Purled pouches and things unstrung

PFC at the home branch

2008-07-01T14:27:00.004-04:00

I'm BACK. Yup had to go back to working with young readers so I was very lucky to snag a job at a library branch 3.9 miles from home serving the community in which I live! I am a teen and adult services librarian so all those years of keeping up with YA doins has paid off. Needless to say I am working with teen volunteers--getting them to grok the library world and making them read and I too am catching up--reading Avi and Cabot and Hardinge and Westerfeld and a hostess of others. I get to touch books again O my little soul soars with utter delicious delight!

SOS at the shoar

2008-04-11T15:20:00.003-04:00

I live on/within 5 miles of the Jersey shoar and I don't really heart the beach. Yeah and neither do my kids. We also have never been to Disney. I know there must be a 12 step for us that do not cleave or heave or whatever so finally here is a book that makes me happy --all the squirrel books make me laugh but this one in particular b/c SOS (that's Scaredy Orville Squirrel) is terrified of the beach and all those people (me too--I don't like the people--my kids don't like the sand) so he decides to build a beach at home but he needs to go to the real beach to get the beach props to make his beach and along the way he actually "get his feet wet" returns home with some absconded "garden" ornaments and makes what to my mind is truly paradise!! I give this a big bushy paws UP. Ny favorite Scaredy Squirrel thus far.

Folk Keeper and Children's Fantasy

2008-04-09T09:16:00.006-04:00

I love this book. (I don't like the cover) I loved it when I first read it and I love it now. It is dark like water under reeds. It sways slowly and treacherously. Before you even get to the sea in this story you feel the pull of water and hidden currents. I like characters that are unflinching and hard like stone and Corin/Corinna captures this perfectly. I am reading this for my kidlit book group--we decided to explore children's fantasy so we are all reading Alice in Wonderland then a fantasy of our choice in hopes we can try to lasso the dimensions of this genre. I did not read much fantasy as a young person which is why I feel when I read "high fantasy" like Lord of the Rings I am overwhelmed and lost because I come poorly equipped to grok the conventions of the genre. I prefer faeries and things underground. I balk at grandiosity and clashing swords and flying dragons so maybe we shall discover that there is something for everyone. I will report back after this weekend's gathering.

Boundless

2008-03-17T11:02:00.001-04:00

Boundless
Originally uploaded by SReed99342

This is aactually an exercise for my other blog but this blog came up so we'll see

The slip of yellow paper please....

2008-01-08T19:25:00.000-05:00

and our winners are...
Newbery winner
Elijah of Buxton
Honors
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!
A Crooked Kind of Perfect

Caldecott Winner
Pssst!
Honors
Wind Flyers
17 Things I'm Not Allowed To Do Anymore

Sibert Winner
Tracking Trash

I will post about the process after the REAL ONES are announced--take a look at
2ndgenlibrarian's comments.

New Year Resolutions

2007-12-31T09:32:00.000-05:00

In an effort to ensure my grip on children's literature despite my recent defection to Adult Reference librarianship I have decided to host a mock award election at my home this weekend. We will be voting for Newbery, Caldecott, and Sibert awards. Here are the lists:

CALDECOTT

The Apple Pie that Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson. ill Jonathan Bean
Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary by Beverly Donofrio ill. Barbara McClintock
Wind Flyers by Angela Johnson ill. Loren Long
17 Things I'm Not Allowed to do Anymore by Jenny Offill
The Wall by Peter Sis
Psst! by Adam Rex
Little Night by Yuyi Morales
600 Black Spots by David Carter

NEWBERY
Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell out of a tree by Lauren Tarshis
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban
Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
No Talking by Andrew Clements
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! voices from a medieval city by Laura Amy Schlitz

SIBERT
Deep in the Swamp by Donna M. Bateman ill Brian Lies
One Well: the story of water on earth by Rochelle Strauss ill. Rosemary Woods
Skyscraper by Lynn Curlie
Old Penn Station by William Low
Tracking Trash: flotsam, jetsam, and the science of ocean motion by Loree Griffin Burns

Now I have to tell you that I pulled a fast one the other day when I moved one book from the Sibert list to the Newbery list. It will I think shake things up a bit. The reason: while reveiewing the eligibilty criteria for the Sibert I found that "poetry" and "traditional literature" will not be eligible. Now I am not sure what "traditional literature" is, but I sure as shootin' know what poetry is so I decided that Good Masters!! Sweet Ladies though not poetry is close enough to warrant the change. I am re-reading as many on these lists as I can before Sunday the 6th. I will post the results after the 6th and before the ALA announcement.

2007-10-01T16:28:00.000-04:00

Here is a picture book I wish I could have handed to my friend Laura as she packed up her car and cats for a long distance trip to Alaska! There is something about Anita Lobel's use of white space and the way that she outlines certain figures and then gets expressionistic with her landscapes that just makes me feel renewed. Nini is a tabby cat who senses an impending trip that will not include her. She sees the piles of clothes and the zippered suitcase and zoop off she is whisked to a beloved summer place.

Nostalgia

2007-09-28T14:38:00.000-04:00

As my eye wanders agross the late summer ruin of my garden I remember what it once yielded and remind myself that all we are is a sum of our cycles.

Why Oh Why?

2007-09-26T20:26:00.000-04:00

I'm really going to try this challenge. I may be setting myself up for failure but hey! nothing ventured nothing gained. Besides, now that I mostly serve adult readers I may as well get with the program and read some big people books that I've been wanting to get to for a while.
Here are my first 3 of 12:
Matisse the Master by Hilary Spurling (Costa/Whitbread 2005)--This because I love this artist and because the subtitle the conquest of color just got my heart racing
American Gods by Neil Gaiman (Hugo Award 2002)--who needs an excuse to read Neil Gaiman?
Little,Big by John Crowley (World Fantasy Award 1982) I think fuse#8 or someone mentioned this one and I bought it in paperback. Now I have permission to read it.

