Big Mean Mike storytime in Montclair, NJ!

I'll be reading and signing Big Mean Mike at Watchung Booksellers TOMORROW (Saturday), March 16, at 10:30am!

I would love to see you there!

Come to my party!

The official launch party for my new picture book, Big Mean Mike, is happening this Saturday, September 15! And you should come, because there will be books and snacks and cupcakes and mini monster trucks and other fun things. Here are all the deets:

Who: YOU and all your friends and your kids and your friends' kids (and your kids' friends, and their parents and cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents)


What: BIG MEAN MIKE launch party and reading and book signing

When: Saturday, September 15, 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.

Where: WORD in Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Why: Because it will be a good time, and you will be supporting an awesome independent bookstore, (and also, you know, me), and you will hear a fun story, and you can even get some early holiday shopping done, because hey, who doesn't like a signed, personalized book? NO ONE. That's who.

I'll be reading the story around 4:30 p.m., and all the rest of the time there will food and drinks and fun things like coloring activities for the young people and the young-at-heart people and anyone else who likes to color.

Facebook RSVP encouraged, but not required. Did I mention CUPCAKES AND MINI MONSTER TRUCKS?

Also, bunny pens.

You know you want to come.

So, yay! I can't wait to see you there! :)

Princeton Children's Book Festival - Sept 8!

Please join me and more than 70 other children's book authors and illustrators at the 7th Annual Princeton Children's Book Festival next Saturday, September 8! This free event runs from 11am to 4pm, and includes readings, book signings, music, activities and more. Click here for a list of all the authors and illustrators who will be there, along with the presentation schedule, directions, and other information.

And if you're in the NYC area, I hope to see you the following Saturday, September 15, at the Big Mean Mike party at WORD in Greenpoint, Brooklyn! Facebook RSVP encouraged but not required: http://www.facebook.com/events/467697863249816/.

NYC book signing May 12!

I'll be signing books with other authors at the fabulous Books of Wonder next Saturday, May 12, from noon to 2pm. Come get signed copies of The Dragon of Trelian and/or The Princess of Trelian, meet other authors and check out their books, and support a great NYC independent bookstore! 

You can see full event info here. I've also started an event page on Facebook, if you'd like to RSVP (not necessary, but it would be great to know if you're coming!).

If you can't make it, you can still order a signed book through the store, and I'll sign it on the day of the event.

Boulevard Books & Cafe, This Weekend!

Come see me at Boulevard Books & Cafe this Saturday, January 28! (This is a rescheduling of last week's event, which was postponed due to the snow.)

I'll be reading Argus and Library Lion, signing books (both picture books plus The Dragon of Trelian), and there will also be fun activities for kids!

NEW DATE: Saturday, January 28, 2012
11:00am
Boulevard Books & Cafe LLC
7518 13th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11228-2410

Facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/events/179336918832486/
(RSVP not required, but it would be great to know if you're coming!)

Boulevard Books & Cafe Event Postponed

Hi guys - just a quick note to say that my event today at Boulevard Books & Cafe has been postponed due to the snowy weather. It's now next Saturday, January 28. Would love to see you there!

Reading (Argus and Library Lion), book signing (both picture books plus The Dragon of Trelian), and fun activities (coloring! clay! eggs! dragons! yay!)

NEW DATE: Saturday, January 28, 2012

11:00am
Boulevard Books & Cafe LLC

7518 13th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11228-2410

Books Read 2011

Last year I posted a list of all the books I read in 2010 (after reading and enjoying lots of other people's lists) and thought I'd keep up the tradition for 2011.

The following are all the books I read in the past year, except for the picture books—I read a lot of picture books and don't usually remember to add them to my Goodreads list, which is how I keep track of my reading these days. The notation "A" following an item means I listened to the audiobook, and "R" means it was a reread.

