All posts by Abby

Library events, Pop culture

Despicable Me

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I’m going to make this post short and sweet:  I love, love, LOVE the movie Despicable Me.  After Friday’s movie night showing at the library, I have now seen it two and a half times – and I love it even MORE than I did after the first time.  I almost never buy DVDs for myself, but I’ve decided that I need to own this one.

And I’m not alone in loving this movie – the movie night crowd was the most attentive I’ve ever seen them.  Ever.  And there were some YOUNG kids in the crowd (two and three year olds) who lasted through the entire film without complaint or wiggles.  Best of all, there were some real fans of the film in the audience, who called out lines like:  “Lightbulb!!”  and “He’s so FLUFFY!!!”  It was a really, really fun time – the best possible way for me to see a favorite movie one half more time (I was on front-door-of-the-library-duty for the first half of the movie).

And the moral of this post is:  if you haven’t seen Despicable Me yet, you need to.  If you’ve already seen it, then you need to watch it again.

Book groups, Children's literature

The Capture

As I write this, Pippa is sleeping on the ottoman by the woodstove, so totally and completely asleep that her mouth is hanging open a bit and her whiskers are twitching.  Ah, to be a cat who lives in a house with a woodstove…

Which, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with the book The Capture by Kathryn Lasky.  As I mentioned in a past post, we discussed The Capture at last Tuesday’s Teen Book Group meeting, and I wasn’t too thrilled about having to read the book (I may have even used the word “procrastinating”).  But I did read the whole book before the book group meeting, and I really don’t have any problems with it.  It’s not my favorite genre – as Jennifer says, talking animal books get old pretty fast – but for its chosen genre of animal fantasy, it is fairly well done.  Lasky is a very competent writer, and I was pleased that there weren’t glaring grammatical errors as I’ve seen in some other recently read children’s books.  I appreciate that the pace of her prose is smooth and clean, though I would agree with one of the teens in the group that character development is minimal, which is a serious flaw of the book.

(Pippa just woke up, suddenly, with glazed and confused eyes and a tiny bit of relaxed drool on her bottom lip.  Ah, woodstoves.)

As for the book group’s discussion on Tuesday – there wasn’t much to be said.  I had fears of this when the group voted nearly unanimously to read this book for the January meeting, but I thought that perhaps my fears were misplaced.  They weren’t.  The teen book group is made up of seventh, eighth, and ninth graders, and The Capture has an intended (and actual) readership of third and fourth graders.  Meaning that the older kids really couldn’t find much to discuss in this book.  I had suspected that we’d have a hard time filling the one hour book group meeting, so I had the DVD player set up and played the first twenty minutes of the recently released movie Legends of the Guardians at the start of our meeting, hoping that the compare/contrast between movie and book would help to fill our allotted time.  It did, somewhat, but conversation was definitely waning long before the group meeting was over.  As we were cleaning up at the end, three of the girls and I talked together about how difficult it was to find anything to discuss in this book.  And we did all agree that it was just plain too young for them, in this book group context.

Next month’s book should be much more conducive to discussion, though: we’ll be reading Demons of the Ocean, first in the Vampirates series, by Justin Somper.  Vampire pirates?  How totally cool.  And I have absolute faith in this book choice for the group, since it was suggested by a group member who has consistently made excellent choices for us.  She’s got great taste, and we all trust her!!

And Pippa is wide awake now, basking contentedly in the bright morning sun that is now coming through the window – double bliss, sunshine and woodstove.

Children's literature, Spare time - Culture

Books I’m Reading…

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These are the books on my to-be-read pile:

Beautiful Jim Key: The Lost History of a Horse and a Man Who Changed the World by Mim Eichler Rivas ~ Wonder Horse by Emily Arnold McCully just came in to the library, and I got totally intrigued by this story of a black man in the late 1800’s who trained his horse – Jim Key – to do all sorts of things like read, do math, make change, etc.  Wonder Horse is a great book, but it’s a picture book, and I wanted to know more, so I tracked down this adult nonfiction book which the library happily owns.  I’ve read a few pages, and pored over the photographs, and can’t wait to find a little more time to read more.

The Capture by Kathryn Lasky ~ I need to read this one, the first in the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series, before Tuesday’s Teen Book Group.  Guess I better get on that, huh?  (Can you tell I’m not too enthusiastic?)

Origami Art: 15 Exquisite Folded Paper Designs from the Origamido Studio by Michael LaFosse ~ Michael came to the library and did a fabulous program in October of 2008, just before he and Richard Alexander moved the Origamido Studio from Hopkinton, MA to Hawaii.  I’ve periodically borrowed his 2003 children’s book on origami from the library (and just bought myself a copy, finally), and thought it would be fun to get one of his sophisticated, adult-oriented books on origami.  Who knows if I’ll be able to do any of the projects, but it’s fun to imagine that I can…

And those are my top three books-to-read at the moment.  I’d love to hear what you’re reading at the start of this new year…

Etc.

