Today Show Watch

Woo Hoo!

The Today Show gave the annual Newbery/Caldecott winners interview to Al Roker!
Good job Al!

I can't wait to read both of these. Listening to Gaiman talk about The Graveyard Book reminds me of Eva Ibbotson's "ghost" books.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

ALA READ Posters

The fun thing about the ALA Awards is I end up browsing the ALA READ posters and bookmarks too.

Wowzers, there are some new ones (new to me.)

• Hugh Laurie with Treasure Island
• Cesar Millan Poster with The Power of Intention
• Twilight Poster with Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart (umm...what book could they be holding?)
• Wimpy Kid Poster with Greg Heffley reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid
• Search and Rescue Poster
  

I predict "Marley" will have a poster next year!

Newbery Winner

I can never ever predict the ALA award winners but I love the swirl of publicity and buzz they generate.



HAHAHAHAhahahahahhahahahahaah!
Neil Gaiman's reaction to his Newbery win for THE GRAVEYARD BOOK (without the swearing à la Twitter) is hilarious!

Love his description of librarians and "suchlike" as "great, wise and good people."

NonFiction Monday: Extreme Animals

Dewey: 590









Extreme animals: the toughest creatures on Earth by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Neal Layton, 2006

Extreme makeovers, extreme sports, extreme heat, extreme music: the word extreme conjures up images of rocketing skateboarders or freerunning athletes. Nicola Davies shares a sense of wonder and fascination with the living organisms that thrive and survive in seemingly inhospitable environments, dubbing them, extreme animals.

Tiny bacteria, camels, penguins, frogs and polar bears are just some of the living things that make a who's who list of these animals. Davies describes "how" they do it. She details the penguin's internal heating system and illustrator, Neal Layton, provides a drawing of how it works. Reptiles store water, camels have an internal brain cooler. Star fish and sponges can survive being cut apart. Extreme temperatures and extreme ocean depth would crush some creatures but others have adapted to these environments.

Neal Layton's drawings and cartoons illustrate and clarify the subject. His irreverent humor underscores the information. According to Davies, a sponge can be whirled in a blender and reassemble itself. Layton shows us a scientist quaffing a drink from the blender while a horrified co-worker murmers, "That's not a smoothie."

Other cartoon character offer commentary as a polar bear holds a sign, "Live Naked" or a camel gasps "hot" or "cold" as the day/night cycle. Even the index and glossary are embellished with small drawings which clarify and illustrate ideas and terms. The hardy tardigrade holds a sign, "Tardigrades Rule OK!"

If you've ever wondered why polar bears and penguins don't turn into popsicles, this book is for you.
I found it utterly irresistible!

Today Show Interview: Jeff Kinney

Today Show: Al's Book Club
Al Roker actually does a good job in these book club interviews. Maybe this year they will give him the Newbery/Caldecott interviews???

Camera pans the children in the "club" reading the book in the teaser shots leading up to the segment.

Gotta love the kid who is holding the book upside down (on purpose) and checking out the camera to see if he is "on."

Stuff I did not know: Kinney began writing Diary for a Wimpy Kid as a book for adults. Got the "good news/bad news" call--they were taking the book BUT as a kids' series.
Interesting what is considered the "bad news."

Kinney: Writing and illustrating is a tough process.
Kinney: Can take 5 hours to write one joke
The process: It is all hard/drawing and writing
A good portrayal of how he remembers his own childhood.
He is happy when the writing is over. The illustrations come easier then.

Good questions from the kids. Do they give the them the questions to ask the authors? No one has asked "where do you get your ideas from?" which is usually the first or second question kids ask.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid website
-------------------------

I know that Kinney's books are the most requested books at the circulation desks where I work and one copy per library is not enough.

Perpetual question: "Do you have any Diary of a Wimpy Kid books?" "Well, what about on the shelving cart?"

Overheard in line at mega-bookstore while perusing gift cards: "Hey there's Diary of a Wimpy Kid [giftcard] ... can I get that one?"

Update:

Ah yes, the Today Show continues the "Ann Curry tradition" of getting the author's name WRONG --

















From the Today Show website:

Kids read ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’
Jan. 16: Greg Heffley, author of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” talks to TODAY’s Al Roker and the kids of his book club about the young adult book series.

I guess "Greg Heffley," the character IS the fictional author...are they being funny?
Professional journalists at work here.
Sad, so sad.