I read a lot fewer books this year than last year, partially because I no longer had my MFA program driving me to get a certain number of books read each month and partially because a number of 2011's events left me less time than usual for reading (especially: moving to a new apartment, teaching several writing classes and critiquing student manuscripts, and taking on a new day job). I also probably didn't really *need* to re-listen (again) to so many Bujold books, but they make me so happy that I can't really regret the time spent on those too much. But I do wish I'd gotten to more new books over the year (both newly published and old-but-new-to-me), and will definitely try to get more reading accomplished in 2012.

1. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (A)
2. Scrawl by Mark Shulman
3. Podkayne of Mars by Robert A Heinlein (A, R)
4. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
5. Sense And Sensibility by Jane Austen (A)
6. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
7. The Boyfriend List: 15 Guys, 11 Shrink Appointments, 4 Ceramic Frogs and Me, Ruby Oliver by E. Lockhart
8. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (A)
9. Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
10. Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg (A)
11. Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
12. Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold (A)
13. Bellwether by Connie Willis (A)
14. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (A)
15. Thirsty by M. T. Anderson
16. The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse (A)
17. Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris
18. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (A)
19. Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
20. The Grand Plan to Fix Everything by Uma Krishnaswami
21. Bossypants by Tina Fey (A)
22. All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
23. How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford
24. Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold (A, partial R)
25. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White (R)
26. Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold (A, R)
27. Each Little Bird that Sings by Deborah Wiles
28. Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
29. Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolff
30. Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom by Eric Wight
31. Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
32. Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold (A, R)
33. From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
34. Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold (A, R)
35. A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold (A, R)
36. Fire by Kristin Cashore
37. Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold (A, R)
38. Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
39. Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris
40. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King (A, R)
41. Also Known As Harper by Ann Haywood Leal
42. Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King
43. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (A)
44. Eighth Grade Bites by Heather Brewer
45. Aliens on Vacation by Clete Barrett Smith
46. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (A)
47. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger

There were also a couple of audiobooks I started but didn't finish, which I didn't list here.

Reading now (started in 2011, but not yet finished): Outlander by Diana Gabaldon and American Gods by Neil Gaiman (A).

Sunday afternoon audiobook musings

I love audiobooks. I listen to them on long walks and short ones, on bus rides, while doing the dishes. A good audiobook is a gift, a treasure, a tiny miracle of story unfolding in your head, courtesy of your own private narrator, reading it just for you. Good audiobooks make boring tasks tolerable and add an extra layer of pleasure to already-pleasant rides and walks and wanderings. Great audiobooks make me go for extra walks and do extra housework so I will have the excuse to keep on listening for a little bit longer. And the best ones, the ones I love like crazy, can sometimes make me just stand there in the middle of my apartment, out of convenient excuses to keep listening but unable to bring myself to remove my headphones.

The problem, of course, is that eventually you listen to everything in your library and have to find some new ones. I love and hate this part. As a reader, the anticipation of starting a new book in any form is always exciting, but choosing a new audiobook often seems more daunting than choosing a new paper book to read. The disappointment factor is higher somehow, and there's the additional challenge of not only finding a good book but one with a good narrator, as well. And I haven't yet come up with a very good system for this. I sometimes buy audio versions of books I've read before to re-experience them in a new way, and when there's a good narrator, this is wonderful fun—Lois McMaster Bujold is my favorite author to re-listen to (and her narrators have been great, especially the fabulous Grover Gardner). But I've already listened to all of those, many more than once, and I'm just about done with my current audio selection—another re-"read"—Stephen King's On Writing. So . . . now what? How do I find the next great book to inspire me to longer and longer walks and marathon cleaning sessions?

I'm feeling extra cautious right now because a recent audio download turned out to be such a disappointment that I couldn't make myself finish it. That rarely happens, that I dislike something that much, but sometimes I just can't bear to stick it out until the end. And so I flit around Audible and Goodreads, reading reviews and trying to figure out if the person who loved the book I'm considering is someone who shares similar tastes to mine, and trying to figure out what kind of book I'm in the mood for anyway, and whether a particular narrator's voice is one I'll want to listen to for eight or twelve or nineteen hours of time. I need to go out and run some errands pretty soon, and my current audiobook won't last long enough to carry me through, and instead of biting the bullet and choosing something I'm writing this long blog post instead.

