StellaLuna, Archie, And Other Picture Books
StellaLuna, Archie, and other picture books
Many "kids books" don't have pictures, many " adult books" do. While an overuse of pictures can dumb-down the story the final picture in A Picture of Dorian Gray and the pictures of some of the mountain climbers and map of Everest in Into Thin Air created emphasis and added to the story. It's important also to note that while not always, "kids books" or picture books aren't actually always just for children.
I was probably too young to read the Archie comic books when I read them, as with most things I did with my parents. But at 11 or later at night there was little else at the newsstand, that's what was available and it worked to keep me occupied at a time long before smartphones or portable DVD players. A few years later books were used again as part of a reward system: 100 books and I could get a pet. These were good moves, while there is a fine line between bribing and inspiring, in this case I was inspired with that list being one of the biggest factors into reading all the very adult books I read today, even thou most of those books were ones that I knew were kids books even then when it took me less than an hour to read some.
StellaLuna was a story about a bat, and long story short, it’s about how who you love determines your family, the harms of trying to fit into a mould and is a stuffed animal that remains on my bed to this day. So really, let's stop hating the picture books, stop thinking those that do are dumb or bland, let's just stop being book-snobs. Picture books aren't low brow, and Shakespeare isn't the holy grail.
More Posts from Jjayolsen and Others
“I dedicate this to all the Indigenous kids in the world who want to do art and dance and write stories, we are the original storytellers and we can make it here, as well.”
Congratulations, Taika Waititi, on a historic win at the Oscars. Thanks for another beautiful film.
Toshokan
According to various reports on world education and intelligent, Japan is one of the best. Inspired by the Western World, Japan’s first public library or “Toshokan” was first opened in 1982.
The Japanese government has kept their libraries updated with the changing times, made them a necessity in cities with over 50,000 residents and after World War II deemed that libraries were meant to be free, meeting the needs of residents which necessitated the creation of mobile libraries in the 1960s, way ahead of their time. Almost all schools in Japan have a school-based library, introducing children to reading at an early age. No country or current library system is perfect; however, Japan’s residents are well read and educated because they have had the opportunity and access to develop and grow.
(1) https://www.jla.or.jp/portals/0/html/libraries-e.html
Japanese High School Library tour:
Our Shared Universe: Human Experience
What is truly beautiful and most show by JK Rowlings’ Harry Potter series, but also by many other books (Sakura and the 1,000 paper cranes and the new book-to-movie adaption To all the boys I’ve loved before, is that while our cultures are different, part of us are all the same. WE ARE ALL HUMAN. While some believe in the human being split and others believe in the red string; most of us all have similarities with those very different from ourselves and even if we cannot meet these people face to face, we meet them in the stories that reflect ours, but are just slightly different.
At the entrance to the Peace Park people filed through the memorial building in silence. On the walls were photographs of the dead and dying in a ruined city. The atom bomb—the Thunderbolt—had turned Hiroshima into a desert. Sadako didn’t want to look at the frightening pictures. She held tight to Chizuko’s hand and walked quickly through the building. -- Sakura and the 1,000 paper cranes
Is this not how the US currently deals with September 11th, there is respect, there is honor, there is fear and confusion.
While not the best of ideas, in the pre-internet times--books sometimes were your only saviour. Even today, I still appreciate the new worlds, in some aspect better worlds books can take me to and inspire me to create
Oscar Martinez
Oscar’s Best Moment: Season Four, Episode Thirteen: Job Fair
When after Michael says that he wouldn’t say it to her face but he thinks Pam is a wonderful person who is a gifted artist; Oscar responds “Why--why wouldn’t you say that to her face?”
Oscar’s Worst Moment: Season Nine, Episode 11: Suit Warehouse
When he just ‘assumes’ Meredith would mispronounce espresso
“Actually, it’s pronounced Espresso. Wait. That’s what you said. I apologize. I just assumed you would mispronounce it. So..”
