Meet Rosemary Wells and Some Final Armchair BEA Musings!

Meet children's author and illustrator Rosemary Wells, our very first "Friday Mystery Friend"!!

Author and illustrator of more than 120 books, Rosemary Wells is the author and illustrator behind the wildly popular "Max and Ruby" books! If you have a preschooler, you are sure to be very familiar with Ms. Wells' work! 

Born in New York City, Ms. Wells spent her childhood on the New Jersey shore, spending much of her time outdoors and being read to by her parents.  She says that her grandmother often took her to the theatre and to visit museums in New York City quite often.  Having supportive parents and a houseful of books led to her amazing career of children's author and illustrator.

You can visit Ms. Wells and view her incredible illustrations and creations at her website.  Enjoy - she is one of my absolute favorite children's author and illustrator for early readers!

Some of my favorite books by Ms. Wells:

And now for some final Armchair BEA talk...

I loved participating in this incredible virtual book convention - my very first as a blogger! I was able to meet and get to know an Australian book-blogger named Marg, was interviewed and featured on two blogs, met tons of cool fellow book-bloggers, and became a follower of some super-cool book blogs.  I cannot wait to participate next year!

I absolutely cannot close out Armchair BEA on this site without thanking the organizers of this event:  Danielle, Emily, Tif, Michelle, and Florinda.  THANK YOU - YOU ALL DID A GREAT JOB!!

Finally, I am on vacay this whole week, so my postings will either be sparse or non-existent! This is also why this posting is sooooooooooo late - I had to get myself plus four children packed and ready to leave this past Friday night!

Be back soon - I'm off to relax a little now... 

Armchair BEA Interview - Meet Marg from Melbourne, Australia!

The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

Today's Armchair BEA mission was to interview another book blogger, and I was lucky enough to interview Marg, who resides in Melbourne, Australia! How cool is that??

Q.  Your header is beautiful! I noticed you have Amelia Earhart on it. I was born in Atchison, Kansas, her hometown; in fact, my grandparents' house was right next door to hers! What made you choose her for your header?

A.  Wow! How cool that your grandparent's lived next door to Amelia Earhart!

I wish I could take credit for the idea that put Amelia Earhart on my header, but I really can't! The lovely Alex who recently did my blog redesign came up with it. When I first started blogging my blog name was Reading Adventures, so when it came time to talk about what I wanted my brief was "Way back when I first started blogging I thought I would like something that was a play on the blog title - you know something about books being an adventure, but I don't want anything too cutesy" and she came back with the idea of a 1920s explorer, (because I like to explore different genres). As soon as I saw it I was blown away and just loved it! Even got a little emotional because it wasn't something I had even thought of at all!

Q.  What are your top three favorite books of all time?

A.  You are asking the tough questions early! Favourite books ever. The first one would be either Outlander or Voyager from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. I have a serious crush on Jamie Fraser that has lasted a number of years now. This is the book that I credit with really getting me back to reading after a long absence.

Second, I am going with The Bronze Horseman trilogy by Paullina Simons. The first book is The Bronze Horseman and it is set during WWII in Leningrad, and it just a really lovely book.
Third, I have a whole heap of books that I could put on the list, from Sharon Kay Penman, Elizabeth Chadwick and others, but I think I am going to go with Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It's set in Barcelona and is kind of gothic and moody, and I loved it!

Q. What do you and Australians in general think of the Twilight series of books / movies? What about the Harry Potter series? Are they as hugely popular there as they are in the United States?

A.  Books like Twilight and Harry Potter are definitely global phenomena, and yes, they are hugely popular here too! It's funny because there are times when you can see the book trends very clearly when you are on public transport. For along while it was very common to see lots of people reading Harry, and then the same thing with the Twilight books. The books of the moment seem to be the Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larsson. It is everywhere!
When I read the first Twilight book I really enjoyed it, and the same for the second book. I wasn't as enamoured of the third, and as for the fourth book, well, I wanted to throw it against the wall several times. I do know quite a few families where the Twilight books have got mum and kids reading, so while I know that there are plenty of people who don't like the books, there have been some good outcomes from them. To be honest, my absolutely favourite Stephenie Meyer book is actually The Host. I am not usually a sci-fi reader, but oh my goodness, I loved that book! I really hope the movie gets made, and that there is a sequel some day. Please.

