twits

If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face... A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

from Roald Dahl's Twits

stop the madness

Seriously. Stop it! If I were a person who swore, I would have cursed up quite a storm this morning. And if I had a gun, I might have used it! I'm entirely fed up with the person who lives somewhere in my neighborhood and who visits the supermarket across the street at 6:20 every morning and who ties their big black dog to the bus stop shelter and who allows said dog to bark incessantly - a deep "woof"-ing-wheezing bark that reverberates off the buildings on both sides of the street - and who apparently is a leisurely shopper because the dog keeps barking (EVERY MORNING) for fifteen to twenty minutes nonstop! Argh! Not a nice thing to be awakened by or to be kept awake by. I can sleep through fire truck sirens, delivery truck backup signals, kneeling bus whooshing sounds, and even noisy inebriated college students. But that darn dog! And its owner!

Also about dogs, I went to Barnes and Nobel this afternoon to do some reading and have some coffee. I thought the coffee would help me warm up, since it's only about 9 degrees today, but it was even cold inside the store! Anyway, I accomplished my reading - a very interesting article for a course called "The Teacher" (I'll post some excerpts later), and then I spent time wandering around the kids section. I discovered a book I'd never seen before, copyright 2006, and its title made me laugh out loud! Hehe! Here's a picture for you:

another author

Tonight I went to a book talk and book signing with Tomie dePaola!!! How cool is that?!?! All you education people out there will know. (Wink, wink.) Tomie dePaola has published over 200 childrens books, with the first ones coming out in the 70's. He's currently on tour promoting his first book geared more toward adults. It's a book of his Christmas memories. He read chapter one to us tonight. The Streganonna books are some of Tomie's most popular works, but I prefer his semi-autobiographical works. Tonight, after the book talk, I had him sign Tom, The Art Lesson, and Nanna Upstairs, Nanna Downstairs. The Nanna book is one of Tomie's favorites; he recently redid the illustrations for it. I read The Art Lesson with my second graders last year, and we wrote a letter to Tomie dePaola. Now I can show future classes that I met this fantastic author!

mr. mo

Yesterday I picked up a copy of Mo Willem's new book, Edwina: The Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She was Extinct, and I went to Books of Wonder to listen to the author/illustrator read. I also had him sign my Edwina book and my Leonardo the Terrible Monster book (see post from August 25, 2006). The books are dedicated to "Jennifer and Readers..." Cool beans!

Mo's credits also include:
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! - Caldecott Honor Book
Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!
The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!
Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale - Caldecott Honor Book
Sesame Street (scriptwriter and filmmaker, where he won six Emmys)