynotice the young woman with the red scarf standing in front of her, offeringthe love-letter clad statue a single crimson rose.”

Time skips around as the tale unfolds,each layer instilling more and more depth to the characters and the tale. It mysteriously arrives and departs itsdestinations without warning adding to the magic, mystery, and wonder. Marco and Celia, the main charactersinvolved in the competition, are emotionally tangled as well and contrastedagainst the stories of young Bailey and Poppet, a secondary potential bloomingromance. The Night Circus is oneof those delicious rare gems that upon closing the final page I felt nothing short ofcomplete satisfaction.

Book Trailers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZJiW2w1xdc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mUgTl7vCP8&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY_Rh6j1WFo&NR=1

Saying Goodbye To My 19-Year-Old Cat

2011-11-11T15:57:00.001-05:00

Dali & Me

I find itfunny when people ask if I am a “dog” person or a “cat” person. I like both. I like horses too. And fish, and frogs, and lizards, and koala bears. I held one once in Australia and it wasso soft! I’m not crazy aboutrodents or snakes. The point isthat, in general, I like animals and am a nurturing person. I like having pets.

I do have toadmit that most of my pets have been cats purely because of theconvenience. My first pet cat asan adult was acquired while I was living in Japan. My friend had three kittens, two of which were brothers lefton a vet’s doorstep before their eyes were even open. They had been bottle-fed and were about three monthsold. She asked me if I wanted oneof them and that is how Dali and I found each other.

Like manyanimals, Dali was not his initial name. When I adopted him, his name was Ciao, but somehow the name just didn’tseem to fit. I started making alist of possible names and tried calling him by them one by one. The one he finally responded to in apositive manner was “Salvador Dali.” Quirky artist, quirky owner, quirky cat. Worked for me.

Having beenessentially raised by humans, my new little feline companion craved constantattention and was a surprisingly vocal little fellow. I carried on long conversations with himin mostly Japanese so that I could practice. He was “Dari-kun” and believe it or not would come to theword “oiide” (pronounced oh-ee-day). Unfortunately, he was such a social little kitty that he seemed lonely withoutme when I was off teaching during the day. I’d return from work and he would hear my heels clicking onthe pavement outside my apartment. His little head would peer from the sliding glass window, still open abit due to the warm weather, and he would start chattering at me before I couldmake it up the stairs and into my apartment. Since the official word on pets was “no pets” I decided I’dbest find a solution to his loneliness.

Robot petsbeing completely out of a teacher’s budget in the early 90’s, adopting a secondkitten seemed my best bet. Wefound Coco (Chanel) in a pet store begging to come home with us. His adoptive sister was a beautifulmixed breed (thus making her a bargain) and completely differentpersonality-wise, but she solved his loneliness problem and they neverseparated until she died of cancer a few years ago. When she died, Dali began the same lonely talking that heused to do when I first adopted him. He never adjusted to being a single cat without his Coco.

Dali as akitten was adventurous and fun. Ihad to cover my phone in Japan because he and Coco would play while I was atwork. For some reason, he wasfascinated with my phone and I would come home to see that it had been“dialed.” Big problem when some ofyour speed dials are international. I was always afraid that one of my relatives in the States would havethis mysterious message from my cat. A large plastic bowl inverted over the phone solved that problem. On the weekends, I used to put Dali ona kitty leash and bundle him into my backpack. I loved riding my bike for long journeys down by the SapporoRiver to this beautiful mountainside park, so I would take Dali along. He enjoyed the rides and would oftensay “Ohaio” to passersby. Such thecharmer! My little Japanesekitties made an excellent personal point to talk about with my students andthey loved my stories about their antics.

When it wastime for me to leave Japan, I flew back to Delaware to my parents’ home with mycats. They lived with them while Itravelled for a while. I gotletters from them and wrote letters to them. When I returned to the States, I lived with my cats andparents before moving into an apartment of my own with them. Dali & Coco certainly had a numberof residences! We moved back to myparents’ again before I bought a house in Wilmington where our feline familyexploded. Dali & Coco werejoined by Pandora…and then Percival. I think of all of the houses Dali & Coco lived in,they may have loved my Wilmington house best. It was a 3 story Victorian with high ceilings and lots ofsunny windows. It was truly kittyheaven. There were so many nooks,crooks, crannies, and hiding spots in that house.

My house inWilmington had a feral colony living in the backyard. It seems that cats are attracted to bleeding hearts. Multiple litters of kittens were bornin my backyard, although I was unable to catch any save Percival and prior tomoving from the house two more kittens, Buster & Cleopatra. We did catch a few adults and take themto the Humane Society to be spayed and given shots before re-releasing. Those with feline leukemia wereeuthanized so as not to spread the disease & give them a more humane deaththan feline leukemia. We tried tofind a home for Buster and Cleo, but it didn’t work out. They came to live with us inRadnor. Buster died in the firstyear, but Cleo is still alive today 12 years later. My mom now has Pandora and someone else adopted Percivalultimately.

When Dali was7, we moved to Radnor to our current carriage house. At the time 4 indoor cats and 2 barn cats didn’t seem crazy,but it was just Kurt, Madeline and I. Once Luke was born, the crazy set in and Percy went to liveelsewhere. Pandora soon moved ontoo. Dali actually formed an interestingrelationship with Cleo, our clever barn cat who is also very vocal. She would often “converse” with himthrough the windows of my bedroom, the living room, or the kitchen, althoughthey always kept a respectful distance. Most everyone, aside from me, began calling Dali “Sal” once he moved tothe States as a shortened form of Salvador.

The yearscontinued to pass and Dali never lost his affectionate nature. Every visitor to our household receiveda feline greeting, not matter their age. When he met our friend Julio, who is Spanish, he exclaimed, “That cat,he has a moustache!” A lineforever stuck in my head… Thechildren adored him and he was tolerant of being picked up and groped bytoddlers. He even liked to play agame of hide and seek where he’d pretend to run off, but not make his hidingplace too difficult nor resist being picked up when found.

About 3 yearsago I realized his liver and kidneys were beginning to fail, but there waslittle I could do for him. Ichanged his diet to a premium cat food and tuna and surprisingly his healthtook a positive turn. He stillslowed down, but not as quickly as I thought he would. I always used to laugh about his lackof courage, particularly in relation to Coco and Cleo who were amazing hunters. About a year and a half ago, I woke upat about 3am to what was clearly the noise of a mouse chewing something in mybedroom. Coco would have been onthe job immediately trapping that vermin. Dali chose a different path. He hopped a little closer to me on the bed for protection and begantalking to me. I looked at him andsaid, “well, if you aren’t going to try and catch it, could you at least gowake up Daddy?’ And so hedid. Unfortunately, Kurt thoughthe was whining for food, so I still had to get up and tell him about the verminsituation. And when the trap went off, Dali again took the passive role ofalerting and seeking protection with Mom. No way he was going near vermin!

Last winter itwas clear my sweet little feline friend was nearing the end of his longlife. We went to visit my vet, andthe news was that he was going senile, becoming painfully arthritic, and dyingof liver and kidney disease. Luckilyhumans have a choice to end animals suffering. I left with some painkillers and spent several months sayinggoodbye. In September it becameapparent that Dali was in more pain and I had a decision to make. I decided that it was unfair tocontinue to let him get any worse. So we spent the morning before I let him go cuddling together on my bed,the constant companions we’d become. And then I said a very tearful goodbye. It has taken me months to write about him.

