text:
Thursday, March 31, 2011

Seasons by Anne Crausaz

I am breaking out of my schedule because I could not wait one moment longer to tell you about this book. In this French picture book, a little girl walks through the beauties of the seasons, accompanied by simple text and smooth, modernistic art.

When I took this book out of the review box and dived in, it made me desperately hungry for summer. I could smell and taste it that very moment. I simply had to share it, so I decided to read it at Tiny Tots, our evening storytime. I don't normally do this storytime, but Miss Pattie had to be at a school board meeting (our town may be getting a 4k program next year) and I stepped in. Tiny Tots is all ages, whoever shows up. This evening, one baby, 2 18month olds, and 5 3-ish kids showed up (that was the Most Attentive Baby Ever, btw). We talked a little about what season it was - we agreed it wasn't summer yet, and winter was over because the snow was mostly gone, so it must be spring. Then I opened Seasons and read the first sentences: "Everything is green. It must be springtime. And springtime smells beautiful."

A hush fell over the room. We read every sentence. We talked about the tomatoes and cherries (the kids were sure they were apples). We found the ladybug. We talked about fog. Everyone heaved a very satisfied sigh when we had finished.

The simple text and illustrations are deeply evocative of the joys of the changing seasons. The book circles from spring to summer to autumn to winter and back to spring, making it a perfect story for any season. This book is gorgeous and perfect.

Verdict: A must buy for your picture book section. I cannot recommend this lovely, lovely book highly enough. I am deeply in love with it and I anticipate a long and fulfilling relationship. I think I need a second copy. *happy sigh*

ISBN: 9781610670067; Published March 2011 by Kane Miller; Review copy provided by publisher; Purchased for the library

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Penny Dreadful by Laurel Snyder, illustrated by Abigail Halpin [SPOILERS]

I really wanted to like this book. I liked Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains and Baxter the pig who wanted to be kosher. I really, really loved Any Which Wall. I even asked for a review copy of Penny, which I almost never do.

But it just didn't work. *sniff*

Penelope Grey is bored. She doesn't want to tell anyone because...well, she doesn't want to be a spoiled rich girl and she knows she has so much she shouldn't be bored but...she is. She has no friends, her parents work or socialize constantly, and she doesn't go to school, but has a tutor. So one day she puts a wish in the wishing well in the garden...and her dad quits his job. At first, Penelope thinks this might be, at least interesting, if not exactly what she was hoping for. But everything goes wrong. Pretty soon there's no money, no servants, her parents aren't talking to each other, and Penelope knows it's all her fault. Maybe another wish can set things right?

Suddenly, the whole family is moving to the country, to the tiny town of Thrush Junction where her mother has inherited a house...and, it turns out, a large group of rent-free tenants, not to mention some rather sizable debts incurred by rare llamas. Penelope gets a new name - Penny - a new friend, Luella, and a whole new world to explore. Will they be able to stay? Will Penny find the treasure? Will she make more friends?

The problem for me with this story was A. the characters never felt real and B. not enough happened.  "Penelope's" life as a poor little rich girl felt exaggerated and unrealistic. She doesn't seem to ever leave the house, except for a few outings with a couple other girls (who I thought were nannies, until one of them is mentioned as having a sleepover). Why does Penelope have a tutor? Why doesn't she go to a private school? Her parents' sudden and complete helplessness in the face of money and practical issues felt wrong; how did her father run a company (however incompetently) without even the faintest idea of money? How does her family go from wealthy to complete poverty in only a couple weeks? Her mother throughout the book shows that she's had a capable and independent past, yet she seems to completely lose any practical abilities in the face of disaster.

Once we meet "Penny" I started getting drawn into the story. She felt more realistic and her struggles to fit in with kids who had very different backgrounds sounded real. However, I still kept waiting for something to happen. Money problems get worse, Penny and Luella hang about and meet some other kids, and then the treasure hunting expedition is crammed into the last few chapters. I wanted...more concrete action? Fewer side characters and more focus on the main characters, since I never felt like I got a really good handle on them, especially Luella.

Reading as an adult, and having grown up in and out of small towns, the happy happy feeling in Thrush Junction didn't work for me. The small towns I knew and lived in weren't...well, they weren't that happy. And there was a lot more alcohol around. And the acceptance of eccentrics...I guess maybe Ms. Snyder has had much better small town experiences than I have, that's all I can say.

So, those are the things that didn't work for me, the adult librarian reader. What about the intended audience, children? I don't honestly think this would have worked for me as an 8-12 year old either. I never did like eccentric characters and while I really liked small town adventure stories, I would have wanted more adventure, maybe some sneaking around at night at least, and a lot more funny bits. However, I do think there is an audience for this story. It's a good peaceful reading-in-the-summer-sun story. Kids who DO like eccentric characters with just a little hint of mystery will enjoy this story. Kids who want to fantasize about what it would be like to move to the country, who like stories about friendship and family, they will all enjoy this story.

Verdict: This story didn't work for me and I would probably have trouble booktalking it, but I'm still glad I purchased it for my library and it has circulated several times already. Probably those who like When You Reach Me (which didn't work for me either) would enjoy this one and it's a good summer reading story. Recommended for a core juvenile library collection.

ISBN: 9780375861994; Published September 2010 by Random; Review copy provided by author; Purchased for the library

GIVEAWAY: Because I am sure this story is a good story - just not the right story for me - I am giving away the lovely hardback review copy Ms. Snyder was kind enough to send me. Post a comment with your favorite summer reading memory and I'll pick a lucky winner April 25.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Cranky Librarian says:

So, I realize culture in general is much more relaxed than it used to be. I am all in favor of wearing my hair in interesting braided shapes and my comfy trail walkers. I am happy to say I do not own a single pair of heels and my only stockings are for the purposes of additional warmth in the winter and the very rare professional meeting (and I've got opinions about the wearing of stockings in those situations also)

However. I believe some standards need to be maintained. Namely, BATHING. If I can smell you six feet away, if your hair is molded into interested shapes, if your clothes are moving on their own...something is WRONG. I realize how exhausting it is to raise kids (I know you have several kids, because I can see - and hear and smell - them in the children's area while you sit at the computer). I assume you live close by and it hardly seems worth the bother to get yourself and your children dressed if you're just walking over here. Pajamas we can overlook.

But seriously people, water is a good thing! Try sprinkling a little on yourself before going out in public. With some nice soap and maybe a little shampoo...

Now I have to go bathe again because I can STILL SMELL YOU although I am at home.

This is why librarians turn green when they're visiting another library and are invited to sit down. WE KNOW what has been in those chairs. *shudder*

Monday, March 28, 2011

Nonfiction Monday: Electrifying Eco-Race Cars by Michael Sandler

You are probably sick of hearing me complaining about nonfiction. Too expensive! Binding not worth what's inside! Won't actually interest kids! So we are going to take a little break from the down-down-down and look at some books from the librarian's friend, Bearport Publishing.

I discovered Bearport about two years ago and now every January, when I order my series, I spend large amounts of time drooling over their sparkling catalogs. So far, I have added to my library series on snakes, spiders, scary places, big machines, and cats. EVERY SINGLE ONE has been popular. In fact, someone even stole one of the snake books! Library bound nonfiction doesn't often get stolen, in my experience.

So, I was very excited when Bearport offered me a selection from their new spring series to review. The first sample we're looking at here is from the new Fast Rides series. Electrifying Eco-Race Cars has all the hallmarks of a great Bearport series - great photographs and eye-catching illustrations, a unique topic that relates to a high-interest nonfiction topic, and smoothly written text that's accessible to a variety of ages and reading levels.

Instead of looking at the popular but generic topic of cars and race cars, or the much-purchased-but-the-kids-could-care-less topic of alternative forms of energy, Sandler combines the two and showcases an exciting range of race cars with alternative fuel sources, including wind, electricity, solar power, and chocolate! Interesting tidbits of information are sprinkled throughout, along with speed stats for the vehicles and information about the races they have run, won, or might someday participate in. More difficult vocabulary words are bolded and included in a glossary in the back as well as a brief bibliography of further reading and links to more information at the publisher's website. This book is an introduction to the topic, not an exhaustive discourse, so it doesn't address some of the issues like safety concerns - are those super light cars more susceptible to crashes? or the cost of manufacturing them. Kids who get hooked on the topic will be back for more information!

Verdict: When you're ready to update your racing section, this is the hands-down, top choice! Another reason why librarians should -and do- love Bearport is their library-bound nonfiction isn't just popular with the kids, it's affordable. With discounts, buying through your vendor or the publisher direct, each volume usually only costs about $15 which is a definitely reasonable amount for books that will receive a lot of use and are strongly bound.

ISBN: 9781617721373; Published April 2011 by Bearport; Review copy received from publisher.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

This week at the library; or, snow AGAIN??

I am totally blaming the weather on our head of circulation. It was getting nice and warm - nearly to the 60s! and she HAD to go and say "I bet we're going to have one more snowfall." All on you Gail, all on you.

