Paperback Girl

testing

2009-08-17T13:56:00.001-07:00

I wish I could throw sheep at people irl...

2008-05-05T20:34:00.001-07:00

I laughed 'till I tearbended

2008-05-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

Eight Belles and the Failure of Horse Breeders

2008-05-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

I'll keep this short. Horse racing is a tough, sometimes really nasty sport, but so are all animal sports. But what is truly horrible about the death of Eight Belles is that any horse person worth their salt should have seen that Eight Belles was too big for her bones. Kim Eisler, author, journalist and horse owner states, "This is an act of folly by the owners that borders on the criminal, as nothing good will come of racing this filly at this distance against colts, with no predicate having been laid for it."

All of the horses that ran tonight are descendants of Native Dancer, a winning horse known for delicate bones and big muscles. The fatally thin bones continue to be allowed to pass down the line, forcing us to witness animals dying on the race course again and again.

With the unequivocally criminal death of Eight Belles, perhaps greater scrutiny will fall on breeders and owners to make sure animals are bred to be sound first, fast second.

The Sharing Knife: Passage by Lois McMaster Bujold

2008-04-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

Back.. with a Vengeance!

Summary: I loved this book. If you enjoy fantastic romance, this is your book.

I was lucky enough to be given the ARC of the third Sharing Knife novel, and I'm happy to report that I found it every bit as engaging at the first two, and there will definitely be a fourth novel in the series. (It really would have sucked if I had hated the book, because I had to post a review of it either way) If you have been hoping for an in-depth exploration of the farmer-Lakewalker universe, I think you will find the novel every bit as satisfying as I did.

For the folks screaming "where's the epic fantasy?!" I think you should know that the first two novels are romantic fiction first, fantasy second. I've given these novels to romance readers who are overjoyed by the rich relationship between Dag and Fawn that seems to keep its romantic vigor going strong through both novels (which were originally written as a single novel I believe) and on into Passage.

To folks appalled by the age difference between the main characters: I'm sorry, Dag doesn't magically younger or vice versa, though the author notes that the age difference in remarkable in-universe, not just for the reader.

Passage departs from the first two books' focus on the families of Dag and Fawn, allowing the reader to get a better view of the wider world in which the two live. The first two books in many ways feel consciously small, mimicking the narrow fields of experience of the two main characters. Now Dag has decided to go on a new world tour, anxious and uncertain about the future, but buoyed by his wife's unceasing enthusiasm for life.

Dag has been around the known continent as a respected malice hunter, but now he is isolated, unwelcome in Lakewalker society. Fawn has hardly been anywhere, but her youthful enthusiasm and common farmer appearance make it easier for her to negotiate her new status, even though her husband is treated with suspicion and hostility. Farmer-Lakewalker relations are at the forefront of Passage, and Dag fumbles his way from relative obscurity to celebrity/pariah status. Hoping to explore his new-found abilities in a way that will benefit everyone, his best efforts end up infuriating his brethren and confounding (and bequiling) the farmers, boatmen and townspeople he and Fawn meet along their journey.

Bujold takes a lot of inspiration from early American history, which I find very appealing. Flat boats, window glass, even iron stoves pop up in the story and create a believable world that is on the brink of new technologies and the eruption of old evils, and not just malices.

I tried not to give too much away, but the book is coming out soon, so enjoy!

Monique and the Mango Rains by Kris Holloway

2007-02-01T19:08:00.000-08:00

I don't usually do book recommendations for adults, but this time I will make an exception.

I read Monique and the Mango Rains for a book club, quite by accident really. I got an email from my local alumni begging for a place to hold the meeting, so I offered. This meant I had to read the book. It was really serendipitous that it wasn't something like the Mermaid Chair, which I have no interest in. The story of a midwife in Mali and the young peace corps volunteer who became her friend and confidant appealed to my anthropological interests.

What makes this book special, compared with popular pseudo anthropological titles like The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, is that this is a story of a friendship as much as it is a ethnological account of a small Malian town and the local Bambara culture.

If you liked No.1 Ladies Detective Agency because you liked reading about the African world the characters inhabited, this is the book for you.

Contemplating a Pyramid Scheme for a good cause

2007-01-30T20:17:00.000-08:00

I really want to get a free Wii, or an X-box 360 for the library. Why, you may ask, do I need this? Simple: for programming that gets teens excited. I know the library won't buy one, because we barely have enough money to pay for the simple things: I had to clean up vomit the other night because we don't have custodial staff available during work hours.

So when I hear the ads for these pyramid schemes on the radio, I think: gosh, if I could just get ten friends to buy some crap and then cancel after a month, I could get a console that would really spice up the Teen Advisory board meetings I'm planning this spring.

I can't shake the feeling that this is akin to selling my soul to the devil... but its nice to dream.

Soldiers and Librarians: Closing the information gap for military families

2007-01-26T21:00:00.000-08:00

In my few months on the job, I have come across several incidents in which I was pulled from my comfortable reference desk into the cold reality of living with a relative at war. A woman asked me for books with maps of Iraq, because she was positive the American government was blocking her ability to find these maps on the web. I quickly located some decent topographical and political maps for her, but she specified that she wanted maps with cities and roads.

"I want to keep track of where my son is." She said. She told me that he had just landed in a troubled region in Iraq. I put two and two together and asked if he had been involved in the emergency helicopter landing that had happened earlier that day. She said yes, and laughed a little. "He was just getting there and already he's under fire. Blew out an eardrum."

"Will he get sent home?" I asked hopefully.

"No," she replied. She then gave me the story he had given her about how the Iraqis he had met were nice people and they were down there doing an important job. I nodded. If I knew someone I loved was over there, I would probably be saying the same thing, because otherwise I would go mad.

