Library Notes



Rebecca Hyde

Children reading about the March family in Louisa May Alcott’s novel “Little Women” are also learning about Louisa’s own Alcott family during the Civil War and life in New England. Older readers can revisit the March/Alcott family in several recently published books focusing on the relationship of Louisa and her parents, and intellectual life in nineteenth-century America.

Eve LaPlante is the author of “Marmee & Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother,” and of a companion volume, “My Heart is Boundless: Writings of Abigail May Alcott, Louisa’s Mother.” LaPlante is a great-niece of Abigail and a first cousin of Louisa. The discovery in a trunk of a cache of letters and journals (supposedly burned) written by Abigail led to a series of discoveries in scattered archival collections, which provided a window into Louisa May Alcott’s portrait of her family.

It seems that Louisa’s childhood was much harsher than that of the March family in “Little Women.” Bronson Alcott was a brilliant, outspoken idealist, but as a husband and father, he fell short. The marriage was marked by conflict, long absences, and a refusal to work for money. Divorce was discussed. Abigail filled in for her absent husband and supported the family by becoming a social worker and an employment agent. She encouraged a very young Louisa to write and shared her own girlhood journals with her daughter. (Abigail had a surprisingly happy life growing up.) Abigail was confidant of her child’s talent; Bronson was troubled by the “darker temperament” Louisa shared with his wife.

LaPlante concludes Louisa incorporated her mother’s younger, happier life into “Little Women,” into the portrait of Jo. Louisa saved her own girlhood troubles for her later, more adult novels.

Two other books focus on Louisa and her father and their close circle of friends. “Eden’s Outcasts,” by John Matteson, tells the story Bronson Alcott and Louisa, of their father-daughter relationship and as adults, living lives inspired by ideas of writing and reform. Bronson’s utopian ventures failed but the Alcott family’s living drama was turned into Louisa’s literary success with the publication of “Little Women.” And, to his credit, Bronson finally appreciated his daughter. For her part, she was steadfast through his stroke and life as an invalid.

“The Concord Quartet: Alcott, Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, and the Friendship That Freed the American Mind,” by Samuel A. Schreiner, recreates the drama of the four men’s lives. It’s the story of “friendship in action”: of shared everyday life and a powerful philosophical conviction that “the soul had inherent power to grasp the truth” and that “the truth would make men free.”

Library Notes
April Everett
March 17, 2013
Bless this [Un]Happy Home

We had watched our share of house-hunting shows on TV.  We weren’t like those people, always demanding more space, expecting perfect paint colors, paying more attention to the curtains than the HVAC.  No, we weren’t like those people, we were DIYers.  We didn’t want a fixer-upper, but we weren’t afraid to get a little dirt under our nails.

When we closed on our house, we got the keys and jumped right in.  The furnace wouldn’t cut on, one of the walls upstairs crumbled to the ground with a mere thump, and the bathroom floor turned out to be rotting from water damage.  It felt like a scene out of that 80s classic The Money Pit (starring Tom Hanks).
That was almost three years ago, and since then our house has quite marvelously become a very happy home.  We have learned so much as we drywalled, sanded, painted, installed p-traps, and replaced flooring.  This article is not intended to be a laundry list of laudable improvements we have made; rather, my hope is that it will inspire those of you who may find yourselves with a home that’s more fixer than upper.  Spring is only a few short days away and the library has so many wonderful resources to help you patch and perk up your dwelling place:

HOME REPAIR
Help, it's broken! : A Fix-it Bible for the Repair-Impaired by Arianne Cohen is an excellent one-stop shop for anything from fishing your wedding ring out of the sink to installing a garbage disposal.  In addition to the many real-life scenarios, Cohen also shares a yearly maintenance guide to help you avoid repairs.
Wiring 101 : 25 Projects You Really Can Do Yourself by Jodie Carter and Plumbing : Basic, Intermediate & Advanced Projects by Merle Henkenius are packed with detailed, step-by-step instructions.  Projects are arranged in order of complexity, and the authors steer clear of jargon.

HOME IMPROVEMENT
As a home owner, one of the hardest decisions I have made is paint color.  The Art of Exterior Painting : A Step-by-Step Guide to Choosing Colors and Painting your Home by Leslie Harrington and James Martin is an excellent resource for the indecisive painter, with full-color photos and lots of advice on blending in, accenting architecture, and techniques.

Thrifty DIYers will appreciate Budget Makeovers : Give Your Home a New Look edited by Jean Nayar.  Kitchen Makeovers for Any Budget by Chris Gleason is full of advice on when and how to refinish cabinets, and details four complete modeling projects.

LAWN & GARDEN
If you’re looking to spruce up your deck or patio, look no further than Deckscaping: Gardening and Landscaping on and Around Your Deck by Barbara W. Ellis.  This book gives advice on landscaping and planting techniques as well as furniture choices, water features, and ornaments.
If you’re ready to move off the deck and tackle the yard, the New Complete Home Landscaping by Catriona Tudor Erler is a comprehensive guide to landscape design.  Erler explains design elements, offers tips on adding features, and advises readers on what to plant.

UPCOMING PROGRAMS
In addition to our books, DVDs, and databases, the library offers a variety of programming for all ages.  This spring, the library will offer a home organizing workshop on Saturday, April 20th, and a home gardening workshop on Monday, April 23rd.  Visit the library in-person or online at www.rowanpubliclibrary.org for more details.  Best wishes on all your home improvement projects!

Library Notes
John Tucker
Finding and Mapping your Course-Orienteering

    A new craze has taken hold in Charlotte and throughout the south-Orienteering.   It is the skill of charting and finding your way by use of a compass and map.  This outdoor activity began in 1919 by a Swiss scout leader who believed that the activity was not simply a survival skill, but a fun event for scouts and families.   In the year 1961, the International Orienteering Federation was formed and in 1971 the United States Orienteering Federation became a reality.  Orienteering has been a long time competition in the Olympics but until recently was only talked about in circles of Boy and Girl Scouts.  The Public Library has always been the go-to-resource for finding your way with information and this skill of Orienteering is no different.

    The Scout Merit Badge Series; “Orienteering” published by the Boy Scouts of America would be the first resource to investigate.  This booklet describes the fun in learning to use a compass and a map.  It sounds so basic, but the truth is that explorers like Lewis and Clark, Marco Polo, and Amelia Earhart used these same skills to cross many new horizons.  Today, competitions for Orienteers are growing in number at scout camps and merit badge outings, but also local programs for families and teams of friends.   This book presents two types of Orienteering, score orienteering and cross country orienteering.  The later event is like the television show the Great Race-finding one’s way around the countryside unassisted.  After reading this text we might leave the GPS device at home and participate in the skill that will keep us from getting lost in the world.

    A second book to investigate is “Maps and Compass: the Complete Orienteering Handbook” written by Bjorn Kjellstrom.   Being oriented to one’s surroundings and charting a course through the unknown sounds like a true skill for life.  Orienting skills are used by surveyors, engineers, military personal, hunters and fishermen, backpackers, sailors, and camp counselors searching for “lost sheep”, cross-country runners and cyclists who chose their routes as opposed to following a predetermined course.   For most of us orienteering skills solely embrace our ability to read a road map in preparation of  a family vacation.  This text is broken up into user friendly chapters beginning with map reading, compass skills and then the adventure of putting them together in the field.

    A third resource to consider is titled “Orienteering: The Skills of the Game” by Carol McNeill.   For those who are competitively minded this book will help to refine your skills.  From experienced guides to young  explorers this book will help you enjoy your time in the field.  Skills covered include: aiming off, punch and run, and running on the compass needle.  Speed is the main point in this text so that you can increase the odds that your team will come in first place.

    Getting oriented is indeed a life skill that enables us to select a course, map out our path, and check our progress along the way.  We all look for help when “orienting ourselves” in a new direction such as times of a career change, education or finding a job.  We map out our career path and obstacles that might challenge our charted path.  As an avid sailor I would not be able to sail the lakes, rivers and waterways of North Carolina unless I had and followed an accurate map.  Such maps keep me safe as well as those who travel with me.  The same holds true for planes, trains and automobiles.  Remember that LIFE happens along the journey and not simply at the end of the road.  Our lives are better enriched as we become oriented to our surroundings.  This process can begin with a single trip to the public library.  We simply need to know which direction we wish to discover.  Happy Reading!

Library Notes
March 3, 2013
Erika Kosin

Dr. Seuss and Beginning Readers

    Each year thousands of children’s books are published due to the various stages of development and reading abilities of children such as chapter books, picture books, and informational books, but there are also books that help children learn their reading independence called beginning readers.  Beginning Readers are those books that help children transition from having picture books read to them to reading books on their own.  They are great for building basic vocabularies and providing context for new words to help encourage children as they learn to read.  Beginning readers may take the form of early chapter books, known to libraries as the “easy readers”, or they may fall into the picture book category, using distinct vocabulary and large format pictures as Move Over, Rover!  by Karen Beaumont and Not a Box  by Antoinette Portis.

Since 2006, the Assocation for Library Services to Children (ALSC) a division of the American Library Association (ALA) has an annual award to the “author and illustrator of the most distinguished American book for beginning readers, recognizing the winner’s literary and artistic achievements in demonstrating creativity and imagination to engage children in reading”.  This award has been appropriately named the (Theodor Seuss) Geisel Award.  Past winners and honor books have included picture books and “easy readers”, but they all have a story told in words and pictures that an emergent reader can use to learn to read on their own. 

    Why would Theodor Geisel, best known as Dr. Seuss, have this award named after him?  Not only are his books funny and popular, but The Cat in the Hat was created to provide first graders with a new reading primer that they would not want to put down using only 225 words (it actually ended up with 236) from a list of 348.  The Cat in the Hat was so successful that Geisel and his wife decided to launch “Beginner books” a division of Random House publishers that would focus on fun reading primers for children.  With this imprint, the first Berenstain Bears book and P.D. Eastman’s Go Dog Go were published along with another challenge for Dr. Seuss, a book with only 50 words, Green Eggs and Ham.  This endeavor has led to the standard in children’s beginning reader books, a fun story with a limited number of words that encourages children to learn to read.  

Some favorite characters for beginning readers that can be found at the Rowan Public Library, by those other than Dr. Seuss, include:
 “Elephant and Piggie” series by Mo Willems – Elephant and Piggie are best friends, even though they are very different.  Look for special guest Pigeon on the back cover of each book!
“Frog and Toad” by Arnold Lobel – Each book includes five short adventures of frog and his friend Toad, from flying a kite, to cleaning house, each adventure will keep kids entertained.  While published too early to win an award, a definite favorite among children.

“Fly Guy” series by Tedd Arnold – Follows the adventures of Fly Guy, an actual fly, and his human friend Buzz. 
“Pearl and Wagner” by Kate McMullan – Tells about the adventures of two unlikely friends   Pearl, a hardworking rabbit, and Wagner, a daydreaming mouse, as they spend time in and out of the classroom.
“Henry and Mudge” by Cynthia Rylant – Henry learns about life, loyalty and love with the help of his bullmastiff Mudge.