Monthly Archives: October 2010

Children's literature, Spare time - Culture

David Macaulay

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Last night I dragged Jim to an author event, part of the annual Concord Festival of Authors.  Though I lived in Concord for years and years, I think that this is the first time I’ve attended an event connected with the festival.  (Funny how we take things for granted when those things are easily available, and only fully appreciate those things when they’re a little harder to access.)

As you might have guessed from the title of this post, the author that we heard speak last night was one of my favorites, David Macaulay.  When I was in graduate school at Simmons a decade ago, the departmental head of the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature organized a field trip for a group of us to go down to Rhode Island and visit David Macaulay in his studio.  It was truly one of the highlights of my graduate school career (which is saying something – I loved every minute of grad school), and I have vivid memories of standing in his sunny studio as he pulled out one original drawing after another for us to look at.  It was remarkable to me that he was so willing to yank these drawings out for us to see, and I remember one of my classmates saying something to that end.  To which he replied that the real art, in his opinion, was the finished book, not the drawings made for the finished book.  I love that idea, and I also loved being in the presence of someone so enthusiastic and creative and welcoming.

My one very minor regret about that day ten or so years ago is that I didn’t think to bring my copy of Black and White for him to sign.  Sure, it would have been a little gauche to have brought a book to be signed, but it’s also a cool souvenir and reminder of an exceptional day.  Not that I lost any sleep over not having the book signed, but it would have been nice.

When I saw that Macaulay would be coming to the Concord Free Public Library to give a talk, I almost didn’t bother to sign up, given that life sometimes feels too busy to indulge in things like author talks, but finally I did pre-register, reserving the last two available seats.  And so we went last night, and got to hear David Macualay talk about most (if not all) of his published books in a quick, witty, and engaging talk with accompanying slide show.  I love that he exudes intelligence and creativity, and that’s he’s just a bit kooky, with a dry sense of humor – so dry sometimes that you have to pay excellent attention to everything that he says.  He started by showing us before and after slides from the books that he has recently reworked for publication in the new volume, Built to Last.  I really enjoyed seeing the change from black and white illustrations to color illustrations for Castle and Cathedral (though the woman in line behind me for the book signing didn’t like the change, and Jim isn’t a fan, either), and it was neat to hear his thinking about change of perspective and focus in the new drawings.  At the end of the talk, he gave excellent answers to some rather weak questions – as Jim pointed out, that’s a sign of a good speaker, someone who can take a lousy question and find the nubbin of interesting stuff in there and use that nubbin to formulate an answer. 

And, of course, I did have him sign my two books – Black and White and Building the Book Cathedral.  I told him my story of having visited his studio all those years ago, to which he gave me a tired smile and drew a picture of the robber on the endpaper of Black and White.  As is usually the case when I meet an author, the best part of the evening was hearing him speak; the book signing felt, as book signings often do to me, a little intrusive.  Intrusive meaning, of course, that those of us who wait in line with our books are almost a bit whoreish in our desire to meet the author and have the author sign the book that is going to live in our house.  I do love my signed books, but I’m starting to feel that maybe my signed book collection has reached its maximum level.

It was a fun night though, and I’m really grateful that Jim was willing to be my date for it.  It’s good to get out of our regular life pattern and hear someone speak who lives his life in a creative and intelligent way – very inspiring!

Etc.

Halloween fun with Jim!

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I’m not dressing up for Halloween this year, since Halloween is on a Sunday (library closed), and I’m not working on Saturday.  This is the first time in the last five years that I haven’t dressed up, and I kinda miss it.

Jim, on the other hand, has dressed up twice for Halloween this year, once for the party at his work (he is the activities director at an assisted living facility), and then tonight for a gig his band is playing.  I asked him if the rest of the band is dressing up in costume, and he just chuckled with his best grin and said, “Nope.”  “So you’re the only one who will be in costume?”  Another big grin, “Yup.”

Frustratingly, when I try to insert the photos of these great costumes, something I’ve successfully done many times before, the formatting of my entire blog gets messed up.  With luck, perhaps I’ll be able to add the photos at a later date, but for now I’ll just have to describe those costumes in words…  [Note: obviously, I’ve now added the photos – it seems that adding captions makes the photos upset the formatting of the blog, so I’ve deleted the captions.  But I’ll keep the next paragraph, since it’s already been written….]