There aren’tas many famous cat memoirs out there as dog memoirs. The Art of Racing In the Rain, Marley & Me, and hundredsof other famous dogs have topped the bestseller lists and even made it toHollywood, but there are a few notable books about our feline friends too. I’ve compiled a list below for anyoneseeking a memoir about kitties.

Cat Memoirsworth meowing about:

Waiting for My Cats to Die: A Memoir

By Stacy Horn

Sleeping with Cats: A Memoir

By Marge Piercy

Dewey's NineLives: The Legacy of the Small-Town Library Cat Who Inspired Millions

By Vicki Myron & Bret Witter

CAT COMPANIONS --- A Memoir of Loving and Learning

By Susan M.Seidman

Cats in the Belfry

By Doreen Tovey

The Cat & The Comedian

By Tyler Feneck

For the Love of a Cat: A Publisher's Story

By David St John Thomas

Living a Life That is Full of Kindness & Generosity

2011-09-30T01:11:00.000-04:00

White Paper Origami Peace Cranes -- Legend says that making 1000 grants you a wish come true. Making long chains of the cranes became popular after WWII when young Sadako began making them in order to try and heal herself from radiation sickness after the atomic bombs fell on Japan. They are now an international symbol of PEACE.

We all leave this world the same way that we came into it –stark naked and with nothing in our hands. In reality material wealth means absolutely nothing atall. We will be remembered not forwhat we have, but for whom we have touched in life. Those who live a life of generosity in all that they do maynot amass great personal material wealth, but they will leave a lastingfootprint on many hearts. Thinkabout how much better our world would be if everyone tried to live a life basedon trying to amass greater points of kindness and generosity rather thanpersonal wealth? What if thebumper sticker that is so popular “he who dies with the most toys wins” werechanged to “he who dies with the most random acts of kindness wins”? Now that would be a challenge!

Famous quote by Mother Teresa at the feet of a statue of her on the famous St. Charles #1 Catholic Cemetery in New Orleans, LA.

Books From Andrea Cremer & Maggie Stiefvater

2011-09-24T09:31:00.001-04:00

I Want To Howl At The Moon...

With October onthe horizon, I’ve been catching up on my monster lore. Rather than feeding my vampire fetish,I’ve been sticking with wolves lately. I finally finished up the Maggie Stiefvater trilogy about wolves and bitinto Andrea Cremer’s second book in the Nightshade series, Wolfsbane. Both were excellent and completelydifferent takes on the werewolf myth

In Andrea Cremer’sworld of wolves, evil and good spring from legends, myths, and magic deignedfrom messing with nature. Calla isan alpha wolf born into her right to lead as a part of a natural world filledwith magic and legend. She struggles between her feelings for Ren and her old life and the choices she's made in following her heart. She's faced with new facts and must decipher what is true -- the evidence before her or what she has been brought up to believe. Quotesabout virtue and vice and uncertainty are used to reflect Calla’s own turmoilin trying to decide who she is and what is the right path for her and her pack. In this second book about theNightshade wolves, more is revealed about the nature of Cremer’s breed ofwerewolves and the line between good and evil becomes even more confusing. It is filled with adventure, romance,and promises of a very exciting conclusion in Bloodrose, the third book stillto come.

Maggie Stiefvaterdelivers a completely different world of wolves in her trilogy starting withShiver, moving on to Linger, and ending with Forever. Sam and Grace have one of the most beautiful and poetic teenromances of all time. Stiefvaterwrites of shy Sam sitting in the woods waiting for Grace and romantics weep atthe image. We all know a Grace whohas been left to raise herself and is in essence 25-years-old by the time sheis physically 15. Sam and Graceare those old souls we know brought together and romantically linked. Do we want every teen to be a Sam andGrace? No. But we cheer for Sam and Grace. They are a modern day Romeo andJuliette, Katherine and Heathcliff, Harry and Sally…

The wolves inStiefvater’s story have contracted a virus that causes them to turn into wolvesevery winter and humans as the weather warms into spring. Eventually they stay wolf. As the story progresses, Sam finds acure by contracting meningitis and is able to stay human. Alas, Grace, who was bitten by a wolfas a child begins to bleed uncontrollably and the only way to stop it is a wolfbite thus turning her into a wolf. Stiefvater’s theory is an interesting one, although at one point shecompares it to malaria, something I found a bit dodgy. Otherwise, I thought it was reasonablyinteresting. I’d love to have mybrother’s take on it since he is much better at finding fault in diseases thanI am, him being an aficionado of picking apart House episodes for faultyscience.

Stiefvater hasanother wonderful book coming out on October 18^th. It’s called The Scorpio Races and isabout waterhorses. I picked up andadvanced reader copy at ALA and once I started reading it, couldn’t put itdown. This one may very well be acontender for an award this year. It is a wonderful story and incredibly well written. It’s told from various characters’points of view, the main ones being Puck and Sean. They are on a very small island off the Irish coast and bothof them have been left orphaned because their parents were killed by a capalluisce – water horse. Sean has been left raising horses for a meager wage using his gift with the animals while Puck and her brothers have struggled to maintain the family homestead. Typical ofStiefvater’s style, this tale is almost lyrical in the way that it istold. Her characters are strongand steadfast and her animals are heady beasts at one with nature. This is a completely different storythan her wolf series, and yet still has that deep connection between animalsand humans, nature and descriptive elements that makes you feel a part of thestory. As much as I liked the wolfseries, I loved The Scorpio Races. I don’t usually make a call on Printz contenders this early in the game,but I think The Scorpio Races most definitely has the potential to be a strongPrintz contender, in addition to winning other book awards.

http://www.werewolfpage.com/

http://www.andreacremer.com/

http://www.nightshadebook.com/

http://blurredhistory.blogspot.com/

http://maggiestiefvater.com/

http://maggiestiefvater.com/blogs/

http://maggiestiefvater.com/shiver/mercy-falls/

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1330292.Maggie_Stiefvater

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10626594-the-scorpio-races

Book Trailer: The Scorpio Races

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tojCn2Y41ig

The Red Carpet Awards of ALA...Newbery, Caldecott, Wilder

2011-09-09T01:39:00.000-04:00

One of the most fun things about ALA is going to the book award ceremonies. My favorites are the Newbery/Caldecott Awards and the Printz Awards. Here's my review of the Newbery/Caldecott/Wilder Award...It was a blast of a night!

Nikki Grimes, Me, & Brian Collier


Jenni Holm & Me

Tomie dePaola & Me

Me & Rita Williams-Garcia

Erin Stead, Me, Philip Stead

Me & Joyce Sidman

The 2011 Newbery Medal

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberymedal.cfm

The 2011 Newbery Medal winner is Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool.

Listening to Clare Vanderpool give her Newbery acceptance speech was like listening to one of your best friends up on stage. She is a heart-warming, down-to-earth public speaker. It’s easy to imagine sitting at the local pub swapping stories with this award-winning author who has given life to a little girl named Abilene and the fictional town of Manifest. "I come from a family of optimists," she said in her Newbery acceptance speech, “Their approach to life is what gave me the wherewithal to write a book. To work hard at it. To try and try again after many attempts and many rejections. Figure it out. Make it work. Keep at it. Their confidence and their optimism allowed me to dream big and set lofty goals.”

