Philadelphia – Mom Read It

I just got back yesterday from the ALA Midwinter Conference. I wasn’t there for the YMAs this year, but followed the award and honors announcements obsessively via Twitter and Instagram. Here’s a full list of the winners and honors, courtesy of School Library Journal. So excited that a graphic novel won the Newbery!

The conference was great. I got to blog for ALSC, and wrote a post about the awesome Graphic Novels and Comics Roundtable Coffee & Comics breakfast. I had such a great time at the breakfast, I think I’ll be re-upping my roundtable membership; I think there’s some great opportunities to combine my NYLA Pop Culture Roundtable work with the GNCRT.

So I brought home SO. MANY. BOOKS. And since my poor husband was with me, he got to see my madness all at once – I normally conference on my own, so he sees boxes as they arrive one at a time. Not so this time!

Okay, pictures are worth thousands of words. So I give to you, my ALA Midwinter 2020:

This is just the Day 1 pile.

My little guy video-chatted me as I walked around the Exhibits Hall, which was so much fun. Especially when we started playing with filters.

He also loved seeing me pick up books for him as it was happening.

I saw this at the Pajama Press booth, and MUST. HAVE. IT. Also, I talked to the wonderful woman at the booth about cats, our cats, and the cats we’ve loved and lost. I am even more of a Pajama Press fan for life now.

Total fangirl moment as I meet Pippa Park author Erin Yun (center). My friend Nicole from Fabled Films has the best glasses ever!

Who loves being an ALSC Mentor? Meeee! Check out my fabulous mentee, Samantha, who killed it with her networking game and made time for her family, too!

She also got a picture of me, taking a bite out of my Hubs, as I am want to do.

Thanks for coming on a brief trip through Philly and ALA Midwinter with me. THE TBR CONTINUES TO BUILD.

Of Monsters and Madness, by Jessica Verday, (Egmont USA) 2014. $17.99, ISBN: 9781606844632

Recommended for ages 14+

Horror and gothic fans will love this book! Annabel Lee – yes, for all intents and purposes of this book, this character is THE Annabel Lee of Edgar Allan Poe fame is a teenage girl, who finds herself moving from Siam to Philadelphia when her mother dies, and she must live with the father she’s never known. Unfamiliar with life and customs in the 1820s United States and confronted with a cold father who keeps her at a distance, Annabel feels left out and pines for her mother and her life in Siam. Her father, once a brilliant surgeon and scientist, now spends most of his time in his laboratory, assisted by Edgar, who unnerves Annabel – yet bears an uncanny resemblance to his cousin, Allan, who Annabel finds herself falling for. Annabel is living in a house full of secrets; when a rash of murders breaks out in Philadelphia, and her father’s strange behavior becomes more erratic, Annabel is determined to unravel the mysteries that consume her life. But finding out answers could put her life in danger.

I loved this book. The idea of making Edgar Allan Poe a character in a gothic mystery, taking place in the United States, is such a great idea – how did no one think of this sooner? We get glimpses of Poe’s writing – he tortures himself over writing The Raven, and bits of The Tell-Tale Heart make an appearance – and the toll that such dark ideas takes on the man. There are some key plot twists that will leave readers staying up all night to finish the book, and then – like me – demand a sequel. Ms. Verday is a New York Times bestselling author, and she knows how to construct a well-paced thriller with smart characters. I’m looking forward to this book hitting shelves in September, and I would recommend it for adults as well as teens.

Tag: Philadelphia

#ALAMW20 is in the books!

Of Monsters and Madness – Alternate Historical Fiction, starring Edgar Allan Poe