Monday Salon ~ usually called Sunday Salon

VIDEO TAPING

Here's the same photo I posted Wednesday, but someone improved the lighting.  My raised right arm no longer shows, but at least now we can see faces better.  What's going on, you ask?  We had just finished taping a video to accompany a Bible study of Bad Girls of the Bible by Liz Curtis Higgs (center front) and were about to leave.  The bright lights had been turned off, so the original photo was rather dark.  It was the only photo taken of the whole group.  I'm on the left, wearing lime green and standing behind my friend Donna.  Read more about it by clicking here.

UPDATE:  Upon closer inspection (sorry, Bookfool), I see that it's a different photo, so I'm adding the previous one for comparison.  People's hands are in different positions.  Maybe it was someone else's camera taking this one, or maybe someone altered the lights ... who knows?  At any rate, it's the latest photo Lizzie has emailed us.

BOOK AWARDS

The One and Only Ivan ~ by Katherine Applegate, 2012 ~ winner of the 2013 Newbery Award

Ivan is an easygoing gorilla.  Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain.  He rarely misses his life in the jungle.  In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.  Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he's seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog.  But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.  Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home — and his own art — through new eyes.  When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it's up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.  Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan's unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope.

This Is Not My Hat ~ by Jon Klassen, 2012 ~ winner of the 2013 Caldecott Award

From the creator of the #1 New York Times best-selling and award-winning I Want My Hat Back comes a second wry tale.  When a tiny fish shoots into view wearing a round blue topper (which happens to fit him perfectly), trouble could be following close behind.  So it's a good thing that enormous fish won't wake up.  And even if he does, it's not like he'll ever know what happened.  Visual humor swims to the fore as the best-selling Jon Klassen follows his breakout debut with another deadpan-funny tale.

I've put both of these award winners on reserve at my library, along with Jodi Picoult's new novel The Storyteller, which was just published on Tuesday (the day I was in Nashville with Liz Curtis Higgs).  My library doesn't even have it yet, but I'm 23rd on the list waiting for it.

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