Shelf Life: May 18

Photographic Memories
Andrew Devenney writes on his blog that he’s decided to “do an art/history project of some sort that'll be a mixture of photography and personal memoir...the subject will be my old hometown of Marshall, Michigan....” We look forward to seeing John's hometown through another pair of eyes.

Collecting the elusive Bellairs
Brer at the Power of Babel blog writes about his growing collection of Bellairs books: “Thirty years on I am grateful that my instinct and luck led me to buy that first Bellairs.” There is also a plug for the Magic Mirrors omnibus to be published...well, best we can tell now August. How about we say (and hope) “this year.”

Bookmarking the late John Bellairs
We couldn’t help but scratch our heads this week when we received an interesting email from people soliciting bookmarks for a Chicago-area celebrity bookmark auction. It began innocent enough but the message soon took an odd turn:

We...would LOVE it if John could sign a bookmark for us to auction off. It would be great if he could make the bookmark, but if you already have one he could sign and send that's great too. All proceeds go directly to our programs that teach adults the joys of literacy.

We think a lot of people would love it if John could sign anything, let alone a bookmark. The only such item we’ve ever seen is one released by Dial in the early 1990s that promotes the “mysterious worlds of John Bellairs.” There may have been some variations on this bookmark - we've heard of one that said "chillers" or something - but this is the first of any we've ever seen.

In all seriousness, there is more about the event online (www.bookmarkauction.org) and the sponsoring organization (www.literacychicago.org). It sounds like a worthy and exciting cause...just not one John will be able to participate in.

However...what would you do if you could create a Bellairsian bookmark? Got an ideas?