Road Trip Thursday - Somewhere in the Rockies...

It's not that I haven't wanted to tell you about all the wonderful things we've seen (manatees at the Dallas Aquarium), done (sidewalk chalk drawings in Green River, Wyoming) and eaten (tortilla s'mores). It's just that, well, there are times during a road trip when all you want to do is put your foot out the window and just listen to the radio.

(There are also times when you can't believe how in need of a bath you are. Those of you who played mud tag in Wyoming today know exactly what I mean.)

However, as our trip winds down and we inch ever closer to the Pacific Ocean, I should fill you in on our remaining plans, which include both the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona and the very center of the film industry - Hollywood, California.

Will we see you there?

Photo by Chovee, via Creative Commons

Hidden Classic #6: The Little House

The Little House was my very favorite picture book as a child, and it remains so today (I still have my childhood copy, ragged though it is). It's the sweet and perfectly-illustrated story of a little house with a soul who, after years of neglect, is returned to a home in the country with a family to love and care for her. The little pink house has the most charming, life-like face, and as a child I always wanted to live in it. In some ways, I still do.

It was only as an adult, sharing the book with children, that I realized that this is a classic example of a carefully, meaningfully politicized picture book. The little house, sturdily built during a simpler age, loves her life in the country but harbors a strong curiosity of what it might be like to live in the city. Her curiosity is satisfied when the city encroaches on her countryside home.

Since this is a picture book, in many ways it oversimplifies the tension between the country and the city, and the country is set up as a universal good while the city is painted as a heartless villain. Yet at the same time it provides a clear context--as relevant today as it was in 1943--through which to question the "progress" of development and rampant urbanization. However, Burton denied it was a critique of urban sprawl, but instead wished to convey the passage of time to younger readers, which she does beautifully.

The Little House was awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1943 (given annually by the American Library Association to the artist of the single most distinguished American picture book for children), and was selected as one of the "100 Best Books of the 20th Century" by the National Education Association. It received rave reviews from its first appearance in 1942 onward and has never gone out of print since.

If The Little House and her other picture books were her only legacy, it would be more than enough. But Virginia Lee Burton's talents extended beyond creating wonderful picture books. "[T]o speak only of Burton's achievements as a picture book creator would be to paint only a part of the canvas of her life. She was also a dancer, an illustrator for an early Boston newspaper, a musician, a designer, a sculptor, and a printmaker." (from "Virginia Lee Burton: A Centenary Tribute" at www.carlemuseum.org)

Other books by Virginia Lee Burton:
Calico the Wonder Horse
Choo Choo
The Emperor's New Clothes (illustrations)
Katy and the Big Snow
Life Story
Maybelle the Cable Car
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
The Song of Robin Hood

"If the page is well drawn and finely designed, the child reader will acquire a sense of good design which will lead to an appreciation of beauty and the development of good taste. Primitive man thought in pictures, not in words, and this visual conception is far more fundamental than its sophisticated translation into verbal modes of thought." ~ Virginia Lee Burton, "Making Picture Books", The Horn Book Magazine

Children's e-books available on Overdrive!

Did you know you could download electronic children's books from the library? Yup. You totally can.

In fact, as of today there are almost 700 titles that kids can download onto their e-readers, including The Lightning Thief, the Magic Tree House books, and of course - my personal favorite - A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Not sure how to download an e-book from Overdrive onto your e-reader? Check out these handy instructions!

Got an iPad? You'll need these instructions, then.

New Leaves - Themes

For the last few weeks, we've been working on single sheets of paper, but this week we each selected the book that we'll be working on for the rest of the session. After picking our books, we drew themes - things like "mystery" or "my future job" to help us along. Once we had our themes, we sat down to work on a two-page spread.

Here's Tracy's:



Her theme is "dreams."

More later!

90-Second Newbery Video Contest

Calling all kid actors! The children's department at Tredyffrin Public Library is going to be putting an entry together for the 90-Second Newbery Video Contest!

"Outstanding!" you say. "But what is it?"

Well, it's a contest where we make a 90-second video of a Newbery Award-winning book. (And when I say "we," I, of course, mean "you." I'm just gonna hold the camera.) And when we're done, we'll post it up on the YouTube, send a link to the contest folks, and keep our fingers crossed!

Now, here's the tricky part. We need to smush a whole book down into 90 seconds. Which means:

a) We need to decide which parts are the most important to the story, but even more importantly...
b) We have to have read the book before we start this project!

Which means, of course, that we need to PICK a book pretty soon. If this is something you're interested in doing, and you think you know what book we should use, give me a shout at anewman@ccls.org. (Don't know all the Newbery winners? Here's a list!)

We're going to be filming the project during the week of April break (April 18-22) but we'll have to meet a few times before then to get organized, so look for more information as we get a little closer to spring.

Any questions? Call Angela at 610-688-7092, ext. 209.

Road Trip Thursday - Arkansas

Well, I feel pretty confident in saying that we explored as much of Arkansas as humanly possible in 30 minutes. While sipping some milk (the state beverage since 1985), we listened to Johnny Cash (born in Kingsland, AR) as we talked about the history and symbols of the state.

Next we talked about famous people from Arkansas, including former President Bill Clinton, writer Maya Angelou (born in MO, raised in AR), NBA star Scottie Pippen, and of course, the aforementioned Man in Black.

Finally, my fellow travelers humored me by joining hands and doing a bit of the state folk dance of Arkansas - the square dance. (I suspect I owe them big-time for this.)

After choosing Texas as our next state, we researched a little to find out what kinds of things we could see and do there. We made a long list and collectively decided to visit the Dallas Cowboys, the Dallas Aquarium, and the Poteet Strawberry Festival.

(And yes, we're cheating just a tiny bit here. From Little Rock to Dallas is 318 miles, and from Dallas to Poteet is another 309, and that's definitely over our 500 mile daily limit. But I'm willing to drive an extra 127 miles if there are chocolate-covered strawberries at the end of them.)

See you there!

Photo by Chedid (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License), via Wikipedia

Road Trip Thursday - Alabama, Arkansas...

I bet you thought I forgot about you all, right? No chance. I know you're there, sitting on the edge of your proverbial seat, just waiting to hear about the travels of my next carload of fearless road-trippers.

This latest bunch joined up with me in Florida, where we explored the Everglades, learned the difference between alligators and crocodiles, tasted some fine key lime pie, and chose our next destination - Alabama.

Which is where we were today.

We started off with fried chicken and peach-flavored iced tea, since the state tree fruit of Alabama is the peach. (Chicken is just chicken, but it's pretty tasty when you fry it, and they've been known to do that in many parts of the American South.) While we were eating, we listened to the Blind Boys of Alabama, a gospel music group that has been around for over 60 years!

Then we learned about a very famous Alabamian - Rosa Parks - a black woman who was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on the racially segregated bus. This sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, an important part of the modern civil rights movement in America.

Finally, we got out of the car and went on a scavenger hunt for Alabama state symbols in the library, including the state rock (marble), the state bird (yellowhammer) and the state nut (pecan), among others.

Join us next week as we head for Arkansas, birthplace of Johnny Cash, Bill Clinton, and Scottie Pippen!

(Just to name a wildly different few.)

Photo by Muffet, via Creative Commons.