Tuesday, February 28, 2017

A Place At The Table

A Place At The Table

DVD Documentary
It is incredible that in what is supposedly the richest nation
in the world there are fifty million people who don't get enough to
eat. If a foreign power hurt even a small fraction of this amount of
citizens our government would be up in arms. But because it's
something America does to her own, some in power are even making
things worse. Governor Paul LePage, for example, works on cutting
SNAP rolls by imposing more regulations.
It's easy to be numbed or overwhelmed by statistics. It can be
too easy to blame the hungry, especially when people like Governor
LePage talk about the undeserving poor, insinuating that if they
weren't lazy or popping out too many babies they'd be fine. It's way
too easy to shrug it off as not my problem.
I think everyone beginning in middle school and high school
should watch A Place At The Table. You get to see families including
their children who don't know where their next meal is coming from.
You'd have to have a heart of ice to see a little girl talk of nights
when there's nothing for supper or the mother of a toddler telling of
not being able to get food stamps for having $2 too much and not feel
angry. I think more people and groups would give to food pantries and
grow a row for the hungry and reach out to people in their communities
if they could see the problem up close and personal.
The DVD also talks about larger problems like food deserts where
fruits and vegetables aren't available, food stamp amounts that aren't
adequate, and farm subsidies that make processed foods cheaper that
nutritious foods. At one point a series of presidents told about the
need to combat hunger while the numbers showing the rise in hunger
during their presidencies was in the foreground.
Hopefully A Place At The Table can get people angry enough to
demand real solutions to this national shame and tragedy.
On a personal note, I am really getting the itch for the growing
season to start. I want to be at Orono Community Garden planting and
spreading compost and weeding so we can be giving big bags of organic
veggies free to the people who need them and bringing home the extras
to enrich our diets.
A great big shout out goes out to John and Shelley Jemmison who run
the community garden and all the volunteers who will once again join
us in this crucial mission.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod

Monday, February 27, 2017

The Secret Of Goldenrod

The Secret Of Goldenrod

Juvenile fiction
"The house was not what she had expected. It didn't need to be
fixed up. It needed to be torn down. Boards covered all the windows,
and the few shutters that remained dangled from their hinges. Pillars
that would have held up a porch roof, if the porch had still been
there, lay in the weeds like fallen trees."
Trina/Citrine, protagonist of Jane O'Reilly's The Secret Of
Goldenrod, has no connection with her globe trotting mother other than
the post cards she gets from various exotic locations. She wishes her
mom would discover herself enough to be contented to stay with her.
In the meantime she and her father traverse the country. His job is
fixing up old homes in bad condition for other people. As the story
begins they are approaching one that fills her with trepidation. Not
only does its physical condition leave a lot to be desired, but there
are indications of supernatural presences. Maybe the house itself is
the entity.
The house is on the outskirts of a tiny town in the boonies.
The long time inhabitants seem to be united in their fear of their
temporary abode. The waitress at the diner they go to their first
morning tells them nobody can live in the house because it's haunted.
The school secretary seconds her opinion.
School is anything but a good place. Charlotte, the girl who
sits behind Citrine takes an instant dislike to her, calling her
Latrine and telling her the other kids are on her side. It's worse
than her other times of being the new kid in places where everyone
knew each other.
Citrine does discover one friend, Augustine, she can confide in
and feel accepted by...
A three inch tall doll who she discovers inhabiting a dollhouse
in a hidden room...
A doll who can somehow walk and talk...
On a personal note, last week we had a wonderful Black Lives Matter
breakfast at UMaine. The breakfast was yummy--eggs, fried potatoes,
fruit salad, pastries, orange juice, and, of course, coffee. I got to
sit next to the primary speaker who took down the names of books I
mentioned and was quite fascinated by my cross stitch.
A great big shout out goes out to all who participated in the event.
jules hathaway



Sent from my iPod

Sunday, February 26, 2017

A Field Guide To Animal Tracks

A Field Guide To Animal Tracks

Adult non fiction
"Olaus Murie reminds us very much of an earlier master, Ernest
Thompson Seton. Like Seton he was not only an eminent naturalist and
an accomplished woodsman but also a fine artist, able to interpret in
pen and ink the things he had witnessed. Dr. Murie's drawings in this
book were made in the field, except where it was impossible; he used
material in museums and zoos only where field specimens were
unobtainable."
By now I imagine a lot of people are tired of snow, particularly
in states like Maine where we don't need Puxatawny Phil to tell us
what to expect weather wise. Perhaps a new activity might add some
renewed allure to the white stuff. What about the chance to play
detective and learn more about the non human critters who may be
dwelling unseen, often nocturnal or very wary of humans, in your
neighborhood? All you need is Olaus J. Murie's A Field Guide To
Animal Tracks and, of course, clothes suitable for outdoor expeditions.
This book, part of the Peterson Field Guide Series, is an oldie
but goodie, the second edition having come out in 1974. It covers
"every mammal for which tracks have been obtained in North America,
Mexico, and Central America--not only the common ones" as well as
birds, insects, and reptiles. A key to tracks gives a general idea of
the critter whose prints (and or scat which means poop) you have
discovered and directs you to the section of the book holding more
detailed information.
Let's say I'm strolling in the woids between the old and new
schools in Veazie. I see prints that are strangely like human hand
prints but a tad too small. I learn that a raccoon has probably
cruised by. Further into the book I can learn about its eating habits
and den locations.
Some animals like bears hibernate, but that's what we have mud
season for.
Tracks can give information that something is not quite right in
Mother Nature's world. I've started seeing skunk tracks quite early
for those hibernators to be out and about. That combined with early
arrival of migratory birds seems to point toward a warming trend.
You don't have to go out in the boonies to look for tracks and
scat. Due to human encroachment on wildlife habitat--that damnable
suburban sprawl--an amazing variety of critters have had to adapt to
life on our turf.
A Field Guide to Animal Tracks is only one of an amazing series
of field guides that covers everything from birds and butterflies to
rocks and stars. What they all have in common is raising awareness of
the amazing natural world we all too often avoid or ignore, stomping
through tethered to electronic devices. This, in my mind, is a very
good thing.
On a personal note, the most recent two Wilson Center programs have
been excellent. The first featured a film on Shirley Chisholm; the
second large and small group discussions on mental health and its
relationship to faith and religious traditions. Of course both
suppers were scrumptious.
A great big shout out goes out to my Wilson Center family.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Let Your Voice Be Heard

