Books I really, really, really need to read: Kid Version

I'm keeping a running list of the books I want to read, either for myself or the rapidly approaching Summer Reading School visits {update: 6/26 - um, this is an old, unpublished post, so those visits are long over}, where we talk up the program to kids and their teachers (and sometimes their parents, too). By writing it here, I'm putting myself out there so I actually have to do it. And you know what? You are not allowed to say, "what, you haven't read that yet?" You can only be supportive of your kindly, procrastinating, super-busy, pop culture addled Children's Librarian. My blog, my rules.

Our theme this summer is "Make a Splash: Read!" I'm glad it doesn't continue the "@ your library" theme, which seemed to go on forever (Be Creative...@ your library, Get a Clue @ Your Library, Creature Feature @ your library), though I see that they are still using it for the Teen Summer Reading theme this year - Make Waves @ Your Library. I don't know that the teen-phobic librarians among us (not me!) would appreciate that slogan. (chuckle, chuckle, ha ha) I guess if the people who create these slogans have a short enough phrase, they'll just stick @ your library at the end. One good thing, though it's been done to death, the phrase does, in a small way, what libraries aren't always so good at doing: making ourselves known, remembered and recognized. "Remember, this isn't a Parks and Rec program, it's a library program! Yes, we can be cool and fun, too!" Poor libraries. We suffer from such low self-esteem and such a need to prove ourselves.

Enough! On to the books!
Summer Reading possibilities:
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams Garcia {Read it. Loved, loved, loved it. See 6/25 post}
Operation Red Jericho by Joshua Mowll (and books two and three in the Guild of Specialists series) {6/26 - changed my mind. No. Something makes me want to read them and then something always tears me away.}
True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi - yes, I've read this before, but I love it, and couldn't pass up an opportunity to booktalk it -- I mean come on, it takes place on a ship, and our theme is water this year. Plus it's got murder, mutiny, betrayal, adventure, and "dead" people reappearing. What's not to like?
Bloody Jack: Being An Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy by L.A. Meyer -- though I should disqualify it just because it's got that horrendously long title. I admit, I'd never read it because I felt that Charlotte Doyle was perfection, and anything else, just a copycat title. But I never gave it a chance, so I'll try. {Acck. Maybe not. Nothing is really enticing me to read this. I need to listen to my heart on this one and move on. -6/26}
The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis by Barbara O'Connor {6/26 - Finally read it and though my booktalk for Summer Reading Visits was so good, it was sadly probably a little too good for the book. It's quirky and quiet, but won't deliver the mystery of the secret messages that I played up -- and the kids were really into the whole idea of Popeye and Elvis, though I told them it wasn't Popeye the Sailor Man nor Elvis Presley. I think the curiosity factor might sell this book. I already had a kid come pick it up. I hope she likes it. I hate to lose their trust so early. I take it as a point of pride when I match the right book to the right kid.

Books I just want to read:
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
(because I started it, and loved it, and never got around to finishing it.) :( sadness.
Prime Baby by Gene Luen Yang
(because I love, love, love me some GLY!)
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
(This had to be the most talked about book of the year last year, and I must be the only librarian in the United States who still hasn't even cracked it's cover.) {6/26 - And still haven't.}

More later. I'm tired.

Viva la Diva: Selena

Today, I was going into an office building and I overheard a group of teenagers talking about Selena and singing "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom." Some of those kids weren't even alive when Selena died.

I first heard her song "I Could Fall in Love with You" not long before she was shot and killed by the president of her fan club, an unstable woman who had stolen money from Selena's clothing boutiques. It's impossible not to wonder how far her star would have risen with her crossover album -- but I am glad that the album I have includes her Spanish language music, as her voice was, in my opinion, so much stronger on those songs, even though Spanish was not her first language.

It's amazing that those kids even know about her, considering how fast things get "old" and forgotten in our culture. All truth on the table, though, these were Latino kids. But they were still teenage Latino kids talking about Selena, not the newest, coolest young performer. 15 years after her death, Selena Quintanilla-Perez will live forever. I doubt however, that she would have wanted to become known in the wider community in the way that she did. It's always better to be a living legend. May she continue to rest in peace.

Oakland v. Arizona

Last week, Oakland passed a resolution boycotting Arizona and Arizona based businesses (May 5, 2010) due to the passage of the anti-immigration (read: Anti-Mexican) law, making me proud, proud, proud to live in Oakland.

Those who say that the law will not encourage racial profiling forget two things -- there is no one talking about securing any borders besides the one we share with Mexico, and that unless you indiscriminately ask everyone for "their papers," you most definitely will be racially profiling people, because how will you decide that you need to check their citizenship status? I'm sure that the police won't be thinking, "Oh, that DUI looks like an illegal Englishman, I'd better check him out." And second, that there is not just black and white to this issue, but a whole lot of "shades of brown." These are people: people who may have had children in this country, children who are not citizens of Mexico, people whose lives and families risk getting torn apart.

I listened to a feature on the radio show "Latino USA" a couple of weekends ago where they interviewed a girl who was brought here by her parents when she was 3 months old. She doesn't know anything but the US. She was raised here -- for all intents and purposes, she is an American. But she can be deported to a country that she truly doesn't know, where she has no community, no friends, possibly no family, because she doesn't have papers that say what is evident -- that she belongs here.

And why do I keep hearing the fear that people coming to this country from Mexico want to sell drugs, kill people and commit all sorts of crimes? I would think that the majority of people who come here just want a chance to work and send money home to their families -- why would you jeopardize that by committing crimes? Seems to me like you would want to stay under the radar. I'm sure that there are people who have come here from many different countries who have committed crimes -- that's not the bulk of the people who come here from any country, and it's not the bulk of Mexicans either.

Viva la Diva: The Grand Dame of Elegance

By now you have heard that Lena Horne passed away on Sunday. I thought she was just the epitome of elegance. I also thought that she had a striking resemblance in certain pictures (like this one) to my own grandmother -- don't think I'm patting myself on the back -- I don't look at all like my grandmother. But I always loved looking at pictures of my grandmother and family back in the 30's and 40's, when they looked so well-put together and beautiful -- and they made it look so effortless. My family wasn't rich, but they always looked sharp. As much as I would love to uphold that tradition, I fall far, far short on a regular basis. I also admire their focus on the importance of family, which is too easy for me to put to the side for work.

Lena was elegant and striking and talented and seemed gracious and strong and intelligent. Though Black women who played maids opened doors for Black actresses, Lena stood her ground, never played a maid, and blazed trails for Black actresses as well. We still have a long way to go in how the wider society sees Black women -- when Oprah and Michelle Obama are seen as exceptions and not the norm in terms of who Black women are and how they comport themselves. I am glad that I grew up in a world that had Lena Horne as an example of all those traits I mentioned before, but I am more glad and proud that I was able to personally know women who embodied those qualities. They handed down a legacy of dignity that I will try my best to pass on to my daughter.

Most people, when they think of Lena Horne, think of "Stormy Weather," but I've always had a soft spot for her ever since I was 7 years old and saw her as The Good Witch of the South in the movie version of The Wiz, one of my favorite movies to this day -- no matter what other people say about it.

This song gave me chills as a child. I knew I was hearing greatness. It still can bring me to tears.
(Check out the sweet, beautiful little Black babies as stars in the night sky)



"If you believe, then in your heart you'll know,
That no one can change the path that you must go.
Believe in what you feel and know you're right because
The time will come around when you'll say it's yours...
Believe in yourself, right from the start
You've got to believe, believe in the magic right there in your heart.
Go 'head believe all these things, not because I told you to
Go 'head believe, believe in yourself,
Believe, believe in yourself,
Believe in yourself as I believe in you."