Storytelling Workshop! YAY

The Teens Telling Tales 4th Annual Storytelling Workshop ended last night with a performance by several of its members, and a couple of its leaders.

First off, I have to say that Teens Telling Tales excel!!! Josh, Kelly, Si, Erik, Alisha, Alison, Evelyn - are stupendous teens and wonderful game leaders. Of all of them, Josh is the BEST!! Watching this young man work with 8 and 9 year olds has been an education over the last four years. When he graduates from high school next spring, I don't know what I'll do. I'll actually have to lead games!! Si, whose acquaintance I just made, was a wonderful activity leader. She was great at getting the kids to use their voices well. I learned a lot from her.

Kelly is so good with those kids who feel a little out of place. She was able to turn tears to smiles more than once this week. She is truly unique.

Erik makes me laugh, brings excellent snacks and keeps things interesting. Alisha is dependable and bright. Alison has an upbeat nature and caring nature and Evelyn is steady and a up and coming storytelling whiz.

I also had Gabe helping since his little brother was a "camper". The kids loved him.

And college student, Danielle, is new to the library but she was invaluable in keeping me organized.

It was a great week. Storytelling is wonderful.

The camaraderie that the kids showed tonight in their ties and silly hats was wonderful. Josh got all the kids in a circle and they "Passed the Squeeze" before the performance. I wish I get a picture of that, truly. I hope I never forget that.

Larry Sceurman was a wonderful MC and he told three funny stories and did some magic, too.

If I get pictures, I'll post a few. Good morning. I need to sleep.

What would modern mystery writers do without the inimitable Sherlock Holmes? Conan Doyle's detective figures prominently in two of my favorite mystery series, The Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer, in which Holmes has a much younger sister, and The Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King, in which a retired Holmes attains a much, much younger female partner and (I hope I'm not spoiling this for anyone) eventual wife, Mary Russell. (The first book in the series is The Beekeeper's Apprentice.)

I'd love to see Enola meet up with Mary Russell. My calculations make Enola approximately 15 years older than Mary. What could that brash, independent and strikingly intelligent younger sister have accomplished in the 20 plus years since her escape from the Holmes family estate at age 14? She and Mary have a great deal in common and both of them could do with a female family member to commiserate with when the Holmes men - all of them - become unbearable.

All of them?? According to most experts, there are only TWO members of this branch of Holmes', Sherlock and his older brother, Mycroft. In Laurie R. King's latest Mary Russell novel, The Language of the Bees, the reader is introduced to new members of the Holmes family, members that even the great detective himself was not aware of.

The Language of the Bees, (I'm not positive about that "the"), is the beginning of a longer story. Holmes and Russell become involved with a religious cult that might be responsible for a series of deaths at ancient sites. Those mysterious new family members are in danger and also suspected of evil doing. Mycroft's London digs are even raided by Scotland Yard!!! Disguises and the painstakingly slow research of a world before reliable telephones and Wikipedia are all part of this novel. So is a bone shaking aeroplane journey and fugitive status for the main players. And Holmes' bees behave badly. The ending has me waiting impatiently for the next book in Laurie R. King's acclaimed series.

How do people deal with those stretches of mental discomfort, those feelings of insignificance and lack of confidence, the questions of why and when and who cares?

I read. Sometimes, it helps. Sometimes, quite by accident, the books I pick up mirror my concerns. Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant chronicles several months in the lives of a 15th century convent in Ferrara, Italy. A new novice is there against her will and disrupts the life of the convent first by rebelling and then, even more disturbingly, by her total acquiescence. The language is rich and the questions of faith as a solution and a goal and of the political powers and weaknesses of convents in a frenetic religious atmosphere are posed again and again. The personalities of the novice and several of the older nuns are described with depth and empathy. (I read the uncorrected ARC. The book is due out next month.) The book took up my total attention but left my personal dilemma unanswered, even as it gave me deeper ways to look at it.

Polly Horvath writes about, and supposedly for, children. Her books are acclaimed and fun and frequently thought-provoking. My One Hundred Adventures is the story of one summer in the life of Jane Fielding, oldest child of poet Felicity Fielding, and at almost 12 (I think) ready for some adventures. The book deals with ideas such as Fate, and Prayer, and Adventures - Friendship, Fidelity and Relationships. The book is about Coming of Age. The adventures are not of the exciting suspenseful time, although an "accidental" hot-air balloon ride and several sea rescues make for some excitement. The adventures are more of the wondering-what's-happening kind - little things that make Jane worry and wonder. Jane spends a lot of her time protecting her mother from Jane's "mistakes" during the summer. And she has some uncomfortable revelations about grown-ups and their frailities.

The funny thing about this book is that it echoes some of the questions posed in Sacred Hearts. In both books, there are characters whose pursuit of the Divine make them blind to the world around them. In both books, a younger character is dependent on one of these seekers for spiritual guidance.

So, is this a form of serendipity? Is there some kind of Message in my choice of reading materials? Am I seeing parallels simply because of my melancholy mindset? More questions! Just when I think I need answers.