A second notable encounter was during the big ice storm that killed power in so many areas. A woman came in to use her email, because her cable was down. She wanted to say happy birthday to her son in Iraq. Unfortunately she didn't know her password to access her account remotely. I tried to set her up with a free account, but these free accounts now require a previous address from a non-free provider (which leads to all manner of trouble for poor families, but that's another story for another day).

Finally, I just let her use my email address. She was happy and I was happy to help, but now I have this momento sitting in my mail of just how hard it is for families to connect with each other, when a soldier is thousands of miles away dodging bullets, and his parents can barely figure out how to use an AOL account to send him a birthday card, much less keep in regular contact.

What I did in these instances was not rocket science, but to the patrons, I provided a priceless service. Sometimes its the simple things that are most gratifying.

Back Again

2006-12-14T07:11:00.000-08:00

So here I am, on the eve of a new year, sitting at a brand new reference desk and wondering at how time flies. I still love my new job, and the new building we've moved into makes it even better. Gone is the nasty orange carpeting of the old school building! Instead there are fancy new carpets in wild colors and beautiful granite floors. I have my own office space now, shared with my supervisor and fellow youth librarian. And I have my own selection activities, including manga and anime (of course) as well as picture books and early readers. I even started a new parenting shelf, which I am quite excited about.

So what is there to say about librarianship now that I am actually working as a librarian? Quite a bit, and I'm going to try to make the time to say it. Stay tuned.

Months later...

2006-09-18T08:16:00.000-07:00

I love my new job. You can tell, because I haven't thought about posting in a while. I haven't wanted to sit back and contemplate librarianship because I've been having too much fun! I jumped in after ALA and haven't slowed down since.

The best part about being a REAL librarian is that I get to have time to work on collection development new projects like a MySpace for the library, and of course devote a lot of time to programming. I'm doing baby storytimes, a teen anime and manga club, and some special Teen Read Week programming to name just a few activities.

My new peeps, or patrons or whatever, are wonderful. I get to move into a brand new building in November. I've gotten a lot of money to buy pretty, new books. Basically, its the best of all possible worlds.

Back to cleaning.. ah, domesticity! Without school, I actually have a little time for it.

Impressions of New Orleans

2006-07-08T14:49:00.000-07:00

What I will remember most about New Orleans outside the long, empty, cold, clean corridors of the convention center are the restaurants, the Bruce Daigrepont band and the cabbies.. and the humidity. The places I ate at, Gumbo Shop, Mulates, Tommy's, and New Orleans Heritage were all very good. In some cases, amazing (Gumbo Shop!). New Orleans Heritage will stick in my mind because it was so empty. My party of six friends and new acquaintences were the only people there for a while, having rushed in to get the cheap martinis before 7pm. I was supposed to go to the Mary Chapin Carpentar Awards Bash later, so I was especially anxious when I realized that there was only one single waiter in the place, and perhaps one cook. I ordered French Toast (I don't know why, it looked good?) and wondered if my strange choice was holding us up.. about 50 minutes after ordering the meal arrived, and I ate so quickly I had an upset stomach walking back to the hotel, where I caught a bus to the convention center (there were lots of free shuttles from all the hotels). The French toast was very good, though.

I got to the Bash on time, and found it was in the giant concert hall, not in a room where one could get up and socialize, like I had expected. The best part of the concert ended up being Bruce Daigrepont and his band, a local group who played before Mary came on: they were so upbeat and fun I bought a CD. Mary's guitars and so forth had been lost by US Air, so she was kind of pissed about that, but she sounded great. I ended up leaving because I had developed this cough that wouldn't go away.. and while Mary is great, I thought the program would be less concert, more party. Librarian's don't seem to believe in having a big party/dance like the medieval scholars I attend conferences with.. it's really their loss.

The cabbies were a very interesting assortment of nationalities, personalities, and styles. I talked with one guy driving me around the French Quarter about his family , who are forced to live in Florida while he tries to make a living hundreds of miles away. Another man who was south asian, told me how happy he was that we librarians had come for the conference and how we shouldn't be worried about mold (this was apparently a big fear for some people). Then there was the Croatian man who drove me to the airport. We had such a good time talking, but I can't remember much of what we spoke about, other than how great it was that in the US, if you didn't like one part of the country you could up and move to another part. Oh, and how he knew all the good restaurants. Guess I should have hired him a little earlier.

Much Delayed ALA Diary

2006-07-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

I've been back from ALA for a while, recovering from my cold and spending a blissful week on vacation in a remote island off the shores of Lake Huron.

The final days of ALA were hectic to say the least, packed with shopping in the exhibit hall, eating at places like the Gumbo Shop (yum) and my evenings were spent entertaining friends who were in a crappy hotel in my nice, air-conditioned room. Thus no time to blog about anything. I won't try to write a blow by blow account of Saturday night, Sunday and Monday, but I will give you some highlights, not in chronological order:

10. Big Boxes of Swag
9. Spending A LOT OF MONEY sending books home.. lots of books, some even signed by Tamora Pierce and M. T. Anderson. I saw Scott Westerfeld, Jack Gantos, John Sczieska, Robert Sabuda.. and more people who are probably going to be famous.
8. Bronchitis and Tylonol Cold --severe congestion--
7. Tea Party held for book based on Alice In Wonderland--but with lots of violence.. in your bookstores soon, complete with movie rights (more on that later)
6. Listening to dark, sulky (only when listening to other authors blather) handsome Neil Gaimen talk at the Alex Awards ceremony
5. Free cds of anime sent to me monthly
4. Julius Lester's signature
3. Making it through Printz awards without coughing myself out of the room.
2. Giant banner for reading manga at your library featuring Full Metal Panic characters--free!
1. I am allergic to Laura Bush.

Had to miss Anderson Cooper (see #8) but I went to a really nice restaurant instead with random nice librarians from California, New Jersey etc..

Going to bed now.

Wish me Luck!

