School's Out for the Summer!

(Sorry if those lyrics are now stuck in your head!)

Clip art from http://www.free-extras.com/tags/1/summer.htm

Our last inservice was Monday, so I am on day 3 of summer break!  Can I get a WHOO-HOO?

I have big plans for this summer!  While I do have plans to be lazy, I want to be diligent with my time and get a lot accomplished too.  I have a feeling the next ten weeks are going to FLY by!

Because I'm a list maker, here's a list of things I would like to accomplish this summer...

• Complete the Harry Potter project
• I'm taking a graduate class in June...I'm sure that will keep me quite occupied!
• Develop a library curriculum for next year...a broad plan of what I'd like to cover and also ~6 weeks of lesson plans.   If you fail to plan you plan to fail! 
• Visit family in Florida!  
• Some house improvement projects.  Specific plans are yet TBD, but I'd really like to redo the living room:  paint, install a book case and such.
• Read, read, read!   Preferably in my hammock!
• There are some good movies coming out this summer I'm excited about seeing.  
• Spend time with family and friends. 

So there it is.  It's a busy summer, but I'm hoping for some fun times.  

The Harry Potter Project

Last night, I finally got around to watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One on DVD.  Don't worry...I did see it on the big screen, but haven't gotten around to watching the DVD I purchased a couple of weeks ago.

I decided that I really needed to re-read the series before the movie finale comes out on July 15.   And perhaps have a HECK of a movie-a-thon! 

So here goes nothing.  I'm setting aside my long "to-read" list for Harry Potter.  I won't be disappointed...it's been much too long and I'm excited to return to Hogwarts!
 

  I just REALLY hope I can finish in time! 

Back into it...

Time to fess up.

This semester was AWFUL.

It was stressful.  

Work was crazy busy.  

Don't get me wrong.  The class content and stuff was fine, I had a practicum that was fantastic, but put ALL that together and ice it with moving into a new house which needs organizing and decorating and yardwork...

I really wasn't in the mood for blogging.

So I didn't!  I've been reading....promise!  But just not blogging about them.

It happens.

Now it's almost May, and I'm finished with classes for the summer.  All I lack in this degree is one measly internship and taking my comps.

It's as good as done!

Now that I have some sort of a life back...I plan to return to blogging! 

Hopefully. 

Is she lost?

No, I'm not lost. I'm reading! And doing homework, and working, watching FHU basketball, working on making our new house our home, and doing an internship in the public schools on top of it all. Plus the Olympics are currently in progress, and I'm a HUGE Olympic junkie.

I haven't been blogging.

It's on my list of things to do, I promise.

In the meantime, you should run out and read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. I just finished those and they are superb novels. You won't be sorry.

Go Team USA!

I don't know whether to laugh or puke...

It appears that Twilight will soon have its very own series of Manga. Twilight, the graphic novel is slated to release on March 16, 2010.

Young Kim adapted the novel by Stephenie Meyer and did all the art work. (Which looks stunning, by the way.)

Entertainment Weekly shares the cover, a short excerpt and interview with Meyer on their Shelf Life blog.





I think this is pretty cool, but at the same time wonder how much more Twilight can we take? No doubt this will be be a wildly popular book. And I'm interested to check it out!

2010 ALA Youth Media Awards

Hooray! It was a fantastic morning on my couch with the YALSA Live Blog of the ALA Youth Media Awards. I never connected to the live feed, which is fine because I had horrible issues with it last year.

