If You Like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, You Might Like These, Too!

Kids love series. If you think about it, so do adults. Whether in books or broadcast, series provide us characters we’ve come to know. We want to see what they’ll do next.

One of the most asked for series by boys currently coming to me in the library is Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. The series began in 2004 as daily posts on Funbrain.com. The first in book format, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, was published in April 2007. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules followed in February 2008; The Last Straw in January 2009; Dog Days in October 2009; and The Ugly Truth in November 2010.

According to Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid Website, the first three books were based on the Internet version but, “The print version of the books have improved stories, better drawings, and new surprises for those who have already read the online version.”

Series draw kids from book to book. But as one father said to me, “the challenge comes when the series ends. What do we read next?” Guiding kids to the next series when one is finished, or to a similar series while waiting for one with many holds, is a challenge for librarians, too. To help, I’ve produced my own list -- "If You Like Diary of a Wimpy Kid You Might Also Like …” It includes the series title, series author, and number of books currently in the series. A librarian or book seller can help you identify each individual title in the series. Or, you may want to visit Mid-Continent Public Library’s database of Juvenile Series and Sequels.

Andrew Lost by J. C. Greenburg (36 books)
Andrew and his friends encounter unusual adventures while exploring science.

Captain Underpants by Dav Pilky (10 books)
A school principal transforms into superhero Captain Underpants.

Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist by Jim Benton (7 books)
Franny K. Stein’s experiments are meant to improve life at school, but that’s not exactly how it goes.

Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen (2 books)
A 12-year-old inherits his Grandpa’s riding lawnmower and turns a big business.

Melvin Beederman, Superhero by Greg Trine (8 books)
Crime in Los Angeles has met its match with Melvin Beederman, superhero and snack food lover.

My Weird School by Dan Gutman (21 books)
At Ella Mentry School, the adults are a little weird.

Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot by Dav Pilky (6 books)
Ricky is a little mouse with a big Robot, and their adventures span the universe.

Rotten School by R. L. Stine (16 books)
Bernie Bridges always looks for inventive ways to rule at his boarding school.

Shredderman by Wendelin Van Draanen (4 books)
Nolan hides behind his Shredderman identity to fight for justice.

Time Warp Trio by Jon Scieszka (16 books)
Joe, Fred, and Samantha time-travel throughout history.

Wiley & Grampa’s Creature Features by Kirk Scroggs (10 books)
Wiley and his Grampa face monster tornadoes, vampire trucks, and other horrors.

The Zack Files by Dan Greenburg (30 books)
Zack, his father, and Spencer share zany adventures.

This is not an exhaustive list, and it’s not meant only for boys. Anyone who likes the fun of Diary of a Wimpy Kid might like these, too.  Do you have suggestions for others to add to this list?

I Can Save the Ocean!

Who am I to disagree with The Horn Book Magazine! But I do. The reverenced publication of children and teen literature reviews disses Alison Inches picture book I Can Save the Ocean! The Little Green Monster Cleans up the Beach (2010 by Little Simon). The July 1, 2010, review says, "The cartoony illustrations of Max are mildly amusing, but the story is bland and the eco-friendly message is ham-fistedly delivered."

I say rubbish! When Max the little green monster realizes that his habits are contributing to the pollution of the oceans, he determines to change his ways and educate his friends, too. The book presents kids with things they can do to contribute to the care of our environment, and encourages personal responsibility for ones actions. I fail to see any "ham-fisted" delivery or bland story line. And I believe the colorful illustrations are kid friendly. I recommend this book for all library collections -- school, home and private.

Poem in Your Pocket Day



Photo by Susan Ujka Larson

 It's Poem in Your Pocket Day, sponsored by The Academy of American Poets as part of National Poetry Month.  Since it is a beautiful day here in the D.C. area, I've chosen Today by Billy Collins as the poem I will carry with me to share.

Today
If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day."

Miss Brooks Loves Books! (and I don't)

With clever humor, Barbara Bottner introduces Miss Brooks and the first grader who is rather bothered by this school librarian's book fervor. "I think Miss Brooks gets a little too excited," she says in Miss Brooks Loves Books! (and I don't). She finds the librarian's enthusiasm so "vexing" that when she gets home, "I ask my mother if we can move to a new town. My mother says there's a librarian in every town." In the end, this stubborn student learns that there are books for even the most discriminating reader. The illustrations by Michael Emberley add to the fun of the story. The book was published in the U.S. in 2010.

It's National Library Week, and each year I like to share a few picture book titles having to do with libraries and librarians. In addition to Miss Brooks Loves Books! (and I don't), here are two others to enjoy.

Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes.
When a lion entered the library, no one knew what to do because, "There weren't any rules about lions in the library." Miss Merriweather, the librarian, decides that the lion can stay if he is quiet. The lion comes daily to volunteer and attend story time. But one day when the lion can't be quiet, because he has a very good reason to roar, he is scolded for breaking the rules. He leaves the library, disgraced, and doesn't return until . . . . Library Lion is a wonderfully written and illustrated picture book published in 2006.

Lola Loves Stories by Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw.
Every Saturday Lola and her daddy go to the library and choose books to read throughout the next week. The books she picks influence her play. Lola might be a fairy princess, or a tiger, or pilot. The simple text and bright pictures of this picture book, published in 2010, will appeal to younger readers.

Late Wife

Thursday on twitter, January O'Neil (@januaryoneil) shared that she'd posted three new poems on her blog Poet Mom, in response to National Poetry Writing Month (#NaPoWriMo). NaPoWriMo challenges poets to write a poem a day during April, National Poetry Month.

Of O'Neil's three poems, I loved Loser. As I read, I could picture it all, and relate.

"I whisper it under my breath like a little prayer
as we pass through the front door,
you going in, me coming out,
crowding the threshold
in a weird game of chicken.
We both have right of way
but neither is willing to yield.
A heart-skipped beat. A bottled misery.
The word ripples from the underground
spring of the diaphragm where a fissure
has opened once again, the trauma
of old love that never heals.
I brace myself for unavoidable contact,
avert the eyes, move through the stiff air
like a cloud wedged between clouds.
Say it, that mantra of the highest order.
I hold my breath as your windbreaker
brushes against my three-quarter length,
my 100 wool against your polyester blend.
What more is there to do but go through?
L for loser, double L for lost love.
The Motels had it right,
“Take the L out of lover and it’s over,”
because the body gives up what it no longer needs.
This is how I walk through without looking back."

