From Russia with Love

“If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.”
  ~~Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

 I read Anna Karenina when I was in my early 20's.  I didn't have to, but at that time in my life I read a lot of the classics.  Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and Thomas Hardy were among the many authors I poured over in my spare time.  It took me months to finish Anna Karenina.  I learned a lot from that book.  Namely, that you don't have to finish a book you don't like.  I haven't finished a book I haven't liked since that one, unless it's been a you-have-to-read-it-for-book-club book.

I know, it's a classic.  I know, you loved it.  Or everyone you know who has ever read it loved it.  I hated it.  I read the unabridged version.  I almost want to read the abridged version to see if I can find out why people love the book.  Almost.  I want to see if my ideas about the book have changed now that I'm older.  Maybe it just wasn't the kind of book a single 22-year-old girl could relate to.  Maybe I would really enjoy the book now as I approach the big 4-0.  Then again, maybe not.

For having hated the book, I kind of am glad that I read it.  You see references to it here and there.  Leo Tolstoy's great book, one of the greatest books ever written!  I read it, and hated it.  I never was one to follow the herd.  (I didn't much care for Les Miserables either.)  But, I can say that I read it.  I tried it and didn't like it.  (Same for Les Mis--listened to the audio book and saw it on Broadway.  I liked the book better, but only slightly.)  Reading the classics is a great way to expand your horizons.  It lays the foundation for so many other things.  

The latest movie version of the book comes out on Friday.  I don't think I'll be going to the theater to see it.  I'll wait until the DVD comes to the library.  I'll try to find the abridged version of the book and read that in the meantime.  Maybe now that the internet is so readily available I can track down some discussions about what things mean in the book.  I can get find out what it is about the book that made others love it. 

Now and coming soon are a bunch of movies based on books.  Some of those books I've read and truly enjoyed.  Others I haven't found time to read yet.  Maybe I'll go see one of those instead of Anna Karenina.  Probably Rise of the Guardians, since I never got around to reading it even though I checked out the first of the books in the Guardians of Childhood series last winter.  With the movie in theaters, there is now a long wait for me to get my hands on a copy of Nicholas St. North and the battle of the Nightmare King again.  There's nothing like a movie to bring back interest in a book!


“One of the world's most tiresome questions is what object one would bring to a desert island,because people always answer "a deck of cards" or "Anna Karenina" when the obvious answer is "a well equipped boat and a crew to sail me off the island and back home where I can play all the card games and read all the Russian novels I want.”  ~~Lemony Snicket

Thanks for being in my family.

 The family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.  ~Dodie Smith

Tomorrow is turkey day.  A day of gathering with family.  I've heard a lot of talk shows discussing the best way to navigate these functions.  The rules I remember go something like this: 

1.  Thanksgiving is not the time to drop any bombshells.  Save your horrible news for a different day.

2.  Help with the clean up.  The host has spent hours cleaning their house and cooking the food, the least you can do is help with the dishes.

3.  Stay away from controversial subjects at the dinner table.  This includes politics, religion, and personal information that is none of your business.

4.  Do not talk about the diet you're on.  Do not talk about the diet that anyone is on.  Food is a huge part of the day.  Eat what you're going to eat, but there's no need to explain the detailed reasoning behind your choices.

5.  Put your phone away.  Have some face to face conversation instead. 

6.  When all else fails, suck it up.  Put on your happy face whether you feel like it or not.  Fake it until you make it.


I'm fortunate that I don't have a family that I have problems with.  I enjoy all of them.  I'm still very lucky to have one set of grandparents to enjoy the holiday with, along with my parents, my siblings and their families, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  There are a lot of us.  A lot.  We have fun together.  We laugh a lot.  Most everyone plays nicely together.

I know how lucky am that this is the case.  And I am thankful for it. 

Family life is a bit like a runny peach pie - not perfect but who's complaining?  ~Robert Brault

Free fun at the library!

Storyhour at the Marble Public Library

Join Alicia every Wednesday from

3:30 to 4:45 pm

For a fun Story, Crafts and Snacks!

For Kids from 4 – 11 years of age!

Upcoming special events:

November 27^th:  We will be showing “Brave” at 6pm. Enjoy the movie on our big screen!

December 2^nd: 1-3 pm annual Christmas party at the Greenway Township hall.  Join us for sleigh rides,

                             crafts, cookies and cider.

