Search results matching tag 'families'

Attention Tweens and Teens! Reader's Theatre @ EVPL!

KickinLibrarian@evpl — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 16:49:00 GMT

Calling all Tweens and Teens! EVPL Reader's Theatre!

Ever dreamed about writing your own script? Do you have a flair for the stage? If you are looking for something to do over Winter Break, this program is just for you! Join librarians in the first ever EVPL Reader's Theatre!

Monday-Thursday, December 20-23

3:30-4:30 pm

Browning Room A

Performance will be held on Thursday, December 23 at 6pm in Browning Rooms A and B.

Thinking About College - for students and parents

kiya@evpl — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 21:39:00 GMT

I'm a college mom now - dropped our son off at campus and came home alone. The school feels like a good fit for him, and we're pleased with how the admissions and financial aid worked out, though he is a little farther away than we had first imagined.

We got a tremendous amount of help from his school, which is small, with an exceptional counselor who gave him lots of individual attention. Still, I learned a lot from the College Prep programs we've hosted at Red Bank for the last several years. Many parents whose kids have gone to larger schools tell me that the programs have been invaluable to them.

Learn more about the programs here:

College Prep 1 - Choosing the Right School
College Prep 2 - Getting In: Applications and Admissions Interviews
College Prep 3 - Scholarships, Grants and Loans! Paying for College

In the meantime, here are a few of our new books on the subject:

Summer Adventures: How to Build a House by Dana Reinhardt

kiya@evpl — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:42:00 GMT

Harper Evans is 17, and just lost her best friend and stepsister when their parents divorced. Anxious to get away from all the drama and heartache, she volunteers for a summer of community service, building homes in Tennessee, in a town devastated by a tornado. The story alternates between HERE - the summer in Tennessee, and HOME - the story of her family, and how they came together and then apart. It is a difficult summer for Harper, but she reaches out of her comfort zone, and learns a lot about what she wants from life, and what she needs from people.

I really liked this story, and am now anxious to read other books by this author. EVPL has a couple:

Harmless (2007)

When Anna, Emma, and Mariah concoct a story about why they are late getting home one Friday night, their lie has unimaginable consequences for the girls, their families, and the community.

A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life (2006)

Sixteen-year-old atheist Simone Turner-Bloom's life changes in unexpected ways when her parents convince her to make contact with her biological mother, an agnostic from a Jewish family who is losing her battle with cancer.

Reinhardt's fourth novel, The Things a Brother Knows, is due out this September.

Happy Belated Mother's Day: The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison

kiya@evpl — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:17:00 GMT

I meant to write this several weeks ago, before Mother's Day, but I've had trouble sitting down to try and put into words what this book meant to me. I picked it up last fall when it was new. The flyleaf calls it "a memoir of a family in transition" and mentioned children becoming teenagers, and the search for the right college for Kenison's older son. Because my children are teens, and my son was in the midst of the college search, I took it home.

Kenison was in the midst of more transitions - her family also moved from a Boston suburb to rural New Hampshire, they ended up with a house requiring much renovation, and there were job changes for the parents, as well. Though Kenison's choices were different than the ones I probably would have made, I deeply understood her feelings of struggling to see what would be best for her family, and to balance the sacrifices of each against the benefits for each. Sometimes she took my breath away with the honesty in her descriptions of the arguments with her sons, especially her younger, newly adolescent son who hated the move to New Hampshire. Still, they weathered it all, and came through a stronger family, though one that was beginning to move in different directions.

What brought this to mind as Mother's Day approached, was the sense that while parenting encompasses lots of sacrifices on the part of the adults, the gifts in parenting go both ways, and Kenison clearly shows this in her story. The greatest gifts, she believes, are not in the big days, but in the ordinary days.

Katrina Kenison's website

Katrina Kenison's blog

EVPL copies of The Gift of an Ordinary Day

EVPL copies of Mitten Strings for God, Kenison's earlier book

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 20:49:00 GMT

Sarah Addison Allen has charmed me with every one of her novels and her most recent, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, is no exception. I loved every minute with Emily, Julia, Vance, Stella, Sawyer and Win. I want to eat cake made by Julia, see the wallpaper change in Emily's bedroom and just experience the little bit of magic all of these people have in their lives.

Teenager Emily Benedict has come to Mullaby, North Carolina to live with her grandfather, Vance Shelby, also known as the Giant of Mullaby because he's "tall enough to see into tomorrow"-- over eight feet tall. Emily has never met her grandfather or visited Mullaby, where her recently deceased mother grew up. She doesn't know what to expect and there are a number of surprises awaiting her, some of them upsetting, some of them comforting.

