The Last Girls of Pompeii
Posted by: notesfromtheblacklagoon on: February 26, 2008
I have a guilty secret to confess. I’m a children’s librarian and I love to read. I just don’t love to read children’s books. Let me clarify. I adore pictures books. I rejoice in easy readers. I abhore most children’s fiction. I’ve tried really hard and I feel so guilty because there are tons of childrens’ librarians out there who LOVE kidlit. So, in the spirit of the new year, I’ve made a resolution to try and read more kid’s fiction from our collection. Here’s my first attempt:
The Last Girls of Pompeii by Kathryn Lasky takes us back to the vibrant world of ancient Pompeii in the Roman Empire, full of augers, soothsayers and bizarre wedding customs. 12 year old Julia is a member of the city’s most prominent family and is its last unmarried daughter. Born with a shriveled arm, Julia had spent most of her youth with her slave, Sura, sheltered by her her loving family, including her doting cousin Marcus. As her sister Cornelia’s wedding day draws nearer, so does Julia’s and Sura’s dread about their uncertain futures. Sura’s eavesdropping reveals a master plan to give the deformed Julia (who is not expected to marry) as a priestess to a prominent cult’s temple and sell Sura to finance Cornelia’s open-bar reception. Lasky builds the sense of impending doom by alluding to tremors, noxious gases and other tell-tale signs of Mount Vesuvius’s tragic eruption that would eventually take place in August of AD 79. This is nicely juxtaposed nicely with both girls’ struggle to come to terms with the meaning of freedom and the ability of each to chose her own future. The book also explores the complicated and beautiful relationships between sisters and, through Sura and Julia’s relationship, suggests that sisterly ties can exist beyond the bounds of family. The most problematic parts of the book center around the character of 15 year old, Marcus, Julia’s cousin. Though Marcus, who laughs at the supposed silliness of Roman traditions and religion, Lasky tries to present a modern understanding of physical deformities that seems a little too anachronistic to fit in with the rest of the story. While admirable, this contributes to the plot’s uneven pacing: It drags in the middle as Julia is dragged from one oracle to another and then abruptly jumps forward with lightning-quick speed as Marcus proposes marriage as a way for them both to escape their fates. Modern middle grade readers may also be a bit puzzled over the budding love of first cousins (an acceptable Roman social more). All in all, this novel is an interesting idea for historical fiction. It richly describes Roman life while providing a deep exploration of the two protagonists but it ultimately leaves readers hanging with its uneven plot.
African Wrap Dolls
Posted by: notesfromtheblacklagoon on: February 21, 2008
At the TPL, we have what we like to call “a rhythm” to our year in the Children’s Room. Summer is the height of it: the busiest, most fun, and most exhausting time. Fall slows down as kids go back to school and we get back to doing other library work. After the holidays, it’s usually dead until things pick up in the spring. It’s so predictable and reassuring, it’s nearly like our own little seasonal cycle that creates the perfect balance between patron services and the behind-the-scenes work we do. However, February school vacation marks the one HORRID interruption of our near-perfect system. That’s right….for one week, the entire city seems to congregate at the library and they all have a project due when they get back to school!!!
And so, I have gotten nothing done this week…including blogging. I did want to talk about one kick-butt program we did for kids of all ages yesterday. If you’re a librarian in the southeastern region of MA, listen up! Doll E Daze is a fantastic organization based in Mansfield, MA that promotes cultural diversity and dialog through their amazing African Wrap Doll Workshop. The women who run Doll E Daze are all black doll collectors and focus on the history of black dolls and African-American history in the U.S.. Debra Britt and her family not only collect these dolls, but also run workshops for libraries and schools on how to make African Wrap Dolls. In celebration of black history month, we had this program at the library yesterday and it was a huge success!! Debra is an amazing speaker who draws on her own experiences of loneliness as a child growing up in the racially-charged atmosphere of 1960’s Boston to tell the tale of doll-making. Every child and adult who attended the program made his or her own wrap doll with materials provided by Doll E Daze.
We had over 80 people crammed into our auditorium and actually ran out of seats! The ladies from Doll E Daze did a fantastic job and even vacuumed the room when they were done. I can’t recommend this program enough!
