Kusel (district) Puns

Hello my name is Susan Kusel. I am excited to be doing this AMA today. I wear lots of hats, most of having with books and Judaism.

I recently published my debut picture book The Passover Guest, illustrated by Sean Rubin with Neal Porter Books/Holiday House.

I am the librarian at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Virginia, the children's book buyer for [words] Bookstore in Maplewood, New Jersey and the owner of Dream On Books, a book consulting company.

I was a member of the 2015 Caldecott Medal selection committee and was the chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee. I am a former board member of the Association of Jewish Libraries.

With other friends from the Association of Jewish Libraries, I co-founded the Jewish Kidlit Mavens group on Facebook and The Sydney Taylor Shmooze mock award blog.

You can find out more about me here: http://susankusel.com/

Delighted to be here and looking forward to answering questions!

Come join Susan Kusel this Feb 15th at 6pm est for an AMA

>I’ve been writing for a long time and am excited to finally have my first picture book published. It’s been a long road. By the time it comes out, The Passover Guest will have taken 9 years from start to finish. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get the next book published a little quicker! I am deeply appreciative of everyone who has helped the book make it to this point. I’m a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.  I love being a librarian. I am currently a synagogue librarian and have also been a children’s librarian at a public library. I am very active in the American Library Association, the Association for Library Service to Children and the Association of Jewish Libraries. I have served on many award committees including the Maryland Blue Crab Young Reader Award committee, the Cybils and as chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee. The most amazing professional experience I’ve ever had was serving on the 2015 Caldecott Medal selection committee.  I’ve been a bookseller for over a decade at many stores including Politics & Prose Bookstore, Child’s Play and am currently the children’s book buyer at [words] Bookstore in Maplewood, New Jersey. I’m involved with the American Booksellers Association and the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association. Bookstores are incredibly fun places and it’s been such a joy working at so many wonderful ones.

Is it just me or is the CGI in this movie a little too good? It’s 12 years old and had a budget of $30 million USD according to Wikipedia, and I swear it looks better than current high budget films- as far as CGI special effects are concerned. The lighting and prawn skin textures look top notch. Usually I find CGI creature effects to look video gamey and unrealistic. Like too shiny or something, but not the prawns in District 9. They rival well made practical effects. Anyone know how they pulled it off?

Edit: thanks for the upvotes everyone. Happy holidays and New Year!

Had a little stay-cation at 4 points Sheraton (great pool by the way) and couldn't help but notice how desolate and emply the district docklands has become.

So many empty shops, no major retail brands can seem to stay, all that's left are some gift shops and staple stores.

A few years ago this place felt so much more... alive?

So we just got an email saying next week the district office staff will be “serving our students as substitute teachers and other staff” starting next week. I thought this was a good idea, and would show that the district office staff actually cared about supporting the teachers and staff. Then the next sentence was, sub pay will increase until the end of the year. Really? Not going to lie, they had us in the first half….

Just like the title says. My mom is a manager at a fast food restaurant that operates out of the airport so you can imagine the number of people she could infect. She tried pleading her case but her boss told her they will find someone else to fill her position if she doesn't show up to work tomorrow. My mother and I are effectively roommates in terms of bills. Everything is split 50/50 since it's just us. The loss of income for her is enough for her to have agreed to go back to work. My mother's store suffers from not having workers available. They do pay a bit higher than the average fast food restaurant but it's still not enough to justify the work they'd have to do (I worked there when I was 18 and I hated every second of it). I told her that they can't fire her because she has COVID but she's terrified at the thought of not having a job. We're Hispanic so she's a lot more hesitant when looking at legal action. I tried to advise her not to go tomorrow until she tests negative but I think the fear of losing her job is enough to get her to go back.

Edit: I wanted to give you guys a quick update. Took the day off work and I've called a few lawyers. I was able to set an appointment with one for later today. I was also able to convince my mom to stay home after showing her this post. She was actually a bit more hopeful which made me very happy to see. After our meeting with the lawyer later today I will give you guys additional updates.

“I am sure you have heard that a district can allow any employee who has a high school diploma to substitute for a teacher. I will be establishing a procedure of how we will determine who will be asked in an emergency situation to fill in. If you have any college credits and would like to be considered to substitute, please bring your transcript(s) to the Central Office. This will be one factor that will be considered along with current position and years of service in the district. Thanks.”

Literally just having warm body’s with pulses are more important that going virtual for 2 weeks.

Lettuce is always soaking wet. Barely any meat. Burritos are super bland unless you soak it in their sauce. Am I in the minority here?

I look up the reviews and everyone seems to praise this place.

... informing everyone that we're "Mask Optional" starting Monday. I feel so blindsided and scared to return. I'll keep wearing my mask, but I'm not comfortable being around students who won't wear a mask.