Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Let the voting commence....again!

VOTE AGAIN FOR NEXT MONTH'S CHOICE!



Maybe I should start putting these in the sidebar. I'll upgrade to the New Blogger soon.

Monday, January 29, 2007

Fevvyary

Okay, I cheated this time and put up winning books from the recent awards & honors up. OF MY CHOOSING. Sorry to get all non-democratic on you all, but Susan suggested it, and I do all that she suggests.

- - - - - - - [Jeopardy music] - - - - - - -

Um, we may have a problem getting these, as many are on backorder at Amazon and I can guess what that means at libraries and bookstores.

I'm looking at the Horn Book's Recently Announced Awards page. Suggestions?

We could choose a book from the less-publicized awards...I think the Newbery Award and Honor books will be v. hard to get.

Potentials:
+ Surrender by Sonya Hartnett (Meera, did you read this one already?) -PRINTZ HONOR
+ American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (I just read this tonight, as it came in on hold at the library, and would love to discuss) -PRINTZ WINNER
+ Copper Sun by Shannon Draper -CORETTA SCOTT KING WINNER
+ The Last Dragon by Silvana de Mari -BATCHELDER (TRANSLATION) HONOR

Do tell!

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Green vs. Green

With varied levels of success, we read John Green's Looking for Alaska last year, and I read (and loved) his most recent An Abundance of Katherines as well. He and his brother, Hank, have committed themselves to Brotherhood 2.0 a video blog (short, like two minutes each) exchange for 2007. It's very amusing. I've spent much of this morning catching up on their January correspondence.

John's "NannyNannyRichKid" song is awesome.

Hank has a Narnia map on his basement wall.

(Okay, I have one, too, but it's in a box and I had it for when I was teaching.)
Anyway, it's great; they really do look like the brothers from The Proclaimers.

And, wholly unrelated to YA or books period, Making Fiends is also funny and a welcome distraction to a cold cold day.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, Sibert, etc., Awards announced

Our next several books have to be from this list, right? I want to read them all!

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Kalpana's Dream

Oh dear.

I did NOT like this book! Was it supposed to be serious? Silly? Both? I spent much of the time asking myself what the hell was going on.

More when I have my notes in front of me--just wanted to get the topic open.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

2007 Summer Symposium?

Anyone know anything about the Symposium this year? I did a quick search but could not find anything.

I haven't picked my copy of Kalpana's Dream yet; my copy is on hold but we're having ice issues and I don't want to brave the highways. People here don't know how to drive in icy conditions and I'm not risking their inexperience!

Monday, January 08, 2007

January Book

Kalpana's Dream it is!

Thursday, January 04, 2007

MPH!

I heard him on Studio 360 tonight talking about The Wizard of Oz!

Not sure which clip he was in. Hmm.

Dammit; they are in RealPlayer only.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

A new year, a new book.

Our list of contributors has shrunk; I hope three options is enough to get a majority.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

New Year!

How about making a resolution (or, as I like to say, READOLUTION!) to read at least six of the Hedgehog books this year??? Hmmm? You can do that!

I'm putting up a poll tomorrow sometime. Be sure to vote!