ALA Editions part 2

This afternoon I went to the awards ceremony for best audiobooks, which I wouldn't have been interested in, except that the winner this year is Sherman Alexie. I've heard him speak a couple of times before, and I wasn't sure I wanted to sit through two hours of clapping for a short speech from my favorite poet, but I'm glad I did.

It wasn't Alexie that I'm excited about (I've heard him talk about this book before, so none of the things he said were new). It was a man named Mirron Willis. He's an actor in theatre and television (many audiobook readers are) and has recorded quite a few books. However, Christopher Paul Curtis' Elijah of Buxton (you can find my review in the "Big kids books I've been reading" section) is his first children's book.

After admitting he had been wary of working on a children's book, he said something I really loved (or as best I could scribble it down afterwards):

"My trepidation about doing children's books went away after reading this book because I realized that if children are reading books like this-and other books I've read since that time-then we have hope."

Of course this book was chosen for this award and the Newbery by adults, but I can testify that children are reading Elijah and other books like it. They're reading books that help them to understand what others are and were going through.

Not that children need to only read the "important" books. Let them read all the Captain Underpants books. Those are ok too. Eventually they'll get to the "good" books. Really, they will.

Thanks, Mr. Willis, for pointing out what that means for us big kids.

ALA Editions part 1

Here I am reporting live from my very first ALA conference. I just thought of this, so we'll see how it works.

Just listened in on Five Questions for Brian Selznick by Roger Sutton, editor of Horn Book journal. You may remember Brian as the illustrator of the innovative 2007 Caldecott winner, The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

I don't remember all of the questions, but I was excited to hear about his current project. You may recall that Hugo Cabret was sort of half-novel, half-picture book (which made it a controversial choice for the Caldecott). If you don't "read" the illustrated pages, you actually miss parts of the story.

For his new book, he plans to use the same format, but expand on it a bit. The illustrated and narrative portions will tell two separate stories in completely different time periods, then come together in the end. Needless to say, I can't wait to see how this turns out.

Speaking of innovation, we're doing the "seperate vacations" for the second time this week. Patty and Maya are out east visiting Nicole, who's due any day now (congratulations and good luck, Nicole).

During our nightly phone call, Patty told me that Maya (wearing a helmet, thank heavens) took an opportunity when Patty was distracted to ride a tricycle down a small hill and managed to find the only tree. The helmet was utilized.

Send some angels to our little Evel Knievel, and I'll let you know if I hear anything else cool.

Goodnight Moon

Like you need me to tell you anything about Goodnight Moon. We have two copies, and I'm sure you have more. But I have to tell you this story.

We've been reading Corduroy and Goodnight Moon religiously twice each day for a couple of months now, right before sleep. A long time ago a professor advised that I should always tell the name of the author and illustrator of each book I read. So I do. Why not?

Well, Nana babysat last night. When we came home she said she picked up the two bedtime books and read the title, "Goodnight Moon". Maya immediately said, "Marget Wi Brown, pictures Clem Hud." Which is her translation of, "By Margaret Wise Brown, pictures by Clement Hurd."

She always waits to show off to the new guy I guess.

Speaking of bedtime, here's how I found Maya the other morning. How does she sleep like that?

Who Am I?

Last week at Jammies Storytime I had to give an apologetic look over to the librarians when we sang a song about Two Little Dinos, "...one named Quiet and one named Loud". This week when we sang it as Two Little Kittens, we left that verse out.

Maya got a little loud in the library herself when she figured out the book/toy Who Am I? (a novelty book by Begin Smart Books). It doubles as a mask with two eye holes in the middle and handles on the edges. Each page has a different animal face. Just hold the book up to your face and make a noise.

When Maya found the cat page she began running around the library, "MEOW! MEOW!" Thus our quick departure (of course we checked out the book and took it with us).

Now Maya did have trouble figuring out that she needed to point the kitty away so others could look at it. So at home we tried it in front of the bathroom mirror. That worked well.

Here's a picture of Maya in another disguise. See if you can guess which piano key plunker she is.

Good Luck Bear

Maya's second birthday last week was close enough to St. Patrick's Day that we made it an Irish affair. We had corned beef and cabbage with shepherd's pie on the side. Not bad. On the day, Maya got a green bowler from her Aunt Marty, who loves all things Irish.

For storytime Tuesday night we inserted an appropriate book into our dinosaur theme. Good Luck Bear, by Greg Foley, is about a lucky little bear who is searching for a four-leaf clover. He's having trouble finding one, and the other animals aren't helping at all. Monkey says there's no such thing, Rabbit finds one but eats it, and Groundhog asks, "If you don't find one, does it mean that you're unlucky?"

Poor Bear feels like the most unlucky animal. But he is lucky. Why? Because he has a friend like Mouse, who brings to him not a four, but a five-leaf clover.

In the past, I usually ignored St. Patty's Day, because I couldn't find any books I liked. But now I'll keep this one on my list for years to come.

I mentioned Maya's birthday. Here's a picture of her blowing out her candles with a little help from Cousin Addy, who had experience from a couple months before.

Dinosaur vs. Bedtime

If you're on facebook, you've seen those 25 Random Things About Me lists. One of Nathan's, a librarian friend of mine, is that his new favorite storytime book is Dinosaur vs. Bedtime, by Bob Shea. We of course immediately checked it out from the library.

Maya loves it. Like Maya (though she's building her lexicon daily), Dinosaur is a creature of few words. In fact his most used word is one of Maya's favorites - ROAR!

Dinosaur takes on all comers. "Dinosaur vs. a bowl of spaghetti! ROAR! ROAR! ROAR! CHOMP! CHOMP! ROAR! ROAR! ROAR! DINOSAUR WINS! ROAR! ROAR!" I think you can see the draw here. There are a minimum of three roars on each page.

A nice side effect is that Maya now trots around the house saying, "ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!" in various tones of voices. It's pretty funny.

Dinosaur finally meets his match when it comes to bedtime. The ROAR begins to be drawn out and turns into a snore. "Bedtime wins. Good night, dinosaur."

I suppose a bad side effect would be if Maya adds roaring to her anti-bedtime routine. So far so good.

Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?

Well, were in that stage when Maya pretty much wants to read one book, and one book only. For the last couple of months it's been Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?, by Eric Carle. She asks for it by name; "More Brown Bear, Brown Bear."

It's no wonder. This simple book has it all. There are, of course, animals. And there's repetition that Maya's already picking up on. And she's even just getting started on learning her colors with the end pages. In fact, Maya often forgets to read the book, choosing to just point at colors.

Oddly, aside from bear and dog, which were the first animals and animal noises she learned, Maya is really taken with the teacher. Before the holidays we were in a bookstore, and she started to say, "Teacher, teacher." Sure enough there was a poster of Brown Bear, Brown Bear showing the teacher.

So, I now can join Nicole in saying I have a side gig. Next week I'll start doing a pajamatime storytime at our neighborhood library as a volunteer. Patty and Maya showed their support by sewing for me a beautiful felt night cap. Now I'm off to find some bunny slippers.