I am a dash

. . . which is extra funny if you know that I call my freelance editorial business "EMdash." Get it? Ha! (Okay, "ha.") And that part about money just made me pee my pants a little bit.

You Are a Dash

Your life is fast paced and varied. You are realistic, down to earth, and very honest. You're often busy doing something interesting, and what you do changes quickly. You have many facets to your personality, and you connect them together well. You have a ton of interests. While some of them are a bit offbeat, they all tie together well. You friends rely on you to bring novelty and excitement to their lives. (And while you're the most interesting person they know, they can't help feeling like they don't know you well.) You excel in: Anything to do with money You get along best with: the Exclamation Point

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Happy Blogiversary to Me: Birthday Haiku

Two years old today!
Hand over cake before I
start throwing tantrums.

Good Lord, I made it through another year. Thank you for your eyeballs and your comments. It has been fun to expand my circle of professional friends without leaving the comfort of my chair, and doubly fun to put faces to names, when I've met some of you at various conferences this past year.

Last year I set a goal to read or re-read 53 classics (or classics-to-be) in adult and children's literature, fiction and nonfiction. That goal, it seems, was laughably unreachable: I got through over half of them, but am nowhere close to the end of The LIST. Yet, undaunted, I press on: I'll just keep reading 'em till I'm done.

I am off tomorrow to Dallas for the Texas Library Association conference, a whirlwind four days that may involve very large hats and/or the adoption of "ma'am" as a speech tic. If you're there, stop by booth #1534 and say hi. I'll be the one in the Unshelved t-shirt.

FOUR: Birthday Haiku

My little princess:
She'll outpester any pest,
but she's still damn cute.

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street: Review Haiku

Emergency MOPS:
Please, oh please, can I be a
Penderwick sister?

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall. Knopf, 2008, 320 pages.

Father Knows Less: Review Haiku

Bill Cosby once asked,
"Why is there air?" This guy tries
to find real answers.

Father Knows Less, Or "Can I Cook My Sister?": One Dad's Quest to Answer His Son's Most Baffling Questions by Wendell Jamieson. Putnam, 2007, 258 pages.

A Confederacy of Dunces: Review Haiku

Pulitzer classic,
but all I kept thinking was,
"Christ, what an asshole."

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. LSU Press, 1980, 416 pages.

#33 on The LIST.

Dude, it's like you're in my house

This, my friends, is why I don't stay at home full-time. Amen, sister.

The Lightning Thief: Review Haiku

Screw-up kid really
demigod: what preteen boy
could resist this book?

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Miramax, 2005, 377 pages.

The London Eye Mystery: Review Haiku

London siblings solve
a curious incident
by looking closer.

The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd. Random House, 2008, 322 pages.

Keeping Score: Review Haiku

Trying to make sense
of the senselessness of war
through sabermetrics.

Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park. Clarion, 2008, 202 pages.

The Learners: Review Haiku

Brilliantly damaged:
graphic design with a
psychological edge.

The Learners by Chip Kidd. Scribner, 2008, 258 pages.

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat: Review Haiku

Charmingly absurd

and old-fashioned; owes a great
debt to Roald Dahl, no?

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell. Holt, 2007, 346 pages.

This is deeply true and slightly depressing

Your Score: Rabbit

You scored 19 Ego, 18 Anxiety, and 16 Agency!

IT was going to be one of Rabbit's busy days. As soon as he woke up he felt important, as if everything depended upon him. It was just the day for Organizing Something, or for Writing a Notice Signed Rabbit, or for Seeing What Everybody Else Thought About It. It was a perfect morning for hurrying round to Pooh, and saying, "Very well, then, I'll tell Piglet," and then going to Piglet, and saying, "Pooh thinks--but perhaps I'd better see Owl first." It was a Captainish sort of day, when everybody said, "Yes, Rabbit " and "No, Rabbit," and waited until he had told them.

You scored as Rabbit!

ABOUT RABBIT: Rabbit is generally considered Clever by his many friends and relations. He is actually a much better reader and writer than Owl, but he doesn't consider it worth mentioning. Instead, Rabbit's real talent lies in Organizing Plans. He organizes rescue parties, makes schemes to reduce Tigger's bounciness, and goes on missions to find out what Christopher Robin does when he's not at the Hundred Acre Woods. Sometimes, however, his Plans do not always go as Planned.

WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT YOU: You are smart, practical and you plan ahead. People sometimes think that you don't stress or worry, but this is not the case. You are the kind of person who worries in a practical way. You think a) What are my anxieties about and b)what can be done about them? No useless fretting for you. You don't see the point in sitting around and waiting for things to work out, when you could actually work them out today and save yourself a lot of time and worry. Your friends tend to rely on you, because they know that they can trust you help them work things out.

