New books, socks, a hat, and a poodle.

Scholastic Book Fair is over. I want to thank all the parents who helped out over the course of delivery, sale days, family night, and pack up. You really help to make things go smoothly. Extra super thank yous to Saskia Choudry for chairing the Book Fair once again and to Michelle Fine for being her right hand lady. I've said it before and I'll say it again because I mean it, you are a rock star Saskia! I appreciate you taking this on for the benefit of the library and for the kids.

So, all of this means we have new books in the library! As you can see in the picture, I've got a couple new Geronimo Stilton books, the new Judy Moody book, some Ready Freddy books, some Star Wars books and lots more. I also got a copy of The Exquisite Corpse which I wrote about last year.

One of the books I picked up, The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis, by Barbara O'Connor, is a book I didn't realize I already had in the library. Scholastic has given it a new cover for the paperback edition. Anyway, I was intrigued by this book (the new cover is way better than the old cover, pictured) so I took the library copy home to read. I'm happy to report that it is a delightful story. It is exactly what it promises to be on its cover - a small adventure. This was a very nice change of pace from the World Saving Orphans Who Get Their Special Powers When They Turn Thirteen type of books that permeate children's literature these days. Which isn't to say that Popeye and Elvis's lives aren't completely different from yours or mine, because they are. The story takes place in modern Fayette, North Carolina, but Popeye has no computer, no cell phone, no video games. Elvis's family lives in a motorhome. But when these two boys meet, they enjoy a few days break from summer boredom, and even though their adventure is small, it is still very compelling. I highly recommend this book and have added it to my favorites list. To see what else is new in the library, go to the library's online catalog and click the What's New icon.

And now, here's what I've been knitting:

And here's a picture of my poodle:

14 Authors and a pair of socks.

Last Saturday, Mr. Richards and I spent the day in San Francisco and one of the things we did there was we went to the San Francisco Public library to see a couple of my favorite authors in conversation about a new book that I now have in the library. The book is called The Chronicles of Harris Burdick. It is a collection of short stories written by many famous authors inspired by the picture book by Chris Van Allsburg called The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick was originally published back in 1984 and the story goes that an editor was presented with a stack of pictures from 14 stories written by Harris Burdick, who wished to be published. The editor was intrigued by the pictures which were accompanied by titles and captions, hints of the larger stories, and asked Mr. Burdick to bring the complete stories to him the following day. Mr. Burdick left the pictures with the editor, but never returned. The editor could not track him down. The editor handed the pictures over to Mr. Van Allsburg who compiled them into a book to allow readers to imagine the stories that might accompany the drawings. Which is exactly what the 14 authors of The Chronicles of Harris Burdick have done. This great collection of authors includes Stephen King, Kate DiCamillo, Jon Scieszka, Lois Lowry, Louis Sachar, and Linda Sue Park with an introduction written by Lemony Snicket, who was at the San Francisco Public Library along with Chris Van Allsburg and Mac Barnett (The Brixton Brothers Mysteries). Here is a picture of me and Mr. Snicket yucking it up while he signs my book:
Here is a picture of the slightly more phlegmatic Mr. Van Allsburg signing my book. (Yes, you have to look up the word phlegmatic for yourself.)
Sadly, I didn't know that Mr. Barnett would be moderating the discussion so I didn't have a book for him to sign. I'll get him next time, though!

In other news, I finished that pair of socks I started while waiting for Brian Selznick to give his presentation a couple of weeks ago. Here is what they look like now:

In other other news, the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever has been released. I don't have it in the library yet, but the Book Fair is coming to the Library December 5th and I'm hoping I can get a couple copies for the library then. Until then, I should be getting a new shipment from Junior Library Guild very soon and there's always good stuff in those boxes! If you've already read Cabin Fever, leave a comment and tell me what you thought of it.

