Archive for January, 2008
a word from your ambassador
30 January 2008From Jon Scieszka’s Daily News column:
I taught elementary school in New York City for 10 years. I’ve been writing for kids for 20. And I think we can change the world by reaching the reluctant reader. This is the kid who might be a reader, who could be a reader, but just isn’t that interested. [...]
worth a thousand words
30 January 2008I’ve probably mentioned in passing that my company has a Fun Committee. Whenever a confused outsider asks what they do, I reply “they decide how to spend the Fun Budget,” and that usually confuses people even more. Basically, they are on an eternal Fun Hunt on behalf of us all, and as a result of [...]
37 down
29 January 2008Emla has found the apex of nerdery… the national crossword tournament is coming to Brooklyn, and they want you to watch! Please commence trying to guess what’s in those gift bags.
If you’re having girl problems, I feel bad for you, son
28 January 2008For the pun-appreciative community– today we’re voting on names for our office kickball team. The options:
Matzoh Ballers
99 Problems But A Pitch Ain’t One
Green Eggs and Slam
Sure Plays a Mean Kickball
Kix: Kid Tested, Your Mother Approved
Ballbusters
Balls to the Wall
Kick It
How The Grinch Stole First Base
She’s a Kick… House
Life’s a Pitch
You can understand why I’m having such a [...]
New Favorite
28 January 2008Sleeveface: one or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion.
accountability
25 January 2008I’m trying to keep a running list of everything I read. This is largely so that, at the end of the year, I can feel as though I accomplished something when, in reality, 2008 will have been 30% watching/ discussing The Hills, 50% sleeping, 5% perfecting my pirate costume for Halloween, 10% wandering through the [...]
Unless it’s the grammar police knocking. In which case, let them right in.
22 January 2008My apartment building appears to be going through puberty right now– every day we come home, and something has changed completely and occasionally without reason. After many months of dodging drop cloths in the hallway, our stairwells now sport that classy faux-marble look that you can usually only find in a pediatrician’s office, and today [...]
Just to embarrass him.
22 January 2008What do you get the children’s book editor who has everything?
I owe massive thank yous to jeremy (who, when I was like “How do you commemorate this?” went, “frame something”) and Fee, who tracked that sticker down via her kids’ book connections after I had ransacked the school & library marketing departments of 4 different [...]
Reading is sexy: it’s the end of the world as we know it
22 January 2008I have a rule about not seeing any movies where all of manhattan is destroyed. Like my rule about not reading anything new by thomas harris, this is directly tied to my plan to eliminate all the truly disturbing nightmares I have, leaving me with just the ones about horseback riding (yay!) and all my teeth [...]
in lieu of something real to say
15 January 2008Here is a super-fun interview with John Green, YA book nuts. I know, it feels weird to have a January go by without him winning some major award. Let’s all take a deep breath and hunker down until Paper Towns is released.
There should be more on this page– there should be a LOT about the [...]