You sometimes tend to be impatient with people who are less practical in their ways. You don't have much patience for idiots who moan about things but never actually DO anything about them. You have high expectations of everyone, including yourself. When you don't succeed at something, or when something goes wrong despite your best efforts to prevent it, you can get quite hard on yourself. You need to cut yourself some slack and accept that everyone has their faults, even you, and THAT IS OKAY. Let yourself be faulty, every now and then, for the sake of your own sanity.

Link: The Deep and Meaningful Winnie-The-Pooh Character Test written by wolfcaroling on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test View My Profile(wolfcaroling)

Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.

The Willoughbys: Review Haiku

As if I needed
more reasons to heart Lois
Lowry. Wicked, droll.

The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry. HMCo, 2008, 176 pages.

Here If You Need Me: Review Haiku

The Plucky Widow
will make you laugh, cry, praise God,

without sentiment.

Here If You Need Me: A True Story by Kate Braestrup. Little Brown, 2007, 207 pages.

This year's One Book, One Bedford selection.

What I Was: Review Haiku

Bleak and strange with a
weak frame story; still, she's a
hell of a writer.

What I Was by Meg Rosoff. Viking, 2008, 209 pages.

The Opposite of Invisible: Review Haiku

Art, love, and high school:
never were three standard tropes
more deftly explored.

The Opposite of Invisible by Liz Gallagher. Wendy Lamb/Random, 2008, 153 pages.

Oh. Ma. God.

David Sedaris delivers a pizza.



Thanks to Roger for the link.

I'm getting comment spam!

In Chinese!

Back from Whispering Pines, a lovely conference made even lovelier by the fact that my children, including Captain Ear Infection, were not there. Then jury duty this morning, then back in the office this afternoon to not catch up on work.

I did get some reading done this weekend, so I'll try to post a new review or two in the next few days.

P.S. I have turned on "comment moderation" for now, so it will take a little while for your comments to appear. I may decide I hate this and will risk additional spam later.

Pippi Longstocking: Review Haiku

Iconic Swedish
hooligan meets her match in
kooky Lauren Child.

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren, illustrated by Lauren Child. Viking, 2007, 207 pages.

I Am the Wallpaper: Review Haiku

True-to-life look at
friendship, first love, Interwebs --
sure he's not a girl?

I Am the Wallpaper by Mark Peter Hughes. Delacorte, 2005, 228 pages.

Sweethearts: Review Haiku

You can't escape your
past -- especially when it
comes back to love you.

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr. Little Brown, 2008, 217 pages.

Where have you been, young lady

Currently in the middle of Pippi Longstocking and Sweethearts and enjoying both.

BUT -- my reading time is severely limited, as I'm getting ready to attend a writers' conference here next weekend. I'll be critiquing manuscripts and talking about narrative voice, and apparently I may be thrown into a horrifying First Pages situation on Friday night. So instead of reading this week, I have been writing and rewriting and revising and throwing out whole pages of stuff I previously thought was good. (How do you writer people do this all the time?) Plus I wrote sixteen rejection letters yesterday; typically I can't do more than a dozen before turning into Super Cranky Unhelpful Editor, so apologies to those authors who'll be getting letters from me in the next few days. I didn't mean it.*

Anyway. I'll resurface at some point -- with any luck, rejuvenated from a whole weekend sans bebes. (Sorry, honey.)

*Well, I did mean it. But I meant it more nicely than I said it.

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree: Review Haiku

Impeccable logic
won't hold in middle school
social politics.

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis. Dial, 2007, 199 pages.

Princess Mia: Review Haiku

Mia. Open your
goddamn EYES. Grow up. Move on.
Oh, wait -- you did. Good!

Princess Mia by Meg Cabot. Harper, 2008, 274 pages.

P.S. Munchkin: That says "princess!"
Me: Yes. Yes, it does. But you can't read it.

Book of a Thousand Days: Review Haiku

Good old Shannon Hale:
count on her for love, magic,
wisdom, and yak dung.

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale. Bloomsbury, 2007, 306 pages.

If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period

Typical middle
school drama, until it takes
a strange, whiplash turn.

If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period by Gennifer Choldenko. Harcourt, 2007, 216 pages.

The Ghost, the White House, and Me: Review Haiku

History lessons
wrapped in a predictable,
fairly boring plot.

The Ghost, The White House, and Me by Judith St. George. Holiday House, 2007, 153 pages.

The Puzzling World of Winston Breen: Review Haiku

A love letter to
puzzle geeks. Somewhere, Ellen
Raskin is smiling.

