MotherReader

You know those articles where you learn which local doctors the doctors would go to? Well, here is one part of my version — which picture books I will give to my beloved three-year-old niece out of all of the Cybils-nominated picture books I’ve seen. To find out, head over to Booklights and lend your support, thoughts, or suggestions in the comments.

Speaking of Cybils, I’m having great fun going through the many, many nominated picture books. I’ve read about 140 of the 176 titles and have seen some truly wonderful books. It’s going to be very hard to narrow my favorites list down, much less work with the other panelists to bring seven books to the final shortlist. But I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Speaking of challenges, I totally bailed on NaNoWriMo as my fifth grader hit the skids with her schoolwork. We’re having some issues with the amount of work involved this year and her own ability to do that work. The teacher has not been helpful. So, I spent November doing far more work on fifth grade homework than on my novel, but I was glad to get the firm starting point that NaNoWriMo offered. I am very proud of my buddies Abby and Sarah who met their goals. Congratulations! (They’ve both also got great gift-giving blog posts going with 12 Days of Giving and Tween Book Buying Guide.)

Speaking of gifts, don’t you want to win a free book you can give as a present this holiday season? Enter by leaving a comment with your favorite 2009 book for a chance to win The Day Glo Brothers plus a surprise picture book. And of course I have to plug 105 Ways to Give a Book for your holiday book-buying needs.

Today at Booklights, I’ve got three great books for nighttime. One is sweet and lovely. One is silly and adorable. One is clever and funny (and a little bit creepy.) Go see, and suggest a nighttime favorite of your own.

NaNoWriMo has been bit of a bust for me so far, but I’m gearing up to tackle the second part of the month with more energy now that I’ve found it again. (It was behind the couch.) I’ve noticed the KidLitosphere seems a little quiet, and I wonder if more people are taking advantage of this month of writing than I thought. Or it could be all that Cybils reading is taking up a lot of time formerly spent blogging.

I’m going to start with some New York City stuff, and come back with my full-on State of the KidLitosphere speech in a separate post. Because I can. First, I must suggest the different charter buses from DC to NYC. They are an absolute steal. I’ve liked Washington Deluxe, but tried Tripper Bus this time because it left from Arlington. I didn’t think that the bus itself was quite as nice and you have to pay up front. But for forty or fifty dollars, you’ve got a round trip to the Big Apple.

On this trip, I was headed right to the library for our panel on the KidLitosphere and the Cybils. I felt disoriented at first, stepping off the bus in the city, and having to mentally adjust to speaking in front of people within about an hour. I thought that our discussion went well, and we all spent an additional hour after the session talking to authors and bloggers in attendance. While Betsy was finishing up work, I went shopping in the craft stores set up in Bryant Park behind the library. Got some gifts, too. Then we all met back up for dinner at a Spanish restaurant in the Village. (Tip: sit on the end next to the sangria pitcher and the waiter will fill up your glass far more than anyone else at the table.) The conversations of five, enthusiastic kidlit folk felt like that of twenty people. The concepts, ideas, suggestions, thoughts on all things kidlit- and blogging-related were flying. I couldn’t keep up. Well, except for the sangria.

At the end of the evening, Betsy and I send the commuters on their train rides home while we headed uptown. Betsy was kind enough to loan her futon for my Saturday night stay, but before bedtime there was still a lot more talking to do about blogs, books, and writing. And a little bit of agents, publishers, and screenplays too.

In the morning, I took the subway — all by myself — back to the Village to meet a long-time friend and her family. We had a great day together, with astonishing beautiful weather and — yeah! — another craft show. Then it was the bus ride back, which was less pleasant given that I just wanted to be home. That whole transporter technology can’t come soon enough for me.

I alway enjoy my trips to New York City, and am already thinking of when I can fit in another. I’ll definitely go for Book Expo America, but maybe before then too. Somebody plan something I can’t resist in January or February, okay?

Today at Booklights I’ve got three Cybils-nominated picture books that are worth a look for the toddler set. That said, I’m pretty sure that the French one will be staying on my personal shelf for a long time to come. And I’m no toddler, though I occasionally cry like one. Generally on election day. (Stupid Maine.)

