Robots are the new skulls

There aren't many trends that become as ubiquitous as the skull did. It's still going strong for both boys and girls apparel and accessories, I have to tell you. We order much of our clothing three to seven months in advance, and from what I've previewed, I can assure you that there will still be skulls out and about in '08.

But here at Juvie? We're over it. The trend we're digging on is ROBOTS!

Loungefly has some super cute girl's accessories:

Loungefly Robot Bobby Pins

And this little guy is awfully fun to have on your desk:

Robot Pencil Sharpener

And we can't wait until we get our order from Spitfire girl, who are doing custom T-shirts for boys and girls just for Juvie. Here's what the robot looks like on a baby onesie; ours will be on straight up 100% cotton t-shirts.

Stay tuned to this blog or www.juvieshop.com for their arrival!

Books on the Brain

For those of you in L.A., don't forget the L.A. Times Festival of Books is on this weekend, at UCLA. I have my ticket to see T.C. Boyle, rabid fan that I am (so much of a fan that the entire time we overlapped at USC, he as a professor and I as a grad student, I wanted to drop by his office hours, but was too intimidated), and more than one of us in the family can't wait to see Tim Gunn, from Project Runway.

Eggs by Jerry Spinelli

Books, books, and more books. I can't wait. I spent last Friday morning poring over the latest and upcoming titles. We have some fun new ones this month, the highlight probably being Eggs, by Jerry Spinelli. He's the author of Stargirl, a great read that Lola's teachers keep assigning. She's read it at least four times. Eggs has a bit of "tragic drama" in it, but nothing compared with most of the books coming out this season, whose descriptions all sound like this:

"When 13-year old Susie's mother dies of an overdose and she's sent to live in a rusty trailer with her smelly old uncle, she never thought..."

Draaaaag. On a sillier note:

Juvie's Sleepless Nights

You may have noticed that the "Mother Tongue" section of this website hasn't been updated lately. That's because the column was dropped, along with the entire Family Page, from the Ventura County Star. The whole thing was quite unceremonious (as in, they didn't bother to tell me), and frankly, the experience has put me off newspaper publishing.

But hey, that's alright. A large, well-respected Hollywood production company is launching a hip parenting website this summer, and I hope to be on board as a contributing writer. I could go on and on about old v. new media at this point, but I won't. Suffice it to say that as my shop is online, my daily reading material is online, and my research materials are online, my writing should be online too.

Which brings us to the Juvieshop blog! This old juvie++ has had a few sleepless nights lately, and at 2 a.m., one's mind turns to what one could possibly be doing other than trying to fall asleep. Blogging seemed like an attractive option. The next morning, it still did. The shop needs a blog, not only for news and updates on all things Juvie, but for all things Ages 7-14 (Maybe the first order of business will be a contest to come up with a replacement for that twee word, "tween.").