The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin. Putnam, 2007, 215 pages.

Cybils winners!

Posted here for your enjoyment.

(I know, I know, the day's almost over. I've been working, okay?)

Anna Friggin' Karenina: Review Haiku

Boy meets girl; boy gets
girl; girl meets train. Three weeks of
my life lost, all lost.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Originally serialized in Russian between 1875 and 1877, 754 pages.

#32 on The LIST.

Vacation roundup: by the numbers

Books read: 4 2/3*
Pages read: 1628*
Countries visited: 2
Cities visited: 3
Train trips taken: 3
Public transportation trips stolen: 10? 15?**
Cups of kaffee mit schlag consumed: eighty bazillion
Plates of wiener schnitzel consumed: um, four? It's really good.

* Includes Anna Karenina, or as I prefer to call it, Anna Friggin' Karenina, which I'm still reading. Yet another example of why I did not study 19th-century literature in college: its and my temperaments are diametrically opposed.
** Seriously. We bought subway/tram tickets the first couple times, but there is no requirement (nor means) to insert/punch/validate/show a ticket for public transportation in either Austria or Germany. There are some benefits to quasi-socialism . . .

Well, that sucked

Gaah. So the whole season was an expletive waste. What a game.

All is not lost, though: pitchers and catchers report in eleven days.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: Review Haiku

Nothing much happens --
but in that nothing lies the
whole, wide, messy world.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Harper, 1943, 493 pages.

#31 on The LIST.

Vienna: Second Impressions

More dogs!
More babies!
Smokers! Everywhere!
Toy stores! Dear God, the heavenly toy stores!
Book stores!
Exclamation points on all the signs!
Jewelry stores!
Krapfen!
That strange old woman at Cafe Griensteidl who yelled at me because apparently I was wiggling my foot in an offensive manner! ("Ach! Dein fuss!")

Forever . . . : Review Haiku

A boon to teenage
girls everywhere . . . but a bane
to poor guys named Ralph.

Forever . . . by Judy Blume. Atheneum, 1975, 199 pages.

#30 on The LIST.

Breakfast at Tiffany's: Review Haiku

She affronts ev'ry
bone in my hick, prudish bod.
Good God, what a life.

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. Vintage, 1958, 192 pages.

#29 on The LIST.

Slaughterhouse Five: Review Haiku

War! What is it good
for? Absolutely nothing.
So it goes, Billy.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Dell, 1969, 224 pages.

#28 on The LIST.

EDITED TO ADD: Hey, this is my 300th post!

Miracle Wimp: Review Haiku

How I knew high school:
Mostly innocent, but with
awkward horrors, too.

Miracle Wimp by Erik P. Kraft. Little Brown, 2007, 245 pages.

Vienna: First Impressions

Dogs!
Flowershops!
Babies in strollers!
Jewelers!
Whipped cream!
Did I mention dogs?

Two days down, two more to go; then on to Salzburg. Tomorrow I plan to sit in Trotsky's favorite kaffeehaus and read all day.

Robot Dreams: Review Haiku

Simple and poignant --
and here I thought they just dreamed
of electric sheep.

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon. First Second, 2007, 205 pages.

Of course you realize this means war

The Munchkin: "I'm a PRINCESS! Princesses are BEAUTIFUL, NOT SMART!"

Me: [staggers, weeps]

Plum Lucky: Review Haiku

Just what I needed:
shoot-outs, leprechauns, and a
horse in the kitchen.

Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich. St. Martin's, 2007, 166 pages.

Reading reading reading

I'm not doing a lot of posting lately, because I am in the thick of Cybils judging, and we're not supposed to blog about the books until the winner is announced. But I did install a schmancy new widget to the right (thanks, Anne and SmartLinks!).

We are still on a high around here about our Geisel Honor Book, Hello, Bumblebee Bat by Darrin Lunde and Pat Wynne. And I am sharing the Mo-love, celebrating the Middle Ages, and psyched at the Caldecott committee's chutzpah for upending expectations. I am also a total dork on the Printz.

Fuse's recap is (er, recaps are) finally up, btw. (Not that I am holding Fuse to the fire for delayed posting. I am one to talk, first off, and second, I'm pretty sure fuses are explosive.)

Official!

The official press release:
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/2008MediaAwardWinners.htm

Will process thoughts later. For now, WOO-HOO!

First reports

for those of us who missed the webcast:

http://www.greenlakelibrary.org/kidslit/

Um, HELLO, BUMBLEBEE BAT? Like, this HELLO, BUMBLEBEE BAT!

[squeals of joy and disbelief!]

