Ouch - only 5 hours of reading so far

It's a good thing I have plenty of time to read tonight and tomorrow, because I'm far away from the 12 hour goal!

Here's the tally so far:

Friday, June 5 - 9:30 - 10:30 pm - 1 hour (finished The House on Fortune Street by Livesay)

Saturday, June 5 - noon - 2 pm - 1 hour (finally sat down to read, but was interrupted every few minutes by my chatty teenage daughters and my own sugar jones - at which point I gave up entirely and made cupcakes (golden with chocolate frosting - vegan! Book - The Magic Thief: Lost by Sarah Prineas. Food - leftover ravioli for lunch)

Saturday, June 5 - 2 pm - 5 pm - 3 hours (that's what I'm talking about! 3 hours of uninterrupted reading bliss, accompanied by Beaker the Parrot, my current favorite reading companion. Because I don't want her to be lonely during her stay with us, I've hauled her cage inside and outside, from one favorite reading spot to another. She is always ready to engage in intense eye contact and perplexing body language, but doesn't seem to mind when I dive back into my book again. Still working on The Magic Thief: Lost, but almost done. Food - one cupcake, a cup of coffee, and a cup of tea.)

Total reading time so far - 5 hours

Time spent blogging so far - 45 minutes.

A shaky start....

Due to a delightful dinner with friends and then a situation involving the Amazon Grey Parrot my younger daughter is bird-sitting (she let her out of her cage and then we couldn't figure out how to get her back in), I didn't get to my book until much later than my original 8 pm start-time.

However, I did finish The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey - here's the mini-review I wrote for Goodreads:

The lives of two men and two women, all connected by their ties to each other and to the house where three of them live, are explored in turn. The writing is fluid and most of the characters are worth delving into - we learn about their troubled childhoods and uneasy psyches. One character, poor lackluster Sean, the boyfriend of Abigail, gets rather shortshrift. His story comes first, but is abbreviated and pale next to the perspectives that follow - Abigail, Abigail's intense friend Dara, and Dara's father, a quiet man with a complicated secret. A tragedy that occurs during Sean's portion is slowly brought out and semi-explained during the following segments, but this isn't so much about this event as about how lives are intertwined and how we have profound and often unknown and unpredictable effects on those around us. Not uplifting but also not a downer - simply a lingering, well-written look into the lives of four folks.

I haven't started reading yet this morning because I wanted to absolutely finish all my chores so that I could flop down on the sofa with absolutely nothing looming ahead of me. Good news - while driving from grocery store to garden nursery, I finished the audiobook of Lady Killer by Lisa Scottoline, a fluffy South Philly tale which was made engaging by the quirky characters and the fabulous voice of narrator Barbara Rosenblat, who switches from accent to accent with aplomb, if not dead-on accuracy.

And now - on to The Magic Thief: Lost by Sarah Prineas!!

48-Hour Reading Challenge - let me at it!

It starts for me at 8 pm tonight with jammies, tea, and a stack of books.

Here's what's in the stack:
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton (a wonderful book for adults; almost done)
The Magic Thief: Lost by Sarah Prineas ('cause I loved The Magic Thief)
Also Known as Harper by Ann Haywood Leal (the blog reviews have been positive)
Gone by Michael Grant (I've been wanting to read this post-apocalyptic YA novel since last year)
Mare's War by Tanita s. Davis (great reviews, neat cover)

I don't have the hubris to list any more - it'll be a miracle if I finish these. But dang, will I have fun trying!

Coraline

...as envisioned and embodied by my 10-year-old niece for Dress as Your Favorite Character day at her school.

Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards announced

Thanks, Roger, for bringing us these glad tidings.

For the $.02 it's worth, I approve. Loved Nation, thought Bubble Trouble was a giggle, and The Lincolns has been residing on my coffee table these last few days (where even the dedicated fiction readers in my household can't help but leaf through it).

Those who have no time to write scintillating posts...

...link to the scintillating posts of their brilliant fellow bloggers!

I've got a daunting few weeks ahead of me, filled with workshops to present and school visits to make (all miles and miles away from both my own house and my workplace) - my calendar is a mess of fearsome scrawls, punctuated by exclamation points and vigorous asterisks.

So here are some links, new and sorta new, that you are sure to enjoy:

Rosalyn Schanzer writes a terrific post in I.N.K. about an unintended consequence of political correctness - often, writers for children (and editors and readers) feel that they aren't allowed to let anyone but white males have negative emotions or do bad things, which is just another way of rewriting history and does a disservice to everyone.

Charlotte from Charlotte's Library writes this post about the ridiculous lack of people of color in children's fantasy and science fiction books. She does mention some titles that buck the trend, and in the comments folks (including myself) added more, but the exceptions prove the rule.

This post by Jen Robinson in Booklights made me want to play hooky from work, pack up a picnic and a bunch of books, and head to the beach.

Trevor Cairney of Literacy, Families and Learning gives us some great tips - handy for parents, teachers, and librarians alike - on how to listen to a child reading aloud in a way that is fun and helpful rather than stressful and demoralising.

And finally - here is how I would have spent my weekend if (1) I had gone to BEA in New York, (2) I were brave and social enough to talk up lots of authors and (3) I were MotherReader.

Review of Any Which Wall by Laurel Snyder

Here is the review I wrote for School Library Journal (see all the June reviews here). Because I had to conform to SLJ's format, it's short but sweet.

SNYDER, Laurel. Any Which Wall. illus. by LeUyen Pham. 256p. CIP. Random. 2009. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-0-375-85560-3; PLB $19.99. ISBN 978-0-375-95560-0. LC 2008022605.

Gr 3–6—During an Iowa summer, two sets of sibling neighbors—first-grader Emma and fifth-grader Henry, fifth-grader Roy and seventh-grader Susan—are getting bored. Luckily, adventure looms in the shape of a huge wall in the middle of a cornfield. When the children discover that it is magic and figure out its rules and parameters, they are transported to Merlin's castle, the American frontier, the home of "the worst pirate in the world," modern-day New York City, and an ice-cream shop and a movie theater. This book begins with a quote from Edward Eager's Seven-Day Magic (Houghton, 1999) and, as in his fantasies, the charm of the story lies not just in the magic, but also in how four kids figure out how it works, what to do with it, and how to get along at the same time. That magic, like everything else, has consequences is made clear to the youngsters, especially when their adventures saddle them with a large, wounded, lovable, homeless dog to take care of. Snyder's fresh, down-to-earth voice is complemented by Pham's energetic illustrations, which seem at once retro and modern. Fantasy fans will enjoy this novel, but so will readers who like stories about ordinary kids.—Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library