It's that time of year again - time for the Summer Blog Blast Tour!  I'm not interviewing anyone this time around, but I'll be posting links here daily.  To whet your appetite, here's a list of planned interviews:

Monday

Adam Rex at Fuse Number 8
David Almond at 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast
R.L. Lafevers at Finding Wonderland
Dave Schwartz at Shaken & Stirred
Elizabeth Scott at Bookshelves of Doom
Laurie Halse Anderson at Writing & Ruminating
Susan Beth Pfeffer at Interactive Reader

Tuesday

Ben Towle at Chasing Ray
Sean Qualls at Fuse Number 8
Susane Colasanti at Bildungsroman
Robin Brande at Hip Writer Mama
Susan Beth Pfeffer at The YA YA YAs
Debby Garfinkle at A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy

Wednesday

Delia Sherman at Chasing Ray
Ingrid Law at Fuse Number 8
Polly Dunbar at 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Tera Lynn Childs at Bildungsroman
Siena Cherson Siegel at Miss Erin
Barry Lyga at At Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy

Thursday

Elisha Cooper at Chasing Ray
Dar Williams at Fuse Number 8
Jennifer Bradbury at Bildungsroman
E. Lockhart at The YA YA YAs
Mary Hooper at Miss Erin

Friday

Varian Johnson at Finding Wonderland
Jincy Willet at Shaken & Stirred
John Grandits at Writing & Ruminating
Meg Burden at Bookshelves of Doom
Gary D. Schmidt at Miss Erin

Vergil's Aeneid, Book I, Lines 8 - 11

LATIN (from The Latin Library):
Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso,
quidve dolens, regina deum tot volvere casus
insignem pietate virum, tot adire labores               10
impulerit. Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?  

ENGLISH (from Me!):
Muse, remind me of the reasons, by what slight to her divinity,
or grieving what thing, the queen of the gods drove a man 
distinguished by his piety to undergo so many misfortunes,
to undertake so many labors.  Is there such great anger in heavenly hearts?

April is National Poetry Month, and during this time many bloggers celebrate NaPoWriMo: National Poetry Writing Month.

I, however, will be doing NaPoTraMo - National Poetry Translation Month.  I will be giving you an excerpt from Vergil's Aeneid each day throughout the month of April.  First I'll post the Latin (from The Latin Library) and then give you my English. 

LATIN:
 Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris
Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit
litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto
vi superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram;
multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem,               5
inferretque deos Latio, genus unde Latinum,
Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae.

ENGLISH:
I sing of arms and a man, who first from the shores of Troy
came, exiled by fate, to Italy and the Lavinian
shores, that man much tossed about on both earth and sea
by the force of the gods on account of the remembering anger of savage Juno;
having suffered much also even in war, until he could found the city,
and bring his gods into Latium, from whence came the Latin race,
the Alban fathers, and the walls of lofty Rome. 

(slayground, this should look familiar; they are lyrics in "Spring Awakening.")

Let's say I wanted to gain expertise in a certain area of children's/YA lit.  Say, I don't know, modern books about the ancient world - especially Greece and Rome.  Mythology and history both.  How would I go about staying abreast of new releases that would fall into my area of expertise?  Catalogs?  Reviews in the Horn Book?  Something else?  All suggestions are welcome!  Also suggestions of older books that fall into this domain are GREATLY appreciated.  (Already know Percy Jackson etc, plus Nobody's Princess and related books.  Oh, and Iris, Messenger.)

I just finished reading The Lightning Thief.  I won't be reviewing it here, as I'm saving it for my new project in media res (more to come on that later), but I love it.  Rick Riordan is my hero.  I want to write books like THAT.  Also, I think I maybe would like to work with middle school students.

I knew I would love The Lightning Thief, because of the premise, and then because of the first page, but I really truly loved it on page 2, when Percy Jackson declared his Latin teacher cool and confessed that Latin was the only class in which he could stay awake.  As a "cool" Latin teacher of students with ADHD, I was so there.

Also, I like to pretend I'm a descendant of Athena.

Also also, it made me immensely happy that Rick Riordan's description of Hades sounded just like my boyfriend, except  with long hair.

