Letters About Literature

From the Library of Congress: a reading/ writing contest for young people, fourth through twelfth grades!

 Youth are invited to write a letter to a favorite author, living or dead, describing how the author’s work changed their thinking about themselves or their world. Details and entry information are available here.

Our Library is filled with great books in which young people can find thought provoking and life changing ideas. Come on in and our librarians will help you find just the right book for you. Wouldn’t it be great to have a few Avon Lake young people as state or national winners?

One Smart Little Girl

M is one of the winners of our Banned Book contest. Her favorite Banned Book is Halloween ABC, a book of poems by Eve Merriam.  Book banners say the book “promotes violent criminal and deviant behavior,”  and “devil worshipping.” M knows the book is just about fun.  Somehow, I think she’ll grow up to be one smart and thoughtful woman. It’s the kids who don’t read that I worry about. 

The’-re-min (θɛɹəmɪn)

The world’s first electronic musical instrument is played by waving your hands in midair, as demonstrated by the device’s inventor, Leo Theremin.  Looks easy, but the instrument is really hard to play (trust us, we have one in Discovery Works and you can try it yourself)….

On Monday, October 29th at 7:00 pm, Robert Wheeler will show us how its done right in our Gallery.  Mr. Wheeler is a member of Cleveland’s legendary avante-garage band, Pere Ubu, and also has a farm in Milan, Ohio.   

Some links of interest: 

A blog for theremin freaks:

http://www.thereminworld.com/

Unofficial Pere Ubu (but with band blessing) Myspace page: 

 http://www.myspace.com/pereuburadio

Moog’s history of the Theremin.  They make Theremins, too.  In fact, Bob Moog started out selling theremin kits by mail.  Did you know that? 

 http://moogmusic.com/history.php?cat_id=2

A guy demos the theremin and plays a Buggles song for us:

Banned Book Month is Over (but We Treasure Your Freedom to Read Everyday at ALPL

We gave away twenty-five of our terrific t-shirts (these do get noticed!). We had lots of fun and hoped we educated lots of folks about some of our most essential freedoms – the freedom of the press and the freedom to read what you choose to read. 

We received entries from 136 individuals, children and adults. Here’s the challenged and banned books our patrons told us they loved:  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle),  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll),  Anastasia Again (Lois Lowry),  Animal Farm (George Orwell),  Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl,  The Bible,  Black Boy (Richard Wright),  Blubber (Judy Blume),  Born on the Fourth of July (Ron Kovic),  Bridge to Terabithia Katherine Paterson),  Candide (Voltaire),  Catch-22 (Joseph Heller),  The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean Auel),  A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess), The Color Purple (Alice Walker),  Cujo (Stephen King), Dracula (Bram Stoker),  East of Eden (John Steinbeck),  The Face on the Milk Carton (Caroline Cooney),  Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury),  A Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway),  Forever (Judy Blume), The Giver (Lois Lowry),  Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell),  Gorillas in the Mist (Dian Fossey),  Goosebumps (series – R.L. Stine),  Gossip Girls (series – Cicely Von Ziegesar),  Halloween ABC (Eve Merriam),  Harry Potter (series – J.K. Rowling),  Headless Cupid (Zilpha Keatley Snyder),  I Am the Cheese (Robert Comier),  It’s Perfectly Normal (Robie Harris),  James and the Giant Peach (Roald Dahl),  Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy),  A Light in the Attic (Shel Silverstein),  Little House on the Prairie (Laura Ingalls Wilder),  The Lorax (Dr. Seuss),  My Brother Has AIDS (Deborah Davis),  My Brother Sam is Dead (James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier),  My Name is Asher Lev (Chaim Potok),  Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens),  On My Honor (Marion Dane Bauer),  On the Origin of the Species (Charles Darwin),  The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chobsky),  The Satanic Verses (Salman Rushdie),  The Scarlett Letter (Nathanial Hawthorne), The Scary Stories (series – Alvin Schwartz),  Sex (Madonna),  Slaughterhouse 5 or the Children’s Crusade ( Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.),  The Slave Dancer (Paula Fox),  The Story of My Life (Helen Keller),  Tiger Eyes (Judy Blume),  To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee),  Ulysses (James Joyce),  Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe),  Where’s Waldo? (Martin Hanford), The Witches (Roald Dahl),  A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleline L’Engle).