This poem reminded me of another poet. Claudia Emerson won The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2006 for her collection titled late wife. I agree with another poet's praise of the collection. Henry Taylor says of late wife, "They [the poems] are deeply absorbing because their author has brilliantly observed brief but powerful moments, and rendered these miracles of observation with secure craftsmanship."

There are many poems in Emerson's collection that I read again and again. They are striking in their realness. Here is Frame.

photo by sul

"Most of the things you made for me—armless
rocker, blanket-chest, lap desk--I gave away
to friends who could use them and not be reminded
of the hours lost there, the tedious finishes.

But I did keep the mirror, perhaps because
like all mirrors, most of these years it has been
invisible, part of the wall, or defined
by reflection—safe—because reflection,

after all, does change. I hung it here
in the front, dark hallway of this house you will
never see, so that it might magnify
the meager light, become a lesser, backward

window. No one pauses long before it.
This morning,though, as I put on my coat,
straightened my hair, I saw outside my face
its frame you made for me, admiring for the first

time the way the cherry you cut and planed
yourself had darkened, just as you said it would."

The Lady of Shalott

Reading Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy when I was 17 -- The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment -- sparked my interest in Arthurian legend. Years later I encountered Anne Shirley, the fictional character in Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, reciting stanzas of a poem as she floated in a boat down a river. I took those stanzas to my local library, and a generous librarian helped me find their source. The lines are from English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson's (1809 - 1892) ballad The Lady of Shalott.

John William Waterhouse's The Lady of Shalott, 1888 (Tate Gallery, London)

The ballad is a masterpiece in poetic storytelling. Tennyson's poem is based on the legend of Elaine of Astolat, a character in the thirteenth-century Italian novella Donna di Scalotta, who dies of her unrequited love for Sir Lancelot, one of the greatest knights in King Arthur's Round Table.

In the first four stanzas of The Lady of Shalott, Tennyson describes the setting.

"On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And through the field the road runs by
To many-towered Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.

"Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Through the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four grey walls, and four grey towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.

"By the margin, willow-veiled,
Slide the heavy barges trailed
By slow horses; and unhailed
The shallop flitteth silken-sailed
Skimming down to Camelot:
But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?
Or is she known in all the land,
The Lady of Shalott?

"Only reapers, reaping early
In among the bearded barley,
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly,
Down to towered Camelot:
And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers "'Tis the fairy
Lady of Shalott."

In stanzas five through eight, Tennyson describes the Lady's life.

"There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.

"And moving through a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
Winding down to Camelot:
There the river eddy whirls,
And there the surly village-churls,
And the red cloaks of market girls,
Pass onward from Shalott.

"Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd-lad,
Or long-haired page in crimson clad,
Goes by to towered Camelot;
And sometimes through the mirror blue
The knights come riding two and two:
She hath no loyal knight and true,
The Lady of Shalott.

"But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often through the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot:
Or when the moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed;
"I am half sick of shadows," said
The Lady of Shalott."

Stanzas nine through 12 tell of Sir Lancelot.

"A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley-sheaves,
The sun came dazzling through the leaves,
And flamed upon the brazen greaves
Of bold Sir Lancelot.
A red-cross knight for ever kneeled
To a lady in his shield,
That sparkled on the yellow field,
Beside remote Shalott.

"The gemmy bridle glittered free,
Like to some branch of stars we see
Hung in the golden Galaxy.
The bridle bells rang merrily
As he rode down to Camelot:
And from his blazoned baldric slung
A mighty silver bugle hung,
And as he rode his armour rung,
Beside remote Shalott.

"All in the blue unclouded weather
Thick-jewelled shone the saddle-leather,
The helmet and the helmet-feather
Burned like one burning flame together,
As he rode down to Camelot.
As often through the purple night,
Below the starry clusters bright,
Some bearded meteor, trailing light,
Moves over still Shalott.

"His broad clear brow in sunlight glowed;
On burnished hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flowed
His coal-black curls as on he rode,
As he rode down to Camelot.
From the bank and from the river
He flashed into the crystal mirror,
"Tirra lirra," by the river
Sang Sir Lancelot.

In the last seven stanzas, Tennyson tells the effect seeing Sir Lancelot has on the Lady of Shalott.

"She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She looked down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror cracked from side to side;
"The curse is come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott."

"In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining,
Heavily the low sky raining
Over towered Camelot;
Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
And round about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott.

"And down the river's dim expanse,
Like some bold seër in a trance
Seeing all his own mischance--
With a glassy countenance
Did she look to Camelot.
And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.

"Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely flew to left and right--
The leaves upon her falling light--
Through the noises of the night
She floated down to Camelot:
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
The Lady of Shalott.

"Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darkened wholly,
Turned to towered Camelot.
For ere she reached upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.

"Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by,
Dead-pale between the houses high,
Silent into Camelot.
Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and burgher, lord and dame,
And round the prow they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.

"Who is this? and what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they crossed themselves for fear,
All the knights at Camelot:
But Lancelot mused a little space;
He said, "She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott."

Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott is one of my favorite poems. The beauty of the language ("Willows whiten, aspens quiver") enthralls me, and the sadness of the story enchants me.

Franz Schubert and Friedrich Rückert: Poetry and Music

Franz Schubert received his death sentence in 1823. Already the love of his life, Therese Grod, had married another. His father had banished him from home. And his finances were in ruin. Now he was diagnosed with syphilis. In the 19th century, that was a death sentence.

A year earlier, well-known German poet Friedrich Rückert had published a collection of poetry by the title Ostliche Rosen (Eastern Rose). It is possible that Schubert read this book. One of the poems therein, Du bist die Ruh became the text for his lied (song) by the same name.

You are the rest,
The gentle peace,
You are the longing
And what it quiets.

I dedicate to you
Full of pleasure and pain
As a dwelling here
My eyes and heart.

Come to me,
And close
Quietly behind you
The gates.

