How to use this Page

When I heard that John Edwards was dropping out of the Democratic primaries, I felt a little bad. I love Obama, but I like Edwards, and I’m sorry to lose his voice in this part of the process. But Clinton and Obama are certainly sucking all the oxygen to feed their brightly burning stars, and let’s face it, Edwards can’t debate hooked up to an oxygen tank. When I heard that Giuliani was

Add a Comment

Instead of talking about the joy of Christmas, the spirit of giving, and all that jazz, I’d like to focus my attention on the little things that really bring the holiday home to me. Of course, there’s always not getting what you wanted. In this case, not making the Brotherhood 2.0 Happy Dance video. We were disappointed. We posted a video response with the girls dancing at, yes, The Land of

Display Comments Add a Comment

Hank Green's secret birthday project for his brother John is probably old news to you Brotherhood 2.0 Nerdfighters, but I was offline for most of last week and didn't get to see the completed project until last night. I was pleased to see that my submission made the cut:



Just think of what I could have done with a video camera. I often think of what I could have done with a video camera-- perhaps Ulric's and my audio plays would still be around to embarrass us. If we'd really desired one, I'm sure we would have obtained a video camera by now, rather than spending our money on guitars and concert tickets.

Display Comments Add a Comment

In which I am featured, ever so briefly, in the second of John Green's birthday videos. I'm the one in the turquoise t-shirt eating blenderized chocolate bread pudding. I got so, so sick after eating it, but it was well worth it.

Add a Comment

No introduction, just some interesting posts I noticed tonight.

Winner of the longest list title award — enjoy “First Day of School Read-Alouds with Global and Multicultural Perspectives” over at Choice Literacy (with thanks to A Year of Reading for the link).

It’s no surprise to me, but Seven-Imp bloggers love Knuffle Bunny Too. Read their joint review of Mo’s book and the new Sis book here.

Books need bookshelves, and after seeing the Corner Spacesaver Bookcase at Target, I almost 1-clicked it, I like it so so much. Thanks to Semicolon for the link, and for reminding me not only of the wonderful book sculptures that I had seen, but also that I hadn’t seen them all. Now I can.

In a Harry Potter mood? Talk about the last movie and the diversity of characters — or lack thereof — over at A Wrung Sponge. If you’ve been distracted by summer fun, maybe you haven’t chimed it at the discussion over at Scholar’s Blog Spoiler Zone, but there’s still time. You’ll find an original perspective over at... well, Original Content, and Cheryl Klein, Potter editor, posts her thoughts on the last book — as do more than a hundred commenters (thanks to Miss Erin for pointing it out).

Oh, and it makes me disproportionately happy to mention that John Green licked a cat.

Display Comments Add a Comment

So many goodies to share, so little time before I go to work.

You heard it here first... you know, maybe... but a sixteen-year-old translated Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows into French and put it online. He’s kind of in trouble, but I’ve got to admire the determination. And what’s the deal with the French publishing the ending of the book but running that article upside down? Silly French people.

In the Potter vein, if you want somewhere to go and talk amongst yourselves about the book, head to Scholar’s Blog Spoiler Zone and spill your guts. Also on Potter, I was surprised that my quoting the phrase “who doesn’t know Hogwarts from genital warts” didn’t get more of you to check out Defective Yeti’s hilarious post from the point of view of the Amazon warehouse employee. I mean, I just used the words “genital warts” in my blog. Do you realize what that’s going to do to my keyword searches? The least you can do is read it.

If NerdFighters (do you think that word is actually a CamelCase?) donate to the campaign of Daniel Biss or to the Foundation to Decrease WorldSuck, John Green will entertain us. At two hundred donations he says, “I will find a cat, lick it, wax two limbs of your choice while drinking a thoroughly blenderized Happy Meal from McDonald’s.” I don’t care much about the waxing or the Happy Meal, but I deeply love the idea of him going up to a neighbor and introducing himself by asking to lick their cat for a videoblog. The donations are so close. We can make it happen. Oh, and blogbuddy Kelly Fineman makes an appearance in a later video. You go, girl! If you adore Brotherhood 2.0, check out the fabulous article written by Little Willow. Her piece was also part of...

The Edge of the Forest, where I contributed a self-interview about the 48 Hour Book Challenge. Extra props to Kelly for her work getting up another great issue even after computer crashes and scheduling problems galore.

I heard from more than one place that The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar endorses Junie B. Jones, but I’m giving the nod to Bookshelves of Doom because, man, that chick has been a posting fiend lately! Anyway, at the SPOGG Blog (what wouldn’t you give for that name), they talk about the recent blast on the books by The New York Times and support Junie B. Take that, naysayers! Personally, I am highly in favor of Junie B. Jones books, and wrote about it here.

Speaking of Junie B., remember how I said I was going to send Barbara Park my article and write her a letter for Tell an Author You Care Day (Week)? I didn’t know where to send it, but her publicist saw my post and told me that I could send the letter to her attention. Of course the email was in my new, exciting MotherReader email and I kinda had forgotten I had that new thing. But the lovely publicist forwarded my article and website on to Ms. Park, and she was thrilled with what I wrote! That makes me so happy in my heart! As it turns out, in the summer laziness I’ve been feeling, I hadn’t sent the letter yet, so I’m going to get it out of here and in the hands of my writing idol soon. Soon. Yes, soon!