December 26^th: Skating Party at the Marble skating  rink.

January 9^th: Birdseed snow angel: Come and create snow angels outside and decorate them with seeds,

       Then come inside to warm up with some hot chocolate and cookies!

February 6^th: Snowmen build:  We will be joining the Snowfolk festival in Itasca county and help with the

        attempt to build 1000 snowfolk across Itasca county.

All events are free and from 3:30 pm – 4:45 pm unless otherwise noted.

For information, call 247-7676 and/or check us out on Facebook.

I love libraries so much I work at two of them!

 

















This is not news.  I work at two libraries.  I got to work over at the Coleraine Public Library a couple of weeks ago.  During the day.  When the kids came over from the school across the street.  I work one day a week at the Marble Public Library, and we see many of the same kids day after day.  They're used to seeing me there.  It was a surprise to a couple of them to see me at a different library.  "Yes," I told them,  "I love libraries so much, I work at two of them!"

I love libraries.  At the library I have access to books, movies, CD's, and more.  For free.  If I want to try a new author or genre of books, see a movie I didn't want to pay full price to see in the theater, or listen to music that I'm not sure I want to buy; I can get it all at the library.  It's great!  If there isn't a copy in our library system, you can get one sent from elsewhere in the state.  For free.  There are also audio and e-reader books available for download.  For free.  How great is that??  As long as you don't damage or destroy the materials, you don't have to pay a thing.  Did I mention that the library has computers?  That they let you use.  And they're hooked up to the Internet.  For a small fee they'll also let you print stuff.  It's cheaper than buying an ink cartridge, that's for sure.

Libraries have events and programming available for free.  Sometimes you might have to pay a small fee for some sort of fund-raiser, but there sure is a lot available that doesn't cost anything.  Because of Legacy Funding, there are free museum passes available at the library. There are story hours and reading programs for kids.  Sometimes even for adults.  Reading programs that may give kids some incentive to read.  There are prizes to be had, and all at no cost.  If you're lucky enough that your library has some sort of reading program with prizes, how great is that?  

It's free.  There aren't any up front costs; unless you're wracking up fines, destroying materials, or lose your library card.  Indirectly, you've already paid for the services the library provides.  Public libraries are run on tax-payer money.  It's been a while since we've had to deal with the misbegotten idea that a closed library is a cut in taxes paid.  That's not the way it works in library-land.  If you close a library in your town, the same amount of tax dollars will still go to libraries--just not the one you closed.

I love libraries.

If you know of anyone who doesn't, send them my way.  I'll do what I can to change their mind. 


Whenever it is possible, a boy should choose some occupation which he should do even if he did not need the money.  ~William Lyon Phelps
 And so should a girl. ~Alicia Wikstrom

Library of the Living Dead

I also have always liked the monster within idea. I like the zombies being us. Zombies are the blue-collar monsters.
~George A. Romero

It's Halloween today.  The monsters will soon coming knocking at the door and begging for candy.  The monsters will be joined by vampires, witches, princesses, and various other characters.  Some are meant to scare and others are meant to delight, but all are meant to consume vast amounts of candy.

It's a time to be someone other than your usual everyday self.  It's time to let your imagination get the best of you.  What wild ideas have children come up with?  What characters have knocked on your door?  Who thinks of some of these things?  This year I couldn't think of anything, so I ended up looking like someone who has just been revived after dying of a candy overdose.

It's time for all the scary stuff: scary movies, scary books, scary stories, scary weather.  The storms out east earlier this week caused a bit of anxiety even to those of us living far beyond the reaches of Sandy.  The worst of the storm is over, but there's still plenty of storm left.  I'm still waiting to hear how some of my favorite places withstood the tempests of Sandy.

The news is full of reports of how bad it was, and perhaps they're only showing us the worst.  The whole area hasn't been demolished.  Yes, there are millions of dollars worth of clean-up to do, but I would guess that it isn't as bad as many of us imagine it to be.  At least I hope it isn't that bad.  Those active imaginations at work can certainly make things out to be much worse than they really are.  It doesn't look very good; but on the bright side, it could be worse.

Put your imagination to work, but don't let it run the whole show.  Being scared is a fun sort of thing, but only in moderation.  Being scared by monsters is one thing, being scared by current events is another.  It's fun to be scared by things that you know aren't real.  Today is the day to enjoy that phenomenon.  Try reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein instead of the latest reports of the Frankenstorm.

