New Harry Potter Trailer

You all know that we loved the first part of the seventh movie (except for a few parts that made us giggle). The trailer for the last part is finally out. It looks exciting! Can't wait until July 15.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Tessa Gray is sixteen and heading to Victorian England to meet her brother after the death of her aunt and guardian. Once she arrives, she is kidnapped from the docks, the life of her beloved brother is threatened, and Tessa is tortured until she can control a power she never knew she had: the ability to transform into another person and retain their thoughts and emotions. She soon learns that her abilities are to be harnessed by the evil Magister and it is only by marrying him that she can save her brother. At her darkest hour she is rescued and introduced to the world of demons, angels, Downworlders and Shadowhunters. It is in the safety of the Institute that Tessa tries to understand this new culture with the help of dark Will, gentle Jem, self-absorbed Jessamine, motherly Charlotte, and absent-minded Henry; but is distracted by anxiety for her brother and the growing attraction she has for Jem and Will. Unfortunately her own emotions and confusion must be put aside as the Magister sets a trap and all that Tessa holds dear is put at risk.

Falling In by Frances O'Roark Dowell

Falling In is the not so quintessential story of a girl that doesn't fit in. Isabelle Bean ponders the beauty of dirt, doesn't like to shop with her mother, considers spilled jam beauty marks, feels like she is always precariously standing on the edge of something new, and hears a consistent buzzing noise rising from the floor. Isabelle isn't crazy, it turns out she belongs in a different world! It is in this new world where she is able to make friends and understand that her daydreaming can be an asset. But she is soon given the difficult task of helping the people there overcome their fears and push herself to learn new skills to save children.

Salman Rushdie

So things have been very busy; we've seen different authors (Mo Willems, Kadir Nelson, Jerry Pinkney, Laurie Halse Anderson), gotten some awesome ARCs (YAY Clockwork Angels!), Arianna went and saw Sue Monk Kidd, and now we're listening to Salman Rushdie!

He is surprisingly funny, we appreciated that his joke, "I am losing my librarian viriginity today (he has not lectured to librarians before), I cannot think of nicer people to lose it to." He seems to like to dispell myths about famous authors: J.M. Barry and Lewis Carroll. His overarching theme is writing books about children but not necessarily for children. He wants his new book Luka and the Fire of Life, his kind of sequel to Haround and the Sea of Stories, to be an equal to its predecessor. He doesn't want them to follow the same fate as Lewis Carroll's books. Both books share the same theme - that the main characters are saving their families, and its a revisiting to the world of Haround, but Luka is not a sequential sequel but rather a stand-alone story that uses a familar universe. He reads a selection and it is filled with humor, active words, and vivid imagery.

"Children like to be scared, but they don't like to be disturbed. George Lucas has taught them that."

I am getting very distracted between listening and blogging, so I'm going to stop for a while and see if Jamie or Arianna can take over for a bit...