Book Drive

Last summer my kids and I donated some books to the Page It Forward 2011 book drive. Up until then, I'd never heard of a book drive and I naively assumed all kids had access to books.

Now my daughters' school is running a week long book drive for the same organization - Bernie's Book Bank. According to the literature they came home with, in a low-income area there are on average 1 book per 300 kids. That would mean 2 books for my daughters' entire school. Among the 3 kids' bookshelves in our house we must have hundreds of books and make trips to the library monthly (on top of the weekly trips my daughters take to the school library). I can't even guess how many books my kids have read at this point, but among the 3 of them, I'd guess it's in the 1000s. The school's goal is to collect 3000 books over the course of the week - an average of 5 books per student. Next weeks weekly project happens to be organizing the kids bookshelves, but I already had my son look at his bookshelf and he found 9 books to donate.

If you have any gently used books that your kids have outgrown please donate them to Bernie's Book Bank or a similar organization (I'm sure there are others around the country). Check out this promotional video from Bernie's for more info on how this works.

As bloggers we all appreciate the written word and I would assume you all share this love with your children. Please help spread the joy of a book with those who can't afford to buy their own or don't have access to a library, supporting book banks like Bernie's or find a book drive in your area.

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder

We're back from our roadtrip, but before I write about that I wanted to do a quick post on the book I read during the trip.   

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder  is by Rebecca Wells who wrote the Ya-Ya books.  I enjoyed all of those, and didn't know she had written a new book, so when I saw it, it was a must buy.  As usual with Rebecca Well's books, the main character is a girl growing up in a small town in Louisiana.  We meet Calla Lily when she's in grade school in the late 50s and the story takes her through high school and into adulthood and finally ends in the 80s.  Along the way we get to know her friends and relatives and the rest of the close knit community that is La Luna.  Rebecca Wells' descriptions are always very well written and I often felt I was a fly on the wall for the parties thrown by Calla's parents, or when she and her first love shared their intimate moments.  This story is much more of an emotional roller coaster than some of her earlier books.  I won't go in to the ups and downs as I don't want to spoil it, suffice it to say in the course of those 30 odd years, Calla goes through a lot.  I really sympathized for Calla but in the end felt better knowing that her relationships with her friends and family were so strong.

In many ways the story could have been set in any time period, there are some parts that keep the book true to the period whether it be the young black boy who gets beat up and arrested for using a white roller skating rink, or her good friend, Sukey, becoming a Playboy Bunny.

In the end it is a book about relationships and family and how people overcome the obstacles that may stand in their way. I really enjoyed it and hope she writes another one soon.

I've started Lush Life  by Richard Price and so far am not really enjoying it.  It's one of those books though that introduces a lot of characters in the beginning and I think once I get them all straight I think I will enjoy it more.

Page It Forward - Part II

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a book drive taking place near where I live called Page It Forward It's a book drive being organized by the United Way of Lake County, IL to get books to children here in Illinois who don't have access to books. According to a recent study 40% of 6 year olds in that area had never held a book or had a book read to them. I'm sure all you Mommy bloggers out there read regularly to your kids, can you imagine how different your kids would be without books? 

When we dropped off our books back then I was entered in to a raffle for a $50 gift card, and last week they called me to tell me I won.  I received the gift card over the weekend, and decided that the best way to use this free money is to Page It Forward again.  So I took the kids to Borders and had them each pick out books that they think kids their age would enjoy, and I picked a couple too. We got a total of 8 books - one of my favorite board books ever Hug by Jez Alborough a couple of Golden Books, a Dr. Seuss book, a chapter book (as this book drive is for kids up to 6th grade), and a couple more board books.  Now I just have to find the time to get back up to Lake County and drop them off.


And one last appeal to all of you.  Their goal is to collect 100,000 books by September.  I don't remember the exact date and I can't find it listed on their website. At this point they have collected about 37,494 books so obviously they have a ways to go.  I admit I'm not sure if all the sponsor donations are included in that number or if that will be tallied at the end, I think the latter is the case, but don't know for sure

At the very least I ask everyone to just go to Page It Forward Facebook page page and like the page - 1 book will be donated to a child at no cost to you. If you want to help more, sort through your kids books and drop them off at a drop box, or text a donation. All the details are on their site (check the link above).


