Joan Bauer

The Young Adult Division of the Nassau and Suffolk Library Associations are having Joan Bauer speak at their December luncheon and, so far, I’m planning on going. You may not think that’s a big thing, but I do…for two reasons.  One-Ms. Bauer just looks like a really nice person…don’t you think so?  Two, she writes great books (only a nice person can write her kind of books).  I’ve read Close to Famous, Peeled, Best Foot Forward, Rules of the Road and they are so enjoyable. You know, it’s so hard these days to find good stories without sex, violence, profanity, etc.  Ms. Bauer writes those kind of stories.

When Susan and I started this blog, one of our goals was to bring to the forefront writers that may be under the radar a bit.  You don’t hear a lot about Joan Bauer, so some of you may not know of her.  Her books haven’t been withdrawn from National Book Award consideration (I know, enough is enough).  They haven’t been challenged or banned, as far as I know.

On the other hand, she’s won the Newbery Honor Medal, the L.A. Times Book Prize and the Golden Kite Award of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators among other awards.  Rules of the Road was chosen as one of the top young adult books of the quarter century by the American Library Association.

My favorite Joan Bauer book?  It’d have to be Close to Famous.  Anything with food in it.  So, that’s why I’m excited about meeting Joan Bauer. (Plus, she lives in Brooklyn.  She’s got to be nice.)

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If a Tree Falls in the Forest…

Susan and I started out early Saturday (maybe late morning) for the Old Bookstore in Unionville, NJ.  It was snowing lightly and, of course, we got a little lost, so it took us longer to get there than it should have.  The owner is a nice guy and once you’re there for a few minutes, he starts chatting with you and gets kind of friendly.  But more about the bookstore in another post…I promise.

Anyway, poor Harley was in the car while we browsed and by the time we came out, it was snowing harder.  Leave it to us to get lost coming home as well.

As we sat in the living room watching the snow fall and accumulate, all of the sudden I watched as a 15 – 20 foot pine tree fell across our yard, on top of our little Colorado spruce. Poor little guy.  Susan and I sawed off a few branches later to make sure he was unscathed.

Throughout the afternoon and evening, as we sat we heard CRACK!!!!! and watched and listened as branches fell. The next morning we saw what we had lost…not too bad, considering the weight of the snow bowed many of our tree branches and shrubs.

But we did learn one thing, folks.  If a Tree Falls in the Forest, it does make a sound, regardless of who’s there to hear it.

Hope you all weren’t affected by this past weekend’s snow storm.

Ed

P.S.  Off to bake a blueberry bundt cake.  We’ll see how that comes out.

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