    

Imagination creates some big monsters.
Olivier Martinez

A Brawling Debate

There is so much good in the worst of us,
And so much bad in the best of us,
That it hardly becomes any of us
To talk about the rest of us.
~Edward Wallis Hoch

We're coming to the end of the political campaign.  Finally, we're down to the last weeks before election day.  I; for one, will be glad when it's over.  I can only take so much negativity.  I know it will get more negative before it's over, but at least the end is in sight now.

 I appreciate that these people are willing to make an effort to improve the lives of everyone.  That is an impossible task.  I appreciate that there are many thoughts on how this can be done.  What I don't appreciate is the idea that one party is evil or *fill in the blank with whatever negative word you want*.  Everyone is striving for the same end goal.  I don't believe that any one person or party gets into politics so that they can either damage the world or control it.  (I'd like to think that only happens in books and movies.)   

Why can't we all just get along?  I suppose that's the nature of the beast.  Differing opinions among people with strong opinions lead to heated debates.  What I don't like is people telling me what their opponent did wrong.  When my children get in a fight, I ask what they did.  Once they start veering into telling me what the other did, I stop them.  It just makes me crabby.  Don't keep going on about what the other guy plans to do wrong or has already done wrong.  Tell me what your plans are.  Tell me about the good ideas you have.  Brow beating your opponent just turns me off. 

Can you tell that I watched part of the debate on Tuesday night?  I was in and out of the room.  One would start attacking the other, and I'd leave.  I don't want to hear it.  You don't like what they did; quit blathering on about it and tell me what you would do differently.  It really sounded like a couple of kids each trying to get the other in trouble with the teacher.  I suppose that at some level that's exactly what they were doing. 

You may not agree with my ideas.  You may think I'm way off in what I think is important.  But, that doesn't give you any right to tell me that I'm stupid because of it.  That certainly isn't going to persuade me to agree with your ideas.  Could you maybe just kindly tell me how a different idea could work better?  Can you take my ideas into consideration?  How much does it hurt to listen?  A lot apparently.  I don't think they're mortal flesh wounds, I think it just hurts their pride to admit that the other party may have a good idea or two.  

The players may not be able to hold their tongues, but we're a civilized society.  Mostly.  If you come across someone whose views you disagree with, there is no reason to make disparaging remarks to them about it.  

Until I take over the world, I guess I will just have to spend more time ignoring the political rhetoric. 

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken

I want to be your friend.

 The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.
~~Abraham Lincoln 
 

I woke up to snow this morning.  It wasn't the first time this week either.  It's only October, and we've seen winter making itself heard.  I'm not quite ready for it.  The snowbirds are heading south.  Since I'm not a snowbird, I started clearing our winter path through the woods.  If we can get more snow than we got last year, I can spend some time out there on my snowshoes or cross-country skis.  We've had a fire going in the fireplace for over a week already and I've been fortunate to have a good book to curl up to it with.  

This is the time of year when there aren't many new books by favorite authors.  October is kind of a dry month for that.  Booksellers are waiting with new releases until the holiday shopping season starts in earnest.  Until then, you have to search around and find something written by someone you've never heard of before.  Either that, or catch up on the books you didn't find time to read over the summer.  Take a look at the best seller listings right now.  There might not be many authors you've heard of.  Although, some of the books on the list have been on there long enough that you might be living under a rock if you haven't heard of the Fifty Shades trilogy, and even those books are only on the paperback fiction list.  

If you don't go beyond a select group of authors, now is the time to try something new.  If you buy all your books, this may not be something you want to do.  Go to the library.  It's pretty much free.  Your tax dollars have already paid for your library card.  As long as you don't lose or damage a book, you don't have to pay to read.  Try to get your books in on time; but if you can't, late fees don't add up to much unless you're weeks late.  If you buy your books, use the library to find new authors.  Kind of a "try it before you buy it" thing.  Our library is pretty small, and we can't buy every book out there, but we can request things from other libraries.  Even libraries outside of our library system.  The great thing about libraries is that you can try a book out and if you don't like it, you don't have to read it.  You don't have to feel guilty about not reading it either.  It didn't cost you anything!