Q.  How long have you been blogging? What made you begin blogging?

A.  I have been blogging for what feels like forever! In actually fact, it is around 4 and a half years. I started blogging because I loved to talk about the books that I was reading, and I wanted a kind of online reading journal. Originally my blog was really only book reviews, but these days that is probably the least part of my content. I started the blog because there was one book that I read that I just HAD to talk about with someone, anyone, and there was no one in real life who was really a reader. That one book was The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Now I look back at the review of that and think that I could do so much better, but it is there for posterity in the form that I wrote it at the time.


Q. What do you enjoy most about blogging?

A.  I really still enjoy talking about books. Even after all this time I can’t get enough of it. I love seeing a book on someone’s blog that I think I might enjoy, and then discovering a new favourite author when I read it! This happened to me last year with a couple of authors last year, most notably Susanna Kearsley and Susan Holloway Scott and this year I would have to say that Kathryn Stockett and Patrick Rothfuss have been great finds.
I also enjoy making new friends and maintain existing friendships through blogging and Twitter. Some of these people I may never meet in real life, but they are amongst the people who I count as true friends and some of them probably know me better than people I see every day! I figure if I ever get to go travelling again at least I will find some friendly faces in Canada, the US, Britain, Portugal, France….all over the place. I think I should start planning a blogging world tour!

I also enjoy the process of thinking about a post and putting it together. I often find myself thinking about posts I could write. Often I don’t end up actually writing them all, but I do enjoy the mental, or perhaps a better word could be creative, side of the blogging process. I don’t consider myself to be overly creative, but just enough to get by.

Q.  Describe yourself in three words.

A.  Oh….don’t like this question because sometimes it depends on what you are doing and how you feel. I could start with the obvious...
Mum, reader, blogger
Or
Reading/blogging addict
Or less obvious attributes of
Dedicated, hard working, social
Or perhaps I should just go with

Indecisive, wordy, cheeky!

Thank you, Marg! Please visit Marg's blog at The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.

Armchair BEA - Dream Panel

Today is the Armchair BEA kickoff!! Want to know more about it?? Visit Armchair BEA Central to link up with a variety of book blogs and learn something new and interesting!!!

I would like to talk about MY dream panel of authors.  Gosh, this is difficult to narrow down to just a few authors!! Even as I write this post, I keep thinking of another author to place on my panel.  I have read so many books as a child and adult that have had such an impact on my life - changing my perspective, affecting my emotions, and just simply providing me a place of respite from the stresses of life.  (This is definitely a dream panel, considering three out of the four authors are no longer living.)

My dream panel of authors would be:  Laura Ingalls Wilder, Frank McCourt, Beverly Cleary, and Anne Frank.

Each one of these authors has provided me with an incredible, unrepeatable reading experience as I lost myself between the cover(s) of their books. My experience with literature was forever changed after reading the words of these authors.

These are the questions I would pose to each author on the panel:

• What are your favorite pieces of literature?
• How has the written word (yours or someone else's) changed your life?
• What advice would you offer to aspiring writers?

Which authors (living or dead) would be on your dream panel? What questions would you ask them?

"What Are You Reading?" and Armchair BEA

Happy Monday! Today is "What Are You Reading?" linky time at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books. 

I have decided that I am finishing Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project THIS WEEK! This means that I can only read this particular book...I cannot pick up my other literature until I am finished.  There.  I said it. Please keep me accountable, fellow bloggers!!!! :)

Here are a few of the books I will be reading with my children:

I am also gearing up for Armchair BEA that starts tomorrow!  I am so excited to meet some awesome book bloggers and check out some cool new blogs!

I have added a new weekly feature here at A Novel Idea, called "Mystery Friend Friday", and I am really excited about it!  Every Friday I will highlight a particular children's author or illustrator, giving clues Monday through Thursday as to who he or she might be.  That person will be our Friday Mystery Friend!  Here's the first clue:  She is "somebunny" who you might know quite well.

And...check out the top of my sidebar! I have my own button now! Please grab it and share the love!