Gossipy Girl

Busy busy busy.
So let's see. What can I tell you that I haven't told you before? What tidbits have I slurped along my slimy sluggish way? ew...

First things first. Two nights ago I had a child_lit dinner with various NYC members of that particular listserv. These are often very informative little affairs where we librarians/teachers/authors/editors get to debate what's hot and what's not. The good fairrosa and I debated the relative merits and lack thereof involving Kiki Strike and the first Alex Rider book. How does violence appear in a novel to kids? Are we failing to notice it? And isn't that Stormbreaker so totally racist? Totally.

Cheryl Klein was seated on my right and handed me a very juicy bit of info. A book is coming out in 2007 that is a single novel penned by different authors. Lots of different authors. Lots of different big name authors. So you'll have the first chapter by Linda Sue Park, the second by David Almond, the third by Eoin Colfer... wow. It's called Clicks (or something to that effect) and I'm thrilled to popping about it. We'll see how it does.

Now I'm thinking of putting a nice Who Visited the Central Children's Room This Week? portion on the side of this blog, since I'm completely awful about informing people about these great guest star appearances. Did I tell you that I met Tristan Elwell and he showed me one of his paintings and we talked about N.C. Wyeth? No. Did I mention that Elizabeth Winthrop dropped in wearing a truly awesome winter coat and that we discussed the possibility of her doing one of our Spring Lectures here at Donnell? No.

Enough of my laziness! Who stopped by the children's room yesterday? Not one, not two, but THREE authors, to my infinite delight.

Adam Rex was guest number one and I was truly happy he came by. Adam Rex, should anyone question this, kicks ass and takes names. Seriously nice guy. We chatted about his upcoming sequel to Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, the process of creating the original, and the fact that he and Tony DiTerlizzi know one another. He told my boss and I where that clever dedication page really came from, why the Phantom never wears his mask in the the book, and what his favorite poem of the lot is (I'll tell you someday if you're nice to me). He also had (goody goody goody) his sketchbook on hand. With original Frankenstein art and everything in it! And a Frankenstein Christmas card!

So I was still flying high on my happiness with that visit when who should visit me not a half an hour later but Coe Booth, an official Longstocking and everything, along with Robyn Schneider. Ms. Booth has unfortunately not been able to make our past kidlit drink nights, so I was delighted to shake hands with this last Longstocking after all this time. She'd been in Teen Central and thought she'd stop by to pick up a copy of the Babysitters Club graphic novel (I happily had four copies available for her perusal). Ms. Schneider was new to me and may well be new to you too. She's a YA author with her first novel Better Than Yesterday coming out in January. Ms. Booth is appropriately awesome and Ms. Schneider (who I know is reading this but I gotta say it) is absolutely adorable. Seriously. Check out this pic. Adorable.