Happy New Year!!!

Here’s to a fabulous 2011!!

And my blog resolution, as always, is to be more faithful with substantive and frequent posts – starting tomorrow…  🙂

Etc.

In Praise of Garnet Hill

When someone does something fantastic, you need to thank them…and so I’m writing this post in praise of Garnet Hill.

Garnet Hill is already my favorite place for clothes and bedding, but I am now in awe of their customer service.  I’m not going to type out the full story here, because I know that there are some people in the world who might abuse the good nature of a company like Garnet Hill, but suffice it to say that they are FABULOUS and that the customer service person I spoke to tonight went out of her way to make me happy.  I am SOOOO impressed by them – and so glad that there are still honest, decent companies in this country who value their customer’s goodwill.  Tonight’s positive customer service experience gives me a whole heck of a lot of hope for the future of this country.

Children's literature, Etc.

Christmas memories

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Every Christmas, my parents would give me at least one, usually several, books for Christmas.  While the toys were always the most exciting presents to open, in the end I loved the books the most.  My best memories of Christmas days past are curling up in a chair mid-afternoon, sometimes surrounded by pieces of wrapping paper and ribbon, and reading my new book (or books) for hours on end. 

I just took a quick walk around my bookshelves and found a dozen of these Christmas books.  My personal library has been shrinking over the years, now that I’ve discovered the joy of less to dust and money from used book stores, but I have never, ever sold one of my Christmas books.  Here are the dozen I found this morning, with the inscriptions in them:

A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, with pictures by Tasha Tudor:  Love to Abby from Mom & Dad Christmas 1973  [also signed by Tasha Tudor to me]

Father Christmas Goes on Holiday by Raymond Briggs: Love to Abby from Mom & Dad Christmas 1975

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle: To Abby Harper Christmas 1977 with love from Mom and Dad

The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton: Love to Abby from Mom and Dad Christmas 1979

Smoky the Cow Horse by Will James:  Ok, there’s no inscription in this one.  But I VIVIDLY remember getting it as a gift on Christmas

Treasury of World Masterpieces: Mark Twain (a collection of novels and short stories):  Love to Abigail from Mother and Father Christmas 1981

Around the World in Eighty Days ~ From The Earth to the Moon ~ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne:  Love to our Voracious Reader, Abby, from Ma & Pa 1981 Christmas

H.M. Pulham, Esquire by John P. Marquand:  Once again, no inscription, but a vivid memory of receiving it

The Illustrated Sherlock Holmes Treasury by Arthur Conan Doyle:  To Abby with love from Mom and Dad 1983

My Antonia by Willa Cather:  (in my writing) – Abigail Harper from Mom and Dad Christmas ’86

The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence:  Love to Abs from Mom and Dad [first book with Dad’s name written in his own writing!] 1995

The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis:  To Abby from Mom and Dad December 1996 [Dad’s writing]

I’m sure there are others hidden in my bookshelves – maybe I’ll find them and pull them out for next year’s Christmas post.  Meanwhile, I wonder what book or books I’ll get this year?  Merry Christmas, everyone.

Book groups, Children, Children's literature

Reading

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The 6th Grade Book Group met on Tuesday, and we had such a good meeting (eight attended the meeting – only one member abstained from attending, and that was because he hated the book).  This group of kids is smart, funny, well-read, and increasingly more mature and sophisticated.  It’s a joy to see them growing up and to see them developing and voicing their thoughts and opinions.

We discussed Michelle Harrison’s 13 Treasures, a book that I’ll cover in more detail in a separate post.  Though our discussion did mostly focus on this particular book, my favorite part of the group meeting was when we each answered a question from the book club edition of Table Topics cards:  “Why do you like to read?”  This question really sparked everyone’s interest, and there were some great responses.  As always, it’s hard to completely replicate this kind of intense, rapid-fire conversation, but here’s my best attempt to remember everyone’s comments:

  • “I really like to read, then create a movie in my mind.”  To which I replied, “That sounds like something a teacher might say…”, prompting this passionately spoken follow-up response: “Yeah, but I really DO like to create a movie in my mind.  I like to imagine what the characters look like, what the scenery looks like, and to imagine how the book would come to life.”
  • “I really really like suspense in a book.  I really like it when I don’t know what’s going to happen next, and I’m on the edge of my seat.”
  • “I love fantasy and action – I love imaginary things.”
  • “I love the way that when you’re reading a book you completely and totally forget about everything else in your life – you’re so busy reading and imagining that you can’t think about other things.”  [Lots of agreement to this statement – reminding me, the grown-up, how tough it is to be a sixth grader.]
  • “I’m completely the opposite of Jane – I HATE suspense!!!  I hate not knowing what’s going to come next!!!!”
  • “I love when you finish a book and you can move on to the sequel, and continue to find out more about the characters and what happens to them.”
  • “I love reading and reading and reading, as much as I can, as fast as I can.”

