Star-Lit: a Children's Literature Festival

The Star-Lit Children's Literature Festival has been an annual event in the Dallas area since 2003. Proceeds from from the one day event benefit the Dallas Bethlehem Center. Breakfast with the Authors tickets are $30 but the rest of the day's events are free to the public this year. If that were not reason enough to attend, uber-blogger, Cynthia Leitich Smith and Greg Leitich Smith are among the authors and illustrators presenting this year.

I have dreams of attending this and the Texas Book Festival every year but events on the home front seem to always conflict. Maybe this will be my lucky year?

Cynthia will also be presenting at the 2007 National Book Festival in Washington D.C. this year. The Mercer Mayer's poster is beautiful. I picked up a copy of last year's poster at the Library of Congress in May. These would be so interesting to collect.

Jason Bourne meets "Arthur"

Animation Magazine discusses the new season of Arthur for PBS:

The theme for this season on Arthur is "media literacy." Jason Bour...er...Matt Damon will be making an appearance.

Cookie Jar animation director Greg Bailey was able to sketch Damon in person to capture his likeness and translate it for Arthur’s world. For the backgrounds, the animators had to create an environment where Damon would live and what his office looks like. “We realized that Matt’s brother, Kyle Damon, is a wonderful sculptor and painter, so our animation artists used his artwork as a basis for all the backgrounds that Matt appears in,” Valette notes. “So there’s that nice collaboration with his brother.”

What a Doll!

Subterranean Press is publishing a special edition of Neil Gaiman's Coraline. They have asked puppeteer Mary Robinette Kowal to build three Coraline dolls, one of them to go to someone who preorders the book.

Kowal is writing about the process of designing the dolls. I find this utterly fascinating. I love paper models and I was one of those "insert tab A into slot a" sort of people and I still will buy paper models to put together even though I never seem to get around to it anymore.

Watch her work on the design of the head.

Power of Puppetry

Thank you to Sara Lewis Holmes at her blog Read Write Believe for this link to a Washington Post article about the Peace Through Puppets organization.

I think puppets are one of the most powerful forces in the universe. My own introduction to the world of puppetry came from a fellow school librarian and I owe her a world of thanks every time Dragon and I sit down with children. (There are times when I wish that the snide, obnoxious creature had never shown up but kids seem to appreciate his anarchy even when I do not.)

I have seen the busiest children sit perfectly still and follow directions to the letter in order to experience the joy of a puppet on their hand. One of the most moving school stories I've ever heard was of a distraught child in the principal's office would only talk to the small simple Styrofoam ball and handkerchief puppet creation that was a fellow librarian's side kick for years.



I did a series of puppetry lessons with my students every year once I discovered their power. Dover has a terrific book, Making Puppets Come Alive: How to Learn and Teach Hand Puppetry by Larry Engler and Carol Fijan which is an excellent resource for teaching ideas and has a pattern for a simple, faceless hand puppet which I used. You will need a class set.

Puppets engage imaginations and emotions in deep and important ways. We bemoan the effects of media on young people today, well, I say, hand out the puppets and watch the magic happen.

Sara Lewis Holmes website

Inspirational Teaching

Whether you are a teacher die-cutting letters for your bulletin board or a parent gearing up for another year of fun in the classroom, do not miss Mental Multivitamin's post "Teach, damn it." She has put together a short but sweet list of books, full of teaching inspiration for the new school year.


My brother, Principal Blandsworth, told me he had read Rafe Esquith's excellent Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire this summer and recommended it highly. If MMV and Principal Blandsworth recommend it, it has to be good.

Spell Chequer

Make sure your teachers, students and all writing friends see this video on the perils of spell-check and editing from Fuse #8's Video Sunday.

I make sure to dial up Fuse on Sundays just to see what she has found each week.

Piano Piano

Piano Piano by Davide Cali, illustrated by Éric Heliot, Charlesbridge, 2007
First published in France in 2005

When Charlesbridge offered me a chance to see some books from their catalog I was immediately drawn to the cover of Piano Piano. Heliot's strong opening image of a kid running down a keyboard just, well, struck a chord.

Marcolino practices the piano for several minutes a day. He would rather be doing ANYTHING else than playing the piano. When his mother tells him of her own missed opportunity of becoming a grand pianist, Marcolino practices for her. A visit with his grandfather reveals an interesting truth about his mother's piano dreams and helps him find the musical instrument that really defines him.

Héliot's illustrations give the story the perfect comic touch. His seemingly simple drawings convey the character's emotions perfectly. Marcolino's face as he sits at the piano is very familiar.

This story brought back such memories of my own childhood piano lessons and adult regrets of wishing I had practiced more. It also evoked parental memories of herding my own children back to the piano bench.

This book is for kids who are looking for their own musical instrument and parents who express their own dreams through their children.

Dilemma about 'Will's Excellent Adventure'

There is nothing like being in a school library before school starts.
Teachers start coming in, long before their contracts start, to set up their rooms and begin planning for the year to come. Even though the librarians start work a week before the teachers, there is precious little time to work for the library itself which is why I found myself cataloging a load of new material for a very busy librarian at an elementary school this week.