Thank you

Catcher in the Rye

I read this book back in high school but didn't really remember it.  Last year when J.D. Salinger died there was a lot of press about whether the book was still relevant, and whether it should even be taught anymore.  Here's one example of one of these articles.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35310305/ns/today-books/t/catcher-rye-still-relevant-teens

I saw it recently at a bookstore and figured it was time to reread it.  The thing that surprised me, was actually how relevant it seemed.  Holden is a confused teen who can't seem to find his place or purpose in the world.  People often talk about today's teens not caring about anyone or anything but themselves.  I'm not sure whether I agree with that, but to me this describes Holden Caulfield to a T.  He is a rebel without a clue who gets kicked out of school after school, mostly because he doesn't care.  He seems smart, just doesn't want to study.  He doesn't know what he wants out of life, and doesn't seem to have any passion for anything.

Holden has a hard time having close relationships with anyone except his younger sister.  And he often talks about his dead brother Allie and you can tell that Allie had a great influence on Holden, but now that he's dead, Holden uses that as an excuse to be "lost".  He spends a lot of time throughout the book trying to reach out to different people, but never lets himself actually connect with any of them.  Probably a fear of losing them just like he lost his brother.

What I found ludicrous though was when one reviewer said that they didn't feel that Catcher in the Rye should be taught anymore as the language is very different from the way people speak today. They felt that students today would have a hard time understanding it. That seems like a copout by lazy teachers. Should high school students not study Shakespeare anymore then either?  That language is certainly more difficult, but with a little effort and maybe some guidance from a good teacher, definitely understandable.

Overall I liked it, and am glad I took the time to reread it.  It may be time to revisit some other books from high school, one I finish my current read The Piano Teacher.

Bye Bye Borders

I went to Borders this weekend after getting an email from them that they are in fact all closing. Even though I'm not at all surprised, it makes me sad.  I know people aren't reading as much as they used to, and many of those who do read are now using Kindles and Nooks. I love to read but I don't often have the time, so end up only buying books a couple of times a year (often at Costco), and most of the kids books we borrow from the library.


I've always preferred Borders to Barnes & Noble but now with no independent bookstores in my town I guess that's where I'll have to go.  I occasionally order books from Amazon, but unless I specifically know what I want, I prefer to wander around seeing what catches my eye, and reading a few pages before committing.


So I picked up a few new things.... 

A friend had recommended The Roses by Leila Meacham, which is described as an epic story of an East Texas family.  One review calls it the new Gone with the Wind. Pretty high praise, and even if it doesn't live up to the hype I always love epic novels.

Lush Life by Richard Price was names as one of NYT's Top Ten books of the year.  The description on the back describes it as a "tale of two Lower East Sides: one a high-priced bohemia, the other a home to hardship, its residents pushed to the edges of the time-honored turf, when a cocky young hipster is shot to death by a street kid from the 'other' LES, the crime ripples through every stratum of the city in this brilliant and kaleidoscopic portrait of the 'new' New York."

I started reading one of my new books yesterday - The Piano Teacher by Janice Lee.  It's the story of a young British woman who moves to Hong Kong in 1952 with her new husband, and teaches piano to the young daughter of a wealthy Chinese family.  I haven't gotten very far in it yet, but am already enjoying it.

I picked up one movie.  The Fisher King with Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges.  I only saw it once on my first date with my now husband.  The 20th anniversary of that date is coming up in September, so even though we usually don't do anything to celebrate that day anymore, I thought it would be kind of fun to watch it again.  I don't remember much about the movie, as I haven't watched it since that night.

Also to help keep the kids busy on our roadtrip, I got Madlibs for the girls, and a couple of new Virginia Lee Burton books for my son.  As I mentioned before he likes the construction part of the Little House, so I picked up Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel and Katy and the Big Snow for him.  All of these books were only reduced by 10% and I'll probably go back as they start discounting more heavily.

I really am sad to see Borders close.  The selection was always good, their employees were always friendly and helpful, and I think they were one of the first to allow you to pre-reserve items on line to pick up in-store.  Key for busy parents everywhere:)