Absolutely Fascinating!

As a children’s librarian I find myself hunting down the answers to a lot of bizarre questions put to me by kids. Because of this I have picked up some absolutely fascinating but completely useless knowledge over the years. I don’t know how the kids hear about this stuff but I’ve learned to look information up and ask questions later. If you want to entertain yourself for hours try looking up information on the internet about these bizarre but oddly enthralling subjects.

The Mysterious Moving Stones of Death Valley – These rocks move by themselves. Seriously. There are lots of different theories, but no one knows for sure how they do what they do. Two stones right next to each other will sometimes move in completely opposite directions. Don’t believe me? Look up some pictures on the internet. You won’t be able to sleep at night for wondering how those darn rocks do that!

Faces of Belmez – Images of strange faces began spontaneously appearing on the kitchen floor of one home in Belmez, Spain. They dug up the floor and laid a new one. New and different faces quickly appeared in the cement. Faces also appeared around the rest of the home with alarming frequency. This is probably a hoax, but I find it intriguing that no one has been able to figure out how they did it. The pictures are not just on the surface but inside the cement. Hmmmm.

Tunguska Event – A big explosion more powerful than an atom bomb happened out in the middle of nowhere. It leveled trees for miles but left no impact crater. People saw a ball of light in the sky and were knocked over by the explosion. Science has explained this one but it is facinating all the same.

The Cottingley Fairies – Two young girls in 1917 take photographs of real fairies. Or so they claimed. Many people believed them, including Sir Arthur Connan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame. Eventually they addmitted the whole thing was a hoax. I can’t help wondering what the girls thought when their little prank got so out of control. Till the day they died both women swore they had seen real fairies and that the last photo they took was genuine. Curiousier and Curiousier.

Ball Lightning – According to eyewitness accounts this stuff is really creepy. Floating balls of light have been known to appear inside airplanes while in flight, come up out of the ground after a lightning strike, and it has even been known to burn or kill people. I hope I never have to see any in my lifetime.

Tasmanian Tiger (Thycline) - Last captive Tasmanian Tiger died in 1936 at Hobart Zoo. These animals are officially extinct. So how come people still report seeing them in England every year? Logging companies actually put out poison whenever there is a sighting near their camps because they know they would be shut down if there was proof these rare animals had managed to survive after all this time. No one can stop the logging companies putting out poison because officially Thyclines don’t exist.

Mentos and Diet Coke – Try putting a Mento into a bottle of Diet Coke and watch what happens. Just make sure you do it OUTSIDE and stand back. YouTube has some really hilarious videos on this subject.

There are some really strange things in this world. Try not to lose sleep over any of them tonight. : )

Great Summer Books for Chapter Book Readers!

Sylwia, as per your request--here are some of my favorite summer books for kids:

Seven Wonders of Sassafras Spring by Betty Birney
The Boys Start the War by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
This Island Isn’t Big Enough for the Four of Us! by Gery Greer
Defenders of the Universe by D.V. Kelleher
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
No Flying in the House by Betty Brock
Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls
Trolls by Polly Horvath
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
Fire Within by Chris D’lacey
City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies
Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville
Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Luis Sachar
Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald
Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
Frindle by Andrew Clements
No Talking by Andrew Clements
Bunniculia by James Howe
Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Rowan of Rin by Emily Rodda

Humor on the Job

Working in a library can be a lot of laughs at times. Kids say the darnedest thing when you least expect it. Here are a few true life examples of funny things that have happened to me and my fellow children’s librarians while on the job.

One of my favorite “Working in the Library” memories was the time someone made the mistake of buying, like, ten of those potty training board books with the realistic flushing sound. It was a flushing frenzy. Kids would get a hold of one and flush it over and over and over and over. For weeks you couldn’t stroll through the stacks without hearing the sound of a toilet flushing somewhere a couple rows down. No one was more relieved than the children’s staff when all the batteries finally wore down. NO attempts were made to replace them.

I was once trying to help a patron find a book for her preteen son. “City of Ember is a book he might like,” I said to her. A pair of lips belonging to some random child suddenly appeared in a small gap in between the book shelves. “Beware the City of Ember,” the kid whispered in a low spooky voice. The lips disappeared as quickly as they had come. The woman turned to me with a smile. “I’ll take the book!” She said.

One day I spotted a boy sticking his finger into one of the cracks in one of our glass display cases to get at the things inside. “Please, don’t stick your fingers in there,” I said. The boy gave me these big innocent eyes and said, “Okay.” I started to walk away but noticed he continued to sit there with his finger in the case. I walked slowly back. “Are you stuck?” I asked. The boy’s facade crumbled and he started to cry. “Yes!” he said. I got the key and released him from the display. He never did try that again.