  • I knew intellectually that there was no school, but I hadn't really internalized it, so the resultant flood of kids and parents caught me off guard. I interviewed our summer intern (well, not interviewed, it was more of a "see how cool we are! please come work for us!" because I really need help this summer and I was very impressed with her and Really Wanted her to come here! And she is coming! Yay Abby!) We made flip books courtesy of Abby the Librarian. The link she had for a person shape wasn't working, so I just traced my giant gingerbread die cut with permanent marker onto cardstock and photocopied that. The kids loved it and the only glitch was when I sliced a little too deep with the papercutter and cut the head off one girl's creation! But we taped it and it was OK.
  • It rained and our Wii is still being repaired. And it rained. And rained.
  • It snowed and iced, but we didn't care! We had nearly 50 kids for Lego Club and one of our patrons donated a practically new Wii console and some more games! Yayyyy!! Nearly broke my neck coming down the icy stairs and my dang car doors froze shut again, but we have a Wii!
  • Nice group for preschool storytime despite the chilly weather, happily most of the ice and snow was melted off by storytime. Our theme was chickens and we read Chicken Big, Fox and the Hen, and Chickens to the Rescue and made feathery round chickens with paper plates and feathers and orange triangles. Afterwards, we had box play! My new beanbags for the tween area came, so we had giant boxes and lots of fun decorating and climbing in and out.
  • Pattie had a family emergency, so I was going to step in and do toddler storytime...and then I thought, well, why not? and asked our reference associate, Linda, to give it a shot. She has only had time to watch one lapsit program, but she turned out to be a natural and did a great job with an impromptu farm storytime, despite having FIFTY PEOPLE after I told her the average is 35. One poor mom was sick afterwards - combination of heat from the FIFTY PEOPLE and some other medical problems - but her boys are sweeties so I hung out with them until they all got picked up. I also zipped over to Game Stop and got us wireless sensors so we won't have any more Wii accidents and some more games to play and circulate while we're at it.
Phew! It was a long week and I am soooo ready for spring!

Friday, March 25, 2011

Zig and Wikki in Something ate my homework by Nadja Spiegelman and Trade Loeffler

Toon Books branches out with a nonfiction easy reader comic! Zig and Wikki are on their way to Grandma's house...across the galaxy! A wrong turn lands them on earth, but that's ok. Zig has to turn in a pet for homework and what better place to find one than a strange planet? As they look for an animal that would make a good pet - i.e., one that won't eat them! - they explore a simple pond life cycle, fly, dragonfly, frog, raccoon.

This is another great offering from Toon. Lively, colorful pictures with underlying earth tones contrast the environment of a pond with the alien Zig and Wikki. A funny narrative with plenty of nonfiction facts and a sly bit of humor here and there complete a readable and attractive story for beginning readers past the first stage.

Verdict: Buy it! Every easy reader section should have at least some Toon books and this is definitely a must-have. It's easy to neglect nonfiction in your easy reader section and this is a nice blend of story and fact. We've got two copies, since I won a complete set of Toon Books to add to the ones I already bought!

ISBN: 978-1935179023; Published April 2010 by Toon Books; Borrowed from the library; Purchased (and won) for my library

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Todd's TV by James Proimos

On the one hand, this is a funny story with odd but attractive art in grey and orange. Todd, neglected by his parents, is taken over by the tv, who turns out to be a pretty good parent - even better than Todd's own. But when the tv starts thinking about adopting Todd, his parents come to their senses, unplug the tv, and reclaim their son...until he wins a cool new prize....

So, funny story, weird but cool art, and of course we like the message - parents, don't let the tv raise your child. But...the reservation I have about stories like this (and all the "we love libraries" "we love reading" etc. stories as well) is, well, who is the audience? If you're checking this book out of the're probably not the kind of parent leaving your child to be raised by the tv. If you are that kind of parent, why would you read this book? I suppose it could be a funny reminder, but it seems to me that the parents likely to check this out will just get a guilt trip out of it - are we letting our kids watch too much tv? etc.

Verdict: Unbought for philosophical reasons as stated above. I'm willing to be convinced otherwise though.

ISBN: 978-0061709852; Published April 2010 by Katherine Tegen Books; Borrowed from the library

Monday, March 21, 2011

Nonfiction Monday: Snow Leopards by Erika Shores

 Snow leopards are fascinating, beautiful, intriguing animals. Unfortunately, this book is none of those things.

I have long had a private (ok, well, not so private) dislike of Pebble's offerings of nonfiction. Basically, they're not enough bang for the buck. Expensive, library bound editions should have something worth binding, in my opinion.

This book is part of the Pebble Wildcats series. Twenty-four pages give simple facts about snow leopards accompanied by large photographs of snow leopards running, with babies, in the snow, and looking broodingly handsome, which snow leopards do very well.

The text is stilted and awkward, obviously straining to conform to "national science standards related to life sciences" as well as specific vocabulary and reading level requirements. A sample of the text says, "At around 20 months, young leopards leave their mothers. Adult cats live alone. They use claw marks and smells to mark their ranges." I would assume that the author was handed a list of vocabulary words and reading levels and told to make sure the text fit. The photographs are detailed, and there really isn't such a thing as a "bad" photograph of a snow leopard (the whole broodingly handsome thing) but I found it increasingly annoying that there was no information given on where the photographs were taken. Considering how endangered and difficult to see snow leopards are, I would guess most of these photographs were taken in zoos, but although there is a list of photo credits, no further information is given.

For an easy reader, this text is acceptable. But, as a librarian with a small budget, I object to paying $20 for an easy reader with such limited, bland text and obvious stock photography. I will wait for a book that appeals to a wider variety of ages and reading levels.

Verdict: Save your money. Buy Sy Montgomery's Saving the Ghost of the Mountain for your older readers and join me in waiting for a better snow leopard book for younger readers and listeners. Anyone have suggestions?

ISBN: 9781429644839; Published August 2010 by Pebble (Capstone); Borrowed from the library

Saturday, March 19, 2011

This week at the library; or, Comics and the most horrible of weeks!!

Why was this week so insanely, horribly crazy? Was it because our director was out of town? Because spring is finally in the air and everyone is antsy? Because we are all tired and needing a break? For whatever reason, it was insane. Prepare to relive the insanity with me...

