Carmela Full of Wishes

The other day I was on Instagram and I saw that Christian Robinson (who I enjoy following over there) was going on a book tour. Then I saw he was coming to my town! How fantastic!

Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson are the duo who produced Last Stop on Market Street. It's kind of a big deal, because it was the first picture book to win the Newbery Award in ages (one of only two picture books that have ever won, according to this source) and it was also the first time a Latino author has been awarded the Newbery, and it also got a Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Award.

So, I figured a new book by them ought to be alright.

Well, Carmela Full of Wishes is great for us!

Carmela wakes up on her birthday and is so happy that she is finally old enough to go with her big brother on the errands. Her brother, on the other hand, is less than thrilled. Along the way, Carmela finds a dandelion, and manages to both annoy her brother and think up all kinds of great wishes to put into this dandelion fluff before she blows it. Always realistic and eventually heartwarming, Carmela Full of Wishes is our new favorite picture book. Even Jubilee's older brothers, who declined my invitation to come to the event, were caught reading and quoting Carmela.  I plan to read it to Jubilee's class at school tomorrow.

We went to the launch with my friend, Bethany, who has written a few posts for me here on Everead. (Check them out, here.) Having Bethany along made the event at least 10x more fun for me. My best tip about book events is to bring a friend along—it makes the signing line go faster.

Jubilee has been to other book events, but has forgotten them, so this one was effectively her first.

• She got to spin a wheel, and won some twizzlers. 
• She got to ask Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson a question: "Have you ever made a wish on a dandelion?" (Thanks for feeding her the stellar question, Bethany!) Christian answered that he had, in fact, wished on a dandelion that this book would make it out into the world. Hurrah! 
• She got to make a wish on a paper dandelion: "I wish that a fairy would come to life!"
• She got a free book, just for being an elementary school student at the event! Thanks New London Education Foundation! That was definitely unexpected and fulfilled my wish.
• She got to have a book signed to her and a little kitty cat drawn into it, too. 
• And she got to stay up way past her bedtime. 

How about you? Read any good books lately? Made any good wishes?

Design Mom in Atlanta: Or, Why I Love Book Events.

"Did you really invent the blog giveaway?"

That was my burning question for Gabrielle Blair at her book event. Don't worry, I was very polite and did not ask it during the part where we were supposed to be talking about her book.

I attended the Atlanta stop of the Design Mom Book Tour at Lenox Square Mall a couple weeks ago, and it was so much fun, start to finish.

I showed up right on time (not too nerdy) and brought my tabbed copy of the book (pretty nerdy), and gave away a bunch of my blog business cards (definitely nerdy), and made so many germane comments about the book during the Q&A that Gabrielle's interviewer thought I was her publicist (off the charts nerdy-awesome!). I had so much fun! I met a bunch of cool new people like Faith and Stacey and Rachel and Bliss and Titania and of course Gabrielle.

I didn't take enough pictures though. This happens at every book event. I take out my camera, take some pictures, look at them and think, "that's good, that's enough" then get home and look at the photos and see that I only actually took two and they were both pretty horrible. Sigh.

Can't remember the name of this awesome gal from Lebanon. For shame!
At least I used my one picture on capturing happy faces? :D

My favorite part of the Q&A was when Gabrielle told the story of a trash can.  She had bought it because it looked so good. However, this trash can's lid was constantly getting stuck and making it difficult for her kids to properly dispose of their garbage. Just get rid of the trash can, she advised. "There's no object in your house that's worth you yelling at your kids."

One of the best things about good design, according to Design Mom, is that it scores you tiny wins. If you wake up in the morning and on your way to the kitchen you stub your toe on the dresser every time, that's a "friction point" and one of the small problems you can tackle from the perspective of design.

How do you even start? Gabrielle suggests taking it one room (or one part of a room) at a time. I have really enjoyed watching her live by this advice as she has posted tours of different rooms on her blog. She's a designer for a living, and yet it's so encouraging to me that when she moved to a new place it wasn't all done-up and blog-ready in 6 months. Just, phew! I've got time.

So. After the Q&A it was the book signing and crafting time. Since the event was held at a Pottery Barn, we got to personalize Pottery Barn plates:

We had a plate like this (but red) when I was growing up, and I've wanted one ever since one of my siblings broke it. I don't remember who did it or what the circumstances were, but it was so funny when Stacey, my partner in crafting, confessed that she had been the one to break the special plate when she was younger! :) No worries kids, now I know how to make us a replacement.

After the crafting and such, and with the encouragement of my new friend Bliss, I asked Gabrielle my question. "Did you really invent the blog giveaway?"

Yes, she said she had been credited with running the very first comment-to-win giveaway. Wow. So awesome. Her tracking software, Traxi (which pre-dates Google Analytics), had told her lots of people were reading but she knew not many were commenting. She wanted to get to know her readers, so she offered a prize for commenting. Within the week other bloggers were emailing to ask if they could copy her directions and companies were emailing to ask if they could give away their products through her. Pretty amazing.

I had one last question for Gabby: "Can we be best friends for life?" Affirmative. Hooray! Haha!

If you enjoy a recently released book, let me tell you that going to an event for that book is a fantastic idea. Not only will you get to meet the author, but you'll get to meet lots of other cool people who like the same book you do. I'm such a fan of book events.

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more book signings I've been to: one, two, three, four, five, six.
my review of Design Mom: Living with Kids: A Room-by-Room Guide.