Author Archives: Sally Snyder

March 2 is Read Across America Day!
Celebrate Dr. Seuss and reading aloud! Sponsored by NEA (National Education Association) here are two sites you can visit for information and ideas:
http://www.nea.org/readacross/
http://www.nea.org/grants/13019.htm
more ideas and handouts are here:
http://baucomes.wcpss.net/readacrossamerica/readacrossamerica.htm
I love the idea of taking time to read aloud to children, family and friends. It’s a great way to share time together with a favorite book, old or new. Another chance for promotion of reading aloud will come in November: our state’s “Read Aloud to a Child Month” sponsored by Read Aloud Nebraska. Visit http://www.readaloudnebraska.org/ and click on “Read Aloud Favorites” to find out what other Nebraskans love to read. You can recommend a book, too.
Once again I am reading a library book: Notes from the Dog by Gary Paulsen. I’m enjoying short books right now; Paulsen’s book is 132 pages.
Finn (14) is planning to spend the summer reading, avoiding talking to anyone, and spending time with his true friend Matthew, who understands his goal. A 24 year old MLS student is house-sitting next door to Finn’s. She is a breast cancer survivor, still getting chemo, and soon Finn and Matthew are helping her raise funds for research, put in a garden, and more. Oh, yeah, the dog. Finn has a border collie named Dylan who occasionally runs up to him with different torn pieces of paper bearing cryptic messages, such as “You’re not as ugly as you think.”

Remember the Baby-Sitters Club?
According to an article in the December 30, 2009 New York Times book section, Scholastic is planning to re-release “The Baby-Sitters Club” by Ann M. Martin. She has written one new book, a prequel titled The Summer Before which will be released on April 1. They have “slightly revised” the first two books in the series to gear them to the 7-10 age range and update some older terminology. Here’s a link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/books/31babysitters.html
Right now I’m reading another book from the library: Double Eagle by Sneed B. Collard III. Michael, 13 or 14, is spending the summer of 1973 with his father on a small island off Alabama. A salvage ship is looking for treasure nearby, and Mike would really like to know what they have found. Mike and his new friend, Kyle, make a surprising discovery at the old fort, and the salvagers may want what they found. A good adventure story for this summer’s “Make Waves @ your library” theme.

News About Rick Riordan
The first book in Rick Riordan’s new series, The Kane Chronicles, Book One: The Red Pyramid will be released on May 4, 2010. It features a brother, Carter, and his younger sister, Sadie, who will face Egyptian gods in the present day. Riordan says the characters will age with the series. In the first book, Carter is 14 and Sadie is 12. The publisher plans to release one book a year for a total of three books (unless he decides to write more). The 11/5/09 Publisher’s Weekly has a article on the series, visit: http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6705617.html
The article also mentions that his next Camp Half Blood series will debut in the fall of this year. An earlier article (4/2/08) stated it would debut in 2011, so we will have to wait and see if they have moved up the date. I’m looking forward to them both!
After finishing The Monstumologist (good, but gruesome!) I needed something different, so I just finished Gauge, book two of “The Dragons of Wayward Crescent” by Chris D’Lacey. Lucy’s mother makes dragons and other things to sell from clay. Every once in a while she uses a very special item on the small clay dragon she is creating, and it comes alive to help the household. Fun for readers grades 2-4. Who wouldn’t want a special dragon (or five) in their house?

ALA Book Awards
Welcome to the first of what I plan to be weekly blog entries about my perspective of goings on in the book world, from articles in library journals to whatever book I am reading that week. Let me know your opinion of the titles I mention by adding your comment to the appropriate entry.
The ALA book awards were announced this week, visit: http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2010/january2010/ymawrap2010.cfm
or see the Commission’s announcements page for the winners), and I was pleased to notice that one of the Honor Books for the Printz Award, The Monstumologist by Rick Yancy, is the title I checked out of the library last week. (I can’t be too smug because I did not check out the Printz winner, or the Newbery winner, etc.)
The main character, Will Henry, is 12 and is the assistant to Dr. Warthrop, a monstrumologist: one who studies and defeats various monsters in the world. A knock at the door in the middle of the night begins this adventure when a local grave robber brings in a strange and fearsome dead creature. The monstrumologist is certain there are more such creatures and they must be destroyed as soon as possible.
It already has offered a couple of scary places that make me happy to be reading it during the day (I am easily scared!), still I can’t wait to know what will happen. I wish it had a drawing of one of the Anthrpophagi they are after, but maybe my imagination is enough. It will appeal to readers who like things a little scary and Rick Yancy is a proven story teller, his Alfred Kropp books are such fun. Visit his website at: http://www.rickyancey.com/

I am thrilled to let you know that Ellen Klages, author of our current [obsolete link removed] One Book for Nebraska Kids, The Green Glass Sea, would like to visit Nebraska! We are planning to have her arrive in Scottsbluff on Sunday, October 11, ready to talk with students and library patrons starting Monday morning. She will travel across the state (visits have not yet been determined) and leave from Omaha on Sunday, October 18. Yea! And the best part is she emailed me offering to come to Nebraska! Wow!
We have decided to ask public librarians and media specialists to let me know if you are interested in hosting a visit from Ellen Klages. Her route through Nebraska will be determined by 1) who is interested and 2) what is physically possible. So it will be a little bit like a raffle – having your name pulled out of a hat – with the addition of needing to be sure the route will not completely wear Ellen and I out.
We have only a few requirements:
1) You send an email to me stating that you are interested, and tell me you have already had a group of children/students/tweens read and discuss the book or will have before Ellen’s visit.
2) Reading her book is a requirement – copies are available from each of the library systems and from the Library Commission, some copies have already been reserved, it is first come, first served.
3) You agree to hold an “after” event, anything from a discussion session about what Ellen Klages shared with everyone during her visit to having your students research something about the atom bomb or World War II. What your event is, it is up to you.
4) If there is a great deal of interest we will end up pulling names out of a hat.
5) You are not eligible if you hosted Ben Mikaelsen during his visit (unless no one requests a visit from Ellen)
Please let me know if you are interested no later than 4pm CDT on September 4, 2009 so we can set up the route!
Sally Snyder
Coordinator of Children and Young Adult Library Services
Nebraska Library Commission
1200 N Street, Suite 120
Lincoln, NE 68508-2023
800-307-2665 or 402-471-2045
email