Four Guest Book Reviewers and Jan Pease

It’s time to share some book reviews. Four young adults have read and reviewed books. Thank you Cullen, Jennah, Amber Marie, and Raechel, for sharing your love of reading with us. Here are their reviews, with tidbits of information inserted here and there.

Cullen read “Hatchet,” which is classic Gary Paulsen. Cullen said, “It is really enjoyable and I like how he has a lot of problems so far!” “Hatchet” was published in 1987 but still resonates with readers who wonder how a boy could survive so many weeks on his own in the northern wilderness. Cullen also read “Fourth Grade Celebrity,” by Patricia Reilly Giff. In Cullen’s own words, “This book was awesome! The plot is funny and entertaining. The main character in the story faces a lot of challenges… I strongly suggest this book to any kid!” This book is another classic book that is still read more than 30 years after its first printing.

Jennah is a huge fan of Michelle Paver’s series, “The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness.” She reviewed each book in the series of six books. Here are the books and Jennah’s thoughts about each one. “Wolf Brother,” “a book that begins a series. Good read with adventure, loyalty, friendship and lots of bravery. Good read that has lots of excitement.” “Spirit Walker,” “an exciting book that takes you to a camp on an island. Lots of suspense, adventure, betrayal, loyalty and much more. An exciting read that will keep you turning the pages.” “Soul Eater,” “an exciting book that takes you into a whole new world. A good read with lots of suspense.” “Outcast,” “a good book that helps you understand what the series is about. It keeps you up reading all night long with suspense, and action. This book is good for readers that enjoy fantasy and excitement.” “Ghost Hunter,” “this book concludes “The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness” series. It is suspenseful and will keep you on the end of your chair the whole way through. It is a good mixture with suspense, friendship, loyalty, adventure, and even a little bit of romance.”

Jennah also read “Tuesdays with Morrie,” by Mitch Albom. She wrote, “A story that teaches you a lesson. With Morrie diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, Mitch, a former student of Morrie’s, begins to come over for life lessons from his former professor. A good book for life lessons, friendship that never dies, and family.”

Amber Marie read “Strange Angels,” by Lili St. Crow. She wrote, “It is a really hard book to put down because it’s that wonderful. Dru Anderson is a girl who lost her mom, dad, and grandma and must protect herself from creatures you only dream about.” Amber also reviewed “Forgotten: Seventeen and Homeless,” by Melody Carlson. She wrote, “Adele gets a chance at a new start, then her world starts crashing down. With no parent, no home, and no money. Plus lots of lies. She finally goes to church and gets in a nice home and the best part: God in her life!”

Raechel reviewed the book, “Prison to Praise,” by Merlin Carothors, first published in 1970, but still timely today. Raechel said, “As I read this book, I gained more knowledge on many different things, but especially on the importance of praising the Lord in everything, as well as the power of prayer. Mr. Carothers wrote of the prayers he prayed over people, and for himself, and how God answered. It gives proof that the Lord is in control of everything, and will answer the cry of His children. I am certain that this book has helped me grow in my walk with Christ.”

Finally, Raechel reviewed the book, “Rachel’s Tears,” by Beth Nimmo and Darrell Scott. In Raechel’s words, “This was a non-fiction, biography about one of the 13 victims of the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, whose name was Rachel Scott. She was 17 when she was shot, but lived a faithful life, devoted to the Lord. Her story, told by her parents, along with excerpts from her own journals, was and is very inspiring, and much can be taken from it. She was so devoted to Christ, giving Him her all, which is something we need to all strive for.”

Our reviewers range in age from only 11 years old through age 16. I love to see them develop their own voices, and look forward to more from them in the future. See you at the library!

Researching Your Family History

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian


Have you gotten involved in researching your ancestors? We get many people from near and far who come into our library to work on their genealogy. The main attraction is our collection of local newspaper microfilm and our modern microfilm reader, purchased last year with a grant from the Minnesota Historical Society. If you’ve had experience printing from microfilm or microfiche on an old reader, you’ll appreciate how nice it is to use a computer and regular printer instead. You can even save images from the microfilm to your memory stick or email them from our computer, if you can access your email away from home.

