It's Been a Long Long Time

 Wow!  It looks like three years have passed since my last blog entry! 

I'm not even sure I remember how to make a blog post haha!

I'm more into journaling, stationery, and pens now than embroidery and handiwork.

Children's picture books are still a hobby, and I spend many winter evenings in our home library. My husband even installed hidden lighting across the top three shelves for my birthday!

I still enjoy decorating with vintage items, but I have not been purchasing much vintage.  

That's all for today.  It's a beautiful day outside and time for a walk.  

Have a colorful day!--Jen

2015 Caldecott Predictions (or is it 2016?)

So, it dawned on me this evening that I have not written about my Caldecott favorites!  I thought I had plenty of time, but found out earlier this week that the ALA conference was THIS WEEKEND!  The Youth Award winners will be awarded very early tomorrow morning!  So, as I sit here typing it is 9:45 pm and I'm going to quickly share my "picks" for Caldecott with you.

 

First, I would LOVE to see Kevin Henkes win for his beautiful book, Waiting.

 

 

Or...I'd like to see FLOAT by Daniel Miyares win.  When I first saw this book, I LOVED IT!

I wish I could go into more detail here, but it's past my bedtime.  There are some really nice two page spreads in this book and some nifty reflection drawings.

 

My favorite book of the year was Mama Seaton's Whistle by Jerry Spinelli Ill by LeUyen Pham, which I received for Christmas.  I don't think this book has gotten much attention, and I don't think it will beat the two books above, but I like it.

 

 

Two other books I quite enjoyed looking at (pouring over is more like it) are Finding Winnie: The True Story of the Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick Ill by Sophie Blackall,

 

and

 

Water is Water by Miranda Paul Ill by Jason Chin, which is beautiful! (I may actually have to buy this book, it's so well done.)

 

 

 But I honestly think the medal will go to either Waiting by Henkes, or Float by

 Daniel Miyares.  They are both so wonderful!

 

I would like to go into more detail but I am tired.  It is 10:18 and I will be getting up early to watch the awards live on my computer.

 

Good Night Ya'll!  Have a happy day tomorrow!

 

Update: 

There were four HONOR BOOKS announced!

 

Trombone Shorty Written by: Troy Andrews  Illustrated by: Bryan Collier

 

Waiting Written and Illustrated by: Kevin Henkes

 

Voice of Freedom By: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement Written by: Carole Boston Weatherford  Illustrated by: Ekua Holmes

 

Last Stop On Market Street  Written by: Matt De La Pena Illustrated by: Christian Robinson

 

The CALDECOTT MEDAL went to

 

Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear  Written by: Lindsay Mattick Illustrated by: Sophie Blackall

All excellent winners!!

Who Was Miss Ida Vedquam?

Who was Ida Vedquam?
That's what I asked myself, back in March, when I brought home three Needlecraft Magazines from the flea market, each with an address label with the name Miss Ida Vedquam.  The label on both the 1926 copy and the 1940 copy read Miss Ida Vedquam.  During the 14 year time period between the two magazines, the Miss hadn't changed to Mrs.  For some reason, that tugged at my heart a little bit and I wondered who she was, and whether or not she ever married.

No, apparently she did not.

Now, for those who don't know me very well, I love digging into local history (museums, cemeteries, county history books...I love them all), and local history has become somewhat of a hobby.  So, it was no surprise to my family when I hopped onto the internet, looked up the Vedquam family, and started searching for anything I could find about the Vedquam family. 
I came across the Vedquam's 1920 census entry from Bottineau County. 
According to the census, Ida's father's name was Eilert Vedquam, and her mother's name was Julia.  In 1920, Ida was 19 years old.  She had a 15 year old brother named Edwin, and an 8 year old brother named Julius.  Eilert owned land towards the bottom of Eidsvold Township, about 9 miles south of Landa ND. There was a school built just to the Northeast of their home (I think). 
Ida's relatives also took part in the construction of a Lutheran church near the area where the Vedquams lived.  This prairie church, Mouse River Lutheran Church, is still standing.  I think a road trip might be in order this summer *wink*. 
I also discovered that Ida was born in North Dakota in 1900.  In 1940 she would have been 40 years old.  She died in 1990, and is buried in the Mouse River Lutheran Church cemetery.

