Boy, Were We Wrong About the Human Body!

Boy, Were We Wrong About the Human Body!

Picture book
Most adults know that ideas about anatomy and physiology have
evolved a great deal since ancient people speculated on what makes
people tick. This, however, can be a very interesting discovery for
children. Kathleen Kudlunski's Boy, Were We Wrong About the Human
Body with Debbie Tilley's irreverant and funny drawings, nicely
introduces them to this concept.
Ancient beliefs are juxtaposed with modern upgrades. The time
travel tour goes from ancient Egyptian mummifying to the discoveries
about genes. The young reader is reminded that people in the future
may be left bewildered by theories that are state of the art now.
Maybe she or he will grow up to be the scientists who does some of
this debunking.
On a personal note, a couple of days ago a conference I was scheduled
to go to was postponed due to messy weather and unsafe driving
conditions. Boy, in Maine can we be wrong about the weather!
A great big shout out goes out to the scientists, including those
still in school, who are showing us how wrong we are on a number of
topics.
Jules Hathaway



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Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood

Picture book
Many retellings of Little Red Riding Hood have been far from
memorable. Susan Middleton Elya's version certainly breaks away from
that dismal rut, bringing the cast of characters into the twenty-first
century.
Roja goes on her famous errand on a four wheeler. Her very
pretty mom has a telenovela on in the background while she does
chores. You can tell from the illustrations both (and also Abuela)
are big time readers. Abuela, who has peace signs on her pajamas, is
working with a laptop when the wolf makes an appearance. Later we see
her in skinny leg jeans. No drab old lady dress for this gal!
Susan Guevara's pictures are visual treats for children. They
will love finding recurring characters. Roja is accompanied by a
fine, feisty, fluffy orange and white cat. The three blind mice show
up on quite a few of the pages.
On a personal note, I've stopped being scared of not doing a good
enough job of being the Veazie School Committee chair. I think I've
grown into the role. Now I really like it. I can use my power to get
big picture stuff like a visioning team of members of all stakeholder
groups going for the good of the school.
A great big shout out goes out to former chairperson Gavin, who took
off for Glemburn, leaving me a path for upward mobility, and my
colleagues on school committee who insisted that I take it.
Jules Hathaway


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Red

Red

Picture book
When we think of bullying among children we tend to focus on the
bully and his/her victim. We forget another set of participants in
the event. However, researchers have discovered that witnessing acts
of peer violence can be quite traumatic for kids. Jan De Kinder's Red
addresses this issue quite neatly.
The child protagonist of the book is on a playground with
friends. They discover that Tommy blushes. At first it's kids just
joking around. Then a boy named Paul takes it too far. When a
teacher asks what's going on our Everygirl is torn between desire to
tell and fear of Paul who is big and mean.
Red is a wonderful book to read aloud and discuss with
children. Giving them skills for when they see bullying is crucial.
Not only will not being trapped in passive witnessing leave them less
traumatized and more confident, but spaces without silence that can be
interpreted as approval are less conducive to bullying.
This, by the way, is as true with adults as with kids. With
adults, including those in very high places, bullying people they
perceive as other (i.e. transgender people, welfare recipients,
Muslims) the rest of us need to speak up against this injustice in any
way we can.
On a personal note, I was angry because Governor Paul LePage and Mary
Ellen Mayhew, head of DHHS, kept writing about individual (but never
corporate) welfare cheats being the biggest problem facing Maine. I
researched and wrote an op ed piece on the very real context in which
this occurs, one in which it's nearly impossible for the very poor to
play by the rules and survive.
A great big shout out goes out to the people who work full time to
help our most vulnerable citizens and enlighten the rest of us about
their plight.
Jules Hathaway


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My Maine Christmas Days

My Maine Christmas Days

Picture book
I have never seen as beautiful an adaptation of The Twelve Days
of Christmas as Wendy Ulmer's My Twelve Maine Christmas Days. Each
day's item from the wild pine tree given by a woodsman through the
four new potatoes dug up by a farmer to the twelve chicadees spotted
by a birder are as iconic as can be. And they are shown beautifully
in their natural environments. The five majestic moose wade in a
lake. The seven sand dollars are being collected by a little girl at
the beach. The six woolen mittens are on the hands of people building
a jovial snowman.
At the back there is intriguing information about the paintings
and the places that inspired them. Do you know how special mittens
are created for lumberjacks and fisherpeople? Do you know why some
lobsters are blue? Can you guess why a 1,062 pound whoopie pie was
created in 2011? Read the book and see.
Parents and teachers: use this fine book as a springboard for
creativity. Kids singly or in groups can write and iillustrate unique
versions. It can get youngsters and adults thinking about what makes
a state truly special.
On a personal note, my daughter, Amber, who has a wonderful crafts
blog (http://Amberscraftaweek.blogspot.com)
is doing a most intriguing miniatures project. It's a beautifully
furnished dollhouse for a little owl she has crafted. I was able to
watch her make tiny books with real pages for the bookcase. The next
week she had made pencils out of toothpicks. I can't wait to see what
she comes up with next.
A great big shout out goes out to Amber and her equally crafty
fiancée, Brian, who has created an adult coloring book.
Jules Hathaway