On the topic of laziness, I feel the need to apologize. I thought that with less on my plate in the summer I’d be more focused, but that has not been the case. I’ve neglected to respond to emails, including forgetting that I had an entire separate email account. I didn’t send my check for the Kidlitosphere conference. (It’s in the mail!) I have books I was totally going to review, but I’ve slacked off. Generally, I just want to say that it’s not you, it’s me.

Oh, and my beach visit was lovely. We only spent one day at the ocean, but what a day. Often we see dolphins offshore, but this time they were really close. In fact, a pair of them swam about three yards away from my eleven-year-old daughter! I went running in to join her, but with my glasses on I couldn’t go deep enough. Stupid bad eyesight. Still, extremely cool.

Display Comments Add a Comment

Many Pop readers know what big fans we are of Brotherhood 2.0 -- for the uninitiated, it's a year-long video blog project between YA author John Green and his brother Hank, and it is made out of AWESOME -- but rarely is there such a perfect storm of Pop-bait as Wednesday's video, which, well, just watch it, people. You can thank us later.



Happy reading, everyone. We haven't really discussed it yet, but I hope we'll have a group review up early next week.

Add a Comment

Today I have an original summer poem, but it’s not really my poem — it’s yours. I took all the entries so far for my Summer Contest and pulled them together into one poem. It involved a little tweaking, a few interesting line breaks, and some added imagery. I’m not a great judge of these things, but I think it’s pretty good.

Keep submitting your ideas for enjoying the summer, and I’ll pick someone at random to win the book Cassie Was Here. And I’m sure I’ll come up with something to send off too. (Pssst. Anyone have something cool I can send to the winner?)

Summer

Eating watermelon off the rind,
and spitting out the seeds.
Floating on your back
in the nearest body of water,
and gazing up at the summer clouds
as they drift from one animal shape
into another.
Sitting on the screened-in porch,
a breeze blowing,
reading a great book
for once
ignoring
all the things to do,
knowing there will be
more time
more time
tomorrow.
Eating lemon chills at the zoo,
or taking time for a book shopping spree.
Bouncing on a soft springy tundra,
rolling down a hill,
and eating blueberries
right off the bushes
the way the bears do.
In the far, far, north,
gliding on the deck
when it’s midnight
and the sun’s
still shining.
Scrunching toes in the sand,
playing with the little crabs,
collecting tiny shells,
and hoping for
the perfect sand dollar.
Seeing forward to the point,
when the book
is abandoned,
and the blanket is grubby,
and you still can’t force yourself
to leave the rhythmic
soughing
and sighing
of the sea.

Not bad, huh? Mentor Texts & More is doing the Poetry Friday Round-Up this week and is also collecting reviews for an upcoming Picture Book Carnival.

I’ll be reading me some Harry Potter today, tomorrow, and Sunday. Or so it seems. Apparently, it is harder to read at a baseball game than one might think. So I’ve got some catching up to do. Please be sure to see the song that Hank Green did at Brotherhood 2.0 about waiting for the Harry Potter book. It is really amazing. I made it my business to suggest it to MuggleNet and the Leaky Cauldron and GalleyCat and a few other places. Why not do the same in the name of the NerdFighters? (Oh, if you are not a Brotherhood 2.0 watcher, I should mention that NerdFighters as a name is from the vblog. It’s not like I’m getting some complex or something. On the other hand, I did bring a book to a major league baseball game, so perhaps I need to admit something to myself.)

Display Comments Add a Comment

I found clips from the forthcoming documentary Rock & Roll Mamas, which promises to showcase "the struggles and triumphs of both emerging and established rock stars who are also mothers" via a link at Babble.com. You can view clips on YouTube of notable female rock luminaries such as Suzanne Vega, Corin Tucker (ex of Sleater-Kinney), Zia McCabe (of the Dandy Warhols) and Kristen Hersh (ex of Throwing Muses).

As of the filmmaker's most recent blog post, there are only 5 minutes of edited footage, so it's not as though this is a movie coming to a theater near you in the next month or so. Still, it's worth noting for a few reasons:

• This is a documentary which will appeal to lots of new, youngish parents. The musicians whose interviews are showcased on YouTube are perhaps not famous in a Beatlemania sort of way, but they are very well known in their own way. Does your library hold CDs by these artists? If so, you can cross-promote two collections at once when the DVD comes out.
• This is a project you can replicate, cheaply & easily, at your own library with a video camera, a USB or firewire cable, and some editing software, in about 15 minutes after storytime. Call it Your Town Mamas, and post your videos as responses to the videos already hosted at YouTube! Who knows, maybe you have the next YouTube star singing along with "The Wheels on the Bus." She's so money, and she doesn't even know it.
• This is just one more entry in the endless parade of examples you can file under DIY for the nanotech age. This is what our present era is about: people creating their own content and using it to make connections with others. On a broader scale, look at what John & Hank Green and their devoted Nerdfighters are doing for microfinanciers kiva.org, through their Brotherhood 2.0 project. This is amazing, world-transforming stuff! I'm not saying that Rock & Roll Mamas rises to the level of transforming the world at the macro level, but I think it will at a micro level ("Hey, having a baby will change my life, but I'll still be myself!"), and I bet Your Town Mamas would have a similar effect. Consider it a kaffeeklatsch for the digital age.
  

Add a Comment