Queen of Babble in the Big City: Review Haiku

O dear Lord, thank you
that I am neither single
nor twenty-something.

Queen of Babble in the Big City by Meg Cabot. Morrow, 2007, 307 pages.

The Castle Corona: Review Haiku

Just like a princess:
beautiful and well-mannered,
but fairly shallow.

The Castle Corona by Sharon Creech, illustrated by David Diaz. Harper, 2007, 320 pages.

Privileged meme

From E. Lockhart via ACAFATC, the "Are You Privileged?" meme. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to feel good or bad about myself when I finish.

From What Privileges Do You Have?, based on an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.

Bold the true statements.
1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college(and grad school)
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college(and grad school)
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
(I'm not sure if this really counts, since my brother-in-law is a lawyer, but he's only been my brother-in-law for a couple years. My dad taught college courses after I was an adult.)
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.
9. Were read children's books by a parent
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18.
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
(piano, swimming, gymnastics, voice)
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.
(Just after I turned 18, when I went to college.)
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
(I don't know how they did it, but I went to college without taking out any loans.)
16. Went to a private high school
(Very proudly a public school girl. Some of my friends from the next town over used to worry that they'd get shot if they visited me at my school. Wimps.)
17. Went to summer camp
(Only a couple times, and it was in high school, for dorky things like choir and careers in education.)
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels
(Motels on road trips.)
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18.
(Heh. Second daughter all the way. Also, I wore my dad's clothes most of the time in high school.)
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
(No, although I always thought that the prints of Picasso's Don Quixote and the blue guitar man were unique to us, and was therefore surprised to see them in museums.)
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
25. You had your own room as a child
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course
(taught by my dad, in fact)
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school
(This TV is still alive and currently in my master bedroom.)
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
31. Went on a cruise with your family
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

Grand total: 25

Disturbing Realization of the Day

My son and my dog are taking the exact same antibiotic.

(Also, I think I have fixed my layout and settings. Let me know if anything looks weird.)

Cybils finalists!

All the finalists for the 2007 Cybils Awards have been announced! Check out my category, Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction (with the charmingly unpronouncable acronym MGYANF). And wish all the panelists luck as we arm-wrestle toward our winners . . .

Gaaah.

I tried to fix my banner and broke it instead. Stupid muzzafuzza Photoshop Blogger gaaah.

A Wizard of Earthsea: Review Haiku

I tried, Ursula --
but high fantasy just isn't
my thing. Sorry.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. Parnassus, 1968, 183 pages.

#27 on The LIST.

The God Box: Review Haiku

Waaaaaay didactic (Hey,
kids -- it's okay to be gay!),
but sadly needed.

The God Box by Alex Sanchez. S&S, 2007, 272 pages. (And hey -- there's a blurb on the back from my bishop!)

Winnie-the-Pooh: Review Haiku

Despite way too much
Disneyfication, he's still
a silly old bear.

Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne. Methuen UK, 1926, 147 pages. The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne. Methuen UK, 1928, 180 pages.

#26 on The LIST.

ONE: Birthday Haiku

Happy birthday, John!
Gotta do something about
that combover, kid.

Cover Up: Review Haiku

He would've gotten
away with it if not for
those meddling kids!

Cover Up: Mystery at the Super Bowl by John Feinstein. Knopf, 2007, 298 pages.

Beige: Review Haiku

Can non-punks read this?
Don't get me wrong: it was good,
just a bit obscure.

Beige by Cecil Castelucci. Candlewick, 2007, 307 pages.

James and the Giant Peach: Review Haiku

Aunts, peach, seagulls, shark . . .
Lots of plot, but nothing really
happens, does it?

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. Knopf, 1961, 160 pages.

#25 on The LIST.

Laika: Review Haiku

Good God, cut my heart
out with a spoon, why don't you.
Merry (sob!) Christmas.

Laika by Nick Abadzis. First Second, 2007, 205 pages.

Schooled: Review Haiku

Hippie kid upends
the middle school ruling class.
A commune-ist plot.

Schooled by Gordon Korman. Hyperion, 2007, 224 pages.

Home to Holly Springs: Review Haiku

"God's grace!" -- I get it.
But this? Just lazy plotting.
Coincidence much?

Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon. Viking, 2007, 368 pages.

Heh. So unsexy.

Your Score: Marcie

Wishy-Washy: 50%, Mental: 84%, Physical: 31%

Marcie is Peppermint Patty's best friend, and secretly loves Charlie Brown. She is always willing to help Patty through class and with homework, and plays on her sports teams even though she would rather be doing something else. Always address people you respect as "sir".

Link: The Peanuts Character Test written by timberlineridge on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Thanks to Bookshelves of Doom for the link.