GreenBeanTeenQueen

Today I'm over at the ALSC Blog talking about some of my new favorite bedtime-themed books!

There's nothing like girl power mixed with graphic novels to kickstart a return to blogging!  First Second has long been one of my favorite graphic novel publishers, so when they asked if I wanted to be part of a special tour highlighting girl power graphic novels, I couldn't say no. They have some great new releases and some older favorites that you must add to your collection if you have graphic novel fans at your library-or at home. I first read Giants Beware! when it came out a few years ago and I loved it!  My original review from 2012: About the Book:  Claudette dreams of being a giant slayer. But her village has no threats from giants since a giant slayer years ago. Claudette doesn't believe the stories though and she believes it's her duty to find and slay the giant that lives beyond her city. Along with her best friend Marie (an aspiring princess) and her brother Gaston (a pastry chef in the making), Claudette sets out on a fantastica...

With LibraryCon 3 only two months away, it's about time I wrote about last year's event! Sheesh! But I'm back with lots of LibraryCon notes! You can read about planning LibraryCon Year 2 here . I thought I would devote an entire post to Geeky Storytime at LibraryCon since it's one of the things I get asked most about.  Toddler GreenBean as Batman I have tried hosting Geeky Storytimes as a special evening storytime before (I wrote about those here , here  and the LibraryCon 1 edition here ) For year 2, we decided to utilize our StoryHour Room as a tabletop gaming room, which meant we needed a new spot for Geeky Storytime to kick off LibraryCon. We opted to host it just outside the children's department, as we have an open area there, we could fit more people, and we hoped we could draw more attendees this way. All of that worked out perfectly and just as we had hoped! I started off the storytime with welcoming everyone to LibraryCon and Geeky Storytim...

Today is The Very Hungry Caterpillar Day! I can't say enough good things about the beloved book by Eric Carle. I loved it as a child, I loved it again as a librarian, and I love it even more as a parent.  The Very Hungry Caterpillar  is such a great storytime book. There are so many ways to use it! Of course, I love reading it and even adding music and singing as the caterpillar munches his way across the pages. But my most favorite way of telling this story is through our Very Hungry Caterpillar sock puppet.  I'm not sure where the sock puppet idea came from originally at my library as it was made before I started there, but you can see an example of one at Busy Crafting Mama who shared one for Flannel Friday a few years ago. The idea of the storytelling puppet is that you wear the caterpillar sock on your arm and add the various foods as you tell the story and move the food up your arm and then end with a beautiful butterfly! It doesn't matter what age...

Well, I finally have time to sit down and type up all my thoughts about LibraryCon Year 2, or as I lovingly called it, Revenge of the Con!!! LibraryCon 2015 was such a huge success we knew we had to repeat it.  (You can check my posts about our first year here: Part One , Part Two , Part Three) Yet even with that success (400+ in attendance, great feedback from attendees and participants), we realized after the fact that we forgot all about marketing and promoting the Library itself. We figured people would walk into the Library, but with nothing to draw them there and with the entire event being held in our main concourse and meeting rooms, no one actually entered the Library. So the first item up on our planning agenda was to figure out how to promote ourselves. The first suggestion was for us to have a table ourselves. We collected various swag from conferences (with multiple staff attending ALA Annual, we were able to talk to comic publishers there and pick up lots of pos...

Today I'm over at the ALSC blog talking about my new favorite winter themed storytime books. Please join me!

Genre: Mystery/Contemporary Release Date: 10/25/2016 Add to Goodreads About the Book: Nolie is spending the summer in Scotland in a small village with her scientist dad. He's there researching the Boundary-the mysterious fog at the edge of Journey's End. The fog seems to be moving closer but the town can't take any warnings of danger too seriously-the fog is their livelihood and tourism depends on it. Especially for Bel's family who runs a tour boat out to the Boundary. When Nolie and Bel strike up a friendship the two become entangled in the mystery of Journey's End the fog that may be making it's way to devour the town. When Albert appears, a boy who went into the fog in 1918 to light the legendary lighthouse, Bel and Nolie know something strange is happening in Journey's End it's up to them to save the town and stop the fog from claiming more lives.  GreenBeanTeenQueen Says:    Journey's End  is a bit mystery, a bit of a friend...

For those of you that attended the Missouri Library Association Conference last week (or for those that missed it!) here is the booklist of titles I talked about. I'd love to hear your thoughts on them and if you have any favorites of 2016! Trends : Origin Stories & Retellings (fairy tales, classics, history retold, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland) Sequels and Series Contemporary Fiction continues to rise Creative formats ( Replica by Lauren Oliver, Between Worlds by Skip Brittenham) Middle Grade/Young YA: Ghost by Jason Reynolds Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill The Inquisitor's Tale by Adam Gidwitz It Ain't So Awful, Falafel  by Firoozeh Dumas Pax by Sara Pennypacker Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks & Gita Varadarajan Shadow Magic by Joshua Kahn Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo Some Writer! by Melissa Sweet Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk Young Adult: And I Darken by Kiersten White Exit, Pursued by ...