I love you Esme

2007-09-25T17:18:00.000-04:00

How many of you have worried and wondered about our extra special engaging entirely eminently epically epicentrally ebullient Esme? I have been checking on her for lo these months worrying and shredding napkins with my dog eared fingers until today when I see her finally and get the scoop on her Bookroom her new job and the future seeds of readiology. PlanetEsme Gingerbread Apartment will be the new incarnation of the Bookroom and will host the first annual Kidlitosphere blogger's convention. Can I lurk there? or better yet nibble there? Please? Anyway I just have to reproduce a Camus quote she uses in support of GENEROSITY and it's lasting legacy

Insane generosity is the generosity of rebellion, which unhesitatingly gives the strength of its love and without a moment's delay refutes injustice. Its merit lies in making no calculations, distributing everything it possesses to life and to living men. It is thus that it is prodigal in its gifts to men to come. Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present."

Esme you are truly an inspiration and a clear voice floating around in the literacy stew we librarians and teachers and parents slog through every day. I hope that I can take a piece of your "potato pedagogy" and feed whatever bodies will listen and hunger for the prodigious gifts of beautiful well written books.

Crossing the not-so-great divide

2007-09-03T09:48:00.000-04:00

Well, I up and did it! I changed jobs and I am now an adult reference librarian in a different branch of the same library system. Mind you I still serve children and families I just do it from a different desk, and I have no programs to design and prep for. Why did I do it? I am a creature driven by instinct and intuition. I have a certain biological wiring that alerts me to danger and urges me move on and change my circumstance. I had been feeling beleaguered for some time about children's work and my role as a public librarian. The summer is always rough. I am not good at waiting out my peculiar ailment sometimes called restless head syndrome so I cut my hair, shed 2 lbs left the puppets, paper dolls egg shakers and flannel board behind and started to walk a new walk and let me tell you it's a very different rhythm. I still read children's books and check the blogs. What's up with Esme? So begins a new era of blogging. Bon chance!

Here is a picture my daughter sent me from Paris. She is living with a host family with trois enfants and here is one of their learning tools. Look familiar?

Michael Rosen scores big

2007-06-13T18:20:00.000-04:00

Yipee! Michael Rosen, an extraordinary poet for children, has just been appointed UK's fifth Children's laureate. His mission for the next 2 years is to return books to the classroom. It seems reading has become detatched from books. His daughter brings home words from Gruffalo. but no Gruffalo book!
"Poetry, he says, is a great assistance in life." I would second and third that. I often tell children that poetry saved me from a life of chaos (that's the adult version) by lending it a living breathing structure of words I could comfortably and safely live inside and outside of. Here is the poem that got Mr. Rosen to grow those poetry wings:

Bat

At evening, sitting on this terrace,
When the sun from the west, beyond Pisa, beyond the mountains of Carrara
Departs, and the world is taken by surprise ...

When the tired flower of Florence is in gloom beneath the glowing
Brown hills surrounding ...

When under the arches of the Ponte Vecchio
A green light enters against stream, flush from the west,
Against the current of obscure Arno ...

Look up, and you see things flying
Between the day and the night;
Swallows with spools of dark thread sewing the shadows together.

A circle swoop, and a quick parabola under the bridge arches
Where light pushes through;
A sudden turning upon itself of a thing in the air.
A dip to the water.

And you think:
"The swallows are flying so late!"

Swallows?

Dark air-life looping
Yet missing the pure loop ...
A twitch, a twitter, an elastic shudder in flight
And serrated wings against the sky,
Like a glove, a black glove thrown up at the light,
And falling back.

Never swallows!
Bats!
The swallows are gone.

At a wavering instant the swallows gave way to bats
By the Ponte Vecchio ...
Changing guard.

Bats, and an uneasy creeping in one's scalp
As the bats swoop overhead!
Flying madly.

Pipistrello!
Black piper on an infinitesimal pipe.
Little lumps that fly in air and have voices indefinite, wildly vindictive;

Wings like bits of umbrella.

Bats!

Creatures that hang themselves up like an old rag, to sleep;
And disgustingly upside down.

Hanging upside down like rows of disgusting old rags
And grinning in their sleep.
Bats!

Not for me!

DH Lawrence

A Bittner Brilliance

2007-06-07T12:03:00.000-04:00

I want everyone who is invested in the world of children's literature, be you bookseller, librarian, teacher, parent, grandparent or aunt/uncle, to hightail it over to Reading Reptile and read this marvelous bit entitled:
TEN SECONDS: Running the Hurdles with Harry Potter
The sheer genius of its content and the structure of its delivery does my heart proud because once again I am reminded that I work in a field with smart people like this and I now count him and the Reptile family as my new family. How many of us have occupied that transcendent moment when trying to sell a book while mentally dodging all those commercial and social cliches that come flying at us like winged monkeys? I have spent the last week visiting close to 500 children in their classrooms trying to promote and sell the summer reading program at our public library. I tell them that it is my job to find them something they want to read and I mean that. I only hope that at least one of them will take me up on it.

tropism

2007-05-27T14:27:00.000-04:00

This flower draws me out and in the way a gazing ball does. Books do the same. Two that I am reading now have a similar hypnotic affect. Something Invisible by Siobhan Parkinson and The Historian (audio) by Elizabeth Kostova. I have not finished either. Postponement is its own reward.

