Monthly Archives: May 2007

Book groups, Children's book reviews, Children's literature

Green Glass Sea

Yesterday was the last fifth grade book group of the school year (though we’ll have one meeting in July), and it was the best yet.  This group of kids has evolved so much over this year, and they are now the most thoughtful, well-spoken, intelligent, and respectful bunch of fifth graders that I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. 

Our book was The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages, a piece of historical fiction about the building of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos.  Dewey, the main character, is ten when the story starts in 1943; we begin with her being transported out to Los Alamos to join her scientist father who has been working there for a while.  The story continues up to the dropping of the first bomb on Hiroshima, and a sequel is in the works.

The kids loved the book.  And I mean LOVED the book.  This really surprised me, since I had kind of pulled a fast one on them to even get this book into the mix for a group discussion (they had summarily rejected this book in favor of a cowboy story, and I was regretfully going along with their choice until I figured out there weren’t enough copies of the cowboy story available, and I snuck The Green Glass Sea back in).  The group is half girls, half boys, and everyone really liked the misfit, nerdy character of Dewey.  The girls loved that Dewey is a pioneer, a girl who excels at science and experiments, and that she doesn’t care about what other people think of her.  The boys respected Dewey’s intelligence, and one commented extensively on how being a “nerd” isn’t necessarily a bad thing.   

Another member of the group, who I swear is better educated and more intelligent at the end of fifth grade than I am now, got us into a conversation about the differences between boys and girls.  The conversation arose because I mentioned the tension between the pair of married scientist characters in the book (the wife begins to have serious misgivings about using the bomb on civilians, while her husband is too wrapped up in the excitement of scientific success to see her point), and Aaron commented that boys grow up playing with soldiers and loving war, while girls are more peaceful.  There was some bristling of other group members as he said that, but eventually we were able to discuss that yes, there are some differences between men and women, and that we also need to be careful not to make blanket, stereotypical statements about any group.

Peter, another group member, then said: “It’s really not fair that men can get drafted to go to war, but women can’t.  Everyone’s equal, so drafting should be equal, too.”  A lot of eyes opened wide, as the truth of that statement hit home.  Then Peter started to talk about the cruelty of the atomic bomb, and how hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed.  Which started an excellent conversation about war and why the atomic bomb was created in the first place.

We covered so much ground in our conversation that it would be hard to remember all of the group’s insightful comments; and this post would become more than long.  So let me just finish with a comment from Jill:  she told us that her teacher had informed her that this book was too difficult for her, and that the fifth grade library book group shouldn’t be reading it because it would be too hard for fifth graders to understand.  Jill was incensed by her teacher’s comment, and so she finished the book that weekend and then wrote a voluntary two-page summary and critical analysis of the book, which she turned in to her teacher on Monday morning.

No word on the teacher’s reaction…

Spare time - Culture

A beautiful day

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Today’s weather was fabulous:  clear, dry, not too hot, blue sky.  Jim and I spent the whole day outside, working on the latest projects.  I got all of the plants from Hutchins Farm in the garden, and even bought a few more from Idylwilde Farm for some container gardens.  Can’t wait until they start blooming.

 Jim had been working on the siding of the house while I planted the plants.  Once I was done, I joined him.  And we got ambitious: we ripped off the vinyl siding on most of the remainder of the house, finding some fairly good clapboards on the dining room exterior walls, and finding some absolute nightmare clapboards on the north wall by the back door, foyer, and bathroom window.  Blech.  Too short clapboards had been terribly pasted together, and over the years water from the incorrectly installed gutters had poured down between the vinyl siding and the clapboards, making for a rotten, moldy, disgusting mess.    Blech.  I held the ladder as Jim ripped the old siding off, and I’ve never been dirtier.  Floods of dirt and dead bugs and spider webs and rotted leaves poured down on my head (thank goodness for the baseball cap) and – until I learned better – into my mouth.  Blech.

Jim and I are fans of Christopher Guest’s movies, most especially Waiting for Guffman, Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind, and Best in Show.  As we surveyed the damaged house that we had uncovered today, we both thought of one of our favorite lines from Best in Show, as Cookie and Jerry Fleck pull up to a “friend’s” house:

“What a shitbox!  I thought you said they got a better place?”

“They did…” 

Blog administration

Dear Readers…

Well, my blog chose a terrible time to crash:  right before the start of summer reading.  Without a doubt, this is my most stressful time of year, as I finish all the last minute preparations for the summer program. 

