So, the week \of workshops is over and I am sitting in the St. Louis airport waiting for my flight to Houston. Since it is raining here and there, I suspect I will be delayed. But it is providing me the time to finally post more than a paragraph. I have been getting out of hotels early and driving to libraries and then packing up at the end of the workshop, climbing into my car and driving hours to the next hotel. Lather, rinse, repeat stuff. I do think I have seen at least 60% of the state in my journey from Kansas City to Springfield to Columbia to St. Louis. I know I have climbed in and out of the mountains and traversed some humongous lakes and rivers, skirted fields, passed grazing cows, seen my share of wildlife (er, make that dead-life), and enjoyed every minute.

The libraries are to DIE FOR here. One was a former lumberyard (Springfield). One had an "egg" where they have programs for kids. All of them had energetic and dedicated librarians who put up with my shenanigans for all day workshops on tweens.

During the drive, Tobin Anderson's JASPER DASH AND THE FLAMING PITS OF DELAWARE kept me company. I am happy that most of the time I was on back roads because I was laughing so hard and loud folks on the interstate might have suspected me of inebriated driving. This piece of metafiction is a perfect spoof of so many books: the travel books of long ago that painted foreign countries as something exotic and dangerous, the series books of the 40s and 50s about plucky youth. Jasper and his pals (in peril), Katie and Lilly, head to Delaware to rescue a friend and some stolen museum artifacts. Chief suspects: mobsters and members of the Delaware competitive staring team (which defeats the hitherto undefeated Jasper). Off to Delaware and the mountains and the monks (yes, monks). Part Indy Jones, part Tom Swift, part everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink. It was a perfect companion for my travels.

After our "block party" (what was really a back to school faculty meeting; giving it a different name does not make it more fun...), I drove over to San Antonio. The long hot road trip was made so much easier with this audiobook as company:




I read this book a few weeks ago, so I knew the story. However, there is something about the audio that accentuates the humor. Not that the narrators played it up for yucks. Actually, the delivery was so dead pan that the funny emerged naturally. Two bonus features: chapter one from Book #2 in the Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie series and Lubar himself reading a short story from INVASION OF THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS. Perfect.


I am about halfway through another audiobook and will more than likely wrap it up on the drive home tomorrow. Will blog that later.

As an aside, today was spent teaching my YA lit class here in San Antonio to one of our cohort groups. Loved every minute of it despite nagging headache all day. There is something about getting paid to talk about your passion...

Now, back to some work. I am reading the new Peck, A SEASON OF GIFTS. Another Grandma Dowdel story. Opening is really promising. I love Richard Peck.

Drew, that is. I devoured the Nancy Drew books when I was a tween. If this book had been around, it would have been a perfect book for me. I listened to this book as I was driving hither and yon (are those Texas terms) over the last week or so.






Sophie, Margaret, and Rebecca are all students in the 7th grade at St. Veronica's Catholic School. Before you can say "Holy, Nancy Drew!" they are smack in the middle of a mystery. A gift from a long gone father to his daughter is hidden somewhere in the church. There are clues for the girls to follow, of course. The clues involve some pretty fancy thinking, too. Charming characters, including some eccentric ones, some novel twists and turns (shades of Charles Dickens no less), and a totally satisfying conclusion make this a near perfect tween book. Please, may we have some more???

The resident of the back bedroom has joined me for a trip to San Antonio to teach a class. Her older sister, the bride to be, called and woke us this morning to talk about facials and showers and all that stuff that irritates the resident who assured me last night at dinner that she plans a ceremony at City Hall with me and husband if (and I quote) we are still alive. Niiiiice.

On the drive here, we listened to the first half of the Brilliance production of WINTERGIRLS by Laurie Halse Anderson. I really like the narrator for this one. Hers is the voice I heard in my head as I was reading the book last year. Natalie fell into the story immediately. Her only comment as we neared the hotel was that she hoped I had brought a "lighter" book for the journey home. Interestingly enough, she brought the audio of Harry Potter along with her to listen to when I was working. She has some really interesting observations to make about Jim Dale's narration as well. It is nice to have summer vacation as it means time for us to talk about books other than the literary canon. I was talking to her about Kelly Gallagher's observations in READICIDE that teachers can UNDERteach or OVERteach a book. I think she really connected with this as she had both kinds of experiences, both equally frustrating for her. She has opted out of AP English with our blessings for her final two years. The real shame is that I know there are TONS of great English teachers out there and there is not one in her school (at least not that we have encountered).


