The happy life of teacher librarians: the books with legs

My school assistants and I have been having a lovely giggle in the last few weeks about a couple of books that seem to mysteriously grow legs every lunchtime.  They start off innocently enough - placidly sitting on the picture book display stand, usually.  But at the end of lunchtime, they're down the side of a sofa, under a comfy chair, shoved in a shelf somewhat haphazardly - anywhere but on that picture book stand, face-out.

Any guesses as to why?

See, what's really funny is that any of us can trot up to the fiction section upstairs on a given lunchtime and find the group - and it's pretty much always a group, sometimes huddled and reading together, sometimes with a designated read-alouder, a different assortment of kids pretty much every time - enjoying these picture books.  And they don't stop and pretend to be busy and important with something else when any of us appear.  They carry right on, with half an eye on us to see if we're going to react (I just grin!).  I've had some, smirking, tell me these are appalling and rude books, and shoudn't be in the library.  I say I'm appreciative of their input, and did they enjoy them?!

Actually, they're charming and fun and convey accurate information in a friendly and accessible format.  Mummy Laid an Egg is another one in this category.  I've written about them before, here: http://skerricks.blogspot.com/2009/06/gifsl-30-naughty-books-about-sex.html. 

I love having books with legs in the library!

We used to have one with the immensely promising title, Boys & Girls & Sex, which started lunchtime on the nonfiction shelf in the 613s and rarely if ever ended lunchtime there.  Another group read, although it was drier nonfiction, with some drawn illustrations (sadly added to so often that it was one of the reasons it had to be disposed of from the library).  Its thumped condition attested to its keen readership (and they could work the catalogue and library systems well enough to find it independently, because sex isn't the first topic a kid's going to enquire about from a teacher librarian.  Besides, it's a well-known fact - ask any teenager - that no teenager's parents have EVER had sex, because the thought is just too gross and embarrassing for their kids to contemplate.  Immaculate conceptions, pretty much every kid in high school.  Remarkable, really.) but it had rarely been borrowed.  By gum it got to travel around the library though! - we'd find it tucked into all sorts of unlikely shelf locations. And reshelve it in the 613s, and wonder where we'd find it next...

Ah, the happy life of teacher librarians, enjoying the books with legs!

Cheers

Ruth

"Priest" (2011) Yay on Story. Boo On Visuals

PRIEST, 2011 movie based on the Korean comic "Priest" by comic book aritst Hyung Min-woo. I post no spoilers here, except let me strongly suggest that you wait until this movie comes out on DVD. I really enjoyed the sound and story-line, watched this movie on the big screen in 3D, and left the theater having been fully entertained (yet I have strong reservations about the low quality of visuals).


ABOUT THE VAMPIRES: 
Each individual vampire (save one) seems to have paper-thin white skin, a huge grotesque mouth with enormous fangs and no eyes or nose to speak of. Those brandishing fangs are all naked but if you're worried about seeing any genitalia - don't. The vampire anatomy looks very much like the Ken doll (of Barbie fame). The vampires can move inhumanely fast, but when they move slowly their posture is similar to Smeagol, the Gollem creature in Lord of the Rings, and his hunched-over skeletal creeping.


Everybody's basically celibate in this action-packed film where the Christian church rules the day as the city's political government. The super-human vampire slayers known as "priests" (who come in both genders, interestingly) protect the city from the scourges on humanity, also known as a most hideous sort of vampire army which was supposed to have been eradicated - until now-w-w. 


"PRIEST" - MOVIE ASPECTS IN SHORT: 

• Action: hugely entertaining stunts with many incredible hand-to-hand combat scenes,  some involving guns, knives, crosses, fangs, special ninja-like weapons and exploding motorcycles
• Acting: excellent!
• Dialogue: some of it very lame (cheesy even). I groaned once or twice thanks to ridiculous lines
• Gore: Hugely entertaining and fun. Think: decapitations and newly made vampires hanging like slimy dead pigs inside womb-like sacks in what looks like a meat locker
• Religion: the church behaves much more like a horrible and oppressive government than a spiritual practice. There's a great deal of religious posturing but not much dogma presented. (Thank goodness.)
• Sound: excellent (put it this way, I never had to think about the sound - it was just perfect)
• Sex: none (not even an exposed ankle)
• Slayers - known as "priests," these super-human slayers wear a tattoo in the middle of their foreheads so civilians can quickly identify and avoid them
• Story line: very worth-while and entertaining (for some reason parts of this movie reminded me a little of Dirty Harry
• Surprise: I jumped in my seat; once
• Vampires - fascinating (genuinely loved the horribly disfigured beasts - grotesque as they genuinely were)
• Violence: 65% of the movie. 
• Visuals: the beginning involves very low-quality "line-art" cartoon. Not only were characters shoddily drawn but some were blurry (at least that was an aspect of 3D, even with the glasses on). Beyond that? 85% of this film seriously caused me to feel like I was sitting under a dark rain cloud thanks to it's persistent lack of color.