Dear ALA Diary,

2006-06-24T07:56:00.000-07:00

YALSA meeting 4pm—Volunteer for YALSA blah blah blah WWE Wrestlers are cool to work with blah blah blah Volunteer for the crummy committees so you can upgrade to cooler committees later blah blah blah NEIL GAIMEN blah blah blah Raffle off books, books on cd, mugs (didn’t win) blah blah.. NEIL GAIMEN HOMGWTF!

Yeah, so I might meet him over the weekend.

5:30 pm I go to dinner at Mulottes, which features Cajun music and spicy gumbos.. I had the Crawfish Etaufee, which was delicious because I like crawdads., and shared a plate of breaded Catfish bites. I hope I go back some time soon, because I want to stay long enough to go dancing. But instead I went to the Booklist program presenting for youth authors talking about humor.. more on that later,

7 pm—I am at the Hilton Riverside in the bathroom. I meet someone in a cool hat.. I chat her up and we go upstairs with her friend—all youth/teen librarians.. I find out fifteen minutes later that I have been speaking with the chair of the Newberry Award Committee. I rock.

8 pm—I am sitting with famous people listening to Mo Willems, Lisa Yee, David Lubar and Jack Gantos talk about Humor: Mo does standup comedy with a sketch pad and pen(he taught us, like he has taught many small children, how to draw his famous pidgeon, while telling us about his insane family). Lisa tells tales of embarrassing herself and her children in the pursuit of a true-to-life humor(told by another librarian that it was a good idea to ask for your book at bookstores and mis-pronounce the name, Lisa did this at her local bookstore.. and the woman looked at her levelly and said, “And that author would be YOU.” I think I would have died). David Lubar gives a gusty rant regarding the low status (for awards committees) of humorous youth fiction. His perhaps is the weakest because he stoops to conquer with some off color puns on popular youth titles.

Jack Gantos talks about the origins of humor in Homer: Homer apparently felt that humor in stories came from having characters who are so stupid the reader/listener feels smart. He made us all feel smart, by telling us about how stupid his family was when he was a kid, how is Mother had some relations, twins in fact, who “preserved” their own mother.. What a crazy pair! But then he twisted it up.. He placed a kernel of tragedy into this stupid story of his childhood, and turned the comedy sharp and tangy, because he suddenly made the entire audience feel just a little bit stupid (not saying more, you’ll just have to read Gantos’ next book.

The evening started with some slapstick and ended with a slap. Some of the librarians weren’t laughing by the end, but I thought they all did a bang up job.

11pm—In bed at Doubletree typing.. too tired to watch tv.. a first!

2 am—My roommate arrives.. my throat hurts.

6 am—I give up on sleeping, get a shower and prepare to attempt to get into the publisher’s breakfast.

7:15 am—HarperCollins breakfast. Grits, bacon, cheesy eggs, fruit, danishes. I’m full. I get some tea for my throat. I meet an author and embarrass myself. Margo Lanagan has a Printz Honor book.. she is nice.. I am feel dumb because I a)haven’t read her book and b)didn’t know who she was c)asked why she was at the HarperCollins breakfast. Oops. I pick up about 15 galleys (free books not yet published) Gail Carson Levine.. Terry Pratchett.. Chris Lynch.. Meg Cabot.. Wheee!

8:00 am—I sneak into the Penguin breakfast and get treated to lots of cool books (Looking Glass Wars) and a new t-shirt and .. Make new friends with publishing people. I think it helps when I say I’m buying the new collection at my library.. hee hee..

American Library Association Conference in New Orleans

2006-06-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

So I am in New Orleans now, in the Convention center.. BLOGGING. ooooh.. Maybe I should blog the American Library Association meeting. First though, the flight and travel.

4:50 am-- URG.. No Shower. forced to eat something.. Not awake. Forced to use alternate deoderant because i already packed mine. I have a bad sore throat.. coughing.. meh.

6-7 am-- Detroit Airport.. blah.

9:20 am-- Atlanta. The junk food machines have Mr. Pibbs and Pork Rinds. I opt for a low calorie bad tasting smoothie.

11 am--Starving in New Orleans.. during the final decent, the plane is silent as everyone cranes their necks over to see if you can tell half the city is destroyed.. My middle seat doesn't afford much of a view, but the girl next to me is a Folklore major studying for test on Proverbs.. I read over her shoulder the whole flight.. yeah I'm annoying like that.

I meet SI staffer on plane.. she lost her luggage but she pays for my cab to Doubletree and promises to go to Mulottes(sp?) with me tonight. Score!

HOLY CRAP ITS HOT AND HUMID. Glad I brought lots of cotton and linen.

12 pm--Doubletree. Its kinda crummier than I thought it would be, (black hair in the sink!) but they gave me a warm cookie at check-in, so I will survive. Unpack my three dresses, three skirts, seven shirts.. for three and a half days. But I have a BIG Carry-on, so it was fine. My roommate will arrive at the hotel probably around 2 am. yay.

3:52 pm--I am now at the convention center, having registered. At 4pm I will go to a YALSA event. I am sitting in the CC lobby peeking into the exhibit hall where a GIANT Google sign is winking at me through a proped door. The CC is UGLY UGLY UGLY and HUGE.. even though half of it is still being renovated. My arm hurts from carrying my laptop and mega-purse.. think I will get a shuttle back to the hotel when this is over.

A few minutes ago I plopped onto the floor next to a girl in pink, mentally identifying her as a youth librarian (I was right). She identified me as the same. I guess we are obvious in our colorful outfits and sensible sneakers. She's in school in Missouri. We had a nice chat, despite my death-rattle cough.

That's all for now... with advil and cough drops I am doing okay!

When Death came to America

2006-05-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

I came home from work tonight to find my family watching Frontline's documentary on AIDS, so I sat down to join them, munching on leftover ribs from the weekend's barbeque. In traditional Frontline gravitas, the story of AIDS unfolded with a focus on how American political cowardice, unscrupulous budget cuts and outright hostility screwed up everything.