We have a collection of microfilmed newspapers from 1871 to 2008: Meeker County News, Litchfield News Ledger, Litchfield Saturday Review, Litchfield Independent, and the Litchfield Independent Review. We also have the Meeker County Old Settlers’ Association Papers and a few local census documents on microfilm, adding up to about 140 rolls in our collection. If you’d like to use microfilm of newspapers from other locations around Minnesota, we can help you order those from the Minnesota Historical Society. They’ll loan them out for use in our library.

We have a small collection of local history books for use in the library, also. One that is used frequently is Meeker County, Minnesota cemeteries, compiled by Diane Rosenow, copyright 1993. It’s actually a two-volume index to people buried in Meeker County cemeteries. We have a few other local history, biography, and plat book volumes, mostly stored behind the desk. Ask a staff member for assistance if you’d like to use these or the microfilm.

To get to the real genealogy experts in town, walk a half a block north from the library and visit the Meeker County Historical Society Museum/GAR Hall. They are open Tuesday to Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. They offer an obituary database, a cemetery database, plat books, school records, military records, high school yearbooks, and a fee-based genealogy research service.

If you’d like to learn some general techniques of genealogy research or find some new sources, you can take a look in our library at some books like the following, or just browse the 929 section:

• The genealogist’s address book: state and local resources: with special resources including ethnic & religious organizations. Bentley, Elizabeth Petty. c2009.

• Tracing your Irish family history. Adolph, Anthony. c2009.

• Tracing your family history: The complete guide to locating your ancestors and finding out where you came from. Hull, Lise. c2006.

You can search our library catalog or catalogs in other libraries using subject headings like these:

• Genealogy

• Minnesota – Genealogy

• Cemeteries

• Registers of births, etc.

Finally, there are many good internet resources now, which have made genealogy research much easier than it used to be. The big one is Family Search, http://www.familysearch.org/, which is a massive genealogy database from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s free to use and available to anyone, regardless of religious affiliation. Ancestry.com is another huge collection of genealogy resources, from scans of original census records to family trees that members have created from their own research. You have to pay for a membership, but they offer a free trial, and they have a collection of free records at Rootsweb, www.rootsweb.ancestry.com.

We have a handout listing these resources and more next to our microfilm reader. Pick up a copy if you’d like to find some places to get started with your family research.

A Campaign for Media-Savvy Kids

By Jan Pease

Perhaps because my husband and I are of an age that, for our contemporaries, includes one or more grandchildren, I notice that we both enjoy watching parents interact with their children.  At the library, I especially enjoy watching little boys imitate their daddies as they walk out the door.  I also enjoy watching parents and children shop.  I was in a store last week and heard a child exclaim, “There it is!”  I looked around to see what interesting thing he was talking about, and it was a bright pink cleaning appliance!

Recently I observed a little boy, who should certainly be a salesman someday, trying to convince his dad that they should buy a certain brand of frozen pastries, because they are the best!  I looked up this brand, and one pastry has 170 calories, and 7 grams of fat.  Since one of these delicious treats isn’t very filling, it would be easy to consume 340 calories, with 14 grams of fat. Did I mention the 50 grams of carbohydrate, including 18 grams of sugar in two pastries? One of the other pop up pastries, not frozen, has a whopping 210 calories in a single serving. 

A packet of instant oatmeal also has about 170 calories, but only 1.5 grams of fat, plus the high fiber content is good for you and sticks to your ribs all day.  It also has a lot of sugar added, which is why I eat plain oatmeal.  But I digress.  What is the point of this? 

Why don’t children campaign for oatmeal?  How does a young child know that a brand of frozen pastries is better than the other pop up pastries?   How does a child know that a pink cleaning appliance is the one?   I’m not declaring war on toaster pastries or pink cleaning appliances.   I think I might be declaring war on TV commercials that target our children! 

