Nonfiction Monday -- Bookcart Drill Teams

HuH?
Yes folks, there really is such a thing as Library Bookcart Drill Team contests.

Just click on the link and you'll not only see videos of last June's action (at the American Library Association Annual Convention) but you'll hear the blow by blow action commentary by none other than Geisel winner and Caldecott honor author/ illustrator Mo Willems. (link is to his blog, so enjoy reading the rest of it, too.) The other voice you hear is Jon Scieska -- another wild and crazy guy.

How does linking to a fiction writer count as a Nonfiction Monday entry on this blog?

Well -- I kinda thought that, since the videos really truely happened, it was live nonfiction in action.
Plus -- I don't have time to post a real review of a book because my Vermont College packet is due and I still have to write more book annotations for it.

For the rest of the REAL Nonfiction Monday book reviews, click here.
-wendieO (posting this in the middle of the night because her left shoulder still hurts and it woke her up)

What does the Main Character want?

I am so excited about my writing progress today.
Because of my accident (and then losing three days to drug-induced sleep and not being allowed to use my arm for over a week) I abandoned one of the picture books I was working on for my September packet. It just wasn't going to get done.

What to substitute?
I took Wednesday afternoon off to organize, plan, and write. I played with a couple of stories. Then I pulled DARK out again.

DARK had been discussed in the workshop part of my stay at Vermont College in July. Everyone agreed that it needed major changes. I was devastated. Only one person in the workshop "got it." And even she suggested changes. I had not done a good job presenting the story.

During the past few months I tried several approaches to the story. Nothing worked.

I must have been thinking about this story pretty hard back there in my "back brain," because suddenly last Wednesday I had an idea. I wanted to go back to my first way of presenting it -- first person with no indication as to whether the speaker was a boy or a girl. Because this is an "everyman" type of story.

I loaded it onto my laptop and brought it to the 8-year old's gymnastic class. Got a good third of it re-written. Today is my usual day off. (We get Fridays off when we work Saturday at the library.) About 2:00 in the afternoon, I settled down with the laptop and plowed into the story, again.

The basic revision is done. And it responds to most of the criticisms it got in the workshop.
(The most important thing I was directed to think about is -- WHAT DOES THE MAIN CHARACTER WANT? And -- does he get it by the end of the story? I think the answer now is, yes.)

Now to figure out how to put the rest of my packet together -- it's due Monday.
-wendieO

Halloween quiz/ prizes

Ah ha!
Did I get your attention with the word, Prize?

First HALLOWEEN Question:
How many cats are in my halloween book: The Halloween Book of Facts and Fun? (available at your library or your local bookstore -- crossing fingers and toes.)

Yes, the cover counts.
No, the webkinz cat that I take to school visits and book signings does NOT count.

This is a case where the illustrator goes off on her own and adds her mite to the book by including something NOT mentioned in the text. (at least it's not mentioned very often.) Good illustrators do this. Paige Billin-Frye is very good.
Cats here, cats there, cats everywhere. (to paraphrase the wonderful book, Millions of Cats.)

The person who tells me the exact number of cats in the book (by putting their guess in the comments section of this blog) will win a signed copy of the book. (book not necessarily signed by my cat.) (maybe I should get a cat's paw stamp? hmmm?)
-wendie O

Nonfiction Monday -- 10 Things I Can do to Help My World

10 Things I Can do to Help My World by Melanie Walsh. Candlewick, 2008. Available now.

The subtitle is -- Fun and Easy Eco-Tips.
Fun and easy they are. It's a flip-book! My favorite type of flip book -- half pages revealing more information when they are flipped.

In fact, the flipping fun begins when you open the book.
"I remember . . ." (with picture of lightbulb shining down on some bugs. A lovely expanding ray of light leads you to turn the page and
SURPRISE!
The lightbulb and its rays are cut-away on the right hand side. Turning it exposes the rest of the sentence on black paper and only the eyes of the bugs shining at you. A second sentence outlines the turned-off lightbulb.