All right. I guess that's not very productive of me. Back I go. But if anyone reading this has some great audiobook titles to recommend, feel free to post suggestions in the comments, to give me some more options to explore in my selection efforts the next time around . . .

Book signing at BookCourt this Sunday!

Come on over to BookCourt in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, this Sunday, April 3! I'll be reading and signing my new picture book ARGUS at 11am. I'd love to see you there!

Books Read 2010

Since I've been enjoying other people's lists of the books they read in 2010, I decided to post my own list, too.

The following are all the books I read in the past year, except for most of the picture books—I read a lot of picture books and don't always remember to add them to my Goodreads list, which is how I keep track of my reading these days. The notation "A" following an item means I listened to the audiobook, and "R" means it was a reread. Over the past year or so I discovered the joy of re-experiencing well-loved books in their audio versions, which has been an incredible treat. Especially the Lois McMaster Bujold books, and especially the Miles Vorkosigan titles, which are not only all wonderful in their own right but are narrated by the absolutely perfect Grover Gardner. (If you are new to Miles and want to experience the awesomeness for yourself, I recommend starting with Shards of Honor [available individually as an audiobook or packaged with Barrayar in the printed compilation Cordelia's Honor] and reading in internal chronological order, which is different from order of publication.) (Actually, what I really recommend is reading all the books in print first, then waiting a few years and going back and re-experiencing them as audiobooks. But I realize that's probably asking a lot.)

Aaaaaaanyway... here's the list.

1. A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
2. Stitches by David Small
3. Night Road by A. M. Jenkins
4. Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman
5. Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George
6. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
7. Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold (A, R)
8. The Declaration by Gemma Malley
9. The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts (R)
10. Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (A, R)
11. Writing Fantasy Fiction by Sarah Lefanu
12. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold (A, R)
13. Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy by Gardner R. Dozois
14. Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox
15. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett (A)
16. Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary (A)
17. Redwall by Brian Jacques
18. Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles
19. Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold (A, R)
20. Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott (A)
21. The Ropemaker by Peter Dickinson
22. The Missing Girl by Norma Fox Mazer
23. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home (Season 8, Vol. 1) by Joss Whedon (et al)
24. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: No Future For You (Season 8, Vol. 2) by Joss Whedon (et al)
25. Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life by Terry Brooks
26. Sabriel by Garth Nix (A)
27. One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
28. The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (A)
29. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
30. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (A)
31. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley (R)
32. The Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan
33. The Fairy-Tale Detectives (The Sisters Grimm, #1) by Michael Buckley
34. Hate That Cat: A Novel by Sharon Creech
35. The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams (A)
36. The Uninvited by Tim Wynne-Jones
37. Brontorina by James Howe
38. The Wizard Heir (The Heir Chronicles, #2) by Cinda Williams Chima
39. Well Wished by Franny Billingsley
40. Dramarama by E. Lockhart
41. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (A)
42. Monster by Walter Dean Myers
43. ttyl by Lauren Myracle
44. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (R)
45. Passage (The Sharing Knife, #3) by Lois McMaster Bujold
46. Under The Dome by Stephen King (A)
47. Horizon (The Sharing Knife, #4) by Lois McMaster Bujold
48. The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (A, R)
49. Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold (A, R)
50. Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card
51. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (A)
52. Persuasion by Jane Austen (A)
53. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (A)
54. Sacred Scars (A Resurrection of Magic, #2) by Kathleen Duey
55. CryoBurn by Lois McMaster Bujold (A)
56. The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett
57. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (A)
58. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (A, R)
59. The Gingerbread Girl by Stephen King (A)
60. The Gathering Storm (Wheel of Time, #12; A Memory of Light, #1) by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

Reading now (started in 2010, but not yet finished): Scrawl by Mark Shulman and Northanger Abbey (A) by Jane Austen.

