The following post was written by Alicia Zadrozny, Associate Editor of READ and Writing Magazines.

It was Friday night and I was in the mood for a party. I had spent the day perusing Book Expo America, picking up book galleys and meeting authors. (I'm hoping heaven is a lot like BEA, lots and lots of free books, but sans the bathroom lines.) Anyway, I headed downtown to Webster Hall not knowing exactly what to expect from the Rock Bottom Remainders, an improbable band formed with mostly famous and best-selling writers. Some of the better known members include Stephen King, humor columnist Dave Barry, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, Mitch Albom and Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons. Frank McCourt made a special guest appearance. Roger McGuinn, formerly with the 1960s rock band The Byrds, was billed as the concert's "real musician." The $25 admission price benefited children's literacy programs.

By all appearances, this was going to be a concert like any other. Lines of people waited outside the venue to get in, after the show had already started. There was a surly bouncer and even a snotty reporter who huffed and puffed when told she had to wait in line.

By the time I got inside, the band was in full swing playing their favorite rock music through the ages, such as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and the Monkees. So now you're probably wondering if these writers sing and play instruments as well as they write. Well, I'll spell it out for you. Stephen King: Terrible. Scott Turow: Truly, truly terrible. Dave Barry: Tape his hands down and take away that guitar. Mitch Albom: If only you had spent your Tuesdays practicing that keyboard. Amy Tan: Gets my vote for the worst singer-ever.  I'd go through all the performers, but that gives you a pretty good idea.

Most likely, it's a certain sort of person who's going to love this kind of concert. It's the person who gets the joke behind the joke. It's not their corny cracks at each other. It's the fact that Stephen King gets people to pay money to hear him howl his way through Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London." The "king of horror" is also a master of irony. His real song was, "I'm so bad; I'm good."

Roger McGuinn saved the musical day to an extent with "Turn! Turn! Turn!" along with some other old hits by The Byrds. So what if his accompanists couldn't stay on key with him? I didn't really mind. It was just plain funny to see these writers have so much fun together. They looked like a bunch of goofballs, sure. But they are also very smart goofballs.

Editor's Note: We here at Weekly Reader love and admire the above artists for their day jobs. Any negative criticisms toward their musical ability is overshadowed by the brilliance that comes through in their true work: Teaching the blind to bowl. God bless you fine people.

On Friday, I attended Book Expo America (BEA) at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. It was a day filled with literature great and small, classic and contemporary. Readers from all corners of the country flooded the floor where publishers flaunted their achievements in the printed word.

The Jacob Javits Center is a mile if it's a yard. The place is big. It covers no less than five New York City blocks and is multi-leveled. No wonder the show is three days long! Lucky for me, I still have a bit of a bounce in my step and I was able to get the full BEA experience in just under 8 hours.

I met a Monster Spotter named Scott Francis, and a wizard author named Zendric. Zendric's passion for keeping Monsters at bay will be shared with the world this August when her very important survival guide, A Practical Guide to Monsters, hits bookstores everywhere. In it, she shows us characteristics of Chimera and vampires, griffons and Thri-kreen (giant, intelligent insects that hunt in packs) and then offers advice on how to defeat them all in battle. Monster Spotter's Guide to North America is a result of an deep obsession that's 1,000 times more dangerous than bird watching. By looking through a monster spotter's eyes, readers learn stories of Phantom Felines, The South Carolina Lizard Man, The Gloucester Sea Serpent, The Black Fox of Salmon River, The Lake Utopia Monster, Colossal Claude and many many more (including, of course, Bigfoot). Scott's book also comes out in August. Don't be surprised if you see Zendric and Scott side by side in an issue of READ next year. Stranger things have been known to happen.

At Seven Locks Press, I read a recipe inspired by Shakespeare in Spice Chronicles: Exotic Tales of A Hungry Traveler, watched Santa Claus promote his new book, and met an extraordinary young man who has created The Adventures of Captain Candy. Young author Ryan Lederer's fully illustrated, action packed book comes out in July.

At the LongPen booth, a machine signed my name to perfection, exactly as I had done!

I learned a bit about Old English from Patrick Conner at West Virginia University Press.

Grammar Girl wowed me us with a live presentation about apostrophes! ... or should that be apostrophe's? ... Either way, I think I need to get out more.