  • Crazy, crazy morning on the desk, gazillions of phone calls, poor circulation staff had a huge number of bins, crazy crazy crazy.
  • I started off my Make it and Take it craft program by making a kid cry. I have been firmly enforcing the 6 and up age limit - the crafts are not designed for younger kids and it was turning into a preschool program where I was spending all my time helping the little ones. Last week I found out that the little boy I assumed was a rather young first grader was actually FOUR. I felt horrible telling him he couldn't come in until he was at least in kindergarten next year, especially since he's very independent and asks his big sister when he does need help. But I can't turn away the other kids who want to come in and then make one exception. He silently walked away, brimming over with tears. I felt awful.
  • However, the craft went very well. We had big die cuts of ladybugs, butterflies, and dragonflies and painted them with tempera paint. Then we blotted them with paper towels to take off the extra paint, laminated them, cut them out, and used glue dots to attach them to small clips and clothespins. We tend to have mostly girls at this program and it was all girls today - and they really loved this craft. We took a lot of very cute, if slightly blurry, pictures. I'm very proud of this one, as it was all my own brilliant idea. I would use bigger clips next time, these were just leftovers I had in my closet
  • I made a quick run to Walmart to get more dishpans, which I'm using to organize our craft materials in the storyroom. I'm actually approaching a high state of organization, although the piles of miscellaneous junk all over the floor may not look like it.
  • Our Wii console is definitely broken and I mailed it in for repair on Monday, so Wii gaming is cancelled until further notice. At least five boys showed up though and wandered around looking forlorn and carrying their extra games and controllers they brought to share. Sorry guys.
  • Things were passable until today, when everything went INSANE. We did paint folds for Messy Art Club and I don't know why but an unusually large number of people showed up expecting Lego Building Club. The actual program went pretty well with a good attendance and everyone had fun. Our new paint cups from Discount School Supply are working very well (although my aide, who has to wipe them off afterwards, may have a different opinion)
  • However. Everything went nuts outside the community room where I was doing my craft. I had to speak very sternly once again to the tweens who persist in hanging out in a small lobby area - we can't hear or see them there and they completely block the entrance. They counter that it's the only place they don't get in trouble. I remind them that they won't get in trouble if they follow the rules. Several of them are very mad at us because we called all their parents in one huge marathon. They think being noisy isn't that big a deal. I think it is a big deal when they are noisy every day - not to mention all the other problems we have with them, plus why are 11 year olds at the library for hours after school?
  • While I was racing in and out, I looked up and saw some kids misbehaving in the old teen area, which we are trying to repurpose as a study nook. Basically, after all the brouhaha had quieted down, a group of teens, mostly girls with a few boys, were behaving inappropriately with lollipops. Plastic wrappers were also involved. I leave it to your imagination to fill in the rest. In addition, they approached a little girl with their inappropriateness, and her mother was righteously incensed. Hordes of librarians! Teens flee! We were very busy all through this of course, and we only ended up getting one girl's name.
  • Whose parents I then got to call. Yay. Remember our director is on vacation? While I was recovering at the desk that evening from this traumatic experience, a bunch of kids and parents showed up and I discovered that the forward-thinking teacher who had checked out all our biome books for her class project had neglected to tell me it wasn't just her class that was doing the project. Annoyance from all parties ensued. Then a parent wanted to know why I didn't have Lego Building Club much later in the afternoon than 3:30. I tried to give a diplomatic answer, refraining from explaining that with attendance averaging around 30 - 50 kids and their parents, I had no intention of changing the schedules of multiple staff and reorganizing programming and publicity just so his child could have a full hour or more of Lego building time. And I finished off the evening by kicking out a group of older teens who were yelling and swearing in our lobby.
  • More angry biome parents, joined by angry teachers who want books for their classes, a large and very antsy group for storytime (we did bugs - Beetle McGrady Eats Bugs, Katy Did It, chanted "Five Hungry Ants" and decorated die cut bugs on strings)
  • I signed us up to try out Junior Library Guild, but didn't watch the time and ended up with no lunch time. I also found out that the art and music programs in our school district are in jeopardy and dealt with crazy patrons (crazy is the nicest thing I can say about them).
  • The tweens tried to hang out in the small lobby AGAIN and I nearly lost it, as it was I got very close to yelling. Argh! Felt slightly better when, acting on a tip-off via cell phone from a patron in the parking lot, I discovered two teens making out in a corner outside the building and kicked them off library property.
  • Got up at 5:45am to take the train down to Chicago for C2E2, a big comics convention. I was overall disappointed and Sara-the-librarian and I only stayed for about 3 hours. There were a lot fewer vendors - almost no manga, which was specifically why I went, Boom! wasn't there, another reason we went, and it all seemed very sparse. Although there were plenty of I-haven't-climbed-out-of-my-mother's-basement-since-I-was-ten used comic vendors. I wanted a shower after visiting their booths. Yeesh. There were only two professional presentations, neither of which was relevant to us. We went and bought fancy chocolates, apples, and fresh herbs at French Market to make ourselves feel better.
  • I went in to work early around 8:45 to try and make some sense of the very confusing mess of receipts I had collected yesterday - some of which were scribbled on bits of paper.
  • Our five year old birthday party was pretty successful, considering I suddenly realized mid-Thursday that I hadn't planned anything. Our theme was trucks and we had an ambulance come for the kids to check out and they got a little safety lecture. They were very well-behaved (for five year olds) and the ladies who drove the ambulance and did the presentation were great with the kids. I brought out everything vaguely round or tube shaped I had in my storage closet and told the kids the challenge was to make a car - they went one better and came up with all sorts of crazy things, which was totally cool. I love little kid imaginations! We had shakers (made of paper towel tubes with big wooden beads inside), several fishing rods (paper towel tubes with ribbon spools attached and pipe cleaners for lines) and pipe cleaner flowers. Pattie brought a bunch of cut-out crafts - pinwheels and finger puppets and stuff, and we had almost 30 people.
  • I went down to McHenry; one of my teens told me the Borders there was closing and had great deals on manga and she was right! I am still a long way from filling in our very scattered series, but I have used up most of my manga budget for this year and may even have a little left over, with all the money I saved. I do not understand how we ended up with such a scattered collection - very few consecutive numbers and not a single complete series of anything! But I am doing my best to remedy the problem.
  • In a final fortuitous series of events, which made me feel much better about the whole week, among the last few cooking books unsold was the exact bread book I really wanted and when I made a wrong turn coming out of the shopping center and turned in at a gas station to turn around, I happened to glance at my gauge and realized it was almost empty. Phew!
  • I got home around 4:00 and am now preparing to do dishes, finally put together my rowing machine, vacuum, clean the bathroom, write up a backlog of reviews...
  • Or just read comics and eat caramel popcorn from the train station in Chicago.
Weeks like these I want to wack over the head all the well meaning people who talk about how much fun my job must be and how easy. Yes, I love my job (mostly), yes, it's often fun, yes, sometimes it's even easy. But there's also a LOT of dealing with recalcitrant, annoying, bored, and mentally ill kids, teens, and adults. We're expected to constantly grow our circulation, programming, and patron numbers without additional staff to adequately supervise and serve said patrons. Mostly we rise to the challenge. Sometimes we just have crazy weeks.Good thing we got chocolates yesterday.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Trickster: Native American tales, a graphic collection by various authors and illustrators

Quite a few people have been getting excited about this book, and when I borrowed it from another library, I found myself getting excited also. There's such a wide and fascinating mixture of stories and art styles, there's sure to be something to interest every reader.

Although some of the stories have odd turns of phrases or plot that will be confusing to anyone not familiar with that particular culture, there's not really anything most parents would find inappropriate for their children and I think this collection would fit comfortable into any age level - juvenile, teen, or adult.

They're all trickster tales, of course, which tend to be the most accessible stories passing between different cultures, in my opinion. Some of my favorite selections in this book include...Azban and the crayfish by James and Joseph Bruchac, illustrated by Matt Dembicki, which tells the story of clever Azban the raccoon and how he tricks the crayfish into becoming his dinner, with realistic art and lots of verve and sly humor. Rabbit and the tug of war by Michael Thompson with art by Jacob Warrenfeltz - I had thought this particular story was African, and I was interested to see it in a different setting, with lots of grays and browns in the artwork. Rabbit's Choctaw Tail Tale by Tim Tingle, illustrated by Pat Lewis is told in a very corny way with lots of silly, cartoonish illustrations that would make a hilarious read-aloud or a good short puppet play. I liked the glowing colors and clever story of The Wolf and the Mink by Elaine Grinnell, art by Michelle Silva.

There's a complete list of contents, note from the editor (Matt Dembicki) explaining how the collection came to be, and a detailed list of contributors. You'll have to read carefully through the contributor list to match up the tales with their various origins, or you can just read and enjoy. Of course, the binding looks doubtful, as about 90% of paperback graphic novel bindings do, but at least there's plenty of gutter so you can rebind and glue when it falls apart.

Verdict: A definite recommendation for any graphic novel collection - or for your 398's, if you don't have a gn collection yet. I would put it in a middle grade or juvenile collection, but it would work fine in teen or adult as well.

ISBN: 978-1555917241; Published June 2010 by Fulcrum; Borrowed from the library

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Flying by Kevin Luthardt

A little button-eyed boy is reading a book about birds. He dreams of flying and finally takes his question to the ultimate source: Dad. "why can't I fly?" he asks. In a series of silly questions and answers, Papa explains why people can't fly - usually!

The exuberant interaction between father and son is perfectly created. Anyone who's ever tried to answer a child's unanswerable questions will giggle over Papa's delightful solution and physical illustrations of his answers. The illustrations feature the two main characters on blank colored backgrounds with their dreams of flying set encased in wildly colored balloons. My only quibble is the final flying dream sequence goes on for too long and is liable to lose the attention of toddlers. But you can easily skip to the punchline at the end.

Verdict: We need more dad books! An excellent addition to a library collection.

ISBN: 978-1561454303; Published March 2009 by Peachtree; Borrowed from the library.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Nonfiction Monday: Planting the wild garden by Kathryn Galbraith, illustrated by Wendy Halperin

 While I am firmly against picture book biographies, no matter how intriguing, I am firmly FOR readable picture book nonfiction, specifically picture book nonfiction that begs to be read aloud! This lovely new book about propagation is a perfect example of what I look for in read aloud nonfiction.

In simple language, Galbraith explains how seeds are planted in the wild. She describes several ways seeds are spread and planted, including wind, birds, self-propelling seeds, rain, streams, animals such as rabbits and foxes, and people. The story of how seeds are spread and planted moves briskly with text that is easily understandable by very young children and will also interest older listeners.

Wendy Halperin's illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to Galbraith's text. Soft colors and delicately detailed botanical drawings are beautifully arranged in a series of panels of various sizes. The large panels of the illustrations give an overall view of the area described while the smaller panels show the movement of the seeds in detail.

Verdict: This is a lovely book - beautifully written and beautifully illustrated. An excellent choice for preschool storytime and nature talks with older children. Highly recommended for every library collection.

ISBN: 9781561455638; Published April 2011 by Peachtree; F&G provided by publisher at at ALA Midwinter 2011; Purchased for the library

Saturday, March 12, 2011

This week at the library; or, I brave the terrors of high school!

Is it just me, or is there more to do every day?