RESERVATIONS/COMPLAINT
This movie is mostly COLORLESS. You could watch it on a very old black-and-white T.V. and still not miss much beyond the occasional yellow flames that burned from a communal fire. To describe it as "very gray" is an understatement. After all the rain we've endured around Seattle here lately I seriously wanted to see some colorful vegetation or clothing to give the movie more depth, aesthetically. Quite often the large movie screen would show little more than what looked like three black dots moving across a large white sheet of paper and then the camera might zoom in until those dots evolved into three turbo-charged motorcycles racing through the pathetically barren and flat white-sandy desert. (I love motorcycles and yet, after studying the details of each vehicle for a few minutes, I grew very tired of looking at bikes just speeding over sand.)


Even with the poor visual aspects - I think this movie is a worth see (but on DVD ... not at the movies and definitely not like I saw it, in 3D). Save your money. You really won't miss anything by watching it on your TV. 


Director: Scott Charles Stewart
Writers: Cory Goodman, Min-Woo Hyung (graphic novel series "Priest")
Stars: Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet and Maggie Q


To read another honest review, with links to the trailer, about this same movie, visit Shah's blog.

2011 APA book cover design winners

Among the children and young adult book cover winners at the 2011 Australian Publishers' Association awards, you can find:

Best designed children's cover of the year

Best designed children's fiction book

Joint winners of the best-designed children's nonfiction book

Best designed children's picture book

Best designed children's series

Best designed young adult book

Best designed secondary education book

See all the awards, adult and children's, with the authors/designers and all on Fancy Goods, the Bookseller and Publisher magazine's blog here:

http://www.fancygoods.com.au/fancy-goods/2011/05/20/2011-apa-book-design-awards-winners/

It's interesting to see what gets industry awards like these; they're not always the ones the kids grab first. I'm sometimes hugely disappointed in book covers - the blurb sounds promising but the cover just ain't gonna grab the customers.  We get some great ones, but others (if I know that what's inside is worth the work) I'll do my best to hand-sell; but I can't hand-sell everything, and covers certainly matter.

One book I wish someone would re-issue with a modern, appealing cover is a teenage fiction book called, "A time to love, a time to mourn" by Paige Dixon (which I think was originally published with a title like, "Will you cross my golden river?".  It's a superb, well written family story, an unsentimental tearjerker - I still have a copy in the library, but it's a hard hard sell, so dated does the cover look.  Any publisher listening - ???

Congratulations to all those involved in the books above.

Cheers

Ruth

The happy life of teacher librarians: Inspiration for your library is everywhere...

As I type this, I'm on hold to a major newspaper publisher (problems with our subscription).  Instead of hold music, they are advertising at me.

"Subscribe to [publication X]," the smooth tones of the voiceover guy says, "and you'll never miss an issue.  In both senses of the word."  (or words to that effect).

My ears prick up.  There is inspiration for your library everywhere.  That's a tag line/slogan that a library could burgle and adapt...

[brainstorming here]

Come to your library and you'll never miss an issue

Research at your library and you'll never miss an issue

Learn at your library and you'll never miss an issue

Ask at your library and you'll never miss an issue

.....

lots of possibilities.

Fancy it up into a sign, and you've got free promo material (it could go on bookmarks, too) that Big Newspaper Company paid good dollars for from a smart advertising agency... and you borrowed for nix apart from being attentive

(or being on hold for longer than one would wish, if I take the half-empty glass view, which generally I don't!)

What have you seen in marketing/advertising that could be adapted to use in a library?

The happy life of teacher librarians: inspiration is everywhere (and sometimes, being on hold can be useful!)

Cheers

Ruth

Film/Movie news: The Hunger Games

Tintin may be out at the end of 2011, but you'll have to wait till the end of 2012 for the film being made of Suzanne Collins' very successful book, The Hunger Games.  I have five copies of this in the library (and two or three of the sequels, Catching Fire and Mockingjay) and they are constantly either out or on reserev - it would be one of the most popular books in the library at present (five copies tells you that, doesn't it?).  Some of the kids are already starting to talk about the film.

