After finally forcing myself to finish this book, I have a few take aways:
1. Mac Barnett comes off very much a snob in this book with his sarcasm, his overuse of notes at the bottoms of almost every page , his overuse of the word didactic and how didactic equals bad, his really drawn out love for Margaret Wise Brown, his one citation in a sea full of his narrow opinion, and of course most notably, his outlook on how much crud there is in the kidlit world.
2. I wanted to love this book. I really did. I wanted so much more from it. I wish more than anything his message wasn’t so muddied, because I wholeheartedly agree that the children in this world deserve the very best.
3. I’m so grateful for folks in the kidlit community out there putting in the work to get amazing stories into the hands of readers.
4. I’m just a librarian who wants the stories on our shelves to be as diverse and as amazing as the readers who deserve them.
5. No one person gets to decide what’s best for an entire community of readers.
6. I’ve never seen a book have such powerful sentiment buried between such hurtful and contradicting nonsense.
7. Mac should perhaps stick to Make Believe and leave the didactic stuff to others.
Came home after a very long day to surprise book mail! Thanks @mrschureads and @childrenslit_su for two favorites! I can’t wait to gift them out! Our library books are officially due tomorrow… we already have one class cleared and 11 more in the single digits! Inventory is already halfway complete, all 151 Book Blast prizes have officially been delivered, and over 750 books are patiently waiting to be ripped into tomorrow during our Book Blast! I can see the finish line! Oh and Max really enjoyed all the cardboard! 🤣😂
We had so much fun with @kaaauthor at the @bookeliciousbooks virtual author event! We were so excited to be a spotlight school. Over 1,000 students across the country tuned in and we got to be 1 out of 5 spotlights. 🥰🥰🥰 not pictured: the rest of our 4th and 5th graders who tuned in from the comfort of their classrooms.
Never a dull moment around here. Why, yes. Yes, my kid did run into a wall with his hand/thumb in PE today. Thankfully, they didn’t see a fracture, but he’s still hurting. Hopefully, he should be good to go in 3-4 days. Turns out, this one is definitely my kid, too. 😆
I was absolutely 🇩🇪🇻🇦🇸🇹🇦🇹🇪🇩 that Target didn’t have the book I wanted! It meant another d͓̽r͓̽e͓̽a͓̽d͓̽f͓̽u͓̽l͓̽ trip to @bbgbbooks 😂🤣 It was really sweet of @ricklmaxwell to offer to go for me but I would’ve been the saddest when he got home with the one lonely book I went for. 😂 We can’t have lonely books, now can we?
Just when I start to wonder how I got so lucky with this incredibly intelligent and talented kiddo, he goes and reminds me… yep! He’s definitely mine! The child is going over to Clements to rehearse for their concert and he goes and leaves his clarinet at home. 🤣😂 He’s definitely mine! #HotMessMaxwells
Happy book birthday to @macbarnett ‘s Make Believe. I wanted so badly to come see you speak in DC tonight but there’s no way I would’ve survived that trip after last Tuesday’s shenanigans! I might have to make a trip to Target on the way to work tomorrow to snag a copy! #istillreadchildrensbooks
Wowzers!!! Our Book Blast books came today and all I can say is we have the absolute BEST families! I’m so excited to be able to send all of these boxes of books home with students for their home libraries! I cannot stand having to wait until after testing to tear into all of these boxes! The countdown is on! 🥰📚 #BookBlast
We did it! 2 days, 11 stores and a pop up shop! 📚 Indy Bookstore Tour was a lot of fun! 📚 Don’t tell the others, but @bbgbbooks is of course, my all time favorite local bookstore! Honorable mentions definitely go to: Book People, The Little Bookshop, and Fountain Bookstore!
