Tales from a Loud Librarian

On Monday, September 25th, we had our first author visit of the school year. Author and former 3rd grade teacher and librarian,  Nancy Cavanaugh , came to talk about her newest book, Elsie Mae has Something to Say . The book is set in 1933 in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. Nancy explained to the students how she was inspired to write the story--a television documentary. However, it was a trip that she took to the swamp 20 years ago that gave her the push to write a book about a place and time that doesn't exist anymore.  It took her a long time to get the story right because she started her research two decades ago, and the book was published in early September 2017. At first, she was going to try and write a non-fiction picture book about the swamp because her inspiration began with a documentary and book called Okefenokee Album by Francis Harper. When that didn't work she tried her hand at a book called. Henry James and the Hog Bandits . That never got ...

The authors were anxiously waiting for me to get my question out While on vacation in early June, I got an email from Octavia Books, a local independent bookstore in New Orleans, asking me if I would be interested in moderating a panel of YA authors. As soon as I heard who they were, I sent back a resounding yes. I had read books by all four authors and was certainly anxious to meet them. The panel was set for July 11th which meant that I had about a month to read the four books that they would be touting at the event.   Being prepared is really important to me. The publishers sent me three of the books in a timely fashion, and by the time I got home from my trip, there were two books waiting for me. I got to reading. I began with Sarah Mlynowski's book, I See London I See France . She writes middle grade too, but this is the first YA book that she has done in awhile. It is the story of two nineteen year old girls, and their adventures as they backpack across Eur...

I am the one on the left! A month or so ago I heard that we might have a visit from author Jen Calonita. Then I didn't hear anything confirming the date and time. I got so busy that I forgot to email or call to make sure we were on her schedule in New Orleans. Then it got to crunch time, and I was heading out of town for two days to attend the Louisiana Library Association annual conference. I needed to plan our visit. I don't like to do things last minute. It all worked as we were well prepared for her visit, but I did only have a handful of days to get ready. That just makes me crazy.  I certainly like meeting new authors, but since BRiMS had skyped with Jen in 2015 , I was pumped to meet her face to face. When we talked to her in 2015, only the first book in the Fairy Tale Reform School series had been published. For this visit, Jen was kicking off the publication of the third book. After hearing her talk, the students who bought the first book went hom...

I got a chance to pose with Raymond Arroyo just before he left A couple of weeks ago, Judith Lafitte, from the local independent bookstore Octavia Books , and I were lamenting the lack of authors for tweens and teens traveling to New Orleans this past year. Since 2010, Octavia has sent many authors to my school to make presentations to the students. In October, we had someone scheduled who eventually had to cancel due to a family emergency. We were crushed but certainly understood. Since there are only two and half months left of the school year, I thought that this would be a year of no face to face author visits. The day after that phone call with Judith, she sends me an email saying that Raymond Arroyo, a native New Orleanian, would be visiting the bookstore and wanted to do a school visit.  Even though I had little time to prepare, and I was out of the building two days last week for a conference and ended up out of school a third day due to weather, we wer...

On March 17th, the middle school students were treated to a performance by authors Jon and Pamela Voelkel that kept the kids enthralled from the moment it began to the action-packed conclusion. The Voelkels have become friends of mine as well as friends of our school. They were traveling because the last book in the Jaguar Stones series was published last month, but their publisher, Egmont, sent them to the West Coast, not New Orleans. Since both New Orleans and St. Louis are featured in the journey that Max and Lola take to save the world from Ah Pukuh in the book, The Lost City , the Voelkels decided to plan a trip to our area on their own. I am so glad that they did.  Their visit began with dinner at Pascal Manale's. An uptown institution that specializes in delicious seafood. Not only did we have a great meal that night, but there was a celebrity sitting at a table next to ours. Singer, Harry Connick Jr., was enjoying a meal with his family. We really wanted to get a...

On March 9th, not only did we kick off Teen TECH Week at PFTSTA, but we also hosted our first live out of town author visit of the year. Though there have been several skype author visits this year, and I invited two local authors who are friends of mine to visit, Peter Lerangis was the first official author who is touring the country to tout his newest book.  I was not too familiar with his work before I found out that he was available to visit our school, so I was surprised when I heard that he had written over 150 books. Some of his work was done under a pseudonym, and of course, I wouldn't know about those books. It was the fourth book in the Seven Wonders series that brought him to town. Peter's presentation kept the kids on the edge of their seats as they laughed with him and answered his questions. In another life, he was a professional actor, so he used lots of different voices as he told stories about himself to entertain the students. My favorite sto...

That's me holding the Viking shield with Marr on the left and Armstrong on the right On Monday, May 19th, we were treated to a visit by authors, Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong . They are friends and co-authors of the series, Blackwell Pages , which is a trilogy telling a fast-paced adventure story about some kids who are descendants of the Norse gods. The story explains how these descendants of Thor and Loki join together to find a way to save the world from destruction during Ragnarok. The authors spoke to the entire sixth grade and seventh grade classes in two presentations. That made it easy for me because I could take lots of pictures during the first presentation, and then concentrate on what they were saying the second time around. I am not always the best multi-tasker. Seventh graders listen intently Both authors have many books for older teens, but this series is designed for the middle grades. The impetus of these books was threefold. First was their own...