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.

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.

The Exquisite Corpse

Mr. Richards loves the Library of Congress website. He is fascinated by their digital collection of old photographs, phonograph recordings, and early films. And I mean really old, items from the dawn of their respective technologies. It is truly fascinating and I recommend you spend some time wandering around there. One day he came across The Exquisite Corpse Adventure and discovered it was also a podcast that could be downloaded from iTunes, and because we both love podcasts, he told me about it. I spent today listening to it.

The Exquisite Corpse is a progressive story. You know, like that old party game where someone writes the beginning of a story and folds the paper over to cover it and hands it to the next person who writes the next bit, folds the paper over and passes it on to the next person, etc, until the page is full and you have a hilariously disjointed story to read aloud. I used to love to play this game (still do, in fact) but had a very hard time getting people to play it with me. Anyway, this time the game is played with a great handful of favorite children's authors and illustrators. Such recognizable names as Jon Scieszka -Stinky Cheese Man, Time Warp Trio, Katherine Paterson - The Bridge to Terabithia, The Great Gilly Hopkins, Kate DiCamillo - Tale of Despereaux, Lemony Snicket - A Series of Unfortunate Events, Jack Gantos - Joey Pigza Loses Control, Megan MacDonald - Judy Moody to name just a few.

The story is available at read.gov as an illustrated ebook or as downloadable audio files. The project was kicked off at the 2009 National Book Festival and a new chapter was released every two weeks for an entire year. The last chapter was put up September 29, 2010. Jon Sciezska, who at the time was the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, wrote the first chapter of the story, setting up the other authors for a crazy ride of a story which would have to include such things as werewolves and mad scientists, a roller skating baby, creatures from another planet, a monkey disguised as a pirate, a real ninja, two meatballs and a bad egg, plus a whole lot more. And each subsequent writer somehow worked all of these things in to the story. The only other requirement was that the authors had to use references to children's literature in their stories. In the final chapter, it was all wrapped up by this year's National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Katherine Paterson.

This was really fun to listen to. Each chapter was action packed and it was also a great way to compare the writing styles of each author. Some author's have very distinctive writing styles, like Lemony Snicket or Gregory Maguire and you could probably recognize them right away. And some author's I enjoyed much more than others. Anyway, I highly recommend this very entertaining adventure and it's free so you have nothing to lose.