  • We made no sew yarn creatures for Make it and Take it, borrowed from The Imaginary Librarian. It sort of worked. I was working with younger kids, mostly 7 and 8 year olds, and they weren't very patient. Plus, the project had looked so easy I hadn't really tested it and after some frustration I went back and looked at it again and realized we needed to wrap a LOT more yarn than we were, especially because it kept slipping off the fins. Um, fins, well, I had gingerbread shaped die cuts from cardboard, but I had some giant fish too, so...anyways, the kids got more into it and it was fun in the end.
  • I spent Tuesday morning at the high school, doing a presentation on the delights of being a librarian and selecting books and reading aloud to babies up through early grades. This was for Child Development classes and the first one wasn't very interested. Probably because they were mostly asleep. The second class was a little more lively, but I emphasized that one of the advantages of being a public librarian was not having to get up at an unearthly hour in the morning. High school around here starts around 7 or 7:30. Yech.
  • I wasn't at work in the afternoon, having gone to Chicago, but it turns out that it wasn't the wrong cords for the Wii. The Wii is dead. It got knocked over a couple weeks ago and that finished it off. So, no more gaming until it gets repaired.
  • I made a giant shopping trip to Walmart and bought $500 worth of blu-ray and Wii games for circulation, despite the fact that I am personally convinced that blu-ray=betamax. However, we were putting a press release in the paper on Thursday saying we had blu-ray and we had...Beauty and the Beast on blu-ray, so I had to get some more.
  • We only had 26 at Lego Building Club, down from 51 at our last meeting. However, the weather was icky and we had snow, so that's probably why.
  • We had a pretty good group for preschool storytime. Our theme was guinea pigs and we read Clarice Bean Guess Who's Babysitting, Guinea Pigs Add Up, and Twenty is too many. We did some very intense counting. I had planned to do something with fur scraps, but had forgotten to get the fur, so we went for fingerpaint and everyone had fun, even if a few parents were a little worried about the mess factor. It's washable folks! Small children are supposed to be messy!
  • Our tween area is still under construction - I had a bunch of the kids decorate new die cuts for the windows. Much fun was had by all and only a small amount of glue was smeared about.
Friday and Saturday
I worked a half day on Friday, starting with an exciting staff meeting and then I worked Saturday. Nothing of great note happened, other than another beleaguered parent suffering from a severe case of lexilitis.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Read to tiger by S. J. Fore, illustrated by R. W. Alley

I love R. W. Alley's illustrations, so classic and yet so funny. It's a perennial woe to me that no one will check out Wolf's at the door. Too big. Sigh.

This one, though, will fly off the shelf!

A little boy is trying to read. But that annoying tiger just can't be quiet! First he chomps, then he growls...and "it's very hard to read when there's a Karate Tiger behind your couch..."

Finally, Tiger settles down and discovers just what it is that the little boy finds so entrancing about his book and joins in the fun.

The tiger's exuberant stripiness stands out again the couch and it's accessories and the expressions on the little boy and tiger's faces are hilarious. A perfect bedtime story for wandering and rambunctious little ones as well as a fun story for older kids to sympathize with the little boy.

Verdict: Recommended for story times about reading and tigers!

ISBN: 978-0670011407; Published August 2010 by Viking; Borrowed from the library.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

The Lost Flower Children by Janet Taylor Lisle

Olivia is desperate and miserable. Her mother died during the winter and there's no one but her to look after and understand five-year-old Nellie. Especially now that Pop is sending them to stay with Aunt Minty. She's old and doesn't really want them - and she certainly doesn't understand Nellie's Rules, which must be followed.

Aunt Minty makes some well-intentioned but disastrous attempts to help Olivia and Nellie, but their healing doesn't really begin until Olivia finds an old book and they set out on a marvelous treasure hunt. Could the magical story of the Lost Flower Children be true? Nellie absolutely believes, but Olivia knows she's too old for magic. But maybe a little magic is just what she needs.

This story doesn't have the wrenching emotional pain of some of the contemporary middle grade books about death, such as Suzanne LaFleur's Love, Aubrey or Sally Nicholls' Ways to Live Forever, but Olivia and Nellie's grief and struggle to adjust after their mother's death is very real. Their characters are beautifully drawn and open to the reader throughout the story as we watch them grow, change, and create a new family dynamic. Like the garden, Olivia and Nellie come back to life slowly. It takes a lot of work and weeding from everyone, but the result is beautiful.

Verdict: I've read several Janet Taylor Lisle novels and found them compelling, although not what I'd normally read. I picked this one up because the cover and interior illustrations are done by Satomi Ichikawa, whom I love for her illustrations of Patricia Lee Gauch's Tanya ballet picture books. I also love anything Ichikawa does involving gardens, so this was a lovely book. Worth adding to your library, even as a paperback.

ISBN:978-0698118805; Published April 2001 by Philomel (out of print); Received through Bookmooch.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

New Tween Area

This is what the area originally looked's hard to see, but on the other side of the Garfield shelf is a couple tables and chairs and a magazine shelf. The edge of the chair you see is the small table and chair set that was right next to the Garfield shelf.

We shifted the Garfield shelf down, so there's a small nook here (the chairs are half-size)

and a much bigger space for tweens here. One of the doors at the end is a restroom, the other is our maintenance closet. We just have one big beanbag, which I brought down from the young adult area, but I've ordered three smaller bean bags and I'm hoping we'll have enough money in the budget to get another table and chairs set. The kids are painting small hot air balloons to hang from the ceiling and helping me take down the snowflakes so we can decorate the windows for spring! I'm also hoping to have a small computer lab here someday - just four standing stations - and maybe some small chalkboards or dry erase boards the kids can draw on. But we're starting simple!

Monday, March 7, 2011

Nonfiction Monday: Out of Sight by Pittau & Gervais

 I don't often look at books with movable parts or other oddities, but this one is so interesting I wanted to share it. Six spreads present flaps of different parts of animals. The first spread has four white on black silhouettes of animal heads and you have to guess what animal it is before lifting the flap and seeing a color drawing of the animal and an interesting fact. The second spread shows four more silhouettes, this time black on white, of humps and horns. Again, guess the animal and lift the flap - but this time the drawn animals are much larger, opening out as you open the flap, with an interesting fact about the body part in silhouette.

The third spread has ten flaps of varying sizes showing patterns on animal skins. Underneath each of these is a pop-out animal. Some of the facts are related to the animal's skin, while some are just general. The fourth spread has black flaps with a small cut out circle revealing the animal's nose, while their feet stick out below. The fifth spread has the same partial covering, this time with a circle that shows the animal's eye, while its tail sticks out from the flap. The fifth spread shows ears and the sixth spread has a wide variety of animal tracks to identify.

The book itself is definitely oversize, about a foot wide and 16" tall. It looks to me like the binding is just stapled perhaps? So it might easily come apart. But it's an utterly fascinating book! Even in just the few pages and flaps, there is an astonishing variety of animals and chances to guess their identities. I can see a lot more uses for this book as well, looking at the ways the animals in the various groupings are the same and different, finding other animals with similar patterns or attributes, creating your own flap pictures or books, etc.

Verdict: This would probably be better as a gift for an individual child than a purchase for a library, but if you have any kind of movable book collection, definitely consider it. It's a lot easier to reinforce than some pop-ups and lift-the-flap books - the library I borrowed it from easily covered the flaps with some kind of clear contact paper or laminate.

ISBN: 9780811877121; Published in the US November 2010 by Chronicle (translated from the French); Borrowed from the library.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

This week at the library

Another week, and even more never ends. I might as well be in marketing and PR.

  • Make it and Take it - I had a lot of Twisteez wire left over from another project last year, so I handed it off to the kids. They were supposed to make butterflies and other winged insects (I had tissue paper for the wings) but as always when I hand out anything twistable, it gets twisted! Seven and eight year old girls seem to be the age at which they learn to braid and they are fascinated with this new skill. We ended up with quite a lot of fantastic creations, check out some pictures here.
  • Then I stayed late to finish putting together publicity packets for the schools. See what I mean?
  • Thanks to me accidentally sending the cords off with our laptop to a meeting, Wii did not happen.
  • However, I had 6 kids at book club! SIX!! We had quite the argument over the ARCs I brought to share, especially Squish: Super Amoeba.
  • My view of the day was slightly colored by forgetting to eat anything but a cheese sandwich. Very hungry!
  • However, we had an excellent group at Messy Art Club doing fingerpaint and it wasn't even that messy. I had the last-minute inspiration to use some of the overstock of tongue depressors I bought to scoop out the fingerpaint, which always glops too much and it worked great. We tested out some of our new fingerpaint from Discount School Supply and it's absolutely lovely.
  • I had a whopper group at Preschool Storytime, nearly twenty! We did a fish storytime, starting with Swimmy by Leo Lionni, then we read Swim Swim by James Proimos (Lerch) with swimming up and down motions with our hands. This one really touched a chord with the parents, who were all choking with laughter while the kids solemnly "swam" their hands up and down. Then we read I'm the biggest thing in the ocean by Kevin Sherry, with the kids naming the creatures that the squid is bigger than, we did "the animals in the ocean" to the tune of "the wheels on the bus" and finished up with Does a sea cow say moo? by Terry Harshman. The older kids liked this one, but the younger kids were getting wiggly. We used bleeding art tissue to "paint" cardboard fish, always a favorite project.
  • Three girls came in to start painting the hot air balloons for our tween area - they're going to hang from the ceiling at various points. They had fun and were very well-behaved!
  • Friday just sort of happened. I only worked a half day because I'm going to the Family Resource Fair on Saturday.
  • Our county Family Resource Fair was well-attended. I actually got the laptop and our ILS to work offsite this time, so I could distribute library cards, but I didn't find anyone who didn't already have one, which is good! Gave out some flyers, talked about programs, chatted with some neighboring librarians (they put us all together in a row) the one everyone was interested in was Lego Building Club, although I did give out some book club flyers and a couple parents were interested in our lapsit (baby) storytime. It was a long, hungry day from 8:45 when I started scraping snow off my car to 2pm when I scooped up all my stuff (and extras from librarians who had to leave or couldn't make it) and left to meet Sara-the-librarian for lunch and sticker hunting at the craft store. Phew!

