GreenBeanTeenQueen

The Eternity Key is here! Check out the awesome book trailer!

Get ready for some awesome preview quotes from The Eternity Key! The book releases on April 28! If you haven't read The Shadow Prince , don't worry! It's out now so check your local library or bookstore (it's out in paperback!)

Gabby Duran and the Unsittables  About the Book:  (from the publisher)  Case File: The First Unsittable  The Association Linking Intergalatics and Earthlings (hereby known as A.L.I.E.N.) has a new member. After months of investigation, Gabby Duran, Associate 4118-25125A, has proven herself to be a babysitter extraordinaire. Her celebrity clients fly her around the country to care for their rambunctious little humans. Our spy, Associate 4118-23432B, otherwise known as Edwina, believes Gabby can be trusted with the truth: aliens are living among humans on Earth. And here at A.L.I.E.N we believe that even extraterrestrials need a babysitter now and then. No one was up to the task...until now. After accepting the top-secret position, Edwina has paired our new associate up with her first charge, a little girl from the planet Flarknartia. The timing for associate 4118-25125A is less than ideal. It's a school day on Planet Earth, Gabby's audition for the solo part in the

Please welcome K. E. Ormsbee to GreenBeanTeenQueen! K.E. Ormsbee is the author of The Water and the Wild. I asked her to share about libraries and I love the libraries she talks about! She even shared pictures and I want to visit these libraries now! About K. E. Ormsbee:  I was born and raised in the Bluegrass State. Then I went off and lived in places across the pond, like England and Spain, where I pretended I was a French ingénue. Just kidding! That only happened once. I also lived in some hotter nooks of the USA, like Birmingham, AL and Austin, TX. Now I'm back in Lexington, KY, where there is a Proper Autumn. In my wild, early years, I taught English as a Foreign Language, interned with a film society, and did a lot of irresponsible road tripping. My crowning achievement is that the back of my head was in an iPhone commercial, and people actually paid me money for it. Nowadays, I teach piano lessons, play in a band you've never heard of, and run races

I love knowing how author's see their characters, so these character profiles for Haden and Daphne from Bree Despain's Into the Dark Series  are so much fun! I especially love reading who the inspiration was for each character.  Character Profile: Daphne Raines Name:  Daphne Raines (a.k.a. The Cypher) Hair color:  Golden blonde Eye color:  blue Height:  Just little over 6 feet Build:  Tall and curvy--often described as looking like an amazon. Favorite food:  BBQ bacon cheese burger with avocado and a single onion ring. Favorite drink:  Rootbeer! Special skills:  singing, guitar, floral design, animal charming, can hear special tones and music put off by all living/organic things. Uses these tones and sounds to read people and situations. (May be able to do even more with this ability--like control the elements.) Weaknesses:  Abandonment issues from being raised without her father, has difficulty letting people in, overly focused on her goals, can't drive.   Lif

Guys, blogging with a baby is hard. Really hard . I have so many blog posts written in my head that I just need to sit down and actually take the time to write out, which is so much easier said than done. I don't know what it is about blogging that just seems to take up so much more energy, but man, it drains me.  But becoming a mom hasn't changed my reading. I still read-A LOT. I listen to books and I read books and there are books all over my house, probably more than usual if you count the amount of board books all over the floor at any given moment. Reading isn't hard, it's just finding the time to write the reviews. Sigh. I'll get there. The fun thing is I have a great reading buddy. Baby GreenBean loves to read which makes this librarian mama very happy. But what really interests me is his fascination and interest in certain books. He judges my books by their covers on a regular basis and I find it so interesting what books he's drawn to. I've

You might remember hearing about Egmont closing their doors in the US earlier this year. I was so sad to see this publisher say goodbye. I had met wonderful people at Egmont during various ALA conferences and they were always so wonderful. They were also publishing lots of fantastic books, including a series that I had enjoyed recently, Into the Dark by Bree Despain.  I am a sucker for greek mythology and Into the Dark was a new take on Hades and Persephone, which I was intrigued about. So when Bree Despain put the call out for Into the Dark Ambassadors, I knew I needed to help! I'll be posting some previews, giveaways, and other goodies about the series in anticipation of book two, The Eternity Key , coming later this month. Be sure to check out the first book, The Shadow Prince , if you haven't already! And just to refresh your memory, here's my review of The Shadow Prince and a sneak peak: G reenBeanTeenQueen Says:  I really love stories based on Greek Mythol

Today I'm over at the ALSC Blog talking about our plans for summer programming and some changes to our summer storytimes.

Enchantment Lake Blog Tour Photo Credit: Shirleen Hieb Photography I love to hear what writer's have to say about libraries. I relate so much to what Margi Preus shares about growing up surrounded by stories. May we all be as lucky!             The stories of writers who as children were non-readers or slow readers or were saved from gangs or a life of crime by fairy godmother-like librarians—these stories are fascinating, and we readers thrive on hearing them. By comparison, my own story is as dull as dirt. I grew up in a pleasant Minnesota town where people were generally good to each other. We had fine schools and nice teachers. I had a wonderful family and many friends. I was never bullied, nor do I think I was a bully. I was a good student. And I always liked to read. In short: a thoroughly dull and nondramatic life.                Except that it wasn’t. My world was populated with trolls and gnomes and golden castles that hung in the air—thanks to the

Over Spring Break, we had a full week of programming ranging from storytime to a Lego-Build-Along . Since Ms. A was hosting a Cinderella programming for the tweens the week after Spring Break, I wanted to make sure I had something fairy tale themed for the younger kids who might have wanted to attend the tween program but couldn't because they were too young. I've also been wanting to do a big fairy tale party for a long time, so I thought this would be perfect timing. I hosted the Fairy Tale Bash on Friday night at 7pm. It was a busy day and the weather was rainy and yucky, so combined with the theme, I thought I'd get a large turnout. Surprisingly, I only ended up with six kids, so I ended up not using the songs I had planned because they were content to read all the books-yay! But even with the low turnout, we still had a blast and I have plenty of stuff to recycle for next time! I sadly didn't remember to take many pictures until the room was getting taken down.