LOL@ Your Library Teen Read Week 2007

Avon Lake teens will be reading for the fun of it as the library celebrates the tenth annual Teen Read Week(TM), October 14-20, 2007. We join thousands of other libraries and schools across the country who are encouraging teens to celebrate this year’s theme, LOL@your library. Teen Read Week is the national adolescent literacy initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association(YALSA). This year’s theme encourages teens to read humorous books and graphic novels just ‘for the fun it’.Today’s teens have less and less free time, and there are increasingly more activities for them to take part in during what little leisure time they have. That is why it is important to encourage young adults to set aside some time to read. One of the most important ways teens aquire the habit is by watching adults they respect. Being around adults who are avid readers can counteract the latest statistics from The Nation’s Report Card (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard), which indicate that in homes across America the number of different types of reading materials has decreased, and a smaller percentage of seventeen-year-olds saw adults reading in their homes.Parents of teens are encouraged to celebrate Teen Read Week(TM).

• Visit the library with your teen to check out books.
• Set aside time each night for the family to read.
• Give books or magazine subscriptions to your teen as a gift or reward.
• Share your favorite book with your teen.
• Join a book discussion group at library or school.

Laugh Out Loud with a good book! 

LOL @ ALPL with These Comedies

Why not celebrate Teen Read Week(TM) with one of these funny movies from our collection? 

Are We There Yet? PG
Beetlejuice PG
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure PG
Christmas With The Kranks PG
Daddy Day Care PG
Freaky Friday (2003) PG
Ghostbusters PG
Groundhog Day PG
The Haunted Mansion PG
Johnny English PG
Kicking And Screaming (2005) PG
A League Of Their Own PG
Material Girls PG
Nacho Libre PG
Napoleon Dynamite PG
The Pacifier PG
The Pink Panther (2006) PG
Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement G
RV PG
The Santa Clause PG
The Shaggy Dog (2006) PG
Sixteen Candles PG
Sleepover PG
Spaceballs PG
Unaccompanied Minors PG

Humorous Books to Celebrate Teen Read Week(TM) 2007.

LOL @ Avon Lake Public Library with these funny reads.  You can find even more humourous books on the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) website:  http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/popularpaperback/07ppya.cfm. 

Azuma, Kiyohiko. Yotsuba&!: Volume 1. 2005.

Douglas, Lola. True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet. 2006.

Goldschmidt, Judy. The Secret Blog of Raisin Rodriguez. 2006.

Groening, Matt. Simpsons Comics Barn Burner. 2005.

Korman, Gordon. No More Dead Dogs. 2000.

Korman, Gordon. Son of the Mob: Hollywood Hustle. 2004.

Limb, Sue. Girl, 15, Charming but Insane. 2005.

Parel, David. Bat Boy Lives!: The Weekly World News Guide to Politics, Culture, Celebrities, Alien Abductions, and the Mutant Freaks That Shape Our World. 2005.

Rallison, Janette. Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws. 2006.

Rees, Douglas. Vampire High. 2005.

Shusterman, Neil. The Schwa Was Here. 2006.

Vizzini, Ned. Be More Chill. 2005.

Wilson, Daniel H. How to Survive a Robot Uprising. 2005.

More on Eisenhower and Freedom to Read

Several days after posting “Presidents and Banned Books, I came across an extended quotation from Dwight Eisenhower’s address at Dartmouth in 1953:

“Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you’re going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book, as long as any document does not offend
[y]our own ideas of decency. That should be the only censorship. . . .
    “We have got to fight [communism] with something better, not try to conceal the thinking of our own people. They are part of America. And even if they think ideas that are contrary to ours, their right to say them, their right to record them, and their right to have them at places where they’re accessible to others is unquestioned, or it’s not America.”

-President Dwight D. Eisenhower

 from a commencement address at Dartmouth College, June 14, 1953.

New, slightly improved Book Return

When we first installed this book return in 1994, our circulation was about 1/3 of what it is now, AND vehicles could enter AND exit the library at the east and west sides.  Due to wear and tear from use, weathering and exposure, and traffic and safety rules that came later, we have a less than ideal situation. 

The doors needed to be replaced, so, inspired by the USPS, we had these drop chutes fabricated:

Good news:  you no longer have to hold a door open with one hand to deposit materials with the other.  Two flaps inside protect materials from the weather.  A roller conveyor keeps the bins from filling up too fast. 

We cannot change the traffic pattern in our parking lot right now without causing safety issues, so you still have to get out of your car to put things in the drop — unless 1. you are the passenger or 2. your car is very narrow! 

Perfect system or not, most of our materials are returned through our Book Return. 

Did you know we empty the drops every hour while open, and several times a day when we are closed?

Presidents and Banned Books

Two great quotes:

Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you’re going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book…

- Dwight D Eisenhower, 1953

 Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance.

- Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1964

(Banned Book Month is through Friday; after that, this blog will return to other subjects. Just in case you were wondering )