I have delayed starting a Facebook account for awhile.  I am already hooked on so many other social networking sites that I felt I didn’t need another one.  But that all changed…

Garth Nix has created a Massively Multiplayer Online Game based on his upcoming book, A Confusion of Princes.  You can only play it on Facebook!  So those of you lucky folks who already have an account, go right ahead.  I’m still waiting for my email confirmation…  Impatiently!  LOL

I know that many of you are probably reading this via RSS feed, but if you do come and actually visit the blog in person, you will see our new design.  The design echoes the children’s section of our library website, so the animals at the top of the page will lead you to our library’s website.  Other than that, you will see the same collection of links but they are on the left side instead of the right.  I also did away with the calendar to have more room for other items.  If you check this early, you will find that we are still in the process of updating some of the templates. 

Another important change is that the archives now reflect the Menasha Public Library URL rather than reaching back to Green Lake.  They were causing some concern for people, so I am happy to announce that our fabulous website and blog guru Jody has managed to change it so everything points to the same base URL.  Hurrah!

The 2007 Costa Book Awards have been announced. 

In the Children’s Book Award category, Ann Kelley has won for The Bower Bird. 

Here is what the judges had to say:

“The world of life and death, beauty and truth seen through the eyes of
a 12 year old girl. A rare and beautiful book of lasting quality – we
felt this is a voice that needs to be heard and read.”

I know I’m a little late on this, but what wonderful news!  Jon Scieszka has been named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature! 

He is the founder of the amazing Guys Read, and pledges to work to turn reluctant readers into avid readers.  His platform includes four suggestions (my comments are in italics) :

1.  Letting
kids choose what they like and want to read (Yes!  THE most important thing to get children reading.  Graphic novels, magazines, web pages, who cares, let them pick!)

2. 
Expanding our definition of “reading” to include non-fiction, humor, graphic
novels, magazines, action daventure, and web content (Exactly!  Especially important for boys who tend to not pick up novels as readily as girls do.  And let’s stop saying that some reading is “better” than others.  Better written yes, better for kids to read, let’s not put that as a reason to stop them from reading what they love!)

3.  Being
good “reading” role models for children (I read in front of my kids as often as possible!  🙂  But even better, so does my husband so our two sons see a man reading for pleasure.)

4.  Avoid demonizing TV, computer games, and new technologies. (Oh how very important this is, especially as librarians.  I have hope as the new generation of librarians is coming in that they will better embrace media and technology than my generation has. We need to understand and be a part of pop culture rather than dismissing it or being disdainful.)

The Cybil Finalists have been announced in several of the categories!  And what great lists there are! 

I was honored to serve on the Science Fiction and Fantasy committee where we read a huge selection of titles that ranged widely in both subject and reader age.  The panel was great to work with and so many of my favorite titles of the year made the list!  Congratulations to all of the authors and a huge thanks to the coordinators of the Cybils and my fellow panelists for making this such a highlight of my reading year.

If you have read some of the books on the lists, let me know what you think.  I have read all of the fiction picture books except one, and that is a grand list.  I have to read some more of the middle grade books because I have only read one of them! 

Here’s hoping all of you a Happy New Year and Happy Holidays!  I will be off spending time with my kids and hubby until after New Year’s.  I may post periodically, but don’t really plan on it.  Depends on how many Cybil nominees I get through!

I was going to attend ALA Midwinter, but it didn’t work out after all.  The biggest draw was going to be attending the Newbery and Caldecott announcements live!  But since I won’t be there, I hope to be able to attend the live webcast that ALA will be offering on January 14th.  Last year I missed it, logging in too close to the time it started to get a seat on the stream.  I will try again this year!  And happily type as quickly as possible to get the titles posted as they are announced.  Hopefully!

Philip Pullman has announced a new companion to his Golden Compass trilogy.  To be released this spring, the companion book is entitled Once Upon a Time in the North.  The book details the history of Lee Scoresby and Iorek Byrnison, the balloonist and the bear. 

Pullman will also be releasing a full-length novel in 2009, called The Book of Dust. 

Two things for Pullman fans to cheer about!

Oo la la!  The Inkheart movie trailer is gorgeous!  Looks like a wonderful cast too.  Take a look for yourself.

I posted about the books over the years and know that I have lots of fans of the books reading this blog!  Take a look at the long list of comments on the Inkspell entry I made in 2005.  They are still debating Basta and Dustfinger and who is hotter.  Perhaps the movies can resolve the argument?