Let's talk Award winners

I decided I would start this list to remind myself of good books I'm seeing throughout the year (2009) to nominate for my library system's "Notable Books" program. There is one part in Jan (so this would be Jan 2010 for the 2009 books) and another in April.

And usually when the call comes to nominate titles, I forget the things that have come out earlier in the year.

First off a book I think could be a strong contender for the Caldecott (any maybe the Coretta Scott King Award for illustrations)
Mama Says: a Book of Love for Mothers and Sons
by Rob D Walker, Illustrations by Leo & Diane Dillon



This book is simply stunning. Pictures of mothers and sons from a variety of cultures and ethnicities are shown....and the text is very elegant and economical (not overly flowery or any "forced" rhymes)... and is shown bilingually -- English and the language of that culture including: Cherokee, Hebrew, Russian, Amharic, Korean, Japanese, Arabic, Hindi, Quechua, Inuktitut, and Danish.

The greatest compliment I can pay any book is that it is one that I am willing to purchase for my home library. (As opposed to just checking it out for free from my library). This is one such title.

Ahoy!

Happy Talk like a pirate day, mateys!

Haven't used this particular blog much since we finished our "23 Things" last year..and for that, I apologize.


But if you'd like to check out some more personal rambles of mine, and see the newest member of our household crew (a 2.5yr old little girl adopted from China) and she already has been brainwashed..... er.... I mean, knows a pirate says "Arrr!", visit:
Our Journey to Georgia

Ahoy all pirates!

A free game for ye!

Pirate Quests

I haven't had the pleasure of trying this out for meself, but intend to when I can.

Yar for today 9-27

Since the 23 things is over, I thought I might just devote this blog to the occasional promotion of anything piratical I find of intrest.

Like this item:
Dress Up Pirate

A cute pirate toy for the wee swabbies! Since I'm considering doing a pirate-themed mural in my soon-to-be 2nd child's room, I was thinking of kiddos and pirate things.

I figure pirates are fairly gender neutral, when ye come right down to it. While some of the more famous pirates have been male, there have been quite a few ladies out there a-livin' the pirate life..and not as a pirate's doxie either!

Anne Bonney, Mary Reed, and Ching Shih come to mind. I recommend intrested folks to look up them... the wikipedia article I read on Ching Shih was quite intresting in that she lived to die of old age. Now THAT'S a successful pirate queen!

If only I could make me computer walk the plank!

I have no problem with having to have a specific log in to do me work on the computer. Truly I don't.

We ("we" being yer ever lovin' friendly library staff)... have to use two printers in the course of our work.
1. a printer to print out word documents, etc.
2. a receipt printer to print out "guest" passes that allow those who have forgotten their library cards (or don't have one), etc to access the internet.

Back in the day, oh not so long ago, we turned on our (staff) computers and used 'em and both printers worked fine.

These days "we" must use unique log-ins to use aforementioned staff computers. Presumably this is to make our jobs easier.

and it might... if the $%^%^*&#^@#% computer didn't always default back to the receipt printer and try and print word documents on skinny receipt paper.

OR..when its not doing that, it prints to the correct printer, but chops off the document as if it WERE printing it to the skinny receipt paper.

"We" have asked the IT department about this issue. They've been by to 'fix' it. (And one has told the pirate-librarian it must be something she did, 'cause he'd already fixed this issue.)

to which I say....
As soon as I get home, I'm hittin the grog.

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

This here librarian loves Talk Like a Pirate Day, a'course. But the storytime(s) I do are for the wee-little swabbies (babies and toddlers), and there aren't many pirate stories appropriate to that age....(sigh)....

So I consoled myself with a display of books for older deck-hands (age 5yrs and up.) -- the display sign said, "International Talk Like a Pirate Day September 19, 2007... enjoy some good pirate yaarrrnns!"

Dora's Pirate Adventure
How I became a Pirate
Pirates Don't Change Diapers
Treasure Island
The Wreckers
a DK book on Pirates
The Legend of Captain Crow's Teeth

There are many others out there, and I was happy to see a good many more that I would have displayed were already checked out. ;)

Wow, now I feel famous ;)

A colleague here at the library reminded me that tommorrow be International "Talk Like a Pirate Day". I feel deeply ashamed that I had forgotten, however momentarily... so I cruised on over to the official website Talk Like a Pirate. And on the

Talk like a Pirate 2007 page, was an invitation to let the Pirate gang know how we planned to celebrate. So I took the liberty of emailing the webwench and tell about my blog.... not really expecting anything other than "Hey, that's cool"...

and instead I got included in the "Blog like a Pirate" links. Now how cool is that?


Would doing a little jig be unprofessional? Maybe I'll save it for when I'm off the desk.

YAR