Today is a very special day!

Wow, where do I start?  Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett came to our school!  As I was standing in the back of the multi-purpose room watching their presentation, I suddenly had a moment of "Wow! These guys are at my school!"

They arrived an hour early and had a nice Togos lunch waiting for them.  And also some ninja bread men cookies that I had made.

Teachers had an opportunity to chat with the authors and after lunch we toured the library.  They got to see my author photo wall, on which they spotted themselves and several of their friends.  They stopped to say hello to Mrs. Gaither's class who were in the library at the time and then it was off to the multipurpose room for the presentation.

Mr. Scieszka spoke first.  He shared many stories from his childhood growing up with 4 brothers, including how his brother Greg broke his collar bone 5 times.  Then Mr. Barnett took a turn and ended up on an extended rant about Scooby and Scrappy Doo.  They took some questions from the students but the students were eager to hear about their new book Battle Bunny.

The premise of Battle Bunny is that a boy named Alex receives from his grandmother a super sweet book called Birthday Bunny as a birthday gift.  Alex decides the book does not suit his taste, so he 'improves' it.  So, essentially, Mr. Scieszka and Mr. Barnett wrote 2 books.  First, they wrote Birthday Bunny, which was illustrated by Matthew Myers.  Then, they went back and wrote Alex's version - Battle Bunny with additional illustrations.  The book is hilarious and really gets the kids where they live.  The authors read a portion of the book simultaneously, with Mr. Barnett reading Birthday Bunny and Mr. Scieszka reading Battle Bunny.  They then asked the students to come up with their own Bunnies and they came up with a Vampire Bunny, Volcano Bunny, Scooby Doo Bunny, and Mac Barnett Bunny, to name a few.

After the presentation, students were able to get their books signed and talk to the authors.

And of course, I got another picture to add to my author wall.

Then the day was over and they were off to Hicklebee's Children's Bookstore for their next appearance.

I'd like to thank Miss Valerie and Miss Katherine of Hicklebee's for giving Marshall Lane the opportunity to host these fabulous authors.  It makes me so happy that our students were able to experience this.

I'd also like to thank all my wonderful library volunteers who covered the library at lunch time and helped keep the event running smoothly and especially Miss Ronda who set up the sound system, directed traffic in the multi-purpose room and got Miss Katherine out of the parking lot.

And finally, I'd like to thank Mrs. Spencer, our principal, for organizing lunch and giving up her parking space.

Be sure to check out mybirthdaybunny.com for some free downloads and more information.

Yes, it truly was a special day.

I'M SO EXCITED!

Today, my loyal readers, my dream has come true!  Thanks to the best bookstore in the world Hicklebee's Children's bookstore, none other than Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett are coming to Marshall Lane!

Mr. Scieszka and Mr. Barnett have written a book together called Battle Bunny which will be coming out October 22.  Now I got very excited when I found out that these two amazing authors had collaborated on a book so when Hicklebee's called me this morning to see if we could host them I nearly spontaneously combusted!  If you have been following my blog at all, you'll know how much I adore these two authors (and how I have stalked them, check the tags!)

Here's a book trailer of Battle Bunny.



I can't wait to read this book!

So you know them when they come, this is Mac Barnett.  He wrote Extra Yarn, The Brixton Brothers Mysteries, Billy Twitters and his Blue Whale Problem, and Chloe and the Lion among others.

This is Jon Scieszka.  He wrote The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, The Spaceheadz Trilogy, and The Time Warp Trio series, plus more!

If you'd like to purchase a copy of Battle Bunny, a flyer will be going home tomorrow for pre-ordering copies of the book or come see me in the library.

It's Author Stalking Season

Have I told you that Hicklebee's is the best bookstore ever?  Today they hosted Kate DiCamillo who on tour for her new book Flora & Ulysses.

I arrived a bit late thanks to a wrong turn and some road construction so my signing number was 77.  This turned out to be not a bad thing because it allowed me some time to read a bit of Flora & Ulysses while I waited.  So far, it is absolutely delightful!

The story begins with a comic which tells the story of what happened when Mr. Tickham gave Mrs. Tickham a vacuum cleaner for her birthday.  Comics illustrate parts of the story thoughout the book.