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Old Sparky

Old Sparky

Adult nonfiction

"I am innocent, innocent, innocent. Make no mistake about this:
I owe society nothing. Continue the struggle for human rights,
helping those who are innocent. I am an innocent man, and something
very wrong is taking place tonight. May God bless you all. I am
ready." [last words of Leonel Torres Herrera before he was executed]"
I don't know if it's still there. I have no idea why it was
there in the first place. I'm not sure I want to know the answer to
the second question.
During the years I tried unsuccessfully to earn a PhD from Maine
(develomental psychology) Little Hall had a rather unusual artifact:
a no longer in use electrical chair. On or near Halloween (remember
this was three decades and three children ago) a couple of fellow
first year students and I were shown it by I think third year students
who asked if we wanted to sit in it. I don't think any of us did.
This may have been some kind of tradition.
I was reminded of this event when I started reading Anthony
Galvin's Old Sparky: The Electric Chair And The History Of The Death
Penalty in which the above quote was found. This is a fascinating
book. I consider it a must read for anyone creating policy involving
capital punishment. However, it will not be everyone's cup of tea.
More sensitive readers, in particular, will do well to pass. I'm not
gonna lie to you. It was almost too graphic for me.
In the late nineteenth century the idea arose that electricity
might be a more humane method of executing criminals than hanging
which, when not well carried out, made for a drawn out, painful
death. More recently lethal injection has taken over as the method of
choice. In the intervening decades the electric chair, also known as
Old Sparky, had a quite nightmarishly colorful reign. Old Sparky
gives you a vivid picture, interspersing historical information on
this device's creation and evolution with the stories of some of the
people who died in it. There is also a time line going back about
four thousand years showing the various alternatives that have been
used around the world to carry out the death penalty. Warning:
nothing is left to the imigination.
If that was all there was to the book, however, I would have
returned it to the library after reading a few chapters. It provides
a non didactic format for discussing the ethical issues surrounding
the death penalty. As you read through you see that:
*not all executions went off as planned and the ones that didn't led
to agonizing deaths;
*some people were executed who never should have been by virtue of
circumstances such as youth and diminished mental capacity;
*executions were and still are disproportionately carried out on
people of color;
*executions were sometimes traumatic not only to those executed, but
to witnesses and those who carried out the act;
*and there were people in every time who questioned the right of the
state to end lives.
And you will see where innocent people were killed. It happens
a lot more often than we'd suspect. At the time the book was
published 3,100 people were on death row in America. Statistically it
is estimated that 127 of them are totally innocent.
Now here's the real evil. Even if a person is later proven
innocent, thanks to our friends on the Supreme Court, it's still OK to
execute him or her. Herrera (quoted at the top of this review) was on
death row when evidence that could exonerate him was discovered. In a
six to three decision in his case SCOTUS decided that "'Few rulings
would be more disruptive of our federal system than to provide for
federal habeas review of free standing claims of actual innocence.'"
despite the minority opinion that, "'Nothing could be more contrary to
contemporary standards of decency or more shocking to the conscience
than to execute a person who is actually innocent.'"
Huh? Who are these people in black robes who put expediency
ahead of justice?
America's use of the death penalty is just another way this
nation is out of step with the civilized world. It is the only
country doing so in the Western Hemisphere or the G8 nations. We
execute with such zeal we are being out killed by China, Iran, Iraq,
and Saudi Arabia. (Galvin, p.245). Is this what we really want?
Life imprisonment protects the public while costing less than capital
trials. And if exonerating evidence turns up it's a sentence that can
be reversed.
On a personal note, I am losing respect for and becoming quite afraid
of the Supreme Court. They're also the gang that gave us the concept
of the personhood of corporations. Might it not be time to examine
their life time appointments? Just saying.
A great big shout out goes out to all who fight to end the death
penalty.
Jules Hathaway



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Radioactive

Radioactive

YA nonfiction
"While great strides were made in understanding the atom at that
time, the potential significance of atomic power was not always well
understood. In 1933, Einstein told a reporter that the attempts at
'loosening the energy of the atom were fruitless.' The same year,
physicist Ernest Rutherford also said, 'Anyone who expects a source of
power from the transformation of atoms is talking moonshine.' No one
had a clear appreciation of the many ways in which the world was about
to change."
If you had asked me to pick an adjective to describe the history
of physics, exciting was not one that would have come to mind. My
mind's eye would have conjured up images of stodgy white jacketed
white middle aged men drudging it up in labs and droning on giving
dreadfully boring speeches. But that was before I read Radioactive!
How Irene Curie & Lise Meitner Revolutionized Science and Changed the
World, source of the above quote. It made the subject really come
alive.
I think the book's great strength comes from its successful
integration of strands that are often kept separate or subordinated to
one another: the discoveries themselves and the background knowledge
(explained well enough for people like me who never took physics)
necessary to understand their significance, the people who did the
discoveries, and the world in which they took place.
Although we've heard of Curie's famous mother, Marie, most of us
are unaware of Irene Curie and Lise Meitner. This is a huge mistake.
If they had not been born the world would be a very different place.
Curie developed a way of changing atomic structures to create new
elements. (Ironically not too long before that physics had considered
a dead subject with all important information known and just better
measurements needed). Meitner had the insight that led to the nuclear
fission that underlay both the bomb that ended World War II and
nuclear power.
Curie and Meitner had more to contend with than the challenges
of their field. Both were women in a time when society in general
believed that women's place was in the kitchen, not the lab. Curie's
nomination to the French Academy of Sciences, for example, triggered a
vote to disqualify all women from becoming members. Meitner, a woman
with four Jewish grandparents, was working in Hitler's Germany and
almost stayed there too late. The efforts of colleagues to get her
out make for quite suspenseful reading.
Radioactive! makes for insightful and exciting reading. I
believe this book belongs in all middle and high school libraries. It
has the potential to inspire girls to embark on STEM careers. Who
knows? Maybe a young woman reading it will become a researcher who
makes an earth shattering discovery.
On a personal note, I am very proud of my daughter, Amber, who is
working on her PhD in physics.
A great big shout out goes out to Amber and all her STEM sisters!
Jules Hathaway


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Debunk It!

Debunk It!

YA nonfiction
"Yet the huge army of people who're trying to persuade us that
climate change is nothing to worry about are telling us we should
ignore the warnings of 98 percent of the world's climate scientists.
And they're telling us that media bloviators and dentists can do
just as good a job of climate science as climate scientists can.
What kind of lunatics do they think we are?"
John Grant's Debunk It!: How To Stay Sane In A World Of
Misinformation (the source of the above quote) is one of those books
libraries should keep in their YA and adult adult sections. The teens
to whom the book is targeted are a perfect readership. They've just
passed through one of the largest cognitive shifts in human
development with a great increase in analytical and abstract thinking
ability. They also love to acquire the skills to rip apart
hypocracies and logical fallicies perpetrated by the older
generations. But let's be honest. Many adult adults who have been
out of school more years than we were in have let our reasoning
abilities slide. There is a lot of misinformation making the rounds,
some of which can be very hazardous to our health and that of our
planet. Debunk It! is a perfect refresher class.
Basically Grant is out to boost your critical thinking skills
or, in his words, build your own bullshitometer. He shows us some of
the weaknesses in our thought processes and warns us about how people
and groups can exploit them to get us to think, spend money, and vote
the way they want us to...even when it is counter to our best
interests. What makes the book come alive (rather than stay
textbooky) is that the contexts in which he sets his examples are
current controversies such as opposition to certainty about climate
change, Holocaust denial, and the antivaccination movement.
In a highly affordable paperback edition, Debunk It! is a must
read in an election year where misinformation is flying around like
black flies up here in Maine in a couple of months.
On a personal note, today is World Water Day. Clean drinking water is
nothing we can take for granted. A lot of kids die too early for lack
of it. Girls who have to spend hours lugging water can't go to
school. But, as the Flint, Michigan situation shows us, here in the
United States people are vulnerable too.
A great big shout out goes out to all who work to secure clean
drinking water for everyone as the basic human right it needs to be
seen as.
Jules Hathaway