If you don't have any idea what new authors to try, ask someone who works at a library.  Most of us can find something for you.  If the library worker you asked didn't or couldn't help, try a different one.  (We all have off days!)  Just ask, we're at your service.  And I love helping people find things!  If you don't have a library worker in your back pocket, give me a few lines in the comment area.  I'll find you something.  I'd love to be your new best friend. 

Story hour begins again.

Life is about using the whole box of crayons.  ~RuPaul

Story hour started again yesterday.  The kids came into the library while I was assisting a patron in finding some books.   Since that is one of my most favorite things to do, we got started a little late.  Since I also hadn't done much planning ahead, we got started a little later than late.  I guess I'm a fly by the seat of my pants worker.  And yet, things turned out fabulous.

I don't know where the idea came from exactly, but I decided we should read The Red Book by Barbara Lehman and Muffel and Plums by Lilo Fromm.

  


Find the similarity between these two very different books.  Ah ha, the similarity is that there aren't any words.  Stories told using just pictures are an interesting thing, especially with kids who've been in school for a couple of weeks where much of their work involves words.  

We're a very small community.  At the beginning of story hour I only had two kids in the room with me.  After the two books one of them left because his mom came to get him.  The child remaining poked her head out the door to yell "Hi" to her cousin playing in the park.  After a few minutes he wandered in and not long after that a friend of his walked past the door and was enticed to join us.

After making the late-comers read the books, they joined us in making our own books of stories without words.  They seemed to have a lot of fun.  The three kids and I made a total of about six and a half books (the half was mine).  They were kind enough to draw bar code labels on them so that they could be checked out by some of our other patrons.

Now, a person does not create a book without words without talking.  At least they don't when they're in a group.   It was fun to join in their conversations about books, library cards, and the colors best used in making a girl's hair; among other things.  It was interesting to note how difficult we all found it to tell a story without using words.   Mostly, we told our stories using a bare minimum of words.  

 A picture is worth a thousand words.  I looked to find where that saying came from, but it's not completely clear who said it first.  I was surprise to find the quote attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte on one quote site.  I think a picture is sometimes worth more, sometimes less than the thousand words.   

After story hour was over, the kids set up their books along the shelf where our new books can be found.  A few hours later, one of the kids brought in a friend to show him the books he made.  

How great is that? 

That book is on Broadway!

“Do you know," Peter asked, "why swallows build in the eaves of houses? It is to listen to the stories.”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan 

When we went to New York last summer we brought the kids to see Peter and the Starcatcher.  It is a slightly altered version of Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's Peter and the Starcatchers.  I had read the book a few years ago and really enjoyed it, so when I saw that it had been made into a musical, I knew exactly what show we would see when we went out to the big apple.  Nora (8) read the book last spring and really enjoyed it.  Amelia (11) tried it once, but didn't get into it and moved on to something else.  Maeve (5) can't read just yet, so the book hadn't made it onto her radar yet.  I didn't much care what the children thought, I knew I would enjoy it and just had to hope that they would too.

The production is recommended for ages 10 and up, so I was a bit concerned that it might not be a great choice for our family.  I didn't worry about Nora; as she had loved the book, and I didn't worry about Amelia since she's older and I figured the story would entertain even if she didn't want to spend time reading the book.  It was Maeve I was concerned about.  She's a kid who will tell you what she thinks.  She's not necessarily quiet about it either.  I read the reviews.  I was still iffy.  I visited the website.  I was still unsure.  Finally, I figured we'd go and hope that the twerp wouldn't be too vocal if she didn't like it.  I found the audio book on the Arrowhead site and downloaded it.  I figured we could listen to it on the way to New York and if everyone hated it, we could get tickets to something else.

From what I gathered by reading the reviews, this is a musical with less props than many of the other Disney stage productions.  We saw Mary Poppins a couple years ago, so we know how elaborate they can be.  It was also noted that many of the actors play more than one role.  My husband and I saw Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps several years ago, so I knew actors playing several roles could be masterfully accomplished.  The humor was found to be juvenile and at times confusing with it's 21st century punchlines in a story that is set in the time of Oliver Twist.  There were mixed reviews on whether these aspects of the show hit or missed.

