MotherReader

Thing Number One:
There’s a DC-brand KidLit Drink Night this Saturday, November 10th. Because we define DC broadly here, it’s actually in Bethesda, Maryland. The Rí~Rá Pub & Restaurant at 4931 Elm Street features a cheap parking garage across the street (its meters take change) and easy access from the Bethesda Red Line Metro stop. I’ll be there at 6:00 p.m., along with writers Sara Lewis Holmes and Caroline Hickey, and hopefully you! (Rumors that Bono is attending have not been confirmed.)

Thing Number Two:
In case you missed it yesterday with my long-winded introduction, I’ll be hosting the November Carnival of Children’s Literature. Carnivals are simply collections of posts in a specific topic area (in this case Children’s Literature), pulled together by a host for easier reading. Since they can have a theme, I’ve decided to do something a little different, maybe even a bit of a stretch. For this month I want a tip as a reader, writer, illustrator, reviewer, publisher, or editor of children’s literature. I want a lesson learned from a teacher, librarian, author, or parent with regards to kids’ lit. It doesn’t have to be a post that you did in November or October, though you may consider tweaking and re-posting an older entry to use; you can pick a post from any point this year. The deadline for submission is Saturday, November 24th, and I’ll post the Carnival on Wednesday, November 28th. Send your links through my email (see the Email MotherReader! button) or the Carnival site — and please indicate, if possible, whether the tip/trick/hint is more for reader, writer, illustrator, reviewer, publisher, editor, teacher, librarian, or parent. (Yes, I know that there is plenty of overlap, but it would save time for me in organizing the posts if the suggested category were included with your link.) Some examples (and indeed previews) include Kelly’s writer tips, Sara’s how to write a poem, Robin’s look at writers and money, and my booktalking for teens. I’d love to see some editors and publishers give us some ideas for getting a foot in the door. Some librarians share a special program that rocks. Some reviewers tell how to handle the mountain of books. Some authors address school visits or writer’s block. I know that we all have so much knowledge to share with each other, and I wanted to present one great big opportunity to do so.

Thing Number Three:
Today, Poetry Friday is hosted by A Wrung Sponge, and she has an excellent idea for us. She suggests that we take our poetry out into the world. Put a poem by the microwave at work! On the bulletin board in school! In the bathroom stall at Target! Okay, I might have added that last one for giggles. Today I’m taking out a poem from John Grandits’ book, Technically It’s Not My Fault. It’s a collection of concrete poems, and I’ve used a couple of them in booktalking sessions to the middle school, particularly the title poem, which is on the cover and goes something like this:

I know, I know. You’re really mad. But I can explain. See, I was reading about Galileo, a guy who made all these great discoveries and did cool experiments. and the book said that he dropped a heavy object and a light object out of a window to show they’d land at the same time because gravity is constant. But I thought, No way! Heavy things fall fast and light things fall slow. We know this from Saturday morning cartoons, right? So I decided to do the experiments myself. I found a concrete block in the garage and I got a tomato from the fridge, and I took them up to the attic and opened the window and rested them on the sill. And it really, really looked like there was going to be plenty of room for them to fall between the house and the car. I mean, like, who knew?

(If you want to read the rest, click over to the Amazon listing and click on the Browse Sample Pages: Front Cover. I’ll tell you, read fast, this poem kills at booktalks.) Today, I’ll be putting a copy of “The Little House” by the water fountain at work (kids love water fountains). It has a drawing of a house, and the first part has the words all piled up on top of each other in a way that I can’t replicate here, but they say:

Building a poem is like building a little house. You start with some bricks — a pile of words. They’re all mixed up. There is no order. They keep tumbling all over each other.

Those words are in a pile like the bricks they mention, but then the other words of the poem are inside the house and the ideas are of building, taking your time, and leaving space. I love this poem, but since I can’t find it online and can’t (and wouldn’t) post it here, you’ll have to look for it on your own or come to my library and visit the water fountain.

Thing Number Four:
Don’t forget to check out the newest issue of The Edge of the Forest, which features an interview with Sara Zarr, a discussion about readergirlz’ “31 Flavorite Authors for Teens,” and many reviews of Young Adult novels. It also includes an article I wrote, “Can A Funny Book Be Taken Seriously?” and I’m feeling pretty positive about it. After all, it reveals a conversation wherein a noted literary agent calls a Printz-winning book crap, and then ends with a brilliant paragraph on the topic area by the author of that Printz-winning book in a way that could be summed up by a current expression — that expression being SNAP!

I’ve returned from a long weekend which was equal parts complete delight in my toddler niece and emotionally draining upkeep of my mother. Ah, family. Gotta love ’em.