Friday, March 4, 2011

City of Spies by Susan Kim & Laurence Klavan, illustrated by Pascal Dizin

I've been seeing lots of good press for this graphic novel, so I was pleased when I got a chance to look at it. I really enjoyed it, but I'm not sure how well it would circulate in my library.

Evelyn Weiss is a lonely, neglected girl, sent to live with her bohemian aunt in New York while her father marries yet another wife. She consoles herself and passes the time by drawing comics about Zirconium Man and his sidekick Snapper, adventures she puts herself and her father into. When she makes friends with Tony, the building supervisor's son, they find themselves in the middle of a real adventure!

There's plenty of development in all the characters, as well as exciting action, codes, and history. Tony has misconceptions and prejudices against "rich girls" like Evelyn and her selfish, spoiled Aunt Lia. Lia gets a dose of reality and finally starts growing up when she has to take responsibility for Evelyn and think about someone else. Evelyn learns to think more about the consequences of her actions and get involved in the real world, instead of hiding in her daydreams.

The spy plot is good, not cliched or exaggerated. The fear and worry of subversive agents is perfectly captured, as well as the prejudices and concerns of the time.

Several reviewers have commented on the Herge-like quality of the art and it certainly has a Tintinish air. The text is readable, but there's plenty of action and plot crammed into every page.

But....I'm still not sure how many kids will want to read this. Will they know enough history to fit the story into its context? Will Evelyn's Zirconium Man daydreams put them off? I haven't yet met any younger kids (or older ones for that matter) who like the old, classic comic styles. On the other hand, we don't have many plain adventure comics, so maybe this would fill a niche....What do you think? Do you have readers who liked this one?

Verdict: I liked it, but I'm not sure how well it would circulate

ISBN: 978-1596432628; Published April 2010 by First Second; Borrowed from the library.


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

WARC-Truncated: length

WARC-Type: response

text:
The Outline: When Machines Go Rogue

Midnight, January 8, 2016. High above the snow-covered tundra of arctic Sweden, a Canadair CRJ-200 cargo jet made a beeline through the -76 degree air. Inside the cockpit, the pilot in command studied the approach information for Tromsø, Norway. His eyes flickered up from his reading to the primary flight display, an iPad-size rectangle on the left side of his control panel, where the indicator that showed how high the nose was pointing above the horizon had started to creep upward.

Not good.

The pilot felt no sense of movement, but that didn’t matter: One of the first things he’d been taught was that without being able to see the ground, it’s almost impossible to accurately judge whether you’re climbing or turning. A pilot must trust his instruments completely.

A klaxon sounded: The autopilot had turned itself off. There was no time to think. If the nose went too high, it could result in a deadly stall. On the display, a bright red arrow pointed downward: Descend! The pilot pushed forward on the controls, yet still the display said the nose was too high. He pushed more. Manuals and binders rose up into the air and clattered onto the ceiling. He was hanging in his shoulder straps as though upside down. An audio clacker went off: The plane had exceeded its maximum operating speed.

“Help me!” the pilot said.

“I’m trying!” the co-pilot called out.

What the pilot did not comprehend was that his plane had already lost nearly two miles of altitude and was pointed almost straight down. Forty seconds before, the automated system that guided the plane had suffered a partial malfunction, causing it to display an erroneous reading. Now the plane was hurtling toward the frozen landscape at 584 mph. At this rate, impact was less than 30 seconds away. And the pilot had no idea what was really going on.

The co-pilot toggled the radio. “Mayday, Air Sweden 294!”

* *

Automation — the use of systems to minimize human intervention — has been around since at least the automatic textile looms of the 18th century. For the most part, automation works just as it should, allowing humanity to accomplish things that would otherwise be impossible: sort through millions of web pages to find a precise phrase, inject the exact same dollop of jam into a donut a million times, or keep a plane stable and steady six miles up in total darkness. But as automation becomes increasingly capable, it is also becoming increasingly complex. These systems can surprise their creators, even when working as designed. And as artificial intelligence creeps into systems design, it’s becoming harder to figure out what’s happening inside our machines.

The first primitive autopilot was unveiled in 1914. By the 1930s, the technology was being used on commercial airliners. These simple devices, useful for keeping a plane heading in the right direction, gave way in the computer age to sophisticated systems that can take off, navigate, and land without any human assistance. The increasing power of airplane automation is a primary reason that the accident rate has fallen from 40 fatal accidents per million U.S. aircraft departures in 1959 to 0.1 today.

Commercial jets are expensive pieces of equipment — a Boeing 777 costs a quarter of a billion dollars — and great resources are lavished on making sure they work properly. Important systems are built triple-redundant, so it is extremely unlikely for them to fail completely. Systems even protect pilots from their own incompetence: If a pilot tries to command a potentially dangerous procedure, the automated flight control system will simply refuse to do it. (Sometimes pilots can override the system’s refusal; sometimes they can’t.)

Robustness, however, carries the inevitable price of complexity. Complex systems have a lot of parts, and that means there are a lot of ways that they can fail.

The spontaneously surprising behavior experienced by Air Sweden 294 was not an outlier. In 2015, a glitch caused a Lufthansa plane to suddenly dive steeply as it flew from Bilbao, Spain, to Munich. In 2008, a malfunctioning Qantas A330 abruptly plummeted while en route from Singapore to Perth, causing broken bones and spinal injuries among those on board. And in 2011, runaway flight controls on a Dassault Falcon 7X business jet caused it to unexpectedly pitch up into a steep climb while descending to land in Subang, Malaysia. If not for the quick thinking of the plane’s copilot, who slammed the controls and veered the plane hard onto its side, the result would almost certainly have been a fatal crash.

In many of these cases, investigators were later able to comb through the system and determine what went wrong. But not all. In the case of the Air Sweden accident, they were able to determine that the Air Data Inertial Reference Unit, or ADIRU — a device that tells the plane how it’s moving through space — had begun to send erroneous signals. But they couldn’t figure out why.

Obviously, we don’t want our machines running amok on us, and not only when we’re at 30,000 feet. If, as few dispute, we’re going to rely more and more on automated systems in the future, then we should have some understanding of when and why they can go haywire, and what we can do about it.

At present, autonomous systems like those used in airliners are designed from the top down: Everything about them was put in place intentionally by human designers. As a result, their complexity, while vast, is also finite, so if something goes wrong, it’s at least conceivable that the error can be identified and fixed, perhaps with the help of technology. At Airbus’ headquarters in Toulouse, France, engineers developing a new aircraft put it through its paces in a giant contraption called the “Iron Bird.” Consisting of all the subcomponents of a plane wired together and hooked up to a flight simulator, the device allows the engineers to simulate a great variety of different configurations and test how different failures would propagate through the system. The Iron Bird operates throughout the years of each new design’s development, and is kept operational after the model enters service, to test modifications and any issues that might crop up. Ultimately, this kind of approach — methodically testing every possible combination of inputs and errors — could become sophisticated enough to eliminate flaws entirely. At least in theory.

That won’t be true in the future. The kinds of hand-crafted, top-down engineered systems like those found in today’s airliners will be superseded. Right now the cutting edge in artificial intelligence research is so-called “deep learning” built on neural networks. If presented with large amounts of data and trained to categorize it, these systems can then parse new data into the correct categories. Shown pictures of pandas, for instance, a machine could then go out and find new pictures of pandas on the internet. This is the technology that underlies state-of-the-art facial recognition and machine translation systems.

Deep learning-dependent systems aren’t programmed in the way a top-down system is, said Vasant Dhar, a professor of data science at New York University. “They learn as they go along, autonomously. This lets you solve problems that are practically impossible to solve top-down, by humans specifying the algorithms.” This flexibility will be crucial to the successful operation of many kinds of systems in the real world. Self-driving cars, for instance, will have to deal with a huge range of situations for which it would be difficult to write enough prescriptive rules to deal with every single eventuality. “Negotiating a crowded intersection, for instance, is very hard to program from the top down,” Dhar said, “but by watching humans do it many times, these systems can figure it out for themselves.”