Let Your Voice Be Heard

Juvenile biography
"Seeger liked to tell a story about two frogs: 'A farmer once
left a tall can of milk with the top off outside his door. Two frogs
hopped into it, and then found that they couldn't hop out. After
thrashing around a bit, one of them says, "There's no hope." With one
last gurgle he sank to the bottom. The other frog refused to give
up. In the morning the farmer came out and found one live frog
sitting on a big cake of butter.' Like the second frog, whose efforts
had churned the milk into butter, Pete Seeger refused to give up."
Even people growing up unaware of Pete Seeger have probably
heard at least one of his songs, many of which are adaptations of folk
tunes. Where Have All The Flowers Gone? was popular at the Girl Scout
campfires of my childhood. A South African folk song he adapted made
in into the movie, The Lion King. We Shall Overcome is as relevant
and needed now as it was in the 60's.
Quite fortunately, Anita Silvey was a huge Pete Seeger fan
during her teen years. One of the best moments of her life was when
Seeger himself gave his blessing to her to write his biography.
Knowing that he would probably die before she finished, he instructed
her to take her time and write a good book.
In my mind, Let Your Voice Be Heard: The Life And Times Of Pete
Seeger is an amazing book. Through a beautiful combination of text
and photographs, the reader gets to see Seeger as:
*a child who learned from his father about the plight of the very poor;
*a young man who tried to become an artist when he couldn't make it as
a reporter and went on to become a musician when he couldn't make it
as an artist;
*a pacifist who enlisted when his hatred of Hitler became stronger
that his wanting to stay out of the war;
*a performer who, after many years of money problems, made it
financially only to be made persona non grata when he was put under
suspicion by the House Un-American Activities Activities Committee...
Pete Seeger is a really relevant role model on the twenty-first
century. His respect for the beauty and validity of the culture of
the poor, his dedication to causes such as the Civil Rights and
environmental movements, and his faith that no matter how strong evils
are, good will win out with a lot of hard work are traits most of us
could stand to cultivate. Let Your Voice Be Heard is an excellent
introduction to his life and work.
On a personal note, I had a wonderful Valentines Day. Eugene gave me
a dear potted plant in a cunning critter pot and a lovely card. He
took me out to Ruby Tuesdays for supper. Neither of us had been there
before. The food and service were really good.
A great big shout out goes out to Eugene.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod

Friday, February 24, 2017

To Stay Alive

To Stay Alive

Mature YA/Adult historical fiction based on historical fact
"It's finished.
The travel dress,
thick and crisp and green,
white buttons in a line,
a bright stiff collar, perched high.
It's a dress for adventure,
a dress ready for
whatever it will face.
Strongly stitched, unspoiled, new,
well made.
It is meant to endure."
Skila Brown's really excellent To Stay Alive is another of those
books that makes me think we should add a category to our library
classification system: Mature YA/Adult. There are a lot of sixth
graders who would not be able to handle it. There are many adults for
whom it would be just fine. Therefore, from this day on my blog will
have this new category: Mature YA/Adult. You can consider any I
simply label YA good for the middle/high school span.
In 1846 Mary Ann Graves and her large family join the westward
migration going on in America. Her father envisions prosperous
farming in a place with fertile soil and a long growing season. At
first travelling by prairie schooner (covered wagon) seems like a
wonderful adventure.
"Nothing could be grander
than a big crackling fire
under a starry sky,
insects humming in the dark all around,
the sound of Jay moving the bow across his fiddle,
the smell of onions and potatoes
in the air--turned cool enough
to draw you closer to the flames,
close enough to see them dance
in the dark eyes of a new boy
who can't stop looking your way."
Of course we know things will not stay tranquil for the whole
1,900 miles--especially where the window of opportunity for crossing
the mountains into California before winter sets in is narrow and
unpredictable. When the family and those with whom they travel pass
through St. Joseph we learn that they are the "last of the stragglers"
for the year. A decision to save time by taking a relatively unused
short cut seems ill considered, especially when they join up with the
Donner party.
Path clearing takes longer than they'd expected. Food is
getting scarce. All including children must walk to lighten the
wagons for the sake of the animals pulling them.
"another day

spent

water's almost gone
night
cold

we continue on

walking in our sleep"
Their troubles have just begun.
To Stay Alive is at the same starkly authentic and
heartbreakingly perceptive. The characters and their relationships
are entirely believable. Mary Ann grows into psychic adulthood in
this combination coming of age/horror narrative. Pulling off this
historical realism in free verse is an achievement few writers are
capable of.
The use of free verse rather than prose is brilliant. In many
of the poems the shape greatly enhances the verbal message.
"Eddy grips the gun
so tight
it shakes.
One bullet,
one shot,
one chance to eat.
Don't miss.

Don't miss.

Don't miss."
"The story of the Donner Party is a powerful one. It's a story
that makes us consider what choices we would make if we were on the
brink of death. This group of families and the trials they faced
became legendary and etched for them a permanent place in our history
tales...We're still captivated by this story, more than a century
later, because it's full of elements we can relate to, even today.
Hard feelings, arguments, murder, thievery, heartbreaking acts of
charity, and yes--romance."
I could not put the book down. I found it fascinating and
scary. Of course that could have something to do with my reading it
on a night Maine was getting slammed with an all out blizzard. All I
could hear was the wind driving blasts of snow--the exact weather
conditions that put the characters in dire and deadly danger.
To Stay Alive is a vivid and well written novel. I'd highly
recommend it to people who can deal with topics like cannibalism.
On a personal note, the blizzard I alluded to was an amazing two day
record breaker (amounts of snow). It started in Sunday the 12th.
That was the night I read the book. Monday I woke up snowed in.
Seriously. I could not open the door until Adam dug me out that
night. Eugene worked from Sunday night straight through Tuesday
morning--32 hours. I was in seventh heaven seeing him home safe
Valentines Day. UMaine was closed Monday and Tuesday. Only I didn't
know it was closed Tuesday until I'd walked almost all the way there,
which was more challenging than my usual walking because of the snow.
Talk about an adventure! I live for adventures!
A great big shout out goes out to all who shared the adventure with
me, especially my husband and his peers who had to plow all that white
gold.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Radiant Child

Radiant Child

Picture book
Woo hoo! It's not every day I can score the latest Caldecott
Medal winner, hot off the library shelf! If there is a book that
deserves that honor, surely it is Javaka Steptoe's Radiant Child.
Steptoe gives readers the story of talented artist Jean-Michel
Basquiat. As a child he drew prolifically in a style of his own.
"His drawings are not neat or clean, nor does he color inside the
lines. They are sloppy, ugly, and sometimes weird, but still
BEAUTIFUL."
He got a lot of encouragement from his mother who would draw
with him. She taught him that life lay as much in city life as in the
museum they would visit. As a teen on his own he went from grafiti to
galleries, staying true to his style.
The illustrations, in my mind, are the best part of the book.
They leap out at you. Steptoe set himself a daunting task. Instead
of giving readers copies of Basquiat's pictures, he created original
interpretations. He hoped readers will seek out originals in museums
and on line.
"Jean-Michel Basquiat went after his dream of becoming a famous
artist with all his heart. There is no doubt he made a mark on the
world and encouraged others to do the same, and that matters--
especially to artists and storytellers like me."
On a personal note, after the record setting snows that have recently
inundated Penobscot County we're now dealing with spring like temps.
Yesterday I was walking around without a coat. I got the cutest
sweatshirt free at Black Bear Exchange. It's grey with three fine
felines. It says insane cat posse. It's the cats' pajamas!!!
A great big shout out goes out to the UMaine students who are eagerly
looking forward to spring break.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod

