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Our Rookie Reader Adventure Club at the libary is reading "The Spiderwick Chronicles" by Toni DiTerlizzi. We are a group of kindergarteners, first and second graders and having a good time using our imagination. Each has a made a field guide and we add tidbits of research to it each week. We learned a new word this week, infestation! When asked if anyone knew what infestation meant, one little boy commented, "no, but it sure doesn't sound too good." We soon discovered it indeed didn't sound too good when creatures over run an area, cause trouble and disrupt things.

After learning our new word, we went on a field trip throughout the library, looking for fairy, brownie or boggart infestation. We found signs of trouble everywhere! We interviewed our library director who admitted to wondering if we had an infestation. Kids asked questions that were not on our check list. They discovered the tiniest marks on the walls, holes I'd never noticed before and vents bent, ceilings panels mysteriously loosened, and a dozen other conspicuous oddities that have me convinced we have a serious fairy infestation at the Earlville Public Library. We all agreed we don't want to upset them and we will continue on as if they aren't there. No sense borrowing trouble if we don't need to!

So why am I telling you about our Rookie Readers Adventure Club? Because I was inspired by their imagination! As adults, we sometimes struggle kick-starting our brains into thinking of new ideas. Our imagination hides from us and we wonder why we can't find a solution to a plot, or can't start a new project. My best advice after touring our library with our rookie readers, is let the little kid in you come out and play, get into trouble and cause a little havoc! It's great fun!

Beware ~ you may fall victim to an infestation of crazy ideas! Or rather, your imagaination may take you places you never dreamed of going.

Til next time ~

DL Larson

Today NMD had to turn in the first big project of the school year--a pumpkin decorated like a character from a book she read over the summer. It is 100% her work, and I'm pretty proud of the effort she put into it. So without further ado, I present Mallory, from the Spiderwick Chronicles Book 3: The Ironwood Tree! Here's an up close shot of Mallory (sans sword). The pumpkins will be on display

Holly Black & Tony DiTerlizzi at Joseph-Beth (or How Long a 5-year-old Can Last at a Bookstore Event)...

Last night Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi's book tour for The Wyrm King, the 3rd book in their Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles series, took them to the Joseph-Beth Booksellers here in the Nati. I thought Holly was terrific when I saw her speak at the SCBWI conference in LA in August so I didn't want to miss the Joe-Beth appearance despite the fact that I didn't have a babysitter for the boy. But he's seen the Spiderwick movie previews and knows the bookstore has macaroni and cheese in the cafe, so he was in. (Note: The last bookstore event I brought him to was Holly Hobbie when he was 3 months old. See From the Editor in the 2006 CWIM.)

As I suspected, the event was crowded. Check out all the people as they wait for Holly and Tony to come in. (You can't see those who are standing in the aisle and between the bookcases in the back. There were lots of people.)


Holly and Tony were really charming, engaging and funny. This was truly one of the most enjoyable book signings I've attended. Their event included talk of cool mythical creatures (with visual aids and instructions to not Google "rat king"), live dragon drawing, impromptu diaper jokes, and prizes (including Tony's drawings). Here's Holly and Tony addressing the crowd of readers.


Here's Holly reading a little from The Wyrm King (enough to get us really interested by not give too much away).


Tony takes it in from the sidelines (and rests his drawing/signing hand).


And here's me with Tony and Holly, interupting them mid-autographing for a picture. (I knew the boy wouldn't have the patience for standing in line and it was getting close to his bed time, so I didn't get a book autographed myself, but they offered to pose with me anyway. Note the cool blown up Wyrm King cover in the background.)


And here's the boy, who fidgeted on my lap for 45 minutes and kept saying "This is not hilarious for me. I'm tired of being here. Is that a dragon?" And he picked his nose like it was his job.


Finally, the boy got to do what he loves to do at the bookstore: play with trains.


He also made it home with a copy of The Spiderwick Chronicles movie and one of Jon Scieszka's Truck Town books.

(And next week when I go see Sara Zarr when her tour stops in the Nati, I'm going by myself. She's in the Nati October 6th and 7th.)

Last night I got to go to one of my favorite indepedent book stores, Third Place Books, for the farewell-tour and book signing for the Spiderwick Chronicles.

We've been fans since the very first volume. And now own each of the stories as well as many of the peripheral books (the "Field Guide", "The Care & Feeding of Sprites", the giant "Chronicles of Spiderwick"...)

My daughter had me take her out of school to see Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi the last time they come through on a Spiderwick tour (when we got the first batch of books signed). They are gregarious, humorous and imminently entertaining in person as well as on the page and a couple of my contemporary heroes. Spontaneity abounds - don't even ask about the impromptu audience rendition of "Puff the Magic Dragon"...

As part of their spiel Tony drew a number of on-the-spot characters (I'm always impressed by being able to draw spontaneously, in front of an audience, in pen!) which they then gave away to winners of Spiderwick trivia questions.

I sketched *them* while they talked. Made funner by it being rather dimly lit and their constant movements...

As I was sitting on the front row during their presentation, Tony saw me drawing and to my dismay asked to see my sketch book when we got to the front of the book-signing line. The horror, the horror....

But they are generosity itself when it comes to signing *every* thing you brought with you, in addition to letting you take pictures with them. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Here's hoping that talent rubs off a little?...

Spiderwick Chronicles

According to ICV2, there will be a board game tie-in to the film version of The Spiderwick Chronicles, due to be released in early 2008. That's kind of cool, and will probably sell like the proverbial hotcakes, since the series is so popular (not sure I would call it a YA series, though, as it is called in the article.) But where's all the hotly anticipated The Seeker memorabilia? ;)

How do I enroll?

(It's probably too late. Oh well.)