The downside to a neural net, said Dhar, is that it’s essentially a black box. Unlike a top-down system, there’s no way for the people who built it to understand why it acts the way it does. “You can never be entirely sure about what it’s learned,” he said. “You can look at the input/output behavior and say, ‘Yeah, it’s doing well,’ it’s behaving the way you want, but you don’t really know why.”

It’s not that engineers can’t peer inside the system as it’s working, but that the way neural nets process information is fundamentally inscrutable. The systems are constructed in layers, with the data — say, a raw image — coming in at the bottom, and the output — for instance a description of what’s in the image — coming out at the top. If you examine the system in action, it’s possible to figure out what each computation element is doing in the top and bottom layers, but what goes on in between is harder to characterize. “We can actually see the internals very clearly,” said Kyunghyun Cho, a colleague of Dhar’s at NYU’s Center for Data Science. “Except we don’t know how to interpret them.”

The way that neural nets are constructed leaves them prone to peculiar and surprising behavior. When fed “adversarial examples,” for instance — sets of data that have been tweaked slightly — deep learning programs can be led wildly astray. An image-classification system presented with an imperceptibly tweaked image of a panda might instead label it a gibbon. While this kind of failure is unlikely to crop up spontaneously, it could be taken advantage of by hackers, for instance in working around a security system based on photos of users’ faces.

Self-teaching autonomous systems can behave in other surprising ways, too. Because they can sift through vastly larger amounts of data than humans, and can explore vastly greater numbers of potential outcomes, they can arrive at conclusions that have never occurred to mere humans. Famously, Google’s Go-playing system, AlphaGo, not only managed to defeat the world’s top-ranked human player last year but in the process made a move that so flabbergasted its opponent that he had to leave the room to collect himself. The gambit was so unusual that one commentator later admitted, “I thought it was a mistake.”

It was, instead, a stroke of genius. But sometimes a neural networks’ surprising outputs really are just mistakes. Recently researchers trained neural nets on patient data at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in an effort to develop rules for treating pneumonia patients. The nets’ overall advice was better than top-down generated algorithms, with one potentially lethal exception: They thought that pneumonia patients who already had asthma should be sent home. The researchers investigated and found that the nets had noticed that such patients recovered faster, concluding that this meant they were low-risk. In fact, it was the opposite — these patients were so high-risk that hospital policy was to send them to intensive care right away. It was the effectiveness of this strategy that misled the computer.

Before we turn over crucial areas of our lives to self-training autonomous systems, said Cho, “we’ll just have to spend more time figuring out how to verify their correctness.”

It’s not entirely clear that’s going to be possible, however. One approach, Cho said, would be to build a second machine to look at the first. “We can build another system that looks at the transparent internals of the first system and learn to interpret them,” he said. “You can think of it as something like having a baby raised in a culture with another language. I won’t be able to understand any of what those people in the other culture are saying, but the baby will be able to understand everything and explain it to me.”

But how can we trust the second system, that has assured us about the first?

Said Cho, “Society needs to invest in this kind of research.”

* *

It’s one thing for automation to learn unpredictably and surprise us. It’s another for the technology to become so advanced that we lose the ability to even understand what it’s doing. If we get complacent about machines making countless kinds of decisions on our behalf, the danger is less that they’ll run away from us than that they’ll run away with us.

“How do you really control these systems that you don’t really fully understand?” Dhar said. “One of the consequences of this change that has occurred in AI is that you now have a machine that has learned how to learn, which historically has been the purview of human beings. The machines can now learn stuff autonomously, and you have no idea whether it’s learning desirable things or undesirable things.”

In the years ahead, engineers will become increasingly familiar with a sensation that parents have experienced since the dawn of time: being surprised by an entity that they have brought into the world. Robots, like children, are going to teach themselves about the world and learn things their creators never intended. Among artificial intelligence researchers, this results in what’s known as the “control problem.” It turns out that under certain circumstances, even simple agents can learn to maneuver around constraints imposed on them in order to achieve their programmed goals. Stuart Armstrong, a fellow at Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute, has devised a simple demonstration involving a robot tasked with pushing boxes onto a chute. The robot gets reinforced when it pushes a block down the chute. When a surveillance monitor is set up to watch the robot and shut it down after it delivers a single box to the chute, the robot can “learn” to fool the monitor by pushing boxes to block its view so that it can deliver more. (You can see a virtual robot figure this out in real time via an online Java implementation.)

“You get all sorts of weird behavior with a learning system,” said Anders Sandberg, a colleague of Armstrong’s at the Future of Humanity Institute. “It doesn’t need to be very complicated to behave in very surprising ways.”

As machines become more sophisticated, they will increasingly incorporate human behavior into their models of the world. To optimally achieve their goals they will have to adapt their strategies to our predicted behavior. If they think that we could hinder their objectives, for instance by turning them off, they will come up with ways to prevent that. Said Dhar: “We may not be able to ‘turn them off’ if they start behaving in a way we don’t understand.”

Working together, as a society, we may figure out a way to rejigger our settings so that we can maneuver our way out of danger. Or we might find ourselves overwhelmed by a problem whose dimensions we can barely comprehend.

* *

Forty seconds after their ADIRU malfunctioned, as Air Sweden 294 dove straight down through 20,000 feet, the pilot and his co-pilot could see their altitude unspooling at a horrendous rate, and knew they had to somehow regain altitude. But they were thoroughly disoriented, and instead of recovering control argued about whether to turn left or to turn right. For a moment, the pilot pulled back on the controls, causing the men to sink into their seats with three times the force of gravity. Then he pushed forward again.

One minute and 20 seconds into the incident, the jet hit the frozen ground with the velocity of a .45 caliber bullet. The impact instantly killed both members of the flight crew and carved a 20-foot-deep crater 50 feet across. When search-and-rescue helicopters arrived that morning, all that remained was an asterisk-shaped smudge of black on the flat whiteness of the valley floor.

Accident investigators still haven’t figured out what went wrong with the Inertial Reference Unit.

This story originally appeared on March 15, 2017 on The Outline

warcinfo:
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-185-224-210.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-22
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for May 2017
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

text:
Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Hong Kong Movie Review: Kung Fu Mahjong

Yuen Wah: Chi Mo-Sai
Yuen Qiu: Auntie Fei
Roger Kwok: Wong

I watched this movie tonight after letting it sit on my shelf for a month and a half. (Thanks for no late fees Netflix) I was unsure about it and less enthusiastic about it than most of the other Chinese movies I have watched. So there it sat, next to Elizabethtown and Rumble in the Bronx waiting for me to be bored enough to watch it. And I should have watched it earlier! I thought that despite a clear focus at times this movie had what a lot of movie-goers enjoy: laughter, drama, action and a hint of romance. There was a surprisingly dark part of the movie in the middle. Usually something this light-hearted doesn't get that heavy into things, but nevertheless I found this to be an enjoyable movie. The pair Yuen Wah and Yuen Qiu are together again after Kung-Fu Hustle and their charisma is just as strong. Roger Kwok does a solid job as quiet Wong even during his "retarded" moments. (Watch the movie and you'll know what I mean.) So in all I'd give this movie a 3 and 1/2 star rating. :)

No comments:


text:
Thursday, August 14, 2008

Backcountry Betty podcast online!

I did a podcast with King County Library System last month and it's been uploaded to the KCLS site. Go to this page and scroll down to the "Hear the author" section. Another reason to love the library.

No comments:

A sampling of my books


text:
Content Stats

Submissions: 0
Other People's Games
Favorites: 18
Reviews: 0
Submissions: 0
Other People's Movies
Favorites: 50
Reviews: 0
Submissions: 0
Other People's Art
Favorites: 33
Reviews: 0
Scouts: 0
Submissions: 10
Other People's Audio
Favorites: 25
Reviews: 8

Community Stats

Recent Game Medals

Boing, Boing 25 Points Bounce off enemies 50 times Medal Stats.
Shiny Medal 10 Points Be proud, as it is really, really shiny. Medal Stats.
Catching Fire 10 Points You defeated a fiery eusocial insect without dying. Nice. Medal Stats.
First Croaks 5 Points You inflated a frog so much it blew up. Good thing it wasn't a real frog... Medal Stats.
Prison Cell with a View 5 Points Why do I punish myself? Medal Stats.
Time to Make It! 5 Points Play "Make it as an Artist" Medal Stats.
Alternative 10 Points Try out a mini-games' alternate keys! Medal Stats.
Prepared 10 Points Control the hands in the mini-game select screen! Medal Stats.
Larry 5 Points from LARRY Medal Stats.
Time Fcuk 5 Points from Time Fcuk Medal Stats.