One day. That's all. I held off for one day - or less. I finished Catching Fire around 10 pm on Sunday. Sigh. I really meant to pace myself but...

So now, I have to wait until sometime in 2010 when the third book comes out. Cathcing Fire ends with an amazing cliff hanger. The WHOLE book is another roller coaster. The suspense is not quite as sharp because the first book prepares the reader for the breakneck speed of the twists and turns.

And that's all I can say. Read The Hunger Games - again if you must. And in September be prepared for another wild ride. After The Hunger Games, it was hard to imagine that Katniss and Peetah could get into any more trouble. Heheheheheheheheh (evil laugh). Yeah. You'll see.

Yesterday, at Book Expo in NYC, I met Greg Mortensen (Three Cups of Tea), Mo Willems (Don't let the Pigeon Ride the Bus and The Elephant and Piggy series), Ally Carter (The Gallagher Girls series) and Amy Krouse Rosenthal, author of Duck! Rabbit!, and the genius behind the YouTube sensation The Beckoning of Lovely. Watch it please. Then go to Amy's blog Who Is Amy to see what is happening with the Beckoning of Lovely Project.

I love Book Expo (sigh).

I also got an Advance Reader's Copy of Book 2 in The Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. I want to read it AND I DON'T want to read it. It's so weird. I know that once I start I will not be able to put it down and THEN I will want to know what happens next. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT??? I get to know, 3 full months before the general public, what happens to Katniss and Gale and Peetah and Prim and Haymitch and ... and then, I will have to wait LONGER than everyone else to find out what happens THEN. I will succumb soon to the call of a breath-taking, suspenseful, gripping post-apocalyptic tale, I'm sure. How soon is anybody's guess. What odds will you give me?

So much has happened in the past two weeks! My brother, Daniel, was home for a short visit from Japan, with his wife, Kana, and their son, Hugo. The visit was too short.

Then there was Children's Book Week, which will end tomorrow. So the library had a wonderful drop-in program to celebrate the week and the One Book, Every Young Child selection of this year, If You Were a Penguin.

AND, there was the Parkland Festival of the Arts that began on Thursday and finished up today. I hope that went well. I wouldn't know BECAUSE I am in Richmond, VA, as I type this. We attended the wedding of our best friends' youngest son.

The excitement will not end here because I have more traveling in the near future.

I finally finished Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and I want to read parts of it again. I was so involved in this book that I was actually shivering during some of the scenes in the Arena. Collins imagines a future so unfair, and so debauched that it is truly terrifying. No wonder Hunger Games won The Battle of the (Kids') Books this year.

I also read Saxby Smart, Private Detective - the Curse of the Ancient Mask and other case files by Simon Cheshire. Saxby is Britain's answer to Encyclopedia Brown. He's a bit younger and his cases require more work to solve. The reader is invited to guess what Saxby has deduced from several clues. Then he reveals all. I got most of the deductions right!! I could be a ten-year-old private eye, if I wasn't already more than 5 times that age. Sigh.

Right now I am reading the Klise sisters new book, Dying to Meet You : 43 Cemetery Road. A combination of letter, and newspaper clippings, Kate Klise's story and M. Sarah Klise's illustrations tell the tale of an abandoned 11-year-old boy, a ghost, a grumpy writer and a very old house and they tell it very well.

Okay, I lied. My next post was a poem. But I'm ready to share book reviews and book review sites again.

I am surprised and distressed that I have not written about Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas. This is one of the books I found on "Read It First". I'm SURE I wrote about this already. But where?

Okay, so Hennie is 86 years old and her daughter, Mae, wants Hennie to leave Middle Swan, a gold mining town in Colorado. The year is 1936. As winter approaches, a new couple moves into town and the young wife stops by Hennie's fence where her late husband hung a sign, as a joke, that reads "Prayers for Sale." This meeting leads to friendship and stories, lots of wonderful stories.

I loved the way the book was structured. Dallas drops hints about the events of the last few chapters in a way that piques interest but doesn't intrude on the story at hand. When all the puzzle pieces fall in place, there is a sense of release and relief.

So here's the short version. Gold mining town, the Depression, Old Woman, Young Woman, friends, love, friendship, lots of local color and some hard choices.

Here's a new book review site I found on one of my other book review sites, Twenty by Jenny.
Jenny has been a book editor, and a teacher and a mother. She reviews books and book related toys that she considers the best for different age groups. Her reviews link to an online bookstore in case you just have to have the book.

My best experience with BookReporter.com was when I won a Christmas gift basket during their Christmas book giveaway. (Now, I KNOW there is a Santa Claus.) The site is text heavy with links to dozens and dozens of book reviews, some of the Best Seller/Hot Author variety, some more unusual. The people behind BookReporter also fuel the book review sites Teenreads and Kidsreads. I subscribe to those two newsletters so I don't visit the sites that often but the sites offer some great features, such as a link to reviews of Great Books for Boys.

So, I have kept my promise to share some more book review websites, though a post late. My work here is done.