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Enter to win all four full-color Judy Moody and Stink books; including Judy Moody & Stink: The Wishbone Wish (Candlewick, Reprint, 2015), written by Megan McDonald and illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds. Giveaway begins November 9, 2015, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends December 8, 2015, at 11:59 P.M. PST.

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Ok, for those who don't work in a library, there is a little thing called the ILS, or Integrated Library System. As a patron, you'll see certain aspects of this--the public catalog for instance. It's also what we use to check books in and out. It's also the librarian catalog and the back end catalog (yes, these are different), and really, it's the thing that tracks all of our materials and our patrons. It does all of our library-specific things.

The one our library has is from 1983. So, we're getting a new one. We've been all trained and it goes live next week. But, we had to take the old one down this week so they could transfer all the data over to the new one.

We're kicking it old skool this week--circ is being done by hand and will be entered in when the new catalog goes live. For finding books, we're playing "how well do you know the collection." It's fun. And exhausting. And more than a little insane.

2 days after the new catalog goes live, I'm going on vacation-- excellent timing on my part, even if vacation was planned before the change-over dates were announced.

So, anyway, that's what my life is like these days. :)

The Frandidate Jim Benton

This is the first Franny K. Stein book I've read and it's quite a treat! Franny is a mad scientist with her own laboratory. In this book, she decides she wants to run for class president, because if people CHOOSE her as her leader, than she can rule the world and it will be ok. Sadly, the kids in her class don't like her platform of chalk that explodes if you write the wrong answer or robots that will force-fed kids a healthy lunch. So, Fran goes into her lab and builds a candidate suit--specially designed to appear to a person just as they want them to appear and to say just want they want to hear!

But, why stop at school elections? Why not run for president? But will Franny be able to tell where she ends and the candidate begins?

Timely and funny with excellent illustrations. Kids will love Fran's dog cum lab assistant and appreciate her struggles with the truth.

Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express Megan McDonald

When the local pet store rescues some guinea pigs from lab, Stink and his friends set out to find homes for all 101 of them! They try everything they can think of, including a traveling van full of guinea pigs.

Filled with lots of fun facts about the little critters, it's a funny and sweet story that fans of Stink or his older sister Judy will surely enjoy.

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     When they finally got unstuck, Stink looked at the Great Wall. He could not believe his eyes. The Great Wall was moving. The Great Wall was quaking. "Look!" he said, pointing.

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When I read Romeo and Juliet a couple of months ago, I felt by the end of the play that I knew Juliet much more than Romeo. I also decided that Romeo was pretty much a wimp.

After watching the movie Romeo + Juliet, my thoughts have been reversed. In the film, the director and the actor playing Romeo (Leonardo DiCaprio) really GOT Shakespeare's Romeo. They 'got' him so much that, in the movie, I felt like the story was not so much about 'this Romeo dude' and 'this Juliet girl' who meet, fall in love, and end up dying. It was about Romeo. All of his complexities and struggles and honesty really shined through, and I ended up really loving him. Romeo wasn't a wishy-washy hero who fell for one girl one moment and another the next; he wasn't a young man who didn't really give a care about the feud between the families just so long as he could be with Juliet. Oh, he cared! Romeo was an amazing hero full of passion for love, life, and happiness.

Shakespeare was already a confirmed genius in my book, but this film's portrayal of some of his characters made me in awe all over again. Shakespeare really knew people. He created the most incredible true-to-life characters that we can still empathize with, hundreds of years later. Viewing the movie, I related so much to Romeo.

(Warning: The above-mentioned film rendition of the play contains quite a bit of violence, if you're bothered by that sort of thing, and quite a bit of sexual content which Mom and I fast-forwarded through. And this film was far from being a faithful nod to all of the characters and plot lines in the play. I personally felt like they got a lot wrong. But what they got right was perfect.)

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5 x 7
Colored pencil on board

I didn't know this was going to get so dark.
Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet (specifically, the "Montagues and Capulets") came on the radio as I was working on this. It stuck in my head the rest of the day, and the piece just kept getting darker and darker.

This is not at all my interpretation of that piece of music! The music just influenced how it turned out is all.

I'm still trying to get a feel for these Graphitints. They go really dark so fast. I used some Polychromo and Prisma in the reds to add a little life.

(*A note about the music. Its gloriously dark and heavy and dramatic. If you don't know it, and listen to it through this link, 1:36 is where it starts to get good. Also, imagine it done with a real orchestra, with good acoustics, and the volume cranked...)

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Manga Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet
Author: William Shakespeare, Richard Appignanesi, Sonia Leong
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0-8109-9325-2
EAN: 9780810993259

Manga Shakespeare. You hear the words and you think, Manga Shakespeare? Really? You’re not quite sure what to think. Then if you’re like me, you start thinking, well if it gets kids to read, why not?

