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.

Back to Kidlit and knitting

Well, looks like February has been a slow blogging month. But I have passed the 2,000 pageviews mark, which is kind of exciting. It's good to know that someone out there is reading what I write here. Hopefully, it's not the same person reading it 2,000 times. That would be worrisome. I've been on a graphic novel kick, but they are not graphic novels for kids so I didn't want to talk about them here. I want this blog to be about books you can find in the Marshall Lane library. I have been growing the graphic novel collection, though, because I'm a convert. There are some really good stories out there in graphic form. When I first started buying graphic novels for the library a few years ago my intention was to bring more boys into the library. I bought a few Star Wars comics and the boys flocked to the library. Those books never make it back to the shelves. They are always on hold and fall apart by the end of the year. Then I started buying Babymouse for the girls and they flew off the shelves as well. Then I noticed that some girls were checking out Star Wars and some boys were checking out Babymouse. So I decided to throw my gender biases out the window and started buying a variety of graphic novels based on quality and interest. I don't have a huge collection but they are hugely popular. And what I've noticed is that while the boys, generally, keep checking out mostly the Star Wars books, the girls are reading everything else. Which is interesting. Not sure what it means. Except that maybe my purchases are still biased towards what girls like. Perhaps I should start buying superhero comics. Well, I've waxed on about this more than I intended. Let's get back to kidlit.

I read - or rather, listened to - The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, which was the Newbery Medal winner in 2008. The story centers around Lucky, a ten-year-old girl living with her guardian in a very small town in California. Lucky's mother has died and her absent father has brought is ex-girlfriend Brigitte over from France to be Lucky's guardian. Lucky worries that Brigitte, who is homesick for France, will abandon her also. Lucky feels sure that if she could just find her higher power, a term that she overhears the 'anonymous people' use, her problems would be solved. I liked this book. But this is one of those Newbery books that doesn't really appeal to most children. And, in fact, this book has not circulated well in my library. But it is a good story and I would encourage people to give it a read. I read it because my friend Mrs. Freeman recommended it. She's reading her way through all the Newbery books and she told me it was a good one. I trust her judgement. She told me that Al Capone Does My Shirts was good and I agree with her. I pointed her towards Odd and the Frost Giants when The Graveyard Book was unavailable and she liked that. So, the point is, get a book buddy. They help you to read things that you might not normally pick up off the shelf.

I've also just finished Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer. This is the third book in the series and I'm really enjoying it. I was going to just stop at the first one but I'm kind of sucked in now. If you don't like series books, don't worry, these books read well as stand alone titles with recurring characters. The stories are a great blend of fantasy and high-tech thrillers. Action, intrigue, and fairy magic. Even though the main character is not always a good guy, he is likable. If you like the Alex Rider series or the Percy Jackson series, I think you'll like Artemis Fowl as well.

Well, I think I've gone on long enough. Looks like it's feast or famine here at the old Marshall Lane Library Blog. I'll close with some pictures of what I've been working on whilst listening to books:

A dear friend of mine and his wife are expecting their first baby so I knitted her some tiny shoes and a blueberry hat to go with the book Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman.

The object in the last picture is a Cthulhu. A cuddly one. If you don't know what Cthulhu is, you need to brush up on your H.P. Lovecraft. That is all.

Odd Fish, Film Festivals, Yarny goodness and a poodle.

So this is exciting: the esteemed Mr. James Kennedy, author of The Order of the Odd-Fish, the ostensible winner of the 2009 Newbery Award and co-curator of the 90 Second Newbery Film Festival, left a comment on my blog entry in which I talked about the 90 Second Newbery Film Festival. This made me even more determined that Marshall Lane should be involved in this so I approached one of our 4th grade teachers, who had told me they were already working on re-imaginings of the Island of the Blue Dolphins story, and she was very enthusiastic about it. They are going to be pretty busy until the end of March but once they get started on it, I will report on their progress here.

My favorite student story of the week comes from one of our 5th grade teachers who witnessed the 1st graders playing "Zombie Apocalypse" during recess. He said a first grade girl actually used the words 'zombie apocalypse' and asked him if she was a good zombie as she held her arms out in front of her and dragged a foot behind her. He, of course, assured her that she was, indeed, a good zombie. I guess it'll be a few more years before steampunk and dystopian fiction trickles down to the elementary level.

