This post is only half about Neil Gaiman, I promise.

We've had a day of exciting visits! First there was the reading/signing with authors Sonya Sones and Bennett Tramer, who were here to present their brand-new picture book, Violet and Winston. Their reading of the quirky friendship book (in the tradition of George and Martha, Houndsley and Catina, and Frog and Toad) was as warm and funny as the book itself.

Then this year's three judges of the Boston Globe-Horn Book awards stopped in! Horn Book Guide editor Elissa Gershowitz, library media expert/author/critic Jonathan Hunt, and author/children's librarian Ruth Nadelman Lynn unfortunately wouldn't give us even a little hint about what books they're considering for the awards -- but they did suggest that we keep checking the Horn Book website for updates.

Speaking of awards, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book won not one, but two Audie Awards this weekend: for best Audio Book for Children 8-12, and for Audio Book of the Year!
As an avid audio book listener (and, of course, a rabid Gaiman fan), I can tell you that the awards are very well-deserved. When I finally get around to my planned "Best of the Audio Books" post, you can be sure this one will be at the top. When you come in to get your own (if you're still not swayed by my fangirling, this gizmo which plays the first chapter should convince you!), don't miss the new Gaiman-McKean collaboration, Crazy Hair. Through the type of amusingly disturbing (dismusing? amurbing?) images and verses only these two can create, Crazy Hair is an odyssey through the narrator's tresses, which have many lives of their own. Disgusting? Well, yes, a little. Delightful? Definitely.