Oscar’s Second-Best Line: Season Nine, Episode One: New Guys
After Angela tells him if “if you pray enough, you can change yourself into a cat person”
And he responds “those guys always turn back, Angela”
Oscar’s Most Memorable Moment: Season Three, Episode Thirteen: The Return
“Part of me wants the people in this office to have learned their lesson and just shut the hell up, and part of me thinks ‘You know what? Keep talking. I’d really love a home theatre’”
For nearly a decade, Diana Ramirez hadn’t been able to take a book home from the San Diego Public Library. Her borrowing privileges were suspended, she was told, because of a mere $10 in late fees, an amount that had grown to $30 over the years.
Ramirez, who is now 23 and stays in Tijuana with her mother, attends an alternative education program in San Diego that helps students earn high school diplomas. To her, the debt she owed to the library system was an onerous sum. Even worse, it removed a critical resource from her life.
“I felt disappointed in myself because I wasn’t able to check out books,” Ramirez said. “I wasn’t able to use the computers for doing my homework or filling out job applications. I didn’t own a computer, so the library was my only option to access a computer.”
In April, Ramirez finally caught a break. The San Diego Public Library wiped out all outstanding late fines for patrons, a move that followed the library system’s decision to end its overdue fines. Ramirez was among the more than 130,000 beneficiaries of the policy shift, cardholders whose library accounts were newly cleared of debt.
The changes were enacted after a city study revealed that nearly half of the library’s patrons whose accounts were blocked as a result of late fees lived in two of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. “I never realized it impacted them to that extent,” said Misty Jones, the city’s library director.
For decades, libraries have relied on fines to discourage patrons from returning books late. But a growing number of some of the country’s biggest public library systems are ditching overdue fees after finding that the penalties drive away the people who stand to benefit the most from free library resources.
From San Diego to Chicago to Boston, public libraries that have analyzed the effects of late fees on their cardholders have found that they disproportionately deter low-income residents and children.
‘We Wanted Our Patrons Back’ — Public Libraries Scrap Late Fines To Alleviate Inequity
Illustration: Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR
David Wallace
David’s Best Moment: Season Five, Episode Five: Crime Aid
When he offers week at his timeshare as a prize in the fundraiser when the office was robbed.
David’s Worst Moment: Season Five, Episode Twenty: New Boss
When he stops taking Michael’s calls and has his secretary forward Michael’s future calls to New Manager Charles who is at the Scranton Branch.
David’s Best Line: Season Five, Episode Nineteen: Golden Ticket
When David finds out the Golden Ticket idea was Michael’s and not Dwight’s
“Pam, do me a favor, don’t send me those notes”.
David’s Most Memorable Moment: Season Five, Episode Twelve: The Duel
When he brings Michael into the office because the Scranton branch was doing well, and tried to pick Michael’s brain.
Leabharlann and dhachaigh, Dhachaigh and Leabharlann
Extending what you can and cannot experience
What you can and cannot find
You take what you can get
As sometimes your connection, the community and history is only met if you don’t hold yourself to the expectations and goals and resources of others
Parts Unknown
Libraries are not just about books and education; sometimes a connection doesn’t come from a written word or common experience but the opening up of one’s experiences and becoming vulnerable. Libraries have all different mediums for these connections and sometimes the break in the sentence, flutter in the eye you experience directly adds to the depth of the spoken word that cannot be expressed by their writing. Diversity in writing, community and stories includes diversity of media.
Ugh; Anthony Bourdain’s Buenos Aires episode. I hope you can hear us all now, you did so much more than just shove food in your mouth.
Highlighting the significance of how the food is prepared to the culture and history and individual--it’s why the show wasn’t called something generically--food “Unknown”, but parts unknown.
Parts of diets we don’t know of, parts of the world we don’t know of, parts of ourselves we don’t know of.
Thank you, I miss you--> I’ve been missing you
