Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

What Are You Doing New Years Eve? sung by Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt So, what are your NYE plans? I will be ringing in another new year with two of my besties, their families, and a smattering of other friends, and ChicagoBoy--yep, he's actually coming up to Michigan! I'm excited that in just hours I will be seeing him!--Prairie Dawn says the person you kiss at midnight on NYE is supposed to be who you spend the rest of your life with; I definitely wouldn't go so far as to say that...I mean I love When Harry Met Sally and everything, but I also realize real life doesn't work like that! I'm definitely not over-thinking anything, I am just psyched to have someone to smooch as a new year rolls in! So, as you make last minute appetizers, or get dressed up to go out for a good meal or party with your friends, be safe and have a wonderful night! May 2014 be a year full of fun and fulfillment for you all. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Mummy Dearest had posted this on FB and I thought it was such a lovely sentiment; it's almost a new year and as we approach it I pray for peace and happiness for all of us.  When the song of the angels is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the kings and the princes are home, When the shepherds are back with their flocks, The work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, To release the prisoner, To rebuild the nations, To bring peace among people, To make music in the heart. - Howard Thurman

Remember a while back when I shared Kazu Kibiushi's artwork on the 15th anniversary Harry Potter book covers? Well, this week while I was putting Kibiushi's graphic novel, Copper, on hold for one of my favorite patrons--a 9 year old who comes in every week, multiple times per week; a voracious reader who loves to talk books with me and Prairie Dawn--I asked her if she'd seen Kibiushi's Harry Potter covers. Oh, the excitement!? She responded with, "WHAT?! NO!!!"I loved that she got as geeked about it as I did when I saw them. It was one of those "I LOVE my job" moments. Anyway, thought I would share a few of the back covers which I happened to stumble upon during in my Kibiushi search. LOVE them. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

"Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose. Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune, Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing, Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms, Strong and content I travel the open road. The earth, that is sufficient, I do not want the constellations any nearer, I know they are very well where they are, I know they suffice for those who belong to them. (Still here I carry my old delicious burdens, I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go, I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them, I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return...." --from "Song of the Open Road," Walt Whitman For the whole poem I am SO GLAD to be getting out of Sticks for a few days. After a quiet, and somewhat lo...

It's Friday. It's so hard to wake up.

Has anyone else heard of the government public service loan forgiveness program ? I still need to read the fine print, but I'm hoping I can make some of my student loans disappear that way...feel like I'm going to be paying off my student loans forever! Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! Is anyone else ready for the weekend yet!?

"Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?" --Clarence, It's a Wonderful Life I love this movie. So much. I watch it every Christmas and sometimes in between if I need a pick me up. This movie is Christmas to me; you all know the story, so I'll save you the recap and just say that I pray this for each of you this Christmas: May you always feel your worth and know how you touch and affect the lives of those around you; may you always be the light for each other; may we all strive to make this world a better place for ourselves, but more importantly for one another. Merry Christmas!

I know it's been around for years, but I finally got around to reading Gennifer Choldenko's, Al Capone Does My Shirts . The year is 1934, and Moose Flannagan's Dad has taken a job as a prison guard on Alcatraz, which Moose is none to happy about!  Though the story is a coming of age tale in some senses, it is more importantly an examination of a family struggling w/ having an autistic child--at a time when the condition wasn't understood--with the backdrop of life on Alcatraz. The universal themes of love and acceptance feel pertinent in today's bullying-concerned society, and also pertinent is the attention paid to Moose's relationship with his sister Natalie, who's autistic symptoms (though not referred to as autism in the book, but rather in the author's notes) would have today's kids baffled as well. Moose's frustrations with his mother, his responsibility for caring for Natalie, and at being taken a...

I was up late, then WIDE AWAKE at 3a.m.; that wide awake when you know sleep is so far away that you may as well be productive, so I was. I finished Rita Dove's, On the Bus with Rosa Parks , and started another book from my list. So tired. So glad we're closed the next two days...

I was recently chosen to be an elector for the Choose to Read Ohio 2015-2016 campaign, and so, before I can vote in February I have a list of books to be read and consider; the two categories I'm voting on are children's picture books and adult fic/non-fic and I'm super excited, but now I'm staring down at my huge piles of books and wondering how I'll ever get through in time. So, I am focusing on the ones I'm excited for, particularly a Rita Dove compilation--studied in her college, saw her lecture once a million year ago, and love her still... "Flirtation" After all, there's no need to say anything at first. An orange, peeled and quartered, flares like a tulip on a wedge wood plate Anything can happen. Outside the sun has rolled up her rugs and night strewn salt across the sky. My heart is humming a tune I haven't heard in years! Quiet's cool flesh— let's sniff and eat it. There are ways to make of the moment a top...

One of our 7 year olds created this masterpiece! Day 2 of gingerbread houses and we had even more people yesterday then we did on Thursday!  74 people came to our program--we had toddlers up to senior citizens making houses and EVERYONE had a great time. Are we going to do it again next year. Yep!

This week we have two days of making Gingerbread Houses with the families, something I've been both eagerly anticipating/dreading it in that way others who have done this program can appreciate--excited for the kids, while also dreading the clean up  (the icing ground into the carpet, candy strewn everywhere), and also living in fear that we're going to run out of something important like icing or graham crackers. I DID forget the heavy duty plates and plastic knives, but fortunately there is a dollar store nearby, and I realized my error a half an hour before the program started. The program ran smoothly and we had 36 people show up to day 1 (day 2 is today); the only major mess up was when I was going to take a photo of one of the kids with their finished house for our Facebook page and my iPhone slid out of my fresh-wipe-slippery hand and went flying at the gingerbread house--through it, in fact! I DEMOLISHED his house!! There were audible gasps from all of the kids and my...

She gets to play Tris AND Hazel!? JEALOUS!

Just read this an interesting email from the Ohio Library Council: "Cleveland Public Library, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, and Toledo-Lucas County Public Library were recently awarded a combined total of $508,457 in federal LSTA funds from the State Library of Ohio, matched with $251,964 from the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) to create a network of coordinated Digitization Hubs. The Digitization Hubs will be regional digitization centers with specialized, state-of-the-art technology to digitize and archive, for online access and hard copy reproduction, rare and culturally significant materials located in their libraries. Once established, the hubs will also serve other libraries, museums, archives, and local communities. The goal of this four library partnership is to expand, standardize, and coordinate the digitization programs located in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Toledo, ...

A couple months back my friend and former Farmer, Ian ,  mentioned that he'd be leaving his job in NY State and heading back home to Minnesota for the winter and might be able to stop by en route. So, I was pleased as punch to get a message that he'd be stopping by Monday night, and in true Farm fashion I offered to put him up in my house overnight. I love that we were all so close at the Farm, and that even though time passes, we can reconnect as if no time has passed at all! My Farm friends will all be like family to me; we saw each other through too much. In no time Ian was walking through the front door to Sticks Library, grinning as I frantically waved, smiling like an idiot--I'm not going anywhere for Christmas this year, deciding to do my own thing for the first time, and since I have no visitors coming this visit felt particularly special. We headed out for dinner, Ian humoring me as I bombarded him with 100 questions about the Farm, about his job in NY State, a...