The Photo above is of Mouse River Lutheran Church found on Rural Churches Database website. I found a digital copy of the township map online and found the Vedquam's small slice of North Dakota heaven.  Using Google Earth, I found that the land seems to be right off of a highway.  Unfortunately, the house is no longer standing, but that got me to thinking....what if there is a picture of the house somewhere!?  What if there is a picture of Ida somewhere!?

At this point, my daughter warned me that I was crossing the line from curious to "creepy", but I didn't listen.  I went to the library to find information about the Vedquam family.

In our library, there is a room (That would be a GREAT start to a children's book wouldn't it!!?  That phrase ranks right up there with "Under the stairs, there was a door.") The room is called the Great Plains Room, and it contains shelves and shelves of local history books, county atlases, centennial books, etc.  It is one of my favorite places in the whole town of Minot.  The books cannot be checked out as they are too valuable to our community and could be lost, or worse yet, dropped in a mud puddle.  Just to think of such a fate for a book gives me the shivers.
In this room I found a book about the people of Bottineau County.  The book did not contain a photo of Ida, her family, or homestead, but there was a small write-up about her.

  
Apparently, she had three brothers.  I find it interesting that she sang and played the organ, she must have been quite musical.  And knowing she received Needlecraft magazines, I figure she may have been very good at handiwork and crafting.  Other than these things, I really don't know much more about her. 

With a sigh of relief from my daughter, we left the library and headed home.  Ha!  Just wait until she hears that I plan to visit the Mouse River Church this summer to see if I can find more information about the Vedquam family and many others who pioneered in the area, during the early 1900s.  There will be some eye-rolling on that trip, but I think deep down she enjoys learning about local history and she realizes that searching for local history isn't always "creepy" it's fun and educational.  Understanding who the pioneers of our state were is something I feel is important.  Having a sense of where we come from, and how we have changed as a society is important.  It gives me pride to think of how hard our ancestors (and other people's ancestors) worked to make this state their home.

Knowing more about the way people lived in the past also helps give me perspective.  When I think my life is tough because I have to stand out in the cold, at the gas station, to fill my car's tank full of gas, I try to remember that at least I HAVE a car to drive, not a cold, horse-drawn sleigh of long ago.  Or when I think my life is tough when I have to stand in line at the supermarket, I think about the books I have read where food was scarce.  Some folks back in the good old days were tickled just to have an Orange in their stocking at Christmas time.  Now, we have supermarkets just a few miles or blocks away from our homes, that have rows and rows of fresh vegetables and fruits waiting to be bought.  We have fruit juice blends and pomegranate juice in fancy plastic bottles that we just toss in the garbage (seems wrong). 

    Woman in garden by Peter Stackpole for LIFE magazine 1944.
Take a moment and compare standing in line at the store to having to plant, tend, harvest and can a large garden.  I think we've got it pretty easy.  And don't even get me started on having to butcher our own chickens and milk our own cows!  I'll take 10 minutes in line any day over killing a chicken.  Although, a sleigh ride would be fun to try, so would milking a cow and growing a garden.  

Yes, learning about the difficulties of the folks before us, does help me to keep things in perspective.  And sometimes, it makes me think that we are somewhat spoiled.
So, I WILL keep studying local history, I WILL ask strangers questions about people I don't know, and I WILL probably find my daughter hiding behind a cemetery tombstone pretending she doesn't know me, but I WILL do it because I like it and I think it's important.  And if I were Ida, I think I would like it very much to know that someone wanted to learn more of my story...more than just my name and address on a faded old label found on a musty old magazine.