Comics Confidential

Comics Confidential

YA graphic novel
"The artists and writers we meet in these pages are among the
most talented comics creators working today. While nearly all are
themselves lifelong comics fans, they came to their work by way of a
surprising variety of backgrounds, including biology, computer
science, filmmaking, painting, and acting. Not surprisingly, the
stories they have to tell take off in an abundance of equally
unpredictable directions."
When I was reading Svetlana Chmakova's Awkward, I was intrigued
by a few pages at the end. Chmakova walked readers through all the
steps of creating a graphic novel from design to adding color. Holy
cow! I never knew what an arduous, exacting process it is.
Then, in the serendipity so frequent in my life, I remembered
I'd just borrowed a book that could offer more insight into the
production of graphic novels--Leonard S. Marcus' Comics Confidential:
Thirteen Graphic Novelists Talk Story, Craft, And Life Outside The
Box. Marcus asked each artist a fascinating array of questions. He
also had each design and explain a comic having something to do with
the city. Since a lot of peopke see cartooning as male turf, I was
delighted to see a good number of women.
Remember Matt Phelan? We just became acquainted with his work
by reading his Snow White. He came to cartooning as an adult. When
he was in his twenties he taught himself how to draw. He did The
Storm in the Barn as a graphic novel only after he couldn't get it to
come to life as a prose novel. His acting background has him
constantly seeking to understand what his characters are thinking and
feeling.
Danica Novgorodoff drew from the time she could hold a pencil.
She hedged her bets in college, sticking with an art major "unless
something better came up." She created her first graphic novel during
a post graduate trip to South America. Showing it around back in the
states opened doors for her. She finds travel essential for her
research. She goes to the place her story is set in to get a real
feel for it.
And there are eleven others.
Comics Confidential is a great read for kids (and adults) who
enjoy graphic novels, especially those contemplating careers in
cartooning. Listings of the work of the artists at the back of the
book can point to future reads. I've added some titles to my must
read list.
On a personal note, we had a really poignant coffee hour at UMaine
recently. It was put on by people collecting clothes and raising
money to help people stranded in refugee camps. There was a short and
immensely powerful video of a 13-year-old girl talking of her life and
hopes. She dreams of stuff kids here take for granted: a real home
(instead of a tiny tent), having her family together, being able to go
to school... Today 1 out of every 113 people is a refugee. And with
global climate change as well as wars kicking in, the situation will
probably get more dire. It's crucial for America to keep her borders
open and for all who can to help our displaced brothers and sisters.
A great big shout out goes out to refugees and all who help and
advocate for them.
jules hathaway



Sent from my iPod

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Awkward

Awkward

Juvenile graphic novel
"Hi! Penelope here. Peppi for short. It's my first day at
Berrybrook Middle School, and I just tripped over my feet and dropped
everything...
...Including my dignity...
...And then this boy comes over to help. Which is sweet and
kind of great, right? Except..."
Since I'd been a new kid in not one but five high schools,
Svetlana Chmakova's Awkward had me hooked at the first page. Anyone
who has experienced that walking on thin ice sensation of entering a
new school where the slightest faux pas can doom you to being ignored
or bullied til graduation do you part will probably not be able to put
the book down.
It turns out that the kid who comes to Peppi's rescue is the
target of bullies who jump in with loud comments and laughter.
Peppi's first rule for school survival is to not get noticed by the
mean kids. Mortified, she pushes her would be rescuer, Jaime, away, a
move she regrets, only not quickly enough to make amends.
Peppi's second rule is to join clubs of kids who share her
interests. She quickly joins the art club. She's there in time to
hear their highly eccentric supervising teacher, Mr. Ramirez, deliver
some bad news. Art club will not get a table at the annual school
club fair. Their organizational nemesis, science club, however, will.
Science club is everything art club is not. Their supervising
teacher, Miss Tobins, is the epitome of organization. While art club
members follow their inner muses, science club people cause a lot of
trouble which is excused because they win plenty of awards and make
the school look good.
The only thing the two groups have in common is mutual
animosity. When the administration very unwisely engages them in
rivalry, it's all out warfare.
Oh, yeah, and Jaime is in science club.
As you've probably noticed, I'm becoming increasingly fond of
graphic novels. Awkward is one of my favorites in this genre. I
highly recommend it, especially to kids and adults who have had the
new kid in school experience.
On a personal note, all that snowflake snipping up to Wilson Center
sure must have inspired Mother Nature. The next day late in the
morning it started snowing. The first flakes started falling when I
left Orono Public Library after volunteering. I reached UMaine to
find it all was closing down and the panel I was to speak on being
postponed. Luckily I got a ride home. We'd escalated into full scale
blizzard. We inched along in piss poor visibility. My warm home
looked pretty good.
A great big shout put goes out to all who were in on this unexpected
adventure.
jules hathaway



Sent from my iPod

Monday, February 20, 2017

Spilled Milk

Spilled Milk

YA/Adult semi fiction
"Kat was a heavier sleeper and Dad knew this. He had spent a
long time on my side of the bed one night. That time it had hurt and
I held my stomach when he got up to walk away, afraid I would throw
up. He crept to the other end of the bed and sat down next to Kat."
There are some books that have me thinking that our age based
library book classification system leaves something to be desired. K.
L. Randis' Spilled Milk is one of these. YA covers a lot of maturity
territory between roughly middle school orientation and high school
graduation. At the lower end of the scale a lot of kids are far from
ready for the book. Many adults, especially those working in
education and social services, and college and graduate students
headed toward those fields, should be required to read it. Most of
them won't run into it in its current classification. But putting it
on adult shelves would deprive the older YA readers, including those
going through similar situations.
No easy answers, huh?
Brooke, Randis' protagonist, reaches a hard realization as a
teen. She's having supper with her boyfriend, Paul's, family for the
first time, amazed that they were actually conversing with each other
in a loving, caring way just like families she'd read about and seen
portrayed on tv. Suddenly Joseph, Paul's little brother, spills a
glass of milk. Instinctually she moves to protect him from his
father's anger...anger that never happens.
In that moment she learns that most families are not like hers.
"Suddenly it was clear.
Families didn't have to be perfect, but the fear and
manipulation that fueled my household was unconventional. Homes could
be safe places after all. I was in disbelief."
Brooke's family is about as far from normal or functional as one
can get. Her father is a sick, controlling man with anger management
issues and unnatural lusts. From Brooke's early childhood on, he
fondles her inappropriately and goes on to raping her. She's afraid
he'll start in on her little sister, Kat. She's also seen him beat
her brothers brutally. As much as she hates what he does to her, she
reasons that by staying and enduring she can protect her siblings.
Her mother is no help whatsoever. Crippled by a work accident and
addicted to pain pills, she is terrified of losing the man of the
house. At one point she tells Brooke they will leave. Then in the
next breath she's describing how they will be homeless and starving.
In one particularly charming incident, Brooke has a gun shoved in her
face. She has been selling her mother's extra Oxycontins illegally.
This is not a usual parental mandate for a high school kid. A
potential customer robs her. When she gets home from that very
frightening experience, Mommy Dearest's reaction:
"You let him get away with my pills? You got nothing? Not one
cent."
Then just as Brooke and her siblings are getting close to
leaving home, her mother is pregnant.
What makes Spilled Milk most scary is that, although it's
fiction, it's based on a true story.
I'd recommend this book to exceptionally mature YA readers and
most adult adults, especially parents and people in or going into
education, law, and social work.
On a personal note, UMaine hosted an excellent presentation by the
NAACP. Officers talked about the organization's history and answered
questions. It was a truly informative and inspiring talk.
A great big shout out goes out to all who participated in it.
jules hathaway



