A Tip of the Hat to Ellie McDoodle
A big old thank you to Ruth McNally Barshaw for being so sweet as to come in and speak to my children’s bookgroup about her books and drawing. Ms. Barshaw happened to be in town and offered to speak to a group of kids if I had some on hand. I most certainly did and she was fantastic. Plus, since her first Ellie McDoodle book is on our Summer Reading List, it made for a nice little tie-in. Boo-yah!
Thanks again, Ruth!
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About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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The pleasure was truly mine. Thank you. 🙂
And the relevance of this for your readers is…?
Looks like someone skipped their morning happy pill…
Perhaps it took too doggone long to read. 23 seconds of your life you’ll never get back again.
Ann, how about this:
If you’re an author visiting a city far from where you live, consider contacting the librarians and booksellers there to arrange an event.
It brings together community and authors, resulting in more books read and appreciated.
I’m guessing that’s part of why this blog exists.
If you work with books, be open to authors mixing business and vacation by arranging author visits when possible. Don’t worry about whether you can bring in a huge audience — all a visiting author needs is enthusiastic kids.
Betsy, defensive much? My prompt did not have to be read in a sarcastic tone, Smiley Face. Assuming malice doesn’t really live up to your handle.
I get tired of book blogs turning into personal playgrounds, particularly sponsored blogs. Don’t take your platform for granted.
Ruth, thank you for your response, which is perfect. Adding that info makes the post relevant. Without it, it just looks like mutual back-scratching.
Yes, kudos to Ruth. A far classier response than my own. This was my bad. I admit that I get fairly defensive when I feel attacked. Must be one of those days. But I too read the initial question with a sarcastic vibe. Phrased in a different manner it wouldn’t have been an issue. That’s the problem with the comment feature of most blogs. If we had a sarcasm font all these difficulties would fade away.
In any case, I probably should have mentioned that Ruth went out of her way to speak to my bookgroup free of charge. The very least I could do was thank her in a proper fashion. There is certainly a real danger in taking a platform of this sort for granted. But when it comes to thanking authors and illustrators who go out of their way to speak to kids who don’t get to meet a lot of them, I don’t think it’s too off-topic.
Ann, you originally commented: “And the relevance of this for your readers is…?â€
Then you said: “My prompt did not have to be read in a sarcastic tone.â€
Well…how else could you read it?
Netted out the information in Ms. Bird’s original blog post was:
1. Blogger has a children’s bookgroup.
2. An author of children’s books happened to be in town, and offered to speak to said group, which she did.
3. Blogger includes link to the author’s website.
4. Blogger points out that authors recent book happens to be on their summer reading list.
5. Blogger links to the previous book review blogger did of author’s said book.
6. Blogger thanks author for taking the time out of her trip to speak to the children.
Ann…the readers of this blog are interested in “children’s literatureâ€.
So the answer to: “And the relevance of this post for your readers is? Refer back to items 1 thru 6.
Now…maybe Ann likes the more formal writing style and details Ruth used in describing how visiting authors can attempt to arrange events on the fly…that’s fine.
I also happen to enjoy Ms. Bird’s ‘less formal’ way of presenting things.
Ms. Bird is summarizing pretty much the same thing: Children’s book author happens to be in town…children’s bookgroup is meeting…bingo!!!
But Ann…and then you said: “I get tired of book blogs turning into personal playgrounds.â€
Wha??????????