Wonderstruck

Brian Selznick came to Willow Glen Middle school tonight to talk about his new book Wonderstruck. He gave a wonderful presentation explaining how he took all his ideas and inspirations and crafted them into this book over a period of 3 years. Similar to The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the story is told through both words and pictures. What makes this book different is that he is telling two separate stories - one through words and one through pictures - which come together in the end. He was inspired by a film he saw called Through Deaf Eyes, which is about the history of deaf education and deaf culture in America. He was also inspired by a class he audited about the history of museums and includes many references to the book From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E. L. Konigsburg, and a great chunk of the story comes from his desire to draw a lightning strike. You can see a preview of the book and a video about the book at wonderstruckthebook.com. Mr. Selznick also shared with us some of his experiences in Hollywood as his book The Invention of Hugo Cabret was being made into a movie. He showed us a trailer, which you can see here, and he told us that the film is very faithful to the book, which is very good hear! He gave a very interesting talk and when one of the kids in the audience asked how he became a successful artist, he answered that he is always working at. He said if you want to be good at a thing, you have to keep doing the thing. So whatever it is you like to do and are good at, keep doing it!

Here is a picture of me getting my book signed:

And here is a picture of his shoes because a lady at Hicklebee's told me he would be wearing silver shoes, and sure enough, he was!

While I was waiting for the presentation to start, I started a sock:

Because I finished a pair last night:

Celebrating stories.

Today Mr. Richards and I went to WonderCon in San Francisco. It's a big media convention - mostly comics - held at Moscone Center. It was a three day event but we just went up today specifically to see the Doctor Who panel, more specifically because Neil Gaiman was on the panel. I don't think it's any secret that I'm kind of a Neil Gaiman fan. I'm also a Doctor Who fan. So when Neil Gaiman writes an episode of Doctor Who, well that's just a perfect storm of fandom. This is a picture of me waiting in line for the panel this morning; I brought a sock to work on in case we had to wait for anything. There was a very large crowd for this panel. And it was very cool - we got a free t-shirt - and interesting but it's not the main thing I wanted to talk about here. I went to two other panels which were more academic in nature; the first was about female spies and private eyes in comics and their evolution, and the second was about comics for kids. Now the interesting thing about this topic is that I think most people would say, "aren't all comics for kids?" And the answer is no, in fact, most comics now days are for grown ups. The people who used to be kids and loved their comics so much that they wanted grown up comics to read when they grew up are now writing, drawing, and painting them. They spent a decade or so convincing the public that comics were not just for kids and not all comics were about costumed superheroes. So the comic book industry grew up and kind of left the kids behind. And now the publishers think that the only people buying comics are adults and teens, according to the panelists, one of whom was Jennifer Holm of Babymouse fame. Babymouse is very popular now but it took several years to get the first one published, she said. This challenge is added to the "not real reading" attitude that many parents still hold about comics. Yet time and time again, when I listen to authors and illustrators speak, many of them talk about how they were inspired by the comic books they read as kids. At the Doctor Who panel I mentioned earlier Toby Haynes, director of the first two episodes of season 6, spoke of his dyslexia and said that the first book he every finished reading without help was a Doctor Who comic book. The stories spoke to him and inspired him and kept him reading.

Something else the panel discussed was writing for children in general. They came to the conclusion that while it is more difficult to write for children, stories that are written with a specific audience in mind tend to feel inauthentic. So again, it comes down to story. Is it a good story? Do I care about the characters? Do I want to know what happens next? A good story will appeal to all kinds of people - male, female, young, old, whatever.

And speaking of good stories, I happened to read the graphic novel Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel yesterday. I know that this book has been getting lots of good reviews and is landing on a lot of top ten lists so I thought I'd give it a looksee. It is a fantastic book. Frank Gallows is a sort of hard boiled ghost hunter whose work is a bit sloppy. Garth Hale is a kid who's been diagnosed with an unnamed terminal disease. Their paths cross when Gallows accidentally sends Garth to the afterlife with a captured ghost. While Frank must find a way to get Garth back to the living world, Garth discovers he has powers in the after life and uses them to battle the evil ruler of Ghostopolis, and free the city of the dead from his reign of terror. Although this book is at a second grade reading level, the subject matter puts it at no less than a fifth grade interest level, in my opinion. The story is very well written and it only feels a little bit like a book written for kids, it certainly doesn't read like a second grade book! The pictures are dark and edgy and would definitely appeal to the older kids. I was raving about it to Mr. Richards and now he's reading it himself!

So, to wrap up this whole thing, as Mr. Richards and I talked about the day, we came away with the feeling that the thing that everyone at that convention center had in common was the love of a good story, whether it was the people writing episodes for a popular british science fiction TV show, people drawing pictures for comic books, or the people who dressed up as their favorite characters, everyone was celebrating stories and storytelling. We felt pretty lucky to have been a small part of that today.

