We want you to have the opportunity to get to know a little bit more about us, the team behind TeachingBooks.net, and allow our personalities to show through. So, every so often, we answer a question about ourselves. We hope you enjoy!

“What is something interesting or odd that has happened to you lately?”

 

Adam: I had a dream where I went into a convenience store and bought an orange juice in a strange tall asymmetrical bottle. When I woke up, I had the impulse to sketch out the bottle on my iPad. So basically I designed something in my sleep.

Emily: Recently, I was at a committee meeting at ALA with librarians I had never met in person. As we sat around the table talking and working, I noticed one of the librarians had a tattoo that read: tell them stories — not an unusual sort of statement from a librarian. But, I knew immediately that the quote was from Philip Pullman’s Amber Spyglass in the His Dark Materials trilogy because that quote is one of my favorite statements in all of children’s and YA literature. Needless to say, we bonded immediately.

Katie: I spent a weekend LARPing where I played Princess Buttercup from The Princess Bride, Kitty Fisher from the nursery rhyme, and a Victorian British noblewoman going on a dinosaur safari on Venus.  Lots of costumes and interesting stories and fun!

Carin: On my walk to work one day I came across a one hundred dollar bill on the ground.  I was so excited to find it that I decided to look around to see if there were others—and indeed there were!  I found over $10,000 that day, which I ended up using to start an endowment.  What would YOU do if you found $10K?

Annette: I think it is becoming active in local politics. Being on the local public library board has been great.  I recently was appointed to the “parks and recreation” committee where I hope to learn more about city politics.  (I can hear you laughing now Ray).

Mary Ellen: A favorite thing I’ve done lately is planting bushes and readying my screen porch for warmer weather. It is my favorite place to spend my time.

Val: Being directly involved in support my friend, Mary’s successful candidacy for Mayor of the City of Monona. She is fabulous and while I have had limited involvement in other election promotions this definitely was the greatest personal investment of time and resources to date. It was fun, educational and Yay! she won.

Sandy: Winning third place in my age group at the 10k Trail Run! Who knows if that’ll ever happen again?!

Ray: Moving from my home state of Wisconsin, which I have never lived outside of, to open a “TeachingBooks West” location in Berkeley, California. Along the way, we had to have an emergency repair done to fix a broken axle on my car right after driving through Yellowstone National Park. I’m just glad we made it!