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





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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


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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



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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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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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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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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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