Waiting on Wednesday: Show Me A Story

Title: Show Me A Story: Why Picture Books Matter: Conversations with 21 of the World's Most Celebrated Illustrators
Author: Leonard S. Marcus
Pub Date: 4/24/2012
Publisher: Candlewick Press

I think I've told y'all before that authors are my rock stars. I mean - it's probably like that for most everyone in the kid-lit-osphere but really. Authors. Unf. And illustrators? Those people who take words and perfectly encapsulate them into art? UNF! So when I saw this book was coming out I got super excited. SUPER excited. This book has interviews with:
Mitsumasa Anno
Quentin Blake
Ashley Bryan
John Burningham
Eric Carle
Lois Ehlert
Kevin Henkes
Tana Hoban
Yumi Heo
James Marshall
Robert McClosky
Helen Oxenbury
Jerry Pinkney
Chris Raschka
Maurice Sendak
Peter Sís
William Steig
Rosemary Wells
Mo Willems
Vera B. Williams
Lisbeth Zwerger

OH EN GEE how perfect does this sound? I can't wait to read it.

Waiting on Wednesday - Incarnate

Title: Incarnate Author: Jodi Meadows Pub Date: 1/31/12 Publisher: Harper Collins

Ok, so, I hate this cover. I almost scrolled on by this book because this cover is just so ... I don't even know. But the description caught me:

For the last five thousand years, the same one million souls have always been reincarnated into new bodies, retaining their minds, memories, and skill sets of past lifetimes. Always, that is, until once. Eighteen years ago Ana, the newsoul—nosoul, some call her—was born in another’s place.

INCARNATE is the story of this one new soul, raised in isolation by a mother who is ashamed of her. On her eighteenth birthday Ana decides to set out alone for Heart, the capital city, to find out why she was born. Ana hopes knowing why will show her what she is supposed to do with the one lifetime she’s been given. Led to believe that nosouls are worthless, she has trouble accepting the kindness of Sam, a (5,000–year–old) teenager who rescues her from a frozen lake she jumped in to escape Sylph, shadow monsters. Sam offers to take her to Heart, where he is assigned as her guardian. They begin to develop feelings for each other, but that is complicated by the fact that Sam is afraid to love someone who, for all they know, will only live once, who will disappear from his world too quickly. But in Heart, Ana is surrounded by people who see her as a danger and an ugly omen for the future—what if nosouls replace more people? The only way Ana can save herself is to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, and find the answer to the question of whether she will be reborn like Sam and the rest of the inhabitants of Heart.

Now TELL me that doesn't sound like way to much fun!

Sunday Links

I had great fun looking through this database of what Americans checked out of the library a century ago. Thank you to Nancy Picchi for the link

John Pappas linked to this great article about a library that has a mobile devices display where you can check out the different types of ereaders and tablets there are so you can make a more informed decision before buying one. I'm on the Overdrive team at my library and we've had a couple of petting zoos with lots of devices and informed people around to ask questions of but I love the idea of a permanent display!

Anne Slaughter of the Oak Park Public Library took Ranganathan's 5 laws and updated them for the Virtual Library. I love this. But then again I'm a Ranganathan fan - I've often thought that if I ever get another tattoo it will be either "The Library is a growing organism" or "every book it's reader." Thank you Jeffrey Hamilton for the link!

Being the Fairy Tale fan that I am I loved reading Are Fairy Tales Ready for Children - it was a good discussion of Fairy Tales without falling straight into "Fairy Tales have sex and violence and therefore nobody should ever read the originals ever ever ever."