Parenthetical

From Awful Library Books: Runaway Bride Returns! This librarian is not a bunhead shusher. She’s a hottie in black knee-high boots who gets married in Vegas and ditches her new husband the morning after. Ooh, steamy! But clearly the craziest part is how she advocates against Dewey: “No Dewey decimal system?” It was what labeled [...]

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Wallace hasn’t told a lie in his life. So when Mr. Fogelman assigns him to review the classic Old Shep, My Pal, he says exactly what he thinks: “[This] is the most boring book I’ve read in my entire life…. This book couldn’t be any lousier if it came with a letter bomb,” etc. Mr. [...]

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Children’s/YA book gap of the day: funny books by women and/or about girls. Gordon Korman, Louis Sachar, Jordan Sonnenblick, Daniel Pinkwater… love these guys, but where are the ladies? Suggestions welcome, especially if you can get them to me by Monday when this year’s summer reading list is due! ETA: I love your suggestions! There [...]

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5 out of 5! Reggie has big dreams for his school, but Clarke Junior School isn’t stepping up. His classmates are more interested in helping themselves than helping each other, and besides, nobody listens to Reggie anyway after an unfortunate incident on the first day of school left him with the nickname “Pukey.” With help [...]

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Scarlett’s family owns, and lives in, a stately old hotel in Manhattan, but both the hotel and the family have seen better days. They barely have enough money to make ends meet, Scarlett’s brother’s last chance at an acting career is crashing, her older sister is stuck in an Austenesque relationship with Wealthy Fratboy McYacht, [...]

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This summarizes every movie about urban public school teachers ever: Nice White Lady.

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In two weeks I’ll be heading to the Simmons College Children’s Literature Summer Institute. Three days of talks by and schmoozing with fabulous authors, editors, and other people working in the children’s lit field (not to mention some dear friends). So excited! I realized that I’m unfamiliar with the work of a number of people [...]

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My favorite April Fool’s jokes: 1. ThinkGeek has some brand-new products you might enjoy, including an adorable Tauntaun sleeping bag for the cold little Jedi in your life, a Unicorn Chaser to cleanse your brain next time you’re sorry you looked at that horrible link your sister-in-law sent you, and of course make your breadmeat [...]

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Given their “rather fluffy skeletal structure,” Peeps have some special difficulties using the library… but in their research and printing practices, it turns out that they are much like college students. Comment here

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Zoe dreams of being a piano prodigy, of playing classical music at Carnegie Hall in a long, elegant dress. But her agoraphobic dad has trouble saying no to salesmen, so instead of a piano, what she gets is a Perfectone organ and a chance to perform Neil Diamond’s “Forever in Blue Jeans” at the Perfectone [...]

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