Flora, who lives next door to the Tickhams, is a natural born cynic who loves to read comics.  Ulysses is an unassuming squirrel whom Flora saves from an unfortunate vacuum cleaner accident.  Ulysses is not unscathed by the accident and, in fact, is quite changed by the experience.  I'm 60 pages in and I can't wait to see what happens next.  Here is a picture of Ms. DiCamillo reading the first chapter of the book to a very crowded bookstore.

Next week, T. A. Barron, Adam Gidwitz, and Richard Peck will be appearing at Hicklebee's.  You need to be there!

"This book will make you itchy!"

Back from Hicklebee's where David Shannon read his new book Bugs in My Hair.  It's the best book about lice you'll ever read.

David Shannon assures the reader that getting lice is nothing to be ashamed of, it just happens.  He does acknowledge, however, that it is miserable and a pain to deal with.  The story includes many informational footnotes about how lice have crept into our everyday language.  Nitpicking anyone?

While reading his book, Mr. Shannon donned a giant louse on a headband because, even though lice are really small, when you have them, it feels like they have taken over your life!

I will be returning to Hicklebee's on Friday because another great author will be visiting.  And there will be more great authors next week.  Hicklebee's is the best!

Further Adventures in Author Stalking

Those of you who actually read my blog (and I guess, if you are reading this now, than I am talking to you) may remember that I wrote about a forthcoming book by the great Lemony Snicket and the Caldecott award winner and honoree Jon Klassen called The Dark.

If you follow me on Facebook, you'd know that Mr. Snicket's representative Daniel Handler and Mr. Klassen were at Hicklebee's this morning and so, therefore, was I.

They presented a slideshow in which they showed pictures from their childhoods and some of the things they've done in their lives before they collaborated (a word which here means 'worked together') on The Dark.  Mr. Snicket's representative explained that while Mr. Klassen wasted his childhood playing on swings and looking at pictures, Mr. Snicket was busy doing research.

Here, Mr. Snicket's representative is demonstrating how he learned to perform the trick pictured in the slideshow.  We also learned that while Mr. Snicket is not afraid of the dark, he is afraid of crabs, and his representative appears to be as well. 

To add a layer of difficulty to the reading, Mr. Snicket's representative tied a blindfold on to Mr. Klassen who continued to illustrate the reading blindfolded.  There was a surprise ending to this but I won't give that away here.  I'll share it at school next week.

Here is the dynamic duo signing my books (one for me and one for Marshall Lane). 

This one proves that I was there.

If you would like the opportunity to meet Mr. Klassen and Mr. Snicket or his representative, depending on who shows up, they will be at the Burlingame Library tomorrow at 4.  It's about a 45 minute drive from here so if you leave right after school, you should be there in plenty of time.  I highly recommend you do this.  Especially if, like me, you love books and you like friendly and funny authors and illustrators.

This is not my hat

I have to thank Hicklebee's for making it so easy for me to stalk authors.  Today Jon Klassen was there for his new book This Is Not My Hat, a follow up, nay, a companion piece to his first, best-selling book I Want My Hat Back, which I wrote about here and here.  I loved I Want My Hat Back so much that I was inspired to make Bear's hat.  Now I am working on a hat for Little Fish so he won't have to steal Big Fish's hat anymore.  Sadly, I didn't think about doing this until last night and couldn't finish it in time to give to Jon Klassen.

Here is the book trailer for This Is Not My Hat

You can probably guess that everything will not be fine for this little fish.  Whereas in the first book, we shared in Bear's pain and anguish at the loss of his hat, the horror of discovering that it had been stolen by some one with whom he was acquainted, no less, and the needling self-doubt as he ponders his ultimate course of action; in this book, we are privvy to the thief's tale.  And he nearly convinces us that what he's done is not such a bad thing, but in the end, the bigger animal always gets his hat back.

Jon Klassen has long ago given up being coy about what happens to hat thieves in his books but I prefer to leave it ambiguous.

Last time I saw Jon Klassen at Hicklebee's, I gave him the pointy hat I had made.  This time, I gave one to Miss Valerie, the co-owner of Hicklebee's because I didn't want her to feel left out.  Here's a picture of her wearing the hat:

And here she is with Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett who showed up for the heck of it:

Thanks again, Hicklebee's!!