So here's the lowdown:

Newbery Honors:
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice written by Phillip Hoose
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate written by Jacqueline Kelly
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon written by Grace Lin
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg written by Rodman Philbrick


Newbery Medal Winner:
When You Reach Me written by Rebecca Stead

Caldecott Honors:
All the World ill by Marla Frazee, written by Liz Garton Scanlon
Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors ill. Pamela Zagarenski written by Joyce Sidman

Caldecott Medal Winner:
The Lion & the Mouse ill & written by Jerry Pinkney

Printz Honors:
Charles & Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman
The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey
Punkzilla by Adam Rapp
Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973 by John Barnes

Printz Medal Winner:
Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor:
E.B. Lewis for The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Coretta Scott King Illustrator Medal:
Charles R. Smith Jr. for My People, written by Langston Hughes

Coretta Scott King Author Honor:
Tanita S. Davis for Mare's War

Coretta Scott King Author Medal Winner:
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson for Bad News for Outlaws: the Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal

Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamiliton Award for Lifetime Achievement: (1st year for this award)
Walter Dean Myers

John Steptoe Award for New Talent:
Kekla Magoon for The Rock and the River

Geisel Honors:
I Spy Fly Guy! written & ill by Tedd Arnold
Little Mouse Gets Ready written & ill by Jeff Smith
Mouse and Mole: Fine Feathered Friends written & ill by Wong Herbert Yee
Pear and Wagner: One Funny Day by Kate McMullan ill R. W. Alley

Geisel Medal Winner:
Benny and Penny in the Big No-No! written & ill by Geoffrey Hayes

Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award
2011 Lecture will be given by Lois Lowry

Alex Awards:
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
The Bride's Farewell, Meg Rosoff
Everything Matters! by Ron Currie, Jr.
The Good Soldiers by David Finkel
The Kids Are All Right: A Memoir by Diana & Liz Welch
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
My Abandonment by Peter Rock
Soulless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Cairriger
Stitches A Memoir by David Small
Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson

Batcheldor Honors:
Big Wolf and Little Wolf written by Nadine Brun-Cosme, ill. Olivier Tallec, trans. Claudia Bedrick
Eidi by Bodil Bredsdorff, trans. Kathryn Mahaffy
Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness by Nahoko Uehashi, ill. Yuko Shimizu, trans Cathy Hirano

Batcheldor Medal Winner:
A Faraway Island by Annika Thor, trans. Linda Schenck

Belpre Illustrator Honors:
Diego: Bigger Than Life ill. by David Diaz (written by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand)
My Abuelita ill. Yuyi Morales, written by Tony Johnston
Gracias Thanks ill by John Parra, written by Pat Mora

Belpre Illustrator Award:
Book Fiesta!: Celebrate Children's Day/Book Day; Celebremeos El dia de los ninos/el dia de los libros ill. Rafael Lopez, written by Pat Mora

Belpre Author Honors:
Diego: Bigger Than Life written by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, ill. by David Diaz
Federico Garcia Lorca written by Georgina Lazaro ill. Enrique S. Moreiro

Belpre Author Award:
Return to Sender written by Julia Alvarez

Carnegie Medal:
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Produced by Paul R. Gagne and Mo Willems of Weston Woods

Margaret A. Edwards Award:
Jim Murphy

William C. Morris Finalists:
Ash, by Melinda Lo
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
The Everafter by Amy Huntley
hold still by Nina LaCour

William C. Murphy Winner:
Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan

Odyssey Honor:
In the Belly of the Bloodhound - written by L. A. Meyer
Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
We Are the Ship by Kadir Nelson

Odyssey Medal Winner:
Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken Produced by Live Oak Media written by Kate DiCamillo & narrated by Barbara Rosenblat

Schneider Awards:
Young Children's: Django written & ill by Bonnie Christensen
Middle Grades: Anything but Typical written by Nora Raleigh Baskin
Teen: Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

Sibert Honors:
The Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barton, ill. Tony Persiani
Moonshot written & ill by Brian Floca
Claudette Colvin by Phillip Hoose

Sibert Medal Winner:
Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone

YALSA Award of Excellence Finalist:
Almost Astronauts by Tanya Lee Stone
The Great and Only Barnum by Candace Fleming
Written in Bone by Sally M. Walker
Claudette Colvin by Phillip Hoose

YALSA Award of Excellence Winner:
Charles & Emma by Deborah Heiligman---WINNER


What a great list! I'm excited that for the first time I've read the Newbery & Caldecott Medals already! And I'm about 3/4 through one of the Newbery Honors, and have read several of these listed already. But I've got a hefty reading list ahead!

