GreenBeanTeenQueen

Please welcome Sarah Zettel to GreenBeanTeenQueen! Her amazing historical  fantasy series, The American Fairy Trilogy , concludes with book three, Bad Luck Girl. Add Bad Luck Girl to Goodreads About Bad Luck Girl:  After rescuing her parents from the Seelie king at Hearst Castle, Callie  is caught up in the war between the fairies of the Midnight Throne and the Sunlit Kingdoms.  By accident, she discovers that fairies aren’t the only magical creatures in the world. There’s also  Halfers, misfits that are half fairy and half other—half paper, half steel girder, half electric spark.  As the war heats up, Callie’s world falls apart. And even though she’s the child of prophecy, she doubts she can save the  Halfers,  her people, her family, and Jack, let alone herself. Bad Luck Girl, they call Callie, and she’s starting to believe them. The American Fairy Trilogy is historical fantasy. What about history inspires  you to  write? That’s a big question.  I gues

So this past weekend, I was proud to finally give my library's fist digital storytime. We've been working towards digital storytimes for awhile so I was thrilled to have the chance to debut them as part of our Summer Reading Program this year. To set up the storytime, I used an HDMI cable to attach the iPad to a large screen TV. This was very easy to do and a great way to project the apps to the group. It also gave me an easy way control the apps without having to worry about running the apps upside down or moving the iPad around the room so everyone could see. It did make me a bit more limited in my mobility, since I was tethered to the TV, but overall I felt that it worked out well. I decided to go with an animal theme for my first digital storytime. I wanted to use a lot of apps that were very interactive since my goal with our digital storytime is to promote the interactive nature of apps and the benefits of interacting with your child and screen time instead of using

Today I'm over at the ALSC Blog talking about why I think it's okay to mess up in storytime and a couple of the times I have! Come join me and share your own stories!

 About the Book:   Hopper is just an ordinary pet-shop   mouse —until he escapes. Soon he finds himself below the bustling streets of Brooklyn, deep within the untamed tangles of transit tunnels, and in Atlantia, a glorious utopian rat civilization. But all is not as it seems. Hopper misses Pinkie and Pup, the siblings he lost in the escape attempt. Atlantia is constantly threatened by roving rebels who wish to bring the city to its knees. And there are cats everywhere, cats who would normally eat a rodent in a second, but leave the rats unharmed . . . and no one can seem to answer why. Soon Hopper is caught in the crosshairs of an epic battle, one that spans generations and species. As the clashes rage, Hopper learns terrible, extraordinary secrets. Deadly secrets about Atlantia. Painful secrets about his friends. And one powerful secret about himself. If you work with middle graders, you know that animal fantasy is huge. My middle graders are forever asking for bo