Jim bought some black and white face makeup, and used the black cape that we bought him last year or the year before for Halloween.  For the party at his work, he dressed up as a truly scary vampire (and he even woke me up Thursday morning grinning ear to ear with his freshly applied vampire makeup).  No blood, just a big black widow’s peak, black lips, and a white white face.  And then for tonight’s gig, Jim pulled out all the stops and made himself up to look like Gene Simmons, referring to an old album cover for makeup specifics.  He looked pretty darn awesome!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Etc.

Unsaid

After my dental appointment today in Lexington, I stopped by the supermarket in Concord for a few things – honey mustard, oatmeal, orange juice – that are cheaper at that supermarket than anywhere else.  As I walked from my car to the store, I saw Louise, the mom of one of my former tutoring students, whom I haven’t seen in six or eight months, loading grocery bags into her minivan. 

“Hi, Louise,” I said, and she looked up and smiled. 

“Hi, Abby!  How are you?” 

Silently, and quickly, I reviewed my less-than-wonderful, fairly traumatic summer in my head, and thought about the sore throat that just cropped up this morning.  “Ok,” I said, “Surviving…How ’bout you?”

Louise looked at me for a second, then said, “Good, we’re good.”  A second of silence as she thought, and changed the subject, “Are you still tutoring?”

We talked very briefly about the neutral topic of tutoring, and then said goodbye – Louise continued to load her groceries, and I walked quickly into the store.  And we probably won’t see each other again for another six months, or even a year.

Library events

Scrabble Club today!

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This afternoon is the first meeting of the library’s Scrabble club, and the suspense is killing me.  Will I be the only one there, playing Scrabble by myself?  Will there be so big a crowd that we don’t have room for everyone?  Well, ok, that’s obviously not going to happen, but I honestly have no idea what to expect today.  I’m used to running programs that have pre-registration, which means that I have a pretty good idea of how many people will show up.  But we decided to run the Scrabble club as a drop-in program, to encourage last-minute decisions to attend, and thus I have no clue what the meeting will be like.  But if you’re in town, do come by and play with us, 1:30 at the library!  We have the Scrabble boards and a couple of dictionaries – all you need to bring is yourself (all ability levels welcome).

Cats Dogs Plants Animals, Spare time - Culture

My new word

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Jim and I played Scrabble tonight – and I had a lousy combo of letters.  Towards the end of the game, I was getting frustrated, and decided to see if I could get away with adding an “t” to an existing word, to create this word (and yes, I presented the definition with the word):

Mewt adj (myut): a cat that cannot meow

Strangely enough, Jim wouldn’t accept the word.  But he did laugh.  The cats, however, were not amused.

Book groups, Children's literature

Time to give up?

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When I choose books for us to read in the 5th, 6th, and teen book groups at the library, I usually pick new (or newish) books, but I do like to mix in an occasional classic book.  And often parents will ask me if I’ll have the kids reading any classics, and I do like to say, “Yes, we will read X this year.”

One of my favorite classic books for the 5th graders is Five Children and It by E. Nesbit, which was originally published in 1902 and has a long reach of influence:  Edward Eager was inspired by Nesbit’s book to write his own classic fantasy in 1957, Half Magic, and J.K. Rowling has been quoted as saying that Nesbit is the author who has most influenced her work.  And there is the 2004 movie version of the book, starring Kenneth Branagh, which is quite different from the book in many important respects (making it all the more interesting when comparing and contrasting in the book group discussion). 

Past book groups have loved, or at least enjoyed and respected, Nesbit’s book, and we have had many great discussions that were inspired by this book.  But today’s group of fifth graders at book group were less than thrilled by the book.  And this is a group of really good readers, kids who love to read and don’t have to be prodded to do it.  Out of the six kids who attended today, not a single one had read the entire book, and only two had read as much as fifty pages.  The moms of those two who read the most each told me that their child just did-not-like-the-book-at-all, and the moms didn’t want to force the issue, considering that their kids do love to read, and are in the book group because they enjoy discussing books.

