Children's Librarians & Children's Authors: Megan McDonald

Storypockets looks at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s rich tradition of author-librarians. Our previous installments featured Sorche Nic Leodhas, Laura Cathon, Margaret Hodges, Elva S. Smith, and Elizabeth Sechrist. This week we focus on Megan McDonald.

Megan McDonald was a children's librarian in the Children's Department of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh from 1986 to 1990. Her first book, Is this a House for Hermit Crab, grew from a tale she created for her storytime audiences.

Pittsburgh history is a theme of several of Megan's books, including The Bridge to Nowhere, and The Potato Man.

Megan's books have won numerous awards, including Carolyn W. Field Award, 1993, for The Great Pumpkin Switch.

Children's Librarians & Children's Authors: Laura Cathon

Storypockets looks at the rich tradition of author-librarians at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Our previous installment featured LeClaire Alger, AKA Sorche Nic Leodhas. This week, we focus on Laura Cathon.

Laura Cathon (1908-1991) Wasn’t just a children’s librarian. She was head of the Children’s Department in the Main Library. She taught classes in reference service at Carnegie Library School and was active in the American Library Association.

In addition to writing book reviews and professional articles, Laura Cathon edited folklore collections wrote the animal adventure story Tot Botot and his Little Flute.



Next week, Storypockets features author-librarian Elva Smith.

Author Rebecca O'Connell reads "Penina Levine is a Potato Pancake"

It's a very special preview and it is almost as good as being at the library! I can't believe how lucky we are to have Rebecca O'Connell working here at our library. She's not just a great librarian, but she's an author, too! A published author writing for babies and school age kids and teens and we have every single one of her books! Well, almost! We don't have Penina Levine is a Potato Pancake. Nobody does! It will be published this Fall.

But what we do have (and just us! Nobody else has it!) is video of Rebecca reading from her new-not-even-published-yet book. I love to hear and see authors reading their own works! You get even more of a feeling for the characters and the situations and I find it captivating.

You'll notice that she does have a book in her hand, and it looks quite different from the first Penina Levine book. That's because it is an Advance Reader's Copy, or ARC. It's also known as a galley and it's how publishers get copies to reviewers before they're available in bookstores and libraries. It's almost like a dress rehearsal in book form - the ARCs make sure that everything is ready for the audience!

Rebecca will also be one of the featured speakers at the 12th Annual Children's Literature Conference at the University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg on Friday, May 2, 2008.