We didn't listen to all of the book on our drive, but we listened to enough that the kids could grasp at where the story was going.  No one said anything about hating it, and that was enough for me to find the South Street Seaport TKTS booth and get the tickets.  For all of our trips to NYC, we've gone to at least one show.  We've always used the TKTS booth to get cheaper tickets.  You may not find tickets for everything, but you can check the website to see what shows frequently have seats available at the booths.  Since I don't have to see the same thing everyone else has to see, it works for me.  It's a bit more of an adventure.

How was the show?  Fabulous!  There aren't all that many productions (really, 2/11) that I would see again, but I would love to see this one again.  Maeve fell asleep shortly after intermission but, "I liked the part I saw".  The other two thought it was great, and we all laughed a lot.  Many of the  jokes were juvenile and others were about things that would not have been found in Peter Pan's time, but it amused me tremendously.  The actors moved seamlessly from one part to another.  The lack of dramatic effects left room for our imaginations to fill in the blanks.  It.  Was.  Awesome.  

It's a slightly different story than the book, but there was a clue in the difference of the titles.  Peter and the Starcatcher is the musical and Peter and the Starcatchers is the book.  Slight difference in titles, bigger difference in story lines.  In the same way that Wicked the book and Wicked the musical are different but both are good.  You have to think of them as separate stories.  I was fortunate enough to have read Starcatchers long enough ago that I didn't pick up on too many of the distinctions between the two.  The girls recognized the differences between the two, but it didn't seem to bother them at all.  Maybe that's something you lose as you get older.  I have to forget one version before I'm exposed to another.  

 It's been a couple of months since we saw Peter and the Starcatcher.  Nora started the second book not long before school started.  She's now onto the fourth in the Starcatcher series and it's often that she'll exclaim aloud while she's reading.  Naturally, she then has to share what she's read even though I haven't read any but the first in the series.  When I'm confused about what she's excited about she tells me that I should just read the rest of the books.  I suppose I should do that.  They're pretty thick books, but I don't think they'll take all that long to read.

If you're fortunate enough to get to visit New York City before the final Broadway performance on January 20th, I highly recommend you take this one in.  The show is planning a tour, but no dates have been announced yet that I can find.  If seeing a theatrical production is out of your price range, go to your local library and get the book by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.  The best part of the book is that it doesn't end after just a couple hours.  There are four books after the first one.

 

   

Stranger danger, and the strangers who aren't so dangerous.

Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends.~~Shirley MacLaine



On our way home from preschool the other day Maeve brought up strangers.  As in, "Mom, you always talk to strangers."  I'm not entirely sure where this observation came from, but I thought it would make for a good blog posting.  What is the difference between strangers you can talk to and stranger danger?  At what point do you turn from fear of strangers into thinking them as just people you haven't formally met yet?   

"I don't talk to strangers, I bet they think that I can't talk."  I guess that explains why you can't tell a waitress how old you are.  At what point did I move from being afraid of strangers to realizing that strangers are people just like I am.  If I'm scared of them and they're scared of me, how ridiculous.  I'm not scary.  At least, not usually.  Strangers are just people I haven't met, and may never meet again.  No reason to live in fear of strangers.  They certainly can't all be dangerous.

How do you invoke a slight fear of strangers into a kid without making them so afraid of strangers that they can't "tell the nice woman how old you are"?  I'm glad I don't have to do it.  There are a lot of "stranger danger" books out there for kids.  A few of them have made their way into my house, and yet I have always felt uncomfortable telling my children that they should never talk to strangers.
  

I don't want my kids to be absconded by some devious stranger, and yet I don't want them to come away with the impression that all strangers are inherrantly out to harm them.  What's a parent to do?  Read the books to them, and then have conversations about what is and is not appropriate, and what to do in those situations. 

Did this fear of strangers somehow lead to our societal shift from community to self?  Did the fear of what may happen lead us to shut down daily life experiences that made us better as a society?  Did some people spoil things for the rest of us?  I kind of think so.  We were free to roam far and wide when we were kids, but my children have had to get much older than I was before they were allowed to go off on their own.  I need to know more about where they are and who they're with than my mother did.  I grew up in a rural area in the late 70's/early 80's, before small town kidnappings became big news.  Horrible things that happen to children are horrible, and hearing about it on the news has made us more cautious.  Not that that is a bad thing, but there is a difference between living in fear and living cautiously.