Pulling weeds

2007-05-26T16:37:00.000-04:00

The other day while going through our collection looking for books for a summer display I started randomly pulling out those annoying little paperbacks that keep popping up like chickweed wherever I go. They are in our picture books. They are in our easy readers. They are in our J Fiction collection and yes they are most abundant in our graphic novel collection. So what is a children's librarian's best defense against proliferation? Make a new collection out of the annoyances, give them a pretty spine sticker, and give them their own shelf. If you're lucky (and we're not) you assign them their own collection code so you will be able to say aha! when a patron comes and asks you what JSPEC means. That you tell the patron refers to our sinner-manga collection--that amalgam of books created from movies and T.V. that now accounts for about 60% of our graphic novel collection. You see what happened was that I began to pull the skinny paperback annoyances like the Narnia Tea with Tumnus, Charlotte's Web, Ice Age, Chicken Little, Cars etc., and then I began to rethink the breadth of what I was doing. I thought about That's So Raven and Lizzy McGuire that are in our series collection. What about Scooby Doo? He's in series, mystery and graphic novels. Then there's Kim Possible. Dora and Spongebob already have their special spot in our "Favorites" collection. Superman and Batman are everywhere. All the Disney movie storybooks. Ohmygosh I am Micky Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice. The scariest movie bit ever. SIGH. I feel like a hostage in a Cathy comic strip. My solution? Take a long weekend and plant a garden.

The other side

2007-05-22T20:41:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd show the "right" side of this piece. It is very slow going still. But what I find so curious is that seeing my work as an unmoving and untouchable image startles me. Is that mine? Boy, it looks better here than in the hand. What is that disassociation that takes place between a thing in hand and the thing observed? What happens when you return to a piece of work whether knitted, written, painted, or stitched and take it up again? I think it gets better, but that's because I am easily distracted and I temporarily abandon a project when I feel my interest wane. Often when I reconnect I can finish with greater energy and determination.

I am so relieved!

2007-05-17T08:30:00.000-04:00

Thanks LizB--I couldn't wait to take the test! Here are my results! I am worried about my dork factor though seeing as I am a public servant!

Your Score: Pure Nerd

78 % Nerd, 21% Geek, 39% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.

A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.

A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of: Pure Nerd.

The times, they are a-changing. It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendences associated with the "dork." No-longer. Being smart isn't as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older: eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label: Purely Successful.

Congratulations!

Also, you might want to check out some of my other tests if you're interested in any of the following:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Professional Wrestling

Love & Sexuality

America/Politics

Thanks Again! -- THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

It's Our little secret

2007-05-12T08:52:00.000-04:00

My husband has this comraderie with our mailman such that when the handoff of a box with my name on it occurs there is a knowing chuckle and a sympathetic nod- Yet another box of yarn they intone silently or perhaps another load of remaindered books. Sigh. Such was the response when I received a parcel on Thursday which I did not open until this morning. Gasp! Oh happy day! They were WRONG! My pentominoes have arrived at long last. As you can see I am keeping them in their plastic housing because alas I do not trust I will be able to get them back into place right away since I am pile shifting and can't really defend another distraction. These will be used in an upcoming book club with my tweens who are reading The Wright 3. I had also ordered a copy of the Robie House paper model which I'm waiting on, but I am not sure this will work with my group.

Strung up and out

2007-05-11T13:43:00.000-04:00

I am one of those kinds of people who like to roll the decaying log aside from the path and look at its underbelly. I also like to look at the mess behind a piece of needlework. I am fascinated by the tangled and aimless elements of life and still sucker-punched from time-to time believing in the unified theory of life-that somehow all those loose ends will tie themselves up neatly into a beautifully complete, elegant something. I remember reading a short story a long time ago by the brilliant James Tiptree, Jr. called, I think, "Houston, Houston do you Read?" and I remember a passage describing the interior of a womaned spacecraft and just the busyness of it was so affirming. So I thought I would bare my imperfect soul and show off the underbelly of a piece I have been knitting on and off for a while now. It's the felted capelet Tapestry Garden by Nicky Epstein in Pam Allen's Wrap Style I have not given up. It is a fascinating, labor-intensive piece of work that I pick up whenever I want to be left alone -completely and utterly alone, when I know that I have just a very small amount of time to myself in my messy room, in my messy bed knitting my messy tapestry in the messy garden I call my life.

2 down and 4 to go

2007-05-08T18:38:00.001-04:00

I have slowed down considerably so I have decided to stop taking so many notes while I read and trust that the yarn will act as my memory device. The idea is that I'll stroke the yarn and the story will appear in my scrying dish. I am trying to note all the instances of knitted things and appearance of pouches. I think I'll go for an adult sized Slytherin beret for Azkaban. In the meantime check out the charmed knits blog because publisher Wiley is holding a contest and if your cap is drawn you will receive a free Wiley book!

CJRLC Tech Challenge

2007-05-03T18:43:00.000-04:00

The impetus behind my starting this blog was a challenge proposed by the Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative of which my library is a member. Without their guidance and support I probably would not have plunged so heartily into the churning waters of Web 2.0. What follows is a checklist of those items that I have accomplished. I have one task left.

Register with Blogger (or another service) and set up a blog- Here 'tis

Start a Flickr photo account

Subscribe to an aggregator like Bloglines and set up RSS feeds from blogs or websites.

I currently subscribe to 155 feeds in my Bloglines account.
I have 5 playlists with subjects ranging from KIDLIT to Needlepoint.

Read about Web 2.0 and Library 2.0; post some comments on your blog.
I have read several articles om Web 2.0. My final task is to blog.

Learn to use at least one of the following:
• LibraryThing: www.librarything.com-- I have a stack of books by my desk at home ready to catalog.
Google Maps: maps.google.com
• Delicious: del.icio.us - This was actually the first of these technologies that I became comfortable with and use on a regular basis.
• Squidoo: www.squidoo.com

Teach someone else how to use one of the technologies described above
I have actually begun to help my husband set up a Flickr account. I do this with some trepidation.

