Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
Some weeks back, I got a lovely surprise in the mail: a folded and gathered (f&g) advanced copy the book “Boo-la-la Witch Spa” (set for release on August 18) all the way from Studio Roxas in New York City.
“Boo-la-la Witch Spa” is written by Samantha Berger and illustrated by Filipino illustrator Isabel Roxas (we know her as Pepper!), who very kindly sent me this f&g. In “Boo-la-la Witch Spa, a harried young witch decides to get “the works” at a popular spa for witches.
We have a new kitten in the house and she’s been driving us crazy with her late night activity, when her energy peaks after snoozing away most of the day. I’ve been staying up with her until she tires herself out and goes to sleep, because otherwise she cries all night (and goes wandering, magically apparating outside of her locked cage), and then we ALL don’t get any sleep.
Two books have been keeping me company while trying to put Molly (as in Molly Hooper :D) to sleep: Margaret Wise Brown’s “Goodnight Songs” featuring various award-winning picture book illustrators, and Tahanan Book’s “Antukin: Philippine Folk Songs and Lullabies” selected by Felicidad A. Prudente, Ph.D. with illustrations by Joanne de Leon.
I owe you part 2 of my Bookish Stops: Singapore post, but I know a lot of you have been waiting for the AFCC reportage, so here’s my article, published in the Manila Bulletin Students and Campuses section last Saturday (sorry, no online edition just yet!).
While all the time I spent at the AFCC I was thinking of how it would be great to have clones of myself to send to all the different sessions happening simultaneously, post-AFCC I found myself wading through a ton of notes of all the sessions I had actually attended, so it was challenging to sum up the whole experience in one article (went waaaay over 600 words). I have a couple more AFCC sessions I want to write up, and photos to show you, but for now, I hope I can take you all back to the AFCC with this post.
