Puppets and Muppet History

There is something magical about the relationship of kids and puppets. Bring out the puppets and every kid in a class will be on task. Just watch a child with a puppet on their hand sometime. You will see that they have entered a new world of imagination and wonder.

You have to have ground rules (puppets don't fight and puppets don't bite) otherwise you will lose control. And, alas, there was always one kid who will not follow directions and I would take their puppet and tell them to follow along with their hand. After a minute or two, I would ask them if they thought they could remember their puppet manners and would ALWAYS receive and emphatic, "Yes!" I never could bring myself to deny them the fun of playing for the whole class period. In the meantime, any other students pondering a breach of puppet etiquette had hastily reconsidered. It is just too much fun to have a puppet on your hand.

Much of what I know about working with puppets and kids, I learned from a librarian in our district. You also learn a lot from the kids themselves. There is no more satisfying feeling than hearing 22 voices cheer when they come into a library and see the puppet stage out and the puppets laid out for them.

Thanks to Nat Pacheco, via Puppeteers Unite for this bit of Muppet history. This is why we loved Jim Henson!

Author: Mike Lupica

Nice profile on author, Mike Lupica.

Although Mike still writes his popular sports column, and is a regular on ESPN’s “The Sports Reporters,” he says writing for young readers is his new favorite job. “This is the greatest writing adventure of my life,” Mike said. Does Mike have any advice for young readers? Of course, after all, he’s a dad and a coach. So here it is: Whether you’re taking about basketball or writing, Mike said, “Don’t let anybody limit your dreams, because nobody limited mine.”

I was talking to a friend yesterday who was telling me how much his son loves Lupica's books. He had to make his son return Heat to the school library so they could get his year-end report card.

Author: Tina Louise

I guess I knew this but maybe I forgot?

Tina Louise trained as an actor at the Actors Studio and the Neighborhood Playhouse. After success on Broadway, she went to Hollywood and played in a variety of films. She is best known for her comic turn as the stranded movie star Ginger in the TV series Gilligan's Island. She volunteers for Learning Leaders, a childhood-literacy advocate group in New York City, where she lives.

Still waiting for Julia Roberts to pen her children's book.

Learning Leaders website

Author: Chris Humphrey

I have been meaning to direct your attention for some time now, to Chris (C.C.) Humphrey's podcasts of his trip to Transylvania and Romania. He was there to do research and soak up the atmosphere of the old stomping grounds of Vlad Tepes aka Dracula. Humphrey's mellifluous voice is very easy on the ears.

Author: Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen has been named Children's Laureate.

Michael Rosen has been selected as the Children's Laureate, recognising his contribution to literature for young readers around the world.

48 Hour Book Challenge

Starting a book challenge while packing to leave Washington DC, checking carry-on bags for fluids and gels (forgot to notice the sunscreen) and death marching to the National Gallery while threading our way through 200,000 Girls Scouts enroute to a sing along - "Still Singing after all these Years!" - on the National Mall is dicey at best.

Fun to know Mother Reader herself was somewhere in the vicinity. I wonder if I was packed in next to her in the Smithsonian Metro station? We emerged from our train along with thousands and thousands of Girl Scouts in bright t-shirts. Shouts of "Buddy up, girls!" swelled from the throats of dozens and dozens of leaders and grown-ups trying to count heads and turn their troops in the right direction.

If I was a claustrophobic person, I would have seriously freaked out at the humanity-per-square-inch in that confined space. My main worry was being inadvertently pushed off the edge but we shuffled away from the drop and toward the escalators and slowly ascended towards the surface.

Total number of books read for the challenge: TWO
Total number of pages read for the challenge: 664 pages
Total altitude while reading: 36,000 feet
Number of sore limbs from 6 days of extensive sight-seeing while reading: 4
Number of heavy eyelids from 6 days of extensive sight-seeing while reading: 2
Amount of fun had from 6 days of extensive sight seeing and joy of reading two perfectly wonderful books: Too much to count!


My reading time did not commence until we arrived at Reagan Airport for the flight home.
My first book was the outstanding Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy, 392 pages. I had not finished when the plane landed 2 hours and 40 minutes later but maybe I was the only participant reading at 36,000 feet??

Since it was so late when we got home, I did not finish until the next day. My reaction to this book is to exhort you to run, skip, hop, hasten, or zoom to your nearest book provider and grab it.

Skulduggery Pleasant is part Dashiell Hammett with a stir of Raymond Chandler and shaken well with magic and fantasy. Storyteller Landy has laced the mix with humor and action. This is one of my favorite books this year!

I can hardly wait to read more. I hope Derek Landy is writing away. I love Irish storytellers.