2010 Rochester Children's Book Festival!

Guess what is happening this weekend? It's the fabulous Rochester Children's Book Festival! And it will be awesome! As always! But even more so because there are wonderful new authors and illustrators coming this year in addition to those of us who, because of aforementioned awesomeness, have been coming year after year after year.

I will be reading Library Lion at 1:40pm, and the rest of the day I will be at my table signing books and talking to the nice people who come to the festival and giving out postcards and things. If you come on the early side, you might be able to score an ARGUS postcard. I'm just saying.

This Saturday, November 6
10:00am - 4:00pm
Monroe Community College Brighton Campus
1000 East Henrietta Rd.

You can see more information, including a list of all the authors and illustrators who will be there, at the festival website.

I hope to see you there!

Upcoming Events

I have some book signings and events coming up, and would love to see you!

Thursday, May 27, 1:30pm: I'll be at BEA, signing Library Lion at the Candlewick Booth.

Saturday, June 5, 2-4pm: Come to the Dragon Day event at the Voracious Reader! I'll be reading and signing The Dragon of Trelian. Kate Klimo, author of the Dragon Keepers books, will be there, too!

Sunday, June 27, 11:30am: I'll be at ALA, signing Library Lion and The Dragon of Trelian. I'll also have postcards for my new picture book, ARGUS, which comes out next Spring!

You can always see an ongoing list of upcoming events in the right-hand column of this blog.

Nebulas and Andre Norton Award

Now through February 15, members of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) can nominate books for the 2009 Nebulas, including The Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book. Fellow fantasy author Janni Lee Simner has a great post about this on her blog:

http://janni.livejournal.com/617575.html

I would love to encourage any SFWA members who might see this to nominate books for the Norton Award! I am behind in my 2009 reading, still catching up on books published in the last few years, but so far can definitely recommend Janni's Bones of Faerie, Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me, and Julie Berry's The Amaranth Enchantment, all of which are eligible this year. I am in the middle of Kristin Cashore's Graceling and loving it, and I think that one might also be eligible because of the transition rules in effect this year which allow some books to be included if they were published after July 1, 2008. I'm not 100% sure if that applies to the Norton books as well as the "regular" Nebulas, though. BUT: books for younger readers can be nominated for the Nebula award as well as for the YA-specific Norton.

The Dragon of Trelian is also eligible this year, just so you know. :)

Other books I'm hoping to read before nominations close:
The Dragon Heir by Cinda Williams Chima
Fire by Kristin Cashore (sequel to Graceling)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Sacred Scars by Kathleen Duey

I know there are lots more I'm not thinking of at this moment. Your suggestions and recommendations are welcome and encouraged!

Bloggety Blog

There probably ARE people who blog less often than I do out there, right? I mean, even excepting all those people who do not actually have blogs. Once again, I am here to promise to do better. And now I will tell you all about how busy I have been and will continue to be and thereby lay the foundation for future infrequent blog posting.

I don't even remember where I left off. I will go check. *Consults previous post* Oh, right. Baltimore Book Festival! It was great. Had a lovely time reading Library Lion and an excerpt from The Dragon of Trelian, and signed some books and chatted with lovely authors and illustrators and bookstore people. And I bought a shirt from these nice folks. Then I spent a couple of days with my nice friends Bridey and Joe and little Evie, and went to Evie's third birthday party at a FARM with a PETTING ZOO and there were CHICKENS and BABY GOATS and OTHER FUN ANIMALS. I gave Evie books for her birthday, of course.

Last weekend I went back to Baltimore for the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association conference, which was awesome. I went two years ago when Library Lion received the 2007 NAIBA Children's Picture Book Award and once again I had a great time. Booksellers are really nice, fun people. And they love books. And there were other nice publishing types and authors and illustrators there as well, and I got to talk to people about the novel and hear about other authors' books and generally just had a wonderful time. Plus I scored so many free books that I had to send a box home from the hotel. Yay!