Sent from my iPod

Spilled Milk

Spilled Milk

YA/Adult semi fiction
"Kat was a heavier sleeper and Dad knew this. He had spent a
long time on my side of the bed one night. That time it had hurt and
I held my stomach when he got up to walk away, afraid I would throw
up. He crept to the other end of the bed and sat down next to Kat."
There are some books that have me thinking that our age based
library book classification system leaves something to be desired. K.
L. Randis' Spilled Milk is one of these. YA covers a lot of maturity
territory between roughly middle school orientation and high school
graduation. At the lower end of the scale a lot of kids are far from
ready for the book. Many adults, especially those working in
education and social services, and college and graduate students
headed toward those fields, should be required to read it. Most of
them won't run into it in its current classification. But putting it
on adult shelves would deprive the older YA readers, including those
going through similar situations.
No easy answers, huh?
Brooke, Randis' protagonist, reaches a hard realization as a
teen. She's having supper with her boyfriend, Paul's, family for the
first time, amazed that they were actually conversing with each other
in a loving, caring way just like families she'd read about and seen
portrayed on tv. Suddenly Joseph, Paul's little brother, spills a
glass of milk. Instinctually she moves to protect him from his
father's anger...anger that never happens.
In that moment she learns that most families are not like hers.
"Suddenly it was clear.
Families didn't have to be perfect, but the fear and
manipulation that fueled my household was unconventional. Homes could
be safe places after all. I was in disbelief."
Brooke's family is about as far from normal or functional as one
can get. Her father is a sick, controlling man with anger management
issues and unnatural lusts. From Brooke's early childhood on, he
fondles her inappropriately and goes on to raping her. She's afraid
he'll start in on her little sister, Kat. She's also seen him beat
her brothers brutally. As much as she hates what he does to her, she
reasons that by staying and enduring she can protect her siblings.
Her mother is no help whatsoever. Crippled by a work accident and
addicted to pain pills, she is terrified of losing the man of the
house. At one point she tells Brooke they will leave. Then in the
next breath she's describing how they will be homeless and starving.
In one particularly charming incident, Brooke has a gun shoved in her
face. She has been selling her mother's extra Oxycontins illegally.
This is not a usual parental mandate for a high school kid. A
potential customer robs her. When she gets home from that very
frightening experience, Mommy Dearest's reaction:
"You let him get away with my pills? You got nothing? Not one
cent."
Then just as Brooke and her siblings are getting close to
leaving home, her mother is pregnant.
What makes Spilled Milk most scary is that, although it's
fiction, it's based on a true story.
I'd recommend this book to exceptionally mature YA readers and
most adult adults, especially parents and people in or going into
education, law, and social work.
On a personal note, UMaine hosted an excellent presentation by the
NAACP. Officers talked about the organization's history and answered
questions. It was a truly informative and inspiring talk.
A great big shout out goes out to all who participated in it.
jules hathaway



Sent from my iPod

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Strangers In Their Own Land

Strangers In Their Own Land

Adult nonfiction
"As strangers in their own land, Lee, Mike, and Jackie wanted
their homeland back, and the pledges of the Tea Party offered them
that. It offered them financial freedom from taxes, and emotional
freedom from the strictures of liberal philosophy and its rules of
feeling. Liberals were asking them to feel compassion for the
downtrodden in the back of the line, the 'slaves' of society. They
didn't want to; they felt downtrodden themselves and wanted only to
'look up' to the elite. What was wrong with aspiring high? That was
the bigger virtue, they thought. Liberals were asking them to direct
their indignation at the ill-gotten gains of the overly rich, the
'planters'; the right wanted to aim their indignation down at the poor
slackers, some of whom were jumping the line."
It there was ever a book that came out precisely when it was
needed, Arlie Russell Hochschild's Strangers In Their Own Land: Anger
And Mourning On The American Right is that book. Many of us were
aghast when the current occupant of the White House won the election.
Many of us were perplexed when the results were broken down. The
majority of his voters were people who would be harmed by his policies
and mandates. How could they be so clearly voting against their own
interests?
Hochschild had become concerned about the increasing political
polarization in America and inability on both sides to communicate
across a widening gap. She was also puzzled by what she calls the
great paradox. Although red states are poorer and suffer from more
environmental degradation and poorer citizen health, they are also the
states where people are intent on downsizing government and
eliminating the agencies and regulations that could help them. What
was up with that?
Hochschild travelled across the country to gain some insight
into this paradox. She went to Louisiana, the South being the
epicenter of the right. She had chosen the environment as the lens
through which to focus.
(I must note, however, that the thinking she encountered is not
exclusive to the South. Maine is about as far north as you can get
without crossing into Canada. Governor Paul LePage's recent state of
the state speech hit the same themes.)
Over a period of five years, Hochschild spent time in a part of
southwest Louisiana that had become a magnet for heavy industries with
very poor environmental records. Beginning with one contact, she
befriended people she met in focus groups and social events and
followed up on their recommendations. She attended luncheons, church
services, a tent revival, card games, and campaign events. She
visited subjects' homes and invited them to show her where they grew
up and went to school. She amassed 4,690 pages of transcripts.
Strangers In Their Own Land is the fruit of her labor. It reads
beautifully as a narrative. You really get to know the people
Hochschild befriended, the places they come from and occuppy, and
their senses of self, hopes, and fears. Background information is
introduced in a way that clarifies, rather than overwhelming.
Hochschild leads us up to what she calls the deep story: ...the
story feelings tell in the language of symbols. It removes
judgement. It removes fact. It tells how things feel. Such a story
permits those on both sides of the political spectrum to stand back
and explore the subjective prism through which the party on the other
side sees the world. And I don't believe we understand anyone's
politics, right or left, without it. For we all have a deep story."
When I read this deep story it made a major shift in my
thinking, sort of turning a kaleidescope and seeing a new pattern. I
would highly recommend Strangers In Their Own Land to all seeking to
understand just what went down in the most recent presidential
election and what we can do, moving forward, to understand and
communicate with those with whom we disagree.
On a personal note, First Friday Bagels and Coffee, held at the UMaine
Commuter Lounge was as always a treat. It's one of the wonderful
traditions there we can look forward to. Another we've recently
enjoyed is having wonderful materials with which to make valentines.
a great big shout out goes out to the wonderful people who run the
commuter lounge, especially their benevolent boss, Barbara Smith.
jules hathaway




Sent from my iPod

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Garvey's Choice

Garvey's Choice

Juvenile fiction in verse
"Later, mom asks him,
'Why don't you let Garvey be?"
I hear Dad snort. Twice.
'Why can't he put those books down,
play football or basketball?"
Nikki Grimes has a sensitive ear and nuanced voice for the
hardships kids have to deal with, dwelling in a far from perfect
world. Recall back in 2014 I reviewed her Words With Wings? Well her
new book, Garvey's Choice, neatly lives up to its promise.
Garvey and his father have conflicting visions for his life.
When Garvey was seven he really wanted a Star Trek lunch box; Dad gave
him a football themed one. His father wants him to be an athletic,
sports talking, roughhousing companion. Garvey is much happier in a
world of books, science, and music. How can he be someone his dad can
accept and be proud of without scarificing his authentic self?
Then there's the weight issue. His dad gets on his case. Kids
at the school, with the exception of his one and only friend, Joe, are
very mean.
"Too-skinny-for-words
bumps into me on purpose.
'Oops!' he says. 'Sorry.
It's kinda hard to squeeze by
since you take up so much space.'"
When he auditions for chorus Garvey finds where some of his true
talents lie. But music isn't sports. What will his father say when
he finds out?
On a personal note, Mother Nature didn't exactly cooperate when we had
the Black Lives Matter flag raising to kick off Black History Month.
The grey sky was gusting wind and spitting snow. We just stood out
for the actual flag raising and came in for the speeches which were
excellent. We had a great turn out. It was a very auspicious
beginning. The next day I saw a great story in the Bangor Daily News
with a big old color photo. I found myself in my bright pink sweater.
A great big shout out goes out to all who participated in the flag
raising and the members of the press who came out in the cold to cover
our event.
jules hathaway



