The Librarian At Large

    Today's blog subject can be filed under the category of "Who Knew Math Could Be Fun?"  For many young minds math is tedious, boring and hard.  Tedious for their  bland story problems that pop up  in homework assignments and tests.  Never are these stories  interesting, have a plot or have characters that make a reader care about the eighty cantaloupes they are buying.  It is totally boring.  Which equals to a hard to solve problem.   Today is Pie Day or more actually known as Pi day also known as 3.14.   Having started this long introduction for  a simple topic, please accept this heartfelt apology for all the math puns to come.      Looking for entertaining books on math is difficult because the first place one might look,  are the math books. Let's face it,  they have enough problems of their own to help with this  search. A quick look into the children's fiction sect...

      Following the news of the day,  censorship seems to be the "cool" thing to do in social media, book publishing and movies.    To a librarian's  soul this is distressing.   Frankly, it. should upset everyone in libraries, education, publishing and film industries.   Who is next to be labeled as “ban” worthy?  It almost seems like there is a self-deprecating game going on between corporate monopolies on who is the most sorry for racism.    Look no further than America’s favorite  family movie industry.  Disney has decided to throw in a few beloved titles  and label them as racist,  harmful and not appropriate fo children.   According to Disney, Peter Pan,   The Aristocrats and Dumbo are just as offensive as Dr. Suess.  Apparently banning Dr.Suess is not enough.  It's time to go through all of Chidlren's Literature and toss out everything.         F...

 This is a difficult subject to approach because emotions run high on both sides of the political spectrum.   As an advocate of public libraries and a professional as well,  it's time to break the silence in order to clarify some misconception about COVID and libraries.   A year ago,  many librarians had no clue, just as the rest of the nation,  that the pandemic would last over a year.  At worst, it was believed the our libraries would be closed for a month or two.  Then everything would return to normal. That was obviously not the case, especially in states like Michigan, where libraries and librarians were declared as "non-essential" businesses and workers.  It made for an interesting year with challenges that were never faced before and hopefully never to be faced again in our lifetime.  Now that we have faced the  'anniversary" of this dreaded disease, it's time to take stock of what we have learned and how to move forward....

   There are stories that are read and re-read because they bring the reader back to a moment in time where things are much different than today but yet the problems they face are parallel to our own.  This month is noted on the calendar as Women's  History Month.     Honestly to fill the entire month of historic events and accomplishment attributed to women is easily accomplished.  The problem lies in choosing which events or women to honor.  The temptation women's history month is to begin to think the women began making a difference in the modern age.  That contributions were never recognized and therefore women became shy wallflowers.    Today's post is to dispel the notion that women in Early American History where docile, domesticated and devoid of a purposeful role in society.  Quite often they are pictured as being  subservien...

      Sitting on a shelf in a little, quiet library is a book that inspired a little girl many, many years ago.  She  dreamed of becoming a doctor, someone who would help people in need,  give them comfort,  and hope when there seemed to be no hope to be found.   As her interest grew in wanting to pursue that path,  she went to the library to find a book or two on what it takes to become a doctor.  As look would have it,  in the biography section of the children's section there was a  blue book titled: The First Woman Doctor.   Putting aside the other books, she took the book down and began to read.  Doctor Elizabeth Blackwell inspired her tremendously. It had never occurred to her that someone would not be allowed to study to become a Doctor just because they were a woman.   The questions began forming in her mind,  what other things were women not allowed to do?      Years later,  the b...

      There has been plenty of claims made in recent days about the lack of Diversity in children's books.  Which has led to "labeling"  Dr. Suess books to be insensitive and racist.   This is nothing new.  The trend to view classic children's books in  a harsh light has been going on for years.  Take a look  critics of Little House on the Prairie Series or The Adventures of  Huckleberry Finn.  Both authors have been accused of using language that is derogatory towards Native and African Americans.   There is definitely a need to be inclusive in stories for children but not to the point of condoning censorship.  That is where we find ourselves in today's library.  As a children's librarian for many years,  this is an urgent call to remind not only my colleagues,  but anyone who works, lives and loves children.  Stop the madness.  Take a deep breath.  Look aro...

      It's sad that current society's "experts" are going  down the path of banning books, thoughts and censoring.  Not just music, films and books.  Just about anything that is contrary to what the popular trend on social media is for any given day.     On Read Across America Day, no less, experts and pundits are lining up to take their shots at Dr. Seuss and claiming that the author is racist.  My, my my  the pendulum has shifted and swung wildly into the wrong direction.  It is particularly painful for me  to hear library professionals utter the same sentiments towards dear old Dr. Seuss.  His memory deserves to be treated better.  His stories, each of them, are diverse romp into an imagination filled with magical impossibilities that make a rainy day better.    To set the record straight, once and for all, Seuss is good for children of all ...