In other news, I am continuing to work on the sequel to The Dragon of Trelian, the first draft of which will be finished by the end of the year. And I'm still working on my critical thesis for my MFA, which will also be finished by the end of the year, but hopefully sooner—say, by my next packet deadline, which is November 10. ALSO working on a new YA novel for school, which started out great and fun and exciting but has been less great lately...still trying to figure out what the deal is with this story.

What else...on October 17 I will be at the Mandell School Book Fair, and on October 24 I will be reading Library Lion to help celebrate the opening of Brooklyn's new Greenlight Bookstore, and on October 31 I will be reading from The Dragon of Trelian while dressed as a princess at the New York Public Library Shop at the NYPL main branch. And on November 7, I will be at the FABULOUS Rochester Children's Book Festival in Rochester, NY, which is my favorite event to go to every year. This time I'll be doing a joint presentation with Rebecca Stead in addition to signing books and talking with kids and parents and teachers and other authors and anyone else who comes out that day! If you are in the area you should definitely come. This is the 13th year of the festival, and it just keeps getting better and better.

And then on December 12, I'll be reading and signing books at the Elmira Barnes & Noble in Elmira, NY.

And because I apparently did not already have enough on my plate, I am in the ensemble of the Village Light Opera Group's fall production of Starship Pinafore. You should all come see it, because it will be AWESOME and a lot of fun. If you know me personally, you can email me directly for tickets. Otherwise, you can get them online here. Performance dates are:

Friday, November 13 at 8pm
Saturday, November 14 at 8pm
Friday, November 20 at 8pm
Saturday, November 21 at 2pm
Sunday, November 22 at 2pm

And, as always, I have been playing lots of Facebook Scrabble and reading lots of books. (If you are curious about what I'm reading, you can always check out my reading list on Goodreads.)

And I suppose that is enough for this update. I should get back to work!

Three Weekends of Reading and Signing

This Saturday, November 1, at 1 p.m., I'll be reading and signing Library Lion at Best Bargain Books in Centereach, NY (WalMart Shopping Center, 217 Middle Country Road). Please come by and say hello!

The following weekend, I'll be reading and signing at the Rochester Children's Book Festival on Saturday, November 8. If you're in the area, this is a GREAT event with lots of authors (more than 40!) and fun activities and wonderful people. I've been going to this festival for about five years now, and it's one of my favorite annual events, both because of the author friends I get to see while I am there and because of all the great kids, parents, teachers, librarians, and other folks who come out for it every year.

The weekend after that, I'll be presenting and signing at the Savannah Children's Book Festival on Saturday, November 15. This is another fabulous event with multiple authors, including Marc Brown, Katie Davis, Charles Ghigna, and Mo Willems! Plus, it's in Savannah, where you can get delicious Chick-fil-A and pralines (yum!).

Somehow, in between all of these events I will be keeping up with my reading and writing for school, going over the pages of The Dragon of Trelian ("pages" are when the publisher sends the text all laid out in pages for the first time, in the same typeface and everything that will be in the book, and it's my last chance to make any significant changes), and finally really getting to work on a sequel to TDoT, which so far is just some vague ideas and a page or two of notes.

And sometime soon I will need to work on editorial revisions to my upcoming picture book ARGUS (no pub date yet, but we're looking at 2011 at the earliest, sigh) and hopefully one of the other picture book manuscripts I'm working on will come together into something my editor will want to publish. There are three or four I'm actively working on right now; I will give them some code names for further discussion, because that's fun and will let me avoid having to talk about their actual prospective titles or what they are about:

Picture Books Currently in the Running:

1. Codename "Secret" (has been through multiple drafts, still trying to find the right approach)
   
2. Codename "Baker" (first draft completed; will be included in my next packet for school so I can get some feedback from my MFA advisor)
   
3. Codename "Two" (latest draft currently with my agent for her thoughts)
   
4. Codename "Mike" (revised version currently with my editor)
   
5. Codename "Frank" (first draft in progress)
   

Okay, the fifth one is currently only one sentence long and so obviously has quite a ways to go, but it's a good sentence, and I'm kind of excited about it, so I'm still going to consider it as being in the running.