Sent from my iPod

Friday, February 17, 2017

Freedom Over Me

Freedom Over Me

Picture book
Winner of many literary awards, Ashley Bryan remains an
unassuming, humble artist. As close to the personification of
agelessness as it is possible to be, he takes the same unrestrained
joy in creating as your average kindergartener. Anyone who greets him
is met with enthusiasm and interest. He is one of Maine's finest
treasures. Seeing a new book of his on the Orono Public Library
shelves is cause for celebration...or at least a happy dance. :)
Bryan's latest masterpiece, Freedom Over Me, had a most unusual
genesis:
"Many years ago I acquired a collection of slave related
documents. They date from the 1820s to the 1860s.
I was deeply moved by those documents and have long wished to
work from them. Finally, I chose the Fairchilds Appraisement of the
Estate document from July 5, 1828 to tell this story. Eleven slaves
are listed for sale with the cows, hogs, cotton; only the names and
prices of slaves are noted (no age is indicated)."
Following the death of her husband, Mrs. Mary Fairchilds decided
to sell the estate and return to her people in England. You can see a
rendition of the property for sale listings (water stained, ink
slightly faded) at the beginning and end of the book. The slaves are
listed along with items such as 192 head of stock cattle and one bay
mare because they were considered belongings rather than human beings.
Bryan sought to show us they were indeed sentient human beings
with hopes, fears, loves, and dreams we can relate to. He gave them
ages and created their portraits.
"...I studied each one, listening for their voices. I wrote
what I heard in free verse to give emphasis to their words. These
words tell of their backgrounds and of their work on the estate.
Then, to bring those people closer, I wrote their inner thoughts as
they went about their work, then created the art that illustrates
these individuals' desires to realize their dreams."
There's Peggy who makes fancy meals for the whites in the big
house and plain food for the slaves. Her father was killed in
Africa. In a frightening new land her mother was sold away from her.
She takes the most pride in using local plants to heal members of her
slave family, a calling that helps her feel close to her stolen mother.
Jane is the plantation seamstress. Stephen is the carpenter who
is sometimes hired out to other estates. Teenage John is their
adopted son. They are secretly learning to read and write. Their
dreams are of living together, Jane and Stephen legally married, and
adding to their family babies who could not be sold away.
Freedom Over Me is a great book to read during Black History
Month. The only problem is the inhumanity it documents is still going
on today. Worldwide there is still a lot of slavery. Too many
whites, including people in authority and police officers, persist in
seeing blacks as thugs, dangers to the rest of us. Families are being
cruelly split apart by border police, homeland security, and
immigration policies.
On a personal note, I discovered quite a few treasures at the Black
Bear Exchange recently. I got my friend Russell a colorful abstract
tie. I found myself a UMaine baseball cap, a Hollister flowered
sweater, a scarf covered with cat pictures, and a black and white
winter hat that says, PARENTAL ADVISORY EXPLICIT CONTENT. A lot of
conservatives would not want their kids seeing my opinion pieces. The
explicit content comes direct from my beautiful brain.
my beautiful brain.
A great big shout out goes out to the fine Black Bear Exchange workers
and their boss, Lisa Morin.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Poop Detectives

Poop Detectives

Picture book
Could you imagine passing up a book entitled Poop Detectives?
Well, maybe you could. But I couldn't. It turns out that Ginger
Wadsworth's Poop Detectives: Working Dogs in the Field shows how well-
trained canines can be best friends, not only for human beings, but
for many creatures great and small.
As anyone who has walked a dog and had to stop frequently for
the beast on the leash to check out a tempting scent, canines do
smelling right. Their sense of smell is exponentially greater than
ours. This odor sensitivity is utilized in tasks ranging from bomb
and drug detection to searching for survivors and bodies at natural
disaster sites to monitoring the health status of people with diabetes
or epilepsy.
Scientists have to monitor populations of animals, especially
endangered ones, to detect their health and intervene if something
goes wrong. Trapping and releasing varmints is not the best way to do
this. A trapped animal could die from extreme temperatures,
starvation, or thirst. And there's always the chance that a trapped
and then tranquilized beast, say a grizzly bear, could wake up before
a scientist could get out of claw and tooth range.
Analyzing animal scat (poop) can give the same information in a
much less risky, intrusive way. Humans are awfully slow at locating
excrament. Fortunately someone came up with the idea of utilizing the
super capacities of canine companions.
Poop Detectives gives the reader a fascinating inside look into
how those hard working canines are trained and the really diverse
missions they perform around the world. It's a must read for dog
lovers, budding biologists, and all who care about endangered species.
On a personal note, at the Wilson Center we got to celebrate the
Chinese New Year. We had a very special meal and learned about the
traditions.
A great big shout out goes out to my Wilson Center family.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

The Uprising

The Uprising

YA fiction
"The firemen--impossibly tiny, down there on the ground--were
indeed holding out nets, standing there so hopefully. Yetta could
have laughed at their hopes. It was not exactly a plan Jacob was
offering her, not exactly a chance, in the nets and the ladder. But
it was something beside flame.
Jacob bowed to Yetta, as elegantly as if they were about to
launch themselves onto a dance floor, instead of into thin air. He
would have been a good dance partner, Yetta thought with an ache. He
wrapped his arms around Yetta; she wrapped her arms around him.
And then they jumped."
Margaret Peterson Haddix's Uprising is a cautionary tale that
should have us all up in arms. It's a narrative of what can go
terribly wrong when corporate greed is unrestrained. It is also the
poignant story of three young women from wildly differing backgrounds,
thrown together by fate and then grown together into solidarity.
Bella's father is dead. She has crossed the Atlantic Ocean from
Italy, hoping to save her starving mother and siblings. She hopes to
send them money to help them survive until she can afford their ship
tickets. America is a frightening place, offering only squalid living
quarters and brutal work conditions. But as long as she can keep her
loved ones alive...
Yetta has left her Russian shtetl to join her older sister,
Rahel, in America. Working under abusive conditions, she hungers for a
strike and union protection. Then she and so many other girls and
women will enjoy adequate pay, shorter hours, and safer working
conditions.
Jane is the pampered only daughter of an industrialist. She
cannot even dress herself without the help of maids. She feels
stifled by all the rules she must follow and the constant presence of
her overbearing chaperone. A growing awareness of the women's suffrage
movement has her painfully aware of her inferior position in a men's
world. Even her own father, who should have her best interests at
heart, wants to marry her off to enhance his business prospects.
Told through their alternating voices, a heroic garment workers'
strike and the devastating Triangle Shirtwaist fire come vividly to
life. The combination of beguiling protagonists and a suspenseful
plot make Uprising impossible to put down. But do not attempt to read
Uprising without a hankie at hand. I am writing this review with
tears in my eyes.
Haddix cautions us that as long as greed continues to trump all
else we cannot grow complacent. Even in the twenty-first century
innocent people die in factory fires due to the same kind of safety
violations that killed 146 workers back in the day.
"...Both the Thai and the Bangladeshi factories were making
products for the American market. Like the shirtwaist-wearing college
girls in 1909, we have to ask ourselves what responsibility we bear
for the people who make our clothes and other possessions.
The Triangle fire may have happened nearly a century [the book
was published in 2007] ago, but its ghosts have reason to haunt us
still."
And that is another reason to read the book.
On a personal note, UMaine had another really successful Red Cross
blood drive. I donated the first day and volunteered at canteen the
second. Lisa, who runs it all, says I'm the best canteen volunteer.
I say, with Jules the joint is jumping. Oh, yeah!
Today Maine is digging out from a blizzard that dumped over two feet
of snow on Penobscot County with the next snow event and its potential
for another foot of the white stuff just about on our doorstep.
A great big shout out goes out to all who worked, volunteered, and
donated in the blood drive and the people like my husband who plow
right in the teeth of the storms.
jules hathaway




