Picture Book Review: Happy Birthday Madame Chapeau

Madame Chapeau makes one of a kind hats for her shop - they're all unique and suited for the buyer. But when she's headed to her birthday dinner with her favorite hat, disaster strikes. A crow snatches her hat. Although many people offer her their hats to wear, none of them are quite right - until one of them is perfect.

A heartwarming tale about hats made with love and a strong community who help each other out. Great illustrations - and if they seem familiar, this is the team from Rosie Revere, Engineer. 

I love hats, so it's no surprise that I loved this book. Just an adorable read filled with fashionable hats and a sweet message. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Words that Make me Skip a Book

This week's topic is the opposite of last week's: words that make me skip a book immediately. 

- meme from The Broke and the Bookish 

Sad / Depressing

Cheating

Rape

Abuse 

Instalove

Gore

Space

Aliens

1960s-1970s

Torture

What about you? What are your book turn offs?

Defy the Stars Blog Tour

About the Book:

Defy the Stars (Book 1)

By Claudia Gray

Published by Little, Brown and Co.

In stores April 4^th, 2017

Young Adult Sci-Fi

Synopsis

Our worlds belong to us.

She's a soldier.

Noemi Vidal is seventeen years old and sworn to protect her planet, Genesis. She's willing to risk anything--including her own life. To their enemies on Earth, she's a rebel.

He's a machine.

Abandoned in space for years, utterly alone, Abel has advanced programming that's begun to evolve. He wants only to protect his creator, and to be free. To the people of Genesis, he's an abomination.

Noemi and Abel are enemies in an interstellar war, forced by chance to work together as they embark on a daring journey through the stars. Their efforts would end the fighting for good, but they're not without sacrifice. The stakes are even higher than either of them first realized, and the more time they spend together, the more they're forced to question everything they'd been taught was true.

About the Author

Claudia Gray is the author of the bestselling Evernight series, Fateful, the Spellcaster trilogy, and the Firebird trilogy. She is also the author of the young adult Star Wars novels Lost Stars and the forthcoming Bloodline. She has worked as a lawyer, a journalist, a disc jockey, and a particularly ineffective waitress. Her lifelong interests include old houses, classic movies, vintage style, and history. She lives in New Orleans.

Official Links + Social Media

Visit the Official Site

Follow TheNOVL on Twitter and Instagram

Follow Claudia Gray on Twitter

Hashtag #DefytheStars

Explore the Defy the Stars Universe

Check out an infographic of the Defy the Stars universe.

What’s your place in the future? Take the quiz!

Read the first chapter on Entertainment Weekly!

You could win! (I partnered with Little, Brown to share this giveaway)

Defy the Stars!

One (1) winner receives:

• Copy of Defy the Stars
• $25 Visa gift card to forge your own path!

Giveaway open to US addresses only.

Prizing and samples provided by Little, Brown & Co.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Baby Shower Books to Gift

While baby showers happen all year round, it seems like this time of year, they happen more. I always like to buy books for gifts (Librarian) and I know it's popular for the hostess to ask everyone to bring a book to start off the child's library.

And you get multiple copies of Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, or Moo Baa La La La - all of which are fine books, but you don't need four copies of each.

Here's what I like to gift:

First mostly board books, for endurance.

Second, I LOVE the touch and feel books and there are So Many to chose from.  There's lots of pieces to touch and interact with the child.

Third: I Love concept books, it's never to early to learn, especially those from National Geographic. They have bright colors and great photographs.

 

Fourth, I Love these classic stories told as board books. They're not a retelling of the story, just using bits from the story as an introduction.

     

Hope this helps!

Review: My Not So Perfect Life

Katie's dream has been to always live in London. Only once she's arrived, it's not exactly how she pictured it. Her commute is way too long. Her flat is tiny and her flatmates are terrible. She has no money and no friends. But more importantly, her job is a nightmare.

Her boss, while impressive, isn't the best person to work for. She actually forgets that she didn't fire Katie.

Katie's forced to let go of her London dream and return home to her family farm. She lies to her Dad and Stepmother, saying she's taking a sabbatical from work to help them get their business off the ground.

When her former boss comes for a holiday at the farm, this could be Katie's moment to get revenge or get back her dream of living in London.

