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Abbott Receives CLA’s Intellectual Freedom Award

Tarnel Abbott, Reference Librarian at the Richmond Public Library, has been awarded the California Library Association’s “Zoia Horn Intellectual Freedom Award.” She will be honored at the CLA Conference in November. Ms. Abbott has also been a children's librarian at Richmond. She works tirelessly to promote intellectual freedom. In addition to annual Banned Books displays, she has partnered with organizations to provide films and lectures regarding freedom to read. For example, she organized the CIVIL LIBERTIES FILM SERIES WITH SPEAKERS AT RICHMOND LIBRARY. The "2nd Tuesdays Civil Liberties Film Series" co- sponsored by The Richmond Public Library and The American Civil Liberties Union + PLUS Chapter (Berkeley, Albany, Richmond, Kensington PLUS Crockett, El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Hercules, Pinole, San Pablo) featured four films from the ACLU's collections. The program included feature films, speakers/ panels, and discussions. One of the films is called BEYOND THE PATRIOT ACT, and it was followed by a guest speaker: Jeff Mittman, ACLU Patriot Act Campaign Consultant. Ms. Abbott also represented the City of Richmond as a delegate to Regla, Cuba, our sister city. She solicited donations of new children's books and took them with her as gifts. She helped start Librarians for Intellectual Freedom, and showed a number of related films at our library. Tarnel Abbott is passionate about intellectual freedom, and spoke at a City Council meeting regarding the dangers of the Patriot Act. She was instrumental in convincing the Council to speak out against such invasions of privacy.

 

Just Listening: Audiobooks
By Kathryn Shepler
Aurora School, Oakland

Peck, Richard. Here Lies the Librarian. Random House Audio, 2006, 3 CDs, Unabridged, 3 hrs, 41 min. $27.00, ISBN 0-307-28406-9. Grades 5-8.
We have vintage Peck here: a turn-of-the-century rural Indiana town, a young girl who loves to work on cars with her big brother in their family run garage, and three young college-age librarians-in-training who breeze into town to share the recently vacated librarian job. The townspeople character studies are often humorous and always spot-on images of a by-gone era. Lara Everly brings a clear enunciation to the voice of all the characters and the story moves on smoothly. Her narration would improve with a bit more vibrancy and variation on delivery, but it is not a deficiency that distracts the listener.

MEDIA WATCH

Sunseri, Mary Lee. Baby-O! Activity Songs for Babies. Music CD, Piper Grove Music, 2005. $15.00, 45 minutes, ISBN 1-887795-27-8. For ordering information: www.maryleemusic.com

    Mary Lee Sunseri, children’s music performer and educator, has a new CD out aimed at the littlest library users. Combining both traditional tunes and some original songs, this CD is packed with songs perfect for library lapsit storytimes.
    If you haven’t tried doing a baby storytime, or are a newer children’s librarian looking to learn traditional baby songs, this will be a great training tool. Parents will also enjoy this since many of them want to learn these songs. And babies and toddlers will find Mary Lee’s voice soothing.
    If you go to Mary Lee’s website, she has a booklet of the lyrics, along with the fingerplay movements or baby bounce activity, on a pdf file. But you don’t even need the lyric sheets to learn the words, as Mary Lee has a distinct, bell-like voice that makes it very easy to grasp what she is singing. Her diction and pitch are both impeccable.
    The musical accompaniment is kept to a minimum, but it adds greatly to the production by keeping the attention on the melody and the lyrics. It sounds as though traditional acoustic instruments were used, such as a banjo, zither, guitar, harp, and other folk instruments, although this was not listed in the liner notes.
    There are 33 songs on the CD; some are very brief, while some are full songs. Traditional numbers include “Head and Shoulders,” “Open, Shut Them,” and “Round and Round the Garden.” Equally enjoyable were newer songs; the one that I kept singing in the car was “Shakin’ Eggs Blues.”
    Overall, the CD has a mellow quality that can work as a lullaby recording. These songs were road tested at her various storytimes conducted at Monterey and Pacific Grove libraries.

