Connections

I've been reading the California Young Readers Medal Nominees in the library and the one I read last week was Bats in the Library by Brian Lies.  It's a wonderful book and the paintings are beautiful.  In the middle of the story, the young bats settle down for story time, which is illustrated by 2 two-page spreads which contain illustrated references to classic children's literature.  I could name most of the references, there are about 14 or 15. But a couple of them I couldn't figure out, nor could anyone else.  So I decided to do some research.  I found the answers on a blog post from when the book first came out.  The pictures are scanned in there if you'd like to see what I'm talking about.  The ones I didn't get were Drummer Hoff (I don't think I've ever read that book), Treasure Island (I didn't recognize the character) Wind in the Willows (I thought the car was flying and mixed it up with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) and the one with the flying bed.

At first I thought maybe it was Bedknobs and Broomsticks but quickly realized that wasn't correct.  Then I thought maybe it was Little Nemo in Slumberland, which is close but not quite.  The answer is that it is in reference to a comic strip from 1904 called Dream of the Rarebit Fiend by Winsor McCay.  (Winsor McCay is also responsible for Little Nemo in Slumberland so you can see how close I was!)

Where the connection comes in is back in 2011, I backed a project on Kickstarter involving the restoration of a short animated film by Winsor McCay called The Flying House.  The restoration was done by Bill Plympton and the film was colorized and voice and sound effects were added.  Here it is in it's original form.

The story in the film is based on the Dream of the Rarebit Fiend comic strip.  Anyway, all of this kind of lit up my brain last week and I got a little excited.  If you can find the restored version to view, I recommend it, it's delightful!

I was really inspired by these connections so I decided to find all the books that were referenced that I actually have in the library and put them on display with the pictures showing to help the kids make the connections.  It's been fun and they've become interested in these other books. 

Bats at the Library by Brian Lies will go back to regular circulation after we've finished voting for CYRM.

Some things that are off topic but mostly things that aren't

I have just enough time to get a post in before January ends so Happy New Year!

I've been procrastinating on my blog posting - obvs! - so I have quite a bit to catch you up on.

I've gotten interested in knit wear pattern design so I've been working on a couple of designs in the last couple of weeks.  One - a pair of fingerless mitts - is currently being tested and the other - a super funky hat - needs to be written so I can get it tested.  It's a fairly time consuming process, I'm discovering.  I come up with an idea and start knitting it.  As I'm knitting it, I have to keep pretty meticulous notes about what I'm doing so I can convert those notes into a pattern.  In the meantime, I'm discovering what works and what doesn't work and then I might have to tweak my design and start the project all over again.  Then I give the pattern to testers and they try it out and find all my typos and math mistakes and provide me with feedback for a final draft.  It's an interesting process and immensely satisfying when it works out the way I want it to.  I will post these projects here once they've completed the testing process.

I've been listening to podcasts mostly while doing all this knitting.  Mostly comedy for grown-ups type podcasts which led Mr. Richards and I to spend this past weekend in San Francisco for Sketchfest. Sketchfest is a festival of comedy and features stand up performances, sketch comedy, improv, and storytelling.  We stayed in the city because we had tickets for 7 different shows, several of them were live versions of some of the podcasts I listen too, including The Thrilling Adventure Hour.  This is a fantastic show that is usually performed monthly at Largo in L.A., recorded, and the segments are released as a weekly podcast.  They're tagline is 'The new time podcast done in the style of old time radio."  The show contains a serialized segment that's basically a western on Mars, and 3 other non-serialized segments.  It is delightful and funny and family friendly and I highly recommend it.  Getting to see it performed live this weekend was so much fun!

So that's what's been going with me, now some news!  The American Library Association announced the winners of they're big awards this week, specifically the Caldecott, Newbery, Geisel, and Sibert awards.  I'm particularly excited about the Caldecott medal as the winner is a Marshall Lane favorite as are several of the Honor books.  The winner is that hilarious follow up to I Want My Hat Back, This Is Not My Hat, by Jon Klassen.

This makes me very happy!  Another thing that makes me very happy is that Extra Yarn received a Caldecott Honor.

I just adore this book and its author and illustrator.  I look forward to seeing more of their work and as a matter of fact, Jon Klassen is collaborating with Lemony Snicket on a book called The Dark which will be released in April!  I may lose my mind from the happy!

In other news, we've begun reading the California Young Readers Medal nominees.  I have to keep them in the library until voting is over but I'm sure you can find them at the public library or at Amazon.  The Primary (grades K-2) nominees are:

 And the intermediate (grades 3-5) nominees are:

Finally, all the new books from Book Fair have been processed and are now in circulation and many of them are circulating very well.  My shelves are looking pretty full so I'm going to have to start weeding out some of the older, worn out and poorly circulating books to make room for all these fabulous new titles.  

Well, that's all and enough for now.  Come by the library and say hello and tell me what you are reading!

