Little pieces of paper

Everywhere!  Little scraps of paper listing all the books that I want to read, all YA and children's books, mind you.   I stick to what I like.

Like fairytales!  And this is why I gobbled up Adam Gidwitz's A Tale Dark and Grimm .  Click on the title to watch a trailer for this book.  (I love book trailers!)

Talk about Grimm, the brothers Grimm, that is.  Gidwitz goes into all the gory and horrendous details that Disney and modern adapters like to cut out.   His warnings - he peppers the whole narratives with warnings - add a little levity to all the monstrous proceedings.  It's a great book but don't read it at night.

Meme and themes

Several years ago (two or three or four), children's authors decided to write about - transplanted children in the 1930s, Cuba right before and right after Castro's regime began, America during the 60s.  Then there was/is the sudden interest in brain anomalies - autism, and especially synesthesia, or seeing sounds as colors and shapes.  It happens every publishing cycle.  Two years before, an author picks a subject that he/she thinks is unique and by the time the title is published, that author looks around to find that she/he is not alone.

Thomas and the DragON Queen (My capitals!  Pay attention!)  is just one book about dragon queens and their mighty reigns.  Ivy's Ever After by Dawn Lairamore has a very influential dragon queen in it - and a more friendly younger dragon as well.  Ivy manages to enlist this young dragon in her plan to rid herself and her kingdom of a most unsuitable suitor.  The two, Ivy and her dragon guard/buddy, Elridge, travel through troll-infested swamps, over craggy dangerous mountains and into a fairy mound looking for answers to their pest problem.  This is a fun adventurous read with feminist undertones - not too heavy.  There is an emphasis on diplomacy here that shows up in Thomas's book as well.

Thomas and the Dragon Queen

In Thomas and the Dragon Queen by Shutta Crum, Thomas is the oldest of his parents' large and well-loved brood but he is small for his age.  When a knight on a run-away horse almost tromps on Thomas' younger sister, Thomas manages to divert the horse and help the wounded knight to safety.  In thanks, the knight, Sir Girard, takes Thomas to the castle where Thomas trains as a squire.

es Thomas back with him to the king's castle where Thomas becomes a page.

The kingdom is besieged on two borders, so when the Princess is stolen away by the Queen of Dragons, only Thomas is available to go to the rescue.  The road to the dragon's lair is full of the kind of obstacles that the best fairy tales are made of.  Neil Gaiman's Instructions could have helped Thomas on his road.  Thomas' extincts are sound and he manages on his own good sense and kind heart.

What Thomas finds at the dragon's cave and how he manages to best the dragon queen combine to make a particularly satisfying  ending.  This book is great for readers in grades 3 (and good grade 2 readers) and good for reading out loud to younger knights and ladies.

Plaid skirts and other things

The other night in an orgy of reading I finished Countdown by Deborah Wiles, a story of the way friendships shift and change set in the 13 days of the Cuban Missile crisis.  Man, did that book take me back!!  My Dad was all ready to dig a bomb shelter in the hillside below our house.  For at least a year, a water line with a spigot at the end stuck out of the hillside.  Then, he settled with storing cans of food in the basement, in the room we called the "dark room" because it was the only room that didn't have some kind of window in it.  I still have dreams about the basement in the years before all the rooms were separated by walls.  Some dreams are ominous, just the way a "dark rooooooom" sounds.

BTW, Countdown is an excellent study of many of the changes that were taking place in the USA at that time - not just the very frightening possibility of nuclear conflict, but background on Civil Rights Movements, non-violent protest, the songwriters that made their mark on society.  Every chapter offers a mini-history lesson through news clips, photos and lyrics.  And it's a compelling read, best of all.  I wanted to know how it would all end.

Then, because I hadn't read enough I devoured Ally Carter's Only the Good Spy Young, the fourth Gallagher girls novel.   Cammie is in London under the careful eye of her roommate, Bex's, MI6 operative parents when she is accosted by the man who may have tried to kill or kidnap her in Book 3. (I forget which - kill or kidnap.) Joe Solomon used to be the Covert Operations teacher at Gallagher Academy, the posh boarding school for girls that is really a training ground for the next generation of undercover agents and government or corporate spies.  Oh, and Zach shows up just before Cammie is grabbed by Joe.  But Cammie gets away and she and her roommates head back to school to find that things have changed - A LOT.  For one thing, the headmistress, Cammie's Mom, is not there.  For another, the CoveOps teacher is none other than the MI6 agent who questioned Cammie after the almost-snatch.  And for a third thing, Cammie can't shake Joe Solomon's suggestion that she "follow the pigeons" whatever that means.  Oh, and then there's Zach, again.  I L-O-V-E these books.  They move so quickly.  The teen characters are so likeable and so clever and ingenious.  And the whole series has moved from being a quick funny, mildly romantic romp to a more sinister, more - but not too - realistic and absorbing suspense.  Carter keeps the tone light with Cammie's notebook entries and some smart-mouth banter but she doesn't completely sugarcoat the realities of espionage and warfare.

