Happy Holidays!

My children's book review column from The News Tribune this week listed some great last-minute gift suggestions, though in my opinion there needs to be no special occasion to bring new books into the house. My daughter, Halley, says Seabury kids will particularly love The Mysterious Benedict Society. And the Elephant & Piggie books are delightful!

The week before, I wrote about Christmas books. My favorite this year is Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo, the author of the Newbery Medal book The Tale of Desperaux - a great favorite here at Seabury. I'm planning to read Great Joy to a couple of classes tomorrow. It's a tear-jerker on the order of The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, one of the best Christmas books ever. I saw yesterday that Great Joy was available at the Tacoma Target.

(By the way, good news about News Tribune archives. They no longer make you pay when articles are just two weeks old. That means you can read my columns for free for longer, plus any other TNT stories of course!)

Talk to you soon ...

The Book Fair is coming!

It starts next Wednesday, Dec. 5, and runs through Saturday morning, Dec. 8. Your children will have a chance to make wish lists; so will the teachers, so people who'd like to can make gifts to classroom collections.

Scholastic has provided a tool so that I could create a Book Fair web site. It's got a place listing dates and hours and a spot where you can preview some of the titles.

Here are a few titles I'm excited about:

A month already!

School is well under way. The children are enjoying the library and I'm enjoying them. I think about a new blog entry every day. I have lots of ideas about what to write, but the time to sit down and do it is more elusive.


I have gotten lots done in the library. I'm nearly finished making sure all the shelves are in order and going through a much-needed "weeding" process. It's something librarians should do on a regular basis. There's even a Weed-of-the Month website to help people who have trouble being discriminating. It is similar to weeding a garden; you get rid of the outdated, erroneous, tattered, uncirculating books to make room for the up-to-date, attractive and popular titles.


In our case, it's even more necessary. Our shelves were very nearly full! Our volunteer shelvers know what I'm talking about.

I decided that none of our preschool through 6-grade students were likely to check out "A Reporter's Life," by Walter Cronkite, or "The First Book of the West Indies," copyright, 1956. I hadn't been able to bring myself to pull the latter because remarkably it's written by the poet Langston Hughes. I still couldn't completely get rid of it; it's sitting on my desk, just no longer on the shelves or in our computer system.

Now there is a little more room on the shelves, but more importantly, it's a better collection for our kids, with our thousands of wonderful books a bit easier to locate.

I want to remind you all that The Seabury Library has a wish list on Amazon.com. If you want to find a book for your child to donate to the library on his or her birthday, that's a great place to look. Many of the books are listed in response to curriculum needs; others are simply wonderful books our kids will enjoy. There's a link to the wish list at the right.

Also, if you shop at Amazon, you can help the library by getting there through the portal at right. It doesn't have to be books for Seabury; it can be clothes or electronics or any other personal purchases. If you get there from this page, the library gets a percentage of whatever you spend. The percentage varies, depending on the item. Gift certificates give us one of the biggest profits. I've used the link for everything I've bought at Amazon for my family since I signed us up for the the Associate program and so have a couple of other people. We've earned enough in credits to buy several books.


Thanks in advance and I'll be back here soon. I'd love to answer any questions you have about books and reading. The other day someone asked me in person about a good list of books for a 5-year-old who's reading as well as a 10-year-old but isn't ready for the content contained in a "fifth-grade" book. I think I'll turn that into a blog entry.

Anyone have questions like that? Put them in the comment field and I'll work on answers.

Talk to you soon

Weekend of Pottering ...

A few weeks ago I was talking Harry Potter with someone from my other job. He didn't believe that I'd never been to a midnight-book-release party. My kids have, but I've left it to them to score our early copies of the books.

But since this was my last chance forever, I decided to go to the King's Books party in Tacoma. I chose it because King's Books is an independent bookstore, the supply of which is dwindling. I also bought one of our household copies from there (at 34.99!) for the same reason. Our second copy was due the next morning from Amazon. Deeply discounted.

The King's Books party was great fun; except for the store being very hot. I arrived at 9:30; didn't think I could manage the full five-hour event. I didn't get there quite in time to see Seabury's own Mr. Mario perform, but there was lots of other entertainment.

The best entertainment of all, though, was watching and listening to kids and non-kids, speculating right up until the last minute about what was going to happen in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." Doesn't seem like anyone had been assaulted by unwanted spoilers.

There were at least seven former Seabury students there; one was employed at the face-painting table.

At midnight, or a minute before, there were suddenly screams from the front of the line. They were giving out the book. More screams; shouts, squeals. Comments like "This is the best day of my life!!" I took some video that shows the young girl in front of me hopping up and down like she was on springs. Each person who got their book, clutched it like it was a beloved stuffed animal. This for a book! Cool, is all I can say.

I managed to read two chapters before I dozed off. My 16-year-old was hovering outside the door, waiting for my eyes to close. He took the book at about 1:30 a.m. and came down at 7:15. "I finished it."