Oh well, off to get ready for the day. Children's lit for 20 grad students. This is our sole face to face meeting. I refuse (and so do my colleagues) to do everything online without meeting the students first. We will spend the day together (20% of total meeting time set aside for the class) to talk and ask questions and explore and read. At the end of the day, I have a trunk full of free books and audiobooks to hand out for these brave (crazy?) students who take classes in 5 week sessions.

Hubby, the residents of the back bedroom, newly minted college grad and her fiance and I are in San Antonio for a short vacation before it is time to go back to work and school. On the drive over, we listened to this audio from Tantor. It has a 2006 copyright but since the movie is just being released, the audio is being re-released.




I adored F. Scott Fitzgerald as an undergrad English major but I must admit his short stories never came up in any of the lit classes I took (and I took more than I needed just for fun). He is an author who is absolutely brilliant in audio format. It emphasizes his wordsmithing, his incredibly wrought similes and metaphors. I was gasping at several points in the 4 stories in this collection.

I will be eager to see how the movie handles the "Benjamin Button" story with Brad Pitt (who does not fit the image in my head at all). I suspect it will be a bit more fleshed out and perhaps take some different directions. In "A Diamond as Big as the Ritz," Fitzgerald proves his mettle as a writer not only of satire but of fantasy as well. Two other stories round out this terrific audiobook. I really think this would be useful for teachers who want to introduce high school students to the work of Fitzgerald in an accessible manner.

So, on the drive for the past couple of days, I have been listening to audiobooks. Great company. I listened to Neil Gaiman's THE GRAVEYARD BOOK (HarperAudio, 2008) on the drive to and from Richardson. Loved this eerie, gothic story of a young boy, a toddler, who is the sole survivor of a murderer who kills his family. This toddler wanders out down the street from the house and escapes the Man Jack. He finds a home with a couple who reside in the graveyard. Thus, the toddler becomes Nobody (Bod for short) Owens. All of the residents of the cemetery keep watch on him, especially Silas, the only resident who can actually leave the graveyard and bring back food and other necessities for Bod. Bod grows from child to young boy under the watchful eye and experienced tutelage of Silas and the others. However, the Man Jack still lurks out there beyond the cemetery searching for Bod, preparing to complete the task he began years ago when he murdered the other members of Bod's family.

Gaiman narrates his own books and does a fabulous job with this one. Pacing, inflection, tone are all spot on. His voice is mesmerizing as narrator. This is not always the case when authors narrate their own work. Few can carry it off as ably as Gaiman (Gantos comes to mind with his narrations of the Joey Pigza books since I cannot think of another voice that could be Joey's). It would be all too easy for this audio to become melodramatic in the hands of someone less capable. Of course, driving in the dark was the PERFECT way to listen to this, too.

So, after I landed in Houston late yesterday afternoon, I drove home and finished listening to this audio:




I had already read this novel, so this was, technically, a re-reading. However, I have been pondering some thoughts about audio for my next VOYA column (thankfully not due until the end of December). Some books, it seems to me, are better read first and then listened to. Others are fine just read and/or listened to. And then there are others that are best listened to and then read. Hope this makes some sense.

For LITTLE BROTHER, I think I am glad I read it first. Part of that has to do with the email aliases like m1k3y (Mikey) and w1n5ton (Winston). Some of it has to do with all the technical hacking information. I do think the audio handles all this nicely, though, but I wonder if some listeners will miss some important information. I thought the narrator did a fine job portraying Marcus as he moves from naive gamer to victim of an overzealous Homeland Security detail. The narrating is very even in terms of pacing and inflection for the first part of the book, mirroring Marcus' relative innocence. The pacing and inflections change as Marcus grows more upset and frightened about what is occurring to him and other innocent victims of terrorist attacks.