“But even with that spirit, that optimism, that determination, I never set out to win a Newbery. I never even dreamed of it. And I have always dreamed big! Just not that big." She went on to say, “Someone asked me recently if winning the Newbery is as wonderful as having a baby. That analogy falls a bit short, but it is like having a baby if you didn’t know you were pregnant.”

One of the things I really loved about the way that Clare delivered her speech was the comfortable down-home feeling. One example is after she finished telling her husband the news that she had won the Newbery and, much to her amazement, found that he mirrored her excitement they walked down the street to tell her parents. This was her paragraph of the initial encounter with her dad:

We went down the street to tell my parents. My mom cried and my dad beamed. He said, 'That is just wonderful! . . . Thunderation! . . . Hot diggity dog!" and things of that nature. Then after all that he said, "So, Mary Clare, what is the Newbery?"

Abilene has grown up during the tough times of the depression hopping from one home to another with her father. She has been sent to spend the summer on her own in the town of Manifest. Moon Over Manifest is an adventure-filled mystery set in the era of the Depression with a young girl trying to uncover her father’s past. Vanderpool said she was inspired by a quote from Moby Dick "It is not down in any map; true places never are."

Read Clare’s full speech: http://periodicals.faqs.org/201107/2390153211.html

2011 Newbery Honor Books:

Turtle in Paradise

By Jennifer L. Holm

http://www.jenniferholm.com/02_mybooks/01_overview.html

Another historical fiction book set in the Depression era – must be something about the current economy that has inspired these authors to look back at that particular time period and write these wonderful stories. Turtle is a spunky young 11-year-old who is sent off to live with her mother’s sister for the summer in Key West upon learning that live-in housekeeper mama’s new employer doesn’t like kids. When she arrives in Florida, it is a bit of a surprise to her aunt. Turtle has essentially arrived on the doorstep with a note and a suitcase and no forewarning. Her aunt makes the best of things and Turtle finds herself in a whirlwind of adventure adjusting to a life very different from anything she’s ever known before. At the heart of it all she discovers the true meaning of home and family.

Heart of a Samurai

By Margi Preus

http://www.margipreus.com/

Yet another historical fiction, this is the true story of a group of Japanese fishermen who were stranded on an island after a storm at sea. An American vessel rescued them and the story ultimately focuses on one brave young man, Manjiro, and his dream of becoming a samurai. It is unlikely for any man not of noble birth to become a samurai, and so the dream seems foolish, but it is one that Manjiro holds dear. This is an incredible tale filled with adventure. It is a part of Japanese, and American, history that I was certainly unfamiliar with despite the fact that I have lived in Japan and have had an interest in Japan for approximately two decades. This is a beautifully written and highly entertaining account of history enjoyable for all ages.

Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night

By Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen

http://www.joycesidman.com/darkemperor.html

This book, quite simply, is a glorious celebration of nature at night. The title and cover alone entreat with a gorgeous illustration of an owl described as a Dark Emperor.

Come feel the cool and shadowed breeze,

come smell your way among the trees,

come touch rough bark and leathered leaves:

Welcome to the night.

Welcome to the night, where mice stir and furry moths flutter.

Where snails spiral into shells as orb spiders circle in silk.

Where the roots of oak trees recover and repair from their time in the light.

Where the porcupette eats delicacies—raspberry leaves!—and coos and sings.

Come out to the cool, night wood, and buzz and hoot and howl—

but beware of the great horned owl—

for it’s wild and it’s windy way out in the woods!

One Crazy Summer

By Rita Williams-Garcia

http://www.ritawg.com/one-crazy-summer/

I loved this book set in the radical 60’s. When I was growing up, there were no books that talked about African American history. I don’t even like calling it African American history quite frankly because I feel like at this point in history it should just plain be American history. We ought to be beyond separating out all of the gender and race and facets of our American history and teaching a more well-rounded and accurate American history. This wonderful historical fiction story is loaded with real American history about the Black Panther movement and much of the political unrest during the summer of 1968 in Oakland. The story centers around three young girls, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern, who fly across the country to visit their mother for the summer. They haven’t seen her since they were very young and she left them to go off and “find herself.” They spend the summer slowly getting to know her despite her reluctance to accept them with open arms, and find themselves in the midst of action-packed adventures in the politically charged streets of Northern California. Rita Williams-Garcia is not only a talented storyteller, but also a lovely human being. When I met her at ALA it was like meeting a soul sister. She has a huge heart and I’ve no doubt she will continue to write many, many successful books in the future.

The 2011 Caldecott Medal

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecottmedal.cfm

The 2011 Caldecott Medal winner is A Sick Day for Amos McGee, illustrated by Erin E. Stead, written by Philip C. Stead.

When Erin Stead gave her acceptance speech for the Caldecott at ALA this year, it was the most incredible, beautiful, sweet, and humble acceptance speech I think I have ever witnessed. She literally brought a packed room to tears. Erin is a lovely, delicate woman with a graceful self-deprecating sense of humor that few can pull off in front of a large audience. She is desperately shy. Before illustrating A Sick Day for Amos McGee, she had given up drawing for three years and, in fact, the original drawing that was the genesis for the book was a very small illustration of an old man, a tree, and an elephant that she drew very slowly at her kitchen table over time. This remarkable little drawing caught the eye of her husband Phil who together with their editor and friend Neal Porter convinced her she needed to get back behind a drawing table. In her speech she thanked them both remarking that, “It is a tremendous gift to have people in your life that know better than you.”

One tiny drawing bloomed into a wonderful, fanciful parade of friends with the help of her husband Phil who wrote a tale about a kindly old zookeeper with a case of the sniffles and his generous group of supportive animal friends who come to visit. Erin’s softly quavering voice made us all feel like her group of supportive friends as she stated, "I am a little less fragile now and settling into my instincts with bookmaking. I am very young. I still have doubts. But they are outweighed by true friends (and maybe a heavy medal)."

Erin had wonderful things to say about books in her speech. She is truly a fan of books, libraries, and librarians. I particularly loved the following two quotes from her speech:

“I never grew out of picture books. I believe in them. A picture book allows a child ownership of art—even if it's just for the two weeks they check it out of the library. That book is theirs. I'm not sure any other art form replicates that feeling.”

“I am aware that e-books are changing our world of books and bookmaking. They offer convenience, but by their nature I'm not sure they can be timeless. Their selling point is that there is limitless information beyond that backlit page. But I believe there is an infinite beauty in the limitations of paper books. I don't think it can be mimicked or replaced by pixels on a screen. To me, e-books are not books. The more flash and whiz-bang we add, the more we limit the possibilities of our own imagination. Books are simple. They must be felt. The copies of my very favorite books are not pristine. They are worn and dog-eared and a little bit dirty because they are loved.”

Erin ended her speech by quoting from Margery William’s Velveteen Rabbit. Interestingly, as she was giving the speech live, she inadvertently forgot to attribute the quote, however I don’t think a single person in the room missed where the quote was from, it was so familiar. It is properly attributed in the formal written and published speech. The quote fits perfectly with Erin’s own philosophy – and mine – about books in general.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day. . ."Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real, you don't mind being hurt. . .It doesn't happen all at once. . .You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

Read Erin’s full speech: http://periodicals.faqs.org/201107/2390153161.html#ixzz1XF23PN7Q

It's traditional for the Caldecott winner to design the evening's program, and it's always a special treat. Erin Stead's program was folded to look like a miniature book, complete with a Dewey Decimal number -- 793.2 for parties and entertainments -- on the spine. Inside the back cover, she placed an old-fashioned "date due" pocket, and filled it with "date due" cards on which the names of previous award winners were listed.