Drive other pain
Out of this breast!
Full may be this heart
Of your joy.

This temple of my eyes,
By your radiance
Alone is brightened,
Oh fill it completely!

Schubert’s musical interpretation of Du bist die Ruh, here sung by Soprano Sylvia Schwartz, captures the passionate longing of the poet’s words. Considering the struggles of Schubert’s life at the time of its composition, the music seems to reflect the composer’s own heartfelt desires for life and love.

A Bulldog's Face

This is Elle. She is the beloved pet of my friend Lydia. I'm honoring them with this poem for National Poetry Month.  The poem is written about a male dog.  My apologies, Elle, but I don't believe I can take liberties to change the poet's "his" to "hers".

A Bulldog's Face
Nothing on a bulldog's face
Seems to have a proper place
His eyelids droop
His jaws are square
His jowls are beyond compare
His nose looks like he's had a fight
He's got a great big underbite
You look at him and have to hoot
He's so ugly that he's cute
by Marilyn Singer

The poem is included in the book Read A Rhyme, Write A Rhyme, a selection of poems for kids by Jack Prelutsky, the Poetry Foundation's first Children's Poet Laureate (2006). The book is illustrated by Meilo So.

April is National Poetry Month

I'm trying to understand what it is about poetry that excites me. Each year I make a big deal of National Poetry Month at whichever library I happen to be working. Yet, there are many poems that I do not understand. So what is it about poetry that I like?

I began thinking about this as I planned blog posts, tweets, displays and programs for National Poetry Month 2011. When I read the poems that I consider favorites, I see that it's the art of the words that I love. In poetry, words are carefully chosen and strategically arranged to produce a sight, a sound, a smell, a feel, a memory. Following are examples, a few of my favorite poetic lines.

"...sensing only the pale humidity
of the night and the slight zephyrs
that stir the tops of the trees"

from Night Letter to the Reader by Billy Collins.

"Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Thro' the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot."
from The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson

"He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake."
from Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Recently someone suggested to me that the written word is an impersonal form of communication compared with face-to-face conversation. I see it differently. I'm a writer and a reader, and words are the most intimate, most lovely, most heartfelt form of communication. This is what I like about poetry: The precisely chosen beautiful words and the pictures they paint.

The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

I've always thought of Amelia Earhart as a legend. Candace Fleming's 2011 biography about the aviator presents her as a real person who followed her heart.  There are details in the book that make Earhart's disappearance less of a mystery and more of a tragedy of poor judgment.

Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart tells in alternating chapters the story of Earhart's life and what happened in the hours, days and weeks following her disappearance. The biography is written for kids age 8 - 12, but it's so well done that adults will appreciate the book.

At 10 a.m. on July 2, 1937, Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan took off from Lae, New Guinea, heading for Howland Island, a minuscule piece of land in the Pacific Ocean. It was the most difficult leg of their 27,000 mile journey. Finding the island would be akin to finding a needle in a haystack.

Howland Island was within flying distance of both New Guinea and Hawaii. When planning her trip, Earhart at first had considered requesting help from the Navy to refuel in the air between New Guinea and Hawaii. But then she asked President Roosevelt to build her an airstrip on Howland Island. He authorized the funds, and asked that it be built swiftly and secretly. "After all, commented one Earhart biographer, 'the American taxpayer -- in the throes of the Great Depression -- might not have understood the necessity of building an entire airport for one-time use by a private individual'" (90).

Before reaching Howland Island, Earhart and Noonan disappeared.  I didn't know until reading this book that Earhart was heard on radio transmissions after the disappearance.  The U.S. military searched for 16 days.  They covered 250,000 square miles and spent what today is the equivalent of about $58 million dollars.  But neither Earhart or Noonan, or any wreckage, were ever recovered.

Earhart's technical advisor Paul Mantz and communications expert Joseph Gurr thought that Earhart needed more practice with her new plane before attempting her around the equator flight.  Gurr recalled that Earhart spent only one hour with him going over the communications system.  He said, "We never covered actual operations such as taking a bearing with the direction finder, [or] even contacting another radio station" (92).  Some aviation experts speculate that understanding how her plane's radio worked may have saved her life and the life of Fred Noonan.

Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart is a welcome addition to biographies for children.  The writing is good, the layout is attractive, and the photographs are interesting.  Sidebars present  additional facts.  My only complaint is that I found it difficult to read the black type on the pages and sidebars colored grey.

Amelia Earhart was an icon for American women.  "Wrote biographer Mary S. Lovell, '[It] is the legend of an ordinary girl growing up into an extraordinary woman who dared to attempt seemingly unattainable goals in a man's world'" (110).  For that, I am thankful.

Why Your Librarian Doesn't Like You

A while back LISNews shared a blog post on twitter by Michael Leaverton titled This Is Why Your Used Bookstore Clerk Hates You.  I tweeted back, "I could write the list for why librarians hate you!"  Most of what I deal with day-to-day working at a public library was never covered in graduate school.  If it had been, I would have probably transferred to underwater basket weaving ... or at least IT.  So here are 12  reasons why librarians wish certain people would go elsewhere.

1 - You consider us a babysitting service.
I noticed a young boy wandering the stacks alone for more than 30 minutes, so I went to talk with him.  He was four-years-old.  "My Mommy went to get gas for the car and then she is coming back," he told me.  This is one of the worst cases I've encountered.  Most of the time, the caregiver is at the Internet stations while their young child pulls all the DVDs off the shelves looking at the cover pictures, or plays tag in the stacks with a sibling.  Sometimes it's an eight year old caring for their three year old cousin.  As one mother told me when I called her to come pick up her two very young children, "I've taught my children how to behave in a library, and my babysitter knows that they're here, so what's the problem?"  The problem: Librarians are not babysitters.  We can't keep track of your kids and do our job.  And we know all to well what you obviously don't -- not everyone in the library is a trustworthy member of society there to conduct library business.

2 - You cruise in and out several times a day to see who's hanging out.
There's nothing in the library you want, except to see who's hanging out.  You case the joint, leave, and return an hour later.  We notice you, and wonder at how boring your life must be.  Why not grab a book and read?  Or just go to the park across the street. 