What the documentary made me remember was my childhood in the late eighties and ninties, when AIDS really became ugly and obvious to middle America. I vaguely remember hearing about kids being kicked out of schools somewhere down south, but where I lived it was less direct. In my school fears of drinking fountains, public toilets and the giggly discussions of condoms were about as close as any of us got to the disease. There was a general low level understanding of all children that whatever your principle said, people with AIDS were not safe at all. Parents kind of skittered around the subject of getting it, merely emphasizing that sex would really kill you. Really. The AIDS quilt visited, but compassion for those you don't know is much easier when compartmentalized into an art exhibit. The rumors would circulate that some kid had AIDS, and even after you had school assemblies were someone with the virus talked and a few brave souls hugged them, you just didn't believe that kind of thing was safe. I remember wondering about French kissing in a very serious way.

When I went to college, my liberal single-sex campus enjoyed a kind of conscious distance from the disease, partly because it seemed impossible that lesbians could very easily get the disease, much less transmit it and partly because sex was like a controlled substance: you had to go out of your way to get it.

I didn't expect the documentary to affect me. Really, it all seemed like such a long time ago when we were all afraid AIDS would make another jump and become the airborn disease that you could get from toilet seats. Now its just the disease that makes orphans in Africa, and is extremely expensive to deal with if you unlucky enough to get it in the US. But seeing the hemophiliac children with their high-waisted jeans and bart simpson spiked hair, gaunt from disease, get kicked out of school by screaming mothers was truly heartwrenching, jarring me back to my memories of middle school ignorance and vague hostility. I could now see that it had been like Ruby Bridges all over again, but with righteous playing on fears of death, not simply discomfort. Remember those wonderful chain mail myths about dirty needles in movie theaters and vengeful women of the night leaving messages on motel mirrors? AIDS was the new boogie monster, scary but still unreal and disconnected.

And then the new drug cocktails came, and we forgot all about the guant people who seemed to be dying so very far away.

Thank you, Frontline.

Satan slips in

2006-05-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

Ooh, I've been told off! Apparently I irritated someone with my defence of having Grisham in high school english classrooms. Sorry to crow about it.. I get so little excitement in my life.. though I did just check out Sir Thursday from the library.

*rubs hands together gleefully*

I wonder when I will get a full night's sleep.. not having to go to school in the morning makes be stay up until ungodly hours..

I'm Back

2006-05-25T21:26:00.000-07:00

Ah, its good to have a nice shiny new degree.. now if only I had a job to go with it. ^_^

In other news, I have seen several of my old interfaith nunnery pals this month, and had a great deal of fun with them, one at a conference and the other just tooling around town and shopping. I wish all my days were spent so pleasantly among such lovely friends.

It's been forever

2006-03-12T20:00:00.000-08:00

Getting through my classes and obligations this semester feels like scaling the rocky mountains in Birkenstocks. This means I don't get a lot of time to look at newspapers or type anything worth reading aside from long papers about library collection development and obscure theories of information seeking behavior.

I look forward to graduating in April.. that is if I manage to fullfill all of my obligations...

*bangs head against keyboard*

Be back in month.

Penderwicks revisited

2006-01-10T08:36:00.000-08:00

So I finally read the book.. and I liked it. Sweet, comfortingly WASPy goodness that reminds me of the stories my parents used to tell when they would go to the East coast for vacation as children and then college students. The characterizations were spot on for my family, and there was a feeling of nostalgia that kept me thinking about the stoy long after I put it down.

I think for many children though, this book resembles a sort of Harry Potter fantasy novel.

Dexter, Michigan's Library Millage and Bond Passes

2005-11-18T08:28:00.000-08:00

Dexter, Michigan is not a big town, but its growing. Its close to where I live, and I have been to their tiny, basically one room library before and found it cozy but wanting. The bond and millage proposals were pretty big, but necessary for the library to actually serve the growing populace. I remember reading a lot of letters in the newspaper that complained about the cost, and when I didn't see a big news article on it (nothing googlable at least) I thought they hadn't passed.

I am so glad I was wrong. :)

Chris Crutcher's Battle Cry

2005-11-18T08:22:00.000-08:00

This is a shameless link to an eloquent review of Crutcher's The Sledding Hill.

Wholesome National Book Award winner begs the question..

2005-11-18T08:12:00.000-08:00

What the heck are we awarding?

The Penderwicks is "an enjoyable tale," according to the Amazon review, but I had not heard any child or adult talk about it as a book of exceptional.. well.. anything.

Michael Schuab over at Book Slut asks the same question. He quotes Colleen Mondor, who calls the book "a throwback" and declares that more unsentimental and thoughtful novels were being overlooked. Compared with past winners, it just seems like a tame choice.

Grisham's A Time To Kill Challenged

2005-11-09T06:55:00.000-08:00

In Fargo North Dakota, two parents want to take A Time to Kill by John Grisham out of the North High School AP English class where it is compared and contrasted with To Kill A Mockingbird. The book contains graphic descriptions of rape and later the bloody killing of the rapists by the victim's father.

"Teens who are unaware of sensitive scenes lying between the covers of a book could be traumatized."

Traumatized? I watched the film "Glory" in 9th grade, where they blew someone's head off within five minutes of the opening credits. AP english usually means 12th graders, kids who will soon have the right to vote, enlist in the army, and sit on a jury of their peers in cases that have to do with rape and murder.

I would love to poll North High School kids about how reading books by Grisham have "Traumatized" them.

Something else about this article caught my attention. For the most part, it seems that book challengers' children are mostly DAUGHTERS. Where did this idea come from that girls need protection from books?

Dover School Board gets Divine Commupance

2005-11-09T06:26:00.000-08:00

In a mass demonstration of common sense, the people of Dover Pennsylvania voted to remove the current school board.