Facebook, Cataloging, and Errol Flynn
Posted by: notesfromtheblacklagoon on: February 15, 2008
What do these two things have to do with each other? Nothing, unless you count Facebook as a convenient distraction from cataloging. Which I need to do today. Anyway, initially, I was against Facebook, saying that people with a real life don’t spend time on Facebook. HA! Another thing I was wrong about. Now that I have a Facebook account, I find it so much easier to keep in touch with my friends. For me, that’s essential as I’ve moved away from my hometown in New York and most of my college friends live all over the country. Recently, I just reconnected with two friends I met while living in Ireland for my junior year abroad! I hadn’t heard from them in ages and I just found them on Facebook. We’re all very happy to hear from each other and I’m hoping Patrick and I can maybe (and when I say maybe, I mean I have to convince Patrick) to go to Ireland on our honeymoon. In a professional sense, I’m also hoping I can connect with some other children’s librarians on Facebook. I’ve joined a few librarian groups on Facebook to see what’s going on. Nothing yet, but perhaps I’ll start a group for Children’s Librarians in MA.
Back to cataloging. This is another hat I wear here in Children’s. At the TPL, the Children’s Room is sort of like it’s own mini self-sufficient library. Both myself and my other full-timer, Mary Beth, catalog and process all of our materials and have complete freedom to put them where we like in our collections. It also means we know our collection REALLY well since we see everything before it goes on the shelf. The negative side is that cataloging is a total time-suck. I always have to do it and keep on top of it. It stops me from doing as many story times and programs as I would like. And I’m also not terribly detailed-oriented, so that means I’m not the best cataloger. I try though. A mixed bag all around. If you do catalog at your library, I would highly recommend OCLC’s Dewey Cutter Program for your desktop. This software allows you to type in the author’s last name or title or whatever and generates 4 digit Cutter numbers based on that. It’s a lifesaver when I’m doing my call numbers and I couldn’t live without it.
A final note: I love Errol Flynn. Patrick got me into Errol Flynn movies after we watched The Adventures of Robin Hood. Right now, we’re watching Captain Blood, but my favorite Errol Flynn movie is The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex with Bette Davis playing Queen Elizabeth I and Flynn as Robert Devereaux. Bette Davis is AMAZING as she plays an Elizabeth full of complications and rage and Flynn is her match as the charming but treacherously power-obsessed Devereaux. Fabulous movie.
Blogging is taking over my life
Posted by: notesfromtheblacklagoon on: February 14, 2008
Ok, so when I started this, I thought this would be a cool and fun thing to do every now and again. I wasn’t even sure that I had a lot to say. But now I realize how foolish that was! Now, I find myself thinking about subjects for posts all day and composing them in my head! I’m not getting any work done. My cataloging has suffered (yes I have to catalog…sigh). My patrons have suffered! I’ve even said to my fiance, “Could you hang on a sec, I just need to finish this post”. So I’ve a sit-down with myself and we’ve decided to set down some limits: Once a day, no more than a half hour. That’s it!
Anyway, we just got a new shipment of DVDs that I ordered, including seasons 1 & 2 of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones. For the uninitiated, this live-action series was filmed all over the world in the early 90s and featured Indy as a kid and a young man. In each episode, Indy meets up with a famous historical figure (like TR or Churchill) for some crazy, swashbuckling adventures. The DVD version has been a bit edited from the original TV series according to Amazon, but got good reviews all around. The third season is coming out in April. My fiance was OBSESSED with this show as a kid and now we’re both huge fans of the movies. Since I catalog, I get first dibs on new stuff! I can’t wait to bring this home to Patrick! Oh yeah and I’m excited for our patrons to see it..
Check out the trailer for the new Indy move that’s coming out on May 22. I’m skeptical. Not that I’m ageist, but Harrison Ford in his 60s playing Indy??? Plus there have been various reports of problems with the script. We’ll see.
