SAVE BOOKSTORES SUMMER
Saturday, June 25th, was SAVE A BOOKSTORE DAY. Part of a movement to support local bookstores. I read about it on one of my favorite blogs Writing On The Sidewalk.
Agent Kelly Sonnack of Andrea Brown Literary Agency sent out the call to rally everyone in support of bookstores and books.
Why is a "buy a book" campaign needed? Because, as Kelly wrote in her letter promoting Save Bookstores Day, "Bookstores are dropping like flies and we want them to stay alive!"
I'm hoping Saturday every single one of you went out and bought a book. All those who did breathed a little life back into the bookstores. But it's going to take more than that to save them. So, let's give them more. Let's dub this, the summer of 2011:
Save Bookstores Summer!
DO YOUR BIT...BUY A BOOK
Keep Keystroking On!
Yesterdays "word of mouth" is today's keystrokes in the form of blogs, e-zines, tweets. Thanks largly to my publicist, Rebecca Grose of SoCal Public Relations, my picture books are getting grand mentions. I'm chuffed (as my South African friend, Shona, says) and want to share and send huge thanks! To Diana Chen, School Library Journal Blogger "Practically Paradise", for this May 8 posting featuring Your Mommy. Despite our "lovies" vs. "kisses and hugs" debate, prompted by the line "“I’d bandage her scrapes and give her extra lovies," I'm a huge fan.
Read Diana Chen's Your Mommy posting: http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/practicallyparadise/2011/05/08/your-mommy-was-just-like-you/
And YEEHAW for chatting up Dance, Y'all, Dance!
And, to radio talk-show host Shannon Devereaux Sanford, for making an interview with her so casual and fun, and for this:
May 6th, 2011...Also, it is Mother’s Day and do I have the book for you to read to your kids or grandkids. Kelly Bennett has written a new book, her 17th children’s book, called Your Mommy Was Just Like You (G.P. Putnam’s Sons).
It is a wonderful book to read to kids and share your life when you were young with them. Beautifully illustrated the kids will enjoy the pictures as you read the words and go on this fun journey together. I love Kelly’s books - they are always perfect! You will agree with me when you go to www.kellybennett.com to get the book and don’t forget to listen to her talk about it on Saturday at 12:45. You will be glad you did so you can Make Good Choices for Mother’s Day and every day ~
Posted by Shannon Devereaux Sanford |
Listen to Shannon’s Corner on WTBQ 1110 am & 93.5 FM and online at www.wtbq.com
YOUR MOMMY WAS JUST LIKE YOU has arrived!
My new picture book, YOUR MOMMY WAS JUST LIKE YOU, illustrated by David Walker is here! The companion to last year's YOUR DADDY WAS JUST LIKE YOU. This one's for you Lexi!
Cape Argus Pick-N-Pay Cycle Tour
Feeling has returned to my left palm and I can finally sit again, without pain, so, a few days late, I’m writing about the big race. In case you are wondering how it turned out, forgive me for making you wait. The night before the big race, as dedicated cyclists do, we gorged on pasta. Adrenalin levels were high at our table of 9. Six of us because we were riding the next day: 3 (excited): Charles, his brother Dave & son Vaughan (veterans of the race); 3 (nervous) Caitlin, Charles and Shona’s daughter, a first-timer along with Curtis and me. During dinner, Shona (The best spectator, cheering section, supporter in the whole world), her sis-in-law, Les, and Caitlin’s roomie and family friend, Claire, the rooting section, plotted where they’d watch us from and how they’d get there.
Claire made a sign cheering us on.
Before dawn we lined up with our group for the start. Charles and his cousin, Donald, pros (especially after their recent 1700 km ride) were in an earlier group. Vaughn, being local, started an hour later. The rest of us were in the International Group with start times of 7:47 for the AA Group and 7:51 for the BB Group. Dave and I were in the AA group but decided to ride in the BB Group with everyone else: Caitlin, Dave, Dave and Charles’ cousin Robert and his dad, John (76 years old) and Curtis.
Spirits were high at the start line. While waiting, riders chatted and lined-up at the Porta-potty for “nervous pees”.
Up ahead we could hear music and cheering for performing flag girls, etc. But we couldn’t see them. All we could see was the giant sign and a sea of bikes and backs.
At the Starting Gun Shot, we expected the crowd to shoot forward—but no one moved. Cycles in mass do not zoom out the way horses or cars do. We stood there, waiting for the crowd in front to begin cycling.
