2nd Interview

I made it through round two of the interview process for this youth services job. I think it went well but I am awful at judging how interviews went. Anyway, fingers are still crossed!

Rabbit at Rest

I been so immersed in the world of kid-lit this past week I didn't hear about the passing of John Updike until now.

ALA Youth Media Awards

There were many great things about ALA midwinter but being in the room when they announced the Caldecott and Newbery was just the coolest experience. The link to all the award winners is here. I don't think there's much point in re-listing all the winners. I'll just stick to commenting about the ones I've read.

As far as the Newbery goes, I'm overjoyed that Neil Gaiman won The Graveyard Book. And it's not just because I love his work and treasure my signed copy of Coraline. I cried at the end of The Graveyard Book partially because it was a bitter sweet ending, but also because I didn't want it to end. I was a bit surprised that After Tupac & D Foster won a Newbery Honor. I thought that it had some major flaws. I did love the gay brother in that book though. He was such a compelling character that I was almost willing to overlook the fact that the book had no plot.

I actually have not read the Caldecott winner but I really enjoyed A Couple of Boys have the Best Week Ever and I'm glad Marla Frazee at least got an Honor award for it. It is a great example of a picture book where the illustrations are an integral part of the story.

The only award I tried to call ahead of time was the Prinz. I predicted Tender Morsels would take it. I personally would have picked the The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by my new favorite author, E. Lockhart, but I didn't think the committee would find it "literary" enough. Tender Morsels is definitely more "literary" but a much more difficult and in some ways "unlovable" book. Well, it turned out I was was pretty close. Frankie and Tender Morsels both came away with Honors and Jellicoe Road, a book I've yet to read, won the prize.

Someday maybe (in my dreams) I'll have the privilege of sitting on an awards committee but until then being this close to the action was pretty cool. And even if Denver was a freezing puddle of snow and slush, I'm really glad I went. I met some awesome people, worked on my committee (YALSA Intellectual Freedom!), and had a really good time!

Oh little bean, I'll miss you so...

Today is my last day as Stella's nanny. I'm sad and I'm going to miss her terribly. She's starting to be really fun. We are finally at the point where we play and interact most of the day. But I think she's going to get a lot out of playing with other babies in daycare. And now I have to figure out what to do next. I plan to spend the next week really delving into what my options are. I am hoping I get the job I interviewed for but I want to come up with a plan for if I don't. I can try babysitting for another family. I've been notified of another family with a 6 month old who needs a nanny but the truth is I'm a bit bored staying home all day with a little baby. I'm having such fun with Stella now but I remember how monotonous my days were when she was just a little bit smaller. If I do babysit I think I want to do so for toddlers rather than infants. I'm also thinking of going back to school to get my school media certification. But at least for a week I'm taking a break and getting some house cleaning and organizing done. And then, I'm off to ALA midwinter in Denver. Hey, maybe a job prospect will come out of that!

Fingers Crossed

I had a job interview on Tuesday for a youth services librarian position. I'm not sure how the interview went. It was hard to tell if they liked me or not. The library is pretty awesome though so I'm keeping my fingers crossed and so should you!

In which Alia gets a surprise anniversary present...

Yesterday was our 2 year wedding anniversary and my lovely husband surprised me with a trip to New York. He did a good job keeping it under wraps because I had no clue what was going on until we got to the stop where the Bolt bus picks up. Then I was like, wait a second you are making me take a bus (I get really bad motion sickness) to New York (a city I find overwhelming and dirty). What kind of anniversary is this?! But Josh just said to trust him, that he had it all planned out. And oh did he! First we ate chocolate breakfast. (Thank you Erin for recommending it. I had just told Josh that I was giving you a mental hug when they started playing Silent All These Years over the speakers. I guess that was you hugging me back!) Then we went to The Strand and looked at the miles of books. Then Josh surprised me again with tickets to Billy Elliot. (And we got my favorite Billy. There's three different boys who switch off days doing Billy's part because the dancing is so physically demanding. We got the Cuban by way of Montreal kid, who we saw interviewed on TV a few months ago.) The show was pretty awesome and afterward we met up with Andrew for a drink before having a very yummy dinner. Then it was off to look at the Rockefeller tree and the Christmas window displays and a rush back to the bus stop. We didn't get lost once. And I have to say, as we were walking around looking at the lights, I started to get why people love that city so much. So not only did Josh plan a wonderful day. He actually got me to change my mind about something. A near impossible feat! My husband is pretty awesome.

Movies based on children's books to look out for/make you cringe...

What's with the stop-motion animation? We should see a stop-motion movie version of Coraline in February of 2009 followed by Wes Anderson's take on Roald Dahl's The Fantastic Mr. Fox in November.

Inkheart will be in theaters in January of '09 (How long has it been since Brendan Fraser has been in a good movie?) and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is set for March. Spike Jonze's adaptation of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are is slated to be out in October. I'm cautiously excited.

And Tim Burton's taking on Alice in Wonderland sometime in 2010. Even though I didn't care for his vision of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I actually think this might work well. Burton does love those repressed characters and so, in some ways, may be perfect for Alice.

Oh and I almost forgot (how could I?!) about the big one. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was delayed until July of 2009. Sigh.

It's just one of those days...

Unemployment is getting to me. Every time I start to feel bummed about not having the job I want, I remind myself that it could be worse. I am working. So I'm a nanny. It's a job. And I work at the library part time. So it's not a librarian position. At least that's something. But today that's just not helping me feel any better. I'm pissed. I don't want to be told to go work in an academic library (like it's so easy to get a job there!) or that there's some magical job out there will turn up. I was a good children's librarian. I want to keep being a children's librarian. I'm staying involved with ALA. I'm still reading reviews and professional literature. I'm doing all the things you're supposed to do to keep yourself competitive. But right now, given the fact that they're laying off staff and closing libraries, it all seems pretty useless. And I'm pissed because I feel like I'm doing all the right things for no reason.

