THE BOOKANEER
October 2007
REMEMBER TO INCLUDE THE CALL TO SHAKABAZ ON YOUR HOLIDAY GIFT LIST FOR JUST THE RIGHT YOUNG PERSON!
Have a look at the quotes from enthusiastic reviewers recently posted on our website home page: www.wozabooks.com.
NEWS ABOUT OUR JOURNEY WITH THE CALL TO SHAKABAZ
My co-publisher (who happens to be my husband) Ron and I attended the Sonoma County Book Festival in Santa Rosa last month. It was another great opportunity to read from The Call to Shakabaz and to make foldout books with children using the Everyday Practices. When a perplexed mother asked me how I arrived at the statement that the opposite of violence is imagination, her eight-year-old twin daughters explained to her that you have to use your imagination instead of violence to come up with a solution to a problem or to resolve a conflict. I thought I was clever for promoting this idea, but to hear the twins discuss it, well, it sounded like a no-brainer. How did our children get to be so smart?
We had the opportunity, through the Festival, to donate some of our books to libraries destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. We went for coffee with cookbook writer Mollie Katzen, an old friend of ours from Berkeley days. Coffee lasted a couple of hours as we caught each other up on what our children are doing, our latest projects, and how to prepare nopales (cactus). Check out Molly’s new book entitled The Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without. The highlight of our day was a visit to The Red Rose, a soul food restaurant, because Ron just had to have Cajun catfish. I discovered they also make a terrific Cajun tofu! Don’t laugh!
LETTERS ABOUT LITERATURE – TEACHERS AND PARENTS ENCOURAGE YOUR YOUNGSTERS TO PARTICIPATE!
The Library of Congress Center for the Book in collaboration with Target is sponsoring a contest for school-age kids. They can win a $500 gift certificate at Target and $10,000 for the library of their choice by writing a short essay about a book that changed their life. Deadline is December 14. For more information here’s the link: http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/letters.html
One of my favorite childhood reads was A Wrinkle in Time by author Madeleine L’Engle, who just recently passed away. I wish I could enter the Letters About Literature contest myself and write about how much it meant to me to read about heroine Meg Murray, an awkward girl with glasses who likes science and spends too much time in the attic reading – and who is the one who saves the day in the end. When A Wrinkle in Time came out, there were not many girls who saved the day in sci-fi or fantasy books.
DON’T FORGET TEEN READ WEEK
The YALSA-sponsored Teen Read Week is October 14-20. This year’s theme is “LOL @ Your Library” and features humorous books to encourage teen reading. YALSA says “The humor theme is meant to encourage teens nationwide to make time to read something light and entertaining just for the fun of it.”
TELL CONGRESS TO SUPPORT THE SKILLS ACT
Contact your member of congress and ask him/her to co-sponsor or support HR 2684, Strengthening of Kids Interest in Learning and Libraries, better known as the SKILLs Act. The SKILLs Act will require school districts, to the extent feasible, to ensure that every school employs at least one qualified school library media specialist in each school library. The Act was proposed by Representatives Raul Grihalva (D-AZ) and Vernon Ehlers (R-MI). For more information contact alethea.scally@mail.house.gov in Grihalva’s office or Rachel.post@mail.house.gov in Ehlers office. This act will make it more difficult for districts to balance their budgets by cutting librarian hours and positions. If we are really concerned about literacy, then cutting school librarian positions strikes me as a ridiculously poor solution to a budget crisis. This is an essential staff position.
§ § § §
The Bookaneer is a brief message sent from me to you once a month. If you do not want to remain on my list for The Bookaneer, please send me an email at this address and put in it the exact email address I used to send The Bookaneer to you. I will remove you from the list. I don’t want to be spamming anyone!
The Bookaneer is produced by Amy Wachspress (© 2007). Feel free to reuse any part of this e-zine, but give credit either to Amy or to the original source for all material used. Visit www.wozabooks.com for more information.