That afternoon, our Amazon copy had come. My 18-year-old and I parked ourselves in the living room and read nearly non-stop. I got up to do a couple of things, so he passed me up by 50 pages or so. I think he finished at about 10 and me, a half-hour later or so. It's that kind of a book; it's hard to put down. My husband read it Sunday and this morning. The reviews from our house? Four thumbs up ... or eight thumbs up, I guess.

Halley's traveling back from Israel to Paris tomorrow. She's heading straight to an English-language bookstore so she can pick up a copy for the plane ride home Friday.

Today I'm teaching a Seabury summer class and I've asked a few of the older kids: "What page are you on?" I didn't indicate which book, but of course they knew. One said 350, another said "Chapter 7, but I'm reading it slowly. I want to savor every word."

I guess at my house, we'll have to savor it the second time around!

Have any tales from your house of reading "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"? Reviews?

(By the way, I looked up "spoilers" on the Internet after I finished the book. Some of the most publicized are completely wrong.)

Talk to you soon ...

Is there a Harry Potter frenzy at your house?

My kids have grown up with Harry, Ron and Hermoine, so they're anxious to get their hands on the last book Saturday. Halley's still out of the country and plans to buy her own copy for the long plane flight home, but there is a running discussion about who gets to read our copy first. I might have to buy two. But for now, my solution is to have everyone leave it in the living room so concurrent readings can go on.

If you have youngsters who are already mourning the end of Hogwarts, I wrote a column for Tuesday's News Tribune. It's about the literary legacy of HP and contains a bunch of other reading suggestions. Our kids at Seabury already know of many of these books and often are more excited about them than HP.

I'm not going to write much more here, because I've written so much about Harry Potter this month already. I do love the books, and the excitement they've created among young readers for the past 10 years.

One thing I do want to say is if you and your children don't want the surprises of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" spoiled before you read the book, it might be a good idea to limit your use of the Internet for a few days.

People have gotten hold of copies, posted pictures of every single page, and plot developments are leaking out faster that Scholastic, Bloomsbury or JK Rowling's lawyers can control. I was trying to read some news stories about the leaks, and commenters feel compelled to assault you, without warning, in all-caps: ***** DIES!!, etc.

Who knows if the tiny bit I saw before closing the screen is true. But I do know that actual spoilers appear to be out there.

The whole thing makes me sad, and mad. The Harry Potter phenomenon has been a magical one. I don't understand why some unscrupulous meanies who are good at computers feel compelled to try and squash that magic.

That's all for now. Be careful out there in cyberspace!

Artist!

I went to a talk by Caldecott-Medal illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky at Tacoma Public Library last week. What a cool guy.

I apologize for not telling you about this beforehand in the blog, but the good news is you still have a few days to see the exhibit of his art at the Main Library in Tacoma. The show goes through May 14 and it's worth a visit.

Zelinsky is super talented and versatile. The paintings for "Rapunzel," his Caldecott Award book, look like they were done by an old master. For the popular pop-up book "Wheels on the Bus" and its follow-up "Knick-Knack Paddywhack!" his style is brighter and livelier.

For another cool book, "Doodler Doodling," by Rita Golden Gelman, Zelinsky "doodled" most of the characters, then scanned them and put them together using his computer.

At first glance, Zelinsky looks like he could be a mild-manner high school history teacher with his suit, spectacles and receding hairline. Once he took the microphone, he was hilarious and had the rapt attention of everyone in the audience, from age 4 on to adults.

He talked about why he chooses different styles for different books. "Every story has its own feelings." Using a program on his laptop, he drew pictures on the spot to illustrate. Obviously, the dude on the left would be in a different sort of book than the pretty girl on the right.

He showed pictures and talked a lot about "Awful Ogre's Awful Day," a book of poems by Jack Prelutsky that Zelinsky illustrated. For that book, he called up another famous illustrator, Lane Smith, to ask him advice on creating a "yucky" texture for the ogre's skin. He wanted a look like "old food that turned bad and started to rot." He showed pictures from medieval manuscripts that contained little monstrous figures called "grotesques." He said: "I thought Awful Ogre should have a grotesque." He does - a different one on every page.

"Rapunzel" was a long, arduous illustration project. Each painting was done using many thin layers of watercolor to re-create the old feeling. On another "Rapunzel" note, he said: "My daughters were not really interested in my work, but they were interested in their cat. So I thought if I put their cat in, they'd get interested." It worked beautifully; the girls pestered him daily to see the drawings, he said.

He talked about deciding on a follow-up to "Wheels on the Bus," then figured out how to make the "old man" so that when he played paddywhack on parts of his protagonist's body, the kid wouldn't get pummeled. He decided to use 10 tiny men, each humorously representing a different occupation. His laptop drawings to illustrate his "process" had the audience, especially the kids, chortling.

"Paddywhack" is a "pop-up book." So Zelinsky had to be in close contact with a talented paper engineer. Among many astounding features in the book: One of the little men runs from left to right, every time. Think about it. How does he get back? Zelinsky showed an inside view of that page. A piece of paper hides his return to the left. Zelinsky said the paper engineer Andrew Baron, is also well known as a repairer of antique clocks and watches.

