09 February 2006

Librarians are so fair

The headline in the Baltimore Sun reads,

Library patron 'borrows' way into prison
Record of 402 overdue items leads to Randallstown man's theft conviction, 3-year term


The article begins, If you're two weeks late in returning a book to the Baltimore County library, you're likely to get a phone call. If your book is four weeks overdue, you'll receive a notice in the mail.

And if you're Philip Akbar Shabazz, you're sent a letter that begins: "You currently have 402 items overdue from the Baltimore County Public Library. Fees and charges for these items amount to over $8,400."


Despite this guy using multiple (stolen?) cards to get hundreds of books (which it is believed he sold), the article ends in the best way possible:

Still, library officials said that if Shabazz were to square his account, he would no longer be barred from library branches.

"He would be welcomed back," Wheeler said.

I *love* librarians!

Read the whole article here.

Libraries ROCK!

"Imagine a collection of music, movies, and books you can access for free with the help of the Internet. What if you could share it all with your friends and neighbors? No, I’m not referring to BitTorrent or Napster; I’m talking about your local library."

Thus begins a fabulous new article on Lifehacker. It mentions many of my favorite things about libraries including, "Chances are that your library doesn’t stock every book you might ever want to read. Just because they don’t own it, doesn’t mean they can’t get it." Yeah! I *love* that part!

Be sure to read the whole article here.

08 February 2006

Gak

The headline in the Miami Herald reads:

Collaborator on 'Curious George' books, films found dead, covered with garbage bags, in Boynton driveway

From the article, it seems this man co-edited, rather than wrote, some of the George books. However he was involved with the naughty little monkey, this is a ghastly story...

Read the whole story here.

03 February 2006

A good little monkey

Curious George opens next weekend and reuters has an article about the corporate adventures of this mischievous little monkey. Read it here.

Not to ruin it for anyone, but I love the last line: "Having escaped corporate duties, Curious George is once again free to play with the kids."

Thank goodness!

02 February 2006

In Memoriam

According to Publisher's Weekly, two of Children's Lit's mainstays have died.

Tana Hoban
Photographer, designer and author Tana Hoban died on January 27 in Paris, at the age of 88. Hoban began her artistic career as a photographer of children, with exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art as well as shows in Philadelphia, Paris and Berlin. She turned her eye to making photography for children in 1970 with the publication of the concept book Shapes and Things (Macmillan). Hoban published more than 50 books for children and won numerous awards, including a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor and the George C. Stone Recognition of Merit Award for her entire body of work.

Martha Alexander
Author and illustrator Martha Alexander died on January 31 from complications from a stroke. She was 85. Alexander illustrated her first book, Come and See Me by Mary Kennedy (Harper & Row) in 1966 and went on to publish nearly 50 children's books, many of which she was both the author and illustrator. Charlesbridge is reissuing three of Alexander's picture books this year, When the New Baby Comes, I'm Moving Out and Nobody Asked ME if I Wanted a Baby Sister, in February, and I'll Protect You from the Jungle Beasts, in July.

Hey. You. GUYS!!!

Woo-hoo! I cannot wait for next Tuesday!

Why, you ask?

Because -- FINALLY -- The Electric Company will be available on dvd.

I don't know whether to be at the store when it opens or to pre-order now...

huh?!

From Yahoo:

Shock-rocker Marilyn Manson will play Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll in a movie that also marks his writing and directing debut.

This frightens me. I mean, I will absolutely rent it on dvd, but it frightens me all the same.

Read the whole story here.