Whatcha Reading?

Now that I've made posting on Tuesdays a pretty firm habit, I'm looking to add some regular posts to the blog. After reading today's post on the More Books Than Time blog I was inspired to work toward this as my Monday habit!

So, I just HAVE to tell y'all about a book I finished late Friday night.  I stayed up way too late to finish it considering I knew I had to get up around 5:00 AM Saturday to travel, but I just couldn't help myself. This book was SO special because it was recommended to me by a really cool kid. Okay--a really cool adult whom I taught when she was a really cool kid.  :)  So, first a story about Willow Wylde (last name left out).

Years and years ago when I was a young college kid I worked in the infant room of a daycare.  One of my babies was a little girl named Willow.  She was full of personality and sass.  We bonded--I took a million photos of her and shared most of them with her mama--also full of personality and sass.  I kept a couple of her photos in my little photo brag book (y'all remember them?  you know, before cell phones carried our pics around?)  I graduated from college and moved back home.  10 years later I moved BACK to my college town.  There wasn't a library opening in town, so I took a 5th grade teaching position with the knowledge that there would be a library position opening up the following year.  The day I got my list of kids I just about fell over---yes, my little Willow Wylde was on the list.  I would have known her anywhere--her resemblance to her baby self was uncanny---not to mention she has a fabulously unique name!  I gave her those final two baby photos I had kept all those years. And so, I had the honor of getting to know her as a fifth-grader, and then to be her librarian all through her middle school years.  My Willow was an artist and a reader---she still is! Fast-forward to the present...Willow is about to finish college with an art degree and we are Facebook friends.  She is one of the coolest people I have ever known, in part because she is so true to herself.

So, via FB she recommended I read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan.  What a delightful read! Mysterious and mystic--a book about the love of books and a melding of old ways and new.  I was happy to find my library owns a copy (yes, first year--still learning my collection!) and I absolutely have a few kids in mind who would just LOVE this book. Best of all, I now am planning on reviving the high school book club under a new name & a new game plan--one inspired by this book!