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Becoming Nicole

Becoming Nicole

Adult nonfiction
"And if he does not love his body, what then? How can you
occupy a physical space, be a body in space, and yet be alienated from
it at the same time?"
I remember back when Veazie (where I am on school committee) and
Orono constituted Union 87, each town operating independently but
getting together once a year to agree on the payment of shared
administration. One night after a meeting people were chatting.
Someone mentioned our sister town was having difficulties because a
boy who believed "him"self to be a girl was using a girls' restroom
and a man who objected to this was having his grandson protest by
using the same bathroom. My colleagues breathed "better them than us"
sighs of relief. Probably because I had grown up with a sibling who
seemed to be suffocated by a female body and society's expectations, I
saw a revolution whose time had come. I realized it was only a matter
of time before we would encounter it. I started learning all I could
about transgender people. At first this was by book and Internet
research. Then I began spending time at UMaine's Rainbow Resource
Room, a haven for LGBTQ people and allies. Seeing how policies
affected people I came to care about made me realize how important
changing them or creating new ones was. By then Veazie and Orono had
joined Glenburn as RSU 26 and gone separate ways in a three way
withdrawal. I was vice chair of the now stand alone Veazie School
Committee. In a policies subcommittee meeting I announced that I
would create a policy that would center on making the Veazie Community
School as welcoming, affirming, and safe for transgender students as
it was for all other children. At one point I talked by phone with
Wayne Maines, the father of the girl who had been the topic of that
long ago conversation and learned that a book was coming out about his
family's experiences. I could hardly wait for my library to get a copy.
Amy Ellis Nutt's Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an
American Family, source of the above quote, was well worth waiting
for. Nutt, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, spent years talking to
the Maines Family and studying primary sources ranging from legal
documents and medical records to videotapes and journals. She gives
readers an intimate portrait of a family, much like any of ours, who,
when forced to confront limitations on one of their members imposed by
society's prejudices, went way out of their comfort zone to fight
back. What they have achieved has made the world better for so many
people. If you want an inspiring true story of justice winning out
over prejudice you simply have to read this fine book.
Wayne and Kelly Maines, unable to have children, adopted the
twin sons of one of Kelly's cousins. The children, taken into their
home after birth, thrived. They were tightly bonded but highly
distinct individuals. Wyatt loved Barbie and Ariel from The Little
Mermaid while Jonas gravitated to Star Wars and Power Rangers.
Wyatt felt uncomfortable with his male anatomy, but believed he
would evolve into girlhood in much the same way that a caterpillar
becomes a butterfly. He wanted to wear frilly, feminine clothes.
Kelly searched the Internet to learn more about children like him,
starting by searching "boys who like girls' toys". Wayne retreated.
Kelly's life became a balancing act. How far could she allow
Wyatt to go in expressing himself? How much should she give in to
conform to community expectations? She had learned about a couple who
were arrested and had their child taken away for letting him go to
school in girls' clothes.
She had reason for concern. Even Orono, a fairly liberal town
and the home of the flagship university of the UMaine system,
contained individuals who felt threatened by what they considered
deviance. One of them was Paul Melanson who was strongly opposed to
gay and lesbian rights. He had his grandson, a fellow student at the
school the twins attending, start using the girls' bathroom Nicole,
formerly Wyatt, used as a protest. The actions its administration
took seemed to place the school's image above the needs and safety of
individual students. The Maines family was sent on a challenging
course of advocacy and action that would touch every aspect of their
lives and having them take their case to the highest court in the
State of Maine.
Becoming Nicole would be a must read for just the story line.
Only there's a whole lot more. Interwoven throughout the narrative
are highly thought provoking discussions of sex and gender issues.
They promote an active engagement with the book. I can generally get
through a volume this size in one evening. I lingered over Becoming
Nicole for three.
As to who should read the book, I believe the inside cover blurb
says it best. "...Becoming Nicole will resonate with anyone who's
ever raised a child, felt at odds with society's conventions and
norms, or had to embrace life when it plays out unexpectedly. It's a
story of standing up for your beliefs and yourself--and it will
inspire all of us to do the same."
That's for sure!
On a very personal note, when I started visiting Rainbow Resource Room
I had no clue how much they had to offer me. For most of my life
gender has been presented as a binary. I was never a girly girl or a
womanly woman. Growing up, I let my Barbie dolls gathered dust,
prayed for my breasts to stay small, and refused to subordinate my
interests to his as teen magazines advised. I was surely at odds with
society's conventions and norms. But it goes even beyond having
interests and talents in both camps. It's how I gesture, move, and
take up space every waking moment that people have tried to make more
ladylike as far back as I can remember. In Rainbow Resource Room I
learned that I have the right to act in a way that makes me feel
authentic. One of the most powerful days of my life was my very first
drag show last year when I was reborn on stage. I had chosen Grease
with it's affirmations that "Conventionality belongs to yesterday" and
"We can be who we are." I guess one could say I was becoming Jules.
I can never remember relating to the feminine name Julia or its
nickname version Julie. The androgynous Jules, which I first took as
a stage name, feels perfect. This revue is the first of many I will
sign as my authentic self.
A great big shout out goes out to the Maines family and all who helped
them to achieve victory.
Jules Hathaway