Until another time, have a happy vintage day. 


    

Children's Books About Libraries

There are many books for children about libraries, but here are just a couple of my favorites.

 

Library Lion by Michelle Knutson.

Illustrated by Kevin Hawkes

The sweet, soft illustrations of Library Lion are what first attracted me to this book (it's no secret that I tend to judge a book by it's cover).  But the story is just as sweet!
There is a lion in the library!  He makes an excellent pillow to lean against during story time and a great foot stool for reaching the highest books on the shelf.  The children who visit the library and the staff who work there love him, all except for Mr. McBee.
Here is a great tool for using Library Lion in the classroom from Candlewick Books.  A Library Lion Story Hour Guide.  Thank you Candlewick for such a neat little guide!

 

 

Our Library by Eve Bunting
Illustrated by Maggie Smith

How cute are these little animals!?  The story is about a group of animals (with opposable thumbs, apparently) trying to save their beloved library, and I think they come up with a pretty nifty solutions. 

That Book Woman by Heather Henson

Illustrated by David Small

 

That Book Woman is about a pack horse librarian in the Appalachian Mountains and a boy named Cal who would rather work than read.  But Cal's sister loves to read, and the book woman comes over the mountains, rain or shine, sleet or snow.  Cal thinks "that book woman" is a mixture of crazy and brave.  I like this book for older children and it's a great way for kids and adults to learn a little more about the pack horse librarians.

Here is a video I found on You Tube of That Book Woman.

 

There are many other books about libraries for children, but I am running out of time.  There's always tomorrow.

So, until then,

Happy reading everyone!

 

College, Children's Literature and Professor Stout

After graduating from high school, I attended the University of North Dakota-Williston (now Williston State College). 
UND-W, Harvard on the Hill, East-side High, the U-dub, whatever you called it, it was the the obvious choice as it was only 22 miles from home.

Williston State College.  It has grown quite a bit since I've been there!

My first year was interesting.  I lived on campus, and when money got tight, worked on campus at the college library.  I told myself it would be great library experience. I'd learn how to check out books, find books for people, re-shelf books, etc.....Ummmm, not exactly.  My job entailed sitting at a small little desk in the back, entering books into the ODIN (Online Dakota Information Network) system.  I don't remember much about it, but I do remember having to place bar code stickers into the corners of each book, and a magnetic strip (I think).  Then I would wave my magic little light wand over the bar code and enter it into the database.  When all of the books on the cart had been entered, I'd get to put them back on the shelf.  To be honest, it was mind numbingly boring.  But it was experience...and a paycheck.

I took two courses at UND-W that involved children's books.  One was called Introduction to Teaching and one of our assignments was to spend time in a local classroom.  Since I thought I wanted to be a school librarian, my professor put me in contact with local school librarian, Beth Darr.  She was such an energetic, neat lady and I learned so much from that experience!

My Freshman year is also the year I took Children's Literature (Engl 215) from Professor Jim Stout.


Part of our 4 page Children's Lit Syllabus! 

The textbook we used!  Totally worth the $58 I paid for it.  I still have it and reference it quite often, especially for poetry.

I couldn't believe there was a class that revolved entirely around Children's Literature, but there it was on my schedule.  Every Monday evening from 6:30-9pm I would enjoy 2 and a half hours of talking and learning about Children's Literature.  It wasn't always easy, but I enjoyed it.  And Mr. Stout (who was also my supervisor) was an excellent professor who didn't seem to be just "going through the motions" with our class.  He really knew and liked children's books, and I found it impressive that he had a Polar Express poster hanging on the wall of his office (this was long before the movie was even a twinkling in Robert Zemeckis' eye, by the way.)

The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg, winner of the 1986 Caldecott medal and children's book classic.

