Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

Cover of Rojankovsky's Mother Goose So, I collect books. Yes, I know, person of limited interests, right? I go to old book stores, library used book sales, garage sales, Salvation Army book bins; anywhere there are books I root about like a pig. I've found first editions by some of my favorites, found old ratty tatty books which I read in childhood and have long since lost my copies of; I pick up oddities. I am very particular about what I buy. I'm nostalgic and a book snob rolled into one. I recently purchased a Feodor Rojankovsky illustrated Mother Goose --the artwork so reminiscent of some of the books of my childhood I couldn't pass it up!--and though intended as a gift, couldn't give it away. Upon flipping through the whole book one afternoon, I came upon this version of Humpty Dumpty, obviously poking fun at Adolf Hitler: Curiosity peaked, I decided to do some research into the books' illustrator, Feodor Rojankovsky. Rojankovsky bio: Feo...

"I am a storyteller at heart. So each project begins with the question, 'Is this story worth telling? Is the manuscript an interesting read? Is it surprising and challenging? Will I, in the process of making pictures, learn something new?' -- Jerry Pinkney Artwork from The Lion and The Mouse , 2009 A traveling exhibit of Jerry Pinkney's beautiful artwork--organized by the  Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA (not far from where I used to live!)--is celebrating Pinkney's 50 years as an artist and author. Best known for his depictions of the African American experience, Pinkney is also well known for his illustrated retellings of fables and fairy tales, stories like The Lion and The Mouse (pictured right), which won him the 2010 Caldecott Medal--making him the first African American to win it! Here is a link to his impressive bibliobgraphy . And the dates for the traveling exhibit:   June 14, 2012 - September 9, 2012 - The Charles H. Wright Museum of...

Chris Raschka’s “A Ball for Daisy” won the Randolph Caldecott award for best illustrated book, announced today by the American Library Association (ALA). And feel free to read a little review here by Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast--this site rocks!

Congratulations to Jack Gantos' for taking the Newberry Award for his 2011, Dead End in Norvelt . I just ordered this book this morning, looking forward to reading it. Also, here is a list of the School Library Journal's June mid-year guesses at who they thought had a good chance in the running for the Newberry and Caldecott medals...I love looking over things like this, almost always a good list of books to check out!

When Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret won the illustrious Caldecott medal back in 2008 I was more than surprised. Judging by size alone, I couldn’t understand how a book nearly 550 pages long--many picture books are under 32 pages—even made it into the category with the other traditional picture books. The judges had somehow been hoodwinked!” (I must stop here and state that I have been known to be A. over reactive and irrational at times and B. a bit of a book snob—the latter was the reason I didn’t read any of the Harry Potter series until after the 6 th book came out. Big REGRET!) Fast forward the clock to now, the book has been turned into a movie (done by Martin Scorsese no less!) and the kids are asking for it again…and, well, I thought it was high time that I read it. And you know what. I liked it. I stayed up until 12:30a.m. this morning to finish reading it because I just had to see how things came together and I kept getting urged on by page after pag...

And this year's Caldecott medal (best illustration in a children's picture book) goes to: A sick day for Amos McGee;  Author: Philip Stead, Illustrator: Erin Stead.   ALA's 2011 Caldecott winner and honor winners here .

Seriously, I love being a Children's Librarian. I did a reading a couple weeks back at one of the local elementary schools. I read books to 2nd graders for about a half an hour. I carefully chose my books, trying to get crowd pleasers that would show the kids that, "reading is fun," etc., so I wound up taking: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (my favorite) Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steg The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales and The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton (an oldy, but still a favorite story of mine!) (Also any Librarian might notice that I am also trying to innundate the little monsters with award winners: Where the Wild Things Are, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and The Little House are all Caldecott Medal Winners . Anyway, I was a little intimidated at first--reading to 60+ staring eyes--but once I started reading things went great and the kids seemed interested. Anyway, today I received a stack of Thank-you lett...