Please bear with me as I try to juggle my huge schedule right now; I’ll do my best to add some new entries here, and to also move older entries over from my original blog.  🙂

Blog administration

A new home for “Children and Books”

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A week ago, my blog stopped functioning. I couldn’t add new posts, and couldn’t edit old ones. My administration team and I finally figured out that the old site could not be saved, so we installed an entirely new blog. Gradually, I’ll be moving old posts over to this new site. And of course I’ll be adding new posts here as well.

Stay tuned for more “Children and Books”!

Book groups

Yellow Star

Last Tuesday the Teen Book Groups met.  My group had read Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy, with the option to also read Day of Tears by Julius Lester.  In the end, only three of the seven girls enrolled were able to attend the meeting (it’s softball season), but those three and I had an involved, serious, deep discussion about Yellow Star (only one of the three had read Lester’s book) and the broader issues of prejudice, war, and the Holocaust. 

In Yellow Star, Roy relates the story of her aunt’s childhood in the Lutz ghetto in free verse, portraying the thoughts and experiences of a little girl who was one of only twelve child survivors of that ghetto.  Mesmerizing and intense, the incredibly moving story is a read-in-one-sitting book, because there is no way to stop once you’ve been sucked into the vortex of its horror and beauty. 

As we discussed the book, I noticed a couple of things: that it is virtually impossible to snack on Munchkins and pretzels while talking about a book that concerns starvation and deprivation, and that it can be very hard to have a detailed conversation about a book like this one.  We talked how and why Roy had chosen to write in free verse, and we brought up our feelings about certain specific incidents in the book, but our discussion was far shorter than the one we had about the mystery novel Blackthorn Winter.  How to critique an excellent, but spare, piece of historical fiction?

In the end, our conversation turned to the Holocaust in general, films that the girls had seen in classes, books that they had read prior to this one.  One girl brought up The Diary of Anne Frank, and we spent a good portion of the group meeting discussing Anne Frank.  The girl who had brought up the topic is totally frustrated by Anne and her human foibles, such as that Anne wasa still thinking and writing about makeup and boys while others were being tortured and killed in concentration camps.  “How could that be?” questioned this girl, “How could Anne be preoccupied with things like that while in the midst of the Holocaust?”

To me, the natural answer is that, despite the Nazis, Anne was still a teenage girl.  I tried to explain how I thought that I probably would have been the same way if I had been in those circumstances while a teenager, but I know I didn’t make myself clear.  Don’t we all have idealized notions of how brave we could be, how superhuman we could be, how kind and clear-headed and generous we could be, if we were put into a trying circumstance?  I’d like to think that I’d be exemplary, but in truth I’m sure that I’d disappoint myself in my human pettiness.  It was interesting to see a smart, kind, thoughtful teenage girl’s idealism, and to realize the effect that idealism had on her reading of The Diary of Anne Frank. 

So we solved no issues, but we did have a discussion that left all of us feeling like we had accomplished something.  The next three books we’ll be reading for this group are not as serious, but perhaps we’ll sneak a serious book in again next fall and see where it leads us.

Children

Bonding

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The after school regulars at the library have been a bit rambunctious lately. Suffice it to say that a paper airplane zoomed across the children’s room on Thursday (this is where my experience teaching comes in handy: I boomed out in my best teacher’s voice, “Zachary! Here! NOW!!” and confiscated the airplane from the culprit), and that I’ve practically worn myself out getting up from my desk and asking the kids to quiet down. Not a role that I relish or desire. Time to explore alternate techniques.

So on Friday I channeled my inner Mom. My mom, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, was an extraordinary teacher who instilled her philosophy of teaching and learning in all three of her children. On Friday, wearing the silver ring that she made for me years ago (I save the ring for special occasions, since the edges are getting softer by the year, wearing down, I fear, to nothing at all), I approached the situation as I imagined that she would. When the boys came into the children’s room from school, I greeted them and asked them how their day was, what their plans were for the weekend. Zachary (not his real name) came over to chat with me, and got intrigued by the toy catalog I was looking at. I explained that I was looking through it to pick out summer reading prizes, and he shyly asked if he could help. Next thing I knew, Zach was behind my desk, looking through the catalog, saying, “Hey! That’s cool! Buy that!”. So I talked to him about my budget, and that I can’t afford any prizes that cost more than thirty-five cents each. “Wow,” he said, and then he focused on finding prizes for me that were in my budget.