How can we raise children who are media savvy in a world where we are all bombarded with commercial messages that promise better, brighter, cleaner, more delicious, gotta have it?   An important part of literacy is learning to think critically.  Applying critical thinking skills to media has led to a term that is new to me: media literacy.  I found an interesting essay about teaching children to think critically about advertisements on the Scholastic website for teachers, http://teacher.scholastic.com/ . Go to the website and search for Media Savvy Kids.  The article, by Meg Lundstrom, originally appeared in the November/December 2004 issue of Instructor magazine, but it is still very appropriate for 2011.

 I really like these five questions that could help open a great discussion about what advertisers are really trying to do.

5 Media-Savvy Questions That Kids Should Ask

1. Who created this message?
2. What creative techniques are used to get  attention?
3. How might different people interpret this message?
4. What lifestyles, values, and points of view are in this message?
    What was left out and why?
5. Why is this message being sent?
These are questions we all should ask, as we model making good choices every day. 

My next task is to find books on this subject, because when I searched the catalog for books to help children become media-savvy, I didn’t find any books in the Litchfield children’s collection.  You might try “Teach Your Kids to Think!: Simple Tools You Can Use Every Day”  by Maria Chesley Fisk, in the adult area at 155.413.  In the meantime, please talk with your children about what they see  on TV.  See you at the library!  

Free ebook lending now available for Kindle

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

I have two important things to tell you about our ebook lending service. It’s free to use. And it’s now available for Kindle users.

We don’t charge for the privilege of using our downloadable book service. We loan our ebooks and downloadable audios in much the same way that we loan our print books and books on CD. If you have a Pioneerland library card in good standing, you check them out with your barcode for free. There’s no charge to download the software. There are not even any late fees, because the downloadable books return themselves on their due dates, unless you go into your software and return your ebooks early.

I’ve discovered that the reason people think we charge for our ebooks is because there’s another library’s website that looks like it could be ours, and that particular Litchfield Public Library charges $20 to use their ebook service. If you do a Google search of “litchfield public library”, your first result may be the library in Litchfield, Illinois. They are a Carnegie library founded in 1904, like we are. They are still in their original building, but it was remodeled around 2000, like our current building was. Their hours are nearly identical to ours. And they have the same Overdrive ebook button as we do. I can understand how multiple people have believed it was our website. The internet makes the world very small. It’s just as easy to get to the website for a library in another state as it is to get to ours.

To be sure you’re going to our ebook service, go to http://pioneerland.lib.overdrive.com/. We have bookmarks at our desk that have this URL on them; pick one up if you want a handy way to remember the address.

And if you’re looking for our local website, go to http://litchlibrary.blogspot.com/. I’ve added our address and phone number to the top of the page to make it more clear that we are the Litchfield Public Library in Minnesota, not the one in Connecticut, or Illinois, or Nebraska, or Arizona…. You get the idea.

The big ebook news for the week is that library lending for Kindles is finally here. We knew it was coming, but we didn’t know when. Amazon and Overdrive have been developing this for a few months, and now they’re slowly and quietly rolling it out to all of the libraries who use Overdrive for ebooks. It just became available to us on the 22nd. Now when you click on an ebook title, you’ll see two formats: Kindle and Adobe EPUB. If you have a Kindle or use a Kindle app, download the Kindle version. I haven’t tried it myself, but I understand that part of the process will bring you to Amazon’s site, and that you may have to login with your Amazon account. One thing that is different about borrowing a library book for your Kindle versus buying one from Amazon is that you can’t download using your 3G connection. To borrow a Kindle library book, you need to be using WiFi or have your Kindle connected to your personal computer by a cable.

Now all of you who bought Kindles, but then regretted not being able to use it for library books, can join in on the fun. I think it was a smart business move by Amazon to make this possible.

If you have suggestions about ebooks or downloadable audiobooks that you’d like to see us offer, let me know. The purchasing is done centrally at Pioneerland headquarters, but they welcome suggestions.

A Plethora of Picture Books, by Jan Pease

If a group of crows is a murder of crows, and a group of zebras is a zeal of zebras, what is the collective noun for picture books? 

Picture books are only getting more beautiful, and here is a bevy of beauties.

