mary e. pearson

and libraries going paperless over at Tor today. 

Hope you'll come by and share your thoughts on the advantages (and disadvantages) of traditional books.

Bells, Whistles, & Books:  Going Paperless

Stockton rocks.  The drive from the airport to Stockton was beautiful. On the way I passed olive and almond groves, vineyards and pastures.  And the weather was perfect. 



Librarian Goddess, Miranda Nighbor, arranged all the details for the day and was also my escort, getting me where I needed to be.  She is amazing.  Thank you, Miranda.



Our first stop was Ripon High School.  We couldn't fit everyone into one picture so we took two.  The students were wonderful, asking lots of great questions.  After my presentaion I had a little bit of time to talk to students individually.  I love that.  They give me back energy. 


 
Here I am with librarians Alicia and Miranda, and teacher Cameron (?)  I hate it when I forget names.  I met several teachers that day and I may be mixing up her name with another, but I am grateful to them all for sharing
YA books with their students.  (l to r: Cameron?, moi, Alicia, Miranda)


Nest stop was Franklin High School.  Another wonderful crowd. (Did I say, Stockton rocks?) Sometimes large auditoriums can get a little restless, but I couldn't have asked for a more attentive and thoughtful audience.  I was way impressed.


My last stop was the Chavez Public Library.  What a fun group of librarians.  I wish I would have gotten a picture with them--enthusiastic with wacky great senses of humor.  A "volunteer" even did an impromptu puppet show for me while I waited in the office for my talk : ) Loved it.

My audience was a mixed group from teen to adult.  It was smaller audience so we had more time for some personal interaction--and food!  The Youth Advisory Commission posed some discussion questions to everyone about The Adoration of Jenna Fox.  It was interesting to hear various thoughts--one thing about AJF is there are lots of poles and opinions.  Here I am with some of the YAC's.  Joseph, the teen towering over us shorties, read a passage from AJF for everyone.  I have never heard someone ELSE read my book to an audience before and it gave me chills to hear it that way.


Thank you Miranda, Stockton-San Joaquin PL, Ripon, Franklin, Chavez and the YAC's for a fantastic visit.  You are awesome.

Happy Teen Read week!

Yes, I know I am a little late, but I have been busy celebrating teen reading with teen book clubs in the area.  Very fun.  And very encouraging to see so many teens who love reading and books.  On Monday I visited Bonita, and yesterday, Poway--both with big, BUSY libraries.

And while you are celebrating Teen Read Week, hop on over to the YA AUTHORS CAFE where YA authors, Kimberly Pauley, Annette Curtis Klause, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Kristopher Reisz, A.M. Jenkins, and Marlene Perez, will be yakking up Books with Bite!  Chime in with your own responses to the 13 Questions!

And speaking of books with bite--ones that hang on and don't let go--I want you all to know you are in for a treat when David Gill's (thunderchikin ) SOUL ENCHILADA comes out next year.  It has, hands down, one of the most unique premises, setting, and voices I have heard in a long time!  You are going to love it.  I did.

Today I am staying close to home and taking care of taxes.  That's right.  We are without doubt, the last people in the entire country to file our taxes.  And you can be sure that hubby will cut it close so we are racing to the post office and five to five.  Small thrills, right?  Hubby is a CPA and you know what they say about the cobbler's children . . .

ugh, now to go face all those numbers.  I am not a numbers person, but sometimes you have to bite the bullet.  Back to books tomorrow!

When I visit schools and book clubs, many of the teens show an interest in getting the arcs to read ahead of time. I know of two publishers who have actual programs that teens can sign up for: The In Group from Henry Holt on myspace, and First Look with HarperCollins. Does anyone know of others I can recommend?

Tomorrow kicks off TEEN READ WEEK sponsorsed by ALA and YALSA..  Today and in the coming week I will be visiting several teen book clubs and meeting avid teen readers.  I'm excited.  The theme this year is Books with Bite.  I've read a lot of books this year that bite--in a good way : )  They grab hold and don't let go.  I can't wait to share and hear what the teens are reading.  Right now I am reading SOUL ENCHILADA by David Macinnis Gill and loving it.  The voice is amazing.  What are YOU reading right now?

First stop, Chicago! My mom's home town.

I had a great time. Overall the weather was perfect, flights on time, and readers enthusiastic. Couldn't have asked for more. But I got more! Lots of special touches beginning with a pet in my hotel room:

I named him Rover because he actually did flips for me when I returned to my hotel late at night (okay, maybe that is a bit of exaggeration or delirium from lack of sleep, but I think he was glad to see me)
The rest of the room wasn't bad either.

I stayed at the Hotel Burnham which is a restored office building. The door to the room looks like an office door with an old fashioned glass pane. Lots of nice authentic touches. And I had a view of Lake Michigan.

I had a package waiting for me when I arrived--books and discussion guides. I hadn't seen the guides yet, so that was a nice surprise!


Next I was off to Skokie. My first visit was at the Skokie Public Library--drat--I forgot my camera, but it is a huge beautiful library that my media escort and I actually got lost in! We met with a Mother Daughter Book Club who had already read The Adoration of Jenna Fox It was really fun to be able to talk freely about the book without being careful about spoilers! We had a great discussion. It was really interesting to hear the different viewpoints of the moms and daughters. And our host, Librarian Linda Sawyer even had refreshments for us. Cookies and books--great combo! : )

The next day, back in Chicago, I had lunch with librarians and other book folks back at the Atwood Cafe in the Hotel Burnham. It is a beautiful restaurant and restored to the era like the rest of the hotel. The food is great and they even set the table with Biogel Blue glasses. Wasn't that nice of them?


Again, everyone had read JENNA so we could talk freely. So often I have to tiptoe around what I say so as not to spoil the story, so it is wonderful when everyone can just let loose with their opinions and ideas! And we did! One librarian even pegged some of my background based on the book. Fun conversations that I can't share because I don't want to spoil the story for you. But get me in person around a table of food . . .

More of the tour tomorrow!

I had the BEST time at San Pasqual Union School yesterday. THIS is their library!!! The whole school is done in a rural motif. That silo is the "reading silo" filled with bean bags for students to hang around and read in. My visit was every author's dream: I met in the library with a small group of 40 students, and Super Librarian, Teri McDonald had them so well prepared--every one of them had read my book! Wow, what intelligent, thoughtful questions they asked. I was completely blown away. They even shared their food with me. A very generous group.

And the school itself is just incredible. It is the only school in the district, K-8 (I met with 7th and 8th grades) and it is in a rural area of Escondido. When they built a new school four years ago, they wanted it to reflect the rural heritage of the school and area--and does it ever. The gym/amphitheater looks like a barn, there is white split rail fencing around garden areas, and old antique tractors and bleached cow bones are landscape details. But the school is modern in every sense. It's absolutely refreshing to see some creativity in school architecture. It doesn't look anything like MY middle school.

Anyway, huge thanks to Helen Foster James for arranging this visit.