That poster may not have been a big deal to others, some may not even have noticed.  But to me it was like seeing a Harvard Diploma on your brain surgeon's office wall...at that point, you surmise that your brain is in good hands.  I didn't care where Professor Stout went to college or what kind of diploma he'd gotten, all I needed to see was that poster and I trusted that he had excellent taste in Children's Literature. Not only that, it was framed...in glass...not just sticky-tacked to the wall in a haphazardly fashion like we Freshmen would do it.  It's as though he knew it was to be a classic, deserved a good frame and space on his office wall.   

Because of Mr. Stout, I learned the difference between good children's literature and not so good children's literature.  Because of him, I have never read my daughter the Poky Little Puppy.  It's bad enough I had to suffer through Strawberry Shortcake, Barbie and My Little Pony books, until I wanted to barf rainbows...I'm sorry, but those are not my idea of good children's literature.  They are novelty, fluff books that somehow manage to sneak into our houses and onto our children's bookshelves when they are three and four years old.  And these are the books that leave by way of the 25 cent box, headed to Grandma's garage sale.  In contrast, the good books like Our Friends at Maple Hill Farm, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and Flotsam...these are the books you keep forever, and pass down to the next generation.

Because of Mr. Stout I learned that being an adult who liked children's books is nothing to be ashamed of.  My love of good children's literature didn't make me childish, or a nerd, or a freak.  It made me more like Meg Ryan's character in the movie "You've Got Mail", someone whose mother loved books and passed that love on to her daughter.  (Loved the bookstore in that movie!)

I recently read an article about Williston State College and how they are losing students to the oil fields and big paychecks.  You can read the article here:  America's Oil Boomtown.
Coping with an influx of students, a lack of housing and crowded classrooms are just a few of the struggles facing the professors I remember from my years in Williston.  The oil boom reminds me of a phrase another excellent professor of mine, Richard Stenberg, used when talking about the railroads of the 1800's, "Too much, too fast, too soon".  I hope that the professors at Williston State can work through these oil boom challenges and hang in there a few more years.  Williston is lucky to have such a fine school with such fine faculty.

I never did become a librarian.  I never became a true artist either.  For a few years I floundered, not really knowing what or who I wanted to be.  Instead of dropping out of school to discover myself, I clung to it.  I took as many courses as I could to stay afloat and interested in an education.  I finally listened to what my mother had been telling me all along and switched my major.  I graduated seven (yes, seven) years later with an Elementary Education degree and a hefty student loan.

Now, I am a mother, a daycare mom and teacher of many things.  I am a master at getting knots out of shoes, legos out from under stoves and smiles out of grumpy children on early Monday mornings.  I even get to be a librarian!  My daughter and I share a large children's book collection (no Poky Little Puppy allowed) and we keep a special collection for the daycare kids.  We talk about caring for books, and have discovered that board books are a blessing for the 2 year and under set!  My daughter loves to read to the children and we try to have story time everyday.

 

Autumn reading to the kids.

That's all for today!
Until tomorrow, have a happy reading day!

Meeting Tedd Arnold

When I was a Senior, I was doing quite a bit of babysitting for the family across the street. (Yes, even then someone trusted me with their children). This particular family read to their children every night. So as not to disrupt their bedtime routine I read them a book from their bookshelf called No Jumping on the Bed! by Tedd Arnold.

I fell in love with the illustrations and the story! I went to the Williston library and checked out everything I could find by Tedd Arnold, including a cross-stitch pattern book. The next shopping trip to Minot resulted in the purchase of Ollie Forgot. It was the only Tedd Arnold book I could find! (Keep in mind, Amazon.com didn't exist yet, nor Books On Broadway).

Tedd Arnold's Website which is always fun to check out.

Then, a really swell thing happened, I got to meet Tedd Arnold, all because I volunteered to paint a sign! (ironic considering Arnold wrote and illustrated The Signmakers Assistant *chuckle*)
My high school principal needed someone to paint a large sign with some one's name on it for our gymnasium. I took on the challenge, painted the large, wooden sign and wanted nothing in return for my services. My principal said, "Well, how about I owe ya one?"

