For the Love of Books

By Sara T.

I was five when I got my first library card. It was green and beige and I got to “sign” the back – clear evidence of my terrible kindergarten handwriting. My mom and I would take weekly trips there, a bag load of books hanging from her shoulder and an eager kid with a gap-toothed smile pulling on her arm to get inside.

I grew up in the pages of “Corduroy” and “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” “Junie B. Jones” and “Little Critter.” And when I got tired of imagined classrooms and lost buttons, I found “Harry Potter,” “Nancy Drew” and “Charlie Bone.” Books were the one thing my mom would always splurge on when I was young. Who needed more clothes or toys when you could have books – a quasi-toy that I would play with for much longer than my Barbies.

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Did You Know: Rock and Roll, it’s here to stay!

Did you know?

Did you know…that when it comes to music, Rock is such a broad category people organize the definition around a genre? Examples include Elvis Presley was Rockabilly, Bob Dylan as folk, Public Enemy as rappers and even Madonna who was considered a disco diva. Read all about it in GVRL’s What is Rock? The Birth of Rock & Roll: Music in the 1950s Through the 1960s. Check it out or call your rep for more information.

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19th Century Nitty-Gritty: “Rock” and Roll

By Bethany Dotson

My name is Bethany Dotson, and I’m a market development manager here at Gale – and, for today, your featured guest blogger on Nineteenth-Century Nitty Gritty. My background is in English and Spanish literature, and I love all things Victorian.

I have recently discovered the joys of audiobooks on my commute—with the complication that the four miles I drive to work lends itself to only a few pages at a time. For the last few weeks, then, I have been enjoying (I can’t say devouring at this pace) Simon Winchester’s The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology, about—well, about the birth of modern geology.

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School Librarian Feeds Sharks

By Margot H. 

My 5th-grader loves her school librarian, Miss S., who is quirky in the best possible ways. We often see her around town, walking while reading a book. Her newly hatched chicks are always a big draw at Back-to-School-Night. And Miss S. has a special knack for helping each student find the perfect book.

Last week, my daughter came home from school excited to share a story involving the librarian and our beloved Monterey Bay Aquarium.

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Bookmobile Beginnings

By Stephanie W. 

I grew up in a remote northern Ontario town, where the public library was, at first, too far away to visit. But a bookmobile came around every 3 weeks, and we were allowed to check out 2 books at a time. I had learned to read early, and always finished my 2 books within days, which left me waiting, eagerly, for return visits. Then when I was 8, a tiny branch library opened in a local strip mall, and my life changed. I virtually lived there, and devoured first the children’s section, and then, with my parents’ signed permission, the adult section. I read everything from Encyclopedia Brown to the Encyclopedia of Human Biology. My parents stressed the importance of education and reading, but were anything but wealthy, and could never have afforded to buy me everything – or much of – what I devoured. I directly credit libraries for the fact that I never thought that lack of money meant that I would be shut out of the joys of education, reading, or knowledge.

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