I'm VERY excited for Jerry Pinkney and his The Lion and the Mouse. I had that book picked from the second I picked it up. It's that amazing.

What do you all think of today's announcements?

ALA Youth Media Awards

I'm up and ready for the Youth Media Awards, which are slated to begin at 6:45amCT. I'm bundled up on the couch, up earlier than I would be to get up for work....and I'm off work today!

I had hoped to read more books that seemed to be getting Newbery buzz...but I didn't. So I'll just say that I do hope that When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. I did read it and it really is outstanding.

And if The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney doesn't get the Caldecott, the committee has serious issues! It's an amazing book.

I'll guess we'll find out! Soon!

Hooray for Jon Scieszka, Huzzah for Katherine Paterson

Today marks the last day of Jon Scieszka's term as the Ambassador for Children's Literature. This position was created to "raise national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people."

I'd like to take a second to thank Scieszka for all the work he has done the last two years promoting children's literature! He especially does excellent work with his organization Guys Read that encourages males to read and promotes books written and intended for guys! Plus, he's just a great author!



Thanks Mr. Scieszka! You've been a great Ambassador!

Today, the new Ambassador was chosen: Katherine Paterson. What a wonderful choice and I know that she will do an excellent job with this position! She's another wonderful author and I'm excited to see what she does during her term.

One excited person

So, this morning as I attempted to wake up, I checked my Twitter feed. That's when I saw this tweet from Linda Braun (lbroun200), the YALSA president and educator who've I've had the privilege to hear speak:

"NYT on the return of The Babysitter's Club http://bit.ly/4FwKtI"

.

Needless to say...I woke up quickly after seeing that!

Okay, here's the deal. When I was a kid/tween, I LOVED (loved, LOVED, LOVED) the Babysitter's Club. I had quite collection, and would literally start at Book 1, read all that I had, go to Sam's Club and buy the next set of four, read those, then start the process all over again.

The Babysitter's Club is why I'm a librarian who missed a lot of great books published during during my childhood and classics. I was busy reading the BSC! (Don't worry...I'm working on catching up on those now...in my 30's!)

I was kind of disappointed when the library I work at only had a few installments of the series. When I ran across 85% of the series at the farmer's market for a quarter a book, I jumped on that deal! Now the library has a decent set of the series and they've been checked circulating pretty well. We also have the BSC graphic novel set. (Which are pretty stinkin' cool!)

I'm so excited to get this new set for the library and especially read the prequel: The Babysitter's Club: The Summer Before, due out April 1, 2010 according to Amazon.



How exciting that a whole new generation will get to enjoy a series of books their mom's enjoyed!

So sad...

One of my school friends passed along this link to a school listserv today.


http://www.freelibrary.org/



I feel so sad for all the people in Philadelphia as their library will be closing on October 2 due to the lack of "the necessary budgetary legislation by the State Legislature in Harrisburg."

All branches, regional, and central libraries will be closed.

No more books (all current checked out books due back on 10/1), no more children's/teens programming, no more educational classes, no more outreach to the community.

ALL GONE.

Shame on these people in the State Legislature in Harrisburg. I hope you realize how important the libraries are to a community before its too late.

As my friend said: "Benjamin Franklin is rolling over in his grave."

Book Bits

So my email and blog reader is just stock full of some interesting tidbits, and I thought I would share!

1. Check out this article from School Library Journal where they interviewed some librarians about what kids are reading this summer for fun. I see some books kids I know are reading and some that I need to order for my library!