The 2011 Caldecott Honor Books:

Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave

Illustrated by Bryan Collier

Written by Laban Carrick Hill

http://www.labanhill.com/

I am so grateful to Laban Carrick Hill for bringing this incredible piece of history to our children through this wonderful story. What a treat it is to read this book. And the art that Bryan Collier has further told the story with is simply breathtaking. I have to agree with Erin Stead’s assessment of Brian Collier’s work when she stated in her acceptance speech that upon seeing one of his originals she “stood in front of it for a full ten minutes trying to decode it…” essentially saying that she was awestruck. I can understand that. The foldout page in Dave the Potter showing Dave’s hands working the clay makes me feel that way. When I look at the image I can feel Dave working the clay with his hands. I can only imagine what the original painting looks like. I’m quite certain I would be awestruck. I find this story and the illustrations so incredibly moving that I have suggested using it in an art lesson plan with students when they work with clay to make pottery. It is the perfect way to combine history, literacy, poetry and writing, and art into the classroom experience.

Interrupting Chicken

Written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein

http://www.davidezra.com/

This is a read-aloud comedic dream of a story! I am always one to fall for books that make me and the kids fall off the bed laughing with great comedic dialogue. David Ezra Stein has created not only a visually adorable book, but also brilliant dialogue for kids and grown-ups alike to enjoy. This is one of those books I’ll be tucking away into my “accent game” collection. That’s the game Elena and I reserve for our select few favorite read-alouds with just the right dialogue for practicing all of our great accents from deep U.S. south to Cockney. Oh the fun we’ll have with these chickens!

Tomie dePaola

http://www.tomie.com/main.html

Author/Illustrator Tomie dePaola is the winner of the 2011 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award honoring an author or illustrator, published in the United States, whose books have made a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children. Tomie has written and illustrated over 200 books for children including the very famous Strega Nona books. His illustrations are so distinct that they are instantly recognized as “Tomie dePaola’s” by the bright colors and particular trademark lines of his people and characters. Several of his stories are somewhat autobiographical in nature including one of my very favorites, The Art Lesson.

Straight from the Jar...: ALA and New Orleans

2011-09-06T19:10:00.000-04:00

Ingrid Law, excellent award-winning author, well-known for her book Savvy, spoke with Jennifer Holm and Kirby Lawson at ALA during one of the workshops on what it's like to be an author who has won awards for their first book in writing successive books. All three authors have written further award-winning books. It was exciting to hear them speak. They were all filled with passion and energy and a true love for their craft. Check out Ingrid's blog!

Straight from the Jar...: ALA and New Orleans: My time in New Orleans was great fun. ALA overflowed with amazing librarians, teachers, authors, publishers, and friends. I managed to do a ...

Waiting for the storm...

2011-08-27T15:48:00.004-04:00

Remembering Katrina

8/29/2005

New Orleans 9th Ward 2011

Lower 9th Ward 2011

As I sit here waiting for hurricane Irene to hit the east coast I am reminded that August 29th marks the 6th year since Hurricane Katrina wiped out the Gulf region. The 2005 hurricane season cost $81 billion and killed 1836 people. I can remember looking at the television screen in awe as scenes of New Orleans flooded flashed across it. In the weeks that followed as the waters finally started to recede all I could think of was “it’s going to take a decade for the city to recover…” While I was at ALA, I took a tour through the now legendary ninth ward. I am sad to say that my estimate of a decade was off base. It will take two decades.

New Orleans has made incredible strides and I encourage everyone to pack their bags and visit the city. They need the tourism industry to survive and they are ready to embrace tourists with open arms. The challenge for New Orleans is rebuilding those sections that were hit hardest by the devastation. They need volunteers to continue coming to the Gulf Coast and helping to rebuild and they’ll need it for a long time. I’m not sure that many of us understand what people lost in that disaster. Drive through the ninth ward and it becomes evident; many people lost everything. There is no house to come back to. Many cannot afford to rebuild. Some lost their lives.

Many excellent documentaries and books were created after Katrina. Some were even written specifically for children. Here are three of my favorites:

Mine

By independent filmmaker Geralyn Pezanoski

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/mine/

In the last minute rush to get out of the city as Hurricane Katrina was bearing down, and with a mandatory emergency evacuation order issued from the mayor, the city’s poor were left with few options. Many had to scramble to gather as many family members and friends as they could into what few vehicles were available. Pets were not allowed at the public shelters opened up at the Superdome nor did most people have room in their overcrowded vehicles forcing them to leave them behind with extra food and water hoping for a quick return once danger passed. Mine is the story of the tragedy Katrina left behind for both the pets and pet owners in its path of destruction.

Two Bobbies

By Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery and illustrated by Jean Cassels

http://www.twobobbies.com/

Bobbi and Bob Cat are two animals who survive Katrina and form a unique friendship. Bobbi is a dog and Bob Cat is not only a cat, but blind. This is a heart-warming and beautifully written and illustrated story based on the story of two very real animals. It is a wonderful way to talk to children about disasters because it is told from the perspective of animals and appeals to a sense of empathy in younger children.

Ninth Ward

By Jewell Parker Rhodes

http://jewellparkerrhodes.com/children/books/ninth-ward/

Twelve-year-old Lanesha is being raised by her Mama Ya Ya; her mother’s midwife. Her mother died in childbirth. Mama Ya Ya is a visionary. They live in the ninth ward in New Orleans with very little money, but they get by. When the hurricane comes, Lanesha knows they should leave, but Mama Ya Ya is too old and she won’t leave her. Mamma Ya Ya has always taken care of her, so now it’s up to her to take care of them.

Me and the VERY lovely Jewell Parker Rhoades at ALA!!!

Yet Another Take On The Vampire Story...

2011-08-24T13:28:00.000-04:00

iDrakula

By Bekka Black

http://bekkablack.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bekka-Blacks-IDRAKULA/216973029998

http://www.sourcebooks.com/store/idrakula.html

This book was an interesting little paperback that I picked up from a Junior Library Guild* backlist recently. I have a thing for vampire books anyway and thought the premise of a book written in texting and e-mail form was a clever idea. While it wasn’t a book that I’d be telling the English teachers to place on their curriculum, I do think this is a great book for teens who are not apt to pick up a book or busy and just want a fun quick read. I read it in less than an hour. The other thing that is fun about it is that it can also be purchased as an iPhone book for $1.99. I didn’t know this until I had the paperback and got to the end of the book, however, once I downloaded the book and took a look at it I found it even more fun. The digital presentation of this particular book is perfect since the story is a digital story. You can either buy the paperback or skip it altogether and just buy the app at the app store by searching iDrakula. Either way, it is an interesting look at the possibilities of writing with technology in a creative way!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/idrakula/id387791516?mt=8

*A special note on JLG:

I’ve been a member of the Junior Library Guild since my second year of library school. I was at a library conference and stopped by their booth and was so impressed by the book selection. They had all of the titles that I’d been perusing journals for sitting right there on the display. Many of them weren’t yet being talked about! All Children and YA librarians should be members of this organization – it’s the best way to get quality K-12 books across genres. They work as a subscription service so that you get a selection each month from each age and genre group that you subscribe. They have reviews of the books as well as an affiliation with Horn Book and School Library Journal. In addition, they have a fabulous backlist selection of books that are discounted from past selections priced as low as $5 for hardbound books. Books can be ordered with MARC records, mylar book covers and labeling as well. Unfortunately for my non-librarian friends, you do have to be a librarian.

http://www.juniorlibraryguild.com/

Beach Reading

2011-08-22T21:57:00.000-04:00

My brother reading George Martin


My college-bound niece reading Neuromancer

Yours truly reading...

