book reviews: supernatural series fiction

When it rains, it pours. It seems my grand plan to incorporate reviews into this blog has turned extraordinarily fruitful in a very short period of time, such that now I kind of have too many books to review and far too little time. Never enough time! But that's a fine problem to have, I think. Better than the obverse. But let's get to the good stuff!

Winkler, Henry and Lin Oliver. Ghost Buddy #3: How to Scare the Pants Off Your Pets. Scholastic. January 2013. Grades 3-6. 176p. ISBN 978-0-545-29884-1

Hoover Porterhouse III (a/k/a the Hoove) loves goats, hates lizards, and is highly allergic to paint fumes. He also happens to be an extremely self-confident tween ghost whose closest friend is mild-mannered sixth grader Billy Broccoli. When the Hoove is grounded by the Higher-Ups for his noted shortcomings in accepting personal responsibility, Billy hatches a plan to get his friend back in their good graces and teach him a valuable (after)life lesson. This middle-grade/tween novel offers two likeable protagonists, and though the story may drag at times, it is carried by its silly humor and a sweet heart. While the Hoove likes to hog the spotlight, it’s Billy Broccoli and his struggles readers will empathize with most readily: crushes, bullies, and adjusting to a blended family.  

diggin' the new

Surprise, I have a brand-new review policy! All about books, and the reviewing of them - which will be happening on this blog, very soon indeed. In fact, as soon as I get done writing this I am going to start reading fun books expressly for review purposes. Storytime isn't necessarily going away, but will be sharing space with reviews.

That being said, there will be no storytime this week (work) or next (Midwinter!) but there will be reviews. Hooray!

week 1: shot through the heart

I apologize if this entry doesn't make much sense; I just got back from getting a flu shot. I realized that I have already been terribly sick once this fall/winter season and am not particularly interested in an encore performance. And so.

But that's not what's on the docket for today. We're here for storytime! Yes indeed. So you are probably familiar with Herve Tullet's Press Here. It is THE BEST. Why have I waited so long to use it in storytime? I DO NOT KNOW. But it was a big part of storytime this week, boy howdy.

Spoiler alert and all that, but I feel pretty confident most of you are familiar with the above two-page spread from Press Here.

new day rising

Maybe you follow me on Twitter, maybe you don't. No big deal. But if you did follow me on Twitter and you were home (or just on Twitter) New Year's Eve, you would have heard the glorious good news about my new puppet. You may have even had a chance to join in on the fun of coming up with her name, which is officially Bianca by the way. Thanks, Amy! And here's Bianca now:

what if they threw a storytime and no one came? pt. 2

So you already know the story of the storytime for which nobody showed. Sad, but oh well. I am happy that I got to work out preschool and toddler bilingual storytime plans, and it helped me make a few key storytime decisions.

One, I am going to start doing La Pequena Araña regularly, just to have it in my arsenal. It is fun and a nice way to work (a) with Spanish-speaking storytime audiences and (b) on bilingual concepts with storytime audiences generally.

Two, I am going to work out my own translation of Go Away, Big Green Monster! in Spanish (¡Fuera de aquí, horrible monstruo verde!) because although we have a few copies in our system it seems to be out of print and really expensive on Amazon. So if I translate it myself I'll always have my own copy (with sticky notes) for bilingual storytimes.

Anyway, this would have been a super-fun storytime.

what if they threw a storytime and no one came? pt. 1

Our library had a little mandatory furlough during the holidays, which was nice for some folks, but not nice at all for lots of others. The folks who bore the brunt of it of course were the patrons, and (from my viewpoint) children in particular. But the point is that we did open back up, and that was great! Problem was, I think it took a while for folks to figure out that we were in fact open for business. As in, the first morning back was hecka slow.

Which would normally not be the biggest problem in the world: lots to catch up on, nice to have a little room to breathe, etc. But when I came to work on that frst Wednesday, I was asked if I could help out and do both storytimes that morning. Yay! Both bilingual storytimes: double yay!