Paper Dolls

2007-04-30T09:14:00.000-04:00

Paper dolls are my passion. I have boxes and books and cellophane packets of them. One of my favorite reads is The Five Sisters by Margaret Mahy. This is the story of Sally and her nana who cut out a chain of 5 paper dolls, but only finish the features of one of them before a bird swoops down and takes them away. The sisters face all kinds of danger natural and otherwise, as they try to reach a mysterious island by the edge of the sea. Along the way they meet the children who will give them faces and enable their personalities to flourish. This book, come to think of it, is alot like The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, but instead of there being a china rabbit who is transformed by his journey, it is a necklace of paper girls who are transfigured by their journey in order to continue to their final destination.

And what made me wax prosaic about paper dolls? Well, I found this blog with a freebie download of you guessed it PAPER DOLLS with the cutest wee wonderful girl in the whole wwworld.

One down 5 to go

2007-04-29T11:05:00.000-04:00

Here you have it! True to my word. Ravenclaw beret #1 finished. HP1 finished! Now as you see I have begun HP2 and am actually percentage-wise further along in my reading than my knitting. I have cast on and ribbed my first Gryffindor beanie. The color of the yarn is actually very close to the red phoenix which is rosier than winier. Note how the yarn ends echo Harry's hands pulling away at the bird's tail feathers. I have been taking copious notes in my reading and paying particular attention to knitted things AND pouches about which I will post later. I watched HP3 movie with my daughter and took a double take at Ron's hat in the scene where Harry is invisible and ambushes Draco in the snow. It is a very funky ear flap hat which of course is now on my list of thinks to knit. I am trying to organize a Potter knit-in at my library in early July and hope to have knitting tutorials projected on the screen in our meeting room as well as HP movies playing in various corners of the building. We'll serve Potter fare and perhaps our teens can stage a reader's theater scripted from a possible ending of HP!!!

Engage Sticks!

2007-04-19T08:56:00.000-04:00

Ravenclaw beret #1 is about two thirds done. HP1 is about .02 done. My reading and knitting have always competed for my time and attention and now they are entering into this new alliance. Is this detente? I vow not to begin a new Hogwarts cap until I have finished reading HP and the SS. I will record my progress here. Keep me honest ladies and gents! Please note that the Charmed Knits knitalong blog has posted instructions on hosting a charity knitalong in your community.

Calling all Houses

2007-04-10T16:35:00.000-04:00

Even if you are not a Harry Potter fan and don't knit I still urge all of you who can at least hold two needles or 1 circular needle and balance a ball or 2 of yarn to get in on this gig. Simple really--click on the Charmed Knits button on the right side bar of this blog and read the FAQ. You can download the free pattern for the Hogwarts hats/beanies and knit as many hats as you can. If you don't know how to knit find someone who does and get them in on it. Hell get them to teach you. Even if you never cast on again give this one a try. Which is easier--Rereading all 6 HP books or knitting one of these lovely caps? I'm a fast reader, slow knitter, but I can tell you that knitting one of the house caps will be a far less strenuous exercise.
Hold a knitalong at work, during lunch, wherever you can get the word out! The hats are to be donated to a charity Warm Woolies which supplies warm woolens to children all over the globe. This would be a great summer reading program--I would recommend for ages 9 and up. So LizB, ChrisR and 2ndgen librarian--Do you hear me? Start your broomsticks. It's time to needle up!
p.s. There is a new yarn shop in our fair town called What's Needling You?--check them out. Maybe we can get the whole darn burg in on this. Come to think of it how about getting as many children's and YA librarians as we can to join the circle. I'm throwing down the gauntlet.

2007-04-10T11:25:00.000-04:00

There's been alot of buzz about The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. I listened to this interview and was fascinated to hear what some of the influences were in the writing and conception of the book: French films: silent and new wave, Remy Charlip, Maurice Sendak, and yes! a 70's era toy Hugo the Man of a Thousand Faces--a kind of Lon Chaney doll with multiple disguises. Martin Scorsese is very interested in optioning this book--wonder if he'll actually incorporate this toy somehow. Hugo is a tribute to the history of filmmaking and in particular French filmmaking. Citing the earliest known science fiction films as the jumping off point, Selznick charts his cinematic voyage through the turning of these pages. Brian is related to David O. Selznick, but as he explains, there were the California Selznicks and the Jersey Selznicks and ne'er the twain did meet. It almost makes me proud to be an almost Jersey girl.