2016 is the 100th birthday of Roald Dahl. The publisher of his books, Penguin Random House, has set up a special blog tour to celebrate the occasion.   When I was in fourth grade, we read James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. I had always been a reader but something about this book made me really fall in love with it. I loved it so much that I  wrote a letter to Mr. Dahl telling him how much I enjoyed the book and probably other fourth grade things like about what I liked to do, that I loved to read, and all that kid letter writing stuff. I didn't realize that Roald Dahl had passed away just a year before and I'm not sure my teacher did either. She sent my letter along to the publisher. Several weeks later I received a package at school that was full of Roald Dahl goodies-bookmarks, posters, a mobile (I think for James and the Giant Peach but I don't remember!) and other book swag. The publisher wrote me back and said they were sorry to let me know that Roald Dah...

Alcatraz Series by Brandon Sanderson Genre: Contemporary Fantasy/Adventure Release Date: 9/6/2016 To Purchase Add to Goodreads About the Book: (from publisher)  The Dark Talent is the fifth action-packed fantasy  adventure in the Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series for young readers by the #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson. This never-before-published, fast-paced, and funny novel is now available in a deluxe hardcover edition, illustrated by Hayley Lazo. Alcatraz  Smedry has successfully defeated the army of Evil Librarians and saved the kingdom of Mokia. Too bad he managed to break the Smedry Talents in the process. Even worse, his father is trying to enact a scheme that could ruin the world, and his friend, Bastille, is in a coma. To revive her, Alcatraz must infiltrate the Highbrary—known as The Library of Congress to Hushlanders—the seat of Evil Librarian power. Without his Talent to draw upon, can Alcatraz figu...

Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi  Release Date: 8/30/2016  Genre: Fantasy/Adventure Add to Goodreads About the Book:  Alice was born in the magical world of Ferenwood but doesn't have any magic herself. In a land where color is magic, Alice is the lightest of all and doesn't fit in. The only person who ever made her feel special was Father-but he disappeared three years ago leaving Alice with her uncaring Mother and her three brothers. When Oliver Newbanks, an old nemesis, tells Alice that he needs help completing his task (the magical undertaking all children of Ferenwood must complete) and that he knows where Father is and can bring him home, Alice is faced with a tough choice. Oliver's magic lies in deciet and Alice is never sure if she can trust him but she wants Father home more than anything. The journey will be dangerous and take her into the odd land of Futhermore where nothing is as it seems and time must not be wasted. In a world filled with strange ...

Please welcome author C.C. Payne to GreenBeanTeenQueen! She's here to talk about her latest novel, The Thing About Leftovers  and her favorite books featuring food. About the Book: (From Goodreads): Fizzy is a good Southern girl who just wants to be perfect. And win the  Southern Living  cook-off .  The being perfect part is hard though, since her parents’ divorced and everything in her life has changed. Wary of her too-perfect stepmom and her mom’s neat-freak, dismissive boyfriend, she’s often angry or upset and feels like a guest in both homes. She tells herself to face facts: She’s a “leftover” kid from a marriage that her parents want to forget. But she has to keep all of that to herself, because a good Southern girl never yells, or throws fits, or says anything that might hurt other people’s feelings—instead she throws her shoulders back, says yes ma’am, and tries to do better. So Fizzy tries her best, but it’s hard to stay quiet when her family ke...

Today I'm at the ALSC Blog talking about why Pokemon Go and libraries are a perfect partnership. Come check it out!

Add to Goodreads Join in on social media with #perfectlyflawed Visit Cecelia's  website  and follow her on  Twitter  and  Instagram ! About the Book:  Celestine North lives a perfect life. She's a model daughter and sister, she's well-liked by her classmates and teachers, and she's dating the impossibly charming Art Crevan.  But then Celestine encounters a situation where she makes an instinctive decision. She breaks a rule. And now faces life-changing repercussions.  She could be imprisoned. She could be branded. She could be found FLAWED. I n her breathtaking young adult debut, bestselling author Cecelia Ahern depicts a society where obedience is paramount and rebellion is punished. And where one young woman decides to take a stand that could cost her-everything. I am so excited to be participating in the blog tour for Flawed, Cecelia Ahern's YA debut. Cecelia is one of my favorite authors, so of course I jumped at the chance to ...