3 - You want to use the Internet computers but don't have a library card, any identification to obtain a free library card, or $2 for a guest pass. 
All businesses require an ID and/or money in exchange for goods and services. The same is true at a library. It doesn't help if you argue.

4- You smell.
When I began working in libraries, I was told that, "body odor is not a problem behavior."  We're taught to grin (meaning hold your breath) and bear it.  Please.  Your body odor is highly repulsive.  It's difficult to assist you when we can't breathe in your presence.

5 - You put lots of books on hold then never come for them.
It's not a magical process.  When you place a book on hold, that information appears on a daily report.  Staff go to the stacks to look for each book placed on hold, take them to the back to scan, place hold identification slips in each book, cart them to the hold shelf, and shelve them alphabetically by your last name amidst the hundreds of other holds.  If you don't pick up a hold, the title shows up on another report, and the process is reversed.  It's a lot of wasted time and energy, reminiscent of moving rocks from one pile to another and back again.

6 - You take the DVDs out of the cases, put the cases back on the shelves, and smuggle the DVDs into your personal collection.
It's called stealing, and it reduces the amount of free material others can borrow.

7 - You use the library as your telephone booth.
Remember those?  The library is not a telephone booth.  We can hear your entire conversation, and it's disrupting those who are reading, studying, and working on the computers.  Go outside.  If it's raining, go sit in your car. If you don't have a car ...

8 - You use the library to conduct job interviews.
You're having a conversation.  We can hear you, and so can everyone else who is there to conduct library business. 

9 - You flirt with the library staff on your every visit.
If you're George Clooney or the like, we're okay with this.  Otherwise, leave us alone.  We don't want to see a picture of your chick magnet car.  We don't want to be invited to accompany you to the Bahamas.  We don't want to have coffee with you, or give you our telephone number, or hear about your marital problems. 

10 - You don't silence your cell phone.
Once, it's a mistake.  But twice, three, four, ten times -- so that by the time you leave we have your ring-tone memorized -- you're being disrespectful of all those in the library.  We've posted signs to remind you: "Please silence your cell phone."  As I tell my colleagues, when I become Library Queen, I'm going to ban cell phones from all libraries.

11 - You argue about every fine, every time.
You signed an agreement when you registered for your FREE library card.  You agreed to pay fees on materials returned late, and to pay for the replacement of materials lost or damaged while checked-out on your card.  What's amazing about this one is that usually those who owe big bucks -- like more than $50 -- pay up without any mouth.  Those owing less than $1 usually argue the most.

12 - You are the reason we have to call the police.
Your young child is left at the library and we can't reach you; you kick the window in on the front door because we wouldn't issue a free guest pass; you yell loudly at staff to make an exception for you because no one will know -- except that everyone is now gathered around listening; you drop a bunch of uncased DVDs while heading toward the door; you get into a fist-fight with someone you cruised in to look for.   Police calls result in stress and mountains of paperwork, which result in loss of sleep, which result in us liking you even less the next day when we're tired.

And you thought librarians worked with books!

Always Kafka

My high school and college years were repetitive in their reading assignments. It was always Franz Kafka.  To be specific, it was always The Metamorphosis. Which is why today when waiting in a doctor's office, the New York Time's Magazine caught my attention. There on the front was that name. Kafka.

It turns out that the September 22, 2010, cover story is about the legal wranglings over Kafka's materials. Elif Batuman's article, Kafka's Last Trial, is rich with the history of Kafka's friendship with Max Brod; of Brod's disregard for Kafka's instructions to destroy all his writings upon his death; and of the travels those writings have taken since Kafka's death at age 41 in 1924.

While Batuman provides an insightful and interesting retrospective, Max Fisher gives this overview in his article Kafkaesque Court Fight over Kafka's Estate, printed in The AtlanticWire.

"One of the most frequent uses of the word "Kafkaesque," evoking the dark absurdity of Franz Kafka's fiction, is in reference to his 1925 novel The Trial, which describes an illogical and convoluted court case that stretches on forever. Now 85 years later, in exactly the kind of dark irony that Kafka would have appreciated, an international and deeply Kafkaesque court case has raged for 50 years over the ownership of a large piece of Kafka's papers."

I was unaware of this literary intrigue until today. More than reminding me of my school assignments, it has put a human face on a writer I once only thought of as weird.

What's Your Web Site's Personality?

Can you describe your web site's personality?  The Web Manager's Academy at Computers in Libraries 2011 distributed a handout based on William Slawski's blog post What Kind of Personality Does Your Website Have?  Based on each, here are a selection of questions to ask of your site.

FEEL

• Is it cold or warm and welcoming?
• Does it attempt to evoke emotions in visitors or persuade them with facts?
• Is it cooperative or competitive?
• Is it responsive to questions, to criticism, to praise?
• Is it more like a peer talking to you directly or like a parent lecturing you?

RELEVANCE

• Is it inviting for first time visitors?  Why?
• Does it provide reasons for people to return?  How?
• Does it change over time, of is it fixed and unchanging?

AUDIENCE

• Is it written for a male, female or general audience?
• Does it speak to a younger crowd or and older group?

DESIGN

• Is it innovative in scope or design?
• Is it innovative in what it offers?
• Is it graceful in design or practical in appearance?

FOCUS

• Is its focus upon the benefits it offers users?
• Is its focus on the features of the organization to which it belongs?

An eBook Epiphany

I have not jumped onto the eBook band wagon.  I like the look and feel and smell of “real” books.  My reading time is in bed at night, just before lights out.  My nightstand is filled with books in three stacks.  Beside the nightstand is a basket filled with books, and at the foot of my bed is an L. L. Bean canvas bag filled with books on their way to or from the public library.  eBooks don’t fit my reading style.  I like books all around. 

My epiphany came because of Computers in Libraries 2011. Commuting by Metro to the conference, I observed the reading habits of other commuters.  It was split about half between eBooks and “real” books. 

Usually I commute by car.   I hate driving and I hate traffic.  Living in the D.C. area gives me lots of time to hate both.  To help ease the stress, I listen to books on CD.

This morning watching a mid-aged woman on the Metro reading on her Kindle, I realized that if I had to use public transportation, eBooks would be for me.  They would enable me to carry my library with me in one small package.  