Final Dispatch from the Secret Lair

Today is the last day to shop at the Scholastic Book Fair. I want to thank all the moms who volunteered their time to support this event which in turn supports the library. Extra special thanks to Saskia Choudry for taking on chairperson duties again this year. Saskia, you are a rock star! Here is a picture of what the library looked like before the Book Fair came in and also a picture of the Book Fair.
The library will open again next week with lots of new books to check out before the break.

In other news, I have finished three audio books this week and a pair of socks. However, I have not done any holiday shopping or any other kind of preparations for the coming holiday, but that's none of your concern. You want to see the socks, right? I named this project A Study in Emerald, after a short story by Neil Gaiman.
Getting back to the books, the first audio book I finished was Crispin: At the Edge of the World by Avi. This is the sequel to Crispin: The Cross of Lead which I listened during the summer. Crispin: A the Edge of the World felt like a bridge book to me. A third book in this series was released this year, Crisin: The End of Time, which I will be listening to soon, and Edge felt like it had no other purpose but to get the reader from the first book to the second book. It picks up right where Cross of Lead leaves off and follows Crispin and Bear as they flee from their pursuers. Along the way, they meet a young outcast girl and she joins them as the attempt to leave the country. The story is well written and the characters are strong and empathetic but the story felt a little pointless, except as a lead-up to the next one.

The next book I listened to was Swindle by Gordon Korman. This is the story of boy who finds a valuable baseball card and, not knowing the value of what he had, he sells it to a shifty dealer who tells him it is a reproduction and not authentic. When the boy discovers the true value of the card and realizes he's been taken advantage of, he and his friends plan a heist to reclaim his treasure. The story is amusing but the ending was not very believable. The kids break into a man's home and cause all sorts of damage and they receive no consequences for these actions when they are eventually caught, which left me feeling a little unsatisfied.

This brings me to the final audiobook, The Revenge of the Shadow King by Derek Benz and J. S. Lewis. This is book one in the Grey Griffin series. The story centers around a group of friends who have bonded over a card came called Round Table, a Dungeons and Dragons style game with battling fairie creatures, wizards, witches, and other magical beings. As it turns out, the creatures depicted on the cards are real and have torn a hole in the barrier between Fairie and the real world in search of magical jewel that has the power to destroy the real world. Of course, the kids have to figure out how to stop the fairie creatures from finding the jewel and save the world. This was an enjoyable adventure, and even though it's the first in a series, it reads just fine as a stand alone title.

Now, you may have noticed, as I have, that the second story, which was realistic fiction, I said had an unbelievable ending while the third story, which was very much fantasy, I did not say was unbelievable, even though a small band of 10 year olds save the world. I have been thinking about this and will share my ponderings in my next post.

Elijah of Buxton

Elijah of Buxton, by Christopher Paul Curtis. This book made me laugh, made me cry, and kept me on the edge of my seat. I couldn't wait to see what would happen next! It's no wonder it won so many awards, including the Coretta Scott King award in 2008. It was also a Newbery Honor book that year. The story centers around 11 year old Elijah Freeman, the first free born child in the settlement of Buxton in Canada, in 1859. Runaway slaves from the south of the United States would sometimes run all the way to Canada because once they crossed the border, they could not be recaptured by American slavers and sent back to their former masters. Once they established themselves in a town like Buxton, they would work hard to save money so they could buy freedom for their family members, as one of the characters in the story, Mr. Leroy, tries to do. When Mr. Leroy is cheated out of his money, Elijah, who is more educated than Mr. Leroy, tries to help him retrieve his money. This book left me wanting to know more about Elijah and how his life would have changed after the last incident in the story. I won't tell you what that incident is because I don't want to spoil it for you. I think this excellent book would be good for grades 5 and up.

And here are the socks I was working on while I was listening to the Elijah of Buxton audiobook. These will be a gift for my father-in-law. I don't even know if he likes wool socks, so I hope he likes these!

Last time, I showed you a tiny picture of the new online catalog for the Marshall Lane library. I hope that teased you and now you can't wait to explore it and see what's new! Well, you don't have to wait any longer! Click this link to see the new library catalog!
The first thing you will see is a list of schools and below that a check box that says 'Always use this server.' Put a check mark in that box and then click on Marshall Lane. You'll only have to do that part once. From there, click around and explore and rate your favorite books! Have fun and let me know what you think!

