Getting a slow start this early Tuesday morning. I love being at Montessori once I get there, but it is the getting up and getting there that kills me. I am so NOT a morning person! But, I am such an anal person that I find great pleasure in locating the exact MARC record I need and adding the local holdings as I build the database for the online catalog and circulation.

During one of the power outages last week I curled up and read through the three ring binder full of snippets written by a very prolific writer who is also a parent at Montessori. Buffy and I chat about books, writing and just about everything else under the sun when she pops through the library in the morning. This collection should be called Sassy Snippets! She has a sassy tongue and wonderfully naughty sense of humor. I was laughing out loud at some of Jesse's antics (he told her he had a woody and when she looked down he indeed did - Woody was on his Toy Story undies!). This is the perfect example of how life experience defines how we react to a statement! And then my throat closed up and my eyes teared while reading about her unconditional love for her son. Buffy takes you through a myriad of feelings and responses - from disgust, to laughter, to tears, to meditation. Hopefully she will be able to publish some of these little gems in magazines or elsewhere as a collection.

Staying in the adult frame of mind this a.m. I am sending out a recommendation to all those other "hot" (as in flashes) women out there! If you want to feel like you are not alone in this read The Hot Flash Club Strikes Again by Nancy Thayer. It is hilarious. I related more to the younger group of women the Hot Flash club was mentoring, but at least I know what I have to look forward to in my 50s and 60s! What a hoot. This title is in the middle of three about this group of women. Now I need to order the other two from B&N. I picked this one up in the airport in Charlotte because the title on the cover made me laugh when I read it.

Straying back to the children's literature mode, I have to recommend Pamela Duncan Edwards' (author of the beloved Some Smug Slug) new book, The Bus Ride That Changed History: The Story of Rosa Parks from Houghton Mifflin. There are many books out there about Rosa Parks, but this one is unique in that it has a "The House that Jack Built" cumulative text that children will love to join in on as you read. Add to that the conversation balloons of children who are talking about what it was like to live during segregation - separate water fountains, etc. The children and their converation baloons are on the bottom of the page, below the large illustrations that go along with the text. A must have for school library collections.

Okay, time to load up the diet coke and head out.