Meanwhile, Julia Winterson wants nothing more than to leave Mullaby and move back to Maryland. Julia may have grown up in this small town, but now she is a temporary, maybe not so welcome fixture, or so she thinks. Julia inherited her father's BBQ restaurant in Mullaby. While she leaves most of the running of the restaurant to her staff, she bakes fabulous cakes and pastries fresh each morning as town is waking up. When the mortgage on the restaurant is paid off, she plans to sell it and open her own bakery in Baltimore. Emily is a great character, but Julia is my favorite.

Sarah Addison Allen's two previous novels are Garden Spells and The Sugar Queen. I think of the three, The Girl Who Chased the Moon is probably my least favorite, but don't let that put you off. I still loved it and recommend it very much; I just like the other two a little better. I don't want to go into detail about why I like this one just a little less, for fear of giving away a big part of the story.

One difference between The Girl Who Chased the Moon and its predecessors that I found kind of nice is that there isn't a really bad guy involved in the story. Gardens Spells had David and The Sugar Queen had Julian; both were truly evil men; there's no other way for me to describe them. While that very real evil was absent from The Girl Who Chased the Moon, other touches of other-worldly, positive magic were present. As an example, the wallpaper in Emily's bedroom changes depending on her mood.

With all three novels, I've really become attached to the characters. Both main characters and supporting characters are always a treat. It's always possible to imagine her characters going on with their lives beyond the end of the book. The stories are about the past and present, but the endings are about the future and leave me feeling hopeful. Her style is becoming familiar to me and I like that because it makes the books comforting. I do hope, however, that her stories continue to remain fresh; that familiar style doesn't become same old, same old.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

KickinLibrarian@evpl — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:04:00 GMT

When I went home a little while back, I saw a copy of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in my little sister's room. Feeling a bit nostalgic, I went home and started reading the battered copy on my bookshelf. I don't know how many times I have read this book (almost as many as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird), but I always come away feeling like I have just read it for the first time.

Betty Smith published A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in 1943 and it was an immediate success. The story focuses around Francie Nolan, a young girl growing up in the early twentieth century with a fun-loving, but alcoholic father, realistic mother, and younger brother. Struggling against poverty and isolation from her peers, Francie finds solace in the library where she plans to read every book in the collection. The story continues over the next five years of Francie's life. Her struggle to gain her mother's love, her desire to better her own life, and finding love are all issues that Francie encounters growing up in Brooklyn.

I don't want to give away too much of the story for those of you that haven't read it because A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a book that I believe everyone should read at least once. Francie and her family have struggles that many people can relate to, and you can't help but wish to be the friend Francie so desperately needed. If you are wandering around the library one day searching for something to read, remember to grab a copy of this book.

Lost Boy by Brent W. Jeffs

Bufkinite@evpl — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:08:00 GMT

Anyone familiar with John Krakauer's book Under the Banner of Heaven will be familiar with the polygamous, Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints (FLDS). In that book Krakauer recounts how religious polygamy was often used as a cover for pedophilia, and how anyone who questioned the motives of the church leaders often paid in "blood atonement."

The last name of the author of Lost Boy, Jeffs, may be familiar to anyone who has followed the saga of the FLDS, which has been in the news a lot in the past five years. Warren Jeffs, the "prophet" of this splinter cult off of the mainstream Mormon church, is the uncle of the author. The author's grandfather, Rulon Jeffs, was the "prophet" before him, and this book recounts the power struggles that took place within the FLDS, as well as the power struggles that went on within his own family - his father had three wives and 12 children, a small family by FLDS standards.

In a church like the FLDS, where men are guaranteed a "seat in the Kingdom" when they achieve "a quorum," or three wives, young men tend to be seen as "in the way" by older men in looking to complete their quorum with younger - often much younger - women.

The book is divided into four sections called "Before," "During," "After," and "Fighting Back." Brent Jeffs recounts how, as a very young child - just a boy of six or seven - he was forcibly and brutally raped by Warren Jeffs, as were at least two of his brothers. He recounts how young men were singled out for "discipline" for the slightest infractions, and made to feel like they didn't and couldn't belong to the church because of their unsanctified ways.

He recounts how, upon assuming the mantle of leadership of the FLDS, Warren Jeffs began to transform it from a faith - a fringe faith, yes, but a faith - into a cult. Outlawing such small things as pet dogs, the color red, any sort of clothing that was "worldly," and a host of other everyday things like videos of popular television shows like The Simpsons, or name brand clothing or running shoes.

He recounts how his own father was expelled from the the church by his brother, and the life they led trying to keep at least part of their family together. (Warren Jeffs had the authority to "reassign" the wives of expelled church members, and broke up hundreds of families this way in his struggle to maintain power.) He details his and his brothers slide into alcoholism and drug addiction, as they became marginalized from the only community they'd ever known.

Finally though, we are told about his long struggle to return to sanity, and even to filing a Civil suit in 2004 accusing Jeffs of abusing him.

Ultimately, this book is an uplifting look at how people can find happiness and meaning in life, even those who have had truly horrific and demeaning experiences.