Here's a glimpse of Jennifer Lawrence, who has been cast as Katniss:

Source is http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20493206,00.html.  She got great reviews in Winter's Bone.

There are several people on Twitter who are avidly following (and tweeting about) the film - casting, locations and more.  @HungerGamesExam is one of them.  She also has a website here with regular updates.  Filming has started, but I'm guessing any trailer is a fair way off.  But it will come...

Cheers

Ruth

HUGE MYSTERY - HAUNTED HOUSE - UNIQUE INSIGHT - WILLIAM ROSS RUST HOME

William R. Rust House - 

1001 N. I St.

Tacoma, WA, USA

This notable landmark, the Colonial style William Ross Rust House is a private estate built in 1905 (tax records claim it was built in 1907) in North Tacoma, Washington, USA, and it has quite a bit of fascinating mystery and gossip surrounding it. The photo, right, is widely available on the Internet as a public document. And here's a high resolution photo of the William Ross Rust house (worth the peak).

WHY I DECIDED TO RESEARCH THIS HOME:
I first heard of this house a week or two ago and have continued to feel haunted by the stories surrounding it. Deciding I should investigate to learn more, I quickly realized that what's available through typical research means (e.g., common Google search) only created more questions for me when documentation about this house, and the family that lived here, didn't match either the stories I'd heard or messages I had gleaned, intuitively.

That's why I resorted to recruiting Doug Grimes, with all his skills and experience at researching family genealogy. Thanks to him, I am now fully engaged by the terrible stories affiliated with the William Ross Rust (1850-1928) family home and I now regard the rumors as being at least partly true. In the very least, the evidence suggests there has been an attempt by William Ross Rust to hide some of his family information.


The bigger question that remains is whether or not there was a larger attempt to cover up a horrid crime committed on the front porch of this home by the man who the locals treated as a respectable magnate. You'll have to read this posting to the end before you know all the fascinating questions, be fully entertained by how this story winds and twists, and then peruse my initial conclusion.

I first became fascinated with this house when another psychic told me just recently that she'd been inside this house with the mission of launching a house clearing effort. Without any visible remorse or embarrassment, she admitted the home became so filled with spooky paranormal events that she had to abandon the mission. Knowing that I often clear houses, professionally, she asked if I'd be willing to accompany her back inside this home, but when I admitted that I charge a reasonable fee, and guarantee my work or provide a full refund if the customer's not completely satisfied, she all but rescinded the offer (and I'm firm about NOT doing house clearings without being compensated - thanks to the personal risk involved and thanks to my ethical beliefs of always participating in fair trade practices). 

All the same, I felt the following story that psychic told me was at least partly true and very fascinating. Not only did I suddenly feel as though I instantly knew the victim in this story, but the young male involved was actually a fun-loving person who was simply trying to live authentically and his life-style conflicted with the conservative times and with his father's need to uphold a certain public image. 


Not having gone to the house myself, I reasoned that this house could legitimately be haunted and there might be an element of resentment that's still there in regards to disowning family members and abhorring controlling or severely dominant male-figures. Yet I cannot say who or what would be causing the current paranormal activity being reported there, not without actually being inside the home/experiencing it for myself. *Note: sometimes I can read a house without physically going there but this particular home is very complex/confusing when viewed from afar. 

Beyond this home being rumored to be very haunted, a recent accidental death is now being blamed on the resident spirit(s) but I don't feel at liberty to go into much detail about that - not in a public way. 

JUICIEST RUMORS ABOUT WILLIAM ROSS RUST - "THE MAN"

A highly respected business man, William Ross Rust (hereafter referred to as W.R.) traveled quite often. During one trip to Europe, his grown son (as the story was told to me, the son's name was not given) was tired of conforming to social-standards-of-the-day and he hooked his horses up to a buggy and drove around Tacoma with his male-lover on the seat beside him. The two men kissed in public, which was something W.R. would never have endorsed or tolerated. The moment that W.R. arrived home early from his trip, having heard of his adult son's escapades while abroad, he reportedly shot his son point-blank and killed him. The "murder" is rumored to have happened on the front porch of the above mentioned home. According to rumor, death records listed the son's death as due to "natural causes" thanks to cultural homophobia and the fact that W.R. Rust was highly respected as an important citizen in Tacoma and able to launch a successful cover-up effort. *Again, this is current day rumor and no printed or published information clearly substantiates this story.*  (Read on.)

STILL A MYSTERY - OR PROOF OF A COVER-UP? 