So now my question is: is it time to give up on Five Children and It?  Has it seen its glory days?  Is it no longer relevant to today’s kids?  Perhaps 108 years is an eternity in the world of children’s books – perhaps a fifth grader simply doesn’t have the life experience and exposure to history to be able to fully grasp the societal differences in a book written that long ago, when there were no cars, no televisions, no iPods, and when children had a very different role in society.  Not to mention that the language probably feels stilted and wooden to kids who are used to contemporary books that are cranked out with more of an eye to plot than literary style.

I hate to give up on a book that’s really quite good, and that does have such a significant sphere of influence.  But I think I may have to tuck it away on the back of my shelf of book group books, and maybe I’ll have to find some newer children’s classics to use in future.  It’s sad, in a way, but it’s also how children’s literature works: children’s books do have shorter lifespans than adult books (when talking about their appeal to children, that is, not adults), and that’s just the way it goes.  End of story.  So to speak.

Children's book reviews, Spare time - Culture

Currently reading…

Just a quick post tonight, of the books that I’m currently reading:

The Cats of Sanctuary House by Sister Mary Winifred ~ A sweet book (bought at the bargain price of $3.99 at the Concord Bookshop), with snippets about some of the many cats that the Sister has adopted over the years. 

Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities by Martha C. Nussbaum ~ Very interesting – well worth reading if you’re worried, like I am, about the direction our educational system is taking.

Halt’s Peril by John Flanagan ~ Yup, I’m addicted to the Ranger’s Apprentice series…this is book 9 in the series, which is the furthest I’ve ever read into a series…

Tiling: Expert Advice to Get the Job Done Right by Sunset Books ~ Ever hopeful, we are.  So the bathroom floor didn’t get started, let alone finished, this August like we had planned.  There’s always this winter, right?

And I really should also review Five Children and It by E. Nesbit before tomorrow’s 5th grade book group…off I go!

Book groups, Cats Dogs Plants Animals, Storytime, Teens, Young adult book review

Week in review

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It was a crazy busy week (my favorite kind), with lots of attendees at the three infant storytimes, some book ordering, the first fall meeting of the Teen Book Group, and a bit of light at the end of my work tunnel.

Attendance at the infant storytime (for which I use the Mother Goose on the Loose curriculum) continues to be very strong, which makes me happy.  I love seeing my old friends who are growing up (some have even graduated to the Storytime for 2’s & 3’s) and also meeting all of the new friends who have found the storytime.  On Tuesday we smashed a record: the youngest storytime attendee EVER!  This baby girl, younger sibling to two storytime regulars, came for her first storytime at the tender age of five days old.  That’s right, five days old.  She is very, very cute, and her older siblings are sweet as ever and seem to be handling their new sister with great grace.

On Monday, we began the day with a sad note, as Susan and I arrived in the morning to find a dead bird lying on the ground next to the front door of the library.  Joanne, our in-house intrepid animal patrol person (Joanne has NO fear – she blows me away with her fearlessness) wasn’t due in until the afternoon, so Susan and I looked at each other, and I said that I would take care of the bird.  Using a snow shovel and a guide for voters, I scooped the bird up and placed it in the garden area behind the stone benches.  It was a very, very pretty little bird, and not a species that I recognized.  When Joanne came in for work later, we told her about the bird, and I took her out to see it.  She thought it was a type of thrush, and ended up taking the bird’s body home to identify it.  Turns out it was a Swainson’s Thrush, which Joanne told me are currently migrating.  We figure it hit one of the large windows and died upon impact.  Very sad, but what a pretty little bird.

On Tuesday, the Teen Book Group met, minus several members who had field hockey or soccer games, and discussed a book I chose for them, Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve. Though it is a good book, it’s not a great book, and only one of the teens finished reading it (the rest of them read about half of the book).  But there was a little bit of method in my madness of choosing this book: I had just read the book for my own edification, and decided I’d give myself a bit of a break by choosing a book to discuss that I’d actually already read; and, more importantly, I was hoping to inspire the teens to come up with some book suggestions of their own.  My earlier email pleas for book suggestions had disappeared into the ether, with no response, so I figured that if I chose a fairly good book for the October meeting, but not a great book, that the teens would decide to help me out with some titles of books that they actually want to read and discuss.  The trick was that the book had to be good enough to get them to come to the meeting, but not good enough for them to trust me to choose the books for the rest of the year.  Sneaky, huh?  It worked, too – we have enough book suggestions to last us through the summer.  But I don’t want to discourage anyone from reading Mortal Engines, because it is a good read, best for a more mature reader (translation: adults will like this book more than teens) and for someone who really likes science fiction and is willing to try out a bit of steampunk. 