I haven't decided yet on all the authors for my "An Author a Day" classes for Summer at Seabury. But after hearing Zelinsky, I think he might be one of them. We could make pop-ups! I've done that before with kids and it's great fun.

I hope some of you get a chance to see his work at the library. Check out Zelinsky's Web site, too. It has some fun features, including animations he did related to one of his newest books: "The Shivers in the Fridge."

(A warning: Don't let kids navigate to the animations using the You Tube link. Links/promos to other inappropriate YouTube videos show up on the page. You can link directly to the animations on his site. Addendum: I e-mailed Mr. Z and got a very fast response. He's going to try to change his tags, or contact YouTube. An update: Mr. Zelinsky changed his You Tube tags; it took him a couple of tries. He even e-mailed me with updates. But now the links are harmless!!)

Let me know if you're interested in hearing about author talks in advance (Here or in the Thursday packet). I will post them, if some of you will go!

Talk to you soon

See how our library grows!

I came to school today to the fun news that there were five boxes of books for me to look through. One of our families had weeded out their boys' library at home and decided Seabury was a worthwhile beneficiary of that gift.

When that happens it always feels like Christmas to me. I sat on the floor of the library and sorted the books into piles: Some for classrooms, a lot of great titles to add to the library and the few that we can't use, for another worthwhile destination.

Check out the pictures of two of the excellent books that were in those boxes, both hardbacks in terrific condition. (Note the Caldecott Honor seal on one of them.)

Seabury has a first-class library, in part because of wonderful donations like this one. We have more than 11,000 books ... good ones. I know our library is better than many in public schools.

Another way families are helping us grow: Since I posted a wish list on Amazon and a link through this blog, we've gotten 11 great birthday/other book donations.

We also have several dedicated volunteers who are covering and otherwise helping get books ready so they're on the shelves faster.

I thank you. The teachers thank you. Most of all, the children thank you.

Keep thinking of us when you're cleaning out the bookshelves, or book shopping on Amazon or anywhere else.

Here's a link to my latest column in The News Tribune. It's about some books the Ladybugs happen to love. (Good gift idea, especially for your younger Ladybugs.)

Talk to you soon.

Gold medal books

On Monday, I got the rare chance to hear the announcements of the 2007 Newbery and Caldecott awards in person.

The American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting was in Seattle over the weekend and the announcement of all the big children's book awards is traditionally made the Monday morning toward the end of the conference.

Each of the committees - Newbery, Caldecott, Printz (for young adult books), Coretta Scott King (for African-American author/illustrators), and others - spent the three days before the announcements sequestered in a locked room at a nearby hotel discussing the books that qualified for their particular awards.

Unlike the Academy Awards, there aren't nominations made beforehand, so the committee members have the daunting task of reading hundreds of books before the meeting, then deciding in just three days which are the best.

Jeri Kladder, head of the Newbery committee, told me she read about 700 books.

The announcements were made to a crowd of at least 1,000 cheering, whistling librarians, publishers representatives and other children's book people.

A woman sitting next to me was alternately whooping loudly as the announcements were made, and excitedly sharing each bit of news with someone via cell phone.

There was some news of special interest to the Seabury community.

Laura McGee Kvasnosky, who visited the school last spring, won the Theodor Seuss Geisel award for "Zelda and Ivy: The Runaways."

"The Runaways," the fourth "Zelda and Ivy" adventure, had just come out when Laura visited. Those of you who bought it and got her to autograph it, now have a first-edition autographed copy of a nationally award-winning book. I bought a set of the shiny, gold Geisel award stickers and put them on our school copies today.

Here's what the Seuss award is for, according to the ALA: "The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award, established in 2004, is given annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of a beginning reader book who demonstrate great creativity and imagination in
his/her/their literary and artistic achievements to engage children in reading. The award is named for the world-renowned children’s author Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss."

This is what the Geisel committee chair said about "The Runaways:" “Our Geisel winner connects with readers by featuring a dilemma many young children understand,” said Geisel Committee Chair Ginny Moore Kruse. “Zelda and Ivy’s backyard escapades spark the imagination and make the reader want more.”

The Caldecott Medal for illustration went to "Flotsam," by David Weisner.
"Flotsam" is an amazing, intelligent, beautifully illustrated book about a boy who finds an old camera washed up on the beach. Weisner has two other Caldecott Medals ("Tuesday" and "The Three Pigs") and two Caldecott Honors ("Sector 7" and "Free Fall").

The Newbery Medal for outstanding writing went to Susan Patron for "The Higher Power of Lucky."

Here's what committee chair Kladder said about the story of 10-year-old Lucky Trimble: “‘Lucky’ is a perfectly nuanced blend of adventure, survival (emotional and physical) and hilarious character study... as well as a blueprint for a self-examined life. Through Lucky’s experiences, we are reminded that children support
one another just as needy adults do.”

Here's a link to my News Tribune story on the awards. And you can find a complete list of the ALA's 2007 awards here.

(I've added some of the award books to Seabury's Wish List on Amazon.com. Check the link at right.)

Talk to you soon