My all time favorite is the time one of our librarians noticed a ten or eleven year old boy, with tears running down his cheeks, sitting at a table one day. In real concern she approached the boy and asked if he was all right. “Why do characters that you’ve learned to love have to die?” he sobbed. “He’s been in so many books why did they have to kill him?” Feeling touched over the boy’s attachment to his fictional friend, she gently asked him what he was reading. He lifted the book so she could see the title. Bionicles # 5: Voyage of Fear. Ah, the power of great literature.

And here are a few more examples of conversations I’ve had on the job:

Preteen Girl: I need your help.
Me: What can I do for you?
Preteen Girl: What should I be when I grow up?
Me: Anything you want.
Preteen Girl: (After thinking awhile) I think I’ll be a Supermodel.
Me: Do you want some books about modeling?
Preteen Girl: No thanks. I think I’ve got it now.

If only it were that easy. Then there was that another time--

Little Boy (Standing at the front desk unashamedly picking his nose the entire time.) Do you have books on dust mites?

He probably really needed it too. Just one more story.

Woman Patron: Do you have photographs of dinosaurs?
(I show her the books about dinosaurs.)
Woman Patron: These are paintings of dinosaurs not photographs.
(I patiently explain to her there are no photographs of real dinosaurs just paintings and digital pictures.)
Woman Patron: Yes there are, I’ve seen them!

Photographs of real dinosaurs--let me just get out my trusty time machine.

Banned Children's Books

I recently saw a list of the top 100 most banned children’s books. Not only had I read quite a few of them, but some of my favorite books were on the list. Just call me THE REBEL. Here are just a few of the titles I could not believe were on the list. Go out and read one of these in protest as soon as possible.

Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
The Giver by Lois Lowry

Other banned books not mentioned in the top 100.

The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
Witch’s Sister by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss
Commander Toad in Space by Jane Yolen
Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

Miniature Sculpture Jewelry

I’ve always loved sculpture. The tinier the better. 3-D illustrations fascinate me. If you want to see what I mean, try checking out a book illustrated by Salley Mavor, Kim Fernandes, or Jo Litchfield sometime. It is an art you don’t see very often. My skills in miniature sculpture certainly came in useful when I started making dollhouses. I saved myself a lot of money making my miniatures rather than buying them all the time. With polymer clay, I was limited only by my imagination when it came to what I could and couldn’t have in a dollhouse. Eventually I moved into making miniature sculptures for jewelry. Tiny sculptures take a lot more time and energy than you can possibly imagine. If you’re not careful you can destroy hours of work by just sneezing at the wrong moment or squeezing too hard without realizing it. I’ve posted a few examples of my work above. Most of the sculptures pictured are smaller than a quarter in real life.

Guilty Pleasures Abound

Guilty pleasures. We all have them. Those little things we know we shouldn’t be wasting our good time on but we do anyway because we just can’t HELP ourselves. Some of my guilty pleasures include:

Harvest Moon Games – I like making every character in the village madly in love with me before breaking their little hearts one by one. I recently banned myself from playing this game for a while so I can get actually some writing done.

Cheesecake Factory’s White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake – Probably has enough calories to last a week but oh so good!

Pixel Chix – I’m still waiting for them to create a mermaid aquarium and a virtual haunted house for boys. Any day now, Mattel.

Sammy Keyes Novels – Will Sammy and Casey ever get together? Will horrible Heather get her comeuppance? I can’t wait to see.

Nancy Drew Video Games – It’s a good thing they only release two of these games a year, because I hardly eat or sleep until I’ve figured out who done it.

Period Films by BBC, A&E, and Mobil Masterpiece Theater – What’s not to love?

Got your own guilty pleasures? Feel free to share.

Sammy Keyes Fans Unite!

I just discovered that the new Sammy Keyes book is coming out December 9th! It will be called Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash. If you can’t tell, I’m a real fan of the series. For anyone out there who hasn’t read the Sammy Keyes mysteries, you need to run down to the nearest library and put one on hold immediately. The high-top wearing seventh grader, Samantha Keyes doesn’t go looking for mysteries to solve they just seem to find her. The series is filled with exciting mysteries, best friends who keep secrets, worst enemies who make life miserable, and the greatest mystery of all—boys. I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time as I did while reading the most recent book, Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things. I will never see camping in the same light again. I also think I know who Sammy's father is (and no, it's not Hudson). I'm not going to write who I think it is yet because I don't want to ruin things for others. : )

I can’t wait to find out what Sammy will get up to in this next book.