Right now, eBooks are not my lifestyle choice.  But I understand how and why they could be. 

Survival Strategies for the One Person Team

L to R: Frank Cervone (Purdue University), Darlene Fichter (University of Saskatchewan), Jeff Wisniewski (University of Pittsburgh), and Marshall Breeding (Vanderbilt University and Library Technology Guides), presenters of Web Managers Academy 3.0 at CIL11.


Many attending the Computers in Libraries pre-conference session Web Managers Academy 3.0: Seamless Websites & Expanded Presence confessed to being a "one person shop."  The financial crisis of the last several years has resulted in staff cuts and resource downsizing.  What hasn't diminished are expectations.

Darlene Fichter, a librarian at the University of Saskatchewan, said, "The number one most important thing you can do if you're a solo shop is to manage your own expectations and the expectations of others."  She and the other three presenters offered these suggestions.

•      Invest time and /or money into developing a design brand. 

•      Unify your presence, carrying your brand throughout your Web presence.

•       Produce a standard style sheet that addresses all devices.

•       Manage expectations up the food chain by having a Web presence plan as a reference document.  If your   boss tells you to do B, you can respond with, “To clarify, you would like me spend 10 hours a week working on B and leave A alone for six months.”

•       Manage your own expectations by being realistic about what you can do well. 

•       Educate others as to what you can do, and what you can farm out.

On the Blue Comet

The cover caught my eye, but the book did not meet my expectations.  On the Blue Comet by Rosemary Wells is a time travel fantasy for kids age 8 to 12.  The story is about Oscar Ogilvie, who lives with his father in Cairo, Illinois.  They collect model trains and run them in the basement of their home.  When the stock market crash forces Oscar's dad to move to California to look for work, Oscar stays behind with his aunt.  His loneliness is assuaged by a mysterious drifter who befriends him.  Then Oscar witnesses a violent crime that catapults him into a time-traveling train journey to find his father.

Growing up, my grandfather allowed me to play with his Lionel trains.  Consequently, I related to many parts of the book.  But I also kept wondering for whom Rosemary Wells wrote.  Many of her historic references (Life magazine, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Clark Gable, etc.)  will be lost on and uninteresting to today's young readers.  I found the time travel weakly developed and even confusing, especially in chapter 17.

BooksForKidsBlog and School Library Journal both like and recommend the book.  Reading from a kid's point of view, I maintain it won't be popular with young readers.  I agree with Daniel Kraus, writing for Booklist, "The plot’s Twilight Zone potential—the intriguing concept of a spectral train providing haven for unhappy children—is not thoroughly plumbed, and one wonders at the appeal of such a retro story." 

Iditarod 2011

Photograph is courtesy of Alaskan Dude with some rights reserved.

Iditarod 2011 began on March 5. It's a race of over 1,150 miles across extreme and beautiful Alaskan terrain. Each musher and their team of 12 to 16 dogs will cover the mileage in 10 to 17 days.

I was a 2008 Target® Teacher on the Trail™ finalist, and subsequently volunteered to update the list of Books About Iditarod and Alaska for the official Website of the Iditarod.

Cheryl Hannon and I collaborated via email to provide a resource list which we divided into seven categories.

1. Adult Non-Fiction
2. Adult Fiction
3. Children’s Non-Fiction
4. Children’s Fiction
5. Young Adult Non-Fiction
6. Young Adult Fiction
7. Teacher’s Resources and Website Resources

It is part of the For Teachers section of the Website, which offers excellent lesson plans and resources for including the Iditarod and Alaska in schools and libraries.

Please let me know of any other books or resources to add to our list.

Robert Frost: The Derry Years

In March 2010, I was in Middlebury, Vermont, when I was reacquainted with the poet Robert Frost. I’d long been fond of his poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Now I learned that Mr. Frost had spent time in a cabin northwest of Middlebury, and that he had taught at Middlebury College. My interest was piqued.

In The Vermont Bookshop, I looked for a biography and found Robert Frost: A Life by Jay Parini. Parini is a poet, novelist, and biographer serving as Axinn Professor of English at Middlebury College.

For the last year I’ve been savoring the biography, and I took it with me to New Hampshire when I learned that Frost’s farm in Derry was only;12 miles south of the Manchester airport.

Frost’s ten years on the farm in Derry (1901 – 1911) were key in his life as a poet. It was during this time that he developed his own voice. While working with and talking to his New Hampshire neighbors, Frost realized a connection between poetry and conversation. “I was after poetry that talked,” wrote Frost. If my poems were talking poems – if to read one of them you heard a voice – that would be to my liking,” he said (page 88).

Parini writes that, “By the time he [Frost] emerged at the end of this decade of farming, writing, and teaching, he would be fully formed; a major modern poet,” (page 73).

Today the Robert Frost Farm is directly off State Highway 28. I turned left into the muddy driveway, the white farmhouse and barn on my right surrounded by piles of snow. Behind the buildings and yard is a large field, bordered on three sides by pine and birch trees. A couple with baby in a backpack made their way on snowshoes across the field toward the back tree line.

For me, there is a mix of magic and romance in being in the place where someone I know through their writing or art once lived. There is an imagining of the reality of what I’ve read actually occurring in this location. It makes the person more real to me. It makes history live.

I walked the muddy driveway and along the shoulder of Highway 28. The snow was too deep for me to get any closer, or to walk all the way around the house; I did not have snowshoes. The house was closed for the season.

During his Derry years, Robert Frost taught at the Pinkerton Academy, two miles north of his farm, in order to earn extra income. He was a highly regarded teacher by students and colleagues, and was even asked to speak about his teaching philosophy. Parini says Frost focused his talk, “on the need for teachers to develop their own minds before they thought about developing the minds of their students. He [Frost] also said it was important that students be made to feel so dependent on books that without them, ever afterward, they would feel lonely,” (page 99).

I went away knowing more of Robert Frost, inspired to read again Parini’s book, and dedicated to memorizing another Frost poem.

LitLinx (that's me!) celebrating Read Across America Day 2011.