So, yeah.  That is my PERSONAL response to The Lightning Thief.  You can expect my professional response mid-July, when I launch in media res.  At that point I'm hoping to have some lesson ideas - not full on plans, but ideas - related to the book, as well as my in depth "How useful is this for teaching kids ancient culture?" review.

Tomorrow is March 15, which on the Roman calendar was known as the Ides of
March. Now, the Ides are only on the 15th in March, May, July and
October. The rest of the year, they are on the 13th. But in March, they
are the 15, and it was on March 15, 44 B. C. (709 AUC, for those of you
using the Roman calendar) that Gaius Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times at
the foot of the statue of Pompey, his rival in the Civil War.

William Shakespeare was a Latin teacher before he was an actor or
playwright, and as such he was no doubt well-educated in Roman history. So
he had a lot of knowledge to draw on when he wrote his play, *Julius Caesar*.
Today, in honor/mourning of the death of a man who was at least very smart,
if not very nice, I give you selections from Shakespeare's play.

Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of
death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me
most strange that men should fear; * * Seeing that death, a necessary end,


Will come when it will come.

- Act II, Scene 2.

I could be well mov'd if I were as you; If I could pray to move, prayers
would move me; But I am constant as the northern star, * * Of whose
true-fix'd and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament. The
skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks, They are all fire and every one
doth shine, * * But there's but one in all doth hold his place: So, in the
world; 'tis furnish'd well with men, And men are flesh and blood, and
apprehensive; Yet in the number I do know but one * * That unassailable
holds on his rank, Unshak'd of motion: and that I am he, Let me a little
show it, even in this, That I was constant Cimber should be banish'd, * *

And constant do remain to keep him so.

- Act III, Scene 1

If you haven't been watching it, you should check out the LiveJournal
community fangs_fur_fey. This is a community for writers
of urban fantasy/horror. Recently they've focused their discussion on
the topic of why they write about the creatures they do. I've really
enjoyed reading their responses.

Last week I tried to have a kick a day.  I'm going to go for the same thing this week.  We'll see how it works out.

1. On Sunday, I got out of rehearsal an hour early.
2. On Monday, I did really well in dance class and my parents brought me hushpuppies.
3. On Tuesday, I had no meetings.
4. On Wednesday, we only had students for half a day. And when you're used to a 90 minute class, 55 minutes flies by.
5. On Thursday, I gave a test in two of my classes, which is always nice because it makes for a low-energy day.
6. On Friday, I saw The Princess Bride on the big screen at the Carolina Theatre.  And found out they will have Space Balls, The Secret of NIMH, and Terminator showing in the near future.  Also a friend was working the concessions stand.
7. Yesterday, I spent $4 and got a whole pizza for it, because Will's dad gave him a gift card and we ordered 3 pizzas and I only had to pay the difference on the order between the gift card amount and the total.

That is all.

1. Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui, Karen Kingston
2. Craft, Inc., Meg Mateo Ilasco
3. Indigara, Tanith Lee
4. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
5. Jessie's Mountain, Kerry Madden
6. Finding Serenity, Jane Espenson and Glenn Yeffeth, ed.
7. Valiant, Holly Black [Audio CD] 

Seven good things this week:

1. At last week's music rehearsal for my current production, I was ready to put down my score and sing from memory.  This meant I was ahead of the game, as we didn't have to be able to do that until just today.

2. I got to rehearse my half a line on Monday night.

3. On Tuesday, I relaxed in the afternoon.

4. On Wednesday, I had a very productive meeting with some colleagues from across the whole school system.

5. Also on Wednesday at a curriculum fair, I talked to several potential new students and their parents, as well as meeting some parents of former/current students.  What was especially nice was being able to talk to a parent of a student who struggled in classes with me last year who is doing very well with the other Latin teacher this year.  It was nice to be able to tell her how genuinely pleased I am that he's doing so well.

6. On Friday I had some amazingly delicious vegetarian pot pie.

7. Last night I went to the theatre and it was phenomenal. 

I could actually list more: standing up for myself in a situation I wouldn't have a year ago, the fact that my roommate and his colleagues had an article published which meant they celebrated which meant he brought home cake...  Lots more.  Yay for good weeks, especially when it looked like it was going to be a stressful week.