The Book Expo was a genuine sharing of ideas, of stories. Authors of all walks of life were in attendance and many of them, like Joe Hill, were more interested in checking out the lit than talking about themselves. (I'll let you figure out who Joe Hill is on your own. Not everything in the blogosphere should be linkable.)

Stay tuned for in-depth coverage of the Rock Bottom Remainders concert. Coming next week...

The following blog entry was written by Sarah Chassé, a copy editor of READ, Writing, and a whole bunch of other Weekly Reader magazines.

Watching TV rots your brain, right? Not necessarily. I spent last night learning some great new vocabulary words from my television--and no, there isn't a new reality show called Playing Scrabble With the Stars. We're talking the finals of the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee, which aired live on ABC.  The competition, held in Washington, D.C., featured 286 spellers from the United States and Canada. In the 13^th round, eighth grader Evan M. O’Dorney of Danville, Calif., spelled the word serrefine (seh-ruh-FEEN) to become the Super Bowl of spelling’s newest champ.

OK,  so maybe serrefine (an adjustable spring clamp used in cardiovascular surgery) isn't the most useful word—you can't exactly drop it into casual conversation. But it's still a cool word to know. Here are some other unusual words from the Scripps finals you can dazzle your friends and family with:

rascacio: (rah-SKAH-see-oh) a scorpion fish found in the western Atlantic Ocean from Cape Cod to Brazil

bouleuterion: (boo-leh-TEE-ree-on) a council chamber in ancient Greece

schuhplattler: (SHOO-plat-luhr) a traditional folk dance from Bavaria and Austria in which dancers rhythmically strike their thighs, their knees, and the soles of their feet

grognard: (groh-NAHR) an old soldier

aniseikonia: (ah-nigh-sigh-KOH-nee-uh) a defect of binocular vision in which the two retinal images of an object differ in size

My favorite word from the bee was definitely schuhplattler (just don't ask me to demonstrate it). Have a favorite word of your own that you'd like to share? Drop us a comment! (And make sure you spell your word correctly!)

Gosh I love the last day of May. Forget about the fact that the weather is gorgeous and the flowers are, um, whatever. Today has a much more special meaning to me than sunshine and pollen. For today, my friends, is Walt Whitman's Birthday.

WWWWD?
- A poem by Bry

I imagine myself walking, climbing, treading the mountains
I am one man hiking his way to the top, to the peak of all peaks!
What lies in the distance is an unknown, an always known,
A question we all must ask.

What would Walt Whitman do
At the top of the mountain?
Would he stand there and laugh at the sky?
Would he fly off like a bird to the future of earth?
Would he sit for a spell, and just cry?

What would Walt Whitman do
Dear friends all around me?
Would he become one with the grass and the moon?
Would Walt breathe the air of ancestors, long gone, never forgotten
Or hideout in the universe's shed.

Walt Whitman, my friend, oh what would you do
If the mountain itself crumbled under you?
If the world turned to dust and left all of us,
Tell me what would you do, dear Walt Whitman?

"We're connected," he said, "You and me, on this thread,
This thread between space, between blurs.
If you tug on my beard, ancient rhymes will be cleared
From my mouth, to the page, to your WORD."

Walt Whitman, Walt Whitman, oh what would you do?
"Come with me. I will show you..."

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On The Beach At Night Alone
 - A poem by Walt Whitman

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Happy birthday, brother.

To read last year's birthday wishes, click here.

The following book review was written by Miss Erin, Grade 10. WORD is proud to welcome Miss Erin and we hope she will bring us many insightful book reviews in the future.

Wildwood Dancing
Juliet Marillier

Jena and her four sisters have plenty of everyday worries, with their mother gone and their father ill. They do have something they can look forward to during each Full Moon: they have a portal into the Other Kingdom, the world of fairies and dwarfs. But dangers lurk there, too. When the Night People pay a visit to the fairy court and one of Jena's sisters begins to fall in love with one, Jena begins to have doubts about their monthly visits.

At first the language of the story seemed flowery and heavy, which is not necessarily a bad thing, just something you have to be in the right mood for. Once I got a little way into the book, I was completely entranced. The author has weaved an amazingly visual and absorbing tale. Jena is a very sympathetic heroine, you can feel her fear, her joy, her anger, her contentedness. In fact, she reminded me just a little of Pride and Prejudice's Lizzie Bennett. Wildwood Dancing is a thrilling and beautiful book that I couldn't stop reading.

Visit Miss Erin at her literary blog.