Read Across America Day

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss.  The fun in your books spilled over into Read Across America Day.  At the library we provided Dr. Seuss book marks for kids to color; a Seuss is Loose story time; and a Dr. Seuss book display.  I wore my Dr. Seuss shirt, saved all year for this day, and my red-and-white stripped stove pipe hat.  Lorton Patch published my Read Across America Day guide for parents, reprinted below.  It was a good day.

A Parent's Guide to Read Across America Day

Grab a book! March 2 is Read Across America Day.

The National Education Association’s Read Across America Day is a reading motivation and awareness program “that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss.”

Adults are encouraged to read aloud to a child on Read Across America Day. For that purpose, here are four books recommended by school librarians as great read-alouds.

Green Eggs and Ham is one of 46 children’s books written by Dr. Seuss. “Do you like green eggs and ham,” asks Sam-I-am? The patter and pacing of the rhyme help children recall the story and anticipate the words. This generates participatory reading. Best of all, when the unnamed character finally tries green eggs and ham, he likes them! The next time a child tells you they don’t like something -- you can remind them of green eggs and ham.

Rattletrap Car by Phyllis Root, illustrated by Jill Barton, is another participatory read. On a hot June day, Jake, Junie, Poppa and the baby head to lake. Getting there is quite an adventure. If the reader prepares ahead of time, the sounds of Poppa turning the key to start the car will repeat at each juncture, and listeners can be encouraged to add the last “pop!”

Poetry is a great read aloud for children, especially when introduced in small doses. Small Talk: A Book of Short Poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins provides just that. Thirty-three short, simple poems picture common events in a child’s life. For example, Aileen Fisher provides “Growing Up”:

"When I grow up
(as everyone does)
what will become
of the Me I was?”

Even older children enjoy hearing stories. The unexpected and frightening events in Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg captivate kids. And just when they think they have it figured out, Daniel and Walter Budwing set out with a long, thin box. Yes, the book is better than the movie!

These are just four of hundreds of books your local librarian can recommend for you to read to your children on Read Across America Day or any day.

You'll also find suggestions in a new book by the editors of Horn Book Magazine, a premier guide to literature for children and young adults. A Family of Readers: The Book Lovers Guide to Children’s and Young Adult Literature by Roger Sutton and Martha V. Parravano, provides essays and book recommendations from a variety of authors and editors.

A Family of Readers is divided into four sections: Reading to Them; Reading With Them; Reading on Their Own; and Leaving Them Alone. It covers everything from picture books to teen fiction, poetry to graphic novels, all in an engaging, conversational tone.

According to the NEA, “Motivating children to read is an important factor in student achievement and creating lifelong successful readers.” Read Across America Day is a perfect opportunity to model and motivate reading. For more information and resources, visit NEA’s Read Across America Day and Seussville, the official Dr. Seuss site.

Of Thee I Sing

My first thought when I saw it in the bookstore was, "I wonder if it's any good, or if it's published just because of the author?"  Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters is by President Barack Obama. I'm curious if the idea originated with him.

In this picture book, Obama tells his girls how wonderful they are, and he compares their qualities to people in history who have demonstrated that character.

On the left side of each two page spread, Malia and Sasha stand with their backs to the reader and are joined by other children as the book progresses. The right side of the two page spread features a large picture of a famous person with a short verse about them underneath. The book is interesting for the biographic sketches it provides of 13 "Americans." I like the additional information about these famous people on the book's last page.

Loren Long is the book's illustrator. His picture of Sitting Bull has caused a stir, discussed on the blog American Indians in Children's Literature. In her post, Debbie Reese quotes from an email she received from Horn Book Editor Roger Sutton.

"Loren Long chose to depict Sitting Bull as a sort of landscape, with buffalo for eyes, hills and cracked earth for nose and mouth, and some pine trees placed so they form eyebrows (and, dare I say, boogers). It's the old one-with-nature stereotype, which wouldn't be so bad had all of the other subjects of the book not been depicted realistically."

In a later post, Debbie Reese shares what Sitting Bull's great grandson Eric LaPointe thinks of the book. He said,"I told her [a reporter] my great grandfather was never American. He was Lakota." Of Thee I Sing labels Sitting Bull a Sioux and an American.

LaPointe also said that he does not appreciate his great grandfather being included in a book which honors George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, because of what they did to native peoples. He gives details.

Even the quote attributed to Sitting Bull is problematic. It reads, "For peace, it is not necessary for eagles to be crows."

As Reese points out, "that line did not start with 'For peace'." She gives the full quote from Vine Deloria Jr.'s God Is Red (p. 198). "Deloria writes that this was Sitting Bull's reply to a question about why he did not surrender and return to the U.S. to live on a reservation:

'Because I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. He put in your heart certain wishes and plans, in my heart he put other and different desires. Each man is god in his sight. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.'"

While Fox News blasted Obama for including Sitting Bull in the book, they failed to check their facts. The first headline Fox Nation posted about the book read, "'Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Killed Custer." It was soon thereafter changed to "defeated." Sitting Bull, however, was not at the Battle of Little Big Horn.

There's been a lot of discussion around this one picture book. And while including a Native American was positive, it should have been done with respectful accuracy. Because of its inaccuracies, it should be pulled from all library shelves.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln is recorded as saying, “The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll give me a book I ain’t read.” On February 12, 2011, the United States celebrated the 202th anniversary of the birth of our 16th president. Here are nine books for children and teens which honor this great man.

Lincoln and His Boys by Rosemary Wells, illustrated by P. J. Lynch.
Recommended for ages 9 to 12.
Author Rosemary Wells bases this historical-fiction biography on a discovery she made while researching another Civil War era book: a 200 word fragment written by Willie Lincoln about a trip taken with his father Abraham Lincoln. In Lincoln and His Boys, Will and Tad take turns describing family life in the Lincoln household. The book is beautifully illustrated with oil paintings completed after careful study of hundreds of Lincoln images.

Abraham Lincoln Comes Home by Robert Burleigh, illustrated by Wendell Minor.
Recommended for ages 4 to 8.
Following Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, Americans turned out by the thousands to honor the Civil War president as his funeral train traveled thirteen days from Washington, D.C., to his burial in Springfield, Illinois. Burleigh’s prose and Minor’s paintings record the fictionalized experience of a young boy as he shares in the Nation’s grieving.