My first published book review is up at this month's The Edge of the Forest.

US Airways and Reading Is Fundamental Put Children's Books on Planes;
Launch "Read with Kids Challenge."

TEMPE, Ariz., — Feb. 29, 2008—US Airways (LCC) has joined with Reading
Is Fundamental (RIF) to launch a new early childhood literacy
campaign, "Fly with US. Read with Kids," which features a free
children's book for passengers traveling domestically during March,
the online "Read with Kids Challenge," and support of RIF programs
serving young children across the nation.

During the month of March, US Airways, the official airline of RIF,
will distribute copies of best-selling author/illustrator Lucy's
Cousins' children's book Come Fly with Maisy to passengers on
domestic, mainline flights to take and share with a child. The
organizations' "Read with Kids Challenge" encourages Americans to read
with young children during March, April, and May in an effort to log
one million minutes reading. All entrants who log their time will
qualify for a grand prize drawing of a family vacation to Walt Disney
World(R) Resort in Orlando as well as other prizes. Participants can
enter their time online at RIF.org.

"Reading, much like travel, is an adventure and a way to explore new
worlds," said Doug Parker, US Airways Chairman and CEO. "By teaming up
with RIF on this first-of-its kind campaign, US Airways is helping
foster literacy skills and a lifelong love of reading in children
throughout the country – a key foundation for future academic and
economic success."

US Airways' new campaign with RIF, the nation's oldest and largest
children and families' literacy nonprofit organization, also includes
donating 80,000 books to 25,000 children in RIF programs. US Airways'
3,300-member employee volunteer corps, the Do Crew, will participate
in RIF book distributions and reading rallies in communities where the
airline has large employee concentrations: Boston; Charlotte, N.C.;
Las Vegas; New York City; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Pittsburgh;
Washington, D.C.; and Winston-Salem, N.C.

"Reading and interacting with children is fun and valuable whether at
30,000 feet or at ground level," said Carol H. Rasco, president and
CEO of RIF. "Thanks to US Airways, RIF can provide more books to
children and their families and promote the value of adults reading
with young children. Research has shown that reading to young children
helps them build vocabulary, develop skills for reading, and better
prepare for success in school." qubo, a TV and online entertainment
service for children that champions literacy, has agreed to help
promote the Read with Kids Challenge. qubo is currently broadcast on
NBC Saturday mornings, ION TV network Friday afternoons and Telemundo
weekend mornings and airs as a 24/7 digital broadcast channel and
website.

About RIF
Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), founded in 1966, is the nation's oldest
and largest children and families' literacy nonprofit organization.
RIF's programs work to improve literacy by providing children with
free new books, promoting reading for fun, and involving caring
adults—all proven to support academic achievement. Because research
has shown the importance of early childhood language development,
RIF's highest priority is reaching underserved children from birth to
age 8. In 2007, RIF distributed 16 million books to 4.6 million
children at nearly 20,000 locations, including schools, clinics, Head
Start centers, and other sites throughout the U.S. RIF's website
offers educators, parents, and children advice and activities that
support literacy. Visit www.RIF.org

About US Airways
US Airways is the fifth largest domestic airline employing more than
36,000 aviation professionals worldwide. US Airways, US Airways
Shuttle and US Airways Express operate approximately 3,800 flights per
day and serve more than 230 communities in the U.S., Canada, Europe,
the Caribbean and Latin America. US Airways is a member of the Star
Alliance network, which offers our customers 17,000 daily flights to
897 destinations in 160 countries worldwide. This press release and
additional information on US Airways can be found at www.usairways.com
(LCCG)

FROM CAROL H. RASCO, President and CEO of Reading Is Fundamental

Please ACT NOW http://capwiz.com/rif/go/dearcolleague and help RIF
build support for our funding by sending an e-mail to your members of
Congress asking them to sign the RIF Dear Colleague letter.

Since we first shared the disappointing news of President Bush's
proposed elimination of funding for RIF in his fiscal year 2009 budget
less than two weeks ago, more than 30,000 messages have been sent to
Congress urging legislators to reinstate RIF's funding.

