Just in case you haven't experienced Lemony Snicket, he and his partner in disaster, Brett Helquist, give you a chance to catch up with "The Series of Unfortunate Events" in their web video "12 books in 120 seconds". You can watch this - if you are clinically depressed and need company - at http://www.lemonysnicket.com/vilevideos/ So take a couple of minutes and find out how bad things can be.
A good antidote to grief is to spend an hour or so with teenagers -which is what I and my young assistant did last night. Except for the fact that I messed up one of the teen team's scavenger hunt clues, a good time was had by all. And we even had a little leftover pizza.
One of the good things about these late night meetings is what happens afterwards. Often the other Youth Services staff member and I sit around and catch up with each other. Usually, that staff member is my sidekick but last night it was our summer intern. I have to admit, I meet some of the best people at my job and she is definitely one of the them.
But the best thing about after-hours teen meetings is the teens themselves. The teens at last night's party came from seven different schools. Everyone found someone to work with and talk to. Of course, they are joined in their attempt to heap ridicule on my head but I prefer to think that they do it all affectionately. (I truly, truly hope so!) I know I have said it before but it needs repeating. The best teens volunteer where I work. True!
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Friday, September 8, 2006
A library volunteer has died. I am grieving. As we grow older this experience becomes routine and yet the shock of knowing that I will never hear her New York accent, her family stories, her laugh again - that NEVER becomes routine.
Maybe this is why I immerse myself in children's matters. Children change and grow but they look forward. When people die, we are forced to look back. Looking back is good, of course, but after a death it is ALL we can do if we want to keep in contact with that person's influence on us.
I meant to put a link to something silly in my blog today. I will leave that to another time. A library volunteer has died. I am in mourning.
Maybe this is why I immerse myself in children's matters. Children change and grow but they look forward. When people die, we are forced to look back. Looking back is good, of course, but after a death it is ALL we can do if we want to keep in contact with that person's influence on us.
I meant to put a link to something silly in my blog today. I will leave that to another time. A library volunteer has died. I am in mourning.
Sunday, September 3, 2006
Last spring, Okuni sent me a "Summer Reading Club Preparedness Kit" that included the memoir of a well known Southwestern author. I finally got around to reading that memoir. It is "Seldom Disappointed" by Tony Hillerman. (His website is www.tonyhillermanbooks.com
Anyway, I think Arthur Conan Doyle said happy lives are all the same. Tony HIllerman has had a pretty darn good life. I found the book amusing, and nostalgic even though Hillerman is the age of my parents. Reading about his childhood in Oklahoma was like visiting my parents' childhoods - though they grew up far from the Southwest. Hillerman had no idea he could even be a writer until after WWII, when a local reporter suggested he try writing after seeing some of the letters he sent home.
The parts of the book that I liked best were his stories of his childhood and his walk through what went before and during the writing of his most notable books - notable to him AND to his readers. I have read most of the novels that take place on the Navaho reservation and environs so it was fun to see how he pieced together his plots, characters and solutions.
Next, I was intrigued with how he described his war experience. It was pretty gritty. After college, he got work as a newspaperman in Texas and then in Santa Fe. The best part about those reminiscences was being introduced to characters he used in his books.
I don't read a lot of memoirs although there has been a recent upsurge in their publication and popularity. I'm a fiction woman, through and through. Fiction usually has a destination and purpose. Life - real life - sometimes meanders. This memoir wandered a bit. The one place Hillerman did not linger was in his family life. He talks briefly - one chapter I think - about the arrival of all six of his children, some adopted, some not. And he lets the reader know how things turned out for all six of them. He credits his wife Marie for several pivotal changes in their lives - like his decision to go to graduate school and his attempt to finally write his "dream" book, ("Finding Moon" - not a Navaho book but a good read with lots of action and some neat characters.) But we don't learn much about her life. This is HIS memoir after all and he's done so much in his life that he really did have to pick and choose what to put in.
Other memoirists have sad tales to tell ("Angela's Ashes", for instance) or challenges to overcome. It was great to read a book by a fantastic writer who has had a happy life and found himself "Seldom Disappointed".
