Back in Berkeley the next year, I was now a single mom and had to work. My son’s childcare provider was devoted to books, and I loaned her many of mine. I continued to buy—now from garage sales, and sometimes used book stores (both readily available in a town of readers). When this woman started a preschool, and later an elementary school, they continued to use my books, and I continued to buy. My books were stored in a neighbor’s garage, which was dark and spidery, so I was the only one who went in.

In 1985, I had been remarried for several years. An uncle died, leaving me a small bequest. I knew just what I wanted to do—create my dream library, with the feel of the basement in Detroit. I had my garage and basement refinished and built-in shelves added. I cleaned all the books and arranged them by topic on the shelves. I included a toy room, with lots of things for kids to play with. The toy theme now changes, with a rotation of seven months. In 1986, the library opened. At first, there were just a few neighborhood kids, but then a mom who had started a play-date group discovered me and soon after, a Jewish home-school group. Soon I had the library open in two-hour time slots four times a week, and it was always busy. 

https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/librarian-notices-kathie-johnsons-library-journey/

Lou Alice is a kind soul who loves to cultivate beauty wherever she goes. But, Lou Alice is getting older, and it is hard for her to live on her own anymore. A “little girl,” who watches Lou Alice as she goes about her work is the only one who notices when Lou Alice moves out of her home and stops tending to the gardens she planted everywhere around town. The “little girl” notices the loss of Lou Alice and decides to do something about it. 

https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/a-little-more-beautiful/ 

Diane - dianependergraft

This 2015 middle-grade novel by Jennifer A. Nielsen tells the story of a family divided by the Berlin Wall during the Cold War. It is the second historical fiction novel by Nielsen that I have read, and I am glad to have this one in my lending library. It moves at a different pace than that of Words on Fire and is less exciting, but it offers readers young and old a compelling tale of life inside the wall. Nielsen does an excellent job of helping us to understand why so few tried to escape East Germany – because of the danger, because of retribution to the loved ones who stayed behind, and because of uncertainty that the West was really any better. But the realities of life inside the wall are chilling.  

One day, though, as you probably already guessed, when my little house couldn’t hold another book, the phone rang. A friend with a very large home was going on a one-year trip. Would I want to move into their place, and use their front rooms for a library? Somehow, I was just crazy enough to say yes, because it was a good situation all the way around. Twelve days later, my tiny house was up for sale, and we were already moved into their home. I opened the “library” right away, even though it was mostly stacks of books leaning against the walls and in boxes, because the 24 families who quickly paid to be members couldn’t wait to dig in! We all laughed at the adventure! Sorting through 5,000 or 6,000 as-yet-unlabelled books was quite a scavenger hunt!

Right away, though, many came for work-bees, as I began inputting the books into a database, to create labels and perform detailed searches. Together, we stickered the books, laminated the paperbacks, and put mylar covers on the dust jackets. We added to each book a card pocket and labeled the bookcards themselves. We could now “check out” the gems. It was a blast! (Later, I would use barcodes, not bookcards and pockets, but barcodes didn’t exist when we first opened.)

https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/librarian-notices-michelle-howards-library-journey/ 

Show notes: https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/show-notes-michelle-howard-new-patron-orientation-meeting/

"In nearly every review Sara and I have written for Gary D. Schmidt’s books, we have used the word hard to describe the situations his characters encounter. Orbiting Jupiter takes hard to a new level. 

*** I am going to SPOIL this story because parents will want to know the themes dealt with in this book before handing it to a child of the age of Schmidt’s typical audience. ***

Schmidt seemingly effortlessly switches in and out of the voices of his characters without missing a beat. Whether he is writing the thoughts and language of a twelve-year-old boy in the American 1960s, or the complaints of a German Jew running from the Nazis, or the self-assured confidence of a Black American girl of the early 1900s, each character sounds authentic and beautifully right. Just as importantly, Schmidt never loses his ability to convey complex and powerful ideas through the vernacular of his protagonists. 

Knowing that full well, I was surprised nonetheless by his incredible voice change in the hauntingly beautiful picture book biography of Sojourner Truth, So Tall Within. This gripping story reads like epic poetry told through the voice of a Black American slave. He demands that we see her strength and her courage through her commanding voice and the undulating rhythm with which the story is told. 

https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/so-tall-within/

I was worried about this one. I was worried that this book would break my heart with grief. I was worried that Schmidt might finally disappoint me and somehow tell this story badly. I was worried that this would fall flat. For some reason, I wanted to love Mara’s Stories. Something in me wanted this book to be powerful and touching and inspiring and good. And, it is. Schmidt did bruise my heart, but he did not disappoint me, and it did not fall flat. 

This small book has 121 pages of stories that were told in and about the concentration camps. Stories that capture the heart and imagination of the listener. Stories that show a kind of resistance to darkness, a fierce clinging to all that makes us human, and a celebration of life. Gary D. Schmidt did extensive research on primary sources from folklorists, Jewish religious scholars, and Holocaust survivors. Some of the stories are happy and some are sad. Some are historical or biblical and some are about the moment right then. But each captures the essence of the people in that time and that place. And each reminds us of how to live – even when we are in the darkest night of our soul. 

https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/marasstories/