Celebrate Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Birthday!

If you haven't read The Little Prince today is the day! Take the book outside to a quiet picnic table or rock by a lake and enjoy! 

The Morgan Library recently held an exhibit of The Little Prince. It showed all of the revisions that went in to the writing and the illustrations. Seeing the author's process was fascinating.  I knew I loved the book, (my childhood copy sits on desk's bookshelf!) but that exhibit made me love it even more. I wanted to bottle it all up and take it home so that I could savor it. Unfortunately, the Morgan did not publish a guide to the exhibit.  

That brings me to Peter Sis' new book -- The Pilot and The Little Prince. 

 

NPR did a fabulous interview with Peter Sis about the book, making me want to read it all the more. The life of aviator/author Antoine de Saint-Exupery is intriguing. I am thrilled that Sis took up the subject! 

Please let me know how you like the books. I have a feeling they will be equally unforgettable. 

Abandoned: A Look Into The Past

 Abandoned Hudson Valley

On Joining a Book Club

Yes, I finally did it. I joined a book club!

I was in a fantastic mother/daughter book club when my daughter was younger. We had some great discussion, but it's been awhile.  That isn't to say I haven't had book discussions. Oh, I've had plenty!  And good ones!  And not so good ones! As the Regional Advisor for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Eastern NY region I co-host a monthly meeting. We include a short book discussion at each meeting. But, it's short and we always find that many folks haven't read the book yet. Recently we discussed The Book Thief. Our plan was to hold the discussion so that we could include a conversation about the movie as well. That didn't happen. The movie came and went so quickly that  many of us were unable to get to see it - including me!  By the time I did see it I was ready to talk about it again -- but with who? As my luck would have it a book group was meeting at my church that month and their monthly read was THE BOOK THIEF!!!!  YAY!  Of course, I just had to go. And it was wonderful! I thoroughly enjoyed the deep discussion we had and knew I was hooked.

Our next book -- The Night Circus -- one of my very favorites! I can't wait!

I'd love to hear about your book groups. What books have you read? Which were your favorites to discuss?

And, by the way, I loved the movie version!  No, it wasn't as good as the book - how could it be?  But it was wonderful too.