What does an unemployed K-12 school librarian read during her week at the beach?

I just got back from a wonderful weeklong vacation with my family at Rehoboth Beach. We’ve been going to Rehoboth since I was a teenager. I am definitely a surf and sand kind of girl. One of my favorite pastimes, aside from books, is scuba diving, although I prefer tropical climates for that particular beach activity. I am fascinated with all sorts of marine life and have 2 entire bookshelves devoted to books on marine life, both fiction and non-fiction (although primarily non-fiction). I volunteered at the Baltimore Aquarium for 5 years as a diver prior to having children and hanging up my regulator and wetsuit temporarily. This year’s trip to Rehoboth was especially wonderful as I had a group of 4 dolphins swim within 5 feet of me while I was swimming in the waves! I could just about touch them, but I have a cardinal rule that I won’t interfere with sea creatures’ space. If them approach me, that’s fine, but I won’t invade their space.

So what did I read at the beach? I took along a bag of books that I’ve been trying to get to for ages. It was an ambitious reading load, but I was able to read three out of the ten I took with me despite all of the other vacation distractions. Let’s face it; ice cream, shopping, screaming kids, surf and sand, and crunchy bears do tend to get in the way of a good book. My week started with the paranormal, wound its way round to an interesting fictional look at poverty, and ended up with a dystopia centered on a life with undersea dwellings. I thoroughly enjoyed all three. Here’s a summary of each:

Me & Lish McBride at ALA in New Orleans. Note the super cool octopus tiara she is wearing!

Hold Me Closer Necromancer

By Lish McBride

http://www.lishmcbride.com/

I had been wanting to read this paranormal thriller for sometime and was lucky enough to meet Lish and obtain an autographed copy at ALA this summer. The cover bears a quote by Sherman Alexie, one of my favorite authors, describing the book as “…a scary funny book OR a FUNNY scary book.” I love the description because it is spot on! The book was a William C. Morris Finalist, an award given to first time authors for excellence in debut YA novels. Lish will definitely be an author to watch.

She has written a hilarious tale of a teenage necromancer, Sam, who is playing potato hockey out in the parking lot with his buddies at the fast food joint where they work and just happens to smash a potato right into the back of a very expensive car belonging to none other than the local high falutin’ all powerful necromancer. Upon meeting the rich scary guy when he comes in to complain about the potato that has smashed up his fancy car, Sam finds himself frozen in his tracks. The necromancer seems to think Sam has some kind of special power and is not too happy about it. The story continues with hijinks and hilarity as Sam discovers who he really is and what power hides within him.

There are other books by this title -- be sure you get Andy's.

Trash

By Andy Mulligan

http://www.andymulliganbooks.com/trash/index.php

I’ve had this book on my shelf for ages and finally got around to reading it this week. What a treasure! Trash is the story of three boys living in poverty who pick through trash each and every day in order to survive. One day, two of them discover a treasure that changes their lives forever and sets them off on a whirlwind mystery adventure. But in so many ways it’s more than that. It’s a peek into poverty and how little some people have. It’s a commentary on the disparity between rich and poor and the irrational distribution of power. It’s an expose of greed and corruption and how humans often treat one another. It’s a celebration of the triumph of children and the human spirit. It’s a story that will stay with most readers for a long, long time.

This cover is so beautiful....

Dark Life

By Kat Falls

http://katfalls.com/

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4572534/kat_falls_author_of_dark_life_book_trailer/

http://screenrant.com/robert-zemeckis-dark-life-movie-disney-ross-52526/

Dark Life is another book that has been on my shelf for ages and I just never seem to get to it. Beach week just seemed perfect for the subject! I was originally attracted to it purely because of its underwater theme. A scuba diver and marine enthusiast simply cannot resist a fantasy about a future where you might be able to live under water! Kat Falls’ sci-fi thriller has attracted worldwide attention and is set to come out as a Disney film directed by Robert Zemeckis in 2012. A sequel to the book, called Rip Tide, was released on August 1st.

The story is about a teenage boy named Ty who was born in an undersea pioneer village. He has a thirst for adventure and skirting the edge of rules. There is a band of seafaring “outlaws” cruising about the ocean and reeking havoc and Ty has a close encounter with them as the story opens. Soon thereafter he meets a teenage girl named Gemma from the “Topside” and then the story really takes off. Tones of the Wild West intermingle with beautiful images of underwater life as Ty and Gemma trounce through this wonderful tale like Sherlock and Watson in diveskins. It was the perfect story to end my week at the beach!

Upcoming Book Release...

2011-08-08T15:06:00.000-04:00

Wisteria - Welcome

Olive - Peace

The Language of Flowers

By Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Scheduled for release August 23rd

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh is a new release by Random House later this month. I had the pleasure of receiving an advanced reader’s copy at ALA this summer. It is a beautiful tale of a young girl who has been tossed around by the foster care system and provides the reader with some insight as to what happens when a child isn’t successfully adopted…multiple times. Victoria is filled with anger and spite, but she has a great love for plants and flowers. The story opens on the date of her emancipation from the foster care system. Each chapter unfolds the mystery of her past as she begins to try and build a future. The one thing that she has an appreciation and love for is the Victorian meaning of flowers. Emotions and meaning are carried throughout the book as the story unfolds with the meaning behind flowers. This clever and engaging story makes one ponder the state of our foster care system what we need to do to improve it.

http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/features/vanessa_diffenbaugh/

http://www.languageofflowers.com.au/index.html

http://www.amazon.com/Language-Flowers-Novel-Vanessa-Diffenbaugh/dp/034552554X

http://www.victorianbazaar.com/meanings.html

http://www.thelanguageofflowers.com/

Agapanthus - Love Letter

Freesia - Lasting Friendship

Coreopsis - Always Cheerful

Pink & Red Roses -- Grace & Love

Angelica - Inspiration

Lupine - Imagination

Abutilon - Meditation

A New Book to Add to My Favorites List...

2011-08-08T14:14:00.001-04:00

Revolution

By Jennifer Donnelly

http://www.jenniferdonnelly.com/rev_home.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7qJPFmmrBs

http://booktunes.net/interview/16813189-A-Child%27s-Heart

Every once in a while I read a book that completely captures me. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly was one of those books. I read while I was at ALA in New Orleans -- the perfect setting because of New Orleans’ French history. I even bought a souvenir silver fleur de lis skeleton key necklace for myself in the French Market after deciding it was kismet when I found it!

Revolution tells the stories of two girls, Alex and Andi. Alex is living during the French revolution and is fighting to save the life of the young prince of France. Andi is a young highly gifted musician who is fighting to survive her family’s tragedy in modern-day Brooklyn. The stories intertwine mixing music, art, and history in a complex and captivating way. Donnelly aptly weaves emotions into her tale so that they feel legitimate. Lovers of historical fiction, musical tales, or just plain good stories will love Revolution. It’s a book that will stay on my permanent shelf.

The latest from Dav Pilkey...

