5 Interracial Books

Another "5-a-Day"!
Last night I watched "Prom Night in Mississippi", a documentary about Morgan Freeman's efforts to integrate prom in the small Mississippi town of Charleston. Since 1970 the school has held two proms: one for white students and one for black students. While it's amazing to think that such segregation is still occurring, the film wasn't as effecting to me as it was to many reviewers. I guess my qualm was, sure, blacks & whites went to the dance together, but from the looks of it they really didn't interact much with each other. And I'm sure there had to be more, but only one interracial couple was shown. The movie got me thinking about the books I've read in which an interracial relationship played an important role. They are:

* Desire in the Sun by Karen Robards
* Holes by Louis Sachar
* Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
* If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson
* Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson

While these are all fictional, they do accurately portray the complexities of these relationships. Check one out today!

Lost Books

I am a librarian's worst nightmare! Ok, not the worst, but I finally realized why it takes me so long to read an entire book: I'm forever losing them. I was going along pretty good on the last one, but lo & behold, now it's nowhere to be found...we even lifted up the couch to look! So my goal before we go camping this weekend is to find the book & finish it this weekend. Stay tuned........

Reading Rockets: For Parents

Reading Rockets: For Parents

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Since I'm reading VERY SLOWLY this summer (I'm currently reading Heaven Looks A Lot Like the Mall--stay tuned for a summary) I thought I would post a link to a website that I find has tons & tons of great information for parents, teachers, librarians, caregivers.....everyone!

Reading Rockets is a national multimedia project offering information and resources on how young kids learn to read, why so many struggle, and how caring adults can help.

Check out their site today for free reading guides, booklists, activities, videos and much more to help children learn to read better.

Library on Facebook

I recently created a Facebook page for the Upper Iowa University Library. I thought this would be a good opportunity to get back to blogging. So check back over the next weeks as I start updating my blog with books I have read this summer. I would love to hear about what everyone else is reading, and of course, feel free to make comments on any of my posts. I should also mention for those of you who are reading my blog for the 1st time, you will notice a lot of young adult books (since this is what my background is in--and because I love them!), but I'm an eclectic reader, so stay tuned if at 1st you don't see anything that interests you.

Also, if you are interested in becoming a page of Henderson-Wilder Library, please visit our page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fayette-IA/Henderson-Wilder-Library-Upper-Iowa-University/96333262771

Thanks!
Jodi

5 Children's/YA Historical Fiction Books

I love historical fiction, so this was really tough to narrow down to five. I left off some that I'll probably be including in other 5-a-days soon, so that helped a bit. Granted, these are not my "all-time favorites" necessarily, but they are all ones that I immensely enjoyed. Somewhere along the line it seems I heard something about children/teenagers not enjoying historical fiction nearly as well as other genres, even though that's what seems to be most prolific. That could be part of the reason why series such as "Dear America" were borne--to get children more interested in reading about history.

In my opinion, the best historical fiction writers introduce us to a time or culture we are not very familiar with, but yet we can identify with the characters and their struggles. If you want to seek out other historical fiction suggestions, there are lots of resources out on the web. Morton Grove Public Library's "Webrary" is a great place to look for all kinds of reading lists; I got most of the following descriptions from there. http://www.webrary.org/rs/bibhistfict.html

• Nory Ryan's Song by Patricia Reilly Giff -- When a terrible blight attacks Ireland's potato crop in 1845, twelve-year-old Nory Ryan's courage and ingenuity help her family and neighbors survive.

• Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson -- In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.

• Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes -- After injuring his hand, a silversmith's apprentice in Boston becomes a messenger for the Sons of Liberty in the days before the American Revolution.

• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Speare -- In 1687, sixteen-year-old Kit leaves the West Indies to live with her Puritan relatives in Connecticut Colony. Her friendship with an outcast Quaker woman make her a target for charges of witchcraft.

• Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata -- After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 12-year-old Sumiko and her family are shipped to an internment center in the Arizona desert. Sumiko soon discovers that the camp is on an Indian reservation and that the Japanese are as unwanted there as they'd been at home.

5 Tear-Jerkers

No big surprises here--most of the following books have probably made hardier souls than me shed a tear or two. But these 5 stand out as especially heart-wrenching, some for pretty obvious reasons.

• A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks -- Oh yes, Sparks is a master of melodramatic romances, but I cried buckets reading this one since it was soon after my 15-yr-old cousin had died from complications of cancer.

• Love You Forever by Robert Munsch -- Even though this is a "children's picture book" it's really aimed more at parents. "I'll like you for always, I'll love you forever, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be". Yes Ashley, no matter how old you are, you'll always be our baby!

• Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls -- The story of a boy and his dogs. Is there any more loyal creature in the world than a child's dog? "Old Dan must have known he was dying. Just before he drew his last breath, he opened his eyes and looked at me. Then with one last sigh, and a feeble thump of his tail, his friendly gray eyes closed forever." Jeezums, I couldn't even type that without crying.

• Beat the Turtle Drum by Constance C. Greene -- An unforgettable story about the friendship between two sisters, and the summer when one of the sisters dies unexpectedly. I can relate to a lot of the narrator's comments: "It's a good thing something takes over and clouds your mind when someone you love dies. It's so awful, so unbelievably awful and terrible and everything bad, that people couldn't manage otherwise, I think." And "people say such dumb things when people die. They don't realize how dumb they are. They say, 'It was God's will,' like Miss Pemberthy. That's enough to turn anyone against God. I myself don't know if I'll ever feel the same about Him. Maybe He had a very good reason for making Joss die, but I doubt it. I read a poem which says, 'Death loves a shining mark,' and I think Joss was the shining mark".

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott -- Another obvious choice, considering it's the story of the 4 March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. When I die, I would like a poem from this book read at my funeral, and also request that the song "For the Beauty of the Earth" from the Winona Ryder film version is played. Here is a snippet of the poem "My Beth": "O my sister, passing from me, out of human care and strife, leave me, as a gift, those virtues which have beautified your life. Dear, bequeath me that great patience which has power to sustain a cheerful, uncomplaining spirit.....Hope and faith, born of my sorrow, guardian angels shall become, and the sister gone before me by their hands shall lead me home."

Well, I'm off to find some tissues now!

5-a-Days

Since I have been incredibly lax in updating my blog & want to get back into it, I thought I would do some "5-a-Days" this week. Each day I'll list 5 books on a particular topic; feel free to comment on them. Full disclosure: contrary to popular belief I don't consider myself well-read so you won't see many "classics" on these lists.

This 1st one for sure I know some people will disagree with!

5 books that I think are overrated

• The Harry Potter series -- don't get me wrong, the storylines are great, and it's wonderful that they have really gotten kids reading, but they are overly long. And I personally much prefer Ron to Harry; I find Harry to be self-centered & bratty, actually. Sacrilege, I know! :)
• The Lovely Bones -- After a 14-yr-old is kidnapped & murdered by a neighbor, she follows the lives of her family from Heaven. Granted, this was an interesting story, it just didn't move me like it did a lot of people. Also, there's a scene towards the end that I found totally unbelievable.
• Catcher in the Rye -- OK, I haven't actually read this, but Heather has, and from her take & the reviews I've read, I think it's probably overrated. I guess I better read it to find out for sure, though.
• Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, A Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson -- I read this and I have no recollection of what life's greatest lesson is so apparently it didn't affect me too much!
• Junie B. Jones series -- It seems you either love these or hate them. I personally don't get the appeal; they are supposed to be funny but I just don't get what's "funny" about bad grammar, horrible spelling, calling people stupid, etc.