Initially upon doing an Internet search, I learned that W.R. had one son, Henry Arthur Rust (Aug. 21, 1900 - May 13, 1936). Immediately this information seemed to completely dispel everything that I'd picked up intuitively and everything I'd been told via rumor because public record shows that H. Arthur out-lived his father by 8 years. (W.R. died in 1928 at age 78). 


Given this evidence ("proof") that W.R. had NOT murdered his son -- something just kept nagging at me about this house's story. I felt I could NOT just let it go. I felt as though a young homosexual male had visited me in spirit and wanted me to know the full story but all records documenting Henry Arthur's life not only suggested that he outlived his father but he had gotten married and had children ... So I dug a little deeper into the research to discover why I was feeling so inspired to tell this gay man's story - or "the rumor." 

A CLOSER LOOK INTO WILLIAM ROSS RUST's PERSONALITY:
W.R. Rust was born in Pennsylvania on August 1, 1850. Later, he moved westward and purchased the Tacoma Smelting & Refining Company, a business that occupied 67 acres, some of it was said to occupy ancient Indian burial grounds. W.R. purchased the company somewhere around 1890 from a cash-strapped business man. Today that smelting property is undergoing massive clean-up and environmental restoration work, thanks to all the toxic waste created by the smelter's smoke stack emissions and the release of heavy metals such as lead and arsenic into the local air, soil and water. It's cleanup is financed by an EPA superfund but experience suggests - since the company was shut down many years ago - most of the toxic waste has already been widely distributed (most of the damage has been done, irretrievably).

Yet I digress. Getting back to the story of W.R. long before he died, he did something very public that suggests he was either very unhappy or very controlling in regards to his marriage. In the 1910 Pierce County Census - 13th Census of the United States (see more details below) W.R. felt obligated to document that he was married and living with his wife, whom he's listed as 12 years his junior, but W.R. left her name completely OFF the record (did not acknowledge his spouse by name, not even when all other contributors to that same census did mention their spouses by name). Interestingly, W.R. did manage to list the full name of his servant woman (*who was closer in age to him than his wife was*) and he listed both of his sons by their names as well. 


Did you catch that? While most documents only mention W.R. as having one son, from the census we can see he actually had two. (The eldest son, Howard, is most often omitted from public records.) What's more, other legal documents reveal that W.R.'s wife was named Helen M. Smith, born in 1863. Yet, again, the Rust Family Papers and many other Internet sources list only W.R. with one son, and quite often no wife is mentioned.  


SO THIS IS WHERE I ASK YOU, DEAR INTELLIGENT READER:
When such a wealthy business man with strong political interests, finances much of the town's progress and he is so admired, politically, that the town Ruston was named after him, is it possible that he networked with the powers that be to hide a heinous crime he committed? Realizing that most readily accessible public documents have eliminated Rust's wife and son Howard from the record, is it not rather easy to jump to the conclusion that W.R. may have also committed murder (when his son was violating local laws and committing religious offense)? It's not too difficult to imagine how W.R. might have maneuvered his way through the police/local media mess by getting help to cover up his crime story.

CLARIFICATION OF THE RUMOR

Suggesting that the part of the rumor where W.R.'s son died at a very young age is true, on Aprill 11th, 1911, The Tacoma Times (local daily newspaper in operation since 1903) published the following article about young Howard L. Rust, who would have just reached 25-years-of-age had he lived two more days. 

     HOWARD L. RUST DIES SUDDENLY - The Tacoma Times (link to article)

• Howard L. Rust, son of W. R. Rust of this city ruptured an artery in the heart while conversing with friends Saturday evening at Ranford, Wash., and died almost instantly. He would have been 25 years old yesterday.
       His parents are on a return voyage from Europe now.
       Young Rust went to Hanford on a ranch to build up his shattered health. He seemed to be gaining until the collapse came Saturday night.
       He came to Tacoma with his father when four years of age. (End of article.) 

My question to you, dear reader, is if Howard's death was truly due to a heart problem, as listed, then why did his father omit his name from all future public records? Would a loving father NOT want to keep his son's memory alive - forever? 

MORE SPECIFICS THAT DOUG UNCOVERED FROM CENSUS RESEARCH
#1 - William Ross Rust's Household according to the 1910 Pierce County Census - 13th Census of the United States

• William R. Rust, head of household, male, white, 57, married 25 years, born Pennsylvania, education able to read yes, education able to write yes, 
• wife's name completely omitted, wife, female, white, 45, married 25 years, born Colorado, education able to read yes, education able to write yes
• Howard Rust, son, male, white, 23, single, born Colorado. education able to read yes, education able to write yes, 
• Henry A. Rust, son, male, white, 9, single, born Washington, education able to read yes, education able to write yes, 
• Pauline Fredericks, servant, female, white, 51, born Canada-French, education able to read (answer erased/blank), education able to write (answer erased/blank). 