Anyway, I think Arthur Conan Doyle said happy lives are all the same. Tony HIllerman has had a pretty darn good life. I found the book amusing, and nostalgic even though Hillerman is the age of my parents. Reading about his childhood in Oklahoma was like visiting my parents' childhoods - though they grew up far from the Southwest. Hillerman had no idea he could even be a writer until after WWII, when a local reporter suggested he try writing after seeing some of the letters he sent home.
The parts of the book that I liked best were his stories of his childhood and his walk through what went before and during the writing of his most notable books - notable to him AND to his readers. I have read most of the novels that take place on the Navaho reservation and environs so it was fun to see how he pieced together his plots, characters and solutions.
Next, I was intrigued with how he described his war experience. It was pretty gritty. After college, he got work as a newspaperman in Texas and then in Santa Fe. The best part about those reminiscences was being introduced to characters he used in his books.
I don't read a lot of memoirs although there has been a recent upsurge in their publication and popularity. I'm a fiction woman, through and through. Fiction usually has a destination and purpose. Life - real life - sometimes meanders. This memoir wandered a bit. The one place Hillerman did not linger was in his family life. He talks briefly - one chapter I think - about the arrival of all six of his children, some adopted, some not. And he lets the reader know how things turned out for all six of them. He credits his wife Marie for several pivotal changes in their lives - like his decision to go to graduate school and his attempt to finally write his "dream" book, ("Finding Moon" - not a Navaho book but a good read with lots of action and some neat characters.) But we don't learn much about her life. This is HIS memoir after all and he's done so much in his life that he really did have to pick and choose what to put in.
Other memoirists have sad tales to tell ("Angela's Ashes", for instance) or challenges to overcome. It was great to read a book by a fantastic writer who has had a happy life and found himself "Seldom Disappointed".
Thursday, August 31, 2006
I just had a great librarian moment. I was able to suggest some books to someone who LOVES Kate DiCamillo. It is a problem when you find an author whose works you like immensely. Those authors can never write fast enough to please the rest of us. Whenever I finish a book in a series I enjoy, I have a few days withdrawal and every book I pick up is NOT the right book.
I'm there right now. I want to read something fun, but with a little meat on its bones - no fluffy chick lit, or series mystery, right now. That's summer reading - for when I'm too frazzled to concentrate. I'm not sure I want fantasy. Maybe a complex mystery would suit. Everything I pick up is NOT the right title.
There is a cool database which is available to Pennsylvania library card holders called Novelist (There's a Novelist K-8, too). When you enter your favorite book's title, right under the entry that comes up is a button that says "Find similar books" or something like that. Then you just have to check off some themes that appeal to you and voila! a list of possible suspects appears. This database may be available to people in other states but in PA, you can get to Novelist through your library's website and PowerLibrary. So when you are searching for a good read similar to your last good read, Novelist and Novelist K-8 are both good sites to look at.
What have I read recently? Well, we're on a Meg Cabot kick this summer so I picked up her new 20-something novel "Size 12 is Not Fat". You got that right, Meg! It's a mystery and it is the first of three, so far. Heather (Last name forgotten) left school in her teens to be a pop singer and was successful to a degree until she wanted to write her own songs. Now she's the assistant residential director in a "residence hall" (college dorm) in New York City. Her ex-fiance is a still successful pop singer who did NOT demand to write his own songs. He shows up a couple of times in this book. And her landlord (she doesn't get to live in the residence hall) is her ex-fiance's big brother, who lets her live rent-free because Heather does his billing. He's a PI and he's hunky. Anyway, if Heather keeps the job for six months, she can take classes tuition free. This is her new plan for survival.
When a girl with no enemies or serious problems is found dead at the bottom of the residence hall elevator shaft, Heather begins to wonder - but when another shy freshman is also found dead (same elevator shaft), she thinks she has a killer in her dorm. Her landlord, Cooper, has to save her butt a couple of times and her ex shows up at inopportune moments. He is such a - what's a polite word for jerk that also insinuates that he's a wimp and a...well, he's that.
