You may have noticed a new addition right at the front entrance. If not, I recommend you take a moment to look. The Town of Salem has distributed AEDs to most of the town building and the library is one of the locations.
An AED - automated external defibrillator - is an easy to use device to help when someone is having a heart attack or similar problem. It comes with easy to follow instructions and won't do anything if its sensors do not find the correct condition. It is an invaluable tool to help keep someone alive while waiting for an ambulance.
Several people on the staff have had training, but the device is out in the public areas just so that anyone faced with this kind of emergency can take action.
Please take a moment to locate the device - no one ever knows when it will be needed.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Reading and sharing
We were talking about what to do about the ripped upholstery on one of the big comfy chairs in the children's room. During one of our many rearraging of furniture here, we moved two down there in the window so that parents/grandparents and kids could snuggle together and share a book. They have been very popular - so popular that we are faced with what to do with the ripped upholstery.
I remember the hours spent reading picture books to my kids back lo these many years and how much fun we had, lying together on a bed, enjoying the books, discussing the artwork, and having a lovely, quiet shared moment at the end of each busy day. My older son continued to share with me and my daughter even when he was reading to himself, but ultimately there came the day that both were avid readers and no longer saw the charm of the picture books. Gosh that was a hard change to accept! But we did keep the tradition of reading several favorite Christmas picture books on Christmas Eve (Polar Express, Santa Cows and Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas Present come to mind)whenever we are together at Christmas.
So I was delighted to come across this new book that has just come out about a father and daughter who read aloud together each night for nine years: The Reading Promise, by Alice Ozma. They started when Alice was in the fourth grade, with the intention of reading for 100 consecutive nights. Once they reached that goal, they wanted to continue, and did so until Alice left for college. They have worked their way through a wide range of books, but best of all they retained a shared experience through the most challenging age for kids. They were able to carve out a snippet of time to come together and share some meaningful moments together - with books at the heart of it.
There is something about sharing a book that is irresistable. While it is a very solitary activity in general - and my husband always grumbles about feeling ignored when I read - at the same time as you read you frequently are thinking of talking about it to a friend or family member, are reminding yourself to recommend it(or recommend against it) to others. Just now there are a few books where the authors have written to share their life changing experiences while reading a set group of books over the course of a year. Howard's End is on the Landing, by Susan Hill is all about Ms Hill decision to read all the books on her shelves that she never had gotten to before.
Another title just coming out is Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, by Nina Sankovitch. In this book, Ms. Sankovitch decides to deal with personal loss by reading a book a day. She discovered a way to connect with a lost loved one.
It never fails to amaze me the various powers of books.
I remember the hours spent reading picture books to my kids back lo these many years and how much fun we had, lying together on a bed, enjoying the books, discussing the artwork, and having a lovely, quiet shared moment at the end of each busy day. My older son continued to share with me and my daughter even when he was reading to himself, but ultimately there came the day that both were avid readers and no longer saw the charm of the picture books. Gosh that was a hard change to accept! But we did keep the tradition of reading several favorite Christmas picture books on Christmas Eve (Polar Express, Santa Cows and Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas Present come to mind)whenever we are together at Christmas.
So I was delighted to come across this new book that has just come out about a father and daughter who read aloud together each night for nine years: The Reading Promise, by Alice Ozma. They started when Alice was in the fourth grade, with the intention of reading for 100 consecutive nights. Once they reached that goal, they wanted to continue, and did so until Alice left for college. They have worked their way through a wide range of books, but best of all they retained a shared experience through the most challenging age for kids. They were able to carve out a snippet of time to come together and share some meaningful moments together - with books at the heart of it.
There is something about sharing a book that is irresistable. While it is a very solitary activity in general - and my husband always grumbles about feeling ignored when I read - at the same time as you read you frequently are thinking of talking about it to a friend or family member, are reminding yourself to recommend it(or recommend against it) to others. Just now there are a few books where the authors have written to share their life changing experiences while reading a set group of books over the course of a year. Howard's End is on the Landing, by Susan Hill is all about Ms Hill decision to read all the books on her shelves that she never had gotten to before.
Another title just coming out is Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, by Nina Sankovitch. In this book, Ms. Sankovitch decides to deal with personal loss by reading a book a day. She discovered a way to connect with a lost loved one.
It never fails to amaze me the various powers of books.
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