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All We Have Is Now

All We Have Is Now

YA fiction
"When they'd heard the news, they'd stayed up all night, talking
about what they wanted to do. The truth was they were tired. Tired
of working so hard just to get up every day and live the same filthy,
miserable life over and over again. Tired of running from the ghosts
of their pasts, the pimps on the streets, and the security officers in
the stores they occasionally stole from."
Normally fiction with an apocalyptic central event is a subgenre
I avoid like the plague. I think this is probably because right
before bed is my prime reading time. Something like global
annhialation is a for sure sleep kill. I was about to put Lisa
Schroeder's All We Have Is Now right back on the new books shelves.
Only when I did a quick skim her characters wouldn't let me.
Emerson and Vince have something like twenty-four hours left to
live. An asteroid, a death star, is due to hit Idaho and devastate
the United States and parts of Mexico and Canada. The people with the
money and connections to get away have done so. As for the rest, in
Schroeder's words,
"For soon, the land of the free
and the home of the brave
would be the land
that was struck with an explosion
a hundred times greater than the biggest
nuclear bomb ever detonated."
Yikes!
Emerson and Vince are street kids. Much of their recent life
has been all about day to day survival: begging for money, sleeping in
alleys, dumpster diving for food. Knowing the end is near they decide
to go out on their terms which translates to jumping off a bridge.
A funny thing happens when they get to that bridge. There's a
guy there who seems to have the same plan. Carl had decided to grant
five people's last wishes. They are the fifth.
Vince wishes just for once to have cash. "...We've had nothing
for a long time, and it's hard, man. It's so incredibly hard, I can't
even tell you."
Carl gives him his wallet, full of money, and asks him, if
possible, to so some wish granting to pay this kindness forward. This
the start of an amazing journey for our two young protagonists, one in
which they'll meet some fascinating people and grow in a way they
might not have if they'd had all the time in the world.
Fitting with the theme of her book, Schroeder uses a novel and
highly effective device to separate the moving present from past and
future. The main narrative is written in prose. Switches to other
tenses, usually in the form of childhood memories, are in the form of
sparse free form verse.
On a personal note, in a way the title of this book applies to us
all. It's ok to look forward to something and treasure memories
UNLESS they blind us to the moment we're in and its preciousness.
Take me. I look forward to my daughter, Katie, coming home for a
visit. I enjoyed a little reminiscing about Easters when my children
were little. But this moment now is magnificent. I'm in my beautiful
studio with my year round decorated Christmas trees and favorite snow
globes. I just had a yummy supper. I'm getting great feedback on my
op ed piece which came out in today's Bangor Daily News. I have some
books I can read when I finish this review. The world's greatest
tuxedo cat is sprawled out on me purring. Who could ask for more?
A great big shout goes out to all those who work to help kids like the
protagonists of this story attain the good lives they deserve.
Especially my chum Christine Schmidt who I really really miss.
Julia Emily Hayhaway


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The Shift

The Shift

YA nonfiction
"...There won't be any floating once I hit the hospital floor.
I'll have drugs to deliver, intravenous lines to tend, symptoms to
assess, patients in need of comfort, doctors who will be interested in
what I have to say and others who won't, and my fellow RNs, who with a
combination of snark, humor, technical skill, and clinical smarts,
work, like me, to put our shoulders to the rock that is modern health
care and every day push it up the hill."
For reasons I will explian later,every library should have two
copies of Theresa Brown, RN's The Shift. Brown, a nurse and former
college English professor takes the reader along on a twelve hour
shift at the hospital oncology ward she works at. In addition to the
actions that take place, we are privy to her thoughts and feelings.
We also get to know the patients she cares for and their families
intimately.
For that reason alone, the book would be a fascinating read. It
is so much more. In a seamless blend of narrative and theme, Brown
brings up a number of issues that should have us very concerned about
21st century American health care.
One concern Brown brings up that I regularly see played out in
the state and local section of the Bangor Daily News is the tendency
to cut down on the number of nurses on a shift to reduce labor costs.
"...The more patients an individual nurse cares for, the smaller the
amount of TLC per patient. More significantly, research on staffing
levels has above a certain number (the number itself depends on the
patient population and how sick the patients are,) the larger the
liklihood a patient will die who wouldn't have otherwise. In other
words, nurse-to-patient ratios aren't just about patients feeling
cared for; they're also about fragile people staying alive."
Another peril Brown describes quite eloquently is one many of us
have at least heard about. The hectic, pressured, intense schedule
considered normal for health care professionals may not do them or
their patients any favors. "When doctors and nurses train, the idea
is to push through exhaustion, ignore it, transcend it, but only the
rarest of us can really do that without drugs to help, and no one,
even with chemical stimulants, can do it forever. Humans need sleep
as much as we need food and water, and when we don't get enough our
minds fray at the edges."
And there are plenty more areas of needed awareness.
Libraries will put The Shift in the YA section since teens
constitute the target audience. It's perfect for them, especially for
any youngsters interested in going into nursing. However it is an
equally good read for not so young adults. Although an increasing
number of us raid the YA fiction section, "reading down" in nonfiction
still carries somewhat of a stigma.
Many of the books penned for adults that seek to raise a let the
buyer beware awareness in regard to the modern American health care
system are written by doctors. While doctors know whereof they speak,
they often are clueless when it comes to adressing people without
medical degrees. Their works can range from over most of our heads to
snarky and condescending. Brown delivers the perfect blend of
pertinent information interspersed with fascinating narrative.
Readers, you would do well to at least skim The Shift even if
you have to cross over to the YA section. (Libraries put a second
copy in your adult wing). While most of us will never become health
care professionals, as Brown reminds us, very few, if any, of us will
get throughout life without at least now and then being hospital
patients. Her message is particularly pertinent since this is
National Patient Safety Awareness Week. In a fine op ed piece
appearing in the March 17, 2006 Bangor News (I highly encourage anyone
out of the area to read the whole thing on the Internet) RN and
patient safety advocate Kathy Day informs us that preventable health
harm is beat out only by heart disease and cancer as leading causes of
death. She leaves us with the vivid image that the population of the
whole state of Maine is equal to three years of health care
mortality. And then there are the legions who are permanently
disabled and often lose everything. She includes in her piece this
inspiring paragraph:
"Must we accept that healthcare can be a crapshot? Absolutely
not. We need to hold the health care industry, providers and
caregivers accountable for this harm and for making necessary
improvements. We pay for and deserve safe, high quality care when we
are sick or injured. We need to protect ourselves and our loved ones
from avoidable harm that can lead to disability, death and financial
devastation. Zero harm is the only acceptable goal."
On a personal note, I had a point at which my bitchiness and the
timely intervention of a nurse saved my life. I had given birth to my
first child by emergency c section. I was experiencing symptoms I
considered red flags. I mentioned them to the doctor leading the
rounds entourage. He just said "It's your imagination," and made a
dismissive quip to his followers about first-time mothers. At that
point a hospital acquired infection was wreaking havoc on my surgery
stressed body. Luckily I was stubborn enough to override him and
ring my nurse. She listened, took vitals, and set things in motion to
get me on intravenous antibiotics. I was in that hospital nine days.
My day of discharge a social worker said I had almost died. If I'd
accepted that doctor's opinion I'd have most likely left the hospital
in a body bag instead of the mandatory wheelchair.
A great big shout out goes out to Brown and Day for their education
and advocacy and to nurses around the world. Nurses, in my book, are
rock stars. I try to share my story with as many of then as I can in
thanks for the so far over a quarter of a century of very good life
one of their number gave me. Treat the nurses in your life like the
superheroes they are.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Dead Zones

