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I have wanted the Lego version of the Death Star for a very long time. I love Legos, Star Wars and audaciously sized things, so it's a perfect fit, but the price has always been quite daunting. $400, regardless of the awesomeness it brings, is a lot of galactic credits. So finally, after paying down some bills, I convinced my gorgeous and brilliant wife to let me buy it. So I recruited some tiny

An update for my recent post about NASA student ambassadors:

The 2009 Launch Conference for the International Year of Astronomy is in Paris. Student ambassadors from all over the world will be there, including two from the United States. There's a seminar on "The Question of Parallel Universes." And a live video conference with the South Pole Station. And a session with a Nobel prize winner in physics.

And my daughter is one of the two U.S. students invited to attend.

Geek out!

Here's the full schedule for the two-day event.

I asked her if there would be a cheesy but satisfying medal ceremony like at the end of the original Star Wars movie, and she laughed. But that's exactly how we both feel about it. Woo-hoo!!!

Below: Rebecca at age 8, having her birthday party at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton, VA. (That's her in the center, of course.)

The press release:

NASA SELECTS ASTRONOMY STUDENT AMBASSADORS

WASHINGTON -- Forty-six undergraduate and graduate students have been
selected to represent NASA in their local communities as recipients
of the agency's International Year of Astronomy, or IYA, Student
Ambassadors Program.

Two of the students were chosen to attend the opening ceremonies of an
IYA event in Paris in January 2009. The students representing NASA at
the ceremonies are Rebecca Holmes, a sophomore at the University of
North Carolina Chapel Hill who is majoring in physics and astronomy,
and Norberto Gonzalez, a junior at the University of Puerto Rico at
Arecibo with a biology concentration.

The IYA Student Ambassadors Program is designed to encourage
undergraduate and graduate students to participate in IYA activities
and generate excitement about NASA's discoveries in astrophysics,
planetary science and solar physics within their local communities
and beyond. These students will serve as role models to others.

"NASA is a major partner in the United States' celebration of IYA
activities," said Hashima Hasan, NASA's Astrophysics education and
public outreach lead in Washington. "The Student Ambassadors Program
is just one of many activities the agency has planned throughout the
coming year."

The ambassadors were selected from more than 150 online applications.
Applicants must be U.S. citizens, full-time students and participate
in activities that align with NASA's IYA goals.

The National Space Grant Foundation manages the IYA Student
Ambassadors Program through a grant from NASA. For more information
about NASA's involvement and a list of student ambassadors, visit:

http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov

For more information about NASA and its programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

Haven't had time to read my blog lately? No worries. Wordle has composed a summary of the Read Write Believe feed for you. (Click on any image to view it more closely.)

Here's one of Letters From Rapunzel:

I first heard about Wordle from Laura. (Check out the image of her 50 States Poems collection.) MotherReader tried it, too. And Barbara played with it yesterday.

Besides being beautiful, I think writers could use this to check their work for theme and for balance. Or just to procrastinate. Here's one compiled from my poetry:

Cloudscome introduced me to VoiceThread, and I can't stop thinking about ways authors could use it to reach out to their readers. It's like an interactive booktalk.

Here's a VoiceThread where a class reviews The Landry News by Andrew Clements:



And one more, where fifth graders talk about their favorite books:



Couldn't an author record a reading from her own book, and post it as a public VoiceThread? Then readers could record their responses. The only hitch is that you have to give an email address to register, which I would never ask a child to do. (Although there's an option for a family or educator account, so a child could use an identity under the main account without giving out his email.)

Check it out and if you don't start immediately playing around with your own VoiceThreads, well...you're a stronger person than I was. (You can also search the public threads under the term "review" to pull up more booktalks.)

The first in a series of mini-reports on my trip to the New York SCBWI Winter conference:

I did something geeky last Friday. I went to the Central Children's Room at the Donnell branch of the New York Public Library and asked to see a copy of my book. I was just going to peek at it on the shelves and marvel that my book (MY book!) was in the same building as the original stuffed animals from Winnie the Pooh, Wyeth paintings, and a Newbery medal.