A kilometer later I crossed the start line. The pedals worked, the crowd spread out. As we rode over the timing mattes, Caitlin and I exchanged grins. We had done it! We were riding in the Argus—the largest individually timed cycle race in the WORLD!!!!
Five minutes later—maybe less—we started on our 1st uphill. A long, steady incline up and over the highway overpass. I hated Charles just then. Hated him for suggesting we ride. Hated him for making it sound like fun! It will be over “just now” I told myself, pushing hard on the pedals. “Just now” is a misleading South African term. “Just now” can either mean a little earlier (little being anything from days before to hours or minutes before) or it can mean a little later (as in minutes, hours or days from now.) “Just now” never means now, this minute, as everyone else in the English speaking world would assume, South Africans say “Now now” for that. As in, I’ll get on with my story now now…
When Charles was riding the charity ride, he told us they began every day by saying, “this is a ride, not a race.” The Argus is a race and everyone we knew was riding it that way. That’s how we started out, too. But after that first long, horrid uphill, while coasting down on the glorious downhill. I fought the urge to pedal, the way everyone around me was doing and enjoy. I was not going to race.
So, I stopped to take photos of the magnificent route.
I stopped to photograph other cyclists. Especially those in costume.
I stopped to photograph the first-aid tent. Two guys with matching injuries sharing stories.
The oldest cyclist in the race, Japie Malan (91), fell on a steep downhill after Chapman’s Peak, and had to be immobilized and helicoptered out. (He’s in the hospital now and doing well.) I stopped for a neck and lower back massage. I expected my legs to hurt. But no, pedaling wasn’t the problem; neither was breathing. I could have pedaled a hundred kilometers more but… What I wasn’t used to was bending over handle bars, clutching the handlebars. And keeping my feet in the stirrups (the little toe on my right foot kept cramping…go figure???)
I stopped to refill my water bottles, to sample BarOne Candy Bars (2 of them), to potty (I won’t show that photo).
I took lots of drive-by photos of the crowds lining the race route. One section before the next to the last hill of the race was lined with pink “breast cancer awareness” balloons and pink-shirted spectators. Families picnicked along the road, barbecuing, toasting, cheering and clapping, with signs and banners, chants and encouragement.
I had a grand time photographing the crowds— and they loved seeing me photographing them—but photo-wise it wasn’t good. Lesson learned: trying to take one-handed photos while pedaling and bumping along the road results in fuzzy photos.
One drive-through photo turned out brilliantly: THE FINISH LINE! I rode in 6 hours and 29 minutes, 111 kilometers after the start!
Curtis rode in an hour later! We were all waiting to cheer him in! We did it!
Would we ride the Argus again?
Curtis didn’t say “no” he said… “Hell, no.”
Yo, Abilene ISD! Vote for Dad and Pop!
Let's hear it for Fathers!!! Dad and Pop is a finalist for the Abilene, Texas, ISD Mockingbird Award!
Tweet your Friends! Sing out loud!
Not Norman Goes E with Nook
Not Norman, A Goldfish Story is moving into the techno world. Our favorite goldfish story has been chosen as one of the first books to be published through Barnes & Noble's NOOK Kids color e-reader. According to the folks at Candlewick Press, “The electronic version will be very true to the physical edition, maintaining the look of the spreads and the feel of the page turns. There won't be any audio, animation, or other enhancements; the only change is that readers will be able to click on the text in order to zoom in and make it easier to read.”
If you’d like to experience Nook books for kids click onto Barnes and Nobles website: Nook Color for Kids. As part of the promotion, for a time NOOK Kids B&N is allowing customers to sample Not Norman, A Goldfish Story "the E-Book" on their computers.
Learning fun with Norman the Goldfish from Toni Buzzeo!
Not Norman, A Goldfish Story is highlighted in author, Library Media Specialist, Toni Buzzeo’s ABC Read to Me!: Teaching Letter of the Week in the Library & Classroom. Along with a synopsis of the story, Toni has created groovy curriculum activities for Pre-K and Kindergarten.
Thanks Cynthia For Asking...
May 21, (Serendipitously the birthday of my honey, the best step-dad, Curtis) Cynthia Leitich Smith posted my guest blog "Kelly Bennett on Celebrating Fathers: Daddy, Father, Pop, Son, Shel, Cash and Cole." In asking me to write about what inspired my 2 new picture books, Dad and Pop, illustrated by Paul Meisel and Your Daddy Was Just Like You, illustrated by David Walker, she challenged me to undergo a little psychotherapy. Here's the link to my guest post. And whatever you do, don't stop there--Cynthia's website, Cynsations is as rich and luscious and smart and funny as Cyn herself! Indulge!