I have a library again!

Book Fair is gone and the library has returned to normal.

It's so funny to watch the kids walk in to the library during book fair.  It's like they are walking in to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.  Then when it's gone, they comment on how empty the library looks. Then they see my stacks and boxes of new books.

And why can't they check them out NOW?  Oh, so much cataloging and processing!  It's one of my favorite things, though.  I really get to know the books through the process of getting them into the computer, putting on their labels, and wrapping their dust jackets.  Every book is a gift.  And there are well over 200 new ones between my regular orders and book fair books!

So many books, so many labels to affix!  Come down to the library and check out the new books!  Or, go to the online catalog and put a hold on books that are still in processing.  I promise I'll get them done as soon as I can.  

Out From Behind the Book Case, Declaring My New Book Crush

Tonight was Scholastic Book Fair Family Night and Holiday Boutique at Marshall Lane.  Part of the festivities included having guest readers read books from the Book Fair.  So guess where I was hanging out all night?  (I was live tweeting the read alouds!)
Dr. Andrews kicked off the night by reading It's Duffy Time by Audrey and Don Wood.

It's a delightful book to which any dog owner could relate.  There is an especially adorable picture of Duffy the dog napping in his dinner bowl.
Next up, Mrs. Spencer, who will be our new principal in January, read Pete the Cat, Rocking in my School Shoes and she did a fantastic job! She even got the kids to sing and gave them stickers.

Next up was Mrs. Mund who used to teach kindergarten at Marshall Lane.  She read Charlie and the Christmas Kitty.

Then former second grade teacher Mrs. Gossett took the chair and read one of my personal favorites My Life as a Chicken.

Mrs. Medalen was up next.  She got right down on the floor with her fan club and read Pig Kahuna, another delightful animal story.

The next reader was Mrs. Matheson and she sat in the chair to read You Think It's Easy Being a Tooth Fairy?  This book is hilarious and Mrs. Matheson did a great job reading it.

Finally, it was my turn!  I read my new favorite book - my book crush, if you will - Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems.  If it's by Mo Willems, you know it has to be good!

The kids enjoyed it but the biggest laughs came from the adults, especially for lines like "Sure enough, five minutes later a poorly supervised little girl named Goldilocks came traipsing along." and "Delicious chocolate-filled-little-girl-bonbons are yummier when they're rested!"  It will be in the library after the book fair so be sure to come and check it out.

Tales from behind the bookcase, episode 2

Well, I'm not really behind the bookcase right now, but I grabbed a book from the bookcase to read today and that book was Cardboard by Doug TenNapel.  I was excited to see this book at the book fair because I enjoyed TenNapel's previous 2 graphic novels for young people -Ghostopolis and Bad Island - so much.  I was not disappointed with Cardboard.
The beginning of the story has a Gremlins feel to it - a down-on-his-luck father buys a cardboard box for his son from an odd and mysterious merchant who explains that there are two rules for the cardboard that, naturally, the man breaks.
The cardboard, it turns out, has magic properties that allow things made from the cardboard to come to life, a la Frosty the Snowman and his magic silk hat.  The trouble begins when the boy's wretched neighbor steals the cardboard and begins to create monsters.
As with TenNapel's previous works, themes of the importance of family, friendship, and being a good person are woven throughout the story.
The artwork is familiar from TenNapel's previous works, and one character bears a slight resemblance to the cartoon character Earthworm Jim, which is another of TenNapels creations.
I'd recommend this book for kids age 10 and up.

Tales from behind the book case

The library has been transformed!  An amazing bunch of Book Fair elves showed up this morning to move boxes, push around book cases, and put up table displays.  Now the library looks like a book store:

I browsed around the fair and pulled some books for the library.  I'm happy to report there are lots of new and exciting titles in stock.  Most notably is the newest in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, The Third Wheel.  Other new titles include Rick Riordan's The Mark of Athena, Lemony Snicket's Who Could That Be at This Hour? and Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers, the first Captain Underpants book in a number of years.

Once again, I've set up my secret hidey hole behind the bookcases and I'll be cataloging all these new books so they'll be ready for check out after the fair.

The fair opens for business this Friday after school and will run all next week.  There will be a family event on December 5th, and we may have a special visitor!  Come and check it out!

Book Fair and other arrivals.

I arrived at work this morning and found that the Book Fair had already been delivered, as if the Scholastic fairies had arrived during the night.

And as is par for the course, I also received books from three different orders.

I'll be getting even more books directly from the book fair so by the time the book fair is over, the library will have lots of new books for your reading enjoyment.  Here's a teaser:

I'm very excited about many of these titles!  And I'm very eager to see what Scholastic has sent us.  And of course, I'll need to remove some of those old books that keep surfacing to make room for these wonderful new ones.  

The Scholastic book fair will be open for business starting this Friday afternoon and running all next week.  Come by and support you local elementary school library!