CET Writes

Having barely survived a demon possession,  Mia must move in with her Milanese extended family where she’ll stay alive by learning the family heritage and mastering the family trade of demon catching with the ancient lore of bell, book, and candle.  In the course of these studies, she begins to understand that the world is far more complex than she ever believed it to be and the powerfully seductive forces at play can’t be easily categorized.  Beyer constructs a narrative in which the quick and the dead, the animate and the inanimate, as well as the characters and the setting have had a long standing multi-generational intimacy. As the plot unfolds, the audience quickly realizes that the protagonist seems to have a walk-on part in an expansive drama that has been playing out for a very long time.    Nonetheless, for this scene Mia seems to play the role of both Dante and Cervantes simultaneously-functioning as not only the damned but also the guide through th...

Cover from Goodreads As a typical American teenager, Pri (Priyanka Das) has a lot of questions. As the child of a single, Indian immigrant mother, she has many unanswered questions: Why did her mother leave India? What was India like? Who is her father, and why did her mom leave him? Unfortunately Pri’s mom avoids answering these questions—putting a strain on their relationship and further piquing Priyanka’s interest, as India seems to call to her. Just when mother and daughter seem to be at an impasse, Pri finds a mysterious pashmina that holds the answers to her questions and transports her back to the seat of her heritage. But is this the real? In order to gain the answers that she craves, Pri must travel farther than she’s ever dared—physically, intellectually, and spiritually. This graphic novel's heartwarming navigation of the quotidien terrain of maturation, the hardship of self-discovery, and the adolescent tendency to rail against the confines of familial authority ar...

I originally published this piece March 6, 2017 on Deepstacks - DragonLibrary's blog. Skipping up the steps of the grand institution that resides at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan, the language arts educator and public school librarian in me appreciates the majestic Beaux-Arts building that I’m about to enter. But the suppressed ten-year-old in me secretly hopes that Cee-Lo Green will burst forth from Patience—his marble prison—and offer up a modern rendition of “I’m a Mean Old Lion.” And even the sobering knowledge that no such whimsy will come to fruition on this day is incapable of sapping my joy.  Having waited these many years, the mere thought of spending my morning on a reading date in the hallowed halls of the New York Public Library prompts a hedonistic flush that can only be rivaled by the fond childhood memory of myself paying gold-lamé-clad homage to Ted Ross’ high-stepping, ousted leader of the pride. After a short jaunt down the first floo...

I originally published this piece February 15, 2017 on Deepstacks - DragonLibrary's blog. Standing on the MetroRail platform in the midwinter gloom, I greet a group of colleagues and giddily ask “Did you go yesterday, or is today your first day? Did you go to any good sessions?” A half hour later, I extract myself from the sardinian quarters of the train, now much too intimately acquainted with my fellow educators gathered from the suburbs, the edge city, and midtown as we make our annual pilgrimage to the convention center. Next week, the daily commuters will happily reclaim their usual personal space and breathe more freely. Reveling in my freedom of movement, I scoot off the platform to encounter the bold banner above the glass doors, reading TCEA2017 Convention & Exposition: The Power of You . The power of me , eh? Mighty as I am on a daily basis, like any heroine, I can still appreciate a quality power-up. Ms Pac-Man bow firmly affixed, I gobbled dow...

I originally published this piece December 6, 2016 on Deepstacks - DragonLibrary's blog. Image by Elena Casagrande Diana rocks slowly in her favorite chair, admiring the last golden rays of the Themyscirian sunset diffracting around the edges of her invisible jet, looking fondly back on her day. Clark, Bruce, Hal, and Orin all dropped by to bring wishes and reminisce about past adventures; even Barry put in a brief appearance, late as usual. Gathering her breath to blow out the 75 star-shaped candles atop the red, blue, and gold sheet cake her granddaughter gingerly placed before her, Diana closed her eyes and silently petitioned Hera: Watch over those loved ones who are not present. With a soft sigh and a quiet smile, our heroine returns her focus to the present, rises, and retires to the warmer interior of her ancestral palace to escape the evening chill, assured that today she was once more victorious. Perhaps, in some alternate continuity, Wonder Woman would celeb...

At the Texas Association of School Library Administrators (TASLA) Workshop on June 14, 2016, I was part of a five-part panel presentation that focused on how campus librarians can become library leaders even though they are not library administrators. This presentation was later featured on TASL Talk s as a series titled “Growing Library Leaders.” Become a Certified Google Education Trainer grew out of my portion of the presentation and was originally published September 8, 2016. On April 10, 2018, it was re-posted on the Round Rock Independent School District's Teaching & Learning Blog Librarians have always been at the forefront of information technology, even if we haven’t always had that reputation. Be it in tablets, scrolls, codices, microforms, or databases, we’ve always gone where the information is in order to find answers. Unfortunately, as mere access to information has taken center stage, school libraries run the risk of becoming a Starbucks-without-the-cof...

"It's 1888, and seventeen-year-old Verity Newton lands a job in New York as a governess to a wealthy leading family, "but she quickly learns that the family has big secrets. Magisters have always ruled the colonies, but now an underground society of mechanics and engineers are developing non-magical sources of power via steam engines that they hope will help them gain freedom from British rule. The family Verity works for is magister, "but it seems like the children's young guardian uncle is sympathetic to the rebel cause. As Verity falls for a charming rebel inventor and agrees to become a spy, she also becomes more and more enmeshed in the magister family's life. She soon realizes she's uniquely positioned to advance the cause" but to do so, she'll have to reveal her own dangerous secret." - From the Publisher This is a fantastic read - a real page turner. Lovers of steampunk and speculative history will find a new heroine in Miss ...