"Dover's school board adopted a policy in October 2004 that requires ninth-graders to hear a prepared statement about intelligent design before learning about evolution in biology class."

Sadly, Kansas still appears to be returning to the dark ages. It looks like kids will have to rely on cool websites and tv shows like this PBS Series to fill in the serious gaps in their education.

Banned Books: A History

2005-10-05T13:37:00.000-07:00

Just a little reminder that student's freedom to read is delicate.. Would our new Supreme Court uphold this ruling?

A Case of Censorship

In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Island Trees v. Pico that books could not be banned in public or school libraries simply because they contained controversial content. The controversy started in 1975 when the Island Trees School Board attended a conference held by the conservative Parents of New York United. At the conference, PONYU listed several books commonly stocked in public libraries it deemed objectionable.

Following the conference, the school board issued a directive that certain books be removed from school libraries. In the Supreme Court decision, the school board was quoted as saying these books were "anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, and just plain filthy."

Steven Pico, a high school student at the time, along with four other students, sued the school board in U.S. District Court.

"In school, year after year, I had been told how books were banned in communist countries and burned in Nazi Germany," Pico said in a speech to the Missouri Association of School Librarians, according to Herbert N. Foerstel's book "Banned in the U.S.A."

"I could not believe that it was happening in the United States in the 1970s."

The District Court ruled in favor of the school board. Upon Pico's appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the decision and sent it back again for trial.

Rather than face trial again, the board appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. In 1982, the High Court ruled in favor of Pico and the other students. In a 5-4 decision, the court said that the board could not intentionally "deny … access to ideas with which petitioners disagreed."

In his speech to the school librarians, Pico said he was sad none of his teachers offered him support. "Only one of my teachers ever commented to me about the book banning," he said. "One day after class, she whispered to me, 'Steve, you're doing the right thing.' I will never be able to forget that she felt the need to whisper."

Crutcher banned from making speech in Alabama

2005-09-20T19:01:00.002-07:00

Thanks to Kelly Milner Halls for this information.

LIMESTONE COUNTY BOARD BANS SPEECH
ALONG WITH BOOK
September 20, 2005

[Athens, Alabama] One week before banned author Chris Crutcher was scheduled to speak to students at Limestone County's Clements Junior & Senior High Schools, board members once again chose to censor his work -- this time a G-rated assembly about what it means to be a writer.

Media specialists Amy Mosely and Kelly Kelsoe who scheduled the event were quick to defend principal Donald Wilson who supported their desire to bring opportunity to the Clements student body, only after being offered assurances that Crutcher's school discussions contained no harsh language.

Though he could not be reached for comment, one anonymous source suggested the elected board members who banned WHALE TALK in March of 2005 insisted appointed Superintendent Dr. Barry Carroll pull the plug on Crutcher's appearance, effectively censoring what students read AND hear, regardless of content or context.

Dr. Carroll joined an appointed review committee in recommending WHALE TALK remain in Limestone County school libraries after it was challenged in the last school year. Four out of seven board members disagreed and ordered the book pulled.

Crutcher was not surprised. "When you think you can keep kids safe by keeping them ignorant," he said, "you'll go to almost any extremes. This isn't about Whale Talk; it's about any book that has the potential to offend someone, which is any book. I wish some of these school board members knew more about child and adolescent development, or had the information most teachers and school librarians are required to have before they are allowed a voice in education. I mean, kids who might die in Iraq in a few short years are being 'protected' from the language that has the power only to offend someone's sensibilities?"

My Favorite Band Makes the News

2005-09-17T07:05:00.000-07:00

Its about time Harry and the Potters got some recognition.

The DeGeorges spend most of their dates jamming in front of literary crowds at Borders and local libraries. Similar to any other up-and-coming musical act, however, Paul admitted that they sometimes have to take gigs wherever they're available. "We played at this place [in Portland, Oregon] called Voodoo Donut; it's a doughnut shop that opens at 10 at night and closes at 10 in the morning ... we went down there and said, 'Hey, we're in a band. Can we play, like, on top of your bathroom?' There was a kinda stage there with an organ and a PA system ... we had a show earlier in the evening at a bicycle store, and we just invited everyone over to the doughnut shop."

I personally love the idea of punk rock in a donut shop.

Good News Bad News

2005-09-16T07:37:00.000-07:00

Lets start happy. Fayetteville schools will not have a restricted access shelf, meaning Laurie Taylor and her ilk will just have to rifle through their children's book bags every night (not that Taylor has any kids left in the school system). The board also reversed an earlier decision in Taylor's favor, and returned several books to the student shelves.

Now for the more local and sad news. Milan schools will no longer read The Chocolate War for 9th grade English. Even board members who found the book thought provoking seemed afraid to stand up for it, perhaps fearing their reelection campaigns would suffer as a result. Pathetic.

Prez needs potty break.. too much Kofi

2005-09-14T20:35:00.000-07:00

Here's the picture.. its from Reuters, so I think its actually true!

The Chocolate War: A Perennial Issue

2005-09-13T14:39:00.000-07:00

I find it interesting that Robert Cormier's book, The Chocolate War even gets read for class assignments anymore, with the myriad issues parents seem to have with it. Certainly one parent in Milan has a great many problems with it, enough to demand that it be removed from classrooms.

I think I understand why this parent finds the book so wrong. It is one of those rare and dangerous novels for kids where the hero has to deal with bullying but doesn't get vindicated for his just stance: he gets humiliated and tormented, and nothing good seems to come from his actions. The power of such a book is that it forces students to confront the scary fact that doing something you feel is right sometimes doesn't work, and sometimes gets you in trouble.

Take Thomas for instance, over at Newsrack. He exercised his right to say what he felt in a demonstration, and nearly got hit with a felony count for wearing a hood at the "Freedom March".

The Chocolate War isn't didactic at all, and that's really why it comes back again at again as a novel that is useful for classroom work. Kids have to figure out the meaning for the story for themselves, they can't rely on the narrator to give them the answer to the problem of bullying.