Tiara Auction

Mia Thermopolis is the top bidder in the Tiara Auction to benefit the NYPL.

Oh my, I want this one, no--this one, no--this one, no--this one

Actress Julianne Moore, Chris Van Allsburg, Marc Brown, Vera Wang, Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton, Judy Blume and Nicole Miller are just some of the folks who have contributed.


Must check to see if there is any post wedding $$ available.

Thanks to Meg Cabot for the link.

See you on the other side

BookMoot is going off to do family/wedding things this week so I will see you all on the other side in 2009.

(But BookMoot, you are in a blogging void anyway so why bother even mentioning this?)

Well, I have just finished listening to an astounding performance in audiobook-ness. (I can do important Christmas/wedding thinking while listening to a book, I just can't read text and simultaneously drive or shop or write.)


**

Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy

Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady

by L. A. Meyer, narrated by Katherine Kellgren

Katherine Kellgren's performance as Jacky Faber, the heroine of this tale of high adventure, is a narration tour de force. Mary Burkey at Audiobooker named Blue Tattoo one of Audiobooker’s Choice: Great Youth Audiobooks of 2008. It also eaerned a 2008 Odyssey Award Honor. Kellgren joins Jim Dale, and Nathaniel Parker in the pantheon of youth audiobook readers.

Meyer's story is a sort of Oliver Twist meets Charlotte Doyle meets Horatio Hornblower.
In order to survive starvation as an orphan on the mean streets of London, Mary Faber becomes "Jacky" and signs on to the crew of HMS Dolphin as a ships' boy. She thrives as part of the Royal Navy. Standing fast under fire and as part of a boarding party, she earns the title Bloody Jack. She must keep her sex a secret but that becomes harder with each passing day.

Curse of the Blue Tattoo could be "the rest of the story" if Charlotte Doyle had not returned to the sea faring life. Jacky Faber meets Sarah Crewe from A Little Princess.

Jacky, newly promoted to midshipman, is booted off the ship when it is discovered that she is a girl. With her share of the Dolphin's prize money, she is enrolled in the Lawson Peabody School. Here the future wives of diplomats, congressmen and even presidents of the new republic are schooled and trained. She strives to understand the social conventions of 18th century Boston and learns school girls can be more dangerous than pirates.

I'm dialing up all of Kellgren's audiobooks, asap.

Video: Winter Wonderland

Can't stop clicking the play button...
Half the views of this video are from me and entling no. 1

Born to Read

Born to Read by Judy Sierra; pictures by Marc Brown, Knopf 2008

Judy Sierra is fast becoming a preacher-in-chief for literacy and reading. Her

Wild About Books follows a bookmobile-driving librarian to the zoo where she introduces the animals to books and they fall in love with reading.

She teams again with Marc Brown to evoke the pleasures, the benefits and the rewards of reading in Born to Read.

A baby named Sam can read his name painted on his crib, "That's me! he thought. "My name is Sam. I'm born to read. I know I am." (I loved the dragon mobile that hangs over his crib.)

Classic titles such as, Pat the Bunny, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Cat in the Hat overflow Sam's bed and room as they are are read to him by his mother. Same reads everywhere and any time. Brown even tucks one of his own Arthur the aardvark books under Sam's arm when the boy is called on to confront a giant that is rampaging through town. Sam's love of reading saves the day and predicts a bright future for him.

Hopefully, children will recognize the books featured in the story. Sierra's rhyming text is very enjoyable for out loud reading and her message about the importance of reading is for children AND their parents to hear.

If you, as a parental or grandparental unit, do NOT know what books should be on a baby's book shelf, you would do well to start with the list above. Throw in a Mother Goose and make reading to your little one a priority and part of your daily routine.

(English) (Spanish)

My Shining Star by Rosemary Wells (BookMoot-ed here) is another book to share with parents about the importance of reading to children and preparing them to be successful in school.

These books put me in mind of that grand Richard Peck poem, Twenty Minutes a Day. I always loved reading this powerful bit of poetry to parents especially this line:

Remedial? Gifted? You have the choice;
Let them hear the first tales
In the sound of your voice.
Read in the morning;
Read over noon;
Read by the light of
Goodnight Moon.

Librarians

Spock does not know how dangerous being a librarian can be.



Sometimes librarians lose it.



Classic Sesame Street and Cookie Monster visits the Library





Then sometimes they just deal with the problem.



Then there is the quintessential, Marian.
Robert Preston is the only Harold Hill for me.