Once again the fabulous Hicklebee's Bookstore is hosting amazing authors.  Now that it's fall, there are lots of great books coming out.  Last week, Lois Lowry's new book Son was released and Lois Lowry was at Hicklebee's today to talk about the final book of The Giver Quartet.  Son takes us back to the time of the first book, The Giver, and tells us the story of Gabe, the infant that Jonas kidnaps and takes with him when he leaves the community, and of Gabe's birthmother and how they each long to find one another again.

I picked up a copy of Messenger while I was there because we don't have that one in the library.  They are both signed by Ms. Lowry.  Tomorrow I will process them and I'm hoping they'll be ready to check out by lunch time.  While you are waiting, go here and read this lovely article about Lois Lowry and her new book.

In Which Mrs. Richards Hobnobs with Authors

Well, my little blog has seen some action this week.  Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook may have seen that my last post crossed paths with the eyeballs of Mr. Neil Gaiman.  I follow him on Twitter so I know that sometimes he retweets bloggers who mention him or his work in a review or as an inspiration for creative work.  So I thought, what the heck, I'll use his Twitter handle in my tweet about my new blog post and see what happens.  Nothing to lose.  Well, to my utter surprise, less than a half hour later, he retweeted my tweet with a comment:

He said my post was funny!  Which means he read it!  He read my post, thought it was funny and worthy of a retweet!  Then I got all excited and school girly and started screen capturing and humble bragging.  And I forgot to thank him, which I did the next day.  So, Neil Gaiman has more that 1.7 million followers. Even if just a small fraction of those followers click the link and read my blog, that amounts to a lot of people.  Here is screen cap of my Gaiman Bump:

Of the 2,960 hits I've gotten this month, 2,640 are from the Mr. Wednesday Learns to Knit post.  I guess that's my 15 minutes of Internet fame.  

Anyway, back to books.  This one specifically:

You may remember last year I wrote about The Search for WondLa.  Tony DiTerlizzi has written a sequel called A Hero for WondLa with the same glorious, fantastical illustrations as the first book, which I didn't really see because I listened to the audiobook.  I saw Mr. DiTerlizzi at Hicklebee's Bookstore this afternoon. Here's a picture so you know it happened:

Mr. DiTerlizzi said he is a "product of daydreams and boredom."  What he meant is that when he was a kid, he used to doodle a lot while daydreaming in class and one summer, he had nothing to do but stay in his room and draw.  So he filled a note book with drawings that would become the inspiration for the Spiderwick Chronicles.  

He went on to explain how he was inspired to create Eva 9 because he had read books like The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carol and Peter Pan, by Sir James Barrie as a kid.  He liked the clever and strong female characters who all had the same goal - to find their way home. He also confessed that he didn't always like to read books without pictures until his 5th grade teacher told him he could draw pictures to go with his book reports. He said that teacher changed his life.  He said from that moment on, reading books was like reading instructions and he was finally able to imagine for himself what a scene might look like, rather than depend on the illustrations of other artists.

I realize there is only one week left of library this school year so I'm going to do my best to get A Hero for WondLa shelf ready as quickly as I can.  Come and be the first to check it out!

"I have seen my hat." - Bear

You may remember back in January, I wrote about a new book called Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen.  It is such a delightful book and has become a big hit in the knitting community, especially among knitting librarians.  The library will be getting a copy from Junior Library Guild this month.  Actually, I will also be donating my old copy to the library because now I have a new copy signed by both the author and the illustrator!  Mr. Barnett and Mr. Klassen visited Hicklebee's today.  They took turns reading books and holding books.  Mr. Barnett read his hilarious book Guess Again!, then Mr. Klassen read I Want My Hat Back (squeeee!), and finally Mr. Barnett read Extra Yarn.  Here's some pictures of the action (you can see Miss Valerie in the first picture):

After the reading, Mr. Barnett explained how books are made.  It was very enlightening!  I had no idea that pirates and fire breathing sea monsters were involved in the book making process.  We also learned that the Pacific Ocean is made of Mac Barnett's tears.  Later, while taking questions from the audience, Mr. Klassen revealed the true fate of the rabbit in I Want My Hat Back.  But I won't say it here because that's not my question to answer.  All I can say is that your worst fears have probably come true.

Afterwards, Mr. Barnett and Mr. Klassen signed books and I had decided - as soon as I found out they were coming to Hicklebee's - that I would bring them a gift made from some of my extra yarn.  So last night I made them each a finger mustache.  Here's a picture:

You may also remember how I was inspired to make Bear's pointy hat.  Well, I also decided it would be fun to give that hat to Jon Klassen to thank him for writing such a fun book.  Also it would be fun to see it on his head:

Turns out is was super fun!  I'm absolutely delighted! Thanks again, Hicklebee's!  And thank you Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett for writing and illustrating (not respectively) such wonderful books!

