Bookends

So, the ALA Conference is going on now in New Orleans, and may I just say a gentle 'God bless you and your air conditioners too' to all the fine people who chose to go and support the once beautiful city, as it rebuilds. The South sure loves humidity, and those who love books have even braved that fierce heat and nasty wetness for a good cause. Good on you, librarians & Co., and don't forget to pack the hives medication! It's looks to be a memorable speaker lineup, featuring Laura Bush and Cokie Roberts (!), but I look forward more to the conference ending --because my editor is there, and took my manuscript with her. Depending on how cranky the heat makes her I may be back in Edit Hell once again...

A fun find for me is The Edge of the Forest, a children's literature monthly put together by many fine people with YA and Children's lit blogs. How cool is that? Something for every age group, including picture book reviews! Literature for children is getting a real presence on the Web... Friday I was following a woman whose license plate advertised her web presence as Kid Lit Suzy dot com. Strangely enough,my former Mills professor and a fairly well-known middle grade author also lives in this town, and I haven't run across her yet...but I've seen "Suzy" twice. Strange world.

In preparing to try and write my(drumroll, please) Epic Fairytale, I ran across something called The Mythopoeic Society, which has announced their finalists for the Mythopoeic Awards. Started in 1967, the Mythopoeic Society is "a non-profit international literary and educational organization for the study, discussion, and enjoyment of fantastic and mythic literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams." (I haven't read any of the work of Charles Williams! And now I'm hunting up some to see what it's all about!) The Society puts out a couple of periodicals, including one specifically for book reviews (called Mythprint - you have got to love that!), a scholarly journal , and a yearly literary journal with short stories, etc. Incidentally, this East Bay group's finalists for Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards include Holly Black, Diane Duane of the Young Wizards series, and Clare B. Dunkle, three of my favorite fantasy authors. Tough choice!

This year's conference is in Oklahoma, but their 2007 Conference is already slated to be in Berkeley... I think I'll see if I can be there!

~

The Chronicle had a nice kid's section this past Sunday. My favorite book they reviewed is on the artist's path -- on the struggles and joys of embracing art. Robert Burleigh writes about Paul Cézanne, and the work it took for him to produce such beauty. It's a middle grade novel/picture book, and it includes both historical detail and photographs; the art is also fabulous. Another great review that makes me want to pick up the book is of Cynthia Kadohata's Weedflower a YA novel detailing the Japanese internment. As always, in these times, I think it's crucial that teens are reading about our history in this country, if only so that they can protest when their government tries to repeat it... Since Kadohata made the characters so live in Kira-Kira, Weedflower may be well worth checking out as well. Great reading for another muggy summer week. Cheers!