I’ve also wasted my one day that is both off work and at home sneezing my poor nose off. Delayed allergy attack from cleaning twenty pounds of pine needles off my mother’s roof? Oncoming cold to taint my good deed karma? A coup by my nose against my very face? Wish I could tell you.

I can find a little bit of peace in being able to post an announcement about the new Edge of the Forest issue instead of writing up something today. The issue includes an article I wrote, “Can A Funny Book Be Taken Seriously?” which included some great insights from some wonderful writers (who are particularly wonderful for responding to my article question quickly, much less at all). I can only hope it included some interesting bits from me. The Edge also features an interview with Sara Zarr, a discussion about readergirlz’ “31 Flavorite Authors for Teens,” many reviews of Young Adult novels, and even more for the low, low price of... nothing!

In other news, there looks to be a DC-brand KidLit Drink Night on Saturday, November 10th. Okay, it’s actually in Bethesda, Maryland, not DC, but we’re all one big regional family here. The new locale is the Rí~Rá Pub & Restaurant at 4931 Elm Street. There is a cheap parking garage across the street (its meters take change) and it’s about three blocks from the Bethesda Red Line Metro stop. I’ll be there along with writers Sara Lewis Holmes and Caroline Hickey, and you’re invited too! We’re meeting around 6:00 p.m. and staying until we get sick of each other. Come on out and hang with the cool crowd — oh, and me.

Okay, so that went well. Maybe one of my Best Days Ever. Let’s start at the beginning.

I woke up at 4:30 a.m., all charged up. I tried to go back to sleep, but gave up at 5:00 a.m. and decided to read Letters from Rapunzel (great book, btw) since I would be seeing the author at ALA. And what else was I going to do with myself at that ungodly hour of the morning?

Took the Metro into town by 9:00, and shared a seat with a nice YA librarian from Richmond. Together we figured out where to go for registration. It was very helpful to have someone else with me for this because the Washington Convention Center is huge, and I hate navigating around unfamiliar places. Even though it seemed as if there were lots of long lines to sign in, with my online registration I just had to walk up to a computer, type in my number, and my badge printed out. How simple. Everything was already off to an easy start.

The exhibit hall was immense. But I kept in mind my first goal of the day, and went directly (pretty much) to the Horn Book booth to meet Roger Sutton. He was there as promised, and I introduced myself. We talked a little bit, but he had someone else who came up to see him, so I excused myself. I would have loved more time to chat, but perhaps another time. Great to meet him in person in any case.

My goals for touring the exhibits were to see what books were coming out, introduce myself to some publishers to smooth the requesting books process, and get some books signed for me and for next year’s 48 Hour Book Challenge. I was able to get to the signings of Avi, Gregory MacGuire, Jack Prelutsky, Nancy Perl, Eric Kimmel, Laura Schlitz, and Jeff Kinney. The only one I really had to wait for was Jack Prelutsky, and he was very friendly and funny about signing the book “You’re a winner!” for the 48 HBC. Other notables were Avi, who was a little bit cranky about doing the same thing, and Jeff Kinney of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, who was very sweet and gracious. I may be biased though, in that at least he knew my blog. I bought his book for my daughter, but he’s committed to a donation for next year’s contest and I will remember that.

So then I’m minding my own business, walking around, and who should I run into but John Green and Cecil Castellucci! Now they were two of the people I had most wanted to meet, but they were on the Sunday author signing schedule. And yet, here they were. I talked to Cecil about how much I had loved her book Beige and other book stuff, including an interview I’m going to do with her as soon as I can send her the questions. I introduced myself to John Green — who did know my blog, but I had never met him personally — and we talked briefly about his email overload, his Judy Blume encounter, and his Brotherhood 2.0 project. He let me take the picture, as long as I promised to let go of his arm.

So then I’m minding my own business again, but this time at the Harcourt booth, when I ran into M.T. Anderson. After waiting somewhat awkwardly (awkward for him I mean, since he was talking with his publisher and I was all but actively staring at him waiting to talk to him), I introduced myself and he did know my blog (niiice) and we talked a bit about blogs (he mentioned Seven Impossible Things specifically) and book contests (well, mine) and Tulane readers theater (we agreed that asking Kate to sign it was probably inappropriate) and his Brotherhood 2.0 appearance (which, frankly, was why I recognized him so quickly). A nice Harcourt rep took our picture.

