The first "Earth Day," April 22, 1970, was marked by massive demonstrations as over 20 million Americans rallied on the streets, in parks, on campus quadrangles and in urban auditoriums across the country for a healthier, more sustainable environment. The brainchild of Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, who was determined to push environmental protection to the top of the national agenda, achieved a rare political alignment amidst the bitterness of the Vietnam War era: conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans (Representative Pete McCloskey (R-Cal.) served as co-chair), urbanites and residents of rural communities, rich and poor all came together to support the need to protect our most precious asset and our collective home. The first Earth Day also led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts (all signed by that most unlikely of environmental heroes, Richard Nixon). But there are many heroes in the movement to raise environmental awareness and promote conservation; some blazed the trail, others continue to pioneer the path: The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America (Douglas Brinkley, 2009) What made Theodore Roosevelt an environmental hero was his conviction that 2,000-year-old redwood trees, ancient rock formations and pelicans belonged to future generations of Americans as well as to the past. Well, in the face of a commitment to eternity, what were the arguments of mining tycoons, hunters, local businessmen and not-so-visionary congressmen? From the time he became president, in 1901, until he left office in 1909, Roosevelt saved over 234 million acres of the American wilderness. Brinkley captures the sights, smells and sounds of the era and takes us into the rough-and-ready world of the President who was willing to use his "big stick" when necessary and didn't talk softly about his determination to set aside lands with the creation of the National Wildlife Refuge System. In a simpler era, Roosevelt made conservation a vital, manly, patriotic pursuit. The Camping Trip That Changed America (Barb Rosenstock, 2012) For younger readers, here's a new picture book that relates the story of Roosevelt's tour of the Yosemite Valley area and the camping trip he took with preservationist John Muir. The men rode into the wilds on horseback, camped together with a minimum entourage, and got caught up in the beauty of sequoias and a spring snowstorm. Muir (and the wonders of the Sierras) convinced Roosevelt that the park needed federal control and management and in 1905, Congress designated it a National Park. Rosenstock captures Roosevelt's exuberance and Muir's ardent dedication. as does illustrator Mordecai Gerstein. A Sand County Almanac (Aldo Leopold, 1949) Aldo Leopold, often considered to be the father of wildlife ecology, was one of America's first professional foresters. He helped found the National Wildlife Federation, the Wilderness Society and wrote a little book which fostered a greater interest in ecology, conservation and, later, the environmental movement. Part essay, memoir and polemic, A Sand County Almanac explores the wondrous diversity of our natural world and celebrates its beauty in elegant, evocative prose. Read it as the seasons progress to enhance your own observations and appreciation of nature's perfection. A Passion for Nature: the Life of John Muir (Donald Worster, 2008) Here is a scholarly yet engrossing account of the great conservationist and founder of the Sierra Club. Worster shows us the man behind the legend, through extensive use of Muir's correspondence. Born in Scotland and raised in rural Wisconsin under the harsh rule of his abusive father, Muir lit out for California after the Civil War. What he saw and did there made history. Worster paints a loving portrait of an eternal wanderer who was also a doting husband and father, a talented scientist, friend to the famous and the humble, and a man who wielded his political influence for good. John Muir: Nature Writings (Library of America, 1997) If you want to read the original, try this volume, which contains all of Muir's seminal writings. It includes The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, My First Summer in the Sierra, The Mountains of California, Stickteen, and many essays along with illustrations, a chronology of his life, and scholarly notes. And then there's this classic. All of these books remind us of a key point in environmentalism and conservation: we cannot save what we do not love.