The librarian at this school runs a fun "Books to Movies" reading club every year. She was telling me of her plans to use The Dark is Rising as her first book in conjunction with the movie The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, aka Will's Excellent Adventure, when it comes out.

Wow, have you heard about the brouhaha surrounding the movie I ask?

I ended up feeling badly because she is now pondering using another book to start the year. I don't think she has read the story yet so I told her not to decide until she had.

The club is really popular so it would be a chance for lots of kids to experience Cooper's work. Maybe learning that the movies are not faithful conveyors of a beloved story is a good thing to teach kids.
Maybe it is not so bad to reward feckless studios who are counting on librarians to promote their offerings in scenarios just like this one?
Maybe the movie is going to be so alien from the storyline that it will not spoil the book for them.

What do you think?

Advice for School Librarians

It seems inevitable. Each spring the swallows return to Capistrano, baseball season begins, azaleas bloom, and book-banners stumble out of their caves and narrow their eyes in the direction of the school library.

I believe book challenges occur in greater numbers in the spring because parents have built up a store of unhappiness, resentment, and/or feelings of powerlessness earlier in the year and tend to lash out during the second semester. In junior high and high school the books get edgier just as parents are feeling less in control. If you are dealing with full-blown-book-banner-nutter-dom (as opposed to an interested parent who talks to the librarian about their concerns) you just have to ride the wave and hope your principal and district follow policy. Realize that it has very little to do with THE BOOK and everything to do with the parent's neediness.

In the interest of forestalling book challenges, as this new school year begins, ask yourself these questions:

1. Do your students look forward to their time in the library?

2. Do you interact with your students while they look for books? This means you have to leave the check-out desk. I know, this is hard if you do not have an aide or volunteers.

3. Do you get to know the kids' interests and reading strengths? They love it when someone takes a personal interest.

4. Do your students recognize you in the hall? Do they know your name? (added: Do you recognize them in the hall and do you know their names?)

5. Do parents hear about the "very cool" things you are doing in the library from their kids?

6. Do you take the opportunity to speak to the PTA or other parent groups at your campus about your program? They always need speakers. Volunteer! If they have paid for you to attend a workshop or conference, give them a report and send a thank you note.

7. Does the library have a presence on the school website? Do you contribute to the school newsletter regularly? These are PR opportunities made in Heaven.

8. Do you read the books so you can book talk at the drop of a hat with passion and enthusiasm to students, parents and teachers?

9. Do your teachers rely on you for recommendations and support in the classroom?

If you answer yes to these questions, you are an "A Plus" librarian and you probably enjoy the support and affection of your students, parents and teachers. You still may end up with a book challenge but lots of folks are going to think the complainer doesn't have enough to do with their time and lots of them will be in your corner.

Next:

1. Are you an "in-the-office" librarian, only focusing on the administrative aspects of the job behind a closed door?

2. Do you try to have as little personal contact with the kids as possible?

3. Does your reading aloud performance (this applies to secondary school too) communicate a desire to be anywhere else, maybe in the dentist chair having a root canal?

4. Have you ever put a teacher to sleep during a lesson?

5. Are your faculty members afraid of you? If the answer is yes, does that make you happy?

6. Are the kids afraid of you? If the answer is yes, does that make you happy?

7. Do you black out the "bad" words in the books on your shelves?

If you answer yes to these questions you might want to re-evaluate your mission. I could warn you about book challenges but you probably already a stack of "problem" books on your desk.

I salute the librarians who work so hard to teach important research skills, stoke young people's imaginations and instill a love of books and reading in their students.

Your joy and passion for your job is contagious.
Have a wonderful school year.



Clip art from School of Library Science, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX

Book Stack of Reproach

I have a TBR stack, actually it is several stacks, well actually it is a continuous veneer of TBR books that covers the homestead.

I also have a stack, or rather a shelf of books that I have read and enjoyed yet have not talked about here on BookMoot yet. Every day I see these books looking at me with sadness in their eyes.

--- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Books: We thought you liked us.

Me: I do. I liked all of you. I LOVED some of you and I know kids who would love you.

Books: But we just sit here. You don't tell anyone about us and you will not let us move on to another reader.

Me: Well, I am PLANNING to write about you. I want to write about you. I cannot give you away yet because I need you by my side when I write about you.

Books: What is stopping you?

Me: I'm just slow and it is summer and the Texas heat and humidity is finally here. Plus, each one of you is somebody's baby and I feel like I owe it to the author to communicate my enthusiasm as clearly as possible. I'm a librarian not a journalist--some days the words are hard.

Books: Well can you at least give us a shout-out or something? In the time you taking to talk to us now, you could be recording your thoughts about Red Mood at Sharpsburg by Rosemary Wells or Avielle of Rhia by Dia Calhoon or Skullduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy.

Me: Hey, I mentioned Skullduggery as one of my”48 Hour Reads.” That book is awesome, funny and original. Didn't I mention that?

Books: What ever. Just get a move on will you? We need to move on too. You already have library gigs booked for the school year and we like it when you give us to kids at the schools.

Me: OK, OK.

These books are excellent and I will tell you why soon.