6 Reasons To Go To The Library (Other than the Books)

Summer, sitting outside, and reading all go together in my mind. Well, so do cold days, snuggling inside with a blanket and reading.  So there's always an excuse to go to the library.  Obviously, the free books is the primary one, but there are others. Here’s 6.

Late fees make you feel like you are contributing to society. The books are really only free if you don’t lose them and turn them in on time. Otherwise, you will owe your library some money. But unlike a parking meter ticket – which feels like such as waste, because, really, did that extra five minutes actually cost the city $40? – you can talk yourself into feeling good about your library fine. It goes to the library, a public good, one that you like.

There’s more than books to borrow from the library.  Libraries now have audiobooks (our must-have for roadtrips and other continuous hours in the car), CDs, and DVDs. On the bookshelves, there’s books in different languages, whether you are bilingual or wanting to learn a new language.  Many libraries also have computers for public use for internet access, as well as getting documents done. And I noticed at our new library, you can borrow iPads while you are visiting.

They are everywhere (and there’s WiFi.)  At least at our libraries there is. As a mom and busy lady that’s always going from here to there, I’m often looking for a place to hang out when I'm away from home, that’s not necessarily a Starbucks because even I can only drink so much coffee. There’s always a library somewhere nearby, along my route of errands.  I can find a spot at the library, do something quiet – work on my laptop, read, wander around looking for my next book.

You can check out books without even going to the library. Need the next book for bookclub? On vacation and run out of reading? Open up your e-reader and borrow an e-book from your local library. What a life-saver this was for me. My oldest daughter is a voracious reader. Of course, I’m very excited about this, but it required me taking her to the library all the time for her next pile of books.

The library takes your old books. How about that? Not only can you borrow books for free, you can take your old books and leave them there. The library will then sell them in their used book sale to bring in more money for the library. Again- like the late fees, you can feel good about your contribution to society.

There’s free stuff to entertain your kids. What tired mom doesn’t love having an activity for your kid where you don’t have to do anything?  The library offers kiddie movies, music concerts, puppet shows, scientists doing ahh-inspiring experiments, and read-aloud mornings. Just get there, find a spot on the floor, and let someone else talk to your kid for an hour. Ahhh!  You will be re-energized, which is a good thing because she’s going to have you reading those library books about 50 times, over and over, before you bring them back. 

With my love of books, in recent years, I’ve crossed my fingers and wished – all the library needs is a coffee shop. And I hear that the new library will have a coffee counter. I can’t wait to get there to buy a cup of coffee and check out a book.

Join the conversation on Facebook: Just Piddlin' with Frances & Twitter

The School is Making My Kids Read Banned Books!

Given that it's Banned Books Week and I like to be in the know as to what offensive and terrible for my kids' minds books are out there, I was looking over the list of top 100 Banned/Challenged Books.  And I was shocked and surprised to find what looked like my kids' school reading list.  Did I go to the wrong site? Was I looking at the wrong list?  I had to pull out my notes from Back to School Night and check.

But there they were - right on the list of books random folks said that children should not be reading or have access to in the public libraries.

Harry Potter topped the list of books challenged in the last decade.  We haven't read it because I don't like witch-y/wizardy stories.  Although this isn't official school reading, one of my daughter's teachers said that they would be reading it to discuss plot and character development in a generic sense; she figured since most, if not all, of the kids read it, that would be easy.  My daughter hadn't read it and I really wasn't trying to fight with her to read it, because in addition to my shying away from the series, she doesn't really like to read, especially long books, so let's have this battle over required reading. Surely some other book has plot and character development.  Yes, the teacher suggested some other books - still of considerable length - she could read and still be able to add to the discussion. Wow, that was easy, without having to dictate what every other child reads.  What else you got?

Of Mice and Men, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Huckleberry Finn, The Bluest Eye, Catcher in the Rye, and To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Giver.  Wait, no Autobiography of Malcolm X? I thought we could knock out my daughter's whole high school list and she could breeze through school.

And not be left out, there's a few to be left off the elementary list, too.  Captain Underpants - perhaps for partial nudity?  And the Junie B Jones series.  Oh, yeah, that girl is trouble.  Surely, she incites kids all over the country to push other kids off the playground and tease their little brothers. We can't have that.

I agree, that some of these books, perhaps should not be required school reading, for instance, the joy of any-kind-of-sex, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be in the public library. Who are we to say what other people should read?  Remember - these challenged books are not just for school kids, they would be banned in the library - so adults couldn't read them either.  Now, yeah, if there was a 101 Ways to Wreak Havoc & Cause Mayhem book (and sadly, I won't be surprised if you tell me there is), I might agree that it shouldn't be available for free, housed in a public building, folks should have to pay their own $14.95 for such craziness.  But Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.  I think that's a rite of passage, just as much as pimples and changing voices.

Enjoy a banned book with your child this week.

Join the conversation on Facebook: Just Piddlin' with Frances

Got Your Library Card?