Book Club reminiscences

2007-04-04T20:27:00.000-04:00

I have been running a book club for 4th-6th graders since 2004 and in that time I have seen my first readers go on to Middle School and my new readers shift and squirm in their 10 and 11 year old bodies while we discuss books, play charades, and create art. This second group is very different than my first. The latter were competitive and argumentative and collegial all at the same time. They chose the books we read and discussed. They were all interested in the same books: Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket, Star Wars. I had a Star Wars fan bring his collection of Star Wars stuff, dressed in full Jedi splendor, he fielded questions from my group in true warrior style. I had a cartoonist come when we were looking at graphic novels and give a slide show featuring his cartoon persona whom we later had him draw in icing on the perennial cake I bake for these gatherings. I always wanted these kids to see books as cultural and commercial products. If there was a movie tie-in we compared the two. If there was a video game, we played it and compared the two. I feel critical consciousness is key to keeping our children sharp and with this first group, I felt they got what I was doing. It got to the point that they had so understood the mission that in the last meeting we had together they held a kind of mock book club where they took charge and pretty much ran it the way I did. They had researched Vermeer (we were reading Chasing Vermeer) and found out all about the theft of his paintings and looked at the Girl with the Pearl Earring without any direction from me. Now they're in 7th and 8th grade and I hope that as they grind to the end of the school year having spent most of it studying for another cultural product: The NJ GEPA tests, that they will take some of the pleasure and challenge of those books we read together and make a way for themselves that will always include a love of books and the written word.
Now, I have a different generation. They are the same age now as my first group when they began, but their reading levels vary widely. The majority have either not read or not finished the assigned book. I am always prepared for this inevitability so I plan accordingly. As a group they are less vocal and a bit more tentative and unsure of themselves. They are more physical and restless, but I know they are very committed to coming every month. I have a core group of about 8-10 readers who show up excited and eager to spend 90 minutes with me and other kids their age in the library. One mother told me her son thinks coming to my book club is better than going to the boardwalk! Next month we will be discussing Love that Dog by Sharon Creech. One year ago we shared poems from John Grandits' Technically, It's Not My Fault: Concrete Poems--a brilliant collection which will be joined by its companion Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems in May. Because I work with John's wife Joanne I was fortunate to get copies of some of the poems from Technically that had been printed on glossy paper stock which we then assembled. This month I had them select a woman artist to research. I gave them the option of presenting a brief report or imitating a piece of art in the style of their artist. My best piece by far was contributed by the one member of my group that gives me the most trouble. He often does not do the reading and he complains that the books are too hard. He can't sit still and is always sparring with one of the other boys in the group. He often does not listen and wanders around the room and asks when we're eating. He had chosen Bottle Houses: The Creative World of Grandma Prisbrey by Melissa Eskridge Slaymaker because, as he admitted to me, it looked easy. For the first 20 minutes of our meeting he kept making references to his piece of art and how it wasn't that good and when could he show it. When he finally brought out his beautiful glass studded and encrusted turtle which was mired in a smooth block of concrete, I was stunned. He had exceeded my expectations and had, as my Aunt Sis would say, made me button bustin' proud! So as I look over this post for about the third or fourth time I realize that comparing these 2 groups may not be a good way of going about assessing the success of my book club. This new group has homeschoolers while my first did not. This group has 2 pairs of siblings while the other had 1. This group has more boys than girls. So did the other. So I am left with the fact that I am happy that these children are in my life and in my library. Once a month for 90 minutes I share books and language and history and comics and poetry and food with 10 and 11 year olds and it just doesn't get any better than that.

The Perfect Nest

2007-04-03T10:39:00.000-04:00

John Manders' Senor Don Gato has returned in the guise of greedy Jack cat who builds The Perfect Nest to attract an omelet producing hen. Alas, he attracts more than he bargained for. With a bow to Martin Waddell's Owl Babies, Catherine Friend has created three memorable babies and a less than maternal cat. This is a funny, trilingual romp through the thatch of unintended consequences. I put this one on my top 5 so far this year.

cARTalog

2007-04-01T19:32:00.000-04:00

BoneFolder is an ejournal devoted to the book arts. Take a look at the article "The Story in the Cards: Intimacy, Empathy and Reader Response," by Kristin Baum. It is the story of librarians, artists, and countless others creating art from the 1,000.000 cards the staff were able to salvage from the discarded card catalog at the University of Iowa.
"Participants – from Iowa, across the country and around the world – were invited to adopt cards and recreate a home for them in whatever way was most meaningful to them. Over the year and half duration of the project, over 500 individuals and organizations requested cards for countless projects – some known at conception and others which are still in a phase of germination. Demographically, participation was organic and well-rounded, representing international and intergenerational scope. Cards found rebirth in the hands of preschoolers, retirees, students, teachers, children and parents and grandparents. Among these participants emerged artists, writers, librarians, comedians and musicians, to name a few."
One of my favorites tells the story of a woman who did not do so well in library school at the University of Iowa so she changed to the MFA program in printmaking. Her piece is entitled "Failed Librarian." Take a look at the gallery of images from the cARTalog project. I love this kind of recycled, reimagined act of piracy . It is subversive and conservative simulataneously.

Pierre in Love and moi aussi

2007-03-31T20:55:00.000-04:00

The first time I read anything by Petra Mathers I was a children's librarian in Maryland and I was shelfreading the M picture books. Francophone that I am, I can sniff out a French rodent (or chien) with my eyes closed. Anyway Theodor and Mr. Balbini (sadly out of print) is about about a dog who decides he wants to live with Madame Poulet his French teacher instead of Mr. Balbini his owner. When Mr. B goes to visit Theodor he falls in love with Mme. Poulet's pooch Josephine and takes her home. Oh sheer joy to have discovered this writer! I love her love. Needless to say, whenever I find a Mathers book I pounce on it with a low growl. Sophie and Lou is one of my daughter's favorite books and it too is sprinkled with frenchisms and sweet deferred love. I found it when I visited the Eric Carle Museum and bought it without realizing Petra had signed it. Sophie has a very tidy house. She is a dancer just like Catherine in Pierre but she doesn't know how to so she teaches herself by observing the students at the dance studio across the street. She paints the dancing steps on her floor and takes out books from the book mobile. The librarian is someone famous! Sophie has an admirer who passes her window each day, but she is oblivious. The last line in the book, "'You bet,' said Sophie, and stepped into his arms."
Pierre in Love is about a fisherman in love with the ballet teacher Catherine. Alas, he is shy and leaves gifts at her door until she catches him one night. She tells him she loves another and Pierre must pull himself together somehow and carry on. As fate or love would have it, Pierre is her beloved. She only knows Pierre in his fisherman garb out at sea and not in fancy togs in the dark at her doorstep. The page where she declares her love in pictures is magnifique!!

Rutgers University's eclipse project has digitized the entire record of Petra Mathers' manuscript and artwork for her book Kisses From Rosa. Here, you can view the dummy, several drafts of the manuscript, correspondence with her publisher and family photos.
I think this is the kind of work that those of us in this field should be championing, supporting, and writing grants for.

I'm Reverse Pocky. What flavor are you?