Now, the cover of the Gallagher girl books all feature girls whose faces we can't see wearing the obligatory plaid skirt private school uniform.  A very cute, pink and dark green plaid skit, it looks like, with a dark v-neck sweater with the Gallagher crest and a white oxford cloth shirt, untucked, high socks and, are those boots?  I think so.

Well, both of these books reminded me of my private school education and believe me, we did not wear cute plaid skirts.  Not even in high school.  In grade school, we wore heavy woolen jumpers with rounded necklines that went up so high, and armholes that were so small, that the jumpers needed both a long back zipper and a side zipper to allow us to put them on.  Oh, and there was the highly attractive two-button belt.  We wore these itchy things over beige blouses with peter pan collars.  Very generous Peter Pan collars, so generous that they mimicked the bibs our teachers, Sisters of St. Joseph, wore.  The short sleeve blouses had very odd puffed sleeves with pleated cuffs.  I preferred the long sleeved blouses, of course.

We didn't have gym in grade school but in high school our gym uniforms...I'm sorry the memory is too traumatic.  I can't go on.  The jumpers in high school were less fitted but even more ugly if that is possible.  Then in Junior and Senior year we were given the option of wearing a seersucker yellow and white striped shirtwaist dress in the Spring.  With hems BELOW the knees.

A teacher from my alma mater recently asked me if I could find some old uniforms for a display.  I did ask around.  No one SAVED those things.  We donated them back for students who couldn't buy new ones.  Or, I suspect, had secret burning ceremonies after graduation if we were lucky enough to be the youngest girl in the family to attend that school.  I was not one of those lucky ones, alas.

Tonight's assignment is to read, A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner.  I have not read the others in this series but I think I will survive.  So far the writing is very good.

I need to tell you about Thomas and the Dragon Queen by Shutta Crum, too.  That will be in the next post.  Good night.  I have pages to read before I sleep, pages to read before I sleep.  (Sorry, Robert Frost!)

Retired

Let me tell you about my Last Day at Work.

It was Dr. Seuss Party Day and I had spent my Last Day Off From Work getting ready for it.  I had red and white striped hats and I had snack bags and I had props and shadow puppets and I had a script my middle grade tellers had written, based on "The Shape of Me and Other Stuff" by Dr. Seuss. 

I had turned "The King's Stilts" into an audience participation story.  I had trivia questions for the Dr. Seuss Facts and Figures Game Show.

Mt teen tellers were on alert with orders to be there early.

I was ready.

But I had to get through the morning.  That was tough.  Because people I really love, and they know who they are, kept coming in to say goodbye.  Thank heavens, I had a full box of tissues at our disposal.

I have been soooo lucky, all these years.  I sat at my desk, or worked in the shelves and the best people in the world came to ME, to talk; to ask my advice on books; share their funny stories; their poems; their successes; their worries. 

Those friendships will survive but I will have to work at it.  I can't just drive to work and know that sooner or later Jan or Connie or Jean or Amy or Denise or Deidre or David or Adam or Andrew or Jack or Christine or Kerry or Fuka or Mollie or Mark, the Origami Man will show up to brighten my day.  (Or Annette or Gloria or Grayce or Sandy or.....There isn't enough room here.  Or Joey or Ashley or Hayley or Erik or  STOP!  or Halle or Katie....)

Okay, enough wallowing.  Then there was the event.  I had four middle grade tellers and four teen tellers.  The teen tellers led the Game Show and the Funky Chicken.  The middle grade tellers did the Reader's Theater.  The kids made a lot of noise and we all had fun.  It was the biggest attendance at a school year performance in YEARS - if ever.

Someone gave the library a donation because it was such a great program.  As Suzanne said on hearing that, "Yesssssss!"

I was given wonderful gifts; a journal, flowers, an original card with pictures of my favorite things, origami pins and magnets (to die for), CHOCOLATE, and a book - written and illustrated and bound just for me by a wonderful family.  (Thanks, Katie, Evelyn, Chelsea and Sara).

