Let me begin by saying that I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Here are some numbers about that uniquely American holiday. They cover everything from the number of turkeys raised in the U.S. to the number of places that are named after that tasty fowl, most courtesy of the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.
As part of this year’s One Book, One Community program, which features Doug Fine’s “epic adventure in local living,” Farewell, My Subaru, we’re presenting two showings of a documentary called No Impact Man: on Friday, October 14 at 8:00 p.m. in the Student Center Theater at WCSU, and again on Wednesday, October 19 at 7:00 p.m. in the library’s Farioly Program Room. Based on his book of the same name (although the book has the added subtitle of “The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process”), Colin Beavan had two friends film the year-long attempt by him, his wife and their two-year-old daughter to live as carbon-free a life as possible — in mid-Manhattan. This 90-minute movie shows not only how they try to achieve that goal, but also how the experience changed their family. Join us at either showing for this thought-provoking and interesting film as we celebrate Danbury’s fourth city-wide reading event, and click here for the full list of OBOC programs.
Each year during the last week of September, the American Library Association, among other groups, sponsors Banned Books Week. And each year there are critics who complain that Banned Books Week is a deliberate misnomer, that in fact many of the books on the annual list of titles have not actually been banned, but only challenged. In my opinion, these critics miss the point: that the week is actually supposed to draw attention to the fact that there are still many people in this country who, if they object to a book for any reason whatsoever, don’t want you or your children (most challenges take place in schools) to be able to read that book either. This ALA website will lead you to several interesting lists, including banned books by year or decade and banned and challenged classics. As Clare Booth Luce wrote, “Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there.” So challenge those would-be censors, and read a good banned book this week — the library is filled with them!
P.S. My apologies for not having posted for far too long. Since our summer hours are now over, my shame was so great that I found the time and a good subject to add a new entry.
As we’ve done for the past two summers, the Danbury Library will again be closing on Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. after Memorial Day through Labor Day weekend, between June 4 and September 3. But you’ll still have from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. to come in and get books for the beach or your vacation, or for lazing about in the hammock or lawn chair. And don’t forget that during the summer, specifically between May 29 and September 4, the library will also follow its traditional summer schedule and be closed on Sundays. Let me be among the first to wish you a happy and healthy summer season, and may it be filled with lots of great books, music and movies from the Danbury Library.
Since the Danbury Library was fortunate enough to be chosen as one of only 35 public and academic libraries in the U.S. (and the only one in CT) to host a new traveling exhibition about Maurice Sendak’s work, In a Nutshell: The Worlds of Maurice Sendak, I thought I’d reprint an earlier blog posting about one of my encounters with Mr. Sendak.
When I was the director of the Brookfield Library (1976-1984), I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Sendak when he spoke at the library. Several weeks later, he called me to ask if I knew a good typist; and since I was the fastest typist I knew at the time, I offered him my services. In his Ridgefield studio, he asked me to type a draft of the libretto for the Wild Things opera that he was writing with Oliver Knussen. After I’d typed for a while, Sendak asked me if I liked apples. When I said yes, he gave me a red delicious apple and told me to take a big bite out of it. I did, and then he drew it. After that, he asked me to eat it down to the core, and he drew it a second time that way. That one apple, which “posed” twice, became both the one that’s on the sidewalk as well as the one the Wild Thing is holding in his hand as he reads in the illustration here. “My apple” appeared in the poster for the very first New York Is Book Country in 1979, which advertised the first time that all of the many bookstores that used to line Fifth Avenue 30 years ago held a special day to promote reading. I love pointing out “my apple” to visitors to my home, and I’m glad that I played this tiny role in the career of one of our greatest children’s author/illustrators.
Be sure to stop in between May 13 and June 24 to view this exciting traveling exhibit about one of our greatest and most beloved author/illustrators, and revisit any of his wonderful books.
