A Laugh For Your Monday

I'm coming out of hiding to share a funny video by fellow middle-grade writer Jack D. Ferraiolo, who has a new book out this coming weekend called Sidekicks (how cool is that cover?) which will be on my TBR pile pronto. His video proves three things:

1. Middle-grade writers never completely grow up
2. Even when they wear turtlenecks
3. We must invent a timemachine already

Anyway, check out Jack's video; I laughed my butt off. And we could use some of that on a Monday, right?

Treasurehunt (insert exclamation mark)

Adults could stand to have a little more fun. Kids know it, and kidlit writers too--it's one of the reasons we write for kids, or at least the reason for me.

The NY public library seems to get this: they're holding an overnight(!) treasure hunt(!) on May 20th where participants get clues (!) to find objects around the library. How fun! Unfortunately, I don't live in NY, so no treasure hunt for me. Grumble.

NYers: You have to sign up by Friday, details here.
Go! You know you want to...

Good Bad Guys

I love a good hero in a story. Especially one with a good sense of humor, some flaws, but mostly a lot of guts. But heroes aren’t too difficult to create-not as difficult as creating a good bad guy (oxymoron, I know, but you get what I’m saying), I think anyway.

My favorite bad guy: Professor Doofenshmirtz on Disney’s Phineas and Ferb—watch the show sometime if you haven’t. It’s funny. And Professor Doofenshmirtz is hilarious. Here are some quotes (I looked these up on the web, since I’m that lazy:

“I created this for peaceful, cheese-loving purposes, but you have forced me to wield it in anger!”

“You see, back before I was evil, I was something a little less than evil: I was a bratwurst street vendor!”

“The molten lava at the Earth's core completely slipped my mind.”

How about you? Who’s your favorite bad guy?

Childhood Heroes

Happily stolen from the Combreviations blog: The Guardian's list of top 10 childhood heroes. And who's number one?

That's right. Freckles rule.