Total Medals Earned: 281 (From 41 different games.)


text:
DIY Ideas to Market your WordPress Blogs Extensively

Extensive Marketing and promotion is paramount aspect for achievement associated with a organization. Similarly a WordPress blog can’t achieve the preferred success, unless of course it’s not well marketed on the internet. When you create and begin your WordPress blog, it’s most crucial that you start its promotion. Many writers possess the perception their content is sufficient to concentrate on the preferred audience as well as their blogs have no need for promotion. But nowadays promotion has grew to become involve any company because you will find large amount of other writers covering the same subjects and marketing their content extensively. Here are couple of promotion tips that provides you with an advantage over other writers and enable you to market your WordPress content:

>Your content ought to be engaging and various

Regardless of how much efforts you are making to advertise your blog, however, you can’t become successful in case your submissions are not sufficient. As content plays the main part in internet marketing one needs to take great discomfort to make sure that the information is exclusive, interesting, engaging and more importantly, serving the needs of the niche, By providing your audience they want, you’re basically taking the initial step towards marketing your articles effectively.

>Market your USP

Unique selling proposition may be the aspect that diffrentiate your site from an regular blog making it remarkable. If you wish to achieve success you need to flaunt the USP of the blog towards the audience. Like for those who have ten years of expertise in Drupal development, it’s possible to leaverage their personal credential i.e experience, to advertise their blog. The USP will assist you to build rely upon the audience and developing a brand.

Research and connect Permalinks Permalinks plays a significant part for Search engine optimization of the blog. The simplest method to enhance the ranking of the blog in search engines like google, is to make sure that your blog’s URL consists of contextual key phrases. The correct answer is easy tactic to create permalinks and it can be done easily in your WordPress blog, but it’s crucial that you research extensively before fixing the permalink for the blog.

>Choose the best Theme

Should you find the right theme, it’ll surely increases the status of the WordPress blog. Selecting an ideal theme is really a hectic task but right theme can produce a large difference for the blog success. The best theme is the one which looks good, highlights your articles while offering an excellent consumer experience, so pick the theme very sensibly.

>Social Media Profile

Social networking has turned into a major platform for promotion. Nowadays, even Google views blogs social networking presence, so why wouldn’t you exploit the potential for such platform for the marketing efforts. Establishing page of the blog on different social networking surely increases the success of the blog because these mediums possess a mass achieve, its cost free and you may also share the hyperlinks for your blogs with these social networking profiles.

This information is led by WPCanvas, a professional in development having a gifted team of WordPress designers. It’s possible to also hire for his or her wordpress development needs in an affordable cost.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


text:
per categorie
  Jerryke's gastenboek
  teken het gastenboek
<< eerste< vorige[ 1 2 3 4 5 ]volgende >laatste >>
Allison email homepage 25/02/2016 09:59
I can't get through at the moment http://www.yvonbonenfant.com/what-is-orlistat-60.pdf name sill generic orlistat for sale speedy constitution In this six-hour interview, Pope Francis explained quite vividly the reasons why, when he first set eyes upon the papal apartment on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace, he decided he could not live there.
Kaden email homepage 25/02/2016 08:11
I've been cut off http://madacad.com/atorvastatin-simvastatin.pptx fanny planet trial atorvastatin ppt parlour Police described as "mindless anarchy" the activities of loyalist rioters who injured 56 officers on Friday night when half-bricks, pieces of metal and debris flew through the air in Belfast's main shopping street, Royal Avenue.
Forrest email homepage 25/02/2016 06:30
The manager http://madacad.com/accutane-20-mg-dosage.pptx whiskers process of getting prescribed accutane sly discussion The Committee was also told that while foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt are generally subject to the standard 23% rate, some products were charged at a reduced rate, such as croissants, banoffi pie, chocolate chip biscuits, frozen pastry, jaffa cakes and jam doughnuts.
Hayden email homepage 25/02/2016 02:01
I sing in a choir https://www.gobsamsam.nl/clindamycin-benzoyl-peroxide-gel-coupon.pdf deliverance cleocin cream price elastic What does the phony “Foreign Surveilance Court” (editing desk) have in the way of ‘pertinence, let alone authority or ‘jurisdiction’ to say and/or “rule” in the obviously “domestic” spying????
Weston email homepage 25/02/2016 01:20
I'm not sure https://www.tca.nl/doxepin-60-mg.pdf subsequently doxepin bluelight lunch A Bavarian farmer shepherds sheep through deep snow between Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Mittenwald October 11, 2013. Schools and kindergartens in Garmisch-Partenkirchen were closed on Friday due to heavy snow fall overnight. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle
Cristopher email homepage 24/02/2016 23:14
I work for a publishers http://www.yvonbonenfant.com/clotrimazole-1-topical-solution-for-ear.pdf beehive clotrimazole 7 day treatment herein â??As it relates to the one charge of furnishing or sharing ecstasy, Mr. Green will responsibly address that matter in a court of law but not comment on it further out of respect for the process,â? Berk said.
Tyrone email homepage 24/02/2016 21:21
I wanted to live abroad https://www.tca.nl/fluticasone-nasal-spray-instructions.pdf pillow fluticasone propionate nasal spray doses can The strike immediately shut down Drummond's exports since it included workers at its privately operated port as well as laborers at its two mines, Pribbenow and El Descanso, in the north of the country.
Dario email homepage 24/02/2016 17:27
How many days will it take for the cheque to clear? http://theartofandyellis.com/bactrim-400-80-mg-tablet.pdf rate remains bactrim ds 800 mg dose persuade The top of the world is back! Port Authority officials unveiled on April 2, 2013 the stunning view from the top of One World Trade Center, a 360-degree eagle's eye panorama that will instantly become...
Clifford email homepage 24/02/2016 16:38
In a meeting http://www.eco20-20.com/index.php/betnovate-gm-cream-review.pdf errand betnovate cream uk online shutter The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenbackagainst a basket of six major currencies, last traded up 0.3percent at 79.982, not far from Thursday's eight-month low of79.627. The euro, which traded weaker, dominates the compositionof the index.
Hipolito email homepage 24/02/2016 16:17
I've been made redundant http://whackala.com/doxepin-zamienniki.pptx ditch sinequan tabletki primary â??We think this really undercuts, directly undercuts, a key pillar of Mr. Moralesâ?? testimony,â? Jonathan W. Anderson, a defense attorney for Guandique, said at a Dec. 12, 2012, hearing, according to a previously sealed transcript.
<< eerste< vorige[ 1 2 3 4 5 ]volgende >laatste >>
  teken het gastenboek
Webstats4U - Gratis web site statistieken
	Eigen homepage website teller


text:
Thursday, May 16, 2013

Hail to thee, Marshall Thundering Herd

I just took a look at this website's page views -- and realized, to my amazement, that there are a ton of folks checking in!

Heck, if that's the case, I can't let you down and just put up one post a week then, can I?

Speaking of Ian Kadish, he and fellow Marshall product Arik Sikula have been awesome recently.  To wit:

Kadish has faced 28 batters in May and has struck out 14 of them.  He struck out the side on May 4th, whiffed two in a perfect inning on May 8th, K'd four batters in two innings on May 10th, and then punched out four more in two perfect innings on May 13th.  This season, Ian Kadish has recorded 25 strikeouts... and just three walks.  In May, the league's batting a mere .120 against him.  In total, right-handed batters are hitting just .154 against him.  Dominance.  Batters, beware... the fastball.  Kadish is not afraid to challenge with his heat.

And Arik Sikula has been even better.  On May 2nd, Sikula allowed a two-run homer to Beloit's Mitch Haniger.  It is the only hit in 24 at-bats against him this month.  On the other hand, it accounted for two runs, which is one more run than Arik allowed in all of April.  The total numbers:  19.1 innings, 3 runs, 24 strikeouts, .115 average against.  Batters, beware... the curveball.  It can arrive in any count.

Since I'm on the subject of strikeouts and relief excellence and unhittability and things of that nature, I suppose I could mention Wil Browning here.  But he didn't go to Marshall, so we'll leave him for another day.

*  *  *

Have you bought The Baseball Thesaurus yet?  If you have, bring it to the ballpark and I'll personally inscribe it for you.

No comments:


text:
Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Online Pet Food Stamps - The Answer To The Quality Of Food Your Pets Search

You love your pet, take care of them. That's great! You need to have quality food for when you want to feed them. The search for a good meal for pets is always a major issue in the custody of their pets. Available online pet food coupons can be of great help in this search. Learn why, what and how!

You may have found that the foods you need to buy for your pet is something that requires your attention. Pet food should be selected based on criteria such as age and health of your pet, nutrients and ingredients, and of course for your convenience. A food you choose is directly responsible for health and life of your pet. We can not afford to choose something you do not. An online search can help you get acquainted and confidence in the pet food. Apart from this property search for coupons online saves your time more valuable than all others.

What should you look?

The two pet food ingredients, dyes and ingredients of the ways is to say, should have careful consideration, since most have no nutritional value. Whatever brand you choose a coupon which must contain a balanced amount of basic ingredients such as proteins, lipids, fiber, carbohydrates, calcium, etc. comes with a more ideal combination thereof. When buying food for your pet gives it a logical comparison based on the percentage of ingredients. See all coupons although they relate to the best product or not. In a supermarket, may not be able to compare a wide range of brands in it. But this comparison very easily on the Internet.