What a great surprise! The first Manga Shakespeare I opened up was Romeo and Juliet and the first pages were beautiful.

“Present day Tokyo. Two teenagers, Romeo and Juliet, fall in love. But their rival Yakuza families are at war.”

The author’s introduce the characters of Shakespeare’s wonderful play in full color. Each character has one of their famous quotes introducing them like this one: Tybalt – nephew of Lady Capulet “As I hate hell, all Montague and thee.” Tybault is pictured looking over his tattooed back and hefting a large sword. The manga style artwork is beautiful and it conveys the story so well.

I loved that the language of Shakespeare is intact. Sure the characters are speaking in bubbles but the language is still poetic and gorgeous. The authors have done a great job in blending pop culture and classic literature. It works! Manga Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet is sure to be a big hit.

The idea of incorporating Shakespeare’s plays into the extremely popular manga genre was a smart one and to my mind, perfect for teenaged kids that may not be big readers. What a great way to get them reading the classics! I always struggle with getting non-readers to read but always seem to get a foot in the door if it’s something visual like a graphic novel. Once I hook them, they become readers for life.

These Manga Shakespeare books will hook a whole new audience to Shakespeare. Wouldn’t they make great text books? Hint, hint…LAUSD – buy the books, bring them into the classroom. I’d lay odds that the reading level of that class would go up. The non-readers will stop and take notice because the art is so beautiful and modern. They’ll love the setting and the fact that the Capulets and Montagues are Yakuza. These books will grab their attention and sooner or later, they’re going to want to read the actual play.



Book description from the publisher:
Now presenting Manga Shakespeare—the Bard's greatest plays in an accessible, lively format for a new generation of readers

Romeo and Juliet is ideally suited for the manga format—it has teenage heroes, scheming and villainous adults, heartbreaking tragedy, and the ultimate romantic plot about star-cross'd lovers. Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet, fall deeply in love—and they refuse to let their parents' age-old feud get in their way. When Romeo is banished from their town, a series of mistakes and misunderstandings, along with their families' mutual hatred, finally manages to end their love. An exciting introduction to the Bard for reluctant readers and manga fans alike.

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We all have literary conventions or character quirks that we hate in fiction. Or maybe “we” don’t. Maybe I’m lumping y’all together with me. I know that there is at least one other person who agrees with me though because this friend has never been quiet on the subject of her vehement hate for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.*

First, some background on this friend (whom we’ll call Betty) is one of those super-genius people that should she ever spawn, her children will take over the world and make Brain (of Pinky and the Brain fame) look like a humble, unassuming type. No, should these—at this point imaginary—children take over, you’d better hope they like or you should go about getting out of here in a “don’t let the atmosphere burn you on the butt on the way out” fashion. Betty studied many things in our time together in college, but she wrote her senior thesis on Shakespeare. She knows the bard forwards and backwards and this breadth of knowledge has only reaffirmed the R&J hate.

Romeo and Juliet, in her opinion, were suffering from puppy love and not anything true or lasting. She just hates that is often referenced as the epitome of true love.

Which makes the fact that R&J were referenced at her wedding ceremony as an example of true and everlasting love all the more amusing. The original preacher who was supposed to perform her wedding ceremony had a heart attack the day before the wedding and the visiting preacher had to step in. Not only did Preacher #2 have an accent that made him sound suspiciously like the priest from the Princess Bride (Wuv, twue wuv), but he also felt the need to ad-lib. As Betty and her husband were sitting facing wedding guests, Preacher #2 began to address the group about their love, “Wuv everlasting and pure like the wuv of Romeo and Juliet…”

Betty was not amused.

When the wedding was finally over she stomped out of the church, practically threw her bouquet on the ground and yelled, “What? So I’m supposed to [bad word deleted because I’m at work] kill myself now!?”

Unlike Betty my biggest problem with R&J is not the puppy love passing for the true sort, but that the whole situation never would have taken place if people would have just communicated. It’s the same problem I have with Othello (although, I love Iago as a character) or any other piece of work that bases the momentum of the play on a situation that could have been rather easily resolved.

The Big Misunderstanding makes me cringe. I was flipping through a book yesterday, and as soon as I realized part of the plot hinged on the Big Mis, I started mentally composing a negative review. I hadn’t even really read the thing yet! There are books out there that have successfully pulled the contrivance off, but make the motives behind it believable, but those are few and far between.

So what about you, anything that turns you off immediately or tweaks the reading experience so much that it immediately downgrades the story? Betty and I can’t be the only ones like this.


*I apologize if I’ve told this story before, but I was reminded of it when I was dining with some friends last night and the topic of Betty’s wedding came up. Also, to be completely truthful, I’m still not fully awake despite the fact that I’ve been answering phones for two hours.

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