Dead Zones

YA nonfiction
"Scientists tell us that if the problem of dead zones is not
addressed, it will intensify in the coming years. The combined
impacts of excess nutrients, global warming, oil spills, and other
environmental stresses will ensure that dead zones around the world
become larger and last longer. Marine species, food sources for
people and animals, and local economies face the risk of total
devastation. However, the general public and most politicians do not
see the urgent need to tackle the problem."
Probably this lack is not from the evil of people and most
politicians, but from the fact that we're talking about a real world
complex subject, one that can be difficult for many of us
(particularly those of us who weren't all that great in chemistry) to
wrap our minds around. Somehow the farming practices of the Corn Belt
wreak havoc on the Gulf of Mexico and its inhabitants who harvest
seafood for a living. Fortunately in her Dead Zones: Why Earth's
Waters Are Losing Oxygen, Carol Hand (author of the quote above)
explains eutrophication in terms that students and chemistry
challenged mom's can understand.
This deceptively slim book explains about the varying needs of
aquatic life for oxygen, the ways in which excess nutrients from
sources such as fertilizer and manure runoff cause algae in bodies of
water to multiply too quickly, and the process by which this leads to
hypoxic (low or no oxygen) zones incapable of sustaining life. In the
obligatory what we can do chapter Hand is cautiously optimistic.
Better farming practices can lead to less nutrient run off.
Protective wetlands can be restored. Sewer systems can be upgraded.
However, corrective actions can be expensive and big farm state
businesses can exert a lot of pressure for inertia on their members of
congress.
Dead Zones can be inspiring for STEM educators. It can hold a
key to making science relevant for some of the kids who would
otherwise consider it seat time to get out of the way. A lot of kids
whose parents harvest fish or crustaceans are very motivated to follow
in their footsteps. They might become highly skilled researchers,
especially if they get out of the classroom and into the field, if
they see that the traditional way of life they cherish is endangered.
On a personal note, I am glad my younger daughter and her boyfriend
had a great vaca and safe air travel. I really enjoyed baking
chocolate chip cookies to send down to them last night.
A great big shout out goes out to Katie, Jacob, and their friendly,
fluffy feline, Archie. You're simply the best!


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How I Discovered Poetry

How I Discovered Poetry

YA nonfiction
There are some books I can't put down even if I start them very
late at night. Marilyn Nelson's How I Discovered Poetry is surely one
of them. Each piece was so evocative, I simply had to read the next.
Nelson is an English professor emeritus and the winner of
seriously impressive poetry prizes. But back in the 1950's she was
the child of a military dad and a teacher mom. This meant she moved
around a lot. She was also black in a time when proponants of
segregation and Jim Crow were fighting to hold onto their way of life.
How I Discovered Poetry is a set of fifty poems--vignettes--of
Nelson's life during that decade. They evolve from hazy and family
centered to introspective and world aware. When we meet the narrator
she is a sleepy four-year-old, aware of her little sister's sleep
breathing and the murmurs of their parents in the next room. In the
final poem she's wondering what her true identity is and searching for
a message she can give the world.
One of the overarching themes in the book is constantly having
to move due to Nelson's father's different assignments.
"Tonight might be the last slumber party
I'll giggle through with my best friend,
Helene.
Tomorrow I'll feel lonely as Sputnik.
She is eleven then. The image of a last slumber party is a poignant
allusion to a lifestyle of always leaving chums.
Another theme is changing awareness of larger world events. In
1952 Nelson and her classmates duck under desks to hide from "drajen"
bombs.
"Everybody's motto is Be Prepared,
so we practice Tragic Consequences,
hoping they won't come..."
Of course there are allusions to racial issues like school
desegregation.
This book would be perfect for intergenerational reading. A
parent or grandparent of a youngster in the target demographic could
greatly expand on some of the events alluded to and bring them even
more to life.
On a personal note, I've decided not to go to the state Democrat
convention. I actually looked at the schedule. Most of it's
committee reports and strategy briefings and speeches I wouldn't get
on the bus to Bangor for, never mind paying $60 plus fancy restaurant
prices for every meal. I can take the money I would have spent and go
visit Katie.
A great big shout out goes out to the people who are going. Have fun.
Julia Emily Hathaway






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Speak Up!

Speak Up!

YA nonfiction
I vividly remember a junior high experience decades later. My
science teacher had scads of science articles. Three times a week we
had to read three and, for each one, write its ten most salient
points. Grades were check minus, check, or check plus. I did mine
dilligently and always got check plus. One day after school I stopped
by the science room. It was a strange room with seats arranged in
bleacher like tiers. The teacher did not see me retrieve the notebook
I left there. He was grading our papers awfully fast, not even
reading them. Was he just going by the names on the papers? I tried
an experiment. I picked an article on owls and wrote ten points of
inanity: owls can fly, owls have eyes... I wanted a check minus; I
got a check plus. It was the one time I didn't speak up. I stood up
for bullied kids. I answered questions in class to the extent people
worried I'd scare the boys away. I was articulate about my opinions.
I was the only kid in the school who told the cafeteria ladies I
enjoyed the food. But I remember that incident as vividly as if it
was yesterday.
I'd bet that those of my readers who are women who do not gild
those between childhood and teen years with a patina of nostalgia can
recall instances when silence was encouraged. For today's middle
schoolers these situations are amplified. In the sixties bullies were
limited to what damage they could do in person and on the phone.
Today there's the cyber universe. In the sixties nude photos were of
babies. My male classmates were deterred from taking lewd photos by
fears that the people developing the film would call in the police.
Today we have pressures on girls to send nude photos as love tokens
and revenge porn when relationships go sour.
Yikes!
Halley Bondy's Speak Up! A Guide to Having Your Say and
Speaking Your Mind is a great resource for today's middle school girls
(and the adults who care about them). Bondy starts out explaining why
becoming your own person and speaking out is both crucial and
difficult. She then goes on to discuss more specific challenges
including:
*How to disagree with friends without dooming the friendship;
*How to assert yourself or get help if you are being bullied;
*How to change painful family dynamics;
And *Where to go if teachers or coaches aren't being fair.
Bondy does not stick to easy situations. She tells how to
report adults who act abusive or inappropriately. She also does not
go for black and white scenarios. She reminds readers that one can
both bully and be bullied in different situations.
Basically I highly recommend this book for middle school
students, school and public libraries, and parents and people who work
with young people in this age group.
On a personal note, I participated in the Maine Democratic Caucus. I
very much enjoyed standing up for Bernie and seeing him win by a
landslide. I know I will enjoy being a Bernie delegate in Portland in
May!
A great big shout out goes out to Bernie and all of us who know
incrementalism is not enough: we need a revolution to get back to
government of, for, and by the people.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Delicate Monsters