2007-03-30T18:23:00.000-04:00

Pocky are a popular Japanese confection--biscuit sticks with a flavored coating on one end--usually chocolate, strawberry, almond and peach. Here is how they are advertised in English "the delicious Pocky toppings (chocolate, strawberry, whip, etc.) were developed to melt in a persons mouth, around 98 degrees and therefore are heat sensitive. If a Pocky topping should melt just place them in an average room temperature and they will cool but stick together. Melting does not affect the edibility of the product." Hmmm sounds like an American confection starting with a letter very close to "P." Anyway try this quiz to determine your flavor. P.S. Reverse Pocky has the flavor on the inside.

You Are Reverse Pocky

Your attitude: rebellious and clever

Non-conformist, but curiously a trendsetter

With you, up is down... and it's a wild ride!

What Flavor Pocky Are You?

After you take the quiz head on over here to see your bad Pocky self!

Feet Candy: What did I tell you?

2007-03-29T09:05:00.000-04:00

In an earlier post entitled "The Confectionization of the World" I briefly stated my theory that all strives to be sweet and edible. Now take a look at this Yes the Simmons girls have come up with a new line of shoe pastry--Guess there's not enough dough in that family. Vanessa and Angela, daughters of Joseph "Run" Simmons of Run-D.M.C and neices of Russell And Kimora Simmons the Hip Hop clothiers have a new product they have brought to market. Let's see if I grok this. They are pastries in the shape of sneakers. They retail for about $65 and you can choose between Strawberry Shortcake, and Chocolate Mousse Sprinkles to name a few. No they are really shoes with pastry names and you can also get its consumable equivalent? No they are girly sneakers with tantalizing names that come with lipgloss in the same flavor as the shoe's name. Well EAT MY SHOE! Maybe I need to just loosen up. Sigh.

Papercraft Theater

2007-03-28T20:11:00.000-04:00

Imagine this alternative to using hand puppets for the 3 Billy Goats Gruff. The Logic goats are paper models you download for a fee and build yourself. There are a number of sites that offer free downloads for paper models like the cow above. Here is one on a commercial site LouLou Illustrations that is easy and very cute.I have made several of these and scattered them around my work space. They are reminders to stay light and focused. Later in the summer I will be building a paper model of Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House with my tween book club after we have read The Wright 3 by Blue Balliet. Check out Canon's site of free downloads of world buildings like the Parthenon, The Great Buddha of Todaiji, and the Sydney Opera House.
I think this craft has great library value and I would love to start a club which would combine several papercrafts that might result in some kind of theatrical/storytelling production. It could be toy theater and animated paper models and paper dolls all working together either in miniature or large scale. Then I could push for my library to invest in a bookmobile and I could take my troupe on the road!!!!

Howard Hodgkin and Margaret Wise Brown

2007-03-28T19:23:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I had the good fortune of seeing an exhibition of paintings by Howard Hodgkin at the Yale Center for British Art. He covers his canvases and frames with layers of intense color. Walking through rooms filled with his paintings is an invitation to feel sensation, not necessarily to experience it directly. I kept thinking of Venice--a city I have never visited, but one I feel I know intimately because I read The Thief Lord with my book club and watched parts of the movie with them. Someone told me that Venice is a sad city because it is a place of departures. These paintings felt like that--not sad necessarily, but fugitive. I found that in fact, there were several of Hodgkin's paintings that included Venice in their title. The green he uses in his paintings reminded me of another artist on display in New Haven. The Connecticut Children's Museum's "linguistic room" is a recreation of the "great green room" from Goodnight Moon. When I visited it was late in the day and the sun was streaming the through the tall windows covered with blue mylar that had been pricked with holes. The effect was a shattering of small star lights against the green walls. Stunning! Everything was there: the bed, the bunny, the dollhouse, the mittens and drying rack, the clock and the three bears, Every word in the book had been magnetized individually so you could rewrite Goodnight Moon from memory on the wall. The rocking chair made every sitter the "quiet old lady whispering hush" which as a librarian is second nature.

Blue House

2007-03-27T16:53:00.001-04:00

Blue House
Originally uploaded by bookpusher.

Here is yet another tantalizing work of art from the student art show in my building that's about to be dismantled. I have just taken part in a Flickr workshop taught by our own LizB and sponsored by our Regional Library Cooperative (Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative). Great class Liz!

Pluto is not a Planet in 2 minutes

2007-03-25T08:58:00.000-04:00

There was a great story in the March 15 issue of PW about Doug Florian's new book of poetry coming out in April Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars. Seems that when the International Astronomical Union declassified Pluto as a planet last August and reclassified it as a dwarf planet, Mr. Florian had to do a fast edit to several of the entries in his new book. I wonder why he labeled the non-planet Charon?

March is student art month cont.

2007-03-22T09:15:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to share a few more images from the display of splendid and uplifting art that surrounds my work place. Alas, it will not be here much longer. These are elementary school artists. Bravo to the teachers who inspire and encourage our children.

It's all about Me!

2007-03-21T08:55:00.000-04:00

It's not every day you get 3, count them, 3 books--all wonderful and all about me. Brother and sister team Jocelyn and Nathaniel Hobbie have created 3 delightful books about a girl named Priscilla. In book #1 Priscilla is tired of her pink planet where everything is pink and decides to strike out on her own with a few pink things to remind her of home to see if there is something on the other side of the pink rainbow. She wanders through an entirely pink landscape until she encounters a colorful creature with wings and follows it. She is led to a very formal garden where she meets the Queen of Pink who promptly nets the butterfly declaring it gaudy and passe. The Queen has declared that all other colors but pink must be kept underground so Priscilla devises a way to get the Queen to loose all the colors and the pages take off from there!
" 'Colors!' cried Priscilla, 'There's so much to see!
A world with just one-how could that be?
I love all colors and all of their hues.
I love all the reds, different yellows, and blues.'
Then bursting with joy, cartwheeling with glee,
Priscilla raced home loving all she could see."

