More fun things to do with old books...

Another cool use for discarded books! At the library the teens will be making journals from the horrible fairy tale books I weeded last month. I want to make one and then I want this headboard.

Get well Stella!

My favorite baby is in the hospital with a nasty virus that's keeping her dehydrated and in need of an IV. We visited her last night and in case you've never been to a children's hospital, let me assure you it is one of the saddest things around. Poor little munchkin, feel better!

Mystery Solved

I forgot to mention that I figured out what caused those strange bruises. It was climbing in and out of the window that leads to our roof. We've put some tomatoes and herbs out there and you have to climb out the window in order to water them. Sadly, I am so wimpy that this causes me to bruise. How does one toughen up one's skin?

For a much better review than I could write...

of the Coraline musical check out Elizabeth Bird's review. Yeah, pretty much what she said. I'm in total agreement about the actress that played Coraline. However I did wish that the Other Mother was a little more menacing and a little less campy and while I agree that for the most part the staging was done well, there were a couple of instances (like the final attempt to get back the key and get through the door) where I thought that I would have done things differently. (Ha, that just shows that I think I'm an expert on EVERYTHING!)

Oh and I have a better celebrity sighting. Though we had none at the theater, the next day we did see Tim Robbins on the street!

Coraline Musical

I saw the Coraline musical in NYC this past weekend. I enjoyed it and thought it was a good mix of creepiness and humor. However, like the Coraline graphic novel and (though I haven't seen it, I imagine) the movie, it wasn't as amazing as I imagined it in my head. I've mentioned before that that's the problem with loving a book so much; no one else has the exact same vision as I do. Still I would highly recommend seeing it if you can. Just be aware, with some very interesting casting choices and music by Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields, it is not your typical musical theater!

I know someday we will look back in shame...

Thanks for the link Erin. And thank you for this post Libba Bray. So eloquent it made me a bit teary reading it.

Evidence

Last night as I was getting ready for bed I looked down and found long purple bruises streaking down the back of my leg. I guess someone must be beating me in my sleep, I joked to Josh. But this morning there's more bruises and then there's the case of my mysteriously skinned elbow. So what's going on? I think it's the yoga I've started doing. No, I'm not doing yoga on a bed of nails either. I am simply the worlds biggest klutz. Seriously, I once cut myself on a piece of chocolate. So skinning my elbow while getting into downward dog, isn't really as odd as it sounds. I am tempted to use this as an excuse not to exercise, but I guess the elliptical machine can't really hurt me. Oh wait, I once got my foot stuck between the pedals of one of those things! Hmmmmm....

Coraline, the Musical

I really, really, really wish I could see this!

Here a Blog, There a Blog...

I've been keeping busy at the library, working on a new blog for the youth services department: The Wild Rumpus. Check it out and please let me know if you have any suggestions or feedback.

And the winner in the Battle of the Books is...

The Hunger Games! Lois Lowry's explanation is pretty funny. You can read it on the SLJ BoB site and read all the reactions. I guess this means I have to read The Hunger Games . Not that I didn't want to read before. I'm just lazy. I should read Kingdom on the Waves too.

Alas, this mean that I did not win the bracket at work. It also means that I will be baking chocolate cupcakes with whipped cream frosting (preferably pink) and sprinkles for the co-worker who correctly called the winner. Of course she had to pick chocolate! It's going to be hard not to eat one!

Australia here I come!

It is just not my day and while my reasons for having these petty, negative emotions are pretty silly, I can't help it. I'm stuck. I'm having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

To fight the Monday blahs...

I learned how to score a final four bracket. Now I can actually keep score at work as we follow SLJ's Battle of the Books. So far I'm in the lead, though that is bound to change since Frankie is out of the running. I'm thinking I'll bake cupcakes for everyone at the end and the winner gets to take the extra cupcakes home. Unless it's me. I'm trying to do the whole healthy eating and exercising thing again after the long sluggish winter I've had. So no cupcakes for me!

Battle of the Books Update

Well, I'm out of the running now. We Are the Ship beat out The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks and I had Frankie pegged as the winner of it all. I got too cocky. I was so sure Rachel Cohn would pick Frankie. Still I've picked all the other winners so far. I think I should get credit for that.

SLJ's Battle of the Kid's Books

The battle has finally begun. Check it out over at School Library Journal's Battle of the Books blog. At work we've all filled out our brackets and I'm happy to say that I've predicted the first four winners correctly! Go me!

For my fantasy library...

(yes I'm nerdy enough to have a fantasy library) another cool bookshelf.

I can't get enough Twilight snark...

and it makes me even happier in comic form. So awesome.

Reactions to the Wild Things Trailer

Slate's XX Factor on the realease of the Where the Wild Things Are movie.

Part of me is in agreement with the XX Factor posting. But then, part of me is really excited to see how this experiment turns out. There are many children's book that I never want to see translated to film. That's one reason I still haven't seen Bridge to Terabithia. I'm not sure why I'm cautiously at peace with CGI Wild Things. But that's the best way to describe it for now.

First week impressions...

The new job is going really well so far. Cherry Hill has such a beautiful library. It's huge and nice and new. The whole top floor is reserved for youth services and there's a giant story and craft room. Plus, I love that I get to do collection development again. I've really missed that part of being a librarian since my last job centralized the whole process. There's just something really fun about buying books.

I'm sensing a theme here...

2009 may be the year of the dead best-friend. Dear friends of mine, please don't worry. I'm not planning on offing anyone! I love you all and want you all safe and sound. I'm merely speaking of a pattern I'm seeing in the world of YA publishing. I just finished Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson and this is the third book I've read this month about a self-destructing girl with a tragically dead best-friend. First there was You Know Where to Find Me and after that, Love You Hate You Miss You.

I find this theme troublesome. I know that self-destruction has teen-appeal. I remember my friends and I passing Go Ask Alice around in middle school. I'm glad that these books are at least better written and less sensational than Go Ask Alice. Still, I'm much more at ease with Frankie Landau-Banks style narcissism than I am with these pill-popping cutters. I worry that if the plots of these three books are so similar, is the message being sent that all teen girls are ticking suicidal time bombs? This is not really a new thing though. There have always been books like this. Maybe I've just managed to coincidentally pick up three in a row. I think the rest of my ARC pile is historical fiction and fantasy though. So hopefully there will be no more dead girls for a while.

Need

I just finished Need by Carrie Jones and I wish I hadn't bothered. It's a poorly written rip off of Wicked Lovely. Bah.