The week was also successful in other ways, as I work to get caught up after being out for those many days.  The Cultural Council grant application is finished, a bunch of books have made their way down to Susan for processing, and an order for new books has been placed.  My desk is as clean as it gets, storytimes are planned out for the next four weeks, my first class visit has been scheduled, and the feeling of panic has subsided down to the usual stressed-but-ok feeling.  Phew.  And now, with a long weekend ahead, I’m planning to make some feltboard stories…and to enjoy the gorgeous weather that has finally arrived.

Blog administration, Librarianship, Library events, Storytime

Reapproaching normal…

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After this long blog hiatus, I’m finally feeling like I’m reapproaching normal (though I’m sure my two siblings will argue that I’ve never been normal…), and it seems like a new blog entry is in order. 

August and early September were a bit tough for me, and that’s all that I’ll say here, but since returning to work on September 7 I’ve been working hard and getting myself caught up.  I have lots of goals for myself this year, some of them my “official” goals for my annual review, others just things that I’d personally like to accomplish:

  • I’ve been creating all new lesson plans and feltboard stories for my Toddler Storytime, so that I can feel more excited about the storytime myself, and hopefully pass that excitement on to the kids and their parents.  I’ve also renamed this storytime, since it turns out that the word “toddler” has negative connotations for parents of three-year-olds; by the time a child is three, a parent no longer thinks of him or her as a toddler, though the age combination of two and three year olds in this storytime has been fantastic.  The two year olds are just learning the drill, the three year olds are serving as role models for the younger kids while gaining in confidence themselves.  It’s a really wonderful age grouping, and I decided that the name of the storytime needed to be less limiting – so it has been renamed, rather blandly perhaps, but descriptively, the “Storytime for 2’s & 3’s.”
  • All those new lesson plans for the Storytime for 2’s & 3’s have inspired me to create some new feltboard stories for exclusive use in the Preschool/Pre-K storytime.  These kids LOVE feltboard stories, and I realized that I need to be using feltboard stories every week with them, rather than every third week as I had been doing.  And, while the feltboard stories that I use for the younger group serve well for the kids ages four and up, the older kids deserve to have some feltboard stories of their very own.  I’ve created a list of books that will translate well to felt, and now I’m going to chip away at creating new feltboard stories on the weekend (as always, in my own time, with my own materials, so that the feltboard creations belong to me and not the library). 
  • With my library director’s enthusiastic blessing, I’ve created a new once-monthly Scrabble Club, inspired by the many, many other libraries in the country who already run successful Scrabble Clubs.  Our first meeting is on a Saturday afternoon in mid-October, open to all ages and all ability levels, and I’m really, really excited about it.  Hopefully there are enough Scrabble enthusiasts in town to get this program rolling, and to sustain it for a long time.
  • Jennifer and I got inspired recently, and rearranged the children’s room, moving the Advanced Reader collection (for grades 5 & 6 and up) to a corner location in the high-stacks section of the children’s room.  This collection was starting to outgrow its original spot in the center, low-stacks portion of the children’s room, so a move was necessary, though labor and sneeze intensive.  A nice side benefit of this move is that the Juvenile fiction collection, now located in that center section, is receiving more attention and more traffic that it did previously.  And another nice side benefit was that a lot of shelves got dusted in the course of the shift.  (We won’t talk about the asthma attack that came later…dust mask next time!)

Of course, these four items are but a few of the things that I’ve been working on this past month, but they are the most interesting and notable.  On this weekend’s schedule:  re-reading Tuesday’s Teen Book Group Book, Mortal Engine by Philip Reeve, making a feltboard story for the “Playing” storytime, and enjoying the gorgeous weather that they say is coming for the weekend.  And maybe a blog entry or two, to get me back on schedule with my blogging…