I also read "The Tale of Holly How" by Susan Wittig Albert. This is a mystery for adults but it has all these talking animals in it so that was a little weird. I enjoyed it though. One of the main adult characters is Beatrix Potter. Albert has a series of mysteries starring Potter (Beatrix) and since Potter was famous for anthropomorphizing the fauna of England's Cotswalds (or is it the Lake District, I forget) I guess talking animals are not out of place. Nice sense of place.
And I have been reading my brother's book - a self-help book - on how to be happy. It's good. I hope he finds a publisher. Then I will write about it here and everybody else can be happy, too.
November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and a friend has already challenged me to sign up for the event. The challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I have trouble writing 500 words in a week. But I just might do it this year. The website for this event is www.nanowrimo.org if any of you want to try it.
I'm there right now. I want to read something fun, but with a little meat on its bones - no fluffy chick lit, or series mystery, right now. That's summer reading - for when I'm too frazzled to concentrate. I'm not sure I want fantasy. Maybe a complex mystery would suit. Everything I pick up is NOT the right title.
There is a cool database which is available to Pennsylvania library card holders called Novelist (There's a Novelist K-8, too). When you enter your favorite book's title, right under the entry that comes up is a button that says "Find similar books" or something like that. Then you just have to check off some themes that appeal to you and voila! a list of possible suspects appears. This database may be available to people in other states but in PA, you can get to Novelist through your library's website and PowerLibrary. So when you are searching for a good read similar to your last good read, Novelist and Novelist K-8 are both good sites to look at.
What have I read recently? Well, we're on a Meg Cabot kick this summer so I picked up her new 20-something novel "Size 12 is Not Fat". You got that right, Meg! It's a mystery and it is the first of three, so far. Heather (Last name forgotten) left school in her teens to be a pop singer and was successful to a degree until she wanted to write her own songs. Now she's the assistant residential director in a "residence hall" (college dorm) in New York City. Her ex-fiance is a still successful pop singer who did NOT demand to write his own songs. He shows up a couple of times in this book. And her landlord (she doesn't get to live in the residence hall) is her ex-fiance's big brother, who lets her live rent-free because Heather does his billing. He's a PI and he's hunky. Anyway, if Heather keeps the job for six months, she can take classes tuition free. This is her new plan for survival.
When a girl with no enemies or serious problems is found dead at the bottom of the residence hall elevator shaft, Heather begins to wonder - but when another shy freshman is also found dead (same elevator shaft), she thinks she has a killer in her dorm. Her landlord, Cooper, has to save her butt a couple of times and her ex shows up at inopportune moments. He is such a - what's a polite word for jerk that also insinuates that he's a wimp and a...well, he's that.
I also read "The Tale of Holly How" by Susan Wittig Albert. This is a mystery for adults but it has all these talking animals in it so that was a little weird. I enjoyed it though. One of the main adult characters is Beatrix Potter. Albert has a series of mysteries starring Potter (Beatrix) and since Potter was famous for anthropomorphizing the fauna of England's Cotswalds (or is it the Lake District, I forget) I guess talking animals are not out of place. Nice sense of place.
And I have been reading my brother's book - a self-help book - on how to be happy. It's good. I hope he finds a publisher. Then I will write about it here and everybody else can be happy, too.
November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and a friend has already challenged me to sign up for the event. The challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I have trouble writing 500 words in a week. But I just might do it this year. The website for this event is www.nanowrimo.org if any of you want to try it.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
The summer is drawing to a close. I know, for a lot of people, that is a sad thing but for Children's Library people - all over the country - there is a lightness of being. "Ahhh", Children's Library people are saying to themselves very quietly, "at long last, summer is almost over". So they are smiling more widely and they are even more ebullient than usual.
I, too, am smiling more widely these days - between the yawns.
I must report that the Black Rose Teen Tellers and I are winding up an excellent week of games, stories and fun for 14 lucky storytelling kids. Tomorrow we will run a full day of practice, more games, some interviews, and more games and then at noon, Moms, Dads and siblings will join us for a performance - which will include some of our favorite games! So very, very cool. I have the very best teen tellers in the entire world bar NONE!