This initial outpouring of support has prompted RIF's congressional
champions to capitalize on the momentum by circulating in Congress a
Dear Colleague letter on behalf of RIF. The Dear Colleague letter asks
members of Congress to sign-on in support of RIF's funding. This is an
important next step in the campaign to protect RIF's FY09 funding.

We are asking Congress to appropriate $26 million to fund RIF's book
distribution program for some 4.6 million underserved children and
families in fiscal year 2009. The funding is critical to support our
reading motivational programs at nearly 20,000 locations nationwide.

We hope you will share this message with six or more friends who will
also contact their members of Congress. Thank you in advance for your
support!

I would be a mermaid fair;
I would sing to myself the whole of the day;
With a comb of pearl I would comb my hair;
And still as I comb'd I would sing and say,
Who is it loves me? who loves not me?

-Alfred Lord Tennyson

To read the whole poem, go here.

The round up is at Writing and Ruminating. 

 National Women's History Month starts on Saturday; this week's Booking Through Thursday question asks who your favorite female lead character is; Shannon Hale is having a discussion about being tough and feminine at the same time at her blog.

I have a response that will tie all of these together.  Unfortunately, I've been awake for 14 hours on less than 6 hours of sleep, so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

From Colleen at Chasing Ray:

Just to update you on the idea that several of us have been bouncing around for a web site recommending books to teenage boys. We are working on the design and putting together a big list of daily posters. But first the name:

Guys Lit Wire!!

All credit for that one goes to Sarah (who will likely also want to mention some help from Tanita). I was banging my head hard against the wall on this and Sarah came through big time. So kudos to her limitless creativity which will be big time on display on the site. Wait until you see the header she is working on for the main page - it is some kind of awesome.

We are planning to go live by June 1st and update every Monday - Friday with a different daily poster. We hope to have 21 folks on board dedicated to posting at least once a month. This way we get tons of new content from lots of different points of view, which is what I really wanted. We will likely run multiple daily posts as the site evolves but readers will be able to count for sure on at least one new post every weekday and that is what we will build a lot of the site's readership on.

There will be book recommendations, author interviews, literary commentary, a rant or two (I'm sure) and lots of other good stuff. The goal is to cover a ton of different types of books from across the literary spectrum so we can become a good resource to actual teenagers as well as anyone seeking to find books for teen boys. (And if the girls want to visit we are happy to have them, but boys are our target audience.)

Right now everything is moving forward quite nicely but we do still need some folks to commit to posting. If any of you would like to participate in Guys Lit Wire (or recommend someone) then please let me know. We are especially looking for guys so we can keep our group balanced (and because guys know a thing or two about what guys like to read... :) Please send me an email if you can help. (colleenatchasingraydotcom)

Just making a list for myself based on the list published by LOCUS.

Faerie Wars, Herbie Brennan
Un Lun Dun, China Mieville

Looking for vintage book covers?  Go to Book Scans! "The goal of the Bookscans Project is to provide a visual catalog of ALL vintage American paperbacks."

So much fun!

I'm "reading" Holly Black's Valiant right now on CD on my commute.  I almost stopped because I feel like the reader tries a little too hard to distinguish character voices, making them so different as to be unsuited to the characters.  But I'm going to keep going, because I'm enjoying it anyway.

Sometimes, a character in a book says something that feels like it could have come out of your own mouth.  At least, it happens to me every once in a while.  As I don't have the book itself here I'm paraphrasing, but this one sounded just like me, to myself anyway.

Sketchy Dave is scolding Lolli for just up and telling Val all about herself.

Lolli says, "I tell everybody everything.  People only believe what they can handle.  It's how I know who I can trust."

I'm sure I've gotten it horribly wrong, but the gist is there.  And it is absolutely who I am.  There are things they hold back, but they are my very private and personal things.  Most things, I just come out and say, and one of the reasons I do that is because people's reactions are a quick way to gauge who is a good fit for you as a friend.  You can't pretend to be someone you're not and then get mad if people find out who you really are and don't like you, not reasonably.  But if you're open from the first, they know and you know whether or not you'll really get along.