Delicate Monsters

YA fiction
Some books weave dark and disturbing but thoroughly enticing
webs of narrative. Details and backstory are added at just the right
points. Just as you think you have the plot figured out new
information throws you off track. Stephanie Kuehn's Delicate Monsters
is a prime example of this subgenre. You will probably be hooked at
the first paragraphs:
"A ropes course was a shitty place for self-discovery.
Seventeen-year-old Sadie Su understood she was meant to think
otherwise, but (1) she had no interest in introspection and (2) even
if she did, what the hell was the point? This loamy godforsaken spot
in the Santa Cruz Mountains was a playground for perceived risk only.
Nothing here was real. Nothing was transformative.
True change required true danger."
As the story opens Sadie is completing a court mandated
wilderness camp. A prank of hers almost cost a classmate his life.
In fact it's the third time in four years she's been kicked out of a
boarding school. Now she's going back home to attend public school.
If she gets bored there's going to be trouble.
Emerson is not at all pleased to see Sadie in town. Way back
when they were kids they spent time together when his poor mother was
being a hospice nurse for his very rich grandfather. She's privy to a
part of his past he'd rather remain hidden.
Emerson has enough in the present to deal with. His father had
committed suicide awhile back. His little brother Miles is in and out
of the hospital with such frequency that their mother has been tried
on the suspicion that she was purposefully making him ill.
Miles, the sickly and fragile kid brother is also bullied
relentlessly at school. He has an ability to see the future. His
visions are terrifying.
Delicate Monsters is not only a vivid suspense story, but a
thought provoker. What evils lurk in the hearts of humans? You'll
come face to face with a few.
On a personal note, UMaine is out for a two week spring break. The
students are happy campers.
A great big shout out goes out to the students, faculty, and staff
enjoying their freedom.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Promises I Can Keep

Promises I Can Keep

Adult non fiction
Teen pregnancies are more than just statistics. With every one
there is a very young woman and the vulnerable infant she brings into
the world and now is responsible for, often with no help whatsoever
from the baby daddy. She often faces formidable obstacles. I'm sure
I'm not the only woman who wonders why a girl, usually not out of high
school, will accept and often take pride and joy in the situation.
Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas' Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women
Put Motherhood Before Marriage is a wealth of insight into this topic.
Edin and Kefalas spent a lot of time in some of the most
impoverished neighborhoods in Philadelphia and neighboring Camden, New
Jersey. Their research style was up close and personal. Edin, for
instance, resided in one of the neighborhoods 2 1/2 years,
volunteering, talking with a wide range of neighborhood people and
community leaders, and making sure her then three-year-old did not
pick up broken glass or other urban detritus. Their subjects, whom
they got to know really well, were 162 low-income single mothers.
"...Their stories offer a unique point of view on the troubling
questions of why low-income, poorly educated women have children they
can't afford and why they don't marry. Promises I Can Keep follows
the course of couple relationships from the earliest days of courtship
through the tumultuous months of pregnancy and into the magic moment
of birth and beyond. It shows us what poor mothers think marriage and
motherhood mean, and tells us why they nearly always put motherhood
first."
Made eminently readable by a perfect blend of background and
narrative, Promises I Can Keep is quietly earthshaking. It strongly
challenges what most people (including myself) believe about unwed
motherhood. It flies in the face of the charges made by conservative
politicians who demonize the poor to win elections.
Read it...
...if you dare.
On a personal note, last night was my first school committee meeting
as official chair. I'd been elected chair last month after Gavin quit
in January. I did better than I expected. I guess what I lack in
organization I make up in passion and charisma.
A great big shout out goes out to Gavin for the years of excellent
leadership he gave the Veazie School Committee. Miss you, Gavin.
Hope you're having good times out there in Glenburn.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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Two White Rabbits

Two White Rabbits

Picture
Millions of people must leave their country of birth and become
refugees. Some of them are very young children like the narrator of
Jairo Buitrago's Two White Rabbits. She and her father are on the
move. She has no idea where she's going, but you can tell she trusts
her dad.
Much of the story lies in the poignant contrast between her
innocent words and Rafael Yockteng's stark illustrations. When she
talks about travelling you see her and her father riding on the roof
of a train. When she says "...the people who are taking us don't
always take us where we're going" we see her father running from from
soldiers with guns, clutching her to his chest.
On a personal note, at the end of the book we are issued a challenge:
What do those of us who have safe comfortable lives owe to people who
do not? My answer is a lot. I have started plans for my church to
have a supper and silent auction to raise money to help refugees.
A great big shout out goes out to the travellers among us and those
who work to help them find safe homes.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter

Picture books
I think Black Lives Matter is one of the most important
movements of our time. We live in a racist society. A lot of people
want to deny this. So I am very glad to find books that enlighten.
Last week, shelf reading at the Orono Public Library, I was lucky to
find three amazing picture books.
Carol Boston Weatherford's Voice Of Freedom is the biography in
free verse of Fannie Lou Hamer, the woman Malcolm X once called "the
country's number one freedom-fighting woman." When she was born to
sharecroppers in 1917, the last of twenty children, her mother was
given a cash bonus for birthing a future field hand. She was only six
when she had to start picking cotton. After sixth grade she had to
leave school and work full time in the fields.
When she was 45 Hamer volunteered to register to vote. Even
though she failed the first time, just trying was enough to get her
boss to fire her and the night riders to pursue her. She was strong
willed enough to try again and pass. Taking huge risks to gain rights
for her people became the story of her life.
My weakness in the language of art leaves me poorly equipped to
describe the art work of Ekua Holmes that perfecty compliments the
text. The colors range from rich and vibrant (a portrait of Hamer and
her husband) to stark and scary (a truck full of men with guns driving
past a bullet riddled window). In a picture of Hamer picking cotton
as a six-year-old child, she is the only person in focus. The
blurriness of her coworkers shows the way an overworked child in
sweltering heat would be seeing the world.
In Jonah Winter and Shane W. Evans' Lillian's Right To Vote an
elderly black woman climbs a hill to get to a polling place to vote.
As she does she remembers her family's experiences in the fight to
achieve this right. Her great-great grandparents were sold as
slaves. Her great grandfather saw the end of slavery. Her
grandfather was unable to pay a poll tax. Her uncle failed a test
that required him to answer impossible questions to be able to vote.
As a child she saw a cross burned on her lawn...
These two books would neatly compliment one another. While the
first carries specificity of time and place, the second conveys a
poignant and powerful inclusiveness, an everyman/woman quality.
Now here's something I didn't know. A century before Brown v.
Board of Education a black family went to court to fight segregated
education. That is the story told beautifully in Susan E. Goodman's
The First Step.
Sarah Roberts was attending a fine Boston elementary school
close to her home. One day a police officer pulled her out and told
her she would have to go to a school for black children. Her parents
were aghast. Not only would she be going to a school with far fewer
resources, but she would have to take a long, hazardous route that
passed five whites only schools. They decided to go to court, the
Massachusetts Supreme Court.
Any of these books would be a good starting point for discussion
for children well beyond the traditional picture book target audience.
On a personal note, I am thrilled that Black Lives Matters is coming
to UMaine. All my life I've seen racism. All my life I've had white
privilege. I think I was especially aware of this when my son hit his
teens and I thought on how black boys his age could put themselves in
danger just by going to the store to get a soda. Now we are going to
talk about racism. It's about time.
A great big shout out goes out to the Black Lives Matter people.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Dork Diaries III

Dork Diaries III

Thursday, shelf reading in the Orono Public Library children's
wing, I helped another volunteer who was shelving by bringing the
books from the main check out desk to the juvenile shelving cart.
What to my delighted eyes did appear, but the latest in the Dork
Diaries series: Tales from a NOT-SO-Perfect Puppy Sitter. It was also
Friday. Fridays that I don't go out are candy nights. I allow myself
candy while I read with Joey cat on my lap. Highly dorky I am proud
to say. Rachel Renee Russell, Dork Diaries author, always encourages
her readers to let our inner dork shine through.
Nikki's nemesis and former locker neighbor, the ultra mean girl,
MacKenzie Hollister, has finally departed Westchester County Day
Middle School to attend posh North Hampton Hills International
Academy. Her presence is still strongly felt at her old school. Much
to Nikki's disgust, MacKenzie's old locker has been turned into a
shrine with its own Facebook page.
It gets worse, though. Just when Nikki and Brandon feel safe to
share a cupcake at the CupCakery you-know-who makes a surprise
appearance. Nikki is sure MacKenzie is up to no good. She doesn't
have to wait long to have her suspicions confirmed. When MacKenzie
threatens to get Fuzzy Friends (animal shelter) shut down, Nikki and
Brandon have to hide a golden retriever and her seven puppies. Nikki
volunteers her home for one night.
There are only two problems: her mom has said no to even one dog and
her little sister, Brianna, decides to go into the pet spa business.
What could possibly go wrong?
I was discussing series books recently with a fellow library
volunteer who considers the liberal use of line drawings in middle
school series books to be detracting. I say it's anything but. It's
not only that the pictures add greatly to the books' appeal. We tend
to have a snobby way of priviliging words over illustration and trying
to wean youngsters off anything but solid blocks of black and white
print. Have you ever noticed how many potential book lovers lose
interest in reading at this point? Personally I believe that, even
for adults, the integaration of visual and verbal makes for a highly
pleasurable reading experience. Look at the popularity of graphic
novels.
On a personal note, February 27 was one of the most wonderful and
exciting nights of my year to date. It was my third Bearfest. That's
a 12 hour dance marathon to raise money for Children's Miracle
Network. I strutted my stuff and learned some really good moves.
There were all kinds of yummy snacks. We were making ice cream sundaes
at 2:00 a.m. Yowza! We raised $75,000. How cool is that?
A great big shout out goes out to my fellow dancers and the people who
did all the work to make the event possible.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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Nellie Bly

Nellie Bly

Adult biography

"Bly's life--1864 to 1922--spanned Reconstruction, the Victorian
and Progressive years, the Great War and its aftermath. She grew up
without privilege or higher education, knowing that her greatest asset
was the force of her own will. Bly executed the extraordinary as a
matter of routine...As the most famous journalist of her own day, as
an early woman industrialist, as a humanitarian, even as a beleaguered
litigant, Bly kept the same formula for success: Determine right.
Decide fast. Apply energy. Act with conviction. Fight to the
finish. Accept the consequences. Move on."
Nellie Bly has long been a hero for me. I and so many other
women who write for newspapers owe her a big time debt of gratitude
for blazing a path for us. As a progressive and crusader, I deeply
admire the way she went undercover, even at great risk, to uncover
scandals. But I could never learn enough about her. In fact the
books I could get about her were in the juvenile section.
I was not the only one frustrated by lack of material about one
of our trailblazers. Brooke Kroeger, author of the quote above, was
deeply influenced by "...one of the most rousing characters of the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries." When she decided to
introduce her legacy to her then ten-year-old daughter, Brett, in 1986
she discovered a puzzling paucity of materials on her life. She also
found out that the materials that existed often contradicted one
another, not surprising since there was a decided dearth of primary
materials.
"The problem with Bly's legacy, then, was poor planning for
posterity. Guaranteeing a place in history, it seems, takes more than
living a phenomenal life. In most cases, it takes careful attention
to creating a documented record of that life that wasn't too hard to
retrieve. Something like: I squirreled; therefore I was."
Fortunately for the rest of us, Kroeger had the skills and
fortitude to accomplish what we could or would not. Her Nellie Bly:
Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist serves us up over 500 thought provoking,
well illustrated pages (Her notes and bibliography comprise almost 100
more) covering Bly's life from birth to funeral. In its various
chapters the reader get to see her as:
*a young woman robbed of a chance for an education by her wealthy
father's failure to make a will;
*a newspaper columnist whose career began with a letter the Pittsburgh
Dispatch signed "Lonely Orphan Girl";
*the daredevil reporter who created the genre of stunt reporting
through feats such as pretending to be insane to do undercover
investigation of an asylum reportedly abusing inmates;
*a traveler who managed to go around the world in record time well
before the advent of aviation;
And the wearer of so many other hats. Even the latter parts of Bly's
life that have been obscured by time are now available for our reading
pleasure.
At the end of her introduction Kroeger wrote, "My immersion in
Bly's life has triggered a dozen reactions--from delight to distaste.
Her story is fascinating. She deserves a full and lasting legacy. I
hope this book renews her license to provoke and to inspire."
If it doesn't I don't think anything can.
On a personal note, my friend, mentor, and former editor, Erin Rhoda,
proved herself a worthy heir of Bly's legacy. In a special section
she wrote of the life and too early death of a young heroin addict
named Garrett. For two and a half years they had carried on a
conversation. She portrays him as a complex human being involved in a
formidable struggle, a person of worth and value who was able to say,
"If this changes one kid's life, saves one kid from being in jail,
saves his family from the pain of seeing him go through it, saves one
kid from overdosing and dying, then all that I've done hasn't been in
vain."
A great big shout out goes out to Erin and the other women and men of
the press who open our eyes and make us care and think.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Part of our Lives