Later that year, I found out that the school librarian was taking a bus load of K-2 students to Wildrose, ND (about 17 miles away) to meet Tedd Arnold! To think, my favorite children's book author/illustrator would only be 17 miles away, and I would be stuck in Math class!! That just didn't sit well with me and I wanted to go so badly. So I walked down the hall, knocked on the Principal's door and asked, "remember how you said you would 'owe me one'?" He let me skip a couple of classes in order to attend as a chaperone! The kids were excited, the librarian was excited and I was ecstatic! Mr. Arnold spoke to the kids about being an author and illustrator, drew some illustrations on a large white tablet and signed autographs. He signed my Ollie Forgot and even agreed to pose for a picture.

I'm well aware of how dorky I look. Hey! It was the 90's...we still wore big hair and rolled our jeans for cryin' out loud!

Tedd Arnold's autograph! And he even drew a little puppy dog! Woot!

Here are some of my favorite Tedd Arnold books.

The Signmaker's Assistant

Shannan found me a 1st edition copy of The Signmaker's Assistant and gave it to me for our anniversary. It is one of my favorite books of all time!

A sequel to No Jumping On The Bed. This time it's William's turn!

Autumn loved the Huggly books when she was little. (She still loves 'em)

And here is the 2012 release of the "new" No Jumping On The Bed, re-illustrated by Tedd Arnold.

I hate to say this....(and may lightning of the illustrator gods not strike me down), but I'm partial to his earlier illustrations more-so than his later ones. I'm trying to come around to the bug-eyed children side of things...really I am. I'm just a little slower than others.
But his books are still top-notch. Take the picture above, for example. Even though I have trouble getting past a bug-eyed Walter, I just love the way the colors blend on the wall, around the lamp...so pretty. And I do kind of like the squiggly line effect he does in books such as Huggly. It's pretty cool that he came up with such an original way to enhance his illustrations.
He could start illustrating with mud and sticks or old engine oil and a toothbrush, it wouldn't matter. He will always be one of my all time favorites!

Check out this neat-o blog, Homestead Wannabes, and see just how cool Mr. Arnold and his wife Carol really are!

Arnold's son, Walter, has also become an artist! His art involves looking through a camera's lens. He's a very talented photographer specializing in abandoned buildings and places. Check out his award-winning work at his website, Walter Arnold Photography.

More about children's literature and libraries tomorrow!
You know that phrase "stop and smell the roses"? Well, I'm changing it to "stop and look at the pictures". Stop and appreciate the time and talent of those who create wonderful picture books.
Have a Happy Day!

My Love of Children's Books in High School

Two posts today.
Don't forget to read about how I met Tedd Arnold after this post.

High school is where my serious love of children's books began, and I started to explore the idea of becoming a Children's Librarian. (Why did I ever steer off of that path!!?)

During my early high school years my mother bought me Animalia by Graeme Base which, at that time, was one of the most richly illustrated books I had ever seen!

Animalia opened my eyes to the idea that children's book illustration is a form of art!
Here is the Graeme Base Website, author/illustrator of Animalia and many other books.

During my Sophomore year, the book below was given to me by a special friend. This book, The Golden Age of Children's Book Illustration contains small biographies of a number of illustrators (56 different illustrators to be exact), and was a great help to me in learning about illustrators of the past. 

I learned about the Caldecott Medal and Randolph Caldecott himself and studied the illustrations of Kate Greenaway, Arthur Rackham, and E.H. Shepard. And I did it all without the internet! The Williston Library had a fantastic biography of Kate Greenaway!




The Golden Age of Children's Book Illustration by Richard Dalby

Here are just a few of my favorites. Click on each name and you will be taken to Project Gutenberg where you can see a copy of one of their books! Isn't technology wonderful!?