But apparently the Mother in Milan is afraid children will think the wrong things:

"I feel so strongly that this book has a negative impact on all children, not just mine, that it needs to be removed from the curriculum,'' Anderson said. Profanity, references to masturbation, violence and the overall theme of the novel all make it inappropriate for young people, Anderson said. "The language in the book, and the situations, are in direct violation of the student handbook. ... I think it undermines the teachers' (ability to enforce the handbook rules,)'' Anderson said.

Direct violation of the student handbook? I hate to think what kind of ruckus she'll make when S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders gets passed out.

Fall means homework.. and dancing

2005-09-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning groggy from a very late night meeting with the dance group I'm a part of--we're in the process of brainstorming our future plans and aims for the organization. It was only supposed to run until 8pm, but I left around 10:40, which either means we're getting somewhere, or we're just spending too much time on nitty gritty.

But that's not the point-- the point is that I woke up and stared, with gummy eyes blinking and dry mouth open, at the streaks of yellow going through the soybean feild. Its been a very dry summer, and our plants have been bearing the brunt of it, but those soybeans turning made me realize that summer was on its way out, and soon I would be missing warm breezy days I never got a chance to enjoy.

Luckily, today I was doing a demonstration dance and passing out fliers on one of my university's campuses. This allowed me to a) share something I love with others and b) get some vitamin B. I work something slinky and cute for dancing, but after that I covered up enough to keep from getting torched. I looked a bit ridiculous in my straw hat and long sleeve linen shirt, but by the end of the afternoon a lot of people around me were looking a shade or two darker than pink.

Speaking of long hot summers, I hope everyone has given in some way to the Katrina relief effort. My mother recently raised almost $2,000 for the American Kennel Club Katrina Relief Fund.

You know, everytime I mention Katrina, I get bots so I'll just leave this one comment free.

How Dare They?

2005-09-07T20:42:00.000-07:00

Everyone needs to read this personal account of the callous disregard for human life shown by National Guard Troops in New Orleans.

We decided we had to save ourselves. So we pooled our money and came up with $25,000 to have ten buses come and take us out of the City. Those who did not have the requisite $45.00 for a ticket were subsidized by those who did have extra money. We waited for 48 hours for the buses, spending the last 12 hours standing outside, sharing the limited water, food, and clothes we had. We created a priority boarding area for the sick, elderly and new born babies. We waited late into the night for the "imminent" arrival of the buses. The buses never arrived. We later learned that the minute the arrived to the City limits, they were commandeered by the military.

By day 4 our hotels had run out of fuel and water. Sanitation was dangerously abysmal. As the desperation and despair increased, street crime as well as water levels began to rise. The hotels turned us out and locked their doors, telling us that the "officials" told us to report to the convention center to wait for more buses. As we entered the center of the City, we finally encountered the National Guard. The Guards told us we would not be allowed into the Superdome as the City's primary shelter had descended into a humanitarian and health hellhole. The guards further told us that the City's only other shelter, the Convention Center, was also descending into chaos and squalor and that the police were not allowing anyone else in. Quite naturally, we asked, "If we can't go to the only 2 shelters in the City, what was our alternative?" The guards told us that that was our problem, and no they did not have extra water to give to us. This would be the start of our numerous encounters with callous and hostile "law enforcement".

Snowball! Snowball!

2005-09-06T12:33:00.000-07:00

I can't stop from tearing up about this story. It just rips me apart that they would take such a small dog from that child and then "lose" it. I am abolutely shocked that people can't take their pets with them. It is a complete failure on the part of FEMA and whoever else decided that dogs didn't count.

"Send money and stay put!"

2005-09-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

That's the news from Mississippi, according to friends at work with family in MS. They also can't say enough good things about the local government's decisive and effective leadership. Many parts of MS are still without electricity and potable water, but more people without training or resources will just make life more difficult.

#$&$%%^ Bots!

2005-09-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

Now only registered users can comment, due to bot attacks.

Updates On Katrina

2005-09-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

Two articles that gave me food for thought (my titles just explain their relevance):

Head of FEMA: Stallion, or Ass?
FEMA gutted for the sake of Homeland Security

Wonkette and Co. has been keeping a close eye on White House shenanigans during the disaster, including Condi's shoe shopping and Rove and Bartlett's plan to blame Louisiana for everything.

I have been astonished and horrified as I am sure many have been, at the state of chaos in New Orleans. It seems that all of the beaurocrats left no one in charge when they deserted the city, and the federal and state officials never thought to ask the news media swarming the area for the use of their highly efficient and state of the art communications devices. The Federal government added insult to injury by trying to wrest control of relief efforts from the Governor, even after FEMA botched the job but good by actually turning away fuel and supplies that could have saved lives.

I also want to point out that many of the peope who are dying are diabetics, people with kidney and liver function issues.. basically anyone whose life is being extended with artificial means that require resources such as medicine and electricity. I'm not saying every death is like that, but it demonstrates just how delicate the situation is for the poor who suddenly don't have access to proper health care. The wealthy have already begun buying homes in Baton Rouge. The poor could end up in old army barracks or tent cities if they're lucky. If the government does not act swiftly, they could become a homeless mass that moves from shelter to shelter or worse yet jail.

White People are Resourceful, Black People Loot

2005-09-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

The basis for the contention?

Thank you, Newsrack. :)

Book Burning: Alive and well in 2005

2005-09-05T08:16:00.000-07:00

Here are several editorials on recent book banning/burning events:

Extinguishing Book Burners by Todd Peterson

The Freedom to Read by David Prather

Hurricane Katrina

2005-09-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

The Wiki is amazing, but for a page with the best links to information, maps, photos and blogs about Katerina, go to the Middletown Thrall Library's Special Coverage page.

I check CNN.com way too much.