Sent from my iPod

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Echoes

Echoes

Magazine
Four times a year a white package in the mailbox fills me with
anticipation--sort of like the scent of a new catnip toy really perks
up my feline friend, Mr. Joseph Jacob Hathaway, Esq. It's always
hard to put off reading the magazine it contains, Echoes, until supper
is over or I've returned from evening activities and can sit in my
favorite chair with the aforementioned Joey purring on my lap and a
cup of chamomile tea on hand.
Actually Echoes is a perfect bedtime read for anyone like me
with a fondness for sleeping soundly and serenely. Instead of
shreiking alarms of secular apocalypse, you get calm and sturdy
sensibility. The people you meet are regular down home folk, not the
celebrity du jour in and out of rehab. Instead of a WalMart
homogination you get a solid sense of time and place that wraps itself
around you like a favorite quilt.
Some of the pieces in Issue 115 include:
*a recipe for mini quiches with fiddleheads in the illustration,
*a wonderful narrative from the days before snow days were declared
and people carried cell phones in which a blizzard trapped a school
bus and, after hours of waiting for help, the narrator and his friend,
the two biggest boys, were dispatched to a store a mile away to get
food and blankets,
*a very personal history of Camp Roosevelt, founded in 1928 to give
urban boys (later also families) a chance to spend time in the great
outdoors, told by the founder's grandson,
*a man's childhood memories from a time when, to him, downtown Bangor
was "the most fascinating place in the world",
*and several poems.
Readers get a teaser in the form of the chapter of a new novel,
Bon Homme, by Leonard Hutchins. We meet protagonist Eddie at his 1925
eighth graduation where he gets an award and $5 for being the best
janitor his teacher ever had. He's hoping to get a good enough job so
his mother won't force him to continue to high school. At the end of
the chapter it looks like he's getting his wish. You have to wait til
Issue 116 to see how that goes.
The piece that most touched my heart, however, was none of the
above. Editor Kathryn Olmstead found a touching way to say goodbye to
Paul Lucey, who had passed on last October at the age of 93. She
printed a piece he had written before he died and noted that Echoes
lost a good friend. It was about an Honor Flight he had taken part in
in July, the 75th reunion of the Pearl Harbor Class of '41. It was
such a gift for those of us lucky enough to be counted among Paul's
friends.
Perhaps the magazine's statement of purpose says it best.
"Echoes is an internationally circulated journal about rural America
in transition. Published quarterly in northern Maine, the magazine
focuses on positive values rooted in the past that have relevance for
the present and the future. Echoes suggests that knowledge of rural
experiences can help us live in modern society--that there is
permanence in the midst of change and values in remembering our
roots. Echoes is a portrait of home, whether home is a place or a
time, a memory of the past or a vision of the future."
Now don't you want to get a subscription? The cost is $22 for a
year, less than the price of a cup of coffee a week, especially if you
patronize Starbucks, or $37 for two years. The mailing address is:
P. O. Box 626
Caribou, ME 04736-0626.
You can tell them Jules sent you. :-)
On a personal note, the most recent Wilson Center Wednesday was truly
an enchanted evening. After we feasted on soups, casseroles, and
fresh salad, we had a snowflake crafting party. People cut
confidently and enthusiastically and admired each other's creations.
Some contributed their works of art to be strung across a wall in a
most enchanting installation.
A great big shout out goes out to my Wilson Center family.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod

Monday, February 13, 2017

Lily And Duncan

Lily And Duncan

Juvenile fiction
"Thinking about my plan for the first day of eighth grade makes
my stomach drop, like I plunged over the crest of a roller coaster at
Universal Studios. I'm sure not one other person going to Gator Lake
Middle is dealing with what I am, probably not one other person in the
entire state of Florida. Statistically, I know that's not true,
because I looked up a lot of information on the Internet, but it feels
that way sometimes."
Lily is a girl who was unfortunately born into a boy's body.
She envies her sister's freedom to wear dresses any time she wants.
She dearly wants to do so on the first day of school. There are,
however, mean kids in school who already bully her. And her father is
dead set against it.
"'Goddamn it, Timothy!' Dad turns, his face filled with fury and
something else. Pain? 'Your mother gave birth to a boy. We had a
boy. What am I supposed to do? Just let go of that? Am I supposed
to let him die?"
Lily (who despises her birth name, Timothy) is desperate to
start using hormone blockers. She dreads the changes that puberty
will bring such as a deeper voice and facial hair. But she can't get
her father to even discuss the idea.
"If you think about it--and I have--there are at least six ways
to die in South Florida: being eaten by an alligator, poisonous
snakebite (there are six varieties of poisonous snakes in Florida),
lightning strike (South Florida is the lightning-strike capital of the
United States), hurricane, flood, even fire-ant bites, if there are
enough of them.
I wish we hadn't moved to South Florida. There are too many
ways to die here."
Dunkin (legally Norbert, a name he despises) has moved with his
mother from New Jersey to live with his grandmother. His mother is
really sad; he wants her to snap out of it. He misses his father who
is bipolar and presumably in a psychiatric hospital. Dunkin himself
has to take mood stabilizers and antipsychotic meds. He feels
overburdened with secrets--facets of himself he fears will turn
potential friends away.
Just as school is about to start Lily and Dunkin meet and begin
a fumbling friendship. Donna Gephart's Lily And Dubkin, told in their
alternating voices, gives a sensitive look at vulnerable young people
having to cope with pretty heavy challenges in a not always hospitable
world.
Gephart hopes that her book will lead to more understanding and
acceptance of people like Lily and Dunkin. Her own son was diagnosed
with bipolar disorder. He had to struggle with things that other kids
achieved easily. As a teacher, she was aware of the difficult
challenges transgender students face.
Personally I would recommend Lily and Duncan to all people who,
like me, are members of the human race.
On a personal note, as I write this, just about all of Maine is being
blasted by a blizzard. Snow is whipping around. We're expecting to
end up with two feet. Accumulations are already quite impressive. I
just hope we don't lose the power before I get two cakes and a batch
of cookies baked for tomorrow.
A great big shout out goes out to my husband and his peers who are
plowing around the clock, the utilities workers on call in case of an
outage, my son and all the other emergency workers willing to put
their safety on the line to rescue others, UMaine for cancelling
classes, and all the people smart enough to stay home and leave the
streets to the professionals.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod

Sunday, February 12, 2017

A Poem For Peter

A Poem For Peter

Picture book
"Even though the world was living
in an age of color judgement,
your color didn't matter to Ezra.
All he saw was you,
beguiling little guy,
with the smarty-pants smirk,
playing pretty-boy peek-a-boo."
An artist found himself captivated by a series of Life Magazine
photographs of a very little boy reacting to a blood test. He put
those pictures up on his wall. It was a couple of decades before he
could do something with them. First of all Uncle Sam's pointing
finger sought him out for the fight to defeat Hitler.
"World War II needed posters
and booklets.
Needed charts.
Needed art.
Needed maps and pictures
drawn by the hand of a man whose
lines and arrows sprang from the page
to help soldiers leap to duty."
After the job the man was confronted with want ads telling Jews
to not bother applying for jobs. In fact he had to change his name
some. As he built his career he did not forget the child who had
enchanted him. Finally he had a chance when, after creating the art
for other author's children's books, he could write a book of his own.
The man was Ezra Jack Keats. The book he created was The Snowy
Day, one of the most endearing and enduring volumes in the history of
children's lit. Despite the simplicity of the plot, Everychild
absorbed in the affordances and joys of a snowy day, it was quite
radical. Right then residential neighborhoods were segregated. Many
libraries were whites only. Jack, Jane, Sally, and their picture book
pals were in a literary world that reflected those realities.
Peter, protagonist of A Snowy Day, was black. He was also
occuppying an urban setting when the vast majority of picture book
protagonists called suburbia home.
Most of us read the book to ourselves or our children without
wondering about the author behind it. I know I'd have to plead
guilty. So when I had a chance to read Andrea Davis Pinkney's A Poem
For Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of A Snowy
Day I jumped at the opportunity.
I was rewarded by an amazing real life story. Jacob Ezra Katz
was born to Jewish immigrants from Poland in 1916. His father waited
on busy people who didn't always tip. Times were very tough in the
tenements.
"Papa Benjamin worried
about his son's dream.
Feared for what he couldn't see.
An artist was a strange, impractical
thing to be.
You couldn't earn a decent wage
giving imagination wings."
But even as his father worried he pinched pennies from his pay to buy
his beloved son paints...
A Poem For Peter is a truly heart warming narrative. It is also
a beautiful tribute to determination and to using one's talents to
help make the world a better place. This is a message we need to hear
in 2017 probably more than ever.
On a personal note, I can very much relate to Keats. As a woman who
took out a sizeable chunk of time to be home for my children (think
ageism) and flunked the eye exam for a driver's license in two states
(think rural state) I might at some point have to give up and work
retail which would destroy me. But I have a dream I will not abandon
unless driven to do so by destitution. It involves getting a masters
in higher education: student development so I can spend the rest of
my life doing what I love best--helping college students achieve their
beautiful potentials.
A great big shout goes out to all who are encouraging me to do all it
takes to achieve my potential and make my dream reality.
jules hathaway





Sent from my iPod

Saturday, February 11, 2017

Snow White

Snow White

Graphic novel
Graphic novels are quite the rage these days. Even public
libraries have embraced or grudgingly added them. Of course they
differ in quality from quite forgettable to sophisticated or moving.
Matt Phelan's Snow White is one of the finest examples of this genre
I've ever seen.
The story begins at a crime scene. New York City police are
setting up yellow tape around a pale but lovely young woman. Then the
scene shifts to a mother and daughter playing in the snow. The mother
coughs blood. Ten years after her death her husband falls for and
marries a beautiful but cold hearted stage performer. The daughter is
sent to boarding school.
Then somehow the ticker tape machine keeping the industrialist
father abreast of stock market figures clues wicked stepmom in on our
heroine being far more beautiful. I think we pretty much remember how
things go from there.
Samantha (Snow) White is quite appealing. Evil Stepmom is over
the top sinister. We want her demise. In my favorite twist the
dwarves are homeless boys, the street urchins who were legion in the
Great Depression during which the story was set.
All in all, I'd consider this version of Snow White to be a
charming contemporary twist on a perrenial favorite story.
On a personal note, recently Eugene took me to Subway where we got
supper sandwiches. I packed on the iron in preparation for donating
blood. Then we stopped at KMart in Bangor which is sadly going out of
business. Eugene got me a journal, a set of jewel toned colored pens,
and a large set of scented markers.
My heart goes out to all who are being put out of work by this store's
closing and all the others that are becoming so common. In times like
these we need a far stronger safety net for people who lose their
means of sustenance through no fault of their own. They are legion.
Most of us could join them.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod

Friday, February 10, 2017

The Complete Laugh-Out-Loud Jokes for Kids

The Complete Laugh-Out-Loud Jokes for Kids

Juvenile humor
Laughter is the best medicine has gone from adage to medical
knowledge. This simple act reduces stress, boosts health, and even
effects longevity. When you're with your kids in those inevitable
waiting situations--traffic jams, restaurants between ordering and
being served, doctors offices--their chuckles beat grumbling, whining,
and total immersion in electronics. Rob Elliot's The Complete Laugh-
Out-Loud Jokes for Kids is a compact carry along boredom buster.
Very few of the jokes are trite or predictable. Some are rather
clever.
"Q: Why did the cowboy ask his cattle so many questions?
A: He wanted to grill them."
"Q: What do you get when you cross a fish and a kitten?
A: A purr-anha."
"Q: What is the difference between a cat and a frog?
A: A cat has nine lives, but a frog croaks every day."
If your kids take turns asking the jokes they get reading practice.
If the restaurant has crayons (and you think ahead to bring paper)
they can illustrate favorites. Or they can make up their own and
submit them to LOLJokesForKids.com
How about:
Q: Why did the cow like this book so much?
A: She found it very amooosing.
I know. Don't quit my day job.
But imagine you're battling heavy traffic on an inclement day.
Which would sound better coming from the back seat: giggles or sibling
squabbles? Or how about hearing "Are we there YET?" for the twentieth
time? It's your call.
On a personal note, recently we had great fun in Universal Fellowship
choir. We were singing This Little Light Of Mine. We got to play easy
instruments. I had a tambourine. Choir director Molly told us to use
every way possible to show the congregation how HAPPY we were to be
singing that song. (In my case that meant dancing.) Later people were
saying, "Wow, the choir was GOOD!!!"
a great big shout out goes out to both my choir families.
jules hathaway