I suppose it's a learning process.  In our ever changing world, the dangers are always changing.  Dangerous one day, harmless the next; and vice versa.  Strangers are not inherrantly dangerous, but they can lead to situations that are.  It's knowing how to deal with those situations that makes the difference.  

I'm just glad that I don't have to try to explain this to a classroom full of kids.  I just get to muddle through this topic with my own children.

“If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them.” ~~Francis Bacon

Toast with a great deal of butter

“your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.”
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

 

Harvesting season is upon us again.  I finally got down to making zucchini relish late last week.  I finished cutting up all the vegetables and they looked so pretty that I had to take a picture.  Weird?  Maybe, but it sure is a colorful photo.  I love colors.  I love food.  I love reading.

My daughter came home from school last Thursday wanting a fried egg for her after-school snack.  What??  Where did that come from?  It certainly was a different snack request than I'm used to hearing.  Apparently, she'd been reading a Nancy Drew book on the way home from school and Hannah had made a fried egg for Nancy and it made her hungry for one.  I do have an interesting child.  She's also the kid who holds a great fondness for "toast with a great deal of butter".  This taste for toast done this way was acquired shortly after reading one of the Mercy Watson books.  Which one, I'm not sure.  Now, if only she'd pick up a book about sweet potatoes.

When you've spent your life immersed in the written word, books seep into everything you do.  I come from a family that reads.  I grew up loving peas porridge and hating split pea soup.  The exact same recipe was used to make each, but a nursery rhyme can't be wrong and everyone likes peas porridge no matter what temperature it is.  What other foods did we come around to because of what we read in books?  I don't know.  But I was intrigued by the idea of sugar snow via Laura Ingalls Wilder and visions of fair food danced in my head after Templeton's feast in Charlotte's Web. 

I may be older, but there is still a line that can be drawn between what I'm reading and what I'm making for dinner.  I'm much more likely to make pasta if I'm reading a book that takes place in Italy.  Reading Pearl S. Buck's books means we'll be having rice of one sort or another.  Because I'm older, I also spend more time reading actual cook books.  Perusing recipes leads to all kinds of adventures with food. 

Why not?  It's funny the way we can be altered by what we read.  One afternoon you're content getting an apple for our afternoon snack, and the next day; after a line or two from a Nancy Drew book, you may be requesting fried eggs. 
 

Our minds are like our stomachs; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetites.
-John Quinton

School's in session!

 

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives. ~Clay P. Bedford

 

I am so very happy to say that 2/3 of my children started school yesterday.  I'm even happier to say that the third child starts a four-day-a-week preschool next week.  I'm almost giddy with the thought of having a whole day to myself without anyone telling me they're bored, hungry, or don't want to do what I've asked them to do.

I love school.  I didn't love it when I went, but I love it when my children go.  They enjoy school as well.  At least so far they do.  I'm excited for them to begin a new year of learning new things with teachers that my kids are excited to have.  We've been very fortunate to have gotten great teachers over the years, and I certainly hope our good fortune continues.

There is a new reading program at the school this year.  As the libraries were all downsized, there are less books in the school library.  Many of the books are now in the classrooms.  Will my child break the school record for AR points again this year?  Somehow, I doubt it.  I found that many of the books in her room are books she's either read or are books that will only take her a couple hours to finish.  Granted, she's got a mother who works at a library and knows how to order books from other libraries, so she's got a chance.   

Sorry, not trying to start another fuss.  My kids are readers.  They read well above their grade levels.  They read fast.  I worry that they won't be challenged with the reading program.  But, it's only the beginning of the year and I'm sure they've got a plan for kids like mine.  If not, I work at a library and the girls can just let me know what they'd like to read and I can order it.  If you're in the same boat, you can order books for your child via the Arrowhead Library System site.  (Kids are so smart nowadays, it probably wouldn't take them long to figure out how to do it themselves!)  You just need to know your library card bar code number.  If that's more work than you want, come into the library and talk to someone who works behind the desk.  Most of us have a pretty good idea about what kind of books your child might find enjoyable.

Right now, it's the first week of school.  It's still nice enough outside to just send them out once they get off the bus.  Once the cold air starts really blowing in, I'll get to work on searching out new books and authors for my kids to try.  Until then, they can re-read NERDS by Michael Buckley for the umpteenth time. 