2011-08-06T16:58:00.000-04:00

Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers

http://www.pilkey.com/nextbook.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOrwAZd2XZY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrj1Kl-mQJc&feature=bulletin

http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m3IVCDZCLPZVJ8/ref=ent_fb_link

http://www.pilkey.com

Me and Dav Pilkey at ALA in New Orleans

Dav Pilkey never fails to bring potty humor to a new level. I had the pleasure of relaxing with a “tinkletini” while standing in line in a red super cape with fellow librarians to meet the infamous author for a sacred signed copy of his new book Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers on the day of its release. I love it that Dav has become a superstar despite the critics out there that claim his books aren’t good enough to be on our library shelves. He has paved the way for graphic novels of all sorts and he is open and honest about who he is and why he writes the books he writes.


Caped librarians at ALA 2011 sipping "tinkletinis" and waiting to meet Dav

First of all Dav is funny. When it comes down to it, most of us like a little down to earth potty humor when we’re with our families. My little princess daughter is the first one to crack a joke about “the gas we pass.” When she was three, she walked around in a ballgown, but she also had a collection of Walter the Farting Dog books. We decided then and there that she was probably going to be some boy’s perfect prom date. Dav is using humor on a basic level that kids just get and parents would too if they stopped long enough to take a look.

Second, Dav purposely makes his books imperfect. Children have enough examples of perfection around them.Dav takes the stand that children are smart enough to know what is a mistake in his book and if they see mistakes, they will find them funny. They will also be encouraged to write themselves without worrying so much about being perfect. One of the worst things children learn is that they have to be perfect in order to be good at something. It steals creativity away from them. If we can encourage them to keep drawing and writing at all ages, they will continue to grow creatively and that is the point that Dav is trying to make. It is an honorable one.

Whether you like Dav Pilkey’s books or not, if your kids like his books, I encourage you to buy them for them. Any books that kids will read over and over again are worthwhile. It keeps them reading and will encourage their creative spirit. If they are reading Dav Pilkey, encourage them to write their own comics. Maybe one day they’ll be at ALA and I’ll be getting their autographed new releases!

If you love dance....

2011-08-06T14:58:00.008-04:00

The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers: LDX

http://thelxd.com/

http://www.youtube.com/jonmchu

Those of you that know me personally know I love dance and that I recently started tap dancing with a little inspiration from my eight-year-old daughter. My daughter takes four dance classes a week – tap, ballet, hip hop, and irish. My son also takes hip hop. When I was in Game Stop a few weeks ago I was chatting with the young guy at the register as I often do and telling him about my family of dancers. He told me about this cool group on the web called the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers and told me to check them out. So I did. They are truly amazing and I couldn’t resist sharing them in a post!

The group, commonly known as the LXD, is a web series composed of two rival groups of dancers (can you say West Side Story anyone?): heroes who are the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers and villains who are the Alliance of Dark. They discover that they have superpowers called the “ra” through their dance abilities. The story takes place between the year 1920 and the year 3000. Jon Chu is the creator of the series and it includes every form of dance under the sun.

*I do like to give credit where credit is due. I don’t often use Wikipedia for a resource, but it was acceptable here and well reference back to Jon Chu’s resources so my info on LDX did come from Wikipedia.

Introducing The Fabulous Jenni Holm!

2011-08-03T15:05:00.004-04:00

A Multiple Newbery Honoree and Co-creator of the Graphic Mouse Queen...

While I was at ALA, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Newbery Honoree Jenni Holm who was honored this year for her fabulous book Turtle in Paradise. I absolutely loved Turtle and highly recommend reading it. It is a historical fiction book as well as a coming of age story written about a young girl named Turtle who is shipped off to Key West during the depression to stay with her aunt and cousins – her are unaware she is coming. It’s a story of Key West before it was a tourist town; a story of life with the bare minimum.

Jenni Holm is not new to winning Newbery Honors. She has won them before for her novels Our Only May Amelia and Pennies From Heaven, also historical fiction. She also writes the incredibly popular BabyMouse series in collaboration with her brother Matt. In fact, my interview was prompted by my daughter’s love of the BabyMouse series. Every elementary library I have spent time in – Roberts, Wayne, and Radnor – has had trouble keeping the books on the shelf. And there is good news from the Holms team! They are producing a second series that is gender neutral called Squish! Squish is about a baby amoeba and while I haven’t read it yet, I am sure that it will be a winner given Jenni and Matt’s track record.

http://www.jenniferholm.com/

Me and Jenni Holm at the 2011 ALA National Convention in New Orleans.


Example of German mouse toy both Jenni and I played with as children. These mice came in a variety of different clothes. They now sell for quite a bit of money as collectors items.

Brother and sister team Matt and Jenni Holm.

Playing With Frogs...Apps in the Classroom

2011-08-02T12:07:00.001-04:00

Nimblebit's Pocket Frogs +Plus http://nimblebit.com/

A little known fact about me is that I actually started out in the world of higher education as a Biology major. In fact almost all of my “elective” classes at the University of Delaware ended up being in the sciences despite the fact that I officially graduated with an English major and a Fine Arts minor. Yes, I am an eclectic one. My love of Biology was really sealed in 10th grade Bio class with Ms. Houghton when we were doing genetics experiments with Drosophila melanogaster – fruit flies. Ms. Houghton was in her first year of teaching and fresh out of grad school. She was tough but excited about bringing as much practical lab work into the classroom as possible. She was an amazing teacher. I became a whiz at breeding Drosophila. I even took mine home over spring break, much to my mother’s dismay. She wasn’t too excited about my science experiment hanging out in the kitchen, although I assured her it was completely self-contained. I became so good at breeding the little critters that at one point the University lost their entire supply and I ended up breeding a new supply to restock them. By then I was a senior and a lab aide to Ms. Houghton and had also taken AP Bio.

Imagine my excitement when I discovered an iPhone app where I could “virtually” breed critters! Nimblebit’s Pocket Frogs on the +Plus network is a wonderful app that has huge potential for helping teachers demonstrate basic genetics in action, hunt strategies, natural and sequential patterns, basic classification systems, scientific nomenclature through a fictional version, organization of information, and allocation of resources through creation of a small business. I’ve fiddled with the app for months and am pleased with how it is set up. It essentially allows the user to breed and collect frogs while increasing levels and gaining “money” to buy habitats and therefore collect more frogs. There are goals for collecting certain frogs. As the player becomes more savvy, they figure out how to breed specific frogs more easily. I can pretty much breed anything I want because I understand the underlying idea of genetics and simply pick out the features I want to create the specific frog. It may take a little while, but I am always able to do it.

For a student who doesn’t understand how genetics works, it would be challenging. My 8 and 10-year-old children, for example, find the game a little more challenging than I do and simply go around collecting frogs. They don’t understand how to breed specific frogs. That’s where the app is great as a teaching tool for older students – like high school bio students who are not often getting the opportunity to do genetics labs in the classroom today. An app like this provides a great opportunity to ensure that they really do understand genetics rather than just repeating what they are reading in their textbooks and has the bonus of being fun. It also provides the integration of other related skills like scientific nomenclature. The frogs all have names that relate to traits that are expressed. It is similar to traditional scientific nomenclature that would be Family-Genus-Species. They are then organized according to this nomenclature in a FroggyDex and as each frog is collected it is highlighted in the individual’s FroggyDex showing how many frogs have been collected and how many total can be collected. I have collected approximately 2200 so far. My next goal to reach is 5000. I’m almost half way there.

