President Obama Is a Book Nerd...

... and it's kind of the greatest thing ever. Check out Buzzfeed's images of Mr. President getting really, really into his reading of Where the Wild Things Are.

Sorry I've been scarce lately, but I'm still here, and I have a stockpile of reviews to catch up on... stay tuned.

The Borrowers Arrive on BBC

Does anyone else remember The Borrowers, that darling book in which little people live in the walls of a house and borrow items from the owners? I'd say it offers a perfectly plausible explanation for all those items that seem to disappear from my house for no apparent reason: an earring back, one sock, the tweezers, that rubber band band you know you left on your desk. Seriously, borrowers. Where is my rubber band ball?

I loved this book when I was a kid, and I vaguely remember loving the 1997 movie version featuring John Goodman. And now BBC is bringing the stories to the little screen with a 90-minute adaptation of The Borrowers set to air this Christmas season. Who's excited!?

Seuss Makes a Comeback!

Holy Suessicals! According to an article in yesterday's PW, Random House has just announced the release of a "new" Dr. Seuss collection. It's not really fair to call it new, as the stories in The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories were originally published in magazines in the 1950s, but they are stories sure to be new to many Suess fans.

The book is set to release Sept 27th of this year. Who's excited?

Books to the Sky! (Quote of the Day)

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky.
My pile of books
Are a mile high.
How I love them!
How I need them!
I'll have a long beard
By the time I read them.
-Arnold Lobel

I didn't know who Arnold Lobel was, so of course (being the librarian I want to be), I went and looked him up. Turns out he is none other than the author that brought us such famous classic books as The Frog and Toad series. Anyone else remember these?



Even had he not been a successful author and winner of the Caldecott medal, I would respect him for his recognition of our desire to collect books even when we know we cannot possibly read them all.

Writer Spotlight - Shel Silverstein

Today is Shel Silverstein's birthday - it would have been his 79th. He is the author and poet of many of the beloved child stories and poems we know and remember fondly: Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974), Light in the Attic (1981), Falling Up (1996), The Giving Tree (1964), The Missing Piece (1976)... the list goes on. To say that he work was prized is an understatement: A Light in the Attic alone won 9+ awards, and remained on the NYT bestseller list for over two years.

But Shel Silverstein was in every sense of the word a Renaissance man: singer, songwriter, poet, children's author, cartoonist. He studied music and composition briefly, and his songwriting credits include the soundtrack to A Boy Named Sue, various songs for Johnny Cash, and several hits for Loretta Lynn and the Irish Rovers.

He first started drawing cartoons for the Pacific Stars and Stripes as a GI in Japan during the Korean War. His work was later featured regularly in Playboy Magazine, and connections to a friend in children's publishing led to his first children's book, The Giving Tree. The rest, as they say, is history.