December 28, 2011

A Librarian's Lament



I just got back from the library, where I am using old school tools (the best kind, real books made out of paper products) to research my upcoming Gargoyle book. I found one book I really liked, but sadly the last person to check it out must have been eating Cheetos while using it, because there were so many orange finger prints on the tops of the pages, that I got a bit grossed out and decided to buy it instead.




Anyway, it got me to thinking about a poster I made with John Woods Jr. and one of my favorite librarians in the whole world (Wendy Jo Woody) some years ago when we were promoting our first poetry book in elementary schools, There's A Fly On My Toast!, and I thought I would post the poster here for all to see.



Click on the image and it will get big enough to read well.
IF you like it, please feel free to use it, especially in a library!

Here is the text to the poem, since the image seems a bit small to read:



A LIBRARIAN’S LAMENT

I spend so much time selecting books.

Those special one’s that make kids look,


“I LOVE TO READ! THESE BOOKS ARE GREAT!

PLEASE ORDER MORE. I JUST CAN’T WAIT!”


And yet, sometimes, I become disturbed.

The way they treat books gets me perturbed.

When I look down in the book return,

what I see there can make me burn!


This book has water damage, torn pages, too!

The spine is loose! Oh, where’s my glue?

And right there damaged is another

“That wasn’t me, that was my brother!


He used it once to stop the door.”

The whole book’s bent, and here’s one more…

“The dog chewed it, then the dog got sick.

Puked on this book. Oh, yuck! Oh, ick!”


“I was eating lunch, my sandwich fell

into the book, so hence the smell.”

Salami in a book’s just not good.

They don’t treat ‘em the way they should.


Look, someone’s written in this book,

“I was taking notes and didn’t look…

Oh, by the way, that book won’t float,

I tried it out with my bathtub boat!”


How did this one happen? I must ask twice.

The pages are warped, no longer nice.

“I was balancing it upon my head,

to see if I was poised, but instead,

the book fell off and landed hard,

into my muddy, snowy yard.”



SO PLEASE, DEAR STUDENT, HEED MY ADVICE,

CHECK THE BOOK OUT, BUT TREAT IT NICE.


A BOOK IS TO BE READ, NOT EATEN BY DOGS.

A BOOK IS TO BE PONDERED, NOT SUBMERGED LIKE FROGS.


A DAMAGED BOOK IS SAD INDEED,

“TAKE CARE OF ME”, I HEAR THEM PLEAD.


IT’S NOT A BALL TO USE IN PLAY,

IT’S NOT A TABLE FOR FOOD TO LAY,


IT’S NOT FOR BATHTUBS OR WATER AT ALL,

IT SHOULD NOT BE TORN, PLEASE HEAR MY CALL.


TAKE CARE OF THIS PRECIOUS BOOK,

SO OTHER STUDENTS CAN HAVE A LOOK.


HANDLE IT LIKE IT WAS YOUR OWN,

PLEASE DON’T MAKE THE LIBRARIAN GROAN.


I GUESS I’VE SAID WHAT I WANTED TO,

BE NICE TO THESE BOOKS, OR I’LL BE BLUE.




December 27, 2011

Squirrels checking in...


LET'S ALL GET OUT AND SEE SOME OF THAT AWESOME WORLD OUT THERE! GREAT ADVENTURES AWAIT IN 2012!




It has been a looooong time since I blogged about squirrels, so I thought we'd check in with some of those we moved to greener pastures.
If you go back into the annals of my blog you will see that Tootsie (my beloved Italian greyhound) and I have been fighting a squirrel situation for many years. We finally got the best of them and they seemed to have moved on (for the most part).

We relocated them to greener pastures and had some funny trapping stories (no animal was hurt in the relocation process).



Then I find out they not only went on to a better place to live, but took up some awesome activities. This Christmas I got some postcards from them, thanking us for getting them out of their humdrum existences and onto exciting lives, all of them.
















Here are just a few shots of their new adventures since they left my back yard. I hope 2012 brings GREAT ADVENTURE to you and yours. I know I plan to go on some and will surely blog from some exotic locales as I "research" my next books.











Go to the right hand side of this blog and find the word cloud down aways.


Hit Squirrel and it will bring up all of the entries about the
'GREAT
SQUIRREL ERADICATION PLAN'. Some have gone peacefully
and some have been "drama kings and queens."


Guess which one this dude was????

December 22, 2011

Outdoor chandeliers



Outdoor chandeliers

I walked out my front door
'twas time to take a run
the air bit, oh so cold
but bundled up, it might be fun...

then something caught my eye
it sparkled in the sun's ray
amazing what the cold might do
to brighten up your day!

December 13, 2011

Go Ask Mom is OUT AGAIN!


Go Ask Mom is redesigned, reillustrated and rewritten (some parts). I am very excited about the new look. IF you are familiar with The Gabriel Book of World Records, you know the awesome design and illustration David Schiedt puts into my work!

All over America, this scene is being played over and over as kids are asking Santa for GO ASK MOM under their tree. Now YOU can help Santa get it done!













I have a great special at my website right now and it is not too late to get the books in time for your holiday gift giving. www.justinmatott.com, you get buy 3 get one free AND a total of only $3 for shipping no matter how many books you order. A great deal AND I am happy to sign and or personalize all copies, just let me know what you want!

You can also order it at amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1889191205/ref=sr_1_1_np_1_main_olp?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323824428&sr=1-1&condition=new

I WAS TOLD TIM TEBOW WAS SO EXCITED TO HEAR THE BOOK WAS OUT AGAIN THAT THIS WAS HIS REACTION!

December 1, 2011

Win a Kindle for you and three of your friends!


I was one of those people who once said, "I won't use one of those cold devices to turn pages!" Then I got an iPad and dipped my toes into the waters of electronic reading. The truth is I have several books on my iPad that I have read chapters from, but have yet to read an entire book that way, but magazines, blogs, websites that provide content while climbing the eternal stairs of the Stairmaster at the gym have replaced the books that would never quite fit in the magazine racks and magazines that spilled off the side when my climbing got too erratic. Non fiction works for me with my device, because I can read one chapter at a time and then move to another app. I have talked to buddies at the gym who have Kindles (which were originally designed JUST to read books) and they love them.

Let's move with the times! Books are being uploaded daily by the thousands and if you are like me you enjoy flipping pages in real books, BUT, there are times when the electronic glow of a good book makes sense. The gym, an airplane, waiting in line at the post office or dentist office. Plus it surfs the web and plays tunes... all in the size of a paperback book.

My own books are presently being prepared to upload to these devices, which will make them available in an instant to readers all over the world.

We are truly living in exciting times! Join the Facebook sweepstakes page and make three of your friends very happy and better readers!

https://www.facebook.com/Amazon?sk=app_172341942779663&sw_id=w-w-f-dec&fb_comment_id=fbc_10150396166152137_20055198_10150445165467137