My family is donating to the Red Cross, I hope everyone sends a little something, because a million refugees is a lot of people.

Don't tell me PLEASE!

2005-08-31T07:32:00.000-07:00

What every librarian fears from their well-meaning patrons

Oh My Gawd! Snogging!

2005-08-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

Apparently some elementary school librarians won't allow Potter Six in their libraries because of the "sexy" parts, and the alchohol(Butter Beer being a dangerous influence on young children). Oh, and the word "slut" occurs once in 600 pages.

Good Old Gory Classics

2005-08-28T12:21:00.000-07:00

Gotta love parents who don't like Lois Lowry's The Giver, but are willing to overlook teen suicide in Romeo and Juliet. (Thanks Sister Andrea!)

I think Marc Acito says it best in How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship and Musical Theater from the perspective of a high school English Teacher, Mr. Lucas:

"Oedipus Rex. A heartwarming little family story in which our hero
kills his father, sleeps with his mother, and gouges his own eyes out.
If it had been written last year, the school board would be burning it
on the front lawn, but since it's two thousand years old, it's deemed
acceptable for your impressionable little brainlets" (pg. 58).

Fanta Facts

2005-08-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

I don't drink a lot of soda, but a friend pointed out to me, in one of those random e-mails you get when work is slow, that there are perhaps over seventy flavors of Fanta worldwide. Did you know that the percentage of real OJ in orange Fanta varies by country? So many random facts to learn, so little time..

Speaking of Potter.. new International Trailer!

2005-08-23T07:47:00.000-07:00

Watch the new trailer to get a sneak peek at some of the very cool special effects..

Potter.. Does popularity breed jealousy, or do rabid fans scare critics?

2005-08-22T21:00:00.000-07:00

Following a discussion of this article I wrote an admittedly snide remark on my teen list_serv about how Rowling simply wrote a better story, and writers who are convinced she somehow stole something from them should get over it and appreciate the fact that she brought readers back to their older novels. I was certainly a reader who was terribly excited to find Wizard's Hall, but when I read it, I was horribly disappointed at its simplistic and border-line lame story. Mrs. Reader from Amazon concurs:

I read a recent interview Ms. Yolen gave on [...]where she complained that J.K. Rowling stole all her ideas to write the Harry Potter series. Intrigued, I checked Wizard's Hall out from the library. There is definately a wizard wanna-be named Henry with a red-haired pal and folks wearing robes. There is also a whole lot of boring! Boring boring boring! There is no background or description. The story jumps quickly from scene to scene. I read all the Harry Potter books as an adult and enjoyed them very much. Maybe this one is so bad in comparison because it is for children only. I think Ms. Yolen should keep her lips zipped and understand that wizards and red-hair have been around a lot longer than the printing press.

After posting my assertion, I should have expected to be snapped at for not placing the feminine, groveling, "in my opinion" before my statements. I think its pretty clear that by calling one thing better than another, I WAS stating my opinion, but obviously stating that Potter was BETTER really got their goat.

I can believe that writers angst over Rowling, among them Yolen and Pratchett. They're writers.. they're in competition.. they can't understand why people prefer the adverb laden prose of Rowling to their more stylish literature. Of course, most kids, not to mention adults, don't give a crap about adverbs, but hey, writers are focused on their craft, and that's great. Criticism can lead to interesting conversations.

But librarians who dislike Potter with loud vehemence confuse me. Shouldn't librarians be championing this book as a motivator of thousands of non-readers? I certainly can't enjoy Cirque Du Freak novels, but God bless them if kids like them and they overshadow my favorite suspense/horror fiction.

Maybe I'm young. Maybe they're more dicerning readers. Whatever the case may be, if someone catches me decrying the next Goosebumps and the destruction of literature, the .22 is in the basement.

"Dirty" Books

2005-08-20T20:26:00.000-07:00

It has occurred to me in my last post that in the current climate where books with "dirty" content are considered incendiary, I should note that I never had sex in high school, and just to put the record straight, I am strongly in favor of having kids abstain from underage sex, because it is just safer. As far as I could tell, friends who had sex before entering college, and frankly sometimes even those who had sex early in college paid through the nose by getting diseases, having horrible "first experiences," and generally not liking themselves very much afterwords.

That said, I have no problem with kids reading what they like, including "sexy books". There is a reason for this: Books, despite Laurie Taylor's fears, don't make kids have underage sex-- a mix of uninformed choices and bad parenting do. Laurie is taking the morality tack with her attacks on both fiction and nonfiction titles, which makes me pretty worried: what if kids with freaky parents like Laurie suddenly feel human urges that their mother obviously hates, and fall for a partner who "understands" them? It seemed like the girls with the most fiercely moral families, the ones where the Dad would TOTALLY throw you out if you made a wrong move-- those seemed to be the girls who would inevitably have underage sex and get into trouble for it!

I'm sure Laurie's going to want to blame someone when her kids grow up and start having sex, but all the porn blockers and book restricting in the world are not going to save kids from sexual feelings wrongly acted upon. If she's really that scared for her kids, she should TALK to them, not snatch books out of their hands.

My biggest peeve with Laurie and her ilk is their beleif that parents know best. I'm sure there are many Gen Xers out there who are perfectly happy to help explain how most parents are clueless, leaving it up to kids to figure out how to survive to reach adulthood. Many of the "Pornographic" books Laurie is afraid will taint her precious children's minds can actually help keep kids from making bad decisions. I recently read this story in my email about a girl's reaction to Melvin Burgess's Doing It which surprised even the librarian :

She holds up the copy of Doing It and says, "Every MIDDLE SCHOOL girl should be FORCED to read this book." She says this in a way that dares anyone, me included, to dispute the "middle school" age or the required reading aspect. I say, "Wow! I know a whole lot of librarians and teachers who do not think this book is even appropriate for high school students. Tell me why you insist on bringing this controversial book to middle school girls." She says, "If middle school girls really knew how boys think about sex, we would not even have to worry about birth control issues."

