Spiff-ify - With Stickers!

Yes, you, too, can spiff up your copy of THE HONEYBEE MAN with a Cook Prize Honor sticker! I've got three left. Leave me a message on this here blog that tells me something amazing about honeybees; I'll send out a sticker to the author of each of the three best comments. Bonus points if your (or better yet, your kid's) comment is a fact I never knew before, or if it involves a personal story about bees. Bonne chance!

The View from Bank Street

Well, no - not exactly. Because the day was so jam-packed I forgot to take pictures. Except for this one, capturing active resistance by an award-ceremony date, en route inside our deluxe ride:

The highlight for Ada was Paul O. Zelinski's hilarious PowerPoint presentation on the making of his latest book (with Kelly Bingham), Z IS FOR MOOSE, during the keynote address for the Black Prize. "But yours was the next best speech after that," she assures me. (This is why it's critical to have daughters on your payroll.)

There were multiple highlights for me: getting to the last word of my speech without crying or throwing up; receiving this beautiful certificate:

receiving, too, this original bee drawing by Ada Grazia Cowan to accompany my certificate:

And really, being asked to be a part of this incredible day to begin with. So, so many thanks to all the Bank Street committee members who chose THE HONEYBEE MAN as a finalist; to all the super kids who read and voted on it; and to librarian extraordinaire, Lisa Von Drasek for, well, beyond "everything," her incredible support and enthusiasm.

How I spent my morning

With librarians: hundreds and hundreds of school librarians. Here they are at the NYPL...

...shortly before they descended on the Bank Street table, where winners and honorees of two prizes – the Irma Black Award, and the Cook Prize – were on display. (Yup, there's THE HONEYBEE MAN, right there on the left, resplendent in its new silver medallion).

And here is the (blurry but) excellent Fiona Robinson, whose hilarious book, WHAT ANIMALS REALLY LIKE, is the winner of the Irma Black Award.

Tomorrow: my report from Bank Street!

What's Up?

So much going on in the land of books these days! For starters, this coming Wednesday, I'll be talking to bunches of librarians at a DOE Exploratorium about THE HONEYBEE MAN. If you're a librarian, or just wish you were, stop by the main branch of the NYPL on 42nd Street in Manhattan and have a chat, try some honey. Thursday, I'll be attending the awards ceremony for Bank Street's Cook Prize, for which THM is an Honor book - check out the swanky silver medallion created by Brian Floca!

Then, next Saturday, May 19 at 11:00, I'll be reading the book to celebrate Love Your Library day, at my own beloved branch in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

Finally, I'll be a guest speaker at Lion Bran Yarn Studio on Thursday, June 14 at 6PM, talking about "knitting inspiration" in my books ASTOUNDING KNITS and KNITTING AROUND THE WORLD. Hope you signed up early because the event is already booked! And as always, I hope to see you all out there somewhere.

THE HONEYBEE MAN is a Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year with Outstanding Merit. Yippee! (Still no word on the Cook Prize...holding my breath in Brooklyn...)