A Good Day for Soup
Posted by: notesfromtheblacklagoon on: February 13, 2008
In typical New England fashion, the weather is atrocious and unpredictable today! Last night it snowed; today it’s warm with monsoon-like rains. Either way, it’s still winter and a crappy day is a good day for soup. Of course, I was too dysfunctional this morning to pack any for my lunch, but I thought I would satisfy my soup craving via story time at the local YMCA preschool (which I visit twice a month). If you need some soup stories, here are the two I read today:
Bravery Soup by Maryann Cocca-Leffler
Under the tasty guise of soup, this story is really about facing your fears! Carlin is a scaredy-raccoon in need of courage. After Big Bear asks him to retrieve a special ingredient for bravery soup in a monster’s cave, Carlin shores up what little he has and sets off with the gifts of armor, food, and a stick from some well-meaning (but overwrought) forest friends. “Remember”, Big Bear says, “you are more brave than you think.” Carlin discovers he’s perfectly capable of navigating through the Forbidden Forest and Skulk Mountain by using his own wits instead. Finally, Carlin faces his fear and the cave monster to obtain the special ingredient box. He returns to a big cheer, but only to find the box is EMPTY! All’s well that end’s well though and Carlin learns that bravery isn’t in a box but in doing things you don’t think you can do! A tasty bowl of a story and a life lesson all in one. This story had the older class of 4 year olds entranced and they loved it!
Duck Soup by Jackie Urbanovic
Maxwell Duck is back as chef extroardinaire in this hilarious book. Max is happily cooking away, trying to invent his own soup recipe. After realizing his special soup needs just the right something, Max trots off to find chives in garden. Enter his three goofy friends with big appetites. Mystified by Max’s disappearance from the scene, his friends are about wolf down some tasty soup when they notice an ominous feather in the broth. Chaos ensues as Brody, Dakotah and Bebe frantically strain Max’s soup and panic over his demise in carrots, potatoes and onions. Upon returning, Max witnesses the destruction of his masterpiece and sits at the dinner table looking understandably demoralized. But, as his friends point out, at least he’s not duck soup! A totally hilarious read for the kids as they realize Max’s “head” is really a potato, etc.
All and all, a satisfying story time inspired by a satisfying meal.
Before You Were Mine (or everyone at the TPL loves animals)
Posted by: notesfromtheblacklagoon on: February 12, 2008
So the staff at the TPL and in the Children’s room love animals. We love picture books about animals. We love pets. We love pets so much that sometimes we let patrons and staff bring in their pets to visit even though it TECHNICALLY is against library policy. We also love animals so much that we decided the Children’s Room needed a pet. So we got a dwarf hamster named Scooter. Scooter didn’t last too long and she sadly died right before Christmas. Santa (aka Daisy, the assistant director) brought us a new, awesome, regular-sized Black Bear hamster that we’ve named Ratatouille.
He’s a great hamster and our patrons just love to see what he’s up to. Mostly, he runs on his wheel and hoards food. An exciting hamster life.
Most staff here also really value our local animal shelter and have rescued pets at some point in their lives (including me!) Thus, I was particularly moved when I read the review for Before You Were Mine by Maribeth Boelts. This pet story focuses on a young boy who imagines his dog’s life before the family rescued the pooch from the pound. The author covers all scenarios for pets’ past lives, including abandonment, moving families, and running away. All ends well as the Boelts finishes up her tale with a happy homecoming for the dog and the young boy’s family. This book was a real tear-jerker for us in the Children’s Room and touched us so much that we donated several copies to the Taunton Animal Shelter for families who adopt pets. Bonus: According to the dust jacket, Boelts will donate a portion of the profits to the Humane Society.
So that’s why we love animals here at the TPL and why we loved Before You Were Mine by Maribeth Boelts. If you are considering getting a pet, please consider your local animal shelter. If you aren’t ready for a pet yet, buy this book and help out the Humane Society.
The kids call her “The Laminator”…
Posted by: notesfromtheblacklagoon on: February 11, 2008
Hello world! Ok, so I do love to laminate and I also love The Librarian from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler, but this blog is dedicated to all things Children’s Services in a public library. I, myself, am the head of Children’s Services at an urban library in Massachusetts. I have a wonderful staff of 7 and wear many, many hats in this job, so I thought I would start a blog about the ins and outs of running a children’s room. It’s hard work, but a lot of fun. I look forward to sharing my thoughts and reading yours! More tomorrow….it’s 5 o’clock and it’s quittin’ time.
Flickr Photos
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