Link to the segment of NPR's "Fresh Air" where Terry Gross interviews Brent Jeffs.

Sunshine Cleaning

KickinLibrarian@evpl — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:24:00 GMT

Rose and Norah were little girls when their little mother died. They both came in from playing in the yard to find their mom dead in the bathroom, an apparent suicide. As the two girls grow up, that day shapes their lives. Rose is a single mother working hard as a house cleaner to raise her son, while having an affair with her married high school sweetheart. Norah is a party girl. She doesn't have a boyfriend, drinks all the time, and can't hold a job. Their father is a quirky man always looking for a get-rich-quick scheme.

After Rose's son is expelled from school and a reunion with her high school friends approaching, Rose convinces Norah to start a crime scene cleaning business with her. Hilarity ensues as the two women struggle to learn the ropes of cleaning up grisly crime scenes, but there is an underlying seriousness as well. With their new business taking off, both Rose and Norah have to come to grips with what happen to their mother all those years ago and figure out what they want out of their own lives.

Fans of Little Miss Sunshine will like this movie with the quirky characters, humor, but a serious storyline as well. I laughed out loud and cried a few times as well. Highly recommended.

Love As Always, Kurt: Vonnegut As I Knew Him, by Loree Rackstraw

Bufkinite@evpl — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:21:00 GMT

In September of 1965 Lorree Rackstraw was a graduate student in her second year at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, apprehensive about her new teacher, a relatively unknown writer named Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut had published just three books: The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night, and Cat's Cradle. He'd also finished writing God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater the previous spring, and was struggling to get onto paper what he referred to as his "Dresden Book."

Love As Always, Kurt, recounts the friendship that began that summer, and lasted over 40 years, until Kurt Vonnegut died in April of 2007. To call it a friendship cheapens the care that this memoir makes clear they shared with one another. Rackstraw is now Professor Emeritus and the University of Northern Iowa & former editor of The North American Review.

This memoir of Rackstraw's forty-year relationship with Kurt Vonnegut is a very personal and deep look into both the human and the writer behind the name Kurt Vonnegut. We see clearly how, as a writer, he labors in draft after draft of everything he wrote from Slaughterhouse Five to Man Without a Country, and down to the speeches he gave at countless colleges, universities, graduations, and memorial services. We see, just as clearly, how he champions common humanity, and simultaneously enjoys the company of the famous and relatively well-to-do. We see how, despite periods of darkness and cynicism, this relationship buoyed Vonnegut, and provided Rackstraw with an escape from the pressures of her academic career as well.

We see, most plainly, a deep and abiding friendship that transcends all normal definitions. Was it love? Definitely. What it friendship? In the most useful meaning of the word, yes. But it was more: it was a collegial relationship - Vonnegut sent her page proofs of everything from Slaughterhouse Five forward; it was an intimate relationship, certainly: "Kurt and I toured the town of Key West, hand in hand like kids, and took photographs of each other beside somebody else's catch of a huge fish... Later, we danced barefoot under moonlight on that beach, to ragtime music from the piano bar;" and ultimately, it was a lifelong relationship, that saw a parting of the ways only in the death of one.

Being a long-time Vonnegut fan, I loved this book. It represents a first-hand account of four decades of his life by someone who he consistently loved, and who loved him in return. A tender portrait.

The Wedding Girl

KickinLibrarian@evpl — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:54:00 GMT

Are you a fan of the Shopaholic Series by Sophie Kinsella? If so, let me introduce you to Kinsella's alter ego, Madeleine Wickham. Both personas write about English women who have found themselves in a predicament. Whether it be money (Shopaholic series), quitting a job and winding up in the country (Undomestic Goddess), or having a marriage from ten years ago come back and haunt her (Wickham's newest novel), women in all of the novels have an obstacle to overcome. The difference, however, is the slapstick humor that can be found in Kinsella's books. When she writes under the alter ego of Wickham, Sophie Kinsella approaches subjects more seriously and tackles some difficult issues.

In the newest book by Wickham, The Wedding Girl, Milly Havill is just four days from marrying the man of her dreams. It seems, however, that Milly has a secret that she has been hiding for ten years and the secret is threatened to be revealed by her wedding photographer. When she was 18, Milly married an American student to allow him to stay in England with his partner. Thinking no one would ever find out, Milly continues to live her life for the next ten years. A few days before her wedding, however, the photographer shows up to take her picture, and Milly discovers it is the same young man that snapped a shot of her first wedding on the courthouse steps.

Milly's story is just one of the storylines in The Wedding Girl. Each character has issues that he or she is struggling to resolve. While there are multiple storylines occurring in this novel, Wickham manages to keep the reader invested in all the characters. It isn't her strongest, or funniest, but for fans of Kinsella or Wickham, it will be another good read.