My sweet poodle got a hair cut today, isn't she adorable?

I realize my posts have been a bit sparse lately but I have been knitting like a mad woman. This is some of what I've been working on:

New Books coming in February

Here are the books you can look forward to reading in the Marshall Lane Library in February:

Items of interest

I have no review this week, I've been reading grown up things lately but I'll get back to the kidlit soon. In the meantime, if you are looking for something new to read there is a great website called kidsreads.com. They have a whole team of people there who read and review books. There are reviews on new books every month plus you can see what's coming soon and they have author interviews as well. It's a great place to find new things to read.

Also, I saw this on my Twitter feed this week. It's called the 90 Second Newbery Film Festival. It's a contest! James Kennedy is challenging kids to make a 90 second film of their favorite (or least favorite, or most forgotten) Newbery winner (or honor book). Here is an example:

"A Wrinkle In Time" In 90 Seconds from James Kennedy on Vimeo.

Pretty funny, huh? Neil Gaiman also tweeted that he would give a signed copy of The Graveyard Book to his favorite 90 second version of his Newbery winner. Does that get your creative juices flowing? It does mine!

Honors and accolades

The American Library Association announced the 2011 book awards today at their Midwinter Meeting in San Diego. They are as follows:

Caldecott Medal (for picture books):

A Sick Day for Amos McGee written and illustrated by Erin and Phillip C. Stead

Also honored were Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave illustrated by Bryan Collier, written by Laban Carrick Hill, and (a Marshall Lane Library Favorite) Interrupting Chicken written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein.

The Newbery Medal (for children's fiction) went to Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool. Honors went to Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm, Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus, One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, and Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman.

The Geisel award (for beginning readers) went to Bink and Gollie by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGee, illustrated by Tony Fucile.

Honors went to Ling and Ting: Not Exactly the Same! written and illustrated by Grace Lin and We Are In a Book! written and illustrated by Mo Willems (a Marshall Lane Favorite Author).

There were many more awards given out and if you are interested, you can read about them at the ALA/ALSC website.

If you are interested in reading these award winning books, you can find the Caldecott and Geisel medal winners and honor books at the Marshall Lane Library. I will get the Newbery winner and honor books as soon as I can. In the mean time, you can look for them at the public library.

A tale of two books

I just finished listening to Airman by Eoin (pronounced like Owen) Colfer. Wow! What a fantastic adventure! This book has everything! A murderous villain, a wrongful imprisonment, a daring escape, swordfights, betrayal, flying machines, and the rescue of a princess. The story takes place in the late 1800's on the Saltee Islands off the coast of Ireland. Fourteen-year-old Conor Broekhart witnesses the treasonous murder of the King of the islands and is framed for the crime. He is thrown into prison and forced to mine diamonds by the very traitor responsible for the King's murder. But Conor has the mind of a scientist and he spends his days planning a bold escape. When he finally does escape three years later, he realizes that he must confront his nemesis before he kills again. I must say, the villain in this story is one of the most dastardly villains I have come across in literature lately. He is wicked to the core, and at the end, we have to wonder if this is the last we will see of him. If you enjoy stories like The Princess Bride or The Count of Monte Cristo, I think you will enjoy this book. It's really more of a young adult title but I think a mature, well-read 5th grader would be fine with it. This one is definitely going on my favorites list.
This is one of the things I was knitting while listening to Airman. It was kind of a long book so I knitted another thing but that has to stay secret for a bit longer.

Not long ago, I wrote about the book Swindle but it turns out, this book has another tale to tell. I make it a practice to listen to or read books that can be found in the Marshall Lane Library so when I write about them here, you know you can check it out there. Well, I realized while listening to Swindle that Marshall Lane's copy of the book was actually missing and I was going to have to buy a replacement for it. But I received a little surprise in the mail yesterday. Somehow, this book had traveled across the United States and had been turned in to a library in Buffalo, New York! Well, very kindly, the librarians in Buffalo were able to track down our address (due to 'Marshall Lane' and 'Campbell Union School District' being stamped on the inside of the book) and they mailed the book back to me. This made me very happy - and very curious as to how this book got all the way to New York! I wrote a nice thank you note to the Buffalo librarians and will pop that in the mail tomorrow. So there is the story of Swindle and the story of Swindle: There and Back Again. If only the book could talk!