New Storytime Favorites

There was a bit of a kerfuffle on our website yesterday and for about 8 hours it accidentally listed yesterday's 10:30 storytime for today at 10:30. We were hoping that since it was only up there for a short amount of time nobody would have noticed. We were breathing a sigh of relief at 10:29 when nobody had come in asking where the storytime was. They arrived at 10:35. I quickly grabbed 3 books off the new books cart and by the time I got to the family area I was doing an impromptu mini-storytime for 22 kids not including parents! And boy did I pick some winners!

I started with Bears on Chairs by Shirley Parenteau, illustrated by David Walker. Four empty chairs are waiting for bears and one by one they are filled. Then a fifth bear arrives! OH NO! What to do? The art is beautifully soft and evocative. I wanted to snuggle each of the bears (especially the floppy one), and the rhyming text was fun to read. A definite thumbs up.

Can You Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas was my ace in the hole. Truth be told it wasn't on the new books cart anymore, it was in sitting in the back on my desk. I had just checked it out to bring it home for my girls, but sometimes a librarian has to share the wealth! Anytime Jan Thomas does something it's bound to be brilliant. Scary Face engaged the kids and has them standing up, sitting down, wiggling around and in general interacting with the book. I know, I know, I'm a sucker for a good fourth-wall breaking book, but this one is at the top of it's class for this kind of thing!

I ended with All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon and Marla Frazee. In retrospect I would never make the transition from Scary Face to All the World. It's a fabulous book but a complete change of pace. It's much easier to go from quiet to boisterous than to go the other way around. That said, I can't wait to use All the World in a storytime! It is a beautiful meditation on a group of people (family? friends? aquaintences? It doesn't exactly say) in a town living their day. The text is short, rhyming, and fun. The art is beautiful (as would be expected from Marla Frazee) and detailed. The text could be talking about anyone, but the details in the art make it special. One family consists of a mother and her brand new baby. She looks like she's studying for school (but she may be just doing her taxes) as the day draws to a close. Another family is a blond, pale mother, a darker father with wild hair, and a boy and a girl who spend the day digging at the beach, climbing the best climbing tree I've ever seen, and eating chili with corn bread that makes my mouth water. As I keep flipping through this book I keep finding more details to love: the puppy in the wagon, the ladies on the bicycle built for two, the VW bus! In short, go find this book.

As long as I'm talking about good new storytime books, here's a few more I've just discovered:

I first found out about The Boy who cried Fabulous (by Leslea Newman, illustrated by Peter Ferguson) through I'm here, I'm queer, what the hell do I read?. As you can tell, I get way too enthusiastic about things so I empathized with Roger right away. Roger spends so much time wandering around exclaiming about the fabulous things he sees that he's always late to school and even later coming home. His parents end up banning the word "fabulous" from his vocabulary when they go out one day and he tries not to exclaim over everything until he has an idea and gives us a subtle, fun vocab lesson! What a marvelous, scrumptuous, elegant, book! I just wanted to run around exclaiming about how "the world's too wondrous to ignore" after reading it.

And then there's Laurie Halse Anderson. When The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School (illustrations by Ard Hoyt) came in I knew it would be too old for Kaylee, but I brought it home anyway because I wanted to pour over it a bit more. Kaylee pulled it out of my bag and demanded I read it to her and surprise, surprise she sat through the whole thing then demanded I read it again! This is another book where the writing is wonderful but what kept Kaylee entertained was the details in the art. Where are the gerbils now? What is the hair curled around over there? Look at that! Look at this! That said, you can get away with a lot one on one that you could never get away with in a storytime, and when it's your own child (or a child who is very used to you) you can get away with even more. In a storytime setting I would take Zoe and her wild hair to be read to some first graders. In fact, I was just asked to go to read to some next month and this is the first book I'm deciding to bring for sure.

And with that, my lunch break is over. Have a great day!

In which the librarian quotes herself

At one of the random online sites I can be found, a friend mentioned how great it was that I'm bookish and am passing that along to my girls because it wasn't something that she had had growing up. I hope y'all don't mind if I quote my response and then just continue typing because I have a lot to say and I felt like I was changing the conversation so I'm taking my ramblings over to my blog (because isn't that what a blog is for?

That was something I never had to worry about. Everyone in my family is bookish - from my grandmother who borrows my mother's Janet Evanovich the moment mom buys the newest (and always returns it by saying "this was far too racy for me. When does the next one come out?") down to my 2 year old who used to ask me to read Foucault to her because it was low enough on the shelf and she could reach it (She didn't care what I read her as long as she got to snuggle close to me and listen to my voice and OH MY GOD THAT IS LOVE, Y'ALL!), but now can't sleep until I've read her her Yo Gabba Gabba book and will then try and con me into reading her Barbie and I kinda want to yell "CHILD I LOVE THAT YOU HAVE AN OPINION NOW, BUT IF I HAVE TO READ BARBIE AND THE DIAMOND CASTLE ONE MORE TIME ..."