Part of our Lives

Adult nonfiction
I imagine you have some mighty fine public library memories. I
certainly do. I remember leafing through books in a sunny albeit old
fashioned (Carnagie style I believe) children's room and standing on
tiptoe to place them on the check out desk. More recently I cherished
the chance to take my own children to pick out books and attend
programs. One of the places that is home in my heart is the Orono
Public Library where I volunteer in the children's wing; take out
stacks of books, many acquired from other libraries through the magic
of interlibrary loan; and attend programs, both adult and juvenile,
including my beloved free writing class. And I know that if you set
me down in just about any library in this country I would be able to
access its treasures easily.
Many of us, however, know pitifully little about the evolution
of the institution we are so enamoured of. We tend to image libraries
within a limited time and place framework. This is really too bad.
American library history is much more exciting and controversy filled
than the novels generations of librarians have snubbed in favor of
more "wholesome" and instructive reading. Fortunately Wayne A.
Wiegand's Part of our Lives: A People's History of the American Public
Library is a wonderful way to correct this deficit.
"...History shows that the reasons Americans have loved their
public libraries fit into three broad categories: for the useful
information they have made accessible; for the public spaces they
provided; and for the power of reading stories they circulated that
helped users make sense of the phenomena in the world around them."
Wiegand chose to analyze libraries from a bottom-up "library in
the life of the user" rather than a top down "user in the life of the
library" perspective. He sought out not the voices of the experts,
but those of a wide range of patrons. In chapters organized around
the challenges faced by patrons and their librarians in different
eras, he portrays libraries as evolving organisms transformed by local
communities and, in turn, transforming their members.
Some of the insights you will glean in the pages of Part of our
Lives may sadden or anger you. Many will leave you with a sense of
pride and optimism. Some will leave you laughing out loud, even if
you are in a (gasp!) library.
*Librarians and their patrons have not always agreed on what
constitutes good reading. The former have exerted a lot of time and
energy in trying to direct the latter from what they considered
frivolous or maybe even dangerous, say romances or children's series,
to what they would consider more wholesome and substantial.
(As a child, I never saw my beloved Nancy Drew on the library
shelves. The keepers of the kingdom evidently shared my English
professor mom's assessment of her series' literary value and fear the
books would warp kids' reading tastes. I purchased every volume from
the local department store. Fast forward to my time between high
school and college when for three years I was a live in mother's
helper in East Boston. And a librarian. The public school my older
charge attended did not have enough money to afford a librarian.
Francine suggested right in that assembly that volunteers keep it open
and offered me. At first with two moms and then on my own I kept open
what for many kids was the only source of reading material. We were
celebs to the parents and kids. When I saw that there were no Nancy
Drews or Hardy Boys I went a circuit of churches, asking congregations
to donate volumes they no longer needed. The kids were thrilled. When
a child returned a volume a pal was nearly always at his/her elbow to
snap it up. Youngsters written off as non readers were enjoying and
discussing these books. Reading Part of our Lives assured me that
they and I were in good company. Sandra Day O'Conner, Ruth Bader
Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, and Shirley
Chisolm counted themselves among Nancy's chums.)
*libraries have been called on to be protectors of the right to access
materials not all people are comfortable with. But no one has ever
been able to define censorship. Books that were on open shelves in
some libraries were sequestered in restricted access infernos or
simply not purchased in others. Books that were outright banned back
in the day are sometimes now considered classics.
*Access to libraries has not always been equal to all people.
Segregation in the South with either inferior or simply no branches
for blacks is a classic example. Likewise, often collections have
shown a white, male, middle class, heterosexual bias leaving many
patrons unable to find characters in books who mirror their life
experiences.
Part of our Lives is a delightful blend of narrative and
background. It also has the great strength of being able to elicit
memories for probably most of us. One of the hallmarks of deeper
reading is that very satisfying integration of text and experience
that enhances the understanding of both.
As I read the book I kept encountering tidbits I just had to jump up
and share with people around me. My favorite was how Melvin Dewey of
Dewey Decimal fame had advanced women's interests over a century ago.
As chief librarian at Columbia College, he designed a formal library
education program. Some people were up in arms when they learned that
he planned to admit women. He was denied use of classrooms. He
admitted the first class, in which women were well represented, to a
storeroom over a chapel. It pleased me no end to be able to inform a
dear friend who teaches women's studies about this.
On a personal note, I had amost amazing weekend! It was my third
Bearfest, the annual dance marathon where UMaine students and I strut
our stuff to raise money for Children's Miracle Network. The dancing
was so much fun. The students were great company. The people running
the show surely fed us well. There's nothing like making your own ice
cream sundae at two in the morning! When it ended at 5:00 a.m. did I
crash? Nope. I walked to church where I attended Sunday school, sang
in choir, and pitched a fund raising idea (to help refugees) at
mission committee.
A great big shout out goes out to my fellow dancers and the folks who
planned the event. You're simply the best!
Julia Emily Hathaway




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