My progress in NaNoWriMo has been stalled by my supremely annoying life. I believe I have made some necessary adjustments in some areas and made my peace with other aspects, and hope to get back on the writing bandwagon today. I’m still having trouble finding my Buddies, and I know that my KidLitosphere peeps are out there. So please find me with my other user name, Mreader, and urge me on. I can say that I’m very proud of two of my buddies, Abby and Sarah, with more than seven thousand words so far. Great job!

In two days, I’m going to New York City to participate in The Children’s Literary Café on Saturday, November 7th, at 2:00 p.m.: Cybils Kick-Off: Blogging in Style. I’ll be joining with the heads of the other five families — Betsy Bird, Liz Burns, Anne Boles Levy, and Susan Thomsen — for the panel and then afterward. It is possible with all of us in the room at the same time that we may change the face of kidlit blogging as we know it to be. Fair warning. If you want to reel in the face of our power, I’d suggest that you join us at 2:00 at the main New York Public Library. You know, the one with the lions and all the officialness.

I believe I’ll be hanging with Betsy on that Saturday night in the city, so um, whatcha doing then? I also may have a lot of free time on Sunday as one of my go-to friends in the city may be tied up with a sick kid. So, um, whatcha doing on Sunday? Yeah, okay, I could have planned this trip much better, and I am feeling like the world’s lamest person for not making plans of any kind. But seriously, after KidLitCon, the Cybils, Family Issues, Halloween, and NaNoWriMo, I’m even taking my underwear needs on a day-to-day basis.

Yesterday at Booklights I talked about monster books that are perfect for Halloween but aren’t shelved in the holiday section of your library in case, say, you were supposed to get a book for reading to your child’s class and somehow put it off until the last minute and then realized that the only thing you had in the house was Clifford’s Halloween and you were not using that because okay, he’s a BIG dog and you so get it already and there has to be something better and there totally was except all the moms who were doing their job correctly made it to the library when they should have and left the shelves empty except for one beat-up copy of Clifford’s Halloween which would make you scream, but with a deep breath you remember the monster books at Booklights — with some additional suggestions in the comments from Abby (the) Librarian — so you can pick out something very appropriate and fun for the kids.

In that post, I mentioned the two poetry books of Adam Rex, Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich and Frankenstein Takes the Cake. Amazing, funny, brilliant, books with incredible artistry. A better blogger would now spend some time reviewing one or the other of them, but I expended all of my energy on that run-on sentence above. So instead you’ll get a poem. And not even the whole poem, because now I’m getting freaked out by the legality of that. Plus the whole poem really needs the illustrations to make it work to its full potential. But in any case, here is the beginning and you can get the book to see how Girl Scouts fit in.

Folloween
No ghosts are seen on Halloween,
except for kids in sheets.
No zombies ring for anything
apart from tricks or treats.
Though people say
today’s the day
when bogeymen
come out to play,
November first is when the worst
of monsters hit the streets.

And in disguise the dead arise
to sell us magazines.
In ties and slacks
they hand out tracts
as fine, upstanding teens.

Before I got to the second part of the poem, I was absolutely certain that he was going to talk about election campaigners. I don’t know how it’s been in other parts of the country, but in Virginia the election is huge, with the Republican candidate for governor leading by double digits in a state that went blue in 2008. I’ve been getting tons of calls and campaigners coming by and flyers at every local event. Obama even came to a rally in Norfolk, but a little late, I think. The only thing that could really help the Democrats now is if people take the new health care legislation seriously and don’t want Virginia to opt out of a public health care choice. In any case, they’ll have to campaign without me on Folloween because I need this weekend to catch up on things I let go for the last two months.

I also need time to prepare — possibly — for National Novel Writing Month. I’ve never been interested before, but I do have a book in my head and maybe this is the time to let it out. I don’t know. Is it crazy to go from being consumed by KidLitCon to committing to writing a novel in a month? Are you doing it this year? If you did it before, was it worth the pressure?

Oh, Poetry Friday is hosted today by Jennie at Biblio File. Happy Halloween, everyone!