In Priscilla and the Splish-Splash Surprise our heroine decides to put a stop to all that boring rain and ventures outside where she meets Posy a pedagogical pixie who shows Priscilla the wonders of nature and the creatures and plants that long for and love rain like the "Funk Funnel Vine" and the "Muck Mover Mole." Once again Priscilla declares
'The rain used to seem like a dreary old bore.
I understand now it's about so much more!
There are worlds within worlds, An endless array.
Look closer, and you'll see things a new way.'

Priscilla enrolls in L'Ecole Rolleret in Priscilla Superstar! so that she can be a roller skating sensation in the upcoming production of Princess Rollerina. Instead, she gets the part of the "Infinite Wind" and by now you know she steals the show!

I love these books because of their language, their humor and their color. A blurb from Publishers Weekly on the back of #2 puts it perfectly, 'Jocelyn Hobbie's exuberant ink-and-watercolor pictures combine a giddy abundance of detail with a stylish editorial sensibility. She seems to be channeling a bit of Dr. Seuss touched with Hilary Knight.'

And speaking of pink check out this clip from the Dog Whisperer entitled "Kobo, Bangles, and Kisses. " I don't know what to say, but maybe y'all do.

I Heart Kindergarteners

2007-03-19T14:08:00.002-04:00

l
I was not expecting a small group of kindergarteners today so I was dashing about to get the perfect K books ready for their visit. I have great love in my heart for 5 /6 not yet in 1st graders. This is the time when their senses of humor, and their capacity to play with language is at the ready like no other time in their young lives. I say this not as an expert or an academic or a teacher. I say this as a public librarian. I have these children so briefly, knowing full well I may never see them again, yet I feel missionary in my desire to engage them and offer a way in to books and language. My job is to act as a turnstile. Here is what I shared with them:
No, David (I do a visual reading with them asking them questions on each page like, What do you think just happened? What do you see that makes you say that? By the end of the book, we are totally hooked, lined, and sinkered into Davy's fate. I have to say that one of the kids was so stuck on the nose picking page that he told us all that after the hug David was going to pick his nose. He then told me he picked his nose and I assured him that everyone did and that he was the only brave soul to admit to it. There were several adults in the room, but I never make eye contact with them because they insist on sitting way in the back out of my realm of vision so if any adult was embarassed, I didn't know it. I read Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus which is such a primo opportunity to talk about speech and thought bubbles. I personally love the "I have dreams ya know" and before you know it they're learning about point of view and perspective and reader response criticism all before 12 noon! You sneaky pete Mo! And to the incomparable David Catrow, haven't you won anything yet other than the hearts of children everywhere? I Ain't gonna Paint No More! written by Karen Beaumont is a perfect Kindergarten book for so many reasons. Here is their opportunity to say BUTT and it's OK because the book made them do it and it rhymes with nut. If you are a color fiend like moi then you can wax poetic about the balance of black and white and the subversiveness of color evidenced by its chaotic kudzu-like spread across the pages which even a bathtub can not expunge. I have to put in a plug for another book illustrated by Catrow and written by Patty Lovell, Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon. I have used this book with 1st and 2nd graders b/c they have the experience of being new to school and have a sense of what it feels like since it's still fresh. Molly Lou Melon is tiny and she has buck teeth and she sounds like " a bullfrog being squeezed by a boa constrictor" but her grandma always told her to stand tall and that's just what she does throughout. I tell the students that I wish I had had this book when I was starting a new school in a new country when I was in 1st grade. This is a tribute to grandmothers wherever you are!! The last thing I did with my kindergarteners who at this point feel like my own family was to share a flannel board song. My colleague SR made the felt pieces. The pattern and the CD with song is on one of our favorite books for preschoolers Ready-to-Go Storytimes by Gail Benton and Trisha Waichulaitis. The song is "Flip-Flap Jack" and it's about a man made of food--all Breakfast foods like French toast feet and a raspberry belly-button and link sausage smile. There is a refrain and the kids get to name the foods along with the CD playing and clap and slap their knees. They made me do it twice!

The Bad Hair Day Wedding Bell Blues

2007-03-17T16:57:00.000-04:00

If you have never read The Unexpectedly Bad Hair Day of Barcelona Smith by Keith Graves then you are in for a treat. Take a look at the back cover
Then tell me that these two weren't meant for eachother.

Princesses peas and pets

2007-03-17T16:30:00.000-04:00

One afternoon, bleak and too cold to go outside after weathering a week which included a 70 degree day and a Friday with freezing rain and sleet, I am surfing the web and lo and behold I find this portraitist who will embed your child in a fairytale. Take a look at some of these images. I had just finished reading Lauren Child's version of The Princess and the Pea which I love because she uses paper dolls and elaborate miniature settings to tell the story. Since I have always had an affinity for all things pea (especially George and Martha's split pea soup story) I would choose this princess story as my own. She's not frilly or icked out by spiders and she's nice and smart. The other princess I really like is the star of Princess Smartypants
by Babette Cole. This princess has a way of dealing with suitors which almost undoes her. This is a princess who loves her pets more than the possibilty of a suitable marriage. I think I might try 2ndgenlibrarian's storytelling technique with the Princess and the Pea story with my next school visit using picture prompts to have them tell the story, or at least their version of it.

Dueling readlaouds

2007-03-17T15:06:00.000-04:00

These are 2 standards I use in my
2nd grade visits. So why does the one on the left seem to get more laughs than the one on the right which I think is funnier? (Take a look at Esme's post about this one especially if you haven't read it, and thanks to Liz at tea cozy for making me take a 2nd look at 17 Things- I almost passed it by. )
Is it the way I read the left one with my different voices? Is it because the one on the left talks to the audience and the one on the right uses the pictures to tell the story and is therefore a little more work to decipher? Does it once again come down to voice and level of engagement? We all know how successful Mo Willems pigeon books are because they make the listeners knowing accomplices to the story. So maybe pitting these two books against eachother is a purely arbitrary endeavor, and maybe it just boils down to just because I like it doesn't mean a child will like it even if I give it all I have. Any thoughts?

