This overcast weather is really getting to me. And I have the end of spring semester, beginning of summer semester, working on a book grumpies! Too many things to do and feeling the need to procrastinate because of it. I can't wait for ALA Annual in New Orleans the end of next month to get the shot of professional enthusiasm I need. Getting to see everyone and catch up on each other's lives, personal and professional, is the best part of conference. Really looking forward to the YALSA Preconference on Audio Books. I have become addicted to them - they keep me sane is the craziness of island traffic and erratic driving behavior.

Maybe I need to get away on a houseboat like the Harrisong family in Deliver Us from Normal by Kate Klise. I related to 12 year old Charles who worries about everything, especially what people in their small town think of his eccentric Catholic family. Little things like the sticker on his cello case that make it evident he is the only kid in band who doesn't own his instrument, shopping for underwear at the discount store, and the bath bubbles his mother brings in as a gift for his teacher. Charles knows what the town thinks about his family, but so do his little brothers and sisters when a group of kids write Poor White Trash on Clara's posters. They will never know if Clara had a chance at the 7th grade presidency or not - the Harrisong family hit the road, headed toward a dream, that turns out to initially be a nightmare, and then perhaps their salvation - in the form of a dilapidated houseboat. Like so many "anal" kids Charles writes lists, but he is even afraid someone will find them. The realization that maybe he is the embarrassing one in the family is more than he can handle. A great addition to an upper elementary/MS collection.

Grumpy or not, my goal is to get a Reader's Advisory column writen from LMC today.