And here we go.

I have lost a massive amount of time to illness (I spent most of last weekend asleep, and this week has been largely job 1, nap, job 2, dinner, bed), but now that I am mostly functioning again, it's time to get cracking. I've done a little wandering on the web, but that has mostly been bookmarking sites that will be good resources.

I am now focusing on Gaiman's books for younger readers for two reasons: it will apply to my job interest and I am not yet done with American Gods (no more spoilers, please!). I want to create a resource for students to use to understand the mythic characters in the books, and maybe the setting of the book itself. This is flexible, too, so as I finish more of his works, I can add onto it, expanding in to the adult novels as well.

Callison mentions Yucht's "FLIP IT!" process for searching (Blue Book, 39) for resources finding.With it in mind,

Focus
Keywords.
Odd and the Frost Giants
Odin, Odin's eye, Loki, Thor, Frost Giants, Norse mythology, Norse culture
Coraline

Spiders, fairies, alternate realities

The Wolves in the Walls

"wolves in the walls"

The Graveyard Book
cemeteries, ghosts, Indigo Man, ghouls, Sleer, protection of graveyards, snakestone?

Links
Here are a few so far, more to be added.
http://splinterend.tumblr.com/post/1062372391/the-mythology-of-neil-gaimans-coraline
http://herenistarionnets.blogspot.com/2010/12/call-for-papers-neil-gaiman-collection.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb9gORvONT4&feature=player_embedded

Input
Information needed includes background stories and reasons behind some of the ideas mentioned in the books. In the case of The Graveyard Book, it would be interesting if there were artifacts!

Properties
For the Norse mythology, I am able to find various print resources, however many are children's nonfiction. For some of the others, I am relying on web resources, especially to find out if there is significance behind the phrase "wolves in the wall."

And, coming back to this tab after a day at the library and playing with the website I would like to put together, I find that I hit save instead of publish. Ooops.

Cited:
Callison, Daniel, and Leslie Preddy. The Blue Book on Information Age Inquiry, Instruction, and Literacy. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Print.