Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back. Can we just take a moment...
...to mourn the passing of summer? I don't love the heat but I MISS THE FRESH FOOD! My goodness, I'm in veggie and fruit withdrawal.
OK, I guess we can move on now. We're supposed to get snow this week and although Fall has been wonderful, I'm ready for winter!
This picture: I thought my boys were just playing in the leaves until I heard a rustle and out popped our little neighbor friend. She's such a good sport. At her age, I NEVER would have trusted two little boys with shovels!
One project I wanted to get finished before winter set in. This is our Free Little Library. If you're not familiar with that international movement, you can read about it
here. We saw one near the Children's Museum in Walla Walla and as neat as it is to think of a neighborhood library where you can swap favorite books with your neighbors, I had an ulterior motive.
When we bought our house, we were hemmed in by orchards and we lived on a dirt road. In the past fifteen years, the orchards have been replaced by lots and lots of apartment buildings. And our corner is the bus stop for the entire neighborhood. Imagine- at least fifty kids (I've counted more but let's say fifty) walking across your lawn everyday on their way home from school. (Ok, don't imagine it if you love your lawn. It will give you an ulcer.)
My friend Nick Bruel writes the Bad Kitty books. I was afraid to tag him in my facebook picture, since I am no Nick Bruel. But he graciously said that Bad Kitty was properly scared by those fish, and didn't mention my awkward rendition of our favorite naughty cat.
But imagine a lot of these kids living too far from the library, or their parents not having the right info to get a card. In our city, you need your last electric bill, last phone bill, driver's license AND a personal reference of another library member. When I worked at our library in 2010, I saw many (many, many) Hispanic kids come in with their parents, encouraged by their teachers to get a city library card. But undocumented immigrants can't get a driver's license, therefore, their children couldn't have access to the public library. Every single time it hurt my heart to tell a child "No". I understand why it had to be and I never broke the rules, but I started thinking...
What if... I made my own library? No legal documents required. Freely given, freely received. Books in both languages. Books all kids would enjoy, and parents, too. If I already had all these small people crossing my lawn twice a day... what would it hurt to stick a little library in their way?
We have boxes of spare books. More books than we can sell at yard sales or give away to friends. Also, my library RECYCLES boxes of children's books that are slightly damaged. I got them on board and now I have a fairly unending supply... and I've needed it. From the first day, the box is almost emptied every afternoon.
And you want to know the most common age of the kids I see at the box? 10-12 year old boys. I'm not kidding... That was NOT what I was expecting! So, instead of fighting to keep picture books stocked, we're suddenly searching out middle grade fiction. I've seen the boys arguing over who gets to read
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief first. That was the highlight of my month, right there.
So, random cute picture of my god child holding my latest book release. She got the first copy. I think she's reserving judgement. She demands a happy ending...
The fabulous YA author Lois Duncan knows that I have a background in linguistics and sent me a bunch of her foreign editions. I have a shelf of copies of my favorite books in other languages so, this made me really smile! (I didn't tell her that I only took a year of college German and it was much harder for me than Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, etc. etc. etc.) I thanked her kindly and then we sent some of them to our pen pals in Germany.
One more little book related pic. My dad brought me this one day, as writing sustenance. Made me laugh.
And I did cook some very tasty dishes this week but I think I'll save them for next Friday, But here's a preview.
Quick and easy pan fried garlic annetto shrimp with yaki soba noodles.
A sauteed shitaki mushroom and beef with lime and parsley dish that which was way better than I expected.
I know this looks similar to the first dish, but it's really not. I promise. Quick and easy peanut chicken stir fry. (This was over chow mein noodles because my husband needs carbs. He works too hard to survive on veggies and a few ounces of protein. I, on the other hand, survive on Jelly Belly jellybeans.)
So, those dishes are coming in the next few weeks and somewhere in there will be THANKSGIVING! I'm ready!
Until then, I'll be watching the sky for the snow that we're supposed to get soon. Happy winter!