He escaped from my clutches, and I turned around and recognized — after a few seconds — Liz from Tea Cozy. As if that weren’t enough for my chance meeting quota, then I saw Rebecca Stead — who I had so enjoyed meeting in NYC — and Sara Holmes — whose book I had read that morning — without moving from the Harcourt booth. Since we were all going to Mitali’s party, I didn’t have to go in alone and got bonus time walking and talking with these cool folk.

Mitali’s book launch party was lots of fun with a reading, quizzes, and a bhanga lesson. I got to meet Mitali for the first time in real life, and she was just as nice and sweet as I’d guessed. Sheila from Wands and Worlds took my dare and came to the party, and even with her tight schedule, Betsy from Fuse#8 made it too! As everyone circulated, I met lots of fun bloggers and publishers and librarians. (Oh my!)

Afterward, about fourteen of us headed over to the KidLit Drink Night. There was some confusion about where to put us, but that was mostly my fault because I didn’t realize that as Julie from Reader’s Carousel (picture already up, so timely) went there first, she’d reserved a great table for us near the bar. I had a little more time — though not nearly enough time — to meet the bloggers from Biblio File, Zee Says, The YA YA YA’s (well, one ya at least), and 2nd Gen Librarian. Book lovers Genivieve and Kristin came into town just for the event, and we were joined by Blue Rose lady Alvina and Summer Blog tour interviewee Justina Headley. Oh, and Rebecca’s friend and fellow Class of 2K7er Karen Day. Oh and Sondra and Jenna from Kane/Miller and Mindy (oh no, is that right?) from Hachette that I loved talking to — and not just because she knows Mo. Oh, and an author, Rhonda Roth, and an independent publisher, Sarah Doyle, stopped by too to chat and meet people.

I love parties, so I had a great time meeting everyone, and I am ninety percent sure that everyone else had fun too. I have to say that after being up since 4:30 a.m. (not my usual practice), eating very little (also not my usual practice), and talking to people all day (which revs me up), I was a little wired. And I’ll admit that. But it was an awesome end to an incredible day.

I have to send out a special thank you to Sheila, who not only came to the book launch and happy hour even though she was headed on a vacation the next day, but helped take care of business at Capitol City Brewing Company. She was great at dealing with the waiter, who was very confused by our using the fourteen seats at the table as some sort of KidLit musical chairs game. Some people had to leave early, some came later, some moved around, some ordered dinner, some didn’t. The poor waiter. She also took over my most dreaded chore — settling the bill and making sure it worked out. Not only did it work out, we had more than enough. So if you are feeling like you overpaid, let me thank you for buying me a beer. (Love and smiles.)

We left about 8:00, and I took the Metro home. I had promised myself that I would not pick up lots of ARCs but I couldn’t resist. Hauling them around all day was enough of a chore, but walking to the Metro I was starting to feel the strain on my shoulders. But today it’s just YEAH, NEW BOOKS!

And I’m going to throw this in because it’s related to meeting bloggers in person. Last weekend I got to meet Kelly from Big A, little a after her conference in the Hampton Roads area. We met in Norfolk with the kids — and I knew they were her kids as soon as we approached the meeting place because the oldest child was reading a book. We took a free, self-guided tour of the battleship Wisconsin, walked along the harborside, and had dinner. Kelly was just like I would have guessed, so engaging, friendly, and and interesting. We had great conversations, our kids all got along well, and we had a wonderful time. I can’t wait to see her again some day. Ah, one more picture. Why not?

Back to yesterday — I hope to get some pictures from people (email me!) since I forgot about my camera phone for almost all of the time. If I missed putting you in my post, I apologize, but it’s a loooong post and I’m losing steam now. I’ll be interested to see what experiences everyone else had at ALA. It was good for me. Was it good for you?

Next week I start talking about books again — I know, amazing — starting with a Very Special Picture Book.

Final reminder to join me, Liz from A Chair, A Fireplace, and A Tea Cozy, and Betsy from Fuse#8 at the KidLit Drink Night in DC. We’ll be meeting around 5:30 at the Capitol City Brewing Company at 1100 New York Ave, NW. Or if you prefer to think of it this way, at the corner of 11th and H Streets, NW. The restaurant/bar is near the Washington Convention Center and the Martin Luther King Library, where Mitali Perkins is having her book launch. I’ll be wearing a bright-red “I’m a Noun!” T-shirt from corporate sponsor of the 48 HBC, Threadless, to make me very easy to find. Everyone is welcome. Authors drink free. (Could happen.)