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Sunday marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. It's a tragedy that has been commemorated in print, on film, and over the airwaves numerous times. Perhaps its continued fascination is due to the combination of hubris, glamour, social stratification, cowardice, bravery and sacrifice that swirl around the massive ocean liner and the events that led to her doom on the night of April 14-15, 1912. Other maritime disasters of similar magnitude have faded into obscurity; however, in the hands of a skillful writer, they can come to life in all its horrific immediacy: Lusitania by Diane Preston (2003). On May 7, 1915, as she closed in on the city of Liverpool, England and the end of her 101st eastbound crossing from New York City, the R.M.S. Lusitania, the pride of the Cunard Line and one of the most magnificent ocean liners afloat, steamed into the sites of a terrifying new weapon and became the casualty of a horrible new kind of warfare. Just 11 miles off the southern coast of Ireland, she was struck by a torpedo fired from the German submarine. She exploded and sank within eighteen minutes. 1,198 lives, more than half of the passengers and crew, were lost. The deliberate and cold-blooded sinking of the Lusitania shocked the world. With the deaths of 128 American passengers, it was the event that spurred the United States to abandon its neutral stance and enter the armageddon we now call World War I. Sultana: Surviving the Civil War, Prison and the Worst Maritime Disaster in American History by Alan Huffman (2009) The title says it all. And it's unbelievable that, outside of American history professors and Civil War buffs, this tragedy has been absolutely forgotten. In April 1865, the steamboat Sultana moved up the Mississippi River, its engines straining under the weight of twenty-four hundred passengers—mostly Union soldiers, recently released from Confederate prison camps. By law, she was only allowed to carry 376 persons, including the crew. At 2 a.m., three of Sultana's four boilers exploded. Within twenty minutes, the boat went down in flames, and an estimated seventeen hundred lives were lost. Those who did not perish in the fire drowned in the cold, fast-moving river. The other events of that April -- the end of the war, the assassination of President Lincoln, the hunt for John Wilkes Booth -- overshadowed this tragedy, which was, by sheer loss of life, the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history. The author captures this harrowing story in vivid detail through the experiences of four individual soldiers who survived the Civil War's final hell to make it back home. Into the Mist: The Story of the Empress of Ireland by Ann Renaud (2010). In the early hours of May 29, 1914, the Empress of Ireland, the crown jewel of the Canadian Pacific Line, plunged to the bottom of the St. Lawrence River in just 14 minutes, after colliding with the SS Sorstad, a coal freighter. Over 1,000 passengers and crew members died. But there's more to the story than just disaster. The ocean liner's true legacy is the significant role it played in the building of Canada. During the ship's many crossings between Canada and England during its years of service from 1906 to 1914, it carried royalty, politicians, scientists, authors, actors, captains of industry, and military servicemen, but most important, it ferried more than 115,000 hopeful immigrants from Europe to build new lives on Canadian soil. The author paints a moving portrait of a ship and its time of glory. Here it is again: spring and the baseball season. And both Chicago teams lost their openers. Luckily, it's a looooong season. And, as Scarlett would say, "Tomorrow is another day." We can say that for awhile, maybe up until the All-Star break, at which point we will begin to say, "Wait 'til next year." Scratch a baseball cynic and you will find a baseball romantic, raised in a ballpark, on popcorn, peanuts, and ice cream eaten with a wooden spoon. So while we are waiting for victories, as a librarian I can always find solace in books. So here's an admittedly quirky, highly subjective list of some favorites: Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris (1956) "O bang the drum slowly and play the fife lowly, Play the dead march as they carry me on, Put bunches of roses all over my coffin, Roses to deaden the clods as they fall" – The Streets of Laredo Bang the Drum Slowly, one of a quartet of novels by Harris with protagonist Henry “Author” Wiggen, reaches for the heights in sports literature and might even be considered one of those elusive “great American novels.” Set back in the day before free-agency created millionaires out of regular guys who play games for a living, Harris viewed sports with a coldly realistic eye. His players are workmanlike drudges who have off season jobs and indulge in foul language, alcohol, and womanizing (when they are not playing baseball or TEGWAR-the exciting game without any rules). Team management cares mainly about the bottom line. Things that happen off the field do effect performance on the field. The writing is honest; the plot, which revolves around the relationship between a star pitcher and his roommate, the quirky third-string catcher just diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, is engrossing; and the narrative voice is wonderfully distinctive. An excellent film version starring a very young Michael Moriarty and Robert DeNiro was released in 1973. Ball Four by Jim Bouton (1970) One of the original sports tell-all books, Bowie Kuhn, the commissioner of baseball at the time, attempted to discredit it by claiming it was detrimental to the ideals of the sport. Bouton pitched for the New York Yankees, the Houston Astros and the Seattle Pilots (during the club's only year in existence), retired and later became a sportscaster. Ball Four is now considered to be one of the most important sports books ever written and was named to the New York Public Library’s list of “Books of the Century.” A great underdog story, which details Bouton’s struggle for a comeback on the strength of a knuckleball, Ball Four is insightful, laugh-out-loud funny, brutally honest, and an overall great read. A Pennant for the Kremlin by Paul Malloy (1964) Here’s a period piece from the Cold War-era before glasnost, perestroika and the birthmark on Mikhail Gorbachev’s forehead caused the Soviet Union to crumble. The Chicago White Sox wind up the property of the Soviet government when, in a fit of pique, a wealthy hotel magnate wills everything he owns to the Reds - no, not the ones in Cincinnati. Unexpectedly, he croaks and the Soviets end up owning an American baseball team. They send the usual suspects to tend to their interests in Chicago. The new manager proves to be smarter than he looks in his half-suit/half-Sox uniform. His hottie of a daughter falls in love with the team’s star. And, of course, there’s the loyal Commie overseer who sends daily reports back to Moscow and distributes the worker’s newspapers to all the players. In one funny set-piece, Pravda sends a propagandist/reporter to cover the story for readers back home, and he writes a scathing piece about a Cubs game while the Sox are out of town. In another lovely and well-written scene, the Soviet manager reflects on the great variety of people that he's encountered on the team road trips. The reader might feel more than a twinge of nostalgia for pre-Wal-Mart and pre-Facebook America. We Are the Ship: the Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson (2008) The title comes from a quote by Rube Foster, the founder of the Negro National League: “We are the ship; all else the sea.” Kadir Nelson brings the struggles and successes of gifted African-American athletes to life in words and incredible illustrations. Even the staunchest fan of baseball may not be familiar with the stories of the passionate, hard-working men who played the sport in the shadow of segregation and formed their own league. This book is grounded in personal anecdotes that make history a living, breathing thing. Moneyball by Michael Lewis (2003) Before the movie, there was the book. And the book introduced us to the concept of sabermetrics, the mathematical and statistical analysis of baseball records. And reading the book made me realize that my brother was a sabermetrician (??) before it was popular, because he would pore over baseball game box scores and create his own lists of baseball stats throughout the course of a season. Data, data, data! Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane and his assistant, Paul DePodesta use it creatively to challenge conventional baseball wisdom and put together a team that can compete on the field with other organizations that have a lot more money to throw around. It’s all about getting on base. Well, duh! A Whole New Ball Game: the Story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League by Sue Macy (1995) Here’s an authoritative and well-written account of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. From 1943 to 1954, women belonged at home, first, second and third base and in the outfield, too. The author dug into the archives and surveyed and interviewed former players to develop a clear picture of the era, showing us the reasons for the league's initial popularity and its ultimate failure. The league drew hundreds of talented athletes who worked to create a team spirit and who supported each other’s individual sense of worth as the players pushed up against the repressive social trends of the postwar era. It’s a fascinating look at a rather obscure era in American sports. Happy birthday, Wilhelm Carl Grimm (1786-1859), the younger of the Grimm brothers, who traveled throughout their native Germany, collecting oral folklore and compiling it into several volumes entitled Children’s and Household Tales, or more colloquially as Grimms’ Fairy Tales. The original tales were rather bloody and gruesome (some might say, grim), but when the brothers discovered that children were reading them, they softened them up a bit (the term “a bit” being relative, for in their version of Cinderella, called “Ashputtel,” the jealous stepsisters cut off their toes in an attempt to force their feet to fit the special shoe). In recent years, there have been a spate of new children’s and young adult books (and a few television shows as well) that have used the Grimm canon and legacy as a springboard for various flights of fancy. A Tale Dark & Grimm, by Adam Gidwitz, is an amazingly