But my surreptitious plan didn't work. The librarian on duty insisted upon doing her job and helping me. It turns out that Letters From Rapunzel at this particular branch was non-circulating, and The Most Helpful Librarian in the World jumped right up and went to the back stacks to pull it for me.

Really, I didn't mean to make her leave her desk and go fetch my own book! It's not like I haven't seen it before. But I hadn't seen it in a library in New York before, and I really did want to. Maybe because I went to kindergarten in NY. Maybe because I went to the library often in NY. (Although not the Donnell branch, sadly, according to my mom and dad. More likely the local Queens branch.) Or maybe because I'm a total library geek.

Anyhow, I held it, stroked its shiny library cover, and fantasized about filling the white space on the title page with a pithy literary comment, my non-trembling signature, and the date: Feb. 8, 2008. Then, I reluctantly gave it back to the Most Helpful Librarian. Turns out that I screwed THAT up.

Because later that night, at the KidLit Drinks get-together, I talked with Betsy Bird, librarian at the same famous Donnell Children's Room, and blogger as Fuse 8 (read her detailed post about Donnell here,) and she said: Oh, did you sign your book?

WHAT? I could've written in a library book? Really? *sigh*

On the other hand, I did do some things right on my visit to Donnell. I inspected Eeyore's tail and marveled at Tigger's realistic stripes. I signed Pooh's guest book. I eavesdropped on a play being rehearsed in a back room. I said a little prayer before the plain, matter-of-fact sign reading: In Memoriam: Madeleine L'Engle and Lloyd Alexander (among others.) I peered through the window of an office at a model of the Little Cabin in the Woods, and longed to move the figures around in a dance to a fiddle tune. I oohed over the Mary Poppins books and umbrella.

Most of all, I left feeling grateful for the chance to stand in a place where I could picture myself as a child, rushing in the door, running over to the new books, getting lost in all the choices, visiting old favorites on the shelves, and leaving with an armful of the best of the best. I wouldn't have noticed if an author had been standing there, holding her own book. Except of course, if it was a book I wanted to read. And then I would've thought: HEY! WEIRDO! Are you done with that?

P.S. The building that holds the Donnell branch has been sold. Betsy Bird has been gathering memories of the Children's Reading Room. If you have a good story, please get it to her here.

Why hello there Neil Gaiman blog readers! This is the wonderful Maddy Gaiman, and I have some simply fabulous news. For the next two weeks, while my father and I are in Budapest I shall be guest blogging! Dad might add in some stuff here and there but I’m sure you are all simply jumping out of your seats in excitement knowing that you shall be reading things written by me. :P We are on the plane at the moment and have just finished eating a delicious breakfast. I had a blueberry scone, strawberry yogurt, fresh fruit, and orange juice. Tasty, tasty. Soon we shall arrive in the Amsterdam airport, where we will either go into Holland or just hang out in the Airline Lounge for our several hour stopover (I’ll report back on which was chosen), and from there proceed on to Budapest, Hungary. Why are we going to Budapest you ask yourself? Ahh... I shall tell you. It is because we are going to be hanging out on the film set of Hellboy 2, I believe. You see, my dearest father is friends with the director, (not sure how to spell his very long Mexican name), and the next thing I know we are jetting off to Europe only a week after I have gotten out of school for the summer! Crazy talk! So as I’ve said you will be hearing all (or most of at least) the updates from Budapest from yours truly. Have a magnificent day. ☺

UPDATE: Now, being in the hotel I have Internet access and can report that my father and I sat in the KLM lounge in Amsterdam airport for about 3 hours.




We just had dinner in a good sushi restaurant but I wasn’t very hungry so I didn’t eat that much... I am fully stuffed now though. Oh, and I am pretty darn tired because of the fact that I didn’t sleep on the plane and therefore my only sleep in the last 29 hours was 40 minutes in the lounge (see photo above where I am wearing dad's leather jacket because it was chilly in there), 60 minutes on the plane from Amsterdam to Budapest, and 3 hours in the hotel room before my dad woke me up to go for a little walk outside the hotel. Okay so maybe I’m not lacking sleep THAT much but I am still quite sleepy. I’m sorry this was a rather uneventful entry but it will be better tomorrow. I promise.