I still am ruminating about all this and am not sure I even have enough for a column yet. Just thinking out loud. And now, I need to nurse this lovely cold and sore throat since I have two all day workshops coming up this week.

So nice to be back home. Yesterday's drive began in fog and segued to rain for a while. I made a couple of stops on the way into Houston to pick up some extra hurricane supplies (batteries, flashlights, etc.) since there seems to be a never ending string of them coming. Gustav will probably only dump lots of rain depending on what it does inland. But, we like to be prepared. In any event, it was nice to sleep in my own bed.

Finished two audiobooks on the trek to and from Laredo.




There is a truth in children's literature especially about dogs on the cover of a book. Generally, speaking, they are not long for this world. However, since the back of the audio states bluntly that Enzo in a dog in his last days, I thought at least it was being up front about the whole thing. First, this is an adult book. Second, it was one of the best adult books about a guy and his dog I think I have ever read (or listened to). Enzo is our narrator. I love his sardonic manner. His observations are sometimes hysterically funny and most of the time, spot on. He knows humans better than most humans know themselves. Enzo has had a mostly terrific life with his master Denny. He has seen Denny through marriage and separation and the birth of his child and so much more. Now, Enzo longs for the next life, the one in which he will be reborn as a human. I laughed; I cried (of course); I scrabbled for a pen to jot down a few lines and aphorisms. I railed against injustice and cruelty. In other words, I RESPONDED to the story on all kinds of levels. I hated to see this one end. However, next up was this one...




I had read this novel before it won a Newbery Honor, so this was like visiting an old friend. However, there is something about listening to a book already read that is different from a plain old re-reading. I cannot explain it. It is something I have been brewing about since spending most of last year tethered to headphones as I did my Odyssey listening. There are some distinctive experiences between reading a book and then listening to it; listening to it before any other reading; or simply listening and/or reading it. Eventually, I will puzzle it all out, but it truly does not matter much in terms of enjoyment. I loved being back with this family, one for whom HOPE is essential for survival. Woodson's words sing in audio as they do off the page as I read.

I began listening to THE DEAD AND THE GONE and suspect I wil finish that one off later this week with trips to and from campus.

Hubby and I are in Orange County this week. We flew in Wednesday. Yesterday I did two sessions at the UC Irvine Teacher Conference. Kelly Gallagher was the keynoter and, as always, he offered concrete ways to improve our teaching and our students' writing. I had the chance to sit and chat with Alan Sitomer, said HI to Sheridan Blau and then headed back to the hotel. Now, we have 4 days in front of us with no band rehearsal, no kitties up at 4 am. I brought some books along for the ride. However, I have not completed either the audio, SOMETHING ROTTEN, nor the book, THE SWEET FAR THING. I thought, though, I would do something different and make some comments before I finish the reading/listening.




Hurray for the first audio that I am not having to consider for the Odyssey Award (which means I can talk about it here). Welcome to Denmark, Tennessee, the home of the Elsinore Paper Plant run until recently by Rex Prince. After Rex's death, his widow Trudy married Claude, Rex's brother. Now Rex's son, Hamilton, has come home to see what is afoot. He is accompanied by his pal, Horatio. Hamilton suspects foul play. Perhaps the local theater's staging of ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD will reveal the truth? I am laughing out loud with this audio (and the people in cars next to me in traffic are giving me a wide berth: a bonus). I have booktalked it to English teachers with huge response. I hope it will find its way into classrooms at the very least as an intro to the play.





I read about half of Libba Bray's conclusion to her trilogy on the plane ride here and it was one of those rare times that I wished the flight were delayed so I could have continued reading more. How I adore Gemma and Fee and Pippa and Ann. From the opening chapter of A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY to the final scene in REBEL ANGELS, I have remained riveted with this story that combines elements of mystery, fantasy, and history effortlessly. This book, set to be released on Christmas Day, will (sadly) bring the story to its conclusion. My resident teens have moved from whining for me to finish reading and instead decided that they would go back and listen to the first two to prepare for the third book. I have promised them to be done when I get back home next week. Libba, a fellow LJer, is blogging about the book as the release date approaches. Check out her blog, too. And check back here for the final thoughts on each of these books.