Tag Archives: books

Jul15

‘i think hope and magic are probably connected. ‘ – Kate DiCamillo

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thanks to the library consortium, and the detroit public libraries

i recently had the pleasure of attending an online talk

featuring one of my favorite authors, kate dicamillo

 just as friendly and full of whimsy as i had imagined

she talked about how she got her ideas

for stories and characters

how they became a part of her

i’ve loved her books for years

she writes for children of all ages

 in the last few years i’ve read some of them again

 with new eyes and life experience

i’ve been even more taken with them

each filled with hope and joy and spirit

 characters who refuse to be anything other than who they are

and who, against the odds, never surrender

she has such a brilliant magic to her writing.

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‘i like to think of myself as a storyteller.’
*kate dicamillo
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*Kate Dicamillo has written 30+ bestselling books, beloved by children and adults in touch with their inner eight-year-old, for two decades, including Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, The Magician’s Elephant, Flora & Ulysses, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Some of these have been turned into operas and movies. Her new books in 2024 include the middle grade novel Ferris and Orris and Timble: The Beginning. She is a rare two-time winner of the Newbery Medal.

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below is a link to a post i wrote not long ago, about one of my very favorite books of hers, ‘the miraculous  journey of edward tulane’, which was beautiful and moved me to tears.

journey.

Jun26

listen to the mockingbird.

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“summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots,

or trying to sleep in the tree house; summer was everything good to eat;

it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape; but most of all, summer was Dill.”

– harper lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

 

one of my all-time favorite books and movies and here were are once again, in summer.

i even played ‘scout’ once in a scene of a play, and it was something.

 

 

 

 

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credits: j.b.  lippincott & co., universal pictures

May9

india, take the wheel!

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Wake County Bookmobile driver and librarian India White, July 1966.

White drove the Bookmobile all over the county for over 20 years. Her route changed daily but rotated monthly, visiting mostly rural locations in the county and homes of the elderly or disabled. She had dozens of assistants over the years, many either not able to learn the routes or drive a manual transmission (one of the crucial prerequisites for the job). A life-long resident of Raleigh, she devoted her entire career to the Wake County Library. White died in 2000 at the age of 92.

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“literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. it is a tool for daily life in modern society.

it is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development.

for everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right..

literacy is finally, the road to human progress

and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.”

-kofi annan

 

 

 

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credits: vintage america uncovered, state archives of north carolina, news and observer

Apr28

booksellers.

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72-year-old bookseller, Mohamed Aziz, in Rabat, Morocco, spends 6 to 8 hours a day reading books. Having read over 5000 books in French, Arabic, and English, he remains the oldest bookseller in Rabat after more than 43 years in the same location. When asked about leaving his books unattended outside, where they could potentially be stolen, he responded that those who can’t read don’t steal books, and those who can, aren’t thieves.

 

in honor of independent bookstore day, yesterday, and every day

 

 

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credits: s. kahn

Mar27

let us read.

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reasons why that reader is frowning:

1.they just read the book they put off for 393,348  years and it’s excellent, why didn’t they read it sooner?

2. they are in a fight with their to be read pile and it is winning.

3. someone just said, “why don’t you read the books you have before getting more?”

4. all of the above.

5, ?

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“let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”

~  voltaire, born in 1694.

 

 

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credits: good living, paper fury

 

Mar4

the whole world gets bigger.

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“oh how I love to read, she thought. ihe whole world gets bigger.”

— Louise Fitzhugh, Harriet The Spy (1964)

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i always was interested in detectives and spies, and books were a way for me to feel a part of it.

without any real danger, but just enough suspense…

on international book day

Feb16

in the same room.

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happy it’s friday

and have everything i need for my *book club with friends tomorrow.

(*we love books, sometimes read the same ones, and enjoy sharing our real life stories)

on my way…

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“it wasn’t until my fifth or sixth book where i realized i’m trying to do the same thing in every story I tell,

which is bring everybody together in the same room.”

-Kate dDiCamillo,

*kate is an american children’s fiction author. she has published over 25 novels, including Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tiger Rising, The Tale of Despereaux, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, The Magician’s Elephant, the Mercy Watson series, and Flora & Ulysses. John Newberry Medal winner.

while kate’s books are geared toward children and young adults, her books appeal to all ages. i find her writing incredibly beautiful and she is one of my favorite authors.

 

 

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photo credit: etsy vintage

Feb15

how do you begin?

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how interesting to see how different cultures/languages might start their books. the last one is pure fun.

how do stories start in your culture/language?

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 how some have responded:

Hungarian tales mix a lot of them, but my favourite is like: “Once upon a time, where it wasn’t, far beyond the glass mountain, where the short-tailed piglet roams, there lived a(n)….”

My mother used to say “When Donkeys wore high hats and Hyde Park was a flower pot “

Romanian : “There was once, as if never, because if it weren’t, the story wouldn’t be told”

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“we are the storytelling animal. “

-salman rushdie

 

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source credits: StoreyBook reviews, erma bombeck writers workshop

Feb7

read aloud.

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*celebrating  world read aloud day

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“we have an obligation to read aloud to our children. to read them things they enjoy. to read to them stories we are already tired of. to do the voices, to make it interesting, and not to stop reading to them just because they learn to read to themselves. use reading-aloud time as bonding time, as time when no phones are being checked, when the distractions of the world are put aside.”

-neil gaiman, english author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre, and screenplays

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*World Read Aloud Day is celebrated on the first Wednesday in February.  This is a day dedicated not just to reading, but to the art and practice of reading aloud. Stories were passed down from generation to generation even before writing was invented. Oral forms of storytelling were the earliest way of preserving human knowledge, insight, and creativity. This day helps us bring this tradition back to reading while promoting literacy.

 

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art credit: ‘gnome’ by rien poortvliet, illustrator

Nov17

one for the books.

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There are now Little Free Libraries on all seven continents. The first Little Free Library in Antarctica was established a few years ago at the South Pole by Russell Schnell. Schnell—an atmospheric scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the International Panel on Climate Change—built the Little Free Library at his home in Boulder, Colorado, in November then shipped it to the South Pole, where he had previously traveled for work.

what book would you want to add to this little library?

 

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“without reading, we are all without light in the dark, without fire in the cold.”

-tamora pierce, american fantasy fiction author

 

 

 

 

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source credits: littlefree ibrary.org