Still, I must admit I relish some time without the excitement of a storytelling workshop. So tomorrow afternoon around 2 p.m. I will be able to relax for the weekend.
Next week, we have our Final Party on August 17 and our Final Teen event on Friday, the 18th - at 5:30 p.m. (which is not our Annual Volunteer Pizza Party - that's in early September). And then Summer Reading Club is all over except for the stats.
Okay, book time! Daniel Pinkwater is trying something new. He is posting the uncorrected, unedited manuscript of his new book "The Neddiad" online at www.theneddiad.com I hope I didn't type that in twice or anything.
Since only the first two chapters are up now, I can't really tell where Pinkwater is going with this story. The main character's father moves the whole family from Chicago to Los Angeles because Ned, the main character, read a story about the Brown Derby restaurant in a magazine and wanted to go there. Interesting motivation for a cross country (almost) move. The story takes place in the late forties (or thereabouts). Pinkwater's books are always surprising so this is worth a look. The entire book will be online eventually, although by the time the book is published in April, the online book won't be finished. The publisher - Houghton Mifflin Children's books - is hoping that everyone will run out to buy the book. I will buy it for the library, that's for sure. I am a Daniel Pinkwater fan.
I have been reading a lot of books on teaching storytelling lately so I have nothing else to report. I have also spent way too much time visiting Brawny Academy and watching the extremely good-natured participants run the obstacles that Brawny Man sets for them. Check that out at http://brawnyacademy.com . It's particularly funny for people who have brothers, long term boyfriends or husbands. I think guys will like it, too, because the whole thing is done in a light-hearted tongue-in-cheek sort of way. One of the obstacles looked interesting for our Ren Faire this October.
Enough! I have work to do and I must leave soon. Read please and let me know what you are reading!
I, too, am smiling more widely these days - between the yawns.
I must report that the Black Rose Teen Tellers and I are winding up an excellent week of games, stories and fun for 14 lucky storytelling kids. Tomorrow we will run a full day of practice, more games, some interviews, and more games and then at noon, Moms, Dads and siblings will join us for a performance - which will include some of our favorite games! So very, very cool. I have the very best teen tellers in the entire world bar NONE!
Still, I must admit I relish some time without the excitement of a storytelling workshop. So tomorrow afternoon around 2 p.m. I will be able to relax for the weekend.
Next week, we have our Final Party on August 17 and our Final Teen event on Friday, the 18th - at 5:30 p.m. (which is not our Annual Volunteer Pizza Party - that's in early September). And then Summer Reading Club is all over except for the stats.
Okay, book time! Daniel Pinkwater is trying something new. He is posting the uncorrected, unedited manuscript of his new book "The Neddiad" online at www.theneddiad.com I hope I didn't type that in twice or anything.
Since only the first two chapters are up now, I can't really tell where Pinkwater is going with this story. The main character's father moves the whole family from Chicago to Los Angeles because Ned, the main character, read a story about the Brown Derby restaurant in a magazine and wanted to go there. Interesting motivation for a cross country (almost) move. The story takes place in the late forties (or thereabouts). Pinkwater's books are always surprising so this is worth a look. The entire book will be online eventually, although by the time the book is published in April, the online book won't be finished. The publisher - Houghton Mifflin Children's books - is hoping that everyone will run out to buy the book. I will buy it for the library, that's for sure. I am a Daniel Pinkwater fan.
I have been reading a lot of books on teaching storytelling lately so I have nothing else to report. I have also spent way too much time visiting Brawny Academy and watching the extremely good-natured participants run the obstacles that Brawny Man sets for them. Check that out at http://brawnyacademy.com . It's particularly funny for people who have brothers, long term boyfriends or husbands. I think guys will like it, too, because the whole thing is done in a light-hearted tongue-in-cheek sort of way. One of the obstacles looked interesting for our Ren Faire this October.
Enough! I have work to do and I must leave soon. Read please and let me know what you are reading!