This little game won’t even stretch one tiny brain cell. Remember the whole An Abundance of Katherines anagramming thing? I recall trying some gizmo that would anagram your name, but it gave you a long list of possibilities that you had to sort through to find the coolest one. Well, now all that work has been taken off your hands, as this one pops out one — and only one — response. Mine was Human Allowances Rampages — which seems dangerously close to a good band name. John Green, writer of said Katherines book, and who will be signing copies at ALA at multiple locations and times, comes out with the very odd n’ jeer ’n’ hog. I’m going to bet using a middle name would straighten that one out. Mo Willems, who will be signing books at ALA and giving color commentary on the book cart drills, must live with low, slim me. So far it’s Mitali Perkins, with her book launch party at ALA (register here), who wins in my book with Man-like spirit, though Roger Sutton, manning the Horn Book booth, comes in pretty close with Strong outer.

You’re catching all the ALA references, right? Do I need to remind you of the KidLit Drink Night in DC? I’m thinking of handing out flyers to the publishers and the authors as I cruise the exhibits hall. Seriously. There was some concern that another group, Library and Information Technology Association, is having a happy hour at the exact same time and place, but I’m not worried. In fact, in my head, I see the face-off of the two groups with a West Side Story thing going on. That would kick ass.

The location for the KidLit Drink Night in DC is finalized. After my first choice apparently closed, the Capitol City Brewing Company took the lead by being the only other bar I knew in the area. The actual address is 1100 New York Ave, NW. The useful address is the corner of 11th and H Streets. Since Washington, DC, is basically a grid, those numbers and letters are pretty helpful. It’s when those pesky state-named streets come into play that everything goes haywire. In any case, the restaurant/bar is near the Washington Convention Center and the Martin Luther King Library, where Mitali is having her book launch.

So here’s the plan. On Saturday, June 23rd, I’m heading to the American Library Association Annual Conference to see the exhibits and hopefully say hello to some nice folks. I’ll be fielding book deals from, let’s say, 1:00–2:30. Just putting it out there. From 3:30–5:00 I’m going to Mitali Perkins’s book launch party at the DC Public Library. Liz from A Chair, A Fireplace, and A Tea Cozy and Betsy from Fuse#8 will be there. If you want to go, let Mitali know you’re coming. After the book launch, we will head to the now-disclosed location and stay until we get sick of each other. All bloggers, authors, illustrators, librarians, and blog-fans are welcome. And by welcome I mean ordered to attend.

The MotherReader move was not the announcement I had planned to make. That’s all Bill.

There is a fantastic opportunity to find free books (some), collect swag (tons), and meet people (librarians). The American Library Association Annual Conference is coming to Washington, DC, on the weekend of June 22nd and I’m going to be there. In fact, I’m going to Mitali Perkins’s book launch party from 3:30–5:00 on Saturday, June 23rd, at the DC Public Library. I can invite friends, and I invite you and you and you. (Though you should go here and let Mitali know you’re coming). Liz from A Chair, A Fireplace, and A Tea Cozy will be there. And maybe, just maybe, if we can pry her away from all those publishers greedy for her time, Betsy from Fuse#8 (now at School Library Journal) will come.

After the book launch, we will head to a now-undisclosed location — undisclosed because we don’t know it yet — for munchies and drinks. Meaning...

it’s a KidLit Drink Night in DC!

I’ve got my people working on possible locations, and I’m sure we’ll know soon. But in the meantime, feel free to mark your calendars, arrange for bus fare, call your cousin in Silver Spring for a visit, and print your business cards. If you aren’t into the whole conference thing... well, neither am I. You’ll see me with the exhibits-only pass, trying to chat up any random authors I find — and recognize. Hope to see some of you folks there.

And now it’s time to give props to the many authors and bloggers who donated prizes to the grand prize packages. TadMack and ZG may want to look away, unless they’re the kind that sneak peeks at their Christmas presents. Thanks go to:

• Threadless, who donated the Haiku T-shirt and the Shakespeare hoodie to the contest.


• Tonya Lee Stone, for A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl.


• Celise Downs, for Dance Jam Productions and Secrets and Kisses and cool key clips.


• Sara Lewis Holmes, for Letters from Rapunzel.


• Bonny Becker, for Holbrook: A Lizard’s Tale.


• Jennifer Holm, for Babymouse and Matt Holm, for the original Babymouse sketch.


• Mo Willems, for Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay up Late and winner’s letter.


• Tricia, for the Tibetan prayer flag.


• Beth, for the handmade journal.


• Other Beth, for the handmade jewelry.


• A Wrung Sponge, for original photos and sayings.


• Nancy, for a Starbucks Gift Card.


• And me, for assorted items to balance things out for the two winners.

Again, thank you to the many people who donated items for prizes. Thank you to all the participants who made the 48 HBC happen. Thank you to all those on the sidelines who supported us with links and love. Great time, everyone.