Then it was party time and we all gathered for food, remembrances and fun.  George wore shoes!!  Not sandals. 

Kelly and Adam wrote ME a poem and I cried and cried.  I will post it here tomorrow.

Claudia came back from Maryland. 

Suzanne wrote and illustrated a book, entitled "If You Give Karen a Group of Kids...."  It was so funny and so true!

Betsy created a "fake" catalog record, just for me, commemorating an in-library competition.

I had messages from so many people and pictures through the years.

The tears are still falling but I am smiling, too.

Now, today, I plan to........ 

Story Cabaret

Here's an idea.  Gather with people in a cafe atmosphere and listen to well-told stories - adventures, stories of change and transformation, stories about the silly things that people do - grown people, people who should know better, too.  Story Cabaret is a cross between stand-up comedy and one person shows.  And here's the best part.  The audience gets a chance to share, too.  So join the Lehigh Valley Storytelling Guild and Touchstone Theatre in the first Story Cabaret - Friday, Feb. 25th at 8 pm.  Bring Your Own Story And Wine!  Cost is $10 per person.

Well, I am leaving my day job - the one people have told me not to quit - on Saturday, Feb. 26th.  I host the Dr. Seuss Birthday Party at 2 pm - at the South Whitehall Township Building, next to the Parkland Community Library.  This will be my last appearance as the Youth Services Librarian at that library after 22 and 1/4 years.  I will miss the kids and the parents, my fellow workers and the books.  But here is a list of things I will not miss:

Waiting for the bathroom.  Really, ONE ladies' room for the entire library, public AND staff??!!

Stinkbugs in the ceiling lights - and everywhere else.

Air conditioning that doesn't work in the summer and heating that doesn't work in the winter.

Moving books ON to the overflow cart and then moving them OFF the overflow cart.

Moving furniture and then moving it back.

NO ROOM for ANYTHING!!

Being only ten feet away from the snack table.  I have no will power.

Sharing an office with every program and every group that meets in the library.  ALTHOUGH sometimes this is fun.  Go Knitters!

Planning Summer Reading Club!  Let someone else do it this year - and next - and the year after that, too....

Being "in charge"!  It was fun most of the time and I had help being "in charge", but I was the one who had the responsibility.  Time to give that up! 

Squeezing past the Reference Librarian's desk in the workroom and squeezing past the ILL staff person's work station and storing YS stuff in three different places.

Long blue curtains - although if I was more organized we might not need them to hide things behind.

Trying to be organized.  I am NOT good at this at all.  Thank heavens for my assistant, who is.


Getting up five days a week and driving on 22 - and then driving back (sigh).

If I start listing the individuals and things that I will miss - beyond the ones I've mentioned - I might rue my decision to retire.  So I won't.

See you at the Story Cabaret, I hope.  Or at the Dr. Seuss Birthday Party.  Or back here.

The word for today is lonely

Last night, before I went to sleep I had an attack of whistle-itis.  This is where I feel compelled to whistle some melody that is going around and around (and around) in my head.  So, there I am lying in bed whistling "Alone in the World" from the Mr. Magoo Christmas Carol special.  You know the song; is has lines like "Millions of grains of sands in the world; why such a lonely beach?  Millions of pairs of hands in the world; why can't my fingers reach?"
Yeah, that one. The tune is not terribly melancholic.  If you had never heard the lyrics and someone whistled that tune (probably because they HAD to), you'd think it was a love song or a ballad, not necessarily sad.  But it is sad that is.  BTW, that is one of my favorite Christmas Carol versions.  Hey, Dickens!  You the man! 

Then today, Hub and I went to see HP and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.  Talk about L-O-N-E-L-Y!  Whoa!  That whole movie was about loneliness in the face of adversity.  Everyone is all tensed up with worry about the people they love and the inevitable final parting.  Friends fight and young lovers are forced apart and poor Harry has it shoved in his face more than once that he is ALL ALONE in the world.  His family deserts him.  Ron deserts him.  Hermione doesn't but she is tempted when Ron leaves.  I got tears in my eyes more than once watching that film which was also pretty scary.  Lonely and scary.  Now, there's a good time.

That song and that movie made me feel so lucky that I have the Hub and my family and friends.  Take a few moments to offer a prayer for the truly lonely people, and for the temporarily lonely people, too.  Hold them in the Light and envision them in God's hands. 

Now I want to find the Mr. Magoo Christmas Carol DVD.  At least, I know that story has a happy ending and no one ends up all alone.