So I’m reading through my weekly edition of AL Direct and I notice that no matter what worldwide occurrence takes place, librarians are always there. Whether it’s damage to two libraries in Egypt, stories from the librarians in Christchurch, New Zealand, or how the Wisconsin Library Association delayed Library Legislative Day due to the protests, [...]
In my travels I’ve been perusing the historical fiction that’s been coming out lately and I think I have detected an interesting trend. An interesting book jacket trend, no less. Consider the following: What do all of these have in common? Well, first off, they’re all historical fiction. Historical fiction that, in some cases, is [...]
I’m not telling you anything new by bringing this up now, but for those of you who may yet be unaware, the great Brian Jacques of the Redwall books passed away last weekend. I only had the pleasure of meeting Brian once at an event at the Campbell Apartment, and he was charming. I determined [...]
Marketing yourself. Yeah, forget the hokey-pokey. We know what it’s really all about in this game. You poor authors and illustrators. Isn’t it enough that you sweat and strain to create the highest quality literature for the generation that will inherit the earth after we are dead and gone . . . and now you’ve [...]
Oh sure, it may seem like everyone’s all smiles and happiness after the recent announcements of the ALA Media awards, but don’t be fooled. There’s definitely a deep discord of discontent out there. Funny thing is, it has nothing to do with the books and everything to do with the day after the awards. For [...]
When you work with the real Winnie-the-Pooh you have a tendency to get complacent. “Oh sure,” you think. ” I know everything about that bear. Absolutely everything.” So it’s nice when the universe gives you a swift kick in the pants to remind you that you are not always up on your Pooh knowledge. Or [...]
Oh man. I need to get my third Newbery/Caldecott predictions up and pronto. Now that the Heavy Medal blog has entered the arena again you just know that the debating is about to begin. Already I can see that I’ll have to fight tooth and nail for my beloved One Crazy Summer and that Nina [...]
Due to the sheer proliferation of book jackets featuring photographs rather than illustrations, I think the time is right to offer a little ode of praise to our brave illustrators who work so hard to give us great illustrated chapter book covers. In an age when it feels like all the teen covers are dedicated [...]
We begin today with a mild pet peeve of mine. Here we go. You see this lovely new paperback edition cover of the book Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me? Well I had great affection for the original story, though I was relatively lukewarm on its first cover. [...]
![Crows of Pearlblossom_cover[1]](http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/files/2010/08/Crows-of-Pearlblossom_cover1-150x150.jpg "Crows of Pearlblossom_cover[1]")
A night ago I had a dream that I was at the 826NYC Bingo Night and I forgot to take pictures or blog the event. The shame of it all! Boy, you know I won’t make that mistake this Saturday. And SPEAKING of this Saturday, are you guys aware that you rock, and rock hard? [...]
On Saturday, August 7th at 2:00 p.m. I will be moderating a talk with Stephen Roxburgh of namelos and Jennifer Perry, the Assistant Vice President & Editorial Director of the Book Publishing Group at Sesame Workshop, about ebooks, digital literature, and the current children’s literary industry. As preparation, this article from Publishers Weekly called The [...]
The other day I was talking about some favorite books that were getting re-published when in the comments Annette wrote about another book she would like to see in print again: “The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle and Who Was in It, by Carl Sandburg (pictures by Harriet Pincus but [...]
Yesterday I had a bit of surgery done on the old body that required my doctor to drill into my belly button. All is well and right with the world with me, but I figured I’d keep you updated on the state of the bod, just in case any of you stop by the library [...]
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