Thursday, July 27, 2006
I am getting over a nasty summer cold. And since I am a bit (ha!) of a hypochondriac I have a tendency to sit and listen to my rattling breath and imagine my early demise. The cure for that is a good book. If I can forget about my ailments while I am reading then what I have is not life-threatening (as if it anything I get ever is).
So I read John Green's "Abundance of Katherines" last night. I liked it a whole lot. Colin Singleton is a child prodigy, who is no longer a child having just graduated from high school, when his current girlfriend, Katherine XIX, breaks up with him. (Colin seems to have a "thing" about girls named Katherine.) His best friend, Hassan, talks Colin into going on a road trip and they end up in Gutshot, Tennessee. Colin and Hassan get jobs there and Colin tries to come up with a formula to predict who will dump whom in any future relationship. There's a sex scene that moves the plot along so I guess this book is for more open-minded teens and there are a lot of "geek" jokes and footnotes. What is it about all those footnotes lately? There are footnotes everywhere in popular books. I blame Jonathan Stroud for that.
Whoohoo! The ordering drought is over and I have a pile of new-to-me books to catalog! I LOVE new books. Love, love, love, love those new books. So, bye, now.
So I read John Green's "Abundance of Katherines" last night. I liked it a whole lot. Colin Singleton is a child prodigy, who is no longer a child having just graduated from high school, when his current girlfriend, Katherine XIX, breaks up with him. (Colin seems to have a "thing" about girls named Katherine.) His best friend, Hassan, talks Colin into going on a road trip and they end up in Gutshot, Tennessee. Colin and Hassan get jobs there and Colin tries to come up with a formula to predict who will dump whom in any future relationship. There's a sex scene that moves the plot along so I guess this book is for more open-minded teens and there are a lot of "geek" jokes and footnotes. What is it about all those footnotes lately? There are footnotes everywhere in popular books. I blame Jonathan Stroud for that.
Whoohoo! The ordering drought is over and I have a pile of new-to-me books to catalog! I LOVE new books. Love, love, love, love those new books. So, bye, now.
Monday, July 17, 2006
"Octavian Nothing" by M.T. Anderson starts like a period piece fantasy but it is a searing look at personal freedom at the time of the American Revolution with no fantasy involved. I read the ARC and I can't tell you when the book is due to be published but it is the first of two so I have to wait doubly long for the sequel- DRAT!
Okay here's the set-up. In the 1760's or thereabouts Mr. Gitney who prefers to be known as 03-01 has set up a College of Lucidity for the purpose of studying Science and the Arts. Octavian and his mother, Queen Casseiopeia (not her real name) are two of the College's "specimens" or subjects. The entire College is known by numerical designations except for Octavian and his mother. Octavian is taught to Observe. He learns Greek and Latin. He is tutored in the violin which he plays like an angel. His food is weighed and so is his excrement. His life, until he is 11, is a mixture of luxury and peculiarity. And then, he learns the truth about his status in 18th century America and his situation and that of his mother change drastically.
The writing is a credible imitation of the florid style of the time period so if you like short pithy sentences avoid this book. However, the story of Octavian and his "scientist" masters is fascinatingly bizarre.
Good book! Read it when it comes out.
Okay here's the set-up. In the 1760's or thereabouts Mr. Gitney who prefers to be known as 03-01 has set up a College of Lucidity for the purpose of studying Science and the Arts. Octavian and his mother, Queen Casseiopeia (not her real name) are two of the College's "specimens" or subjects. The entire College is known by numerical designations except for Octavian and his mother. Octavian is taught to Observe. He learns Greek and Latin. He is tutored in the violin which he plays like an angel. His food is weighed and so is his excrement. His life, until he is 11, is a mixture of luxury and peculiarity. And then, he learns the truth about his status in 18th century America and his situation and that of his mother change drastically.
The writing is a credible imitation of the florid style of the time period so if you like short pithy sentences avoid this book. However, the story of Octavian and his "scientist" masters is fascinatingly bizarre.
Good book! Read it when it comes out.
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