I see so much potential for doing so many things with this app collaboratively with Biology, Math, and Economics/Business teachers in a high school that would take the learning far deeper beyond the textbooks so that students are using what they are learning and actually putting it into action and then discussing it. I think that that is what will make all the difference and ensure that they remember what they learn long after any tests they may take. And on top of that, they may actually have a little fun!

Breeding

Some of the varieties within one "species"

Frogs in a pond and in a habitat

Frogs in a habitat at level 7 -- I'm at level 23

Some of the beautiful and diverse array of frogs

Dolphin Parade By Pete Kuhn

2011-08-01T12:16:00.000-04:00

My friend photographer Pete Kuhn made a beautiful video of him and his sons watching dolphins swim off of a boat this summer. It's a short but lovely little piece of film footage set to music. Enjoy!

Are we speaking the same language?

2011-07-28T16:31:00.007-04:00

Super Size Me

I have to have a little fun at both my Aussie friend and the American public’s expense for a moment. My friend had never been to the US before and after the grueling journey from Brisbane via LA (a journey which involves approximately 17 ½ hours of flight time and a few hours layover in the "lovely" LAX airport) and having gotten up at the crack of dawn to make the journey to Brisbane for said flight, not slept for the entire journey and arrived in time to go to an awards function at ALA, famished did not begin to describe him by the night’s end.

Unfortunately, being a weeknight many places were not open at 10:30 pm. What I originally thought was a place of ill repute, however, actually did turn out to be an eating establishment and we sauntered in for some kibble. I mean really folks, the name of the place and its proximity to Bourbon Street was quite misleading…Daisy Dukes? Seriously? Anyway, I played it safe and ordered a salad. The whole gluten-free thing makes me wary and the staff at Daisy Dukes didn’t seem to speak Celiac.

My friend stared at the menu for a long time. Finally he looked up and asked me what an entrée was. All I could do was laugh. I thought we were both speaking English… Now my passport is very well traveled. It’s stamped by 21 countries. Usually I look at where things are placed on a menu, not the actual words because I’ve pretty much learned by now that there is a cultural difference in how we use words. And really entrée is French, not English. But I explained the menu to my friend so he’d know the difference between appetizers and main courses. He decided he was really hungry so he ordered chili cheese fries and some other monster of a dish. I quietly thought to myself that he was really ordering a LOT of food…

When it all arrived at the table, his eyes nearly popped out of his head. All he could think of was the movie Super Size Me. I really started laughing at this point as he sat there surrounded by masses of food with a Coke the size of a bucket. All I could say to him was “Welcome to America!”

To watch the movie Super Size Me on the Internet click here:

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi3473867545/

Andreas and his first American monster meal at Daisy Dukes in the French Quarter, New Orleans

The Sequel to "Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side"

2011-07-25T14:24:00.000-04:00

Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

By Beth Fantaskey

2/2009

Jessica's Guide to Ruling the Dark Side

Due to be released in early 2012

Having taken a month off to travel with my Australian friend after ALA, I am finally digging into my vast pile of blog fodder from the conference. Never one to resist a good vampire story, I decided to start off my review reading with the follow-up to the fun teen vamp story Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side. In Beth Fantaskey’s (what a great last name for a fantasy author!) tale about a young vampire princess who is raised by adoptive vegan parents on a farm completely unaware of her heritage until the tall, dark, and incredibly handsome Prince Lucius Vladescu arrives on their doorstep from Romania to claim his betrothed. Where Twilight is dramatic and often sappy, Jessica’s Guide is humorous and witty as young Jessica grows into her emerging vampiredom. Vampires don’t glimmer in Fantaskey’s world nor do they wilt in sunlight. At the end of Jessica’s Guide, Jessica, whose real name is Antanasia, and Lucius have finally resolved their relationship and gone off to Romania to face their vampire families.

Often second books in a series are disappointing, but Jessica’s Guide to Ruling the Dark Side, due out in early 2012 will not disappoint fans of the first book. The book begins with the wedding of Antanasia and Lucius which is revealed by an invitation in the book leading readers to a website for full details of the wedding. The book then continues with the story introducing many new characters as well as retaining several familiar characters. The characters of Lucius and Antanasia grow tremendously in this second novel and although it is somewhat more somber and dark in tone, it does still have the sense of humor that Beth Fantaskey maintains in her first volume.

If you haven’t yet read Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side and are a fan of fun vampire romps, I highly recommend picking a copy up and reading it now before the second volume comes out. If you have read it, you won’t be disappointed with the sequel – be sure to put it on your to read list for 2012!

http://www.bethfantaskey.com/

Interview With Author Jeff Kinney at ALA!

2011-07-25T12:54:00.002-04:00

It's been a fun-filled day at ALA beginning with an early morning interview with superstar children's author Jeff Kinney! Jeff graciously agreed to let me do a video interview with him despite his jam packed schedule during the conference. My son Luke is a huge Jeff Kinney fan and has read all of the Wimpy Kid books over and over again. Luke was originally supposed to come with me to New Orleans and had hoped to meet Jeff, so I thought up the idea of doing author interviews and contacted Jeff's agent. Lo and behold they came through and we have a happy ten-year-old! Jeff is not only incredibly funny and talented, but a super nice author who is joint-minded in the mission librarians march forward with to place books in children's hands and raise literacy rates. Humor and graphics go a long way in aiding the cause for literacy. Many children who wouldn't otherwise pick up a book are doing so because of authors like Jeff and we owe him a great deal of gratitude. Thanks again Jeff and we can't wait for Wimpy Kid 6 to come out!

Jeff Kinney Interview

http://www.wimpykid.com/

http://www.gregheffley.blogspot.com

Get Ready For Some Upcoming Fun New Posts!!!

2011-06-24T16:15:00.000-04:00

Here I am in hot, muggy New Orleans birthplace of my father and generations of my ancestors for the 2011 American Librarian Association (ALA) Annual Conference getting ready to embark upon a marathon of learning about the latest and greatest in librarianship, listening to some of the best authors and speakers in the world, grabbing some coveted signed books, and trying a new thing for my blog -- video author interviews! I have been lucky enough to get a few wonderful authors to agree to let me do video interviews with them and will be posting the interviews after the conference on the Suburban Barnyard! My kids were originally supposed to come down to the Big Easy with me to the conference, but got vetoed from the trip. As a concession, I let them help me pick out a few authors to interview. Some of them said yes! I am so excited about this project and know that I'll be able to bring some excellent content back to fans. Without giving too much away, one of the books is about a baby mouse, one is about a wimpy kid, and one is about a dog and a cat named "Bobby"... More to come soon!

Why Can’t I Cite Wikipedia?

2011-06-14T12:18:00.002-04:00

One of the biggest questions I get as a librarian is “why can’t I use Wikipedia as a cited resource?” I don’t disagree that Wikipedia is a useful tool for quick answers and I agree that it is an impressive use of technology to coral our collective knowledge on the Internet. That being said, there are many reasons why it is still not a citable academic resource. Let me explain why.

First and foremost, the format of Wikipedia is a wiki which means that it can be changed by anyone at anytime. This means that it has credibility issues. Wikipedia itself has a disclaimer page within its pages stating that it is not a citable source because it is a tertiary source (encyclopedia) and a wiki that can change at a moments notice. Wikipedia recommends using it as a starting point and then doing further research using the cited resources within its pages.

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Academic_use )

Wikipedia espouses itself as the “free encyclopedia anyone can edit.” There are good things and bad things about being editable by anyone. For the most part, Wikipedia seems to end up self-correcting, but in the short-term, there is potential for misinformation. As a result, it is critical that he user double check resources when using Wikipedia. The best advice is using it as a starting point for further research using its cited resources.