I'm so proud of you!
ReplyDeleteYou totally rock. If you ever even THINK you might run out of books, holler and I will send you more. What do you need more of Easy Spanish books?
See, before I saw (and yes, I peeked out my curtains at the kids, I felt like a total stalker) which kids were picking through the box, I would have said the Easy Readers. We even had our smallest kids stand next to it when my husband set it up so we could make sure the short ones could get the door open and see inside.
DeleteBut what I've seen is the MG crowd. A few teen stop now and then, and we've even had a few donations, but it's the 4th through 8th grade crowd that has been fighting over the books.
Who knew??
For right now, I've got two boxes of books ready, and also our library has offered to save their books instead of recycling them. (They were recycling books in amounts of 10+ boxes. They just didn't have any place to store them until the summer book sale, or they felt the little kids' paper backs wouldn't sell at .50.)
So far, so good!
We have Spanish and bilingual books for kids and parents at both of my libraries. AZ, right so that makes sense. All you need is either a drivers license or a copy of a utility bill showing you live here to get a card. Proof of residency is the main thing.
ReplyDeleteSee, that OR makes a huge difference. When I first saw the list of requirements I thought there had been a mistake. Nope. It's all of the above. And even if someone has a DL, sometimes they don't pay their own electric bill (included in the rent) or use a prepaid phone bill instead of a contract or landline, or maybe they don't know another person who has a library card (I couldn't use myself, since I was an employee). It was... rough to see those excited kids realize that they just didn't have what they needed to check out a book.
DeleteI've been lobbying for that to change and we have a new library director, so I'm hopeful the city might relax some of those standards soon. *fingers crossed*
I'm gobsmacked by all those conditions! I don't have a DL so I wouldn't be able to have a library card in your town. That's so wrong. And what happens to new move ins? They wouldn't know anyone yet who could be a reference for them. I know books are precious but....
DeleteWondering if the schools could get involved somehow. Up here school boards and the public library have a partnership. The children's librarian from the local public library visits each school every year as part of an 'every child has a library card' program. They make it easy for the children to register. I mean, if they're attending school they must be residents, right?
yes, Kav, I think that was the original idea because the classes (from preschool to 6th grade) take tours every year and when I was the children's librarian, I did school visits to encourage children to come to the library (especially the summer reading program). But apparently the list of required items could never be changed... which sort of defeats the purpose.
DeleteThis cracks me up because your state is not exactly known for its conservative POVs.... and yet you have to have more paperwork to get a library card than have a child.
DeleteOh. My. Stars.
I'm not sure there IS paperwork involved with having a child, Ruthy. lol
DeleteWow Virginia, this is so awesome. I'm so proud of you and impressed with what you are doing. No child shoud ever be denied access to books because of residency. Who knows what great future leader will read one of those books and get turned on to learning. I always loved the library and I still remember when the Scholastic Book Fair would come to school and I could buy my OWN books, so exciting and I've loved books ever since. This is a ministry and I pray it will flourish!
ReplyDeleteBtw: it looks like the little guys have recovered from last weeks yucky stuff, happy about that for you all!
Yes, everyone is well and off to the movies. We only lost three to the plague, so it wasn't as long as it could have been.
DeleteAnd these children are residents. And their parents are residents. but they don't have the right documents to get a card.
Like Kav, who doesn't have a driver's license, anybody without all of these things wouldn't be able to be a full member. They can come in and read the newspaper, etc.
There was one elderly man who lost his DL because of his eyesight and he had to bring his grown daughter in to check out his books. NO KIDDING.
You are beyond awesome, Virginia!!!! I've read about these little libraries popping up all over the place. And you've made yours so much fun! And weather proof. That was my concern when I thought about doing it. Very clever.
ReplyDeleteOhhh, I was very worried about the weather proof part! The person who built this for us made the roof smaller, so my husband put on another roof, so the rain and snow might stay out. And then he set it on that post, and made sure the thing would never move.
