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.

Battle Bunny is coming!

Look what I've got in my hot little hands on!

These are the books to fulfill the pre-orders. Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett will be at Marshall Lane next week!!  I am literally having dreams about this happening.  Worry dreams that something will go wrong.  I wake up in the middle of the night and make to do lists.  Anyway, it will be great!

And while you're waiting for them to arrive, here is a terrific article about the book and its authors.

Here is a link to the Birthday Bunny website that was mentioned in the above article.  You can download pages from the book and do your own reworking of this super sweet story.

Jon and Mac will be appearing at Hicklebee's Tuesday afternoon at 3, in case you miss them at Marshall Lane.  Go to Hicklebee's website for more information (and to see who else is coming soon!)

If you haven't sent your pre-order in, you'll want to do this by Friday.  If  you need an order form, I have extras in the library and there's also extras in the office.  Don't miss out on the opportunity to have this fantatic, hilarious book signed by both its authors!

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!

Getting back in the swing of things.

Well, it's been a busy beginning of the school year.  In fact we are well into it now and I completely forgot to post anything in September!

It's been very busy in the library so far.  My schedule is packed and the library is a very popular destination for students during recess and lunch.  This makes me happy and also tired!

There were two boxes of new books waiting for me when I returned to school and a third one came last week.  I've put in an order for 54 more books which should arrive soon.  I have lists accumulating titles which will eventually be ordered and the Book Fair is coming the first week of December.

I want to remind everyone that you can access library resources from home and you can find out more about that by going to the Knowledge Center webpage and clicking the links. (If you are reading this from the Knowledge Center page, scroll up and click the links!)

And now, a little library trivia:  The library opened for check outs mid-September and to date 1,637 items have been checked out.  The most popular title was Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules which was checked out 8 times in the last 3 weeks.

And now I must away for I'm destined to meet an author at Hicklebee's this afternoon.  I'll tell you all about it when I get back.

Happy reading!