Encyclopedias of any kind are used for general knowledge of a subject. They are more in depth than a dictionary, but they are not for true research. Younger students do use encyclopedias to do reports on subjects, but once students reach the level of high school, they are expected to start doing research that is more in depth. By the time a student leaves high school, he or she should understand what is or isn’t a citable resource and why. That is my goal as a librarian.

There are so many rich primary resources available for students, many of them on the Internet and many of them for free. If you are having trouble and need a research librarian’s help, the Internet Public Library is available 24/7 at www.ipl.org and will be happy to help with your questions. Librarians from around the country volunteer with the IPL which is housed at Drexel’s School of Library Science.

So remember, Wikipedia is not evil, it just isn't a citable resource. It's a great general reference for getting you started. Use it as a jumping off place to find some solid research. It's also not a bad resource if you need to cheat at Trivial Pursuit because you can always sneak a peak at your iPhone. But don't tell anyone I told you to cheat, because I never cheat at Trivial Pursuit. I take my chances on winning or losing the old fashioned way by relying on my vast stores of useless knowledge.

Got a Hankerin to Learn Some Biology? Check Out BIO 230!

2011-05-16T00:41:00.003-04:00

(Is this scary creature the killer rabbit from Monty Python lurking in your backyard, or one of those mutant rabbits from Australia?)

Who says scientists have no funny bone? Professor Singleton’s Blog, BIO 230, dishes out science with a dose of humor. The blog includes weekly reviews of the show House analyzing the plausibility of the science. I’m particularly fond of the section entitled Topics Singleton Likes To Rant. I’m even considering a gift of a gold-leafed soap box for Christmas. One of my favorite postings from the archives is called Kill the Wabbitt. (The things that Bugs Bunny left imprinted upon our brains!) Ah that Dr. Singleton is a master of wit! If only he could use some of that creativity to improve his blog title… I’ve known Professor Singleton since the day mom brought me home and he asked if she couldn’t return me for a dog. He has serious potential for knee slappin' jokes. He's the inventor of the Yeasty Boys Brewing Company. He can do better than the boring academic BIO 230 title that does not begin to describe the contents of this terrific blog. One final rant, and this for the students; please, please, please don’t use Wikipedia as a cited resource! You have a myriad of rich quality scientific resources at your fingertips -- just ask a librarian!

(See my blog listing below to link to BIO 230.)

Become Ruler of Your Own Private Ocean Realm

2011-05-16T00:31:00.004-04:00

One of my favorite apps for my iPhone is an app called Fantastic Fish. It’s an app that appeals to a wide age range from my elementary –aged children to adults. It allows you to build oceans and populate them with fish. It’s on the Plus+ network, so you can join up with friends to view their oceans and breed fish. As a teacher, there are several things that I like about this app. It inspires creativity as individuals create their own little oceans. On the surface, you’d think it would be somewhat limited, but I am amazed at how different everyone’s oceans look given the few items there are to work with in the palette of backdrops, floorings, decorations, and fish. Add to that the ability to name fish anything you wish and you end up with quite a wide range of creative oceans from fairly realistic seas to completely fantastical ones.

My oceans are fairly realistic because I am a diver and am inspired by the real deal, but the names of my fish are mostly names of authors or literary characters reflecting my gamer name, mrslibrarian. I also like the way that the app introduces various marine life like sharks, rays, clownfish, sea otters, manatees, sea horses, and lion fish – even if many of them are fantastical in the colors they morph into when bred with friends’ fish. Like many other apps, there is an element of business acumen to be learned from playing with Fantastic Fish as well. If you buy and sell fish well, you’ll be successful and build up prosperous oceans quickly.

One final thing that I am finding very interesting is the social behavior that follows as your oceans grow and become more prosperous. I’m finding that I’ve gained more and more followers and am able to breed more fish. Each week I continue to gain popularity. I looked at the leaderboards and added two or three of the top names to my friends list to see if the social behavior followed for them as well and indeed, their oceans are packed with followers seeking to breed with their fish. So if you like fish and want to have some fun playing Neptune, check out Fantastic Fish. It’s good clean fun that you can enjoy with your friends, your children, and your children's friends at the same time!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fantastic-fish/id407337846?mt=8

The Birds & The Bees

2011-05-02T18:11:00.001-04:00

Spring has sprung and the song of mating is in the air. There are babies everywhere we turn it seems. It’s only natural I suppose that his is often the time of year that children often bring up those questions that many parents often dread facing … “Mommy and Daddy, where did I come from?” My friend and I were just having this very conversation over the weekend. She was troubled over how much and what kind of information to give her children, aged 10 and 8.

I have always followed my own parents’ advice in respect to discussing sexuality with children. I was a child of the 70’s and my parents were always factual, honest, and direct. They used a book called Where Did I Come From written by Peter Mayle and illustrated by Arthur Robins that came out in the early 70’s. We read it together when I was a Kindergartener and my brothers were in Pre-school and 1st or 2nd grade. I don’t know of any book written since that is nearly as good. It is the perfect mix of humor and fact that captures the attention of kids and gives them the information they need to understand their bodies as well as the basics of sexuality. It places intimacy, love, and emotions into the context of sexual relations too, a message that parents often are concerned their teens aren’t grasping. It is actually more effective if the message about intimacy, love, emotions, responsibility, as well as communication about sexuality with you, begins long before children are teens.

So if you are challenged with questions about the birds & bees this spring by a young one who is under the age of 10, go on the Internet and track down a copy of Mayle’s classic – or check a copy out from your local library. You won’t be sorry!

An Apple For The Teacher

2011-05-02T17:57:00.003-04:00

I have been an Apple fanatic since the fall of Eve. Only unlike Eve, my temptation has moved well beyond those sweet dangly fruits hanging from trees, much as I do love a good trip to the orchard for some Stayman Winesaps, and on toward Apples of the high falutin’ techy type. I do believe my Dad still has one of the very first generation Apple computers still sitting in the old computer graveyard of his basement, an Apple IIe from the early 80’s. Ah the days of floppy disks! I’m pretty sure I still have a circa 1995 PowerMac Classic in my own computer graveyard, housed in my barn. When the iPad first came out, I saw a great picture of the Classic used as a trendy retro desk stand for the iPad – recycling at its best. http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/06/09/excellent-mac-classic-converted-to-ipad-stand/

Needless to say, when I left the corporate world in 2001 to stay home for a while, I decided to migrate away from the PC world and over to my true favorite, the world of Apple. I started with an iMac, added peripheral hardrives, bought a MacBook when I started grad school, added an AirPad, and finally when Verizon was able to provide service for iPhone bought my coveted iPhone. I am completely embarrassed by admit the number of apps I have on my iPhone…but they are well organized!

One of the things that I am going to start talking about on The Suburban Barnyard is use of technology. Some of the apps really have my wheels spinning with ideas. I REALLY want that iPad now! As far as I am concerned, forget the Kindles, Nooks, etc. and invest in an iPad. You will get so much more bang for your buck. Why buy one platform when you can buy a multiplatform library you can carry in your hand? And the iPad goes even further by serving as a travelling desktop and remote presentation tool. I could go on and on, but I’ll save that for another day. There is good reason for the love affair we all seem to have with iPads and the new surge of copycats. They are here to stay. Apps will continue to develop at an even faster rate and I am excited to see what lies ahead.