Hey kids!  Be sure to check out the Brixton Brothers mysteries by Mac Barnett at the library.  They are hilarious!

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

Well, of course I went to Hicklebee's this afternoon to see Tom Angleberger, the author of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and the sequel, Darth Paper Strikes Back. I ran into my friends Kenji and Timmy who also came to see Tom Angleberger because Kenji's mom is an informed reader of this very blog!

Mr. Angleberger gave an excellent and very funny presentation about his book. I especially liked how he called any kid he was talking to by the name of Larry - even the girls! He did such a good job of demonstrating how funny his book is that I went right home and read the book. And you know what? I loved it! It was so funny, yet Origami Yoda's Jedi Wisdom shines through. (He really does give good advice!) I can't wait to share these books with everyone tomorrow - and I have a surprise!

Here is Mr. Angleberger drawing a picture of a pair of pants that plays a key role in the third chapter. And here is me getting my books signed. (Can you see Darth Paper?)

Well, I took a break from listening to Masterpiece by Elise Broach to read Origami Yoda. I'm about half-way through it so I will finish that while I try to finish another sock so I have a pair. I'll let you know how that goes.

Here I am at Hicklebee's again

I am so glad that I subscribe to the Hicklebee's newsletter so I can have the opportunity to see such fabulous authors as Jon Scieszka and Lois Lowry.

Lois Lowry may be best known for her book The Giver but she has written many, many other wonderful books, like her new one, for instance. Bless This Mouse about some mice that live in a church. Or a recent one titled The Willoughbys. There are many types of parents depicted in children's literature; good ones, average ones who have problems, horrible ones, and dead ones. In The Willoughbys, the parents start out as the horrible kind but then wind up the dead kind. Here is Ms. Lowry reading from The Willoughbys:

Ms. Lowry was illustrating how she tries to introduce the character and their problem on the first page of the book in order to hook the reader. Well, she hooked me! I got right on my iPhone and bought the audio book! Of course, I also bought a copy of Bless This Mouse and Ms. Lowry kindly signed it and let me take a picture with her.

In closing, I'd like to share with you something I overheard in the library today. A second grade girl was talking to her friend, she said "I'm so glad we have a library." Her friend agreed. Then she elaborated. "If we didn't have a library at this school, I would die! I'm serious, I would die."
Word, little girl. Word.

Children's authors are so much more accessible than rock stars

I must confess. I have not read Spaceheadz yet. But I plan to as soon I finish writing this. I went to Hicklebee's today to see Jon Scieszka, the author of Spaceheadz, as well as other fine works such as The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Robot Zot, and The Time Warp Trio series. Mr. Scieszka also served as the nation's first Ambassador for Young People's Literature and is the driving force behind the Guys Read project. He is also responsible for the The Exquisite Corpse project, of which I wrote a few months ago on this very blog.

Mr. Scieszka paid a visit to Hicklebee's to promote the second book in the Spaceheadz series. The Earth has been invaded by three aliens who have disguised themselves as a fifth grade boy, a fifth grade girl, and a fifth grade class hamster. Everything the aliens know about Earth, they learned from watching TV advertisements. They've come to Earth seeking Charmin, a material which is strong and soft and pleases large bears. Mr. Scieszka brought along his daughter, Casey, who is herself a writer, and her illustrator friend Steven Weinberg. They also have a book they are promoting called To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People and One True Story, which is a book for teens. Mr. Scieszka was very funny and had a terrific audience of elementary school aged kids who were expert spaceheadz. Casey and Steven also run the Spaceheadz website where kids can become SPHDZ and save the world.

Hicklebee's was a great place to see Jon Scieszka, world class author. It's a small store and I thought it would be packed to the gills but the crowd was not that large. I didn't have to wait long to get my books signed (come visit them in the library on Monday!) and I got to chat a bit and have my picture taken with the authors (which will be added to my author wall).

Last time I had a rock star sign a record for me, I had to stand in line for 6 hours, I could only get one thing signed and was not allowed to take pictures and there was no chatting. Children's authors are my new rock stars.