But seriously, turning my girls on to books is one of the best things I've ever done. I have always refused to be one of those (IMHO) overly pushy parents who demands that their 2 year old learn to multiply. I want my children to enjoy their childhoods. That said, reading is one of the greatest pleasures that I have and I want to pass that along to them all. Because of the huge amounts of books that my book obsessed daughter now demands I read to her, she knew her colors at 20 months. She could identify every letter in the alphabet not long after that. She can count almost to 30 and has started telling me what sounds some letters make. She knows what sounds animals make and (this is a big one in our house) can tell the difference between Superman, Spiderman, and Thor (which, if you think about it, is pretty hard. They're all red and blue and kinda similar to the untrained eye).

I am so grateful to my parents for loving reading so much and passing that along to us kids. I am so grateful to my grandparents for loving reading so much and passing that along to their kids. I am getting overly sappy and should just hit post before I keep typing.

When you reach me - Rebecca Stead

When You Reach Me
Rebecca Stead
Grade 4 and up
In Stores Now

I have put off blogging about When You Reach Me for far too long. I have to tell you all about this book because it is just SO FANTASTIC, but I have no idea what to say because it is just so fantastic. I'm terrified that someone will read my review, find it lacking, and not pick up this book.

In When You Reach Me, Miranda spends 1979 helping her mother prepare to be on the $20,000 Pyramid, making new friends, mourning the loss of her best friend (who decided out of the blue that he didn't want to hang out with her anymore), and receiving mysterious notes from someone who just might be a time traveler. She obsesses about A Wrinkle in Time, fails to learn how to properly cut bread, and in general rocks.

This is not a book for everyone. You have to be ready to let the book completely absorb you. My coworker listened to it on CD and spent too much time (according to her) wandering in and out of the room and therefore didn't like it. This isn't one of those books. This is a book you have to pay attention to and think about and be patient with. This book draws you in slowly, but once you're hooked you're hooked.

This is a fantasy for people who don't like fantasy, but it is also a gateway to realistic fiction and historical fiction for people who only read fantasy. I'd give it to fans of A Wrinkle in Time, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, or The Wednesday Wars.

Speaking of spoilers ...

Can I just tell you how much I disliked Knowing? It about broke my heart the other day when Meg Cabot of all people blogged about how much she loved it?

(can I reiterate my spoiler alert? Ok - good.)

About halfway through the movie, Brandon says to me, "hey - you know what would be funny? If they don't stop the disaster! If the movie just ends with the world ending!"
I replied "yeah! That would be funny! Worst ending idea EVER!"
and we had a good laugh.

And then they didn't stop the disaster. And the movie just ended with the world ending. And we were all WTF!

So ... just a warning. Don't watch Knowing unless you're ok with the worst ending EVER!

Ash by Malinda Lo

Ok. I have put this off for long enough. I have important things to say*, so I am darn well going to say them! I got an ARC of Ash at ALA a few weeks ago, devoured it immediately, and am just now sitting down to tell you how fantastic it is. Don't hate! I'll regale you with tales of the kidlet's cuteness later in hopes that you will then forgive me.

*important to me, at least. Probably just me.

A word of caution - I will probably allude to how the book ends. I'm really bad about that. For me, though (especially in a book like this that is a retelling of Cinderella so you know somewhat how it turns out) it isn't about where the characters end up. It's how they get there. So read on with this review (and in general, this blog), but know that I am not afraid to let slip details from near the end.

So anyway - if you were going to write a book designed specifically for me it would be this book. Retelling of something from the 398.2s*? Check! Gorgeously seductive but ultimately terrifying faeries? Check! A world that is not heteronormative? Check!

*UGH - YES - I AM THAT NERD! I do think of them as the 398.2s (or sometimes the 398s if I'm feeling lazy) instead of as folk and faerie tales. I'm crazy.

For the most part I don't need to give you a quick summary - it's Cinderella with extra faeries and plus the awesome Huntress. Like I said - I rarely read books for the basic plot structure. my love of a book comes from the details and Ash is full of fantastic ones. The world is a growing and changing world. The old tales of faeries are completely not en vogue anymore, but Ash has grown up in a small town far outside of the capital city that still believes. Tales of the Fae are constantly being told between the characters.