creative take on the tales that twists and turns, terrifies and tickles the fancy. With a Lemony Snicket-like narrator and the plucky Hansel and Gretel as protagonists, the story winds its way through a succession of other, more obscure tales — “The Three Golden Hairs,” “Faithful Johannes,” and “Brother and Sister” to name a few. In this re-imagining, Hansel and Gretel’s parents are not a poor woodcutter and his wife, but the King and Queen of Grimm. As always, parents do unspeakable things to their children. The twist? The brother and sister aren’t the abandoned; it is they who leave-- to find better parents. The magic is that as Hansel and Gretel become heroes by going out on this quest and by saving others, they also come to understand the source of their parents’ weakness’ and failings. High level? Yes -- this isn’t R.L. Stine’s cotton candy horror. But at the same time, “A Tale Dark & Grimm” is truly, laugh-out-loud funny, in the way of The Series of Unfortunate Events. How can you miss with an opening line like “Once upon a time, fairy tales were awesome.” Michael Buckley brought out the first of The Sisters Grimm series in 2005, The Fairytale Detectives, and has been riding the fantasy wave ever since, with six additional novels spinning the tales of Sabrina and Daphne Grimm, sisters and the remaining descendants of the original Grimm Brothers. The premise here is that the fairytales were actually criminal case files, and all the characters are actually the residents (they prefer to be called “Everafters”) of a town in upstate New York called Ferryport Landing. Each book in the series presents a mystery or two for the girls to solve and they are intrepid sleuths who are bound and determined to get to the bottom of the most puzzling enigma: what happened to their parents? (Yes, another set of orphans; well, semi-orphans, they discover they have a long-lost grandma in the first book.) The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman takes the premise that the magical objects in fairytales are real-- and that they actually have magical properties. Eight grader Elizabeth gets a job as a page at the New York Circulating Material Repository, which is like a library for objects, all types of objects: the obscure and the most-common, those of historic importance and those with contemporary ties. And then there are those magical objects, the secret ones, tucked away in the basement. That’s where she encounters the Grimm Collection, a room of magical items straight from the Grimm Brother's fairy tales. And that’s where the mystery starts: the magic mirrors, golden slippers, seven-league boots and other items are starting to disappear. Someone is replacing them with ordinary, nonmagical substitutes. And before she knows it, she and her fellow pages - perfect Anjali, hunky Marc, and snarky Aaron - are suddenly pulled into a semi-kooky, semi-dangerous adventure. I wish you much Grimm reading...enjoy! And remember, you can always go back to the originals... there's a reason they are inspiring so many re-imaginings...they are truly timeless tales. Why did the librarian slip on the library floor?
It was the non-friction section. How many reference librarians does it take to change a light-bulb? (with a perky smile) "Well, I don't know right off-hand, but I know where we can look it up!" Announcing the New Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge Device, Otherwise Known as the BOOK! It's a revolutionary breakthrough in technology: no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It's so easy to use even a child can operate it. Just lift its cover. Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere--even sitting in an armchair by the fire--yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM. Here's how it works: each BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of paper (recyclable), each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. These pages are locked together with a custom-fit device called a binder which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence. By using both sides of each sheet, manufacturers are able to cut costs in half. Each sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly into your brain. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet. The book may be taken up at any time and used by merely opening it. The "browse" feature allows you to move instantly to any sheet, and move forward and backward as you wish. Most come with an "index" feature, which pinpoints the exact location of any selected information for instant retrieval. An optional "BOOKmark" accessory allows you to open the BOOK to the exact place you left it in a previous session--even if the BOOK has been closed. BOOKmarks fit universal design standards; thus a single BOOKmark can be used in BOOKs by various manufacturers. Portable, durable and affordable, the BOOK is the entertainment wave of the future, an many new titles are expected soon, due to the surge in popularity of its programming tool, the Portable Erasable-Nib Cryptic Intercommunication Language Stylus... Thank you to IFLANET for borrowing privileges! If Backwards Day made me think of opening lines, perhaps I need psychoanalysis, because Groundhog Day made me think of closing lines... the greatest of all, IMHO...