What line of pet food coupons are helpful?

With these coupons you can save time, money and especially the health of your pet. A discount coupon online, including the delivery process easier to reduce the time otherwise you need to buy food from a store or a supermarket. Some online coupons attached marks bulletins issued well in the field of health and nutrition of pets. These bulletins actually helps to care for their pets. Just do not ignore them simply as a means of promotion, go for the best newsletter whenever it finds one.

No comments:

Post a Comment


text:
It's Easy to Judge a Hypocrite (Part 1)

I’ll be totally honest here.
The hardest person in the world to respect is a hypocrite.

If I see someone acting holy in public, and then that same person acts like a holy terror in private, my respect for that person immediately tanks about as low as it can go.
However, I have a tale to tell that’s made me reconsider that tendency. You know how I love telling stories. This one is based a true story from history.

Way back, in the times of kings and queens, there was a common man and a princess.
Actually though, the man wasn’t so common. He was a fighter in the service of the king, a very good fighter. The princess saw this man often in the royal court, and she couldn’t help but admire his bravery, not to mention his ruddy good looks.
One day, word got around to the king that his daughter had a crush on his servant. This made the king angry.
You see, the king was jealous of the fighter’s popularity in the realm lately. And now his “little girl” had fallen for the man, too.
After a while of brewing and stomping around, the king suddenly came up with a devious plan.
People do anything for love, right? So he’d pitch the fighter against the vicious barbarians overrunning his kingdom in place of a dowry of silver.
The fighter was thrilled with the plan. He wasted no time going and conquering the barbarians, then he brought back the proof to the king with his head held high.
The fighter and the princess were married in a beautiful, royal ceremony, and all the young women of the kingdom cried in disappointment and jealousy.

However, the two didn’t ride into the crimson sunset and live happily ever after.
No… the king was furious about his new son-in-law. He seethed in jealousy over the situation. He knew his daughter and kingdom loved the man, but he didn’t love him, he hated him.
Murder grew in his heart. He hired assassins against the fighter. The mercenaries went to the fighter’s house and surrounded it in the night, lying in wait until morning.
However, the princess noticed the mercenaries. She went to her husband and told him what was happening, she pleaded with him to run instead of fight this time.
So he did. The princess let him out a window and distracted the assassins so that her beloved could get away. She hoped that he would be able to come back soon, or at least send for her.
But no… the fighter became a vagabond, an enemy of the crown, and a tramp.

Years passed. Years…
The love between the princess and the fighter grew cold.
Why doesn’t he send for me? Why doesn’t he rescue me? she wondered as the nights grew long.
News came from afar. The fighter had joined a club of rabble rousers. He had even married another woman. A beautiful woman that he had supposedly rescued from an evil husband.
That was it for the princess. The fighter had forgotten about her, she would forget about him.
Her father, the king, saw her pining away. He also saw that one of his courtiers, a good man, seemed to always be watching her with sadness in his eyes.
One day he had a conversation with the courtier, the next day he had a conversation with the princess.
“Darling… the fighter has left you. He’s even married another! He’s a tramp, and not good enough for you. Here… there’s a man who loves you here in the court. Do you want to marry him?”
The princess picked up her chin and looked. There was the man, a good one, a steady one, one that was loyal and wouldn’t leave her.
So she married him.

More years passed. The princess was happy with her new husband. He helped her forget her short, emotional marriage to the fighter.
Then a terrible day came. The king was killed in a battle with the barbarians. The princess’ brother assumed the crown. He didn’t become king over the entire realm though. Many of the nobles had shifted their allegiance to the old hero from long ago, the princess' ex-husband, the fighter. There was a civil war brewing.
Then, the new king made a mistake. He accused his most powerful general of misconduct. The general, in a fit of rage, left the royal court and went to join the fighter’s league of rowdy nobles.
Things weren’t looking good for the noble family.
Not long after that, royal soldiers banged down the door of the princess’ house. Her husband tried to fight them, but they pushed him away.
“We’ve come for the princess!” they declared. “The soon-to-be-king wants his wife back! Her brother says that he can have her.”
“But… she’s married to me!” her husband replied.
“She was married to him first. Come on!”
The soldiers grabbed the princess. Years and years ago, she would have been thrilled at the knowledge that her first husband wanted her back, but now… black dread filled her soul as she screamed and screamed.
“He’s forgotten me! He’s married another woman! Why would he want me again?!”
The men drug her outside and slung her up onto one of the waiting horses. She recognized the former general of her brother’s army there, waiting.
“What does the fighter want with me?!” she demanded.
“You’re an important piece to winning the kingdom,” he told her.
“It’s a power play?!”
“Sorry, darling. Such is war.” The general looked forward and spurred his horse onward.

The princess’ second husband followed the horses, crying for his wife, all the way to the next town.
“Please let me bring her back with me! This isn’t right! He can have any other woman in the kingdom!”
The general pulled him aside and talked to him. The man looked at the princess one last time, then he left, brokenhearted.
Twice, the princess had been abandoned by the men that she loved. Her heart grew cold and heavy in her chest as she looked forward and decided to never love again.

Click here to read the rest of this story, and the conclusion of my point about hypocrisy.

No comments:

Post a Comment


text:
wordpress visitors

Posts Tagged ‘tomato concasse’

Holiday Recipe: Shrimp & Baby Artichoke Casserole

Occasionally, throughout the holiday season, I will be offering recipes suited for holiday gatherings.  I asked my bestie, Bill Hansen of Bill Hansen Catering, to kick it off this campaign.  Chef Tim Andriola, who serves as consultant to Bill Hansen Catering, and is  co-owner of Timo Restaurant in Sunny Isles, proffered this recipe.  I love […]

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Free WP Themes Online. | Thanks to Best Free WordPress Themes, wordpress themes free and
3c7b2fb751977d5fc4a1dd1b50377eecfe751e66dfc4b4ef95 Web Analytics HostGator promos


text:
wordpress visitors

The Mary Kay Glam Suite at LATISM

mary kay suite1

My trip last week to Chicago was cold short and cold sweet.  I was in town for the LATISM (Latins in Social Media) conference.  I had a great time–met some great new friends and reconnected with some old ones.  I also met some brand representatives.  And almost became a makeup artist.  HA!

Now, for those of you that know me, you know that me as a makeup artist is downright LAUGHABLE.  Until recently, I rarely wore makeup and even when I did, it was only eyeliner and lip gloss.  But through my amazing friendship with Victoria Duke and her team at Academy of Glam, I’ve learned a few things.  I’m actually quite proud of how much I’ve learned.

Well, on the taxi ride from the airport to the FAB Intercontinental Hotel on Chicago’s Miracle Mile, I saw a tweet announcing that LATISM attendees could get their makeup done before heading over to the Navy Pier for the conference.  The suite was to open the next morning.  I decided to get glammed.

So, the next morning, I headed up the Mary Kay Suite, housed in the Vice Presidential Suite of the hotel.  It was right around 7am.  I knocked on the door and after a few moments, a woman let me in.  She was very nice and welcomed me in.  I was the first one there!

The suite was FABULOUS!  It was 2 story with ornate fixtures and plush furnishings.  The Mary Kay woman asked if I was there for makeup and of course I answered, “YES!”  She led me into another room where makeup stations were set up, but there were no other people present.

She asked if I had brought my makeup with me.  I found that a bit odd, thinking that Mary Kay, as the suite sponsor, should have supplied the product.  But, whatever–I told her that I had left it in my room and asked if I should go get it.  She found my response equally as perplexing.  I could tell.  She said to me, “Umm..YES!  There are about 5 faces to do and we are also open for attendees that are in town for a conference.”   I nodded and told her that I was one of those attendees.  Her face dropped!  “OH MY GOD!!!  I’m soo sorry.  I thought you were the local makeup artist that we had hired!!!”

We both laughed heartily.  And while we were laughing, the REAL makeup chick showed up and started on my face.  She only took about 15 minutes, but I looked smashing!   She also gave me some tips and I left with a ton of products.  My favorites have got to be the Peach Satin Hands Pampering Set and the Liquid Lip Color.  The Satin Lips Set is great too!

What do you think of my look?  I got compliments on it all day!

Disclosure:  I was invited to participate in the Mary Kay Glam Suite as an attendee of LATISM.  All opinions are my own.

Did you miss these from the archives?:

Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “The Mary Kay Glam Suite at LATISM”

  1. Linda says:

    beautifullllllllllll! the hand pamepering set sounds nice 2

  2. BlitzAndGlam says:

    You look great! That’s so funny that she thought you were a makeup artist.

  3. Jai says:

    You look fab! Great meeting you at the Mary Kay Suite at Latism!

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Free WP Themes Online. | Thanks to Best Free WordPress Themes, wordpress themes free and
3c7b2fb751977d5fc4a1dd1b50377eecfe751e66dfc4b4ef95 Web Analytics HostGator promos