Wow! What a start. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Well, what happens next is that every second page is like this. Because the background of the underlying page matches so closely to the page you are viewing, you don't realize that you've hit another cut-away until you try to turn the page and discover, again, that you are turning another 3/4 page, exposing the other half of the sentence.

Really neat stuff.

The publisher recommends it for age 3 and up.
Do remember that up means UP! People up to age 103 will enjoy this book. (and if they have to grab a kid to read it to, to justify reading it, that's fine, too.)

This is filed in the 363.7 area of the library, so you will have to hand-sell it to customers. Or maybe put it on display in April for Earth Day.
-wendieO

Watch this Space

Sometime soon
-- maybe even the middle of this week
-- the first Halloween question will appear.

Watch
Thisssss
Space

-wendieO

What happened this week?

Well.
(actually -- not well)
I fell last weekend in the library's staff room and landed on my left side. You should see the huge bruises on leg and arm. My left arm swelled up like a goose egg, so I went to Patient First, thinking that I had broken the arm. After X-rays of my shoulder, arm, and hip area, they determined that nothing had broken -- I just was badly bruised.

Unfortunately, the medicine they gave me caused me to sleep the rest of the 3-day weekend. And made me too groggy to stay at work on Tuesday. I went home after only a half day's work.

Wednesday, I saw a bone doctor. He agreed that the medicine they had given me was too strong. (It just goes to show that you aren't a drug addict. If you had been -- your body could have resisted that medicine better.) Since then, i've gone back to my usual Excedrin during the day and 8-hour Tylanol during the night and I feel much better.

The arm is recovering nicely, thank you. I didn't even need the sling at all today at work. I'm getting back to my speedy touch-typing self. And the 5-inch in diameter bruise on my leg is a work of art.

We spent the week at the library weeding the holiday books and correcting some mismarking on them. Now our holiday collection is nice and loose on the shelves -- all ready for the new holiday books to show up.

The 8-year old had decided she loved, loved, loved her new third grade teacher -- just in time for the school to add a new teacher and move her and 20 other kids into a new classroom. The funny thing is -- this teacher has the same name as her 2nd grade teacher. So, on Monday she begins again with a new teacher. I do hope the original teachers share the school supplies we parents bought for the three classrooms with the new teacher and classroom.

Gotta go take the 8-year old's best friend home before the rain from hurricane Hanna grows too strong. And get more milk. We're almost out. (Two 8-year olds will do that to your milk supply.)
Bye. -wendieO

Nonfiction Monday Guest Blogger

This Nonfiction Monday we have a guest blogger -- Kelly Milner Halls. She is the author of Albino Animals, Tales of the Cryptids, Mysteries of the Mummy Kids and 20 other nonfiction books.
Her website/ blog is www.kellymilnerhalls.com

Our online nonfiction group was having a conversation about why writer's conferences didn't offer more workshops about writing nonfiction. This was her response:

Sadly, even our fellow writers look down on our work. I love the ReaderGirlz campaign, and it got a lot of attention/press -- mostly Washington State authors. But when they approached me to write about them as a freelancer, I asked why they hadn't included any nonfiction writers. Frosty response...not what we're about.

It was as if the concept of girls loving nonfiction was impossible to grasp. It was not even considered, which I think is a shame.

No wonder girls don't step into the high paying realm of careers in math and science. The "cool kids" won't even let girls that love facts into the reader fold. Girls who love nonfiction are discounted as geeks.

But...there IS a slim model for nonfiction's potential. Look at the overwhelming response to 1) Grossology and 2) Magic School Bus. Those were properties that proved my point. There is a hunger for fun, well crafted nonfiction. Why not encourage writers to answer the call? Why not give kids the chance to love even more exceptional books? Why not embrace all kids and
all readers?

I don't have the answers, beyond just trying to write more compelling nonfiction myself. But I hope, someday we'll escape this stepchild status.

Guess we'll have to wait and see, or take the bull by the horns and do it ourselves. It has crossed my mind.
Kelly

For more Nonfiction Monday, check out the list here.