For the second time in a week, I’m in the Standard-Times. The same journalist from the letterboxing article emailed all of us at the Millicent Library to ask what books we were reading, for a ongoing column called Book Lovers. I gave her such great answers, she did a whole column on just me.
If you read it, you’ll see it’s because I introduced her to goodreads.com. She’s obviously enthusiastic about it.
As a children’s librarian, I am obligated to celebrate the major holidays. For storytime today, I chose the rite-of-passage craft of making hand-turkeys. I’m sure I don’t even need to explain what they are, for everyone knows.
I’ll show you anyway, because it’s so quintessentially American:
I’m not a big theme-girl, so I’ve never tried to craft a storytime theme all about bears, or about flowers, or whatever. Today, though, I felt the need to present a Thanksgiving-related series of stories. As I crouched near the Thanksgiving books, looking for age-appropriate stories, I realized that at least half of the stories were about turkeys. In every single book, the point of the story was that the assumption would be that the turkey would be eaten, and in the end, it would not. I don’t know if this is a common theme because it’s an early lesson in plot twists, or because secretly all children’s authors are vegetarian.
I could have easily made the theme of this week’s storytime “Where Meat Comes From”, and open the eyes of those three-year-olds who don’t realize that turkey is made out of turkeys. I chose not to. That’s not my fight. Not this time.
Tonight Jason, David, and I went to Providence to see Pink Jenny at The Living Room.
I’ve been reading Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and after two beers, I found myself feeling like I had just drank two beers on an emaciated-post-apocolyptic stomach. That was kind of weird. And overly dramatic.
But I kept it to myself.
Oh.
My friend Laura and I were featured in the Standard Times for our letterboxing adventures. They sent a couple of photogs out with us while we went on a hunt, and the article showed up in Sunday’s paper.
(In the article, you have to click on ‘Photo 1 of 8’, which displays lots of photos of us.)
This weekend Laura and I (and the men we are legally bound with) went out to the cape for LOTS of sushi (there was a mistake with the order, so they brought more) and a big letterboxing event where we found 13 boxes using only blacklights and our wits.
This weekend I also worked on the second level of the Master Knitter program, made a photo display clippy-thing (pics to come), and went on a fabulous crispy fall walk with friends and dogs.
I’m feeling very energetic, and I hope that the combination of cool weather and hot chocolate is a mighty team that will keep me sane through the winter.
This is a visual riff off of an ongoing Gmail conversation (I just love that you can do that), from El Chipps:
This image is the opposite of what it’s like to bike in New Bedford / Fairhaven.
Just today, just now, it occurred to me that my power animal is the owl.
I know it’s not REAL original for someone who’s into information, but my eye sockets are huge, and I wish I could fly. SB’s power animal is the panda, Sid’s power animal is a carrot, and Jason’s power animal is … the human. It was only a matter of time until mine became apparent.
I was thinking my power animal was the sheep, but I think that’s my power resource. Lambchops and a sweater, coming up!
I was studying the package of Chips Ahoy! Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies at the table today (because god knows, I can’t eat without reading), and one of the ingredients listed is raisin paste. I had just been feeling snarky and superior about the chemicals in commercial cookies, and they hit me with raisin paste.
Weirdout.
You may or not know this, but I’m a Pez collector.
This site is via BoingBoing, via my mom. (You know you are one-upped when your mom emails you cool sites she finds on BoingBoing.)
Sweet World is a site with a bunch of Pez modifications. Some of them are very clever and awesome, some of them you might not notice much of a difference… unless you’re a Pezhead.
I’m still glowing over yesterday’s storytime. I’ve vowed to buy a personal copy of The Lorax, so I can have it at the ready.
As I was biking to work this morning, I was remembering how awesome it was to throw together an opportunity, a solid story, and a really important lesson and make librarical magic. I was thinking about how great it would be if I could perform stories like this at a moment’s notice, maybe with a few finger puppets I keep in my bag, or a series of tattoos.
Then I remembered Richard’s idea of StoryMob. During our storytelling class in grad school, we had just finished a round of really stellar stories (and we were kind of high, like the children’s high I’m still on) and Richard had the idea of going out to the quad (open area at the University of Illinois) and running up to a group of lounging undergrads and telling them a story or two. The idea morphed into a guerrilla story performance crew.
I think at that point we went out for beers, and the idea was made into a Facebook group. It lingers there, and I know the UIllinois crew is working on it, but I’m wondering what I can do from here. Perhaps we need a site where we can submit stories, be they written, audio, or video. I’d totally record video of me accosting a group of children and making them happy. Maybe old people too.
My general perception of the current state of primary education was that we were teaching to tests and encouraging bullies. A month ago I was asked to come to a local elementary school to participate in a program they’re doing where each month a different grade takes on a different moral characteristic, learns about it, and presents it to the rest of the school. Wow.
So talk about intimidating, I was asked to present a little something to second graders on responsibility. And come back each month to do another trait. Right. No worries. Just … you know … responsibility.
First off, I had a lot of trouble defining responsibility, as far as how to choose a story to tell. There are so many ways to apply that principle, and second graders are going to want a bit of an analogy to make it work.
Finally, I realized that I could narrow the connotation of the word down to something that fit. I decided to go with eco-terrorism.
Kidding! I decided that I wanted to show them the responsibility we have for our communities. I chose the book The Lorax (read it here), and as we read the story, we talked about the Once-ler’s actions, and if he should maybe have been taking more responsibility for the flora and fauna that had been flourishing.
At the end, the Once-ler gives John Everyman the last truffula tree seed. I didn’t even have to prompt them. They were all like “he needs to plant that seed aaaaand then put a basket under the tree and collect more seeds aaaaaand then plant a bunch more trees”.
I asked them what kind of responsibility the Once-ler had for his community there, and they decided that the whole debacle would have been avoided if the Once-ler would have planted new truffula trees as he cut others down.
They totally and completely got it. They got the eco theme, they got the responsibility theme, and they were still with me at the end, when I told them that I think we all have a responsibility to our community and my favorite way to be responsible is to pick up a piece of trash at the park. If everyone in the class did that, 19 pieces of trash would be in the trash can. I followed that up by saying that we can’t be responsible for everyone, but if we do a small part along with everyone else, we are all responsible together.
I’m totally blissed out. I can’t wait to find out what next month’s theme is.