Look What I won!

2007-03-15T18:53:00.000-04:00

When I visited New York comicon a couple of weeks ago I wandered around in a daze until I found Jimmy Gownley, Brooklyn 5 and 10 and Scholastic. The moment I saw Shaun Tan's name peering from the dimly lit booth I squealed. This book has not yet been published in the U.S. and the copy on display was being raffled. I promptly dropped my dog-eared business card with old email address, into a wide mouthed fish bowl knowing full well I would not be one of the fortunate. I was mistaken. It arrived on my desk. What a supreme gift!

Fuse #8 has written an impassioned review of this book, and I hope in the coming weeks to wander through the wordless landscape myself and post some personal observations. Shaun Tan is a genius. The Red Tree is a book that still manages to draw me through, chill me to the bone, leaden my boots, lose me, then softly, ever so deftly drop me on a downy coverlet and give me a draught of sweet dirt and sprung hope.

The Confectionization of the World

2007-03-14T12:29:00.000-04:00

I have this theory and it goes something like this: everything in the universe is striving to be a consumable confection. Everything is sweet and flavored. Like take for example this OK so I have issues when they hyridize my 2 favorite things (crayons and candy) and make them into something I find rather repugnant. I'm sure there is a catchy marketing term for this kind of cross-pollination, new product conception, but I don't like it NOT one little bit! I want my candy and my crayons separate. I do not like them mushed together. I need boundaries you know.

Fish with onion and a side of bacon

2007-03-13T18:20:00.000-04:00

When you play restaurant with a limited menu, this is what you get.

Knit What You Want

2007-03-13T17:46:00.000-04:00

On her seventh birthday Roselupin receives a mysterious gift with her name on it. It is a golden box filled with balls of different color yarns.
The message: KNIT WHAT YOU WANT
Thus begins the liberation of Roselupin from the confines of her locked tower where she has been kept by her father who fears that the world is far too wild and dangerous a place. I won't give away the ending, but suffice it to say that this story has all the elements of a true feminist fable. This is in my top 25 favorite books of all time. I recently found it remaindered at Daedalus Books
a place I discovered early in my graduate school days when it was just a small warehouse with stacks of books and clerks on rollerskates.

Vintage toy theater

2007-03-13T14:41:00.000-04:00

You Tube has this wonderful clip.

It shows examples of penny plain and twopence coloured sheets being reproduced, as well as a a theater being assembled and readied for a production.

Penny plain and twopence coloured

2007-03-12T16:10:00.000-04:00

One of the most enchanting, and captivating of all storytelling technologies is the toy theater (or penny theater as it was called when I first encountered it earlier in my career.) Imagine a miniature, tabletop theater with lights, changing backdrops and figures affixed to wires that glide across the stage. Originally the paper figures and backdrops were printed on color sheets. Wooden theaters began to be built sometime after 1811 to stage the productions. If you have never seen penny theater, you're in for a treat. The first stop has to be Pollock's Toy Museum. After that you can visit Kannick's for more detailed history as well as online shopping.

Q is for QUIET little Quail!

2007-03-12T12:20:00.000-04:00

OK, so today I had to do an alphabet storytime with the preschoolers. You got it, the letter Q. So after making the wee ones pose their bodies in the shape of the letter, I made them listen to the Quail story. This was a retelling of the Coyote and little dove story from Margaret Read MacDonald's Twenty Tellable Tales in which quail begins to cry after cutting her foot on some kwakwi grass. Coyote hears her cry and insists she is singing and threatens to eat her unless she repeats the song so he can learn it. Well, coyote goes off and starts to sing in his inimitable non-quail-like voice and then trips and loses the song, so he has to return several times to get quail's song. Quail gets wise and leaves a rock decoy in her stead, so when coyote gets incensed and makes good on his threat to eat her if she doesn't sing, he gets a mouth full of broken teeth and a new song to sing. You can ham this one up, get the kids to sing quail's song with you, and howl at the end. They actually helped me find coyote's song under the table.

Egads Marge!

2007-03-11T15:26:00.000-04:00

How Perfect is This? As part of my ongoing series of "March is children's art month", I offer you this moving Marge in yarn tableau.

Two best friends

2007-03-10T16:55:00.000-05:00

Guess who? My favorite twosome in the whole world!

Without a doubt, James Marshall was the greatest of greats. I miss you terribly...

2007-03-10T12:45:00.000-05:00

Another day in paradise. Sigh!

Gesundheit!

2007-03-09T12:47:00.000-05:00

What do pepper, flamingos, and snails have in common? NO! not SpongeBob. Yes, they all live side by side in a picture book originally published in German as Wo wachst der Pfeffer? by Brigitte Raab, illustrated by Manuela Olten. (English translation "Where does pepper come from?) The book poses questions like Why are flamingos pink; Why do sheep have curly wool, Why isn't a whale a fish? The answer is posed on the left hand side of the spread and the answer posted presumably by an imaginary reader with a whacky sense of humor on the right. On the following page a child or group of children either agree or vehemently disagree with the answer with a declarative Yes or No. The right hand page gives the correct, scientific answer to the question. Confess! Did you know that flamingos are pink because what they eat is pink? Delicious color palette throughout. Check out the spoolie bedecked sheep. Priceless. I just read this book to a large class of second graders with great success.

March is Children's Art Month

2007-03-08T17:35:00.000-05:00

What is more refreshing than opening a new bag of Skittles? It has to be coming into work and seeing the most splendid, luminous, color-infused exhibit of children's art snaking through our entire building! Here is just a brief glimpse.