It was in these tales that I began to realize that the world wasn't heteronormative. Do you have any idea how refreshing that is? Through out the tales women fall in love with men and women fall in love with women* and nobody ever says "oh my goodness lookie here that woman just fell in love with another woman and that is SO WEIRD!" When Ash starts to have a crush on the huntress, it seems impossible to her that she should have this crush because of tons of outside influences making it seem crazy (she's not good enough, she's a servant, etc.), but not one of those reasons is ever that to fall for a woman is bad. I love this. I can't tell you how much I love this. I know it's near impossible in realistic fiction for something like this to happen - we just don't live in the sort of world - but in this lush fantasy world that Lo has created, I would like to think that maybe some GLTBIQ teen who picks this up will let him/herself feel like maybe he/she isn't crazy for being the person he/she** is!

*I don't remember any men falling in love with men, but I think that is more because there are so few male characters and less because of any other reason.

**OY! ENGLISH! Can we please get ourselves a third person singular pronoun that is non gender specific for when we're talking about just some random person who could be either? Get on that, will ya?

So ... enough with my random soapboxing about my worldview. You want to know about the book, yes? Well let me tell you I loved it! Again let me remind you that I am a sucker for EXACTLY THIS KIND OF BOOK so I may be a hair biased, but please don't let that stop you from picking this up. It should be in stores September 1 and in your local library pretty soon after.

Kaylee and Pippa are both asleep

Brandon is out with friends. I have the apartment to myself. I could write up my review for Ash! Or When you Reach Me! or The Demon's Lexicon! Or any of a gazillion* books I've read recently ... but then I wouldn't be going to sleep right now, and that would be tragic.

Pippa is just starting to consistently sleep well. I forsee more blogging time in the near future. Watch for it!

*approximation

Tucking Kaylee in, Singing her to sleep, I ask her what song she wants me to sing next.

Kaylee: Pants song
Me: What's the pants song?
Kaylee: PANTS song!
Me: Can you sing it for me?
Kaylee: No
Me: Can you tell me more about it?
Kaylee (after thinking for a moment): Horsie, Flower, Pants, Snaps, Button. Pants song. KAYLEE pants song.

ALA Chicago 2009

Today was the day my library sent me to The ALA Annual 2009 Conference. Can I say ZOMG? because ... ZOMG!

As anyone who has ever met me will attest, I have a crazy crush on Neil Gaiman. I want to go to lunch with him on occasion, eat sushi, drink tea, and discuss deep and important things. Whatever - I'm a crazy fan girl. I'm ok with it. ANYWAY - Neil Gaiman was going to be at ALA today signing books at 9 am. I live an hour away from the conference, so I figured if I left at 7 am, I would definitely be there before the line is cut off (Neil Gaiman is uber popular and I knew the line would be long). I got lost twice on the way to the conference (even using my GPS) and then ended up parking in the wrong parking lot and didn't get there until 8:55. I was one of the last people in line before they completely cut it off! And then I didn't get to the front of the line until almost noon! Good thing a good friend of mine from library school (who tragically moved to LA to be a kick-bootay YA librarian over there) was standing in line with me to keep me company! I got to detail her my plan for meeting my literary hero which consisted basically of me saying hi, and then us suddenly being best friends.

ANYWAY - I finally got to the front of the line and I handed Neil Gaiman my copy of Blueberry Girl (I would have brought Absolute Sandman, but I did not relish the thought of carrying it around all day! I love Blueberry Girl especially, though, because NG wrote it for his pregnant friend years ago and it was recently illustrated and released as a picture book. It came out while I was pregnant with Pippa, and I brought it to the hospital when I gave birth. Blueberry Girl was the first book I read to her. Nowadays, Kaylee loves it too and has bits of it memorized (but she's not as good at it as she is with "Green Room" - her name for Goodnight Moon). Sometimes when Pippa is chillin' on the couch, Kaylee will climb up there with her and "read" Goodnight Moon or Blueberry Girl to Pippa.



I told this story to my new BFF, and he said, "That may possibly be the cutest thing ever." I completely agree and the proud mama in me wanted to whip out the pictures right there and then, but by that time he'd been singing books nonstop for almost 3 hours and was looking rather haggard. Besties know when not to push it.

So after wandering around the Exhibits for awhile, I went to a panel on Censorship and Graphic Novels. The panel was moderated by a lovely man (who's name escapes me at the moment) from The CBLDF and consisted of Neil Gaiman, Terry Moore, and Craig Thompson. It was fascinating and someday I'm going to try and type up Mr. Thompson's hysterical description of being offended.



Then back to the conference floor where I met E. Lockhart (more on that later, but I'm beyond tired and want to finish this up) and got TONS AND TONS of ARCs. See my haul below? (Note, two of those are not ARCs, and one is an ARC but of a book that is already out? One of my favorites, though, so no complaints here!) The only real tragedy is that people like Abby and Jen snapped up all the Catching Fire before I could get there! SO rude of them, don't you think? (;

And when I got home, my husband had made his amazing chicken mole which always makes my night. Now I'm going to go see if I can con him into a backrub (free books are heavy, yo!) and then fall into bed early.