What seems most significant to me in this exchange is the fact that this young woman arrived at a conclusion concerning her body and sex that would make her parents proud. And she came to this decision with a book that her family would rather not see in her hands. Oh irony!

My First Adult Book, or, everything about sex I needed to know I learned from Robertson Davies

2005-08-12T19:07:00.000-07:00

Have you ever read a book and thought, "Gosh, this isn't appropriate for me right now"? Probably not, but you may have picked up a book and thought, "Yech!" and put it back down. Recently on a teen library listserv, we've been discussion the options of trying to match books with readers, and how easy methods like placing age labels on books could actually inhibit reading in certain cases. Everyone has a slightly different opinion on when to give a reader a certain book. For me, I think the person giving the book is half the story of whether or not the book is "appropriate."

I remember that when I was just coming into my teens, I was always padding around my father's office library, looking for old classics or the coffee table books he collected from National Geographic and museums. One day he handed me a book, The Lyre of Orpheus by Robertson Davies and told me it was really good and I might enjoy it. I started reading it, and discovered it was about many adult issues such as adultery and sex!

Of course I had read trashy romances on the sly before, but no one had actually "given" me a book with sex in it. After my moment of surprise I went back to reading, overjoyed that my father thought I was adult enough to handle a book with mature themes. I think I read if more carefully simply because I wanted to live up to my father's expectations; to be able to talk about the book with him afterwards like we were in a book group. I did end up liking the book(lots of coy humor), and went on to read other "adult" titles like The Quiet American and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

And yet, here I am working with teens and youth worrying about what to give the kids that might not be too mature for them, fearing what their parents will say when I send them home with a book that's not about a twelve year old boy and his dog. Early in my work I sent a high school girl home with Charles Baxter's Feast of Love, and I wonder if I would hesitate to do that now.

Do we as librarians underestimate kids? Perhaps we infantilize them, fear that they might, horror of horrors, come to know and understand the adult world and all of its hazards before they embark upon the journey to college. We forget that teens can and do have the imaginative capacity to read about people many years older doing things they might not necessarily do and enjoy it. Reading Robertson Davies and other authors who dealt with sex did not change my personal habits, but it did enlarge the capacity of my mind, and invite me to see the world as a larger place than my own narrow experience.

The Bracelet Craze Continues

2005-08-12T18:58:00.000-07:00

Ann Arbor District Library this summer decided that Lance Armstrong shouldn't have all the fun. The Teen summer reading program is giving away rubber bracelets with the library web address and the teen blog address in hot pink and black.

Even Banned Book Week has gotten into the bracelet craze, giving away bracelets with adult, youth and teen books on them. I look forward to seeing them at my library.

Teen Author speaks about book challenge

2005-08-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

Kelly Huegel, author of GLBTQ: The Survival Guid for Queer and Questioning Teens gave an interview on teenlibrarian.com concerning her writings, as well as the recent challenge to one of her books in Arkansas.

What I believe is immoral and, in fact, irresponsible, is to not be proactive in educating our young people about a full range of things. We’re obsessed with getting kids prepared for college, but we refuse to prepare them for life. How can you expect them to make responsible decisions when you don’t give them the information they need to make them?

Parents Bravely Fight Against Books

2005-08-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

Blue Valley School District, pressured by a parent group, has dropped two novels by noted teen authors Tobias Wolff and Walter Dean Myers from its curriculem. The Red Badge of Courage was restricted to junior level advanced placement classes. The group challenged 14 books originally.

“It’s a small step in the right direction, and we hope that there will be many more steps like this made,” said parent Janet Harmon, who delivered the petition against the 14 books to the school board.

Also starting this year, the district will post information online about potentially controversial content contained in books on classroom reading lists.

Walter Dean Myers' Fallen Angels was replaced by Tim O'Brien's Going After Cocciato which was lauded by an Amazon reader as, "A war story women can read," because it lacks the violent content of most war stories. I'm sure teenage boys in Kansas City are rejoicing at being saved from reading about the violence of war from a black teen's perspective.

MetaTokyo Plug

2005-08-09T10:12:00.000-07:00

I'm going to take this opportunity to plug some of the many authored stories I'm working on with some very talented writers over at the Blizzardskies Arena Forum. Metatokyo is a very very long and convoluted story of a Tokyo so massive its covered most of Japan, in a universe that seems to be colliding with others, dropping enchanted humans, aliens and demons on a weird post-apocalyptic landcape and.. playing with them. I have a character in the more recent incarnation of the story: Yuni is a holy witch taking care of three adorable demons. I also own some other characters, but they are harder to explain out of context.

My other project on Blizzardskies is Star Wars: The Dark Side Walks. I can't really explain that one at all, except to say its a post Return of the Jedi odyssey involving a rogue Jedi(my character), a Jedi working for the Order, and a dude who is really, really, evil.

Soon there will be a webcomic version of the MetaTokyo story, which is completely different from Megatokyo, I assure you. More news on that as it comes in.

Iris

2005-08-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

I've forgotten to introduce myself! I've been working on again off again on my Interfaith Nunnery blog for sometime, but I decided to make a fresh start with a blog that's focused on all things library, literacy, and whatever else suits my fancy. Look for many changes over the coming months, and I attempt to shape this blog into something.. interesting.

Rex Libris

2005-08-09T07:34:00.000-07:00

Action at the library has reached a whole new level.

Just as a tide of ignorance swells up and threatens to engulf the world, out of the ashes of the Great Library of Alexandria arises a hero, an educated fellow with fists of steel and a mind as sharp as a tack: public librarian Rex Libris.

After reading the preview of the first ten pages, I'm not sure I'm going to read the whole story, but I'm happy it exists. I thought the whole concept was sort of cute, with a weird mix of old-school librarian-cum-wiseguy.