Read, Read, Read

  Here's the first stack of books I've read as a panel judge for the Cybil Awards in the Easy Readers and Early Chapter Books category.  I have 10 more books on hold or coming through inter-library loan this week.   Then I'll have to go hunting! 

I get a thrill when an email arrives from my library saying a new book on my list has come in and is waiting for me at the desk.  It feels like getting a call from a friend who has just flown in and is ready to be picked up at the airport.

"Tell me about your travels," I want to say as we head for my car together.  But really, I'm the one taking journeys.  In the past few days:

I've climbed a ladder to the moon with David Almond.

I've made wonderful, pizza-y mess at a diner with David Catrow.

I've solved a funny mystery at the fair with Lewis B. Montgomery.

I've looked deeper as a poet with Patricia MacLachlan.

I've lost my bathing suit with Diane deGroat.

I've worried and laughed and said, "Banana!" with Mo Willems.

And I've only begun.