And he did a great job. For the next twenty minutes or so, Zach and two others from the after school gang clustered around my desk giving me prize advice. They found prizes that I hadn’t noticed, and they were quiet and respectful the whole time. Eventually I gave them a gentle five minute warning, because I needed to get some other work done, and they happily wrapped up their prize advice session and moved on to quietly work on their homework at the chairs by my desk. When the others had left for the day, Zachary asked me to help with the bits of his homework that he didn’t understand, and I guided him towards how to find the answers (that teaching experience again).

At the end of the day, as Zach and I were saying goodbye, I told him that he had been an example of exemplary behavior (did he know what that meant? it meant that he had been really good and a pleasure to be around) and that I really appreciated it. We’re buddies now, and I spent less time talking to him on Friday than I had on the other days of the week when I’d been reprimanding him. Way to go, Mom. You were totally right that kids need and want structure, and that it’s important to remember that attention is attention, whether it be rewarding good behavior or disciplining bad behavior. Far better to reward that good behavior, you used to tell me, and create a cycle of happy interactions. Wise advice.

Spare time - Culture

Weekend

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A typical weekend in the life of a children’s librarian:

– met my friend Gayle at Daniela’s for a yummy dinner and catching up – decided to forgo El Presidente in favor of a Dos Equis (no need to put a DUI on my record)

– watched “The Pursuit of Happyness” after dinner

– took a field trip to Hutchins Farm to buy some bedding plants (Hutchins has the best bedding plants anywhere – it must be their organic growing methods) and to revisit one of my favorite spots in the whole world, looking out over their fields towards the Concord River

– ripped the vinyl siding off of the living room side of the house; or, at least, helped Jim rip it off and stack it

– measured for a new living room window, and took a trip to Concord Lumber to order the window

– weeded and mulched our perennial beds. Much as I dislike mulch, I hate weeding even more. Lesser of two evils.

– had cocktails on our front steps, enjoying the soon-to-be-demolished view of the derelict building next door

– took a walk down to the village, and made a spontaneous decision to go see “The Nerd” at Theatre III (they did a great job, and it was a fun evening)

– scoured the house and did the laundry; Mother’s Day is next weekend, and we’ve invited Jim’s mom to brunch

– paid those bills that have been sitting around

– wrote this blog entry while getting my second migraine of the day (blame all typos and grammatical inconsistencies on my inability to see)

– reading? Did I do any reading? Isn’t that what a good children’s librarian does in her free time? Hmmm, let’s see: I read the bills, and the playbill for “The Nerd,” and the bank statements; I read the Integrity by Marvin window catalog; and I read my reminder post-its stuck above the kitchen sink as I washed the dishes. As for books, can’t say that I’ve touched a book other than to dust around them. Life is so short, and it’s really hard to sit still on the weekends to read a book when I sit still all day every day at work. Does that make me a bad children’s librarian? I sure hope not.

Library events

Inauguration: Scott Jameson

Last night was a big night: the first event (other than the dedication ceremony, of course) in the new, gorgeous Volunteers Hall.  More than one hundred kids and adults packed into the room, settled into the comfy chairs, and enjoyed the show put on by Scott Jameson.  Scott’s show is a really cool blend of magic, acrobatic feats, audience participation, and a bit of humor.  Mary (the library director) was sitting next to me, and kept shaking her head and saying that she had never seen such a great performer at any of our library events.  What amazed me more than anything was that Scott was able to hold the interest of everyone in the group, from age two or three all the way up to a couple of grandparents who attended.  Without question, absolutely everyone who attended had a great time.  (And the one baby in the crowd slept through the whole show, despite the applause and music and laughter.)

This will be a hard act to follow, but I suspect that it was just the first of many, many great events in Volunteers Hall.  Thanks to Scott for the great show, to the local Cultural Council for providing a grant for part of the event, and to the Friends of the library for funding the remainder.

Library events

Last Call

Thursday evening the library is hosting “Magic by Scott Jameson,” a show that promises to be tons of fun and totally involving.  Space is filling up very fast, but there are still a few slots available.  This will be the first performance in the truly incredible Volunteer’s Hall in the new library, a room which can comfortably seat ninety people, and which is climate controlled.  A far far cry from the facilities in the old building; it was difficult to squeeze thirty people into the old room, and it was torturously hot in that old space in the summer time.

Check out Scott’s website to see a video of one of his performances:  www.scottjameson.com

And thanks to the local Cultural Council and the Friends of the library for funding this event!