 

You learn something every day if you pay attention. ~Ray LeBlond

Nerds are far more interesting humans in later life. ~Alyson Hannigan

U.S. Public Libraries Weather the Storm

INFOGRAPHIC: U.S. Public Libraries Weather the Storm
Strategic vision and careful management have helped U.S. public libraries weather the storm of the Great Recession, supporting their role as a lifeline to the technology resources and training essential to full participation in the nation’s economy.

However, a new report underscores the competing concerns that face America’s libraries: cumulative budget cuts which threaten access to libraries and services, increasing demand for technology training, and the chronic presence of the digital divide. [MORE from Libraries Connect Communities: Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study]


*Just thought I'd share this look at the role of libraries in our society and the funding that public libraries receive.  I got all of the above courtesy of the American Library Association.  If you click on INFOGRAPHIC above it will take you to the ALA website. 


My thoughts on the above?  If you live in a lower income community, you know the value of a public library.  If you have not entered a library in 5 years or more, go into one.  Go to one in an affluent area and then visit one in a lower income area.  Notice the differences in the people in each area.  Notice the differences in the numbers of people in each area.  Talk to the people who work at a public library.  

If you think libraries are becoming extinct because of the electronic technology that is available now, think again.  Our role has changed in many ways but we still fill a valuable role in our society. 

The sun sets on Sunset Park

“As for New York City, it is a place apart. There is not its match in any other country in the world.”
― Pearl S. Buck

My father-in-law grew up in Brooklyn, NY.  We just got back last night from packing up the house he grew up in so that my mother-in-law can sell it.  It was a bitter-sweet trip. 

I first went to NYC in 1999.  A 26-year-old girl who hadn't traveled much beyond Minnesota.  I loved it.  My father-in-law hadn't lived there in decades, but you could tell it was home to him.  You could tell he enjoyed showing his new daughter-in-law around.  A few years later when we went back and brought along his newest grand-daughter, he had a great time showing her his city.  He showed her off to his friends in the neighborhood.  He introduced her to Italian Ice.  He shared his love for Brooklyn with her.  

It was sad to pack all that up in boxes and close the door on the house.  The house has been in the family for close to 100 years.  There was a lot of stuff stored in closets and trunks.  We sorted through it, and packed a lot of it up.  I like the past.  I like things from the past.  It was amazing to find that stack of postcards dating back as late as 1907 (I think it was).  Many of them I couldn't read as they were written in Finnish, but the pictures on the fronts told a story of people who had traveled.  Of lives lived and shared.  Oh, and the books!  A large bookcase full of precious tomes.  Books at the early part of the 20th century were items to be treasured and read again and again.  You didn't spend money on the latest best-seller.  Money wasn't available to be frivolously spent. 

That book shelf used to be completely full.  Over the past few years, we've started taking some home.  There were still a lot left.  Some of them came back to Minnesota, and some had to just be tossed into the recycling.  That was the question for everything.  Does it make the journey to the Midwest, or does it get discarded here?  Yard sales aren't a very common occurrence in Brooklyn like they are here.  The girls and their grandmother spent one day selling a few things in the small front yard.  Bargain prices.  Stuff that we didn't want to take home became treasures in someone else's life.  All at clearance prices (as the sign my daughter made said).

Before we went, I had the girls list what they would like to do for one day in NYC.  Maeve (5)wanted to walk the Brooklyn Bridge and eat ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.  And then get Italian Ice from Vincent's Pizzeria near the house.  Nora (8) wanted to go to the Central Park Zoo.  And finish the day with Italian Ice.  Amelia (11) wanted to spend the day at Coney Island: ride the Cyclone, play in the ocean, and have Italian Ice.  There seemed to be some similarities with their list of things to do on their day.  We ate a lot of Italian Ice.  For as much as we ate, I sure could go for another right now.

Now the U-Haul has been emptied and brought back.  Things are stored in garages for the time being.  Out with the new and in with the old.  I need to clear some of my serviceable new things to make room for a few time worn treasures to take their place.   

It's sad to close the door on the house Brooklyn.  I have loved having a place to call home there.  I have been very fortunate to have gotten to spend so much time there over the past 13 years.  In the words of Dr. Seuss, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
 

“Brooklyn was a dream. All the things that happened there just couldn't happen. It was all dream stuff. Or was it all real and true and was it that she, Francie, was the dreamer?”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn