A Tale of Disappointment

If you've never read Kate DiCamillo's A Tale of Despereaux, a charming little book about a brave little mouse and his attraction to "the light" that reading represents, then you might like the newly released children's movie based on the book very much.

But if you have read the book, then prepare to be disappointed. I was, at least. I understand that all movies based on books must, inherently, take huge liberties with the plots of those books. One simply can't squeeze all the exposition into a 90 to 120-minute time frame and still create a film fast-paced enough to hold an audience's attention. But did the creators of the new Despereaux movie have to change it so much? The writers added unnecessary plot elements (such as a weird magical vegetable man who inspires the soup-making), and a seafaring backstory for Roscuro the rat, and they changed (gratuitously, in my view) major details about the characters and their motivations. The saucy female chef who lets Desperpeaux go at a pivotal moment is now a man, Andre, who turns the making of soup into a village-wide community event, with the help of vegetable man. Despereaux's parents, especially his mother - a vain and selfish mouse in make-up - is softened up considerably in the film. Instead of a colorful and selfish crank, an interesting character in other words, she's just another worrying mom.

And don't get me started on Gregory the jailer and Boticelli, Rosuro's rat mentor. Their facelifts are downright strange.

True, the artistry behind the animation is brilliant. And the casting - Emma Watson, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Kline, Tracey Ullman, and Matthew Broderick among other talented celebrities - is spot on.

I just thought most of the changes were unwarranted and, ultimately, condescending to children.

I'd be interested in what others who have read the book thought. There's just no comparison.

A comforting video

Perfect escapism for a Friday ...

Even on my worst days in libraryland (or in any job), I've never gone off the deep end, as Parker Posey's character does in this wonderful scene from the great librarian classic film, Party Girl.


That's probably why this scene is so much fun to watch. It's soothing to be reminded that we all have our bad days. Some are worse than others. Some days we're able to cope with whatever life throws at us. Some days we just want to hide from the world, stay in our pajamas and eat Caramel Caribou ice cream all day.

But even the worst days do not last forever.

They'll always be winners to us

Congratulations to the award-winning KPL Battle of the Books team. They only came in Second Place in this year's battle, held last week at Silver Lake College (as opposed to First Place for the past two years in a row!), but they'll always be winners to us. KPL's team beat teens from four other libraries in a rousing, nail-bitting contest that was very competitive right to the end. And for that, we say, Way to Go!



The event is sponsored every fall by the Manitowoc-Calumet Library System. The purpose is to promote reading among teens in grades 7 and up, and to offer a venue for teen readers to compete for fun and prizes in a non-threatening and friendly atmosphere. It's safe to say that everyone - contestants, parents, and coaches alike - had a great time, and they plan to do at it again next year.



Pictured above (l to r) are KPL team members: Carolyn Kuske, Katie Gilsdorf, Rhea Lee, Gabrielle Draxler, Jacob Endries, Rachael Siehs, Noah Draxler, Kyle Henrickson, and Dylan Endries.



Special congratulations and thanks to their coach, Sheila Draxler, for putting preparing Kiel's team for the Battle, and coordinating our involvement.



Chilton Public Library's team came in First Place, if you're wondering.

But just wait 'till next year!

Share your favorite websites, videos and photos

I'm pretty impressed with Searchme, a powerful new search engine that lets you create and share stacks in a very accessible format. Someone compared it to a Roladex, but I never saw a Roladex that looked as cool as this! And it is soooo easy to use. I just created a "stack" of some of my favorite news websites, but you can also create stacks of favorite videos and photos. I can see myself creating stacks of interesting author blogs, recommended book or video review sources, my favorite library blogs, or reference-related "homework helper" sites for students. The possibilities are enormous.

The website is still in beta, which means its creators are still test driving it. But so far I think it's pretty impressive. In my next post, I'll tell you how I stumbled upon it.

Anyway, below is my news stack. If you want to open any of the sites in my list, just click on it. What news sites would you add to this list?

Searchme

Maximize stack view

Happy Birthday KPL Book Club!

Imagine: A small kinship of readers who celebrate the excitement of books, and the way that passion grows when it is shared. This is, in essence, what a reading group offers, and one of the reasons why more and more people are giving themselves license to revel, once again, in a book.

- author Chris Bohjalian on why he supports book clubs

We're celebrating the one-year anniversary of KPL's book discussion group. Since last summer, we've discussed fiction and nonfiction, adult and teen titles, at our comfortable meeting place: The Stoelting House. All books have sparked interesting conversations, although some have been more popular than others.

This month we're discussing Chris Bohjalian's Before You Know Kindness, hailed by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel as "extraordinary." It's a very appropriate book discussion title, since the author is a huge fan of such groups. (Read his explanation here) And August is the perfect time to discuss this particular one, as it takes place at an end-of-summer annual gathering at a family cabin on a lake. The Seattle Times calls the book a "dark pyschological dance of family estrangements, lies and self-righteousness."

Bohjalian is the author of several successful novels, including Midwives, The Law of Similars and The Buffalo Soldier. He also hosts a terrific website.

Please join us as we discuss Before You Know Kindness in Kiel, Wisconsin. We'll meet on Monday, August 18 at 7:00 p.m. at the Stoelting House. Several copies of the book are still available. Just ask at the KPL front desk. For more information, or to suggest titles for future meetings, call Nanette at 894-7122.

What book got YOU hooked?

• For singer Kenny Chensey it was Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemingway.
• For actor Marlee Matlin it was Judy Blume's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
• For satirist Stephen Colbert it was the Swiss Family Robinson
• And for me, it was probably P.D. Eastman's Go, Dog Go! My two older sisters knew they could bribe me to do anything simply by promising to read me that book before bedtime. I just couldn't get enough out of the girl dog asking the boy dog, "Do you like my hat?"

What was the book that got you hooked on reading? The First Book people want to know. They're asking book lovers to share their memories of the first book that made reading fun for them on a special website created just for this purpose. They're also asking people to help determine which U.S. state should win 50,000 free books to distribute to children in need. The 2007 winner was Oklahoma, which garnered 34,000 online votes during last year's two-month voting period.

As of today, Wisconsin was at 34th place, but we've all got until September 15 to vote, and they're urging people to Vote Now and Vote Often. If we all help spread the word, maybe we can put Wisconsin over the top.

What a great idea to get books into children's hands! Since this non-profit organization was formed 16 years ago, it has distributed more than 50 million books to families all over the U.s.

Here's a quote I love from their website, a great reminder of the importance of reading to our children as often as possible:

At its core, the campaign celebrates the profound power of the picture and chapter books we can never forget and the critical role they play in developing a lifelong love of reading.

So, check out the website and find out what books grabbed the hearts of Barry Manilow, Emma Thompson, Eartha Kitt and others. Then share your own happy memories with books. (We'd be delighted if you shared those memories on this blog as well!)

Remember what Joie always tells visitors to the KPL Youth Department: A book is a gift you can open over and over again. - Nanette

Quick Computer Help

Custom Guide: Learning-on-Demand is a Minneapolis firm that specializes in customizable, computer training for users at all levels. The average employee is only familiar with 10% of a computer's features, they claim. They want to help businesses and non-profits fill in the other 90%.

They also make available more than 60 Free Quick Reference guides to help you start using the most popular computer software programs. They offer two-page tips for using the many Microsoft Office (2003 and 2007) products on the market, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and several others. There are also guides for getting started with Adobe products and web browsers including Internet Explorer and (my new favorite) Mozilla Firefox. The guides are very user friendly, with color-coded instructions and diagrams. You really can start using a program immediately.

Anyone with Internet access and a printer can print out these guides for free. The library has also copies several dozen of them for patrons to pick up and use on-site or at home. Just look for the "Quick and Easy Computer Guides" sign next to our local history collection. Or ask a library employee for help.

I don't know how much beyond a 10% familiarity with my own computer I'll ever get (seems that once I start feeling comfortable with a new program, they come out with a new version!) but it's nice to know there's some practical help out there.

And you can't beat the price. - Nanette

Words for those affected by cancer

"Perhaps grief, because it makes clear the value of what might be lost, is one of the essential experiences that carries us, like music, toward meaning."

It's hard to find anyone whose life has not been touched by cancer. Friends, relatives, close loved ones .... it's a painful journey to experience, no matter what your vantage point. My sister, the most courageous woman I know, thought she'd licked her breast cancer five years ago. Now it's back with a vengeance. She and her husband are valiantly taking each day as it comes - that's pretty much all you can do. But the days - filled as they are with hospital visits, medications too numerous to count - apparent progress and good news followed almost immediately by setbacks and disappointments - seem to require more strength and courage than imaginable. She appreciates every small pleasure that crosses her path. And she takes special delight in her one-year-old granddaughter. But there's no denying that this journey is a very very difficult one.

Which is why I am so grateful to have found Dzvinia Orlowsky's affecting and passionate book of poems, Convertible Night, Flurry of Stones, an amazing collection of fierce and unflinching observations about life in the cancer lane, with all its paradoxes, heartaches and - yes - lessons.


"Orlowsky's poems about illness possess the necessary audacity to be fully human, with the insistence on missing absolutely nothing---at once beautiful and broken; magnificent and terrified," wrote Foreward Magazine in the review that prompted me to purchase this book for the library. The book just arrived today, and I have been unable to put it down. Orlowsky writes about waiting rooms, chemo visits, hair loss, and prostheses with an attentive eye, a dark, ironic wit, and an unwillingness to sentimentalize.

Note how she embeds her emotions in everyday language in this portion of "Losing My Hair." The kicker, for me, is in the last line:

I couldn't bear to wrap it in toilet paper,
throw it out.

I carried some strands to the woods,
spread them on the ground

for the birds to lift
into their nests.

I placed some more strands
in an empty hornet's nest,

its gray center welcoming
my hand.

The hornets are gone,
but the birds might come back.

I wrapped the last few strands with some horsehair I'd kept.
A few thick pieces of a black mane

I'd pulled riding once, out of fear.

Later, in the same poem, she describes a visit with Donna, a hairstylist, whose got some wig recommendations:

The first wig makes me look
like an airline ticketing agent.

The second one drives a school bus.
The third one, curling around my mouth,

wants sex. That one couldn't be worn
near an open oven door.

The dark one, like my mother's hair,
loves the rain,

travels well in a small box.
Donna says Try this human hair;

it fits like a silk glove.
but it's short, thick Oriental hair,

a gold medallist, figure skater's hair.
Donna says the reason my complexion looks so sallow

is because of all the chemo.
I leave the yellow of her fitting room.

Sweeping the floor
around my chair, Donna says

After the eyelashes and eyebrows go,
your eyes will need more bang.


These poems are painful to read in places, but comforting nonetheless in their unsparing honesty. I've always found that honesty offers a special kind of solace during especially painful times in life, probably because it too often is the first casualty. I appreciate and admire Orlowsky's determination to be honest with her readers and, obviously, with herself.

She also fulfills one of the primary purposes of poetry, which is, as one reviewer notes, to show us how "to look, to attend, to inhabit fully."

If I could grant one wish for my sister this summer, that would be it.

- Nanette