A rabble of butterflies swarms in “Butterflies,” by Seymour Simon. Kirkus Reviews states: “Simon may have done more than any other living author to help us understand and appreciate the beauty of our planet and our universe.” 

 A group of caterpillars is called an army.  Marilyn Singer uses her poem, “Caterpillars” to frame close up views of caterpillars and the butterflies they transform into. An army of 10 caterpillars, the plants they love and the butterfly or moth they become is the focus of “10 Little Caterpillars,”  by Bill Martin Jr. and Lois Ehlert.  They are the creators of the classic children’s book, “Chicka Chicka Boom  Boom,” and their new book looks like an instant classic.

A pack of dogs is featured in a very unusual book by Michael J. Rosen, “The Hound Dog’s Haiku.” These are poems for dog lovers.  My own dog, Harley,  is a Shit Tsu who loves his squeaky toys.  Here is the Shit Tsu Haiku:

                 toy dog’s own toy chest:

                 snowman, hedgehog, fake steak, jet-

                 squeak is all they speak

“What Puppies Do Best” is an adorable picture book by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Lynn Munsinger.  A litter of puppies of all breeds, sizes, and shapes romps across the pages as they play with cute children.  What could  be sweeter?

Gorgeous photographs by Jason Stemple are paired with the poetry of Jane Yolen in “Birds of a Feather.”  Yolen captures the personality of each bird perfectly.  This congregation of birds is well worth a look. 

“A B C Animal Jamboree,” by Giles Andreae  is a collection of short, silly poems about animals that will delight  even the youngest animal lovers.  This menagerie will be featured at story hour this week.

By the way, the collective noun for a group of books is library.  These fantastic picture books, and more, are waiting for you.  See you there! 

An Ebook Update

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Our downloadable ebook and audiobook service is catching on!  In Pioneerland, we just got started in June.  We now have had about 500 unique patrons use the service.  There have been 1200 checkouts so far.   We currently have 458 items in our electronic collection, and we’re adding more all the time.

We’re able to get some “best-seller” lists to see what’s popular in Pioneerland downloadables.  The books that have been checked out the most since our website rolled out are the ebook version of Bad Blood by John Sanford and the audiobook of Heaven is for Real.  The titles that are most in demand right now are The Help, Split Second, and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

I know many of you are getting started with library ebooks and need a little guidance on how it works.  Here are some of the important things to know:

You can get to our Overdrive website by going to our catalog, choosing “Download ebooks” below the search boxes, and clicking on the box that says “Downoad audiobooks, eBooks”.  From there, you can browse the new titles, search for a particular book, download the software you need to borrow books, or find answers to your questions.  You can also go directly to http://pioneerland.lib.overdrive.com/.  We also have a mobile site with a very long URL.  We have a link to it on our Litchfield Library blog if you’d like to find it for your mobile device.

One question we’re often asked is which readers and devices our downloadables can be used on.  You can find out by clicking on the blue “compatible devices” button on the left side of the Overdrive site.  You’ll find that most e-readers, MP3 players, and computers work with it.  Kindle still doesn’t work with it, but Amazon is saying that it will by the end of the year.  You can also download to an iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, and a variety of other devices. 

There is some variation in how you download to different devices and which titles work with which device.  If you have an e-reader, such as a Nook or Sony e-reader, you’ll need to download Adobe Digital Editions to your personal computer.  You can do this by clicking on “Adobe Digital Editions for eBooks”, under “Getting Started” on the top left corner of the Overdrive site.  It’s very quick and easy.  You will need to set up an Adobe ID as part of that process, but that just involves registering an email address with Adobe, which will come up as you download the software. 

Once you have the software set up, you check out ebooks on your personal computer and transfer them to your e-reader while it’s attached by its cable.  It isn’t possible to download to library computers and transfer books to your e-reader; it has to be done on your own computer.

If you want to download audiobooks, you’ll need to install Overdrive Media Console, which is also listed under “Getting Started” in the corner.  Again, you’ll check them out on your computer and transfer them to your MP3 player, much like iTunes and other music download services.  Some audiobook titles will work on one device but not another.  They will also work on e-readers, but it all depends on which formats your e-reader or MP3 player handles.  Some of the audiobooks are in WMA format, and some are MP3.  Once you figure out what your device can play, you’ll be able to look at each title to see if it will work for you.  Some audiobooks can be burned to CDs; this depends on publisher permissions. 