#2 - William Ross Rust's Household according to the 1920 Pierce County Census - 14th Census of the United States

• William R. Rust, Head, age 66, married, born in Pennsylvania
• Helen W. Rust, wife, age 52, married, born in Colorado *Note: Other references list her middle initial as M.
• H. Arthur Rust, son, age 19, single, born in Washington
• Marie R. Edenhuler (at least I think that's her last name/penmanship is difficult to read), servant, age 17 , single, born in Kansas, parents were born in Sweden

#3 - Son Henry Arthur's Household according to the 1930 Pierce County Census - 15th Census of the United States

• Henry Arthur Rust, house number 1020, head of home, male, white, age 29, married, vice-president/investments, NOT a military veteran
• Margaret Rust (wife), white, age 24
• Billie J Rust (daughter) white, age 3
• Margaret Rust (daughter) white, age 1-1/2
• Bertha Wyss (female, servant from Switzerland) white, age 43
• Dorothy Stubbs (female, servant from Washington state) white, age 22

MY CONCLUSION: 

I feel rather strongly that W. R. Ross was a controlling jerk at times. He definitely did not approve of his son Howard's homosexuality (religiously or politically). That alone would be reason enough for a dogmatic individual like him to disown Howard (we've all run into that type of obnoxious control freak who insists everyone in the family should dress, behave and move about just like him). 


Meanwhile, I feel like I've met the spirit of this younger guy, Howard, and he was rather fun to be around and his father simply did not appreciate him for all the sunshine and party spirit he brought into the home.


Yet I need to add a small detail to the above mentioned rumored story - where Howard was said to have been shot on the front porch. The psychic I spoke to said the home became so haunted after the young man's death that the surviving Rust family had to move into temporary shelter until a second house could be built over on Yakima street.


Indeed, I did find record of the family moving a year after Howard's death. Yet the reason given for the move, publicly, is that his mother, Helen, just felt the original home was much too large for her liking. She wanted a smaller home (one that W.R. rapidily built for her).


MORE SPECIFICALLY 

The Rust Mansion, 1001 N. I St., Tacoma, WA, USA, 98402, was patterned on the John A. McCall home in Long Island, "Shadow Lawn." The Rusts sold their home in 1912 after the death of their son, Howard. Since then it has had many owners and was divided into apartments in the 1920's.

DOES THIS PROVE THE RUMOR IS NOT TRUE? 
While modern thinkers might look at Howard's reported "cause of death" statement in 1911, which suggested he died of a weak heart, and observe that his brother Henry Arthur also died of a heart condition, years later, when he was 35 - and while observers might assume it's not too much of a stretch to think that both boys could have inherited the same genetic heart problem that killed them at such young ages - I'd like to remind my readers that both their father and mother lived 78 and 90 years, respectively. Their young deaths seem curious, at least.  

RECAP ON THE FAMILY TREE (Source: govdocs.evergreen.edu)

* Father: William Ross Rust - Aug. 1, 1850 - Aug. 17, 1928 (78 years)

* Mother: Helen M. Smith - December 18, 1863 -October 19, 1954 (90 years)

* Son: Howard L. Rust - Aprill 11, 1886 - April 9, 1911 (24 years). Cause of death: reported heart ailment.

* Son: H. Arthur Rust, born August 21, 1900 - May 13, 1936 (35 years). Cause of death: reported heart ailment, leaving behind an estate of more than $600,000 (a ridiculously large some money in the day). 


LOCATION OF THE W. R. Rust Home:

1001 N. I Street, Tacoma, WA USA, 98402
Location of the second, smaller home, where they moved after Howard died, 

521 Yakima Ave. This landmark is in the vicinity (see map) of N Yakima Ave and N 9TH St., Tacoma, WA. The Tacoma Public Library holds claim to this photograph of the Rust's smaller Tacoma home (click above TPL link to see it). 


*I hope you enjoyed this very detailed *spooky* report and would love it if you take the time to leave a comment - share your thoughts.*


The author of this article, Tami Jackson, can be contacted through her website.

Trailer: Tintin and the Secret of the Unicorn

What it says.  Out Christmas 2011.

URL for the YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X0tfWj24eVY

Found via Twitter

Cheers

Ruth