My morning started out with the Sunrise Speaker series and a presentation by Leigh Rubin, the creator of the comic strip, Rubes. He told us how he got his start. He still remembers the first cartoon he drew when he was in kindergarten and how much he loved that he could draw a picture that made people laugh. The first comics that he published and sold were on greeting cards, then he self-published a collection of music comic strips entitled, Notable Quotes. It took him six months to convince one newspaper to carry his strip as a daily, and another four years for a syndicate to pick it up. He read us from some of his rejection letters. He explained that he finds inspiration in the everyday, especially in parenting his three sons. Lastly, he showed us an animation that he created for a movie called Moola. This fall will mark the 25th anniversary of his strip’s syndication. I bought each of my children one of his collections which I had autographed to them.
I spent most of the afternoon in the exhibit hall; I picked up more than four dozen new galleys, as well as lots and lots of posters.
I missed Ann Brashares — sorry …
I did find some really interesting books …
Pitch Black: a graphic novel that tells the story of a young woman artist who meets a man in the NYC subway and discovers that he lives in the subway tunnels underneath the city and creates his own art there. It is a true, and incredible, story …
Pop Goes the Library: Using Pop Culture to Connect With Your Whole Community, which is a book inspired by a website. It is a book for librarians.
I picked up another copy of the new (third) Diary of a Wimpy Kid book: The Last Straw and got a free mini back pack …
Catherine Jinks (Evil Genius and Genius Squad) has a new (forthcoming) vampire novel, The Reformed Vampire Support Group, a vampire parody like Suck It Up.
Sunday is going to be my busiest day …
Sunday, 1/25/09
8am-12pm – AASL Affiliate Assembly
1:30-3:30pm – Library Code of Ethics 70th Anniversary Celebration with Rushworth Kidder, who is the founder of the Institute for Global Ethics (http://www.globalethics.org/) which had its first office on the coast of Maine
3:30-5:30pm – ALA President’s Program with Dr. Muhammad Yunus (http://muhammadyunus.org/) who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work with micro-financing, including founding the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh
Here are a couple of books that we have that tell stories about the impact of micro-financing …
RICKSHAW GIRL by Mitali Perkins, illustrated by Jamie Hogan and published by Charlesbridge, 2007 [CNTM Perkins]
In her Bangladesh village, ten-year-old Naimi excels at painting designs called alpanas, but to help her impoverished family financially she would have to be a boy–or disguise herself as one.
GIVE A GOAT by Jan West Schrock, illustrated Aileen Darragh and published by Tilbury House, 2008. [PCBK Schrock]
After hearing a story about a girl in Uganda whose life is changed for the better by the gift of a goat, a class of fifth-graders pulls together to raise funds to make a similar donation to someone in need.
6:30-9pm – Freedom to Read Foundation: Lauren Myracle (http://www.laurenmyracle.com/) at the Tattered Cover Book Store
- Ms McDaniel