PROGRAMMING IDEAS

Charlotte’s Web party ideas

With the live-action new movie of “Charlotte’s Web” scheduled for release this December (starring Dakota Fanning as Fern), a program celebrating the E.B. White novel will surely draw a crowd. You can also save these ideas and use them for a summerprogram, to coincide with the DVD release of the film. Many of these ideas came for the PUBYAC listserv:

Guest Speakers: See if there is a local wildlife expert who could bring in real spiders. Also, there may be a local 4-H group who could bring in farm animals and talk about how the animals were cared for. Rural areas may have local farms that could bring an animal and talk to the kids about caring for animals.

County Fair: Since the last portion of the book takes place at the County Fair, recreate your own fair at the library, with game booths, food, and blue ribbon competitions.

Games:
Avery Egg Toss: kids throw Styrofoam eggs through Avery's egg basket,
Templeton's Trash Trough: kids "fish" for candy using fishing poles with magnets attached at ends, small candies with paperclips attached so they could be "caught",
Goosie Golf: kids played miniature golf,
Spider Fling: kids threw pipe cleaner spiders at a spider web to make them "stick",
Spider web: using rolls of cheap toilet paper, have the kids make a huge spider web by stretching the paper between themselves throughout the room,
Feed Wilber: make a cardboard pig’s head with an opening at the mouth. Kids toss beanbags into the mouth.

Activities:
Charlotte's Word Web – have kids use a computer to print out a word describing Wilber, then attach it to an oversized spider web. Make the webbing out of the webs available at Halloween stores.

Websites:
http://www.murrieta.k12.ca.us/alta/dfuller/charlotte/index.html
http://www.abcteach.com/directory/theme_units/literature/charlottes_web/

Crafts:
Make origami pigs and spiders.
Make spiders using puffballs and pipe cleaners available at any craft store.
Make a Wilbur piggy bank : http://fun.familyeducation.com/childrens-art-activities/crafts/36120.html

If You Like Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, Try These Books:
Armstrong, Alan W. Whittington
Atwater, Richard Mr. Popper's Penguins
Avi Perloo the Bold
Avi Poppy
Avi Poppy and Rye
Avi Poppy's Return
Briggs, Anita Hobart
Burgess, Thornton W. Old Mother West Wind
Burnford, Sheila Every The Incredible Journey
Butterworth, Oliver The Enormous Egg
Cleary, Beverly Socks
DiCamillo, Kate Because of Winn-Dixie
Gannett, Ruth Stiles My Father's Dragon
Grahame, Kenneth The Wind in the Willows
Hamilton, Carol The Dawn Seekers
Hoban, Russell The Mouse and His Child
Hoeye, Michael Time Stops for No Mouse
Jarrell, Randall The Bat-Poet
King-Smith, Dick Babe: The Gallant Pig
King-Smith, Dick Harriet's Hare
King-Smith, Dick Three Terrible Trins
Kipling, Rudyard Just So Stories
Lawson, Robert Ben and Me
Lawson, Robert Rabbit Hill
Lisle, Janet Taylor Forest
Marshall, James Rats on the Roof
Milne, A.A. Winnie-the-Pooh
O'Brien, Robert Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Rawls, Wilson Summer of the Monkeys
Rawls, Wilson Where the Red Fern Grows
Rylant, Cynthia Gooseberry Park
Seidler, Tor The Wainscott Weasel
Selden, George The Cricket in Times Square
Steig, William Abel's Island
White, E.B. Stuart Little
Wrightson, Patricia Moon-Dark

SERIES:
Bond, Michael Paddington Bear
Brooks, Walter R. Freddy The Pig
Cleary, Beverly The Mouse and the Motorcycle
DiCamillo, Kate Mercy Watson
Erickson, John R. Hank the Cowdog
Howe, Deborah Bunnicula
Jacques, Brian Redwall
Lasky, Kathryn Guardians of Ga'Hoole
LeGuin, Ursula Catwings

