Library2Go Spotlight-Dollbaby , by Laura Lane McNeal narrated by, January LaVoy

Dollbaby , by Laura Lane McNeal narrated by, January LaVoy  :Available in ebook & audiobook from Library2Go (soon to be available in-house)

Warning: You will fall in love with the characters in this book.

This book made me laugh and made me cry. 11 year old Ibby’s (Liberty) father has died and her mother (can I put quotes around mother to let you know what I think of her) drops her off at her grandmother Fannie’s house the problem is Ibby and Miss Fannie have never met, and this so called mother doesn’t even walk her to the door to introduce them just drops her off in the street and drives away. If you can’t tell by this paragraph I don’t think very highly of Vidrine’s so called motherly love. Especially the “gift” she wants Ibby to give to her grandmother, Vidrine is just a spiteful woman.

Luckily for Ibby she is going into a house full of women that will love her and take care of her, the first person she meets is Dollbaby and her momma Queenie who work for her grandmother Fannie and Ibby doesn’t realize her grandmother is just as scared as she is that they won’t like each other, but Miss Fannie is a character and luckily they do hit it off even if it is strained for a little while. Miss Fannie is an interesting character strong yet fragile I laughed when she was helping the bookie then cried when she had her spell on Ibby’s birthday she was such an interesting character that has been through some awful things and when we learn how Queenie came to work for her and how she got her nickname it really gives insight into both of these women.

The book starts out in 1964, 3 days before Ibby’s 12^th birthday and continues on till she is in college. Now, you know what race relations were like at this time in our country and even though this is New Orleans there is still certain things that can’t be done, even though Ibby is friends with Doll & Queenie’s family when she is out alone with any of them things are said and done that will make you cringe and hope that in this day and age things like that don’t happen anymore.

There is one other character that I did not like and that was neighbor girl Annabelle what a little brat who grew up to be a spoiled rotten brat (ok not the b-word I was going to use but you get my drift) but karma oh wonderful karma with a little push from Miss Fannie and Miss Ibby she does get her comeuppance and that made me laugh and cheer!

I truly loved the characters in this book Doll and Queenie are great ladies and I loved how loyal and loving they were towards both Miss Fannie and Ibby even from the first time meeting them. This is a story about family and acceptance and is a truly wonderful read.

Narrator January LaVoy did a fantastic job of bringing these characters to life I loved how she voiced Ibby at age 11 sounding like a little girl and voiced her differently as she got older but yet you knew it was Ibby talking, everyone had their own unique voice, LaVoy’s narration truly added to my experience of this book.

If you are a fan of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt or Secret Life of Bees or just southern fiction in general give this one a try.

5 Stars

National Book Festival Washington D.C.

Librarian Susie Sharp attends The National Book Festival

I was honored to be asked by the State Librarian, Mary Soucie, to attend The National Book Festival in Washington D.C. and work the booth for North Dakota. We were set up in the Pavilion of States at The Walter E. Washington Convention Center where there was a booth for each state plus the American territories. When people came into the convention center they were given a bag for all the giveaways and a map, if they got all 50 states plus the territories stamped by each booth they could turn the map in for a free book.

L-R- Our wonderful Junior League Volunteer, ND State Librarian Mary Soucie, Talking Books Coordinator Sue Hammer-Schneider, Susie Sharp Librarian Eddy-New Rockford Library

Our booth had plastic cups that said Book Nerd on them, magnets and postcards with a wordle of North Dakota Authors. To tell you the scale of how many people came through the booth we had 1000 cups and ran out of them by 11 am and that was actually the slowest time of the day.  We had a lot of fun at our booth and were surprised how many attendees had a North Dakota story, the family from Virginia that had vacationed in Medora this summer and attended the musical and pitch fork fondue, the many people who were stationed at either Minot AFB or Grand Forks AFB, the young lady who said her grandmother started the first library in a small town in North Dakota but unfortunately couldn’t remember the name of the town, and many more.

                                                   A picture of some of the crowd

There were author events all day but we were too busy in our booth to go see any of them, however at the end of the day I was able to get down to have Lisa See sign our library’s copy of China Dolls.

This trip was a lot of fun; I was able to get a little sightseeing done but will need to go back one day to see everything I missed.