Leslie L. Brooke

Kate Greenaway

Randolph Caldecott

Walter Crane

Jessie Willcox Smith

During my Senior year my English teacher had our class do a number of activities involving children's literature. We had a speech assignment which involved learning a children's book and reading it aloud to an elementary class. I chose Whose Mouse Are You by Robert Kraus and Illustrated by Jose Aruego. My mother read this book to my brother and me when we were kids. It's a great read-aloud and I still love it!

Along with learning a book, we had to recite a poem from memory. I chose The Duel by Eugene Field, otherwise known as The Gingham Dog and The Calico Cat.
I believe I froze behind the podium the first time (no big surprise there), but was given another go and did fine the second time.

My Senior year is also the year I was able to meet one of my favorite authors, Tedd Arnold!



School Libraries and The Bookmobile

The first school I attended was Epping Public School. The two-story brick building was a beauty with it's antique, wooden stair cases, large windows and little nooks and crannies everywhere.

Epping Public School had a library full of very old books.  I would love to travel back in time to check some of them out. I'm sure there were some treasures, but when you are in lower elementary, you don't care about such things as antique books.  The elementary students didn't use it as a library....instead, it was our elementary music room.
What we did have was...The Bookmobile!!

Oh how I loved the bookmobile!  Getting to visit the bookmobile ranked right up there with field trips, art projects on Friday and the day the book orders came in.  My whole class would sit in anticipation, waiting for the time to come for it to be our turn to go.  We would walk single file out to the little camper full of books and we'd climb the narrow metal stairs that would lead us inside.  Sometimes, if it was really cold, we'd have to wear our coats.
Only a few of us could go in at a time and we had to make our selections quickly in order for others to have their turn. 
The same fellow always drove our bookmobile (which came out of Williston) and to this day I can still picture him. (I think he also kept beehives).

I love the photo above! That is the Ward County Bookmobile visiting the Foxholm school back in 1961. What a beautiful school! I found the photo on this site. http://www.kenmarend.com/?id=72&ncid=2&nid=175 It's an interesting article.

The inside of our bookmobile looked similar to this one.

Photo by Bill Shemorry and Digital Horizons.

The Ward County Public Bookmobile today, that serves surrounding Minot.

In 1986, after my 5th grade year of elementary school, Epping School closed it's doors. It was torn down soon after that. 
Once the Epping school was gone, we Epping kids hopped onto a school bus every morning and rode the 12 miles to Ray Public School in Ray ND. Ray School had a real library, and a real librarian who wore pretty dresses and big, beautiful earrings. Being long past the "story time" age, I only remember doing a few worksheets pertaining to the Dewey Decimal System, and then being allowed to check out books. It seemed to be a big deal to my classmates that now, as big-shot 6th graders, we were allowed to chose high school-type romance novels from spinning wire racks. I look back on those teen romances and wrinkle my nose at them...because now I know better.   I suppose there IS a place for such literature...but they were just so...so...blech.   I checked out a lot of Judy Blume books and Beverly Cleary.  And I remember reading a pretty good book called Hangin' Out With Ce Ce about a girl who goes back in time and meets her mother as a teenager (in the 40's or 50's).  But don't recall ever seeing or hearing about books like Anne of Green Gables and The Secret Garden?   Where were the Little House Books and the last few Betsy-Tacy books?   I'm sure they were there, but I suppose those "oldies-but-goodies" were so uncool that being seen with one of them would've been social suicide. So instead I followed the crowd to the wobbly wire rack and chose books I was not ready for, maturity wise.

Thank goodness for my mother, the English major and my father the music major. Our parents read to us and provided us with excellent books growing up. My mother tried so hard to get me to read To Kill a Mocking Bird.  Sorry, Ma, I never did finish it.  (Now my phone will ring in 3..2..1..)

Our teachers read to us.  Books like Summer of the Monkeys, Where the Red Fern Grows, Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island, The Red Badge of Courage, Johnny Tremain and many others.

It was during high school that I discovered my love for children's books.  Most of the thanks goes to my mother for providing me with such an excellent children's book collection growing up.  But I do give thanks to my high school English teacher, Mrs. Skogen, as well.
But more on that tomorrow!