My Thoughts: It took me a bit to get into this book, but once I did, I really liked it. I wasn't crazy about Demeter at first, but I have to admit she grew on me. I really liked Katie when she wasn't trying to be Cat (a sophisticated London girl) but rather herself. I liked how her confidence grew as she was home on the farm helping out her family. She had great ideas, especially marketing ones. I loved her family - they were sweet and funny. I did like how Katie tried for revenge on her former boss and how she used ploys to manipulate her former boss - but also how that failed. I wasn't expecting that ending, but I loved it. I loved the message that what's on social media is a representation (often misleading) of someone's life and I love how the changed. 

Cover Thoughts: Charming
Source: My Library

Library Recommendation: Great for public libraries - perfect for their New Adult sections. 

Design Thinking Overview

photo credit: http://www.uvm.edu/~ekorsuns/design-thinking/images/design_thinking_process_diagram.png

 Yesterday I attended a workshop by Linda Braun about Design Thinking for libraries.

Here's what I learned 

Design thinking consists of five steps as show above:
Empathize: listen to your patrons, learn from them, and trust them
Define: Identify a problem
Ideate: let those creative juices fly
Prototype: Create a sample
Test: Will this idea work?

The most important part of the process is Empathizing. 

We all think we might know what our patrons what, but without talking to them, how will you really know? How will you know what's best for the community if you only see people inside the library?

Rethinking our questions to How might we...?

Design thinking can be done with:
Staff members
teens
community members
families
schools
town organizations
nonprofit organizations

To learn more, check out the website

I'm looking forward to starting this process. 

Have you done this in your library?
How did it go?

Blog Tour: Dragons Love Tacos

I really adored this book, so I'm happy to be a stop on this blog tour. 

Here's some info about the book. 

Stay tuned for the Missing Tacos 

Add your name to the giveaway 

Check out book 2 

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Dragons love tacos. They love chicken tacos, beef tacos, great big tacos, and teeny tiny tacos. So if you want to lure a bunch of dragons to your party, you should definitely serve tacos. Buckets and buckets of tacos. Unfortunately, where there are tacos, there is also salsa. And if a dragon accidentally eats spicy salsa . . . oh, boy. You're in red-hot trouble.

ADAM RUBIN BIO:

Adam Rubin is the New York Times best-selling author of a half dozen critically-acclaimed picture books including Secret Pizza Party and Robo-Sauce. He spent ten years working as a creative director in the advertising industry before leaving his day job to write full time. Adam has a keen interest in improv comedy, camping and magic tricks.

DANIEL SALMIERI BIO:
Daniel Salmieri has illustrated many fantastic picture books, including the New York Times bestseller Robo-Sauce. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, constantly drawing and painting images of ninja turtles, dinosaurs, and fighter jets (not in the same scene...), and graduated from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. 

The Tacos are Missing!

What if the dragons came to party and the tacos were missing?

They might be angry. But don't worry, reassure them that you'll find them. 

You just need to search together.

Where would you look first?

Probably the kitchen right?

The tacos aren't there, but you do find pieces of lettuce. You're on the right track, but you'd have to search the rest of the house.

What about the library?

Nope. Don't worry about those three dragons, you can get them down when you find the tacos.

Are they in the bedroom?

I can't see any, but that bed sure looks fun. 

Maybe they're out by the pool.

Nope. But you do find a taco float. 

What about the dining room?

Nope, just an empty table with a smudge of red.

One lick tells you that it's a spot of salsa. Few, it's not spicy. That's great because dragons can't handle anything spicy. 

What about the living room?

Nothing, except a stack of empty plates. 

Oh no. Where will you look next?

Your eyes glance around the room. There's a small door in between the windows. On closer inspection, you notice there's a green smudge on the door handle. It's a clue! 

You turn the handle. You go down the stairs. And that's when you see it! A pantload of tacos stacked on the tables. Oh, the tacos are safe. You better grab the plates. 

Now this party can get started:

GIVEAWAY:

Enter for a chance to win one (1) of five (5) Dragons Love Tacos Book and Toy Sets (ARV: $17.99 each).

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Enter between 12:00 AM Eastern Time on April 3, 2017 and 12:00 AM on May 1, 2017.  Open to residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia who are 13 and older. Winners will be selected at random on or about May 5, 2017. Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

BOOK 2 IS COMING SOON: You don't want to miss it!