Al Capone Does My Shirts, I do my socks

I finished listening to Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko yesterday. The story takes place on Alcatraz Island in 1935. At the time, employees of the prison lived on the island with their families because, according to the author's notes, the warden wanted all the guards to be available at once in case of a prisoner uprising. The story centers around Moose Flanagan, whose father is hired as an electrician and guard for the prison and moves the family to the island. Moose's sister is autistic, a condition that was little understood at the time and her behavior causes stress within the family. Moose is a likeable character who is kind to his sister Natalie but doesn't always agree with how his mother deals with the situation. The antics of the warden's mischievous daughter, who is fascinated by the prison and it's occupants, lead Moose into some trouble. The family story is touching and the setting of the story is intriguing, with frequent references to some of the prison's most notorious inmates such as Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly. I'd recommend this book for grades 5 and up.

Here are the finished pair of socks as modeled by Mr. Richards. I made him wear them to work today to sort of test drive them. He doesn't like the color of them and, frankly, neither do I. It's funny how a ball of yarn can look so different once it's knitted into something.

So I'm off to start a new project and book. Neither of which I've decided on yet. Maybe a pair of fingerless mitts and The Red Pyramid. We'll see.

Secrets, socks, and more blueberry pie.

I finally finished reading The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch (2007) which I started some time ago and set aside while I went on vacation for the 4th of July. Then I got distracted by listening to Nation and some other things. But I did get back to it and finished it just a few minutes ago. I liked this book, it had a very Snickety feel to it in the way the author breaks the "fourth wall" rule and addresses the reader directly to warn us that reading this book can put us in danger. Though it feels Snickety, it doesn't read like a Snicket knock-off. The story involves an 11 year old girl named Cassandra, a self-proclaimed survivalist, and her collaborator 11 year old Max-Ernest. They stumble upon a mystery, Scooby-doo style, involving a magician, his brother and an ancient society seeking the secret to... well, I don't want to give away too much of the plot. I'll just say that you will need to keep your dictionary nearby because this book will expand your vocabulary. This actually is the first in a series of five books, each one focuses on one of the five senses. This one revolves around the sense of smell. The characters are likable and quirky, just like the storytelling. I'd say this book is suitable for grades 4 and up.
I'm working on another pair of socks, I started them while listening to Nation, this picture is of the first one, which is actually already finished but this is the only picture I have at this moment. I'm making these for Mr. Richards but he doesn't like the color. Frankly, neither do I but I'm hoping they'll be so cozy that he won't actually mind the color.
Today I baked another blueberry pie. I really love blueberries. They are really plentiful this time of year so I think I'm going to buy more and freeze them so I can have blueberry pie in the winter!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Leave me a comment, tell me what you've been reading or listening to, or watching, or playing. Is there anything that you think I should check out? Let me know! Or tell me a story, I like stories.

Socks and Beasties

I finished the socks! I tend not to finish things that come in pairs but lately I'm on a roll! While I was finishing my cozy socks, I listened to The Beasts of Clawstone Castle by Eva Ibbotson. A few years ago, I read Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson and enjoyed it very much. I thought it was clever and fun. Beasts is also clever and fun. When Madlyn and Rollo are sent to their Great-Aunt Emily and Great-Uncle George at Clawstone Castle for the summer, they find themselves in the position of rescuing Clawstone's legendary wild herd of white cattle from a terrible fate. They also help their Great-Aunt and Great-Uncle increase tourist traffic to the castle by employing some ghosts to haunt the place. If you like ghost stories, animals, and mysteries, this book is for you!

I'm trying to decide on my next project and I think I'm going to try making a Dalek. If you don't know what that is, I suggest you start watching Doctor Who. Get the first 4 seasons from Netflix and then watch season 5 on BBC America. I have house guests for the next week so I probably won't get much reading/listening done but I will try. I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July and that summer is going well. I've been mostly puttering so far and I'm anxious to get back to work. Not just because I'm running out of money already, but because I love my job! Also, I left a lot of things unfinished and it makes me a little angsty, a word which here means unfocused dread or nervousness.

Happy reading to you all!