But speaking of writing...I should get to work. Blogging doesn't really count, I guess.

Library Lion at the New York Public Library Shop!

I'll be reading and signing Library Lion at the NYPL Library Shop at 2pm this Saturday, October 18 - please come by if you're in the area, and bring your kids! Reading starts at 2pm, and I'll be staying after to sign books. Not sure how much after, though, so if you want to get a book signed, don't come too late!

Here's all the info:

Saturday, October 18, 2008
2:00 p.m.

The Library Shop
New York Public Library
5th Avenue and 42nd Street
212-930-0641
libraryshop@nypl.org

Reading Lists

I need to find a better way to keep track of the books I want to read. How do other people do this? Right now, I have a list on notepaper in the back of my datebook/planner, I have a Word file on my desktop, I have a list in Visual Bookshelf on Facebook, I have a somewhat outdated list on my website, I have a few things saved in my Amazon wishlist, and I have scribbled notes on post-its and little pieces of paper scattered around my desk.

This is not especially efficient.

I would love to have just one master place to keep track of books I want to read, but each of the above systems has particular benefits not shared by all the others. For example, the Word file is great because I can cut and paste reviews or listserve comments to help me remember where I heard about the book and what made me want to read it and why. But the scraps of paper are great for when I'm not at my computer, or when I am at my computer but Word isn't open and I don't feel like waiting for it (my computer is getting a little old and slow, and those extra few seconds it takes to open programs can sometimes feel like hours, and I am often late, rushing, or just impatient and have no time for such things). And the datebook list is great for when I'm out somewhere and I see a book in a store or get a good recommendation from a friend, but then sometimes I forget that I even started that list until the next time I'm out and someone gives me a recommendation.

As so often happens in various situations in my life, I find myself wishing for the Star Trek computer arrangement, so I could just say to the air around me, "Computer. Add Jumpy Jack & Googily by Meg Rosoff to Master Reading List. Include note that I read about it on the PlanetEsme blog." And Majel Barrett's voice would say, "Acknowledged. Title and note added." (I fear that technology is still some years away, unfortunately. Along with the holodeck. Sigh.)

I've got a new list now of books to read before my first residency at Vermont College, and those are currently divided on little pieces of paper titled "Get at Library," "Requested from Library," and "Ordered from Amazon." I will post them here, sort of as a backup (in case I lose my little pieces of paper) and also in case it is interesting to anyone. These are mostly just the novels and books on writing; there are also many picture books I want/need to read, but I'll have to tackle those another time. Maybe a library day where I try and read as many as I can at the library without checking them all out and carrying them home. I certainly can't buy them all; gotta save my moolah for tuition and besides, I'm already at full capacity on my bookshelves.

Anyway. Novels/stories and craft books I'm reading/going to read before July:

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
What's Your Story? A Young Person's Guide to Writing Fiction by Marion Dane Bauer
Spacer and Rat by Margaret Bechard
Trash by Sharon Darrow
The Painters of Lexieville by Sharon Darrow
Odd Man Out by Sarah Ellis
The Art of Writing for Children by Connie Epstein
Writing Books for Young People by James Cross Giblin
The Vanishing Point by Louise Hawes
Waiting for Christopher by Louise Hawes
The Gate in the Wall by Ellen Howard
Naming Maya by Uma Krishnaswami
The Broken Tusk by Uma Krishnaswami
Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt
100 Best Books for Children by Anita Silvey
Every Time a Rainbow Dies by Rita Williams-Garcia
Rex Zero and the End of the World by Tim Wynne-Jones

If anyone out there has some awesome system of keeping track of their reading list(s), please share!