There were many other great comments, which my aging brain cannot, unfortunately, remember.  And then there was a lull in the discussion, and I said, “It’s interesting to me that you all had great responses to this question, but no one had the response that I have – that I love to read because I love to see how authors use language, especially in really well-written books.”  And the kids agreed that yes, they mostly read for plot, not language.  So I mentioned that one of my favorite children’s books has an incredibly lovely first paragraph that makes me misty eyed every time I read it.  Surprisingly, most of the kids had never read Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, though one or two had seen the movie (and I told them there is absolutely NO comparison between the book and the movie).  I could see some of the group was intrigued by the idea of this lovely first paragraph, so I asked Suzy to go out into the children’s room and see if the book was on the shelf, which it was.  And I asked the kids to really listen to the words – to even close their eyes if they were going to be distracted by their neighbors, and I read this wonderful paragraph out loud:

The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning.  The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot.  It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color.  Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone.  There is no thunder, no relieving rain.  These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after.  (Babbitt, Natalie. Tuck Everlasting. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975.)

There was a moment of silence when I finished reading this paragraph, then one bright-eyed boy quietly said, “Could you read that again?”  Which I did.  And then there was more silence, and not much discussion of what I had just read, but I could tell that the kids were moved by Babbitt’s language.  Some things don’t need to be talked about – some things can just be understood by everyone in a room.

And then our time was up, and we had to clean up and distribute the books for our January meeting.  As the kids were leaving the room, I thanked them several times for a great meeting – and for being such a great group.  Thanks, guys, again, for your thoughts on books and reading.  It was inspiring!!

Children, Librarianship

Happy Holidays!

There have been lots of sweet and thoughtful holiday gifts arriving on my desk this week:  a lovely bookmark with a quote from Thoreau; bath gel and lotion; enormous olives stuffed with feta cheese; a sweet little picture frame; heavenly homemade cookies; homemade marshmallows; a pretty mug with Ghiradelli cocoa mix in it; and all kinds of other awesome stuff.  And then today a cute first grade girl shyly came up to me with a picture that she had made for me (she also inscribed it “To Abby – From Jane Doe,” which I cut off in my photo to preserve her anonymity).  Click on photo to enlarge and to see all of the details, which do get cut off in the thumbnail:

She took a minute to tell me about her picture:  Santa’s bookcase has books, and also Santa’s hat and an elf’s hat.  Then there’s a roaring fire in the fireplace, and Santa’s desk and desk chair.  I LOVE this picture!  It’s on our fridge, in a spot of honor.  I also LOVE that so many people have taken the time and energy to let me know that they care about me this week – it’s really, really nice to be reminded once a year that what you do matters, and that other people notice.  Thanks, everyone, and right back at ‘cha!!!

Feltboard

Froggy Gets Dressed

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Hot off the press – or out of the scissors: my newest feltboard figures, for the story Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathan London.

Pictured below are Froggy in his bed, with the view of a snowy day through his window; then Froggy with all of his clothes – blue hat, orange socks, blue boots, pink mittens, light pink long underwear, purple pants, yellow shirt, tan jacket, orange scarf; and Froggy outdoors with the snow and a tree, fully dressed.  Of course, in the story, Froggy never quite gets outside with ALL of his clothes on, but you’ll have to read the story to find out what does happen.  (Click on images to enlarge.)

Book groups, Etc.

Cranky

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Yes, surprise surprise, I’m cranky today.

  • There’s nothing in the house to eat for dinnner.
  • Jim is at the Patriots game…no extra ticket for the wife…grrrrr…
  • I have to make a feltboard story this afternoon for tomorrow’s storytime – and I’m so NOT in the mood.  (The story is Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathan London, for the Winter theme Storytime for 2’s & 3’s tomorrow.)
  • I have to finish reading the book for Tuesday’s meeting of the 6th Grade Book Group – and I HATE this book.  It’s all I can do to wade through it.  Blech.  More on this book in a separate post, but meanwhile I have to finish reading the darn thing.
  • Still haven’t gotten over the stupid cold that’s been bugging me for two weeks now. 
  • Christmas is coming, and no one seems to be in the Christmas spirit this year.
  • The mice moved in and made a nest in the flannel sheets I had down in the basement by the washer, waiting to be washed.  Lots and lots of sunflower seeds and little mouse poopies hidden in the folds of my nice flannel sheets.  Grrrr.  More laundry for me today.   Grrrrr.
  • And, did I mention that Jim is at the Patriots game, having an awesome time, and I’ll be watching the game on t.v.?  I did mention that already?  Ooops.

Cranky mood sharing done.  Stay tuned for a nicer post tomorrow.