From His Soul

I know a little about Mr. Spinelli.  I have such great respect and love for him.  And do believe that he writes from his beautiful soul. I mean, I guess most writers write from their soul?  But when a soul is a beautiful as Mr. Spinelli's and he writes from it, well, books like The Warden's Daughter are born.
This book is something else.

Today

I saw Mr. Jerry Spinelli at the PSLA Conference in Hershey.  I heard him speak with Alan Gratz.  Of course, I had my Once in a Lifetime Amazing Spinelli Experience right here at the Hershey Lodge so many years ago.  When I saw Mr. Spinelli later in the exhibit hall I had to tell him how much I felt blessed by that time, all of those years ago.  He was so gracious and kind and let me take a picture of him and Lobster.  It was magical!

Eggs was magical, too.  A story of friendship and loss of a loved ones, either through abandonment or death.  And it was just magical and hopeful and tear and smile worthy.  Again, this Mr. Spinelli has done it, captured a real voice, well, real voices, of a 9 year old boy and a 13 year old girl.
Great book.  Highly recommended.

As You Know I Love Jerry....

and I have talked about my Incredible Once in a Life Time Spinelli Experience and I did love Maniac Magee.  Everyone has read this one, everyone except me, so I am glad I finally did. A beautiful kid.  Maybe all dudes should try harder to be like Jeffrey and maybe all chickies should try to be more like Susan. We should all try to be like both of them, right?  Again, you can learn a lot from fiction.  The thing is, the McNabbs were so foul and so awful.  I mean...the rotten part of me, I just wanted them punished.  Oh, but I loved Mars Bar and Amanda.  Very different.  Both very lovable.

Mrs. Spinelli?

There has been rumor that Jerry Spinelli has written about his wife, Eileen, in the books Stargirl and Love, Stargirl.   I have only met the Spinelli's once, but I would have to say that they lovely, lovely people and indeed, I can see Mrs. Spinelli being the inspiration for Stargirl.  She is one of those truly magical people.  Stargirl is the story of a teenage girl who takes an average high school by storm, with her charm, love, generosity and purity.  It is told from the POV of Leo who is one of the crowd.  Just a normal guy, who learns to see the beauty in the ordinary through Stargirl.
Love, Stargirl is Stargirl's own story, written during the year after Stargirl.
There were complaints that the second book wasn't as good as the first.  That it took away some of the magic that was Stargirl, herself.  But I think that Love, Stargirl made Stargirl more real.  It made sense to me.  And it made the way that Stargirl acts seem more attainable.  Because everyone should try to be a Stargirl.  There's even a a Stargirl Society, which I think I would love to start around here!

I'm a Little Baby

So I once knew this lady who had a son who was a tween when Nirvana's Loser song came out and I remember her telling me that he sang, "I'm a little baby, so why don't you kill me."
Anyway.  That just popped into my head.  All while I was reading Loser, which didn't take very long.  I don't know why I hadn't read it before, as I think that the Spinellis are a wonderful couple and wonderful writers.  And Loser was quite a beautiful little story, if sad.  It was hopeful.  Zinkoff is different from other kids.  But a wonderful kind of different and the book shows how important it is to remember that we all are special.  That God made us all with wonderful promise in mind. 

Should Have Read It

I think that Jerry Spinelli is a really great man.  I love his books and I have had the blessing of meeting him a couple of times.  His wife, Eileen, is an incredible person as well.  Once upon a time, a million years ago, I had the pleasure of introducing her at an award luncheon when she won the Carolyn Field Award for her amazing book Do You Have a Hat?  I was so nervous!  I mean she is a seriously awesome writer and I am well, me.  But she is so wonderfully gracious that she instantly put me at ease.  We sat at the "head table" and both agreed how hard that was because how are you supposed to eat such great food when all of those people are looking at you!  She was unreal in her compliments about my introduction her, which, I am sure, fell far, far from capturing her greatness.  I hope I will get to meet the Spinellis again.  They are wonderful people and the world is a better place because of their willingness to share their talents with us.

I was happy to see Who Put That Hair in My Toothbrush by Mr. Spinelli on the shelf with the other books on CD. But when I listened to it, I was so put off by the readers that it took me a long time to get through the book.  I loved the book, especially the ending, but the man and woman who read the parts of Greg and Megin, rival brother and sister...man...I don't know...they were not my cup of tea.  The woman who reads Megin's part also did Pinballs and I remember not liking her so much then, either. 
Well, why should I focus on the negative?  All I am saying is, if you want to read this book (and you should, it's really good) then be sure to read it and not listen to it.
Greg is 14 and Megin is 12.  They engage is the usual sibling rivalry, but it doesn't come across as boring or hackneyed or same-old-same-old.  Greg's story of finding his first love and nagivating the waters of a crush is spot-on, hilarious and touching at the same time.  Megin's relationship with a woman in a nursing home actually brought a tear to my eye (REALLY hard to do).
I didn't expect some of the things that happened to happen.  And that is always a good sign.  Hooray for Mr. Spinelli.  Again.