Experimenting with Pixie

Soundtrack for your book?

I am a knitter.  One of the drawbacks of my hobby is that you need both hands and eyes to do it, which gets in the way of reading time.  So I have taken to listening to podcasts like This American Life or even a full-length audio book (which I alternate with reading of the print or e-book when I am hands-free).  While this is more productive than focusing on either task on its own, I admit that the reading experience is compromised. Unlike other forms of entertainment, reading demands that you create the imagery and the sounds, and this is what makes your reading experience unique to you.  When you listen to a reading of a book by someone else, even its author, you are giving up the voice in your head that makes the story or narrative your own, making it a more passive activity.

But just in case "just words on a page" is not enough, there is a new app called Booktrack, which claims to offer a "fully immersive, captivating reading experience" by adding a synchronized soundtrack to your book.  Booktrack allows you to choose ambient sound, sound effects, or music to enhance your reading experience. "It's like having a personal composer arranging a perfect movie-style soundtrack for your book, the company claims in its promotional video, so that "reading [is] a truly sensory experience."  Will this new concept catch on?

Can Books Teach Good Behavior?

Stuart J. Murphy's Percy 

I recently got a request from our principal asking if I had any books about potty talk, to try to counter the numerous incidents and use of foul language in and out of the bathrooms at school.  Periodically I get requests from guidance counselors or teachers for books on other topics being accountable for your own actions, or, more commonly, preparing for a new sibling.  The idea of using books to address social or psychological issues has been referred to as "bibliotherapy."  I have always been suspect of acquiring materials solely for therapy or character education.  , because they tend to be preachy,  emphasizing a didactic message over literary merit. Today, I attended a panel discussion at the New York Public Library, as part of its Children's Literary Salon, called "From Readers to Leaders: Encouraging Ethical Behavior Through Children's Books," which addressed the question of to what extent can a children's book effect the development of ethics and behavior.  Authors Janet Wong and Stuart J. Murphy, moderated by librarian Betsy Bird, suggested that the term "bibliotherapy" implies that something is wrong and needs intervention.  Instead, said Murphy, a book can be character building.  They agreed that reading a book alone cannot heal, but can be a powerful tool for talking things through.  All agreed that foremost, a story has to be engaging and stand up on its own.  Wong has written many poetry and chapter books, including Me and Rolly Maloo, an early chapter book that expores issues of cheating, popularity, and integrity.   Stuart Murphy is known for his story books that teach mathematical concepts, and has also written the "I See I Learn" series of "Percy" stories that focus on social and emotional skills.  

Books and Threads

Purl Soho--Emma, The Secret Garden, Black Beauty, Penguin Threads edition

Emma, jacket flap

Jane Austen, Emma

A display of books in the store windows of Purl SoHo, one of my favorite fabric and yarn shops, caught my eye as I walked by this weekend.  Apparently, Penguin books has just released three classic titles repackaged in new "Penguin Threads" editions, which, according to the website, "will appeal to the Etsy-loving world of handmade crafts." The cover designs were stitched by artist Jillian Tamaki, using needle and embroidery floss, and then reproduced in a final, embossed design. The underside of wraparound French flaps boldly and honestly reveal the underside (i.e., normally hidden side) of the stitching.


These designs connect to a genre of children's book art:  illustrations where needlework panels make up an entire picture.  A Pocketful of Posies, is an example that we recently acquired for our library.  Illustrated by Salley Mavor, this book is made up of page after delightful page of appliqued and embroidered scenes from nursery rhymes.  While researching Salley Mavor, I discovered that there currently is a traveling exhibit of the work that she made for the book.  You can learn more about Salley Mavor, her work, and her process on her Wee Folk Studio blog.

Pocketful of Posies by Salley Mavor,  Houghton Mifflin, 2011

Clare Beaton's Mother Goose Remembers is another collection of nursery rhymes, illustrated with felt, embroidery, vintage buttons, and beads.  The homespun, pastel images evoke a a cozy feeling of snuggling up to a lap reading of familiar rhymes.  

Clare Beaton, Mother Goose Remembers, Barefoot Books, 2000

Tô Ngoc Trang (illustrations), Pham Viêt Ðinh (embroidery)
Inspired by the embroideries made in the village of Quat Dong in Vietnam

Anna Grossnickle Hines, Pieces: A Year in Quilts,  Greenwillow Books, 2001

There's a huge body of children's literature around the subject of quilting.  But in Anna Grossnickle Hines' Pieces: A Year in Poems and Quilts, quilting is the medium for illustrating her poems on the theme of the seasons.  In the appendix, Hines describes her process of making quilts.

Mark Aronson @ NYCSLS Fall Conference

Once again, New York City's School Library System's (NYCSLS) Office of Library Services put together a fantastic day of learning at Brooklyn Tech.  Marc Aronson, the prolific author of many original nonfiction books for young people, kicked off the 2011 NYCSLS Conference with a spectacular keynote called "The Magic Key and the Great Quest: The Many Journeys Nonfiction Books Offer Readers."  Aronson disputes the notion that fiction is for pleasure and nonfiction for information.  He even called into question the very name "nonfiction," as if it defines itself by what it is not (fiction).  In light of the demands of the new Common Core Standards, which emphasize reading informational text, Aronson asked "how can we convey the pleasures of nonfiction reading?" With nonfiction books, readers find pleasure beyond story.  A reader of nonfiction is not reading about or living through someone, s/he is someone. Librarians, he concluded, are the wizards, giving young people the key to a journey, albeit one that does not necessarily take them out of themselves.

Trapped: How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 Feet Below the Chilean Desert (forthcoming, August 2012) by Marc Aronson

Wall Street Journal Features our Library

Jennifer Maloney, a reporter visited our library to cover the new pilot program.  The story,

Library Links to Schools:

Books Borrowed Online Are Delivered Directly to Classrooms for the First Time appeared on Monday's edition of the Wall Street Journal.

Library as Living Room

An article in Britain's Globe and Mail, The Library is not Just a Book Warehouse Anymore," describes the shift of a public library from a repository of books to a community hub, and with it a new role for librarians.  Diana Guinn, a public librarian from Vancouver suggests that we “think of [librarians] as knowledge and information curators – we bring together the best resources from across all dissemination platforms together for our patrons.”