DeleteWe also set it back from the street a bit because because we didn't want teens playing "mailbox baseball" with it. LOL
Virginia, you rock! I've heard about these little libraries, but didn't know anyone who'd done this. So cool. Adorable pictures too.
ReplyDeleteAren't they wonderful? but not every neighborhood agrees with them. I'm lucky that our city has a very lax idea of what can go in your front yard. If we lived in a nice subdivision, there would be one of those HOAs. As it is, I just asked, and they said as long as it didn't block the mailbox, it was fine.
DeleteHomeowners Associations would hate me. It would just be a wretched experience, so heaven knows God planted me on a country two-lane where me and the rooster fit in: Both loud and ornery.
DeleteCool. Totally cool. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd what a wonderful way to teach your children the power of selfless giving.
They might have ulterior motives because I said I could not possible buy any more books since we've filled our shelves. They try to sell them at yard sales, but they are so many. We give them to goodwill and the thrift stores, too, but I know most of them recycle books, also. Our really nice books we give to the library if they're not duplicates. But those paper books(like from Scholastic) are just too common for them to take.
DeleteWin-win.
YOUR LIBRARY IS AWESOME!
ReplyDeleteAre the kids bringing back books once they're read?
I'm amazed that your library has so many books to recycle. Glad you're putting the kids books to good use.
Our library is huge, but the children's section is small-ish. They only have so much room and they need to weed out books. Especially if something gets a torn page, they might tape it once, maybe twice, but then it's out.
DeleteAlso, people donate books constantly, and most of those Easy reader type books just aren't in good enough condition to keep.
Another win-win for everybody.
And yes, we've had two returns and two donations! I won't worry about the returns yet. :)
I do check the box every day to make sure nobody has put in a book I think is inappropriate. because of the décor, I don't want kids think it's full of Dr. Seuss and finding Stephen King in there. LOL
Three cheers for Virginia! You are amazing!
ReplyDeleteAw, thanks Chill N. :) We're Chillin' today with all our snow!
DeleteOh, the Little Free Library movement rocks!!!! Mary Connealy had told me something about that a while ago, and I love the idea!!! Virginia, how perfectly marvelous! Now I must put it into a book because it's just the kind of thing we'd have in a Love Inspired.... and I think my Wedding Blessings trilogy would be a perfect fit!
ReplyDeleteI'm on a busy country road. No one walks by, and the only kids getting on the bus are the gazillion I watch and they already have access to my books... but there must be a way to incorporate this. You have spawned an idea in my head... I'll tell you later if it works.
And food. Oh, honey, with those sweet children pics, who needs food???? Although peanut chicken sounds good.... as does beef and mushroom anything.... as does shrimp in any way, shape or form. So I'll look forward to those! Thank you, Virginia!
It's pretty common int he more urban areas, Ruthy! I bet your readers would love a peek at a Little Free Library in one of your sweet books.
ReplyDeleteAnd I've seen Girl Scout groups raise money for a library (if they can't find someone to make it), as long as they have a place to put it. So, if you know someone who has the perfect spot, maybe you could work together.
I'd love to see your crowd of kids planning, raising funds, and decorating their own Free Little Library! That would be a Ruthy project they would never forget... and great community service project for those kids who need the hours for school.
I've contacted a great gal in our migrant outreach two towns over... I'm going to check further into this, or at least someway to get my kids involved helping. Virginia, thank you for the inspiration!!
DeleteThat is so awesome! It's interesting that the middle grade kids are participating like that. Of course that Percy Jackson book was riveting. What a wonderful contribution you and your family have made to the community.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think your area's library card requirements are ridiculous, similar to cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.
I agree! I think they could verify residency with only two of those, or maybe two out of four? But all together, it's too much. And we love the Percy Jackson series. So funny!
DeleteVirginia, the boys of the Key Club put up several boxes around town a few years ago. My son helped build one. We're thrilled to see them still going!
ReplyDelete