2. MO WILLEMS IS RELEASING A POP-UP BOOK! I am beyond pumped. Check out Mo's blog to see what he has to say and a short video. Now the real decision, do I pre-order or wait to see if I can score a signed copy from Books of Wonder later in the year?

I'm working on a couple of books, but so far its been a lazy summer.

And I'm okay with that.

Reviews coming as I finish!

Summer Reading Lists

In this month's School Library Journal, they ran an article reporting on what many different authors are reading this summer. It's pretty interesting! You can read that article here.

After checking out these authors' list, I thought about what I wanted to read this summer! Here is my list...

*Handle with Care by Jodi Piccoult
*The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare
*Calvin Coconut: Trouble Magnet by Graham Salisbury
*The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
*Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
*The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart
*Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff

There's no doubt that I'll add more as we get new books in at the library that I will just have to read. So we'll just have to see what else is in store!

What is on your list? Is there a book that you've read lately that I just have to read? Leave a comment and let me know!

Top 100 Picture Book Poll of 2009

School Library Journal conducted a poll this year asking readers to pick their favorite picture books. The results have been tallied and released!


Check out the Top 100 Picture Books from the 2009 Poll!

How many have you read? I've read 82, and will be looking to read the others very soon!

I was thrilled to see some of my favorite books on this list, and up at the top of the list!

Be Back Soon

So I'm not getting a chance to read much these days as I am busy, busy preparing for my library's 2009 Summer Reading Program.

I over plan (is there such a thing??) in hopes that it runs smoothly and only minor troubleshooting will have to happen.

We'll see!

Anyway, as soon as I get a chance to pick up a book and blog, I'll be back.

In the meantime, check out the sidebar for some of my favorite book bloggers. (They're way better than me anyway!)

--Liz

Wow, how cool!

Today at the Annual White House Easter Egg Roll, President Obama read Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.



I love that book, and loved to see our President read it to a group of young children.

Whoo-Hoo for reading aloud!

Youth Book Awards Announced Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is one of my most favorite days of the year: the announcement of the Youth Media Awards. Tomorrow we learn what the American Library Association considers to be the best youth books of the year.

I am so excited!

I'll be posting the winners tomorrow along with my thoughts, but if you want to follow the excitement with me, follow ALAyma on twitter for real time updates.

See you tomorrow, with exciting news!!

Breaking News...

Well not really.

Today Mo Willem's latest book Naked Mole Rats Gets Dressed is available for purchase.

The library got a copy in early, so of course I grabbed and have already enjoyed reading it! (Review coming soon!)

It's a cute one, so run out to your nearest bookstore and pick up a copy today!



I am hoping to snag a signed copy from my favorite independent bookstore (that is far way, sad!) later this week. Either way, you'll be seeing a new book day post very soon!

Now back to regular programming, a new book review went up today below!

Pardon the Interruption...

I've been away a few days ringing in 2009 and am now back perusing the internets and ran across the 2008 Cybils finalists.

The Cybil Awards are "the children's and young adult blogger's literary awards." Basically, the way it works is that bloggers can nominate books they read and review and each year the group picks the "best of the best." So it's not ALA accredited or anything, but we all know the power of blogging!

It looks like I have some reading to do now! (As if I don't have a mile high stack of books already in line to read!)

Check out the list here, and enjoy! The 2008 Cybil Finalists.

New Book Day!

I have the most awesome friends.

My new friends, the Bliss family --Bryan, Michelle, Nora & Ben-- scored a personalized autographed copy of Paper Towns, by one of my most favorite authors-John Green-just for me.





See, John Green thinks I'm awesome.

But I thinks he's awesom-er.

And that cool Bliss family, those guys are the awesom-est.

Thanks guys, I just absolutely LOVE my book.

(Hey, why don't you check out Bryan's blog? He just wrote a novel...he'll probably be famous one day, then you can say "I read his blog when...")

Where You Will Find Me This Weekend...

I think you should join me!

Find out more about the Southern Festival of Books here and check out the authors that will be visiting here.