If you are going to download to a mobile device such as an Android or iPad, you will download Overdrive Media Console to your device directly.  Then you check out books on your mobile device, without a need to connect it to a computer. 

If you click on the “guided tour” or “help/FAQs” button on our Overdrive website, you’ll find answers to many of your questions.  If you need more help, talk to our library staff or send a support request through the help page.

Downloading books seems so complicated until you get started.  Once you iron out the wrinkles of getting the first book onto your device, it’s really easy.  Then when you want a new book to read on Saturday night, you don’t have to wait until the library is open.  Or if you’re snowed in (if we even want to think about that in September), you can check out a book without leaving the comfort of your home.  I hope you’ll give it a try!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation!

Shoreline in Front of Outpost Motel, Grand Marais, MN

borrowed from their website

By Jan Pease

Everyone agrees that summer has gone incredibly fast, but why, when you have a week off in a beautiful location, does time go even faster?   Dave, Becca and I just returned from a week on the North Shore, so this is our annual “what’s in the book bag” confessional.

My husband Dave is reading the “Sharpe’s Rifle” series by Bernard Cornwall, and also the series, “Game of Thrones,” by George R.R. Martin.  He brought three books plus his Bible, which goes everywhere he does.  We celebrated his birthday by adding to his book pile.

Becca brought her usual selection of geology, botany, and natural history books.  To celebrate a friendly fresh water otter that visited “our” shoreline, she bought a copy of Stan Teikala’s “Mammals of Minnesota Field Guide.”  Her other reading selections are on her notebook, because she downloads novels from various sources.  She’s an avid Pioneerland ebook fan and often is on waiting lists for popular ebooks from Pioneerland and from Hennepin County Library. 

And as for me, I brought my Nook, which has now 60 books including two Bibles, a cookbook, and too many other choices to choose from.  I started reading the best-selling “In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin,” by Erik Larson and “The Sleepwalkers,” by Paul Grossman.  Both were recommended to me by a patron, and it is interesting to read both a non-fiction account and a novel set during the rise of Hitler’s Germany in the early 1930’s.  I’m reading “Dug Down Deep,” by Joshua Harris, recommended by Raechel (see Litchfield Independent Review August 25^th edition). I wish this had been the book we used in theology classes instead of the tomes I struggled through in college.   I can’t leave out “The Name of the Wind,” by Patrick Rothfuss.  This is simply a great fantasy read.  I can’t wait to get through this one, so I can read his second book, “Wise Man’s Fear,” which was published in March of this year. I’m also re-reading the “Girl Who Played With Fire,” by Stieg Larsson.  I read it last year but can’t remember a lot of it. 

Every day I watched Lake Superior in its (her?) many moods.  One day waves crashed on the rocks, the next it was quiet; cool one day, warm the next.   We watched spindly fingers of fog stretch toward the pine trees on the shore and then suddenly evaporate in warm sunshine.   One day a bank of fog made an interesting shade of gray/pink/lavender against the blue water that made me wish I was an artist who could capture colors with paint.

A highlight of this trip was visiting the studio of a real artist, Betsy Bowen.  She is famous for her woodcuts, and her gallery also features other local artists.  Betsy was there the day we visited, friendly and gracious about my star-struck state.  We have her books in the children’s collection, and I purchased an autographed copy of “Great Wolf and the Good Woodsman” to replace our worn edition.

Our hosts, Jim and Jennifer Plahuta of the Outpost Motel, were accommodating as always.  They provided everything we needed to be very comfortable without hovering.  As I talked to other guests at this family-owned motel, I discovered that many of us make a yearly visit, bringing along books and dogs, kids and grandchildren.  To our little dog Harley’s dismay, there were several canine guests with their owners.  He tends to think of it as his place, and after several visits, I feel the same way. 

See you at the library!