In case you missed it (or in case you don’t live in Massachusetts), here’s a link to the article published in today’s Boston Globe Globe West section about T.A. Barron’s upcoming visit to the library in which I work.  (If you do live in Massachusetts, and haven’t bought a copy of your own yet, please purchase one and support the Globe’s continued existence!)

You’ll have to forgive me for being less than intelligent in this evening’s post; there was a little incident earlier in the day when my forehead met the corner of the refrigerator door, leaving a dent and a bump, and seeming to remove a few brain cells.  But I promised myself that I’d post an entry tonight, so here goes…

The Lego Expo went off beautifully last weekend, thanks to many volunteers and volunteer judges and fantastic kid entrants.  There were fewer glitches than last year, and less chaos, and fewer tears.  Some things could still be improved, most significantly the scheduling of the Expo, but I’ve typed up three pages of notes (single-spaced) for myself of “Lessons Learned” to use towards improving next year’s Expo.  My apologies to anyone who couldn’t attend the Expo because of the start of the soccer season last Saturday; please know that I had to schedule the Expo about a year ago, blindly, in order to get it printed in the Community Calendar.  Had I known that April 10 was the first day of the soccer season, I wouldn’t have scheduled the Expo for that date (can you tell that I’ve had a few people speak to me about this?).  Next year’s Expo will be scheduled for a Saturday towards the end of March.  And we’ll make some adjustments in the age groups for next year.

Despite the soccer conflict, a lot of kids came last Saturday with their awesomely creative Lego models.  The models ran the gamut from concept pieces to Star Wars pieces to extremely creative and unique pieces.  I made a point this year of taking a photo of each kid’s model, sometimes with the child in the photo, and made my first attempt at creating a photo album through Shutterfly.  The album arrived today, and it looks great!  It will be on display in the Children’s Room starting on Tuesday.

As I mentioned two posts back, April is a busy month, and next Thursday will be the biggest event that I’ve been a part of in my time at the library: a visit from author T.A. Barron.  Yesterday morning I came in to find an exciting message on my voicemail from a reporter at the Boston Globe – the Globe will be publishing an article on Mr. Barron’s visit in this Sunday’s Globe West section.  The reporter had already interviewed Mr. Barron, and was requesting a quote from me about his visit.  Hopefully I was semi-coherent in my response to her (I don’t have the vaguest memory of what I said, since I spoke to her immediately before yesterday’s preschool storytime).  Most importantly, the article is bound to increase the already fervent level of enthusiasm for Thursday’s event.  Good thing I got those highlights refreshed today at Salone Arte…and the cute new shirt from the Grasshopper Shop won’t hurt, either.  Not that it’s all about me, of course, but a girl does like to look put together for a big event.

And the library’s regularly scheduled events continue to move along – we had 76 adults and kids at this week’s Infant Storytimes, for instance – leaving little downtime in the children’s room.  It’s good to be busy, and even better to know that my work is touching a lot of lives.

Good heavens but I get maudlin when I’ve been concussed.  Time to feed the cats and rest the brain before the craziness of T.A. Barron’s visit hits.

April is a busy month at my library…two really, really big events are coming up in the next three weeks:  the Lego Expo and a visit from author T.A. Barron.

The last couple of weeks I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night with panicked thoughts about the Lego Expo: “Ack!  I need to make sure I revise the judging guidelines!” & “Holy crap, I’ve got to make sure I send that submission about the Expo to the elementary school newsletter!” & “What happens if no adults enter the adult category, and my six child judges have nothing to judge?!?!?”

And then there are the worries about T.A. Barron’s visit, as I try to publicize the event to the entire town, not just my usual target audience of children, teens, and their parents.  And I do mean the entire town, not just regular library users. I’ve also spent a lot of time promoting his visit amongst the elementary and highschool teachers (and hopefully their students).  And, of course, both Jennifer and I have been working hard to create excitement for his visit with our 4th, 5th, 6th, and teen book groups.  The three younger book groups will have read two of his books by the time he visits, The Lost Years of Merlin and The Hero’s Trail, and the teen book group will have readChild of the Dark Prophecy. We’ll also make use of his documentary film Dream Big: The Inspiring Young Heroes of the Barron Prize.

It always amazes me how much time is required to sort out all the little details for events like these, details that no one else but I will notice – but without which the event wouldn’t be much good.  But really, all the work is always worth it in the end.  I’m really looking forward to both these events…and fingers crossed that all goes as planned for each of them.