One day, I was walking around the bookstore with a cup of coffee in my hand, perusing the new fiction.  As I debated which to get, I had this thought - honestly, I did: "there should be a place where I can just borrow these books and bring them back when I'm done."  Yeah, I really did think that. When the thought was complete, I almost spit out my coffee laughing at myself.  I've been a library-card carrying girl for over thirty years, so let's blame that on mommy-brain.

As a kid, our home was walking distance to the public library. This was way back when parents let their kids walk across an empty field, past a cemetery, and across a 4-lane street with their little brother in tow.  Each week, we would carry Ramona & Beezus, Henry and that dog, and Judy Blume back and forth with us.  There were afternoon programs and activities, my brother and I would sign ourselves up and then show up to enjoy them.  Sometimes our friends would come along.  We found that rows and rows of library books were a great place for indoor hide & seek when it was too cold outside - but you had to play real quietly.  When I pass by now, I point it out to my kids, "there's my library."  It was a place of happy memories, as corny as that may sound.

When I take my kids to our neighborhood library, they each make sure they have their own library card to check out their own books.  All five of us, five stacks of books, five different cards. (Only one of us, however, pays the late fines.  I hope one day I will be commemorated at least on a bookshelf or one of those teeny chairs in the children's section for my donations of 50-cents at a time over the years.)

Getting their own card was my kids literacy right-of-passage.  Before they could get their own card, they had to be able to write their name and read a book by themselves.  "Read" of course doesn't mean get through War & Peace, but at least a few pages of Cat in the Hat.  They each were so excited to get their cards. They knew the "requirements" and would practice writing their name, so it would be just perfect on their card.

There's of course, no requirement for everyone in the house to have their own library card. But it gives the kids a sense of pride, I think, to have their own.  It's their little piece of independence. Their first piece of identification that they can put in their pocket.  Having their own card is like having their own ticket to wherever they want to go.

We try to get there every few weeks or so, in between all the other after-school activities.  In addition to picking up books, we've picked up audiobooks for roadtrips and language tapes to practice our Korean. When they were little, we used to go for puppet shows and art activities.  We drop off books for the used book sales and they picked up some good (cheap) reads there, too.  Since our library is not easily walkable from our home, the kids rely on me to take them. But now the library also has e-books available so they can download them to the Nook or my iPad if they don't want to wait (or we're snowbound).  I'm glad that my kids enjoy going to the library as much as I did as a kid.

Now, if only they served coffee...

Join the conversation on Facebook: Just Piddlin' with Frances

Read Any Good Banned Books Lately?

Surely, you've read The Hunger Games (okay, maybe you saw the movie).  Or maybe, if you are expecting another baby, you read My Mom's Having a Baby to your kid.  Or you've felt nostalgic and read To Kill a Mockingbird (it's on my list to revisit).  These popular titles are among the Top Ten Challenged Books of 2011; there were 326 challenges in all, according to Banned Books Week.

Even if you don't like these, don't I have the right to choose to read them?

Apparently, books can be challenged for a number of reasons.  From stats gathered by the folks in charge of collecting this data, the most popular reasons are "sexually explicit", "offensive language", "unsuited to age group", and "violence".  I have to admit - these are all good reasons not to let a kid read a book.  Which brings me to the next interesting stat, the people who are predominant in initiating these challenges are parents.  Yes, maybe that makes sense, because who else would care as much?

But here's the thing.  If you are a parent and you feel a book is inappropriate for your kid - don't let your kid read it.  Why does every kid in the country not get to read Beloved because a handful of parents don't like it?  I don't want my kids to read anything from the Twilight series.  Do any of those popular reasons I mentioned previously apply to this popular teen series?  I don't know about the others, but, in my mind "unsuited to age group" does.  Plus the fact that I don't like vampires.  So, guess what - I tell my kids not to read it and I don't give them the $14.95 or the nook password to buy it.  It is essentially, banned in our house.  But I fully believe that if other parents want their kids reading about vampire kids romancing each other and biting each other's neck and turning into werewolves or whatever it is they do - they have the right to allow that in their house.

I let my oldest read The Hunger Games (I only got half-way through because she had already dragged me to the movie and I'm really bad at finishing a book that I already know the ending).  But my second daughter, two years younger, I told her she couldn't read it and she couldn't watch the movie.  Because I know it will either freak her out or make her want to take archery lessons - neither is a good option.  

That's my role as a parent - to figure out what's allowed and not allowed for my kids.  Then other parents can figure out what's allowed and not allowed for their kids.  That's why there are so many books at the library!  

My position on parenting your own kids can also be extended to folks who challenge Happy Meals and potato chips and large sodas, but that's for another day.  Banned Salty, Sugary Food Week perhaps.  Anyway.

Happy reading - whatever you're reading!

Reprinted by permission of the American Library Association.

*You can read more about the First Amendment, Intellectual Freedom and Banned Books on the American Library Associations website, here.