I know I'm luckier than a lot of people and I'm thankful for the things I do have. But today, right now, I just want to have a pity party for thing I'm missing.

And back in literary land...

I finished The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and liked it so much I checked out and plowed through How to Be Bad. Yeah, I'm on an official E. Lockhart kick.

More Sesame Street Nerdiness

Check out Cookie Monster in the Library. I just spent way to much time this morning watching these videos.

Of course I saw the Twilight movie...

And there's a pretty good review of it up on Slate.

My own issues with the characters and writing aside, I can see why Twilight is such an appealing story. And the story only really appeals because its about vampires. If Bella has been right on her first guess, if Edward were a superhero bitten by a radioactive spider rather than a vamp who's always fighting the urge to bite, there probably wouldn't be nearly as many teenage girls swooning over the books. No Edward has to be a vamp because vampires are very much a metaphor for sex. Being around Edward is risky for Bella because he might hurt her or kill her or more dangerously turn her into a vampire which would (as Edward seems most concerned about) derail the trajectory of her life and deny her the rites of passages (prom, college) that he thinks she should have. Hm, sounds like a teen pregnancy to me. So I think whats really appealing to the girls that rabidly love Edward is the idea of a guy who is willing to forgo his own desire in order to keep the girl safe. Which is why Twilight is at its best when Edward really does seem to want to kill Bella. Once he assumes the role of protector as he has by the end of the book, eh then he get's kind of boring.

Ok he's cool but his hair is still obnoxious!

I'm sitting here watching the Today show and since the Twilight movie is bringing back the mall mob scene, they have Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart on. Of course Meredith drags them out to talk to their adoring fan who are all screaming about how they love Edward Cullen and asking stupid questions like "How similar are you to the moody teenage vampire love-god you play?" But the best part was when they asked the girls why they liked Edward so much. I love how Pattinson jumped right in one poor girls face pressing her for an answer. He was all yeah but what exactly to you like about him anyway? And the girl couldn't come up with an answer. Finally kinda shrugging and saying she didn't know.

What she should have said: Not his stupid hair!

Trickery!

I finished reading Brisinger, the next (and I thought last) book in the Eragon series. I'm not really an Eragon fan but I do like to finish off a series if I've started it. Too bad for me that it took me about 800 pages to realized that this was not the last book. At least I started skipping pages about halfway through. Still it was about 799 pages of nothing interesting happening and one page of something very obvious and fairly unimportant happening. Feh!

Christopher Paolini may have a great writing career ahead of him but he needs to move on from this world he's created. I imagine that might be hard for a writer, especially such a young one, and it can't help that the Eragon books are making money. (I haven't heard anything about the sales for this last one though. Maybe buried by the Twilight movie release?) But this last book was so bogged down by unimportant details. It struck me as particularly dry and emotionless. Paolini might be on his way as an author (I'll leave that debate to others) but I think he needs to wrap things up if he ever wants to get there.

And now on to my next book, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart...

Hope

Up until the very last minute last night I was full of gloom and doom. At work on Monday I watched teenage girls, most of whom are too young to even vote, carrying signs and cheering in the street for Obama and all I could do was dread the coming election. You can get used to losing quickly. It's easy to expect little of people.

And then hope won out over pessimism. I am proud of this country and I am so thankful for the right to vote. Today the country has changed and perhaps there is hope for us after all.

Wild Thing Walls

Forget a kid's room, I want this mural in my bedroom!

We have a T-shirt problem at our house...

I accuse Josh of being the addict but want this so bad. Tell me it's okay. Please?

Ohhh Pretty

This had given me a great idea for a craft project at the library this Saturday. Now I better start saving cardboard.

I can't remember the last time I went out to a movie but...

I caught a bit of The Seeker: The Dark is Rising on TV last night after Valeska and I watched Atonement. I only saw a few minutes and most of the time it was on I was explaining to Valeska why the movie is nothing at all like the books. It seemed like such a bland, generic movie, I couldn't get into it at all.

Oh and yes Atonement was good but Keira Knightley drives me nuts. I feel like her acting consists of straining her neck and gulping down air. Too bad too, because she always has these great roles. Though maybe she could have made a good Bella since she's so good at looking distressed. Oh well.

Is this readers block?

I just finished The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I loved it even though I felt like a lot of the characters, especially the teens, were too good to be true. I feel like the story could have easily been a really depressing one and I think that that might have even been easier to write. But I'm glad that it wasn't.

So what to read next? I have a huge to-read list and yet I can't seem to decide on anything these days. I'm contemplating The Southern Vampire Mysteries since I've been loving the TV show True Blood so much. But I hear the books are very different from the show, so maybe not?

New Job

So this past week I started a part time job as a Saturday After School Leader at my neighborhood library branch. It looks like it's going to be a fun job that will keep me busy while I wait for a librarian position to come up, but there are a few draw backs. It means working every Saturday, which kind of kills my weekends. But I can deal with that because it's a short term thing. The other problem is that I find it depressing to work in a library and not be a librarian. I mean it's fun to work with the kids and I appreciate that the librarians at this branch have gone out of their way to help me get a job, but I want to be planning programs and making decisions. I miss that part of my old job. Sadly, with the economy the way it is it may be a while before I get to revisit my former role. I should use this time to catch up on my reading but I haven't even picked up a book in weeks. I think I'm in a funk. I have The Absolutely True Dairy of a Part-Time Indian on hold though so I should have something to read by next week.