Lincoln Shot: A President’s Life Remembered by Barry Denenberg, illustrated by Christopher Bing.
Recommended for ages 9 to 12.
The author writes in the style of newspapers of the time and includes factual information and copies of actual photographs with a chronology of Lincoln’s life, an index, and a list of picture credits at the end of the book. (Note: A problem with this book is that the author and illustrator do not provide article credits, footnotes or a bibliography. Readers are left to wonder which writings and illustrations in the book are actual reprints, and which are their own creation.)

The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary by Candace Fleming. Recommended for ages 10 to 14.
An in-depth and personal glimpse into the lives of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln, this book includes photographs, copies of documents, and highlights about the people important in Lincoln’s life and times. The author spent five years researching, and it is evident in the quality and thoroughness of the finished work. Unique to this book is the new insight into Mary Lincoln’s life provided by recently recovered personal letters.

Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek: A Tall, Thin Tale (Introducing His Forgotten Frontier Friend) by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by John Hendrix. Recommended for ages 4 to 8.
Young Lincoln, age seven, and his ten-year-old friend Austin get themselves into big trouble down at Knob Creek in this historical fiction picture book.

Abe’s Honest Words: The Life of Abraham Lincoln by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
Recommended for ages 4 to 8.
Each two-page spread of this picture book style biography features author Rapport’s brief stanza highlighting a portion of Lincoln’s life, a related quote from Lincoln, and a painting by the illustrator. The last four pages of the book include a list of important dates in Lincoln’s life, suggested resources, and the full text of the Gettysburg Address. Unfortunately, there is no documentation in the book from when and where Lincoln’s quotes are taken.

Lincoln Through the Lens: How Photography Revealed and Shaped an Extraordinary Life by Martin W. Sandler.
Recommended for ages 9 to 12.
History professor and award-winning writer Martin Sandler documents more than 100 photographs of Abraham Lincoln’s life and times. Included in this collection is the only known pre-Gettysburg Address photograph of the sixteenth President.

Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn’t Tell You About the Civil War by Steve Sheinkin, illustrated by Tim Robinson. Recommended for ages 9 to 12.
Sheinkin is a former textbook writer who confesses to how boring they can be. In Two Miserable Presidents he uses real-life accounts and actual quotes – the stuff he was not allowed to use in textbooks. What results is an attention-grabbing and readable account of the Civil War, with focus on Presidents James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln. Sheinkin ends the book with a review of what happened to the key players after the war, interesting source notes, resources for further study, and an exhaustive index. Every quotation in the book is repeated in a chapter-by-chapter list providing the source.

Stand Tall, Abe Lincoln by Judith St. George, illustrated by Matt Faulkner.
Recommended for ages 4 to 8.
This engaging picture book biography spotlights Abraham Lincoln’s childhood from birth in Kentucky to his early teen years in Indiana. The book underscores Lincoln’s perseverance through poverty and hardship, including the death of his mother when he was only nine. Prominence is given to Lincoln’s step-mother, Sally Johnston, and her support of his mostly self-education. Herself illiterate, Sally loaned Lincoln books and advocated for his attending school whenever one was available. With Sally’s love, Lincoln “gained confidence to take his sense of fairness, his careful way of thinking, his hatred of cruelty and his ability to settle quarrels out into the world.” Author St. George points out the life experiences that formed the character of the man who became the 16th President of the United States.

A Long Walk to Water

Nya walks eight hours every day to bring water to her family. The trip to the watering hole isn't as bad as the trip back to the village, when the water weights the jugs.

Salva is in school when the shooting and bombing explode. His teacher tells the students to run. Salva's running turns to days and weeks and months of walking. He becomes one of the Lost Boys, walking to escape war.

Linda Sue Park weaves together the lives of Nya and Salva in her book A Long Walk to Water. Linda met Salva through his nonprofit organization, Water for Sudan. Her book is based on his life story.

A Long Walk to Water is an exceptional book for kids to read because it presents life in another culture. The story is at times frightening, but not overly done for young readers. They will be introduced to the country of Sudan, the reality of civil war and refugee camps, and the current day needs of people in other places. Through the characters of Nya and Salva, they will view perseverance and service for others. Perhaps, too, they will gain an appreciation for the water so abundantly available to Westerners through taps in our homes and schools.

A Long Walk to Water was published in 2010 by Clarion Books.  It is recommended for kids in grades 5 - 8, but also is appropriate for 4th graders who are advanced readers.

Bear of My Heart

This is not a Valentine's Book, per se, but it fits the holiday beautifully.  Written by Joanne Ryder and illustrated by Margie Moore, it's a poetry picture book recommended for ages 3 - 6.  It works well for reading aloud to a story time group.

"There are so many bears in the world, dear, but there's no other one that will do.  You are the bear of my heart, dear, and I am the one who loves you.

"I have so many stories to tell you.  I know wonderful places to see. And because we can see them together, they'll be nicer for you and for me.

"Let's race in the sun and be happy. Let's splash in the stream and drip dry. Let's roll down a hill and be silly. Let's lie and watch clouds drifting by.

"Let's sit nose to nose and share secrets. Let's wish on a star, eyes shut tight. Let's whisper our dreams in the darkness. Let's snuggle together at night.

"If you need me, I'll be there beside you.  If you're lonely, I'll hug you awhile. If you're lost, I will be there to guide you.  If you're sad, I won't quit till you smile.

"Paw in paw, we will greet every morning.  Paw in paw, we will meet every day. You are the bear of my heart, dear, and nothing can take that away.

"No matter how big you may grow, dear, or whether we're near or apart, I will love you forever and ever, for YOU are the bear of my heart."

Me, Frida

Superbly written, beautifully illustrated, and well crafted, this book about an artist is itself a work of art.  Me, Frida, written by Amy Novesky and illustrated by David Diaz, tells the true story of how Frida Kahlo came to create Frieda and Diego Rivera, the first painting she produced in what became her famous folkloric style. 

