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Since my arrival in Bavaria, the action has been non-stop. It usually is with all the sightseeing we like to get in. On my first day there, all of my cousins and friends came to greet me and my family. Upon seeing me my cousin Matthias (whom I appropriately made a leprechaun named “Maddy” in “Laura and the Leprechauns”), he hugged me and said, “On Tuesday you will come with me to school and talk to my class about America, English and writing.” Since he hadn’t posed this as a question, I was a little nervous to say the least. I hadn’t been prepared to be in front of a classroom giving a speech about anything, and I had never done it before. Not to mention my German is elementary at best. He assured me that I would be able to speak in English since it was for his English class and that they would have questions prepared for me. That put me more at ease. But Laura, upon hearing this, decided that she would get permission from her teacher for me to visit her classroom as well. The teacher not only agreed, she decided to combine two classes of 6-7 year olds to form a single group of 60+ kids that I would somehow entertain. That made me even more nervous because they spoke very little English. So at 11am Laura’s mom picked me up and drove me to Grund–und Hauptschule (their school) in Gaimersheim, Germany where I would meet Matthias and await my instructions. The day actually turned out to be fabulous and a lot of fun! It went more smoothly than I could have imagined with Matthias playing interpreter. The kids had great questions for me and were genuinely interested to learn about life in the United States. For the younger kids, I read aloud from “Laura and the Leprechauns” and their teacher then translated what I was reading from the German version of the book. I left a few copies of the German version for them, and they are taking turns taking it home to read. It’s a great feeling to know that I could contribute to their school studies. All in all the day was a success. I never thought my first public appearance would be in Germany but life is always full of surprises.

All my best,

Amber

www.chrysalispress.com

I didn't bring my camera to ALA,

But Fuse did! And here's the link to the photo of myself, along with Melissa Rabey (who blogs at Pop) and Carlie Webber (blogs at Pop and here, and is running for the Printz committee).

Sophie Brookover, founder of Pop Goes the Library and my coauthor for our upcoming book, also brought her camera. At least in this one, I have makeup and slightly better hair.

Carlie's is the only shirt where you can clearly see our Official ALA Midwinter T: Team Rowling. Interestingly enough, we did not encounter any "Team Pullman" so there was no rumble to the soundtrack of West Side Story.



Or perhaps

Happy 2008! I hope everyone had a safe and joyous New Year! I am really excited for everything I have planned during the upcoming year. For starters, I’m continuing to improve upon and add different features to my website. I just recently discovered a site called cafepress.com which allows you to design all sorts of personalized things from T-shirts, to tote bags! I thought this was really neat since I like to design and create, and so I decided to open up my own Laura and the Leprechauns gift shop so you can browse my latest creations at your leisure. I will be updating designs and merchandise offered periodically, so if there is something specific you are looking for—a favorite character or slogan, or illustration from the book—please don’t hesitate to let me know. I would be happy to add it to future designs. Right now I think you’ll find that there is quite a wide variety of things to choose from. You can locate the gift shop directly at: http://www.cafepress.com/chrysalispress or access it through www.chrysalispress.com. Just select the “Gift Shop” button at the bottom of the page and it will redirect you to the store. I hope you will enjoy all the shop has to offer. As always I look forward to hearing your feedback and opinions, so feel free to drop me a line at [email protected]. I’ll be in touch soon!

Sincerely,

Amber

Librarians Who Love Pop Culture appeared in today's School Library Journal Extra Helping.

While I was unavailable to be interviewed (a little thing called work, particularly a not so little event called the End of Summer Ice Cream Party), Sophie Brookover did an awesome job. And my name was spelled right, with a link here; so what more can a girl want?

Now I'm off to read InStyle, watch Roar on DVD, and eat ice cream while wearing my Uggs. Yes, the life of a pop culture librarian IS all you think it is. Except, sadly, Rufus Sewell still won't return my phone calls.

You may have noticed not as much posting, or not as much substantial posting. Well, here's the thing. Sophie Brookover and I are in the midst of writing a book. It's called Pop Goes the Library: Using Pop Culture to Connect With Your Whole Community, and the good folks at ITI are going to publish it, sometime in 2008.

So while we're researching, writing, revising, etc., we have a request for those of you readers who work in libraries.

We have this survey, you see, and it would help us out tremendously if you'd be willing to answer our questions. It's one thing for us to write about what we think makes a great marriage between pop culture & libraries; it's quite another, more powerful thing to quote our experienced colleagues on this topic. So, if you're willing, our survey is right here.

We apologize in advance if you see e-mail survey-related e-mails on various list-servs. We're trying to gather as many responses as the library community is willing to provide. Thank you so much for taking the time to participate. We know our book will be that much better for your contributions!

Adapted from Sophie's post at Pop.

Remember that February issue of School Library Journal with the article I wrote?

That same issue also highlighted Pop Goes the Library; Pop is the brain child of Sophie Brookover, and I contribute library-focused posts.

Also on my to-do list: post some photos from that issue.