The View from the Leslie Library Windows: One Year Ago

Sunday, September 12, 2021

One Year Ago

One year ago I fled my home on the Little North Fork River as the canyon filled with flames, driven by wind and we learned that our new-to-us home burned to the ground. We had already been in love with it after only 2 months. My principal had called as we drove out through the flames that had not yet engulfed our home, but we knew, it would soon be gone. She was so kind, but I decided to come in anyway and work so I wouldn't have to think about what was probably happening, but hoped not. Today I waited as I worked on putting the library back together. There was a morning meeting (I was a bit late because I had to wait for a pilot car on our highway as crews cleared out burned out trees - is that a valid excuse for being late??), I worked on putting up books, cleaning up areas, putting up bookends for shelves and bringing out 20 boxes of the Chromebooks our students would pick up the next day. The inspection to say yes, we could move in was at 2pm. I answered questions from teachers, helped herd students that were not sure where to go to the right classroom. An exciting day! Finally, about 3:45, I got the call, we were in, exactly one year after we lost everything. A blessing, a fantastic day. We were so happy!

September 9th - Chromebook handouts. All day. Every period but one. Ten classes came through! Some students even checked out books :) Tired, happy, ready to head out to my new home after I did some cleaning on the rental we had.

September 10th - More Chromebook checkouts. 13 classes today. I got to eat lunch during the Advisory period since there was a class in the library during that half an hour. And today, straight home!

Great thanks to our Assistant Principal for setting up a sign up sheet so it was orderly and I was able to do it all myself. That was a great tool as one class cycled in, and then out. A few moments and the next class was in. Tired, but 40 boxes, 12 Chromebooks each, 480 were checked out and I do have two more classes on Monday that couldn't fit in Friday.

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What I'm Reading

The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris was a great non-fiction read! Love a good non-fiction! Joseph Lister worked hard, studied hard, never gave up on his ideas that something outside was causing untold numbers of people to die after surgery. His quest to find the answer was long overdue and he was the one to craft it and make it a medical standard. Brilliant!
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy by Emmanuel Acho was so good. I liked it even better than Stamped. His honest and open look at what is was like for him growing up really brings the issues into focus. Highly recommended!
Verify by Joelle Charbonneau - what if everything went digital which gave the government and people in power a way to change history, past and current. What happened to some words, like the word 'verify' that is no longer in the digital dictionary. Meri has lost her mom and her dad drowns sorrow in liquor. Meri is entranced by her mom's last art pieces and is given a slip of paper (the horror! what about the trees? recycling?) and on it is the word 'verify'. Atlas gives her a dictionary, a paper one and an old history textbook. Meri jumps on the train with him so they can change the world.
Kalahari by Jessica Khoury - what a ride! I even took this home one night to finish! Sarah lives with her dad doing research deep in the Kalahari. A group of students are sent to see if they can qualify for a grant and when her dad goes missing when he heads off after poachers, she is left to take care of them. Her dad doesn't return and the poachers are after them. They come across a white lion stalking them, but wait? It isn't white it's something else. They come across a lab and realize there is a virus, that has been let loose on the Kalahari that could destroy the whole world. So exciting!! Great ending as well!
The Year of the Buttered Cat by Susan Haas with Lexi Haas - Okay. I have to admit that I got this book because of the title. Buttered cats, what an intriguing thought! But the real intrigue is the persistence, the optimism of Lexi. Because of jaundice, she was disabled and this story is about her decision to take a chance on ground breaking surgery to try and get some mobility, speech and live her gifts. She has five she had to find. Read it for Lexi (and maybe to find out about that buttered cat).
Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram. There are spaces only you can fill, and Darius learns this as his family travels to Iran to see his grandfather who is dying. Along the way he deals with his depression, makes a friend, has innumerable Star Trek references and also learns that it's okay, to not be okay. I must admit, I had to look up some of the places he got to visit. What a rich heritage. I thought Zoroastrians were long gone, but no, they are still practicing today in Iran. Great book, totally okay.
The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin - perfect book lover tale of a woman captivated by a man and a bookstore and how she made more impact on her fellow book lovers and the man who got her to read than any bomb that fell during the Blitz. Very lovely!
The Girl From the Channel Islands by Jenny Lecoat - Lovely WW2 story by Jenny who actually grew up on one of the Channel Islands. Hedy fled Austria only to find her island haven invaded by the Germans. And though she is wary, she falls in love with a German officer. The twists and turns of German occupation test them both as each find a way to help the allied forces win.
Ancestor Approved edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith. I loved these short stories that all center around a modern day Native American Powwow. My fave was Rez Dog and they were all a great window into culture that I have rarely seen. I watched some videos on Fancy Dancing because of this and I would love to attend one, but feel a bit like a looky loo if I did. Fun, eye opening and full of information. Loved it!
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams Loved this fictionalized tale of the daughter of one of the lexicographers of the first ever Oxford Dictionary. As Esme goes from hiding under the sorting table, to one day being a lexicographer herself, we see her story unfold along with the people attached to the dictionary. It was really wonderful as we glimpsed her life and how the words she found and rescued formed the backbone of this novel. Really well done. It will stay on my shelves.