The Wisconsin Book Festival runs from November 8-11 this year and features Patricia McCormick (a finalist for the National Book Award), Pulitzer Prize winners Richard Russon and 
David Maraniss, Peabody Award Winner Ben Sidran, Guggenhei Felowship Award Winner Jo Ann Beard, Alex Award Winner Lynda Barry, and ASPCA Henry Berg Award Winner…ME!
The theme for this year’s fest is “Lost & Found,” and what a kick it was to discover who’d paired up to sponsor our session. From the WBF Web Site:
HOW I LOST MY SIGHT AND FOUND MY WAY
BETH FINKE, “HANNI AND BETH: SAFE & SOUND” AND “LEND ME A PAW”
Fri, Nov. 9 | 3:30PM – 4:15PM
Hawthorne Branch Library
2707 E. Washington Ave., Madison, WI
(608) 246-4548
Sponsored by the Great Dane Pub and the American Girl Fund for Children
The Great Dane Pub makes sense (in more ways than one!), but American Girl? All I can figure is that their sponsorship stems from the set of service dogs-in-training American Girl started selling last summer to go with their uber-popular dolls. From the American Girl web site:
This sweet puppy is a service dog-in-training! He has soft fur, a solid body, and a collar. When it’s training time, your girl can slip on his service vest—it has a handle My American Girl® dolls can hold. Reward this special helper with faux treats for all of his good work!
Great Dane Pub is offering a free first pitcher of beer to any Festival author who comes in with a group during the Wisconsin Book Festival, but I don’t think I’ll ask all those kids to follow Pied Piper Whitney and me from the library to the pub for happy hour. If you’re anywhere near Madison, though, I hope you’ll join us. First pitcher is on me!
The title of this piece is funkin’ hilarious!
Credit my sisters for the idea for this title — I told them about the Great Dane Pub + American Girl combo and they immediately thought of a new doll named Beth….
Wow!!! This is exciting!!! I love it!
Oh, Beth, this is so funny! One of our granddaughters is a huge American Girl doll fan and even owns several of these 18-inch dolls. They all look nearly identical — coloring and clothing make for the only differences among them. And most of them do come with names. One thing in their favor: the dolls plus the books have sparked an interest in history for my seven-year-old granddaughter.
Now, about the Beth doll . . . For years, I’ve thought it’s about time to have dolls with glasses, in wheelchairs, with hearing aids, etc. Disabled Dolls, Inc. I’ve mentioned this concept to several members of my family and they think I’m crazy. So I might do the next best thing and have one of my characters make disabled dolls. It seems your sisters and I think alike. 🙂
Sheila – American Girl must have heard, ahem, your request. In summer they started offering a service where Any of their 18-inch American Girl dolls can be fitted with one or two hearing aids “to make her hard of hearing or deaf, whichever her owner desires.”
All it takes is a visit to the doll hospital, where a doctor will perform a permanent piercing behind one or both ears for a $14 fee. New dolls also can be ordered with hearing aids already installed. The hearing aids are removable and sell at all American Girl stores, and online, for $14 each.
While researching this blog post I also came across an online company named Sew Dolling that has a line of special needs dolls called Sew-Able.
Sew-Able dolls have attachable above- and below-the-knee prosthetics and dolls with walking braces (more realistic than crutches for kids with mobility impairments). Here’s the site:
http://sew-dolling.com/dollys_friends.htm
Thanks for the information, Beth. Rats! It was my idea, and it’s already been done — only better. I like the company name, Sew Dolling and the Sew-Able name for the dolls, too. I can still create an adult character in one of my books who make dolls with various physical problems. It’s worth considering . . . and writing is easier than sewing.
I have some photos of the Day of the Dead ceremonies in a Mexican village 12 years ago. I am writing about that visit. I’ll bring the pictures and describe them, if you like. Or I can just read what I’ve written. What would you prefer? Soon, Judy Spock
Oops, I think Judy meant to email me that personally. I’ll keep it here, though, and leave all of you blog readers green with envy just thinking about the essays I’ll be hearing in the memoir-writing class I’ll be leading tomorrow, November1. The theme: Day of the Dead.
[…] and I had a ball at the Hamilton Branch of the Madison Public Librarylast Friday, and as always, the kids in the audience had some marvelous questions. My favorite one […]
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