Movie: Becoming Jane

Here is the trailer for Becoming Jane. At this point I am just checking the dress details. The necklines look like they have the drawstring gathering!! Yippee! Now I have to look at the trimmings.

Stills from the movie are here.

Harry Potter Par-tae!

Well, the entling apparently did NOT win a trip to J.K. Rowling and the Moonlight Signing at London’s Natural History Museum, on July 21st. There were ONLY 40,000 plus other entries. I note that a 17 year old girl in the area did get the call.

Hokey smokes, look at the line up B&N and Disney Publishing has put together for July 20 at Barnes & Noble Union Square in Manhattan!

Dave Barry (via video) and Ridley Pearson
Eoin Colfer (via video)
Rockstar Rick Riordan
Jonathan Stroud
Cinda Williams Chima (anybody read her books?)
Uber Narrator, Jim Dale

They will be webcasting the event.

Update: B&N is rescheduling the authors. They are now saying "each author will be individually rescheduled at a later date." -- from Mickey News

I have been listening to Book 6 so I will be ready. The entling has been reading them in reverse order, as is her tradition.

Author: Shannon Hale

Don't miss Shannon's interview on NPR this a.m. Then check Shannon's blog, Squeetus, for an eloquent discourse on "Our Chum Jane."

2007 National Book Festival

Hooray! Our cynsational Cynthia Leitich Smith will be appearing at the 2007 National Book Festival!

Mercer Mayer will be designing the poster. Now that I know the wheres and hows of Washington, this would be so much fun!

"I cannot live without books." -- Thomas Jefferson

I visited the Library of Congress when we were in Washington, DC. What a thrill. "Just think, I've downloaded your records for years and now here I am."

NOTHING prepared me for the beauty of that space. I was stunned and stupefied at the color, themes and unyielding marble surfaces. (I think my feet and legs suffered more from that visit than any other trek on our visit.)

Book shopping in DC
The entling ran out of reading material early on so we visited the very nice B. Dalton in Union Station when we passed through to get her a quick reading refill.

Whenever there was a lull in the action, "OMG, I cannot take another step!" (My level of physical fitness makes a couch potato look like an Olympic athlete) the entling would happily whip out her book while I recovered.


The estimable Sprite Writes also alerted us to Politics and Prose. We rode the bus to the shop and spent a wonderful hour-plus, roaming the store. The children's books are downstairs. The lovely lady helping folks absolutely knew her stuff. I should have found out her name. While I was there, a mother and daughter, with a basket, were buying summer reading. Don't you just love to see parents just piling up the volumes to purchase? The girl was a going to be in 5th grade next year. I am afraid I spent some time saying, "Oooh, have you read THIS?" They added several of my enthusiasms to their pile, including Maude March. I cannot seem to stop telling people about Maude.

One of the most entertaining places to find books was The Spy Museum. This family spent over three hours there. The museum is a brilliant mix of video, audio, artifacts and storytelling. The crowd was so dense at first that I was afraid I was going to hate it but eventually people rushed on and left us to meander through the exhibits.

The gift shop is as entertaining as the museum itself and had one of the best selections of children's books I had seen on our trip. Of course they all had to do with spies or spying. There was Alex Rider, Jimmy Coates, the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Young James Bond, Harriet the Spy, and Christopher Paul Curtis's Mr. Chickee. There were even more that I cannot recall now but I was amazed at the imagination and knowledge of the buyer. The book choices were spot on for the theme.

Stamp it up!

Years ago, I purchased a National Parks "Passport" on a family vacation to one of our nation's splendid national parks. I vowed to always have it at hand, just in case I stumbled over a national monument or memorial. I then promptly forgot it on the trip we took to Yellowstone a few years later so I bought another one.

Hoorah! I actually remembered to pack both of them for the DC trip and it became one of my goals for the week to locate the official stamp at the monuments and memorials we visited and ink the passports with the date of our visit .

I will say that this activity is more interesting to me than my children who still chide me about my detour to the location of the Golden Spike ceremony just so I could get my passport stamped. Hey, we were in "the neighborhood" and what were the chances we would ever be this close again? Imagine them joining those two railroads out there in the middle of NOWHERE. Amazing.

I don't remember exactly how many miles away from the interstate it was or how long it took to get there. I do remember it looked closer on the map and that is all I have to say.

By the way, the stamps for the Lincoln Memorial, The Mall, The Vietnam War Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial are ALL in the bookstore at the Lincoln Memorial which is, imperceptibly, squirreled away in the far corner of the statue level, NOT down in the exhibit area. Believe me, I just saved you forty-five minutes of hunting for it.

This also gives one the excuse to enter ALL the visitor centers/gift stores on the pretense of looking for the stamp. What an amazing selection of history books, cds, dvds. Most of them had a nice selection of children's books that related to the person or subject too.

Which Peanuts Character are You?

Tasha at KidLit found this quiz.

Which Peanuts Character are You?

You are Schroeder! Take this quiz!

Movie: City of Ember

This could be fun:

Bill Murray will star in a film adaptation of Jeanne DuPrau's YA novel City of Ember, to be directed by Gil Kenan (Monster House) and written by Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands, The Secret Garden and Corpse Bride). Murray will play the Mayor of Ember. Production begins in Belfast this summer, with an October 2008 release date planned. Playtone and Walden Media will co-produce.

Austenland: A Novel

Austenland: A Novel by Shannon Hale, (2007) Katherine Kellgren (Narrator)

• If you love Jane Austen novels, this book is for you.
• If you love the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice and think Colin Firth is the BEST EVER Darcy, this book is for you.
• If you enjoy a lighthearted romance that you would not be embarrassed to share with your mother or your daughters, this book is for you.
• If you are currently sewing period dresses for a daughter who has become involved in English Country Dancing and making note of how most of the fullness in Regency style empire waisted skirts is at the back at of the dress to allow for a smooth profile from the front, this book is for you.

Thirty-two year old Jane Hayes feels like she is a loser at love. She has the DVD of the BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice which she pulls out when she needs a shot of Mr. Darcy. She longs for the romantic connection of an Elizabeth Bennet-and-Fitzwilliam Darcy sort in her own life.

She is bequeathed a trip to "Jane Austen World" in England, by a great-aunt. Pembrook Park lets the "campers" live and breathe 18th century England, complete with elegant gowns, etiquette and diversions. Jane decides this is her opportunity to purge herself of her Darcy neediness by immersing herself in the fantasy. She is a 21st century person at heart though, so as she becomes accustomed to corsets and dresses that are not conducive to exercise, there is a part of her that holds back. In her heart she knows the "gentlemen" are actors but that does not keep her from wishing for a true romance.

I enjoyed Jane's ability to match the events at Pembrook Park to the plots and characters from Jane Austen's novels. This is an entertaining and fun summer read. No one can "do" Jane Austen. Austenland is Shannon Hale's curtsy to the master.

I listened to audio version of the book because of my schedule. I enjoyed it but I am also looking forward to going back and actually reading it, which is something I rarely do.

Third Blogiversary!

Sheila has been blogging for two years which reminded me that Book Moot started three years ago on June 8.

At the time, the only other children's lit blog I knew about was Tasha over at Kid Lit. There were probably others, I just had not found them yet.

I cannot believe the community and friends I've "met" these past three years.