Sent from my iPod

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Every Man for Himself

Every Man for Himself

YA anthology
Probably the most predictable perpetual problem of teachers and
children's librarians is motivating young adult males to read books
that aren't graphic novels or volumes centered around the most viral
computer game du jour. Short story anthologies are often a great
choice. Every Man for Himself: Ten Short Stories About Being A Guy,
edited by Nancy E. Mercado, is an oldie but goodie in this genre.
Mercado invited ten well respected male authors to contribute
stories about being guys. Skip the already overworked cliche
situations; get right to the heart of lived life.
"We've titled this collection Every Man for Himself because the
truth is that there are always going to be times when you're on your
own, when no one's around to help, and when it's up to you to decide
what comes next.
Everyone knows that it's hard to come up with the best
solution. Good news is, all of those authors have been there...and
they're still around to tell about it."
Tackle the stories in any order you want. Skip some. Reread
others. In anthologies the front to back requirement is in delightful
abayance.
In The Prom Prize (Walter Dean Myers) Eric makes a random
comment and ends up as the prize in a junior prom date lottery. When
the winner is announced he has a problem that snowballs. His father
announces he can't take a white girl to prom without a limo. An
acquaintance insists he gets protection. He isn't even sure he wants
to do anything carrying the possibility for procreation.
"This whole thing had started out to be a cool way of getting a
prom date, but it had escalated into about nine other things. I was
renting a limo because my pops had my representing the race, I was
buying extra-large condoms to show I was the man, and now I had the
whole junior class waiting to see what was going to happen..."
In No More Birds Will Die Today (Paul Acampora) Charlie is
caught between his unpredictable, hair trigger tempered, alcoholic
father, Chevy, (no mother around) and his imaginative, sensitive
little brother, Liam.
When Chevy buys BB guns for himself and his sons, Liam turns out
unexpectedly to be a talented sharpshooter. For this reason this
angers Chevy, who stops shooting targets and starts in on birds. Liam
is frantic, devastated. Charlie knows he has to do something.
"Meanwhile, I've discovered that I'm one of those people that
couldn't hit the side of the barn even if I had a cannon. That's
okay. Chevy's only two feet away. I put three shots into his ass,
and I'm thinking, Did I really just shoot my father."
Mo Willems comes up with something that isn't a picture book
featuring the pigeon and his pals.
And there are seven more gems.
The autobiographies at the end of the book are interestingly
different. They feature a black and white sketch of the author, a
listing of his published books, and the answer to three questions.
When do you think you went from boy to guy?
What's the manliest thing you do now?
Who's the coolest guy you ever met, and why?
You'll be surprised at some of the answers.
On a personal note, at UMaine we had an open house at Rainbow Resource
Room. It went really well. Crissi insisted that I take some of the
leftover rainbow cupcakes home where I used them to celebrate my son's
birthday. It's hard to believe my baby is twenty.
A great big shout out goes out to my Rainbow Resource Room family and
the wonderful, amazing son I am so proud of.
jules hathaway







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Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Josephine

Josephine

Picture book
"I shall dance all my life...
I would like to die, breathless,
spent at the end of a dance."
I think it would be impossible to not read a book that begins
with the above quote. You can just tell the subject of the biography
was decisive, colorful, and much larger than life. It's also highly
probable that contemporary society was not ready for such a vibrant
being. Patricia Hruby Powell's Josephine: The Dazzling Life of
Josephine Baker is a most fitting tribute to a truly unforgettable
woman.
Josephine Baker was born out of wedlock (in a time that was very
much looked down upon) to a woman who scrubbed floors and took in
laundry. She and her family lived in the slums in St. Louis. Ragtime
was big then. She danced right from the very beginning.
Josephine came of age in an America marked by racial prejudice
and violence. Everything was segregated. When she left home with a
traveling singing group (at the age of 13) on the black vaudeville
circuit, she couldn't set foot in many hotels and restaurants. Even
after she made it in New York City, she had to use back doors to get
to work and couldn't try on hats in stores.
Josephine wondered if there was anywhere that race didn't
matter. She found that place in Paris, France. This was the place
where she felt beautiful for the first time in her life. When she
danced on stage:
"Deep-trapped steam FLASHED and WHISTLED.
Josephine was on fire.
CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT.
No! Don't.
Mais oui--
knees squeeze, now fly
arms scissors and splay.
QUELLE SUPRISE!
Word got out.
Opening night
the theater CRACKLED with
tension."
And that was just the beginning. Life didn't suddenly become a
bed of roses for Josephine. She faced many more challenges. But she
lived it on her own terms.
If razzmatazz and all that jazz make your heart skip a beat, you
owe it to yourself to read the book told in lively free verse and
share it with the kids in your life, especially those determined to
dance, rather than plod, through life.
On a personal note, Eugene surprised me one morning after working all
night. He took me to Dennys for a most delightful breakfast. Gotta
love a diner. They're that sweet spot between burgers, fries, and toy
prizes and expensive places that inculcate fears of using the wrong
fork or making a similar faux pas.
A great big shout out goes to Eugene.
jules hathaway


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Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Made You Look

Made You Look

YA nonfiction
"People in Ghana, a country in West Africa, have a saying: To
the fish, the water is invisible." In other words, when you're
surrounded by something all the time, you don't notice it. You take
it for granted and assume that it's natural, or that it's always been
there. You don't think about whether it's good or bad, or how it's
affecting your life.
In the parts of the world where people have a lot of modern
conveniences and up-to-date technology, you could say that advertising
has become 'the water in which we swim.'"
In 2003 when Shari Graydon's Made You Look: How Advertising
Works And Why You Should Know came out an American growing up saw
20,000 to 40,000 commercials a year. That was before adding in other
sources of promotional content, say those pesky pop-up ads on the
Internet. I can only imagine what the numbers would look like today.
Readers are asked when their parents had the talk about
advertising. Surprisingly, given its ubiquity and persuasiveness, a
lot of moms and dads never get around to this. Graydon takes on this
task, analyzing why it works so well and giving ways to not be
suckered in. Some of the topics include:
*how campaigns actually create needs (Did you know that diamonds were
not favored for engagement rings until 1947?);
*how companies use info gleaned through Internet games and contests to
more cleverly target youth;
*how ads tap into social anxieties;
*and how through guerilla marketing companies take promotion off
screens and into neighborhoods and schools.
Scattered through the book are exercises titled Don't Try This
At Home with the Don't crossed out. They are really good ways for
readers to personalize the content of the book. Although they are
very much within the capability of our sons and daughters, some of
them would offer insight to adults and families.
Making this "water in which we swim" is an important survival
skill for kids, adults, and families. Made You Look is a great
beginning.
On a personal note, Real Food Challenge is teaming up with Nutrition
Club for some activities. I am really excited imagining the
possibilities.
A great big shout out goes out to both clubs and Nutrition Club's
faculty advisor, Sue Sullivan, whom I've heard only good things about.
jules hathaway


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Monday, February 6, 2017

1 in 3

1 in 3

Adult nonfiction
One in three American women will have an abortion. Chances are
slim to nonexistent that you have no colleagues, friends, teachers, or
family members in this category. You may even be included. I know I
am.
Back in 1995 I learned during what was supposed to be a routine
sonogram that the fetus I was carrying did not have a heart beat.
About a week later I was immersed in the Miscarriage from Hell. The
bleeding and agonizing crampd did not stop. After about 40 days I
also had the fever and chills of a systemic infection. So I had a
choice to make: tough it out til stillbirth, risking losing my
fertility and life, or go in for a legal procedure that would let me
live to raise my daughters and eventually give them a baby brother.
I feel a lot of pain when right to life groups try to make the
issue of abortion so black and white, so theoretical and judgemental.
By portraying women who have had abortions as basically cold blooded
killers, they create an atmosphere of stigma. Not knowing who to
trust to talk to can surround us in separateness and silence.
The 1 in 3 campaign is trying to remove the secrecy and stigma
by encouraging women like me to share our stories. In doing so we can
be there for one another and speak up for women's right to a safe
medical procedure...a procedure that is very much jeopardized in
today's political climate.
1 in 3 has a website with hundreds of deeply personal stories of
women who have had abortions for a number of reasons: dead fetuses,
severe fetal birth defects, impregnation by rape, jeopardy to maternal
health or life, poverty, abusive partners...
www.1in3campaign.org
There is also a print compilation of 40 stories put together for the
40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
I am deeply grateful to 1 in 3 for creating space for very
needed conversations and activism. I probably would have died without
an abortion. I want women in my situation to have access to safe
medical care and not be driven by desperation to self induce by
knitting needles or toxins or put themselves into the hands of
backstreet butchers.
A great big shout out goes out to all who fight for women's right to
safe, legal abortions.
jules hathaway


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