FALL POP-UP BOOKS

Pop-up Picture Books

Bleck, Linda. PEPPER GOES TO SCHOOL. Little Simon, 2006. $8.99, ISBN 978-1-4169-0944-6.
Pepper the dog wants to go to school with Lily, and when the dog sneaks after her, he is allowed to stay for show and tell. Because this has an actual story, this will be great for storytime. There is only one actual pop-up at the end, but lots of flaps and sliding elements. The 1950’s style illustrations are very appealing.

Carter, David A. ALPHA BUGS. Little Simon, 1994/2006. $11.95. ISBN 978-1-4169-0973-6.
This new edition only has one change – it is smaller in size overall (6X71/2 inches), but still packed with 26 imaginary insects. Both the upper and lower case letter is shown, alongside the Doughnut Bug, Powder Puff Bug, etc. The bugs pop-up, or slide, or move in some way.

Koontz, Robin. CREEPY CRAWLY COLORS. Little Simon, 2006. $10.95, ISBN 978-1-4169-0707-7.
The rhyming couplets describe various animals, each used as a lesson to teach colors: a green mantis, a brown spider, a yellow slug, even a clear jellyfish. The pop-ups work well and add drama.

Koontz, Robin. UP ALL NIGHT COUNTING. Little Simon, 2006. $10.95, ISBN 978-1-4169-0706-0.
Forest animals are hidden under leaves or in trees, and pop-up to be counted in this engaging book. The text has a solid rhyme, and the animals are easy to count, plus the numeral is shown. The last opening shows all of the animal groups so kids can count them again.

Weeks, Sarah and Carter, David A. RUFF! RUFF! WHERE’S SCRUFF? Red Wagon/Harcourt, 2006. $13.95. ISBN 978-0-15-205575-2.
Ruff the dog needs a bath which he is trying to avoid, but readers will see him in each 3-D illustration. Whether hiding behind the cows, or swimming in the lake, or in the lettuce patch with the rabbits, Ruff is visible. The flaps and pop-ups are very sturdy, so this may hold up as well as Eric Hill’s “Spot” books.

Pop-up Nonfiction

Crowther, Robert. TRAINS: A POP-UP RAILROAD BOOK. Candlewick, 2006. $17.99. ISBN 978-0-7636-3082-9.
Opening vertically, each spread covers a different topic concerning trains. Locomotives, passenger cars, record-breaking trains, railroad challenges, and stations are covered. Trains both pop-up and slide. Each moving part has a paragraph-long caption packed with informative text. The final page of the train station opens up into a large square structure. International as well as U.S. trains are mentioned. If this is cataloged with train nonfiction, it should hold up to circulation.

Johnson, Stephen T. MY LITTLE YELLOW TAXI. Red Wagon/Harcourt, 2006. $19.95, ISBN 978-0-15-216465-2.
By the makers of “My Little Red Toolbox,” this shows parts of a car and related items. There is a gas pump handle that lifts out, the hood of the taxi lifts up so the reader can see the engine, a key comes out of the cardboard page to be inserted in the ignition, the steering wheel turns, etc. This may be more popular in cities where kids take taxicabs on a regular basis; a similarly done book about a family car may be worth waiting for.

Olmon, Kyle. CASTLE: MEDIEVAL DAYS AND KNIGHTS. Illus. by Tracy Sabin. Scholastic/Orchard, 2006. $19.99, ISBN 0-439-54324-X.
From the studio of pop-up masters Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart, students studying the Middle Ages will find this useful and entertaining. The 3-D castle pops up, plus, we see the armor of a knight, castle interiors, a jousting match, and a medieval banquet. There is also a depiction of various jobs done by castle dwellers, and smaller pop-ups of a catapult and other items of interest. As usual, Sabuda has built-in small booklets that contain extra information, so this really is useful for reports because of the factual information included.