1. So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. –F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925) 2. He loved Big Brother. –George Orwell, 1984(1949) 3. ‘It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.’ –Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859) 4. I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.–Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847) 5. Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood; and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago; and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days. –Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) 6. And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One! –Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843) 7. “All that is very well,” answered Candide, “but let us cultivate our garden.” –Voltaire, Candide (1759) 8. But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing. –A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner (1928) 9. From here on in I rag nobody. –Mark Harris, Bang the Drum Slowly (1956) 10. “Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.” –Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind (1936) It's Backwards Day (I kid you not)... which makes me think of opening lines... I don't know why1/31/2012 Don't ask me why "Backwards Day," (January 31st on my librarian's desk calendar), should make me think about the opening lines of novels, but it does. Call me Contrary...ha ha.
Anyway, some of my favorite opening lines -- the ones that made me really want to continue reading: 1. "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."-- Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1876) 2. "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." —George Orwell, 1984 (1949) 3. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813) 4. "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board." —Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) 5. "It was a pleasure to burn." —Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953) 6. "Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person." —Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups (2001) 7. "Of all the things that drive men to sea, the most common disaster, I've come to learn, is women." —Charles Johnson, Middle Passage (1990) 8. "I have been accused of being anal retentive, an over-achiever, and a compulsive perfectionist, like those are bad things."-- Lisa Yee, Millicent Min, Girl Genius (2003) 9. "If your teacher has to die, August isn't a bad time of year for it."-- Richard Peck, The Teacher's Funeral (2004) 10. "If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book."-- Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning - A Series of Unfortunate Events (1999) Just finished this a day ago and this is not hyperbole: What Happened on Fox Street by Tricia Springstubb. If you work with children from third grade through middle school, you should read this book and attempt to press it into their hot little hands. It made me laugh, made me think, made me cry. The author conjured beautiful, descriptive sentences that I wish I had written. You won't regret reading What Happened on Fox Street. It will grab you from the first paragraph and hold you until the last page! Mo and her five year old sister Dottie live on Fox Street (a dead end) with their dad. Mo defines her life by Fox Street: her relationships with her varyingly kookie neighbors, the rhythms of the neighborhood, and the memories people have of her dead mother. This is her universe, so when changes come, she feels threatened and must redefine both her street and herself. Through these changes—good, bad, and excruciatingly difficult—one thing sustains Mo: the possibility of someday seeing a real fox on Fox Street.
Though the narrative is realistic fiction, Mo has moments wonder and awe that feel touched by whimsy and the fantastic. She faces difficult situations, such as the possibility of moving, and struggling to be both a sister and a substitute mother of her younger sister, but she emerges with wisdom and a changed view of the world. You will, too! Tricia Springstubb, you are my hero! Chris Raschka on his 2012 Caldecott Award for the picture book A Ball for Daisy. The illustrations are absolutely wonderful, complementing a heart-warming story about a small dog dealing with the loss of a special toy. It's a tale that any child-- and any adult who remembers what it was like to be a child-- will appreciate. Jack Gantos on his 2012 Newbery Award for his novel Dead End in Norvelt. Jack Gantos, the eponymous hero of this story, set in 1962, lives in the town of Norvelt, PA, a planned community created during the Greate Depression and named for its biggest supporter, Eleanor Roosevelt. Grounded by his parents for misbehavior, Jack comes under the supervision of the local librarian, who gives him the task of typing obituaries of the town's residents. Well, it's not as dull as it sounds for soon he's having adventures involving Eleanor R., molten wax, strange promises, Hells Angels, a homemade airplane, voices from the past, and even a possible murder. Kadir Nelson on his 2012 Coretta Scott King Award for his picture book Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African-Americans. This book expressively maps the story of the black experience in America; it's a story of injustice and hope, of racism and courage, or brutality and faith.
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