Book 2 on my reading list was Robin Brande's Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature, 272 pages.

In this family we know we have a great book in hand when one of us stops reading and says to everyone present, "Listen to this!" I did that so many times last night, I might as well have read the whole book aloud.

Mena's first day of high school is turning out to be a nightmare. She is shunned by all her former "friends" for something we do not find out about until later in the story. She is enduing verbal and physical assaults and thinks she has lost her parents' love. The chance pairing (or did God have a hand in it?) with her science lab partner, Casey Conner, science genius, is about to change her life though.

Casey is funny and smart and determined to help Mena succeed. I loved his character whole heartedly from the moment he realizes Mena has never read Lord of the Rings.

"So you've read it?"

"Um, no."

"But you have seen the movies."

I sort of winced and shook my head. I need to learn to lie.

Casey closed his eyes and pinched his fingers against them like he had a terrible migraine. "Okay, you realize I'm going to have to do an intervention."

I love this guy.

The background of the story involves the teaching of evolution and the efforts of a fundamentalist church to inject creationism into the classroom. The reader is routing for Mena all the way as she attempts to understand her faith and resolve her relationships with her parents and her community.

The ongoing allusions to Lord of the Rings also delighted this reader.

Mercy Maude!

The entling and I are wandering the wilds of Washington D.C. so I am not posting this week. I brought a few books with me but tried to keep the number down to lighten the load. We are finding that after a day of seeing the sights, we are completely knackered and a good book to read is a blessing.

I have to recommend two of the best gosh darned books I think I have read this year.

Do run, sprint, hasten to your library, bookstore or online book seller and acquire The Misadventures of Maude March and Maude March on the Run by Audrey Couloumbis.

Hokey Smokes, Bullwinkle, do these books rock. They have so much action and humor that Couloumbis had me firmly glued to the pages. I could not stop reading.

I should describe the overflowing humor, the rich voices of the characters, the panoramic Wild West backdrop for the amazing events of the story, the historical accuracy of Couloumbis's research and the sense that this story could have really happened just the way she tells it.

But, I am tired, so I cannot. (We did the monuments today. I think I am broken.)

All I can say is summer reading should always be this great!

Author: Mitali Perkins

Author/blogger Mitali Perkins announces that her fictional character Sameera Righton is blogging. I spent some time on the site yesterday. "Sameera" is doing a great job covering all sides of the ' 08 campaign. I need to nominate my favorite junior high library for the contest.

Sameera Righton, the main character in First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover and First Daughter: White House Rules (Dutton Books For Young Readers), is blogging about the real first kid wannabes in the '08 campaign from now until November 2008 at www.sparrowblog.com.

To celebrate the release of the first novel in this two-book series, we're giving away ten signed copies. Here's how to get one if you're interested:

THIS SUMMER: Five libraries (school or public) can win free signed copies as visitors come to Sparrow's blog (www.sparrowblog.com) from June 15 - September 1 and leave the name of the library they love in the comments. The five most frequently mentioned libraries win the books.

PUB DATE CONTEST: Five libraries can win free signed copies on pub date by linking to and sending the most visitors to Sparrow's '08 campaign blog (www.sparrowblog.com) before June 14, 2007. Right now, the libraries in the lead are:

* Beaverton City Library, Oregon
* Westerville Public Library, Ohio
* Mamaronek Library, New York
* West Bend Library, Wisconsin
* Bellingham Public Library, Washington

Book Designer: Chad Beckerman

Excellent interview with Chad Beckerman about the role and responsibilities of an associate art director.

I knew I loved his book designs (The Last Apprentice) but it was fun to learn Beckerman is a kindred spirit. He is a book smeller!

At the end of a project you get to hold onto something you helped make, that is so rewarding. I think that's something that is sort of archaic now a days but it's kind of great. This might sound odd but the first thing I do when I get a new book in from the printer is I smell it. There is nothing quite like smelling the fruits of your labor. The fresh ink can give you a headache. But it’s a great feeling. Much more rewarding than candy.

I love cracking open a box of new books, admiring the pristine covers, then fanning the pages to the middle of a book and smelling that glorious fragrance, that bouquet of ink and fresh paper.

HarryPotterLand

I think a great deal of interest in this Harry Potter theme park will hinge on the satisfaction of readers with book 7.

Harry Potter theme park swoops to Fla.

LONDON (AP) — Universal Studios is opening up a Harry Potter theme park in Florida — complete with the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Forbidden Forest and Hogsmeade village.

"The Wizarding World of Harry Potter," will open in late 2009 in Orlando, officials said Thursday.