In November 1930, Frida accompanied her famous husband Diego Rivera from their home in Mexico to San Francisco. It was Frida's first trip outside her homeland.  While Diego painted murals for the city, Frida explored.  But living in a foreign country where she didn't know the language and had very few friends was difficult.  Diego was busy.  Frida felt lost.

As time passed, Frida discovered China Town, traveled across the Golden Gate Bridge, and was inspired to paint.  She painted a portrait of Diego and herself, adorning it with a pink bird and a violet ribbon on which she wrote, "Here you see us, me, Frida Kahlo, with my adored husband Diego Rivera.  I painted these portraits in the beautiful city of San Francisco, California ... in April of 1931."  Today that oil on canvas hangs in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Kindness for Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is getting a bad wrap these days. Joe Dellosa's opinion sums up what I've been hearing:
"... Valentine's Day [has] become a crassly artificial holiday that seeks to commodify our emotions and homogenize the way we express our love as a means to boost corporate profits, while fomenting awkward, hurtful feelings among couples and mopey misery among singles."  That's one way to look at it.

I like Valentine's Day because it's an opportunity to have some fun thinking of others. The tiniest remembrance -- a card, an email, a piece of candy, a single flower -- can brighten someones day.

The children's picture book Love and Kisses by Sarah Wilson, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, reminds me of the good that results from an act of kindness. When a little girl shares a kiss, it travels from friend to friend and eventually, surprisingly, comes back to her.

The Alexandria (MN) Kiwanis and Golden K Clubs are sponsoring their annual Random Act of Kindness Week, February 13 - 19, in an effort to bring awareness to the power of kindness.  Alexandria Kiwanis Club President Diann Drew says, "A simple gesture, a kind word, or a random act of kindness can go a long way in making a community a stronger, better place."

The Paper Crane

A man owned a restaurant on a busy road, and business was good until a new highway was built close by. Because travelers no longer stopped at the restaurant, the man became poor. One day a stranger with a gentle manner came into the restaurant. He did not have money to pay for his meal. Instead, he folded a napkin into the shape of a crane. "You have only to clap your hands," he said, "and this bird will come to life and dance for you." The stranger's gift was worth more than the cost of his meal, and it brought great happiness to the restaurant owner. Can you guess why?

The Paper Crane is Molly Bang's adaptation of an ancient Japanese folktale. The detailed three-dimensional illustrations are photographs of her paper cutouts. They are a wonderful accompaniment to the story.

A Pair of Red Clogs

Mako, a little Japanese girl, is delighted with her new clogs. They are red lacquered and shine beautifully. When Mako walks and runs, her clogs sing: KORO KORO, KARA KARA. Mako chose these when her mother took her shopping. They are her school shoes.

But one day as Mako is playing the weather-telling game with her friends, one of her shiny new clogs cracks. No longer do her clogs sing when she walks. Mako is sad. So sad that she devises a plan that in the end just makes her sadder.

When Mako grows up and buys a pair of red clogs for her granddaughter, she remembers her own red clogs, and the important lesson she learned from them.

A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno, illustrated by Kazue Mizumura, is a book that links well to Lunar New Year themes and Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month in May. The lesson learned by a little Japanese girl is one that children of all cultures will understand.

New Clothes for New Year's Day

Happy [Lunar] New Year! Today is the first day of the Year of the Rabbit. Hyun-Joo Bae has written and illustrated a lovely picture book called New Clothes for New Year's Day. "It's a new year, it's a new day, and it's a new morning. It's the first day for the beginning of everything," says a young Korean girl. She is excited to dress in her new clothes for making New Year's calls.

My favorite parts of this picture book are the beautiful illustrations and the end pages providing details about Lunar New Year traditions.

This translated edition was published in 2007 by Kane/Miller Book Publishers, Inc.

"I wish you good luck."

Spring Is Coming No Matter What the Groundhog Does

Folklore has it that winter will continue for six more weeks if a groundhog sees his shadow on February 2. To me, that has always seemed counterintuitive. If the sun is out to cast a shadow, shouldn't that mean warmer weather is near? But the tradition means that the groundhog is frightened by his shadow and retreats into his den to hibernate another six weeks.

Groundhog Day originated in Europe centuries ago, and is based on the ancient belief that the emergence of a hibernating creature forecast the imminent arrival of spring. When Germans settled in Pennsylvania in the 18th century, they brought the custom with them. In Europe different animals were used, including badgers and bears. Groundhogs were plentiful in Pennsylvania, so that’s the animal that got the job there.

The History Society of Berks County in Reading, Pennsylvania, has the earliest known record of Groundhog Day in the United States. A February 5, 1841, diary entry by Berks County, Pennsylvania, storekeeper James Morris reads:

“Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate.”

Candlemas is a traditional name for the Catholic Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. It is mentioned in this English poem:
As the light grows longer
The cold grows stronger
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight
If Candlemas be cloud and rain
Winter will be gone and not come again
A farmer should on Candlemas day
Have half his corn and half his hay
On Candlemas day if thorns hang a drop
You can be sure of a good pea crop.

Other feasts and festivals also occur on or about February 2, including St Brigid’s Day and Imbolc. February 2 is one of the four cross-quarters of the year. A cross-quarter is a day approximately halfway between a solstice and an equinox.

Some in the past may have marked the beginning of spring when daylight made progress against night, on February 2, the cross-quarter. Others, as we do in modern times, marked spring on the Vernal Equinox, when on March 20 or 21 the sun shines on the equator, making day and night of nearly equal length worldwide. Groundhog Day may have originated as a compromise between the two beliefs.

Groundhog Day has long been popular in the United States, but the 1993 movie of the same name, filmed in Punxsutawney and featuring Phil, established it as an international phenomenon. Press reports estimate the biggest crowd to attend Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney was 40,000. On the morning of February 2, Punxsutawney Phil is pulled from his den by keepers dressed in tuxedos. It has become a raucous event.

Read These!

The Secret of the First One Up by Iris Hiskey Arno, illustrated by Renee Graef

Groundhog Weather School by Joan Holub, illustrated by Kristin Sorra

Groundhog Day by Margaret McNamara, illustrated by Mike Gordon

The Groundhog Day Book of Facts and Fun by Wendie Old, illustrated by Paige Billin-Frye