Have a Happy Day!

The Library

No, it's not National Library Week, or National Children's Book Week.  Nor is it  National Reading Month.  (It is, however, National Popcorn Poppin' month and National Dental Hygiene Month).

But this week I have been thinking quite a bit about libraries.

Autumn and I spent two hours at our local library here in Minot this last Sunday afternoon. We are so glad the city was able to save it from the flood of 2011.

That's our library off to the right.

12 noon on Friday June 24

I apologize that I don't have the names of those who took these pictures. During the flood, there were so many pictures being posted on facebook and on news sites. I collected a few memorable ones and these are some of the few. They give you a good idea of how high the water got and how high the library dike had to be built to save it.

SIDE NOTE: My daughter's school was just off to the left in this picture and was destroyed. There was no saving the school (it was very old) and it was torn down this past summer.
Luckily, the library at Autumn's school was located on the top floor. There was some confusion at first as to whether or not they were able to save the books, but we soon found out that volunteers were able to save the collection.

But, back to Sunday.
We spent a few minutes upstairs in the "grown-ups" section so that I could find a good book on Calligraphy and a Debbie Mcomber book called Dakota Born (more on that book in a later post).
Then we headed downstairs to our favorite part of the library, the Children's Library. It's such a well lit, happy place with decorations hanging from the ceiling and the cheerful librarian. (no, the librarian wasn't hanging from the ceiling)--no need to call me, Mom. The cheerful librarian was sitting at the main desk.

Minot Public Library Children's Library (and this is only half of it!)

Because Autumn is finally old enough to navigate the space on her own, and no longer needs to be "accompanied by an adult at all times", I found myself a comfy chair and sat down to read. Of course  I kept an eye on her, as she buzzed around the stacks like a quiet little humming bird. (More like  a squirrel gathering nuts.)  She'd look something up on the computer, then would buzz over to the appropriate shelf to find what she was looking for.

She picked out a number of books for herself and quite a few for the daycare as well. She loves daycare story time and has been reading to the kids ever since she learned how to read.

We had such a nice, relaxing time at the library, it got me thinking about libraries.  Where did my love for libraries come from?

I've visited quite a few libraries throughout my life.  I even worked in the college library my Freshman year at UND-Williston.  It was only for a few months and entailed helping to enter books into the ODIN database.  It was interesting to see all of the books that would come across the desk, but it was monotonous work.  I honestly think that's what killed my desire to be a librarian.  Sad, because I now know there is more to being a librarian than just entering data on a computer.

The Library I grew up with was the The Williston Community Library in Williston, ND.

You can find them on facebook at this address,
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Williston-Community-Library/218788331484710

This is most likely where my love for libraries began.  My parents took my brother and me there on a regular basis as kids.  I'll never forget the parakeets the library kept as pets. 

Autumn loved visiting the Williston Library during the 19 months we lived there.  We made it to a few story times and enjoyed making a new friend, Gramma Sherry, the Children's Librarian.

The children's books at the Williston Library are in bin type shelves seen above.  These bins made looking for books easy for even a three and a half year old.

The sun room in the children's library area.

Story time with "Gramma" Sherry

When I was very young, the current library (the beautiful, rounded, brick building you saw above), didn't yet exist.  Instead, we had the James Memorial Library, close to downtown.  I only remember visiting there once or twice as a child.  My brother and I also took a fun, week long art class there when we were little.

It is a beautiful building.  Today, it is known as the James Memorial Art Center.  They host a number of art shows and concerts throughout the year and I am proud to say that my father has played a concert there!  I'm not sure who took this picture of the building, so I'm sorry that I have not given credit to anyone.

More Tomorrow on the Libraries of my life.
Not sure why I'm writing posts about libraries, but try to bear with me.

Until Tomorrow,
Pick up a good book and have a happy, reading day!