We just returned from our daughter’s graduation from Basic Training at Fort Jackson.  She has been gone since May 12 and has spent a total of three days in our new house.  It was good to see her – we’re very proud of all she endured and learned.  My husband and oldest daughter had to return home the next morning for work on Monday but my parents and I headed for Virginia to take our National Guard girl to Little Creek Naval Base in Norfolk for four weeks of additional training at the Army School of Music.  

My husband drove from South Carolina to northern Illinois in 12 hours… but it took my parents and I three days to get home from Virginia.  My parents subscribe to the ”get off the Interstate and see something once in a while” school of travel.  Ah… the travel of my childhood!

So – this has little or nothing to do with librarianship – but we enjoyed one of our unplanned stops so much that I wanted to recommend it to you.

If you are on I-64 crossing the border between Kentucky and West Virginia, make sure you pull off the road at Kenova, West Virginia.  (Kenova – Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia)  Right downtown is the Griffith & Feil Drugstore and soda fountain.  It was just like the soda fountain of my childhood (and my father’s) at Day’s Drugstore in my hometown.  You can see some lovely photos at:  http://rickleephoto.blogspot.com/2007/07/griffith-feil.html  And you can read more about it at http://www.huntingtonquarterly.com/articles/issue65/ceredo_kenova.php and

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/business/x1103456912/Griffith-and-Feil-continues-family-drug-store-tradition .

I recommend the chocolate soda…. It is made and tastes like it SHOULD be made and taste.

Enjoy the last days of summer.

Anything but typical is not only the title, but an apt review.  Nora Raleigh Baskin has managed to write a novel that takes you inside the heart, mind and soul of Jason Blake, a sixth grade young man dealing with autism.  This narrative, told in the first person, manages to be both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. 

Years ago when I read “Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key” by Jack Gantos I gained insight into those suffering from ADD/ADHD.  Actually, I didn’t like the book because it made ME jumpy!  But it gave me some empathy for those ADD/ADHD students.  “Anything but Typical” does the same for Autism. 

I hope this finds an audience with my students.  We have practiced “Inclusion” in our school district since 1992, and I see a great deal more tolerance among students.  But I’m not sure there is always understanding.  I plan to push this novel among my 6-8th grade readers because I believe it will add the understanding that is lacking.

This would also make a great classroom novel to read aloud or as a group since Jason is a talented writer and wordsmith.  Baskin manages to weave a great deal of information about the elements of writing and novels into the narrative, adding to its value.

Those students who annually ask me for “A Child Called It” (which I have chosen not to include in our K-8 collection)…. I plan to give them this one.  It is infinitely more valuable!

A smile goes a long way.  Librarians should smile, not only in the library, but in the hallways, in the classrooms, in the office, and in the grocery store.  Smiling at students, colleagues, and parents costs nothing but sincerity.  And I believe it can go a long way toward building your library program.

During my masters work at GSLIS we discussed in several classes how to make the library a welcoming place.  I believe that starts OUTSIDE of the library itself.  If you are truly friendly to students it will go a long way in making them want to enter your doors. 

On the way into the school building in the morning is a prime opportunity, I believe.  It is often the students with troubled homes who show up first in the morning and stand around outside our building.  They would rather stand in the cold and/or rain than stay at home; how sad is that?  As I walk in I try to say good morning to most of the kids I pass.  I’m terrible with names, but I can say good morning to all of them.  Often those closest to the door will rush to open it for me and I’m sure to leave them with a positive comment such as, “How very thoughtful (or polite, or kind) of you.  Thank you so much.”  I’m sincere, and I hope it shows.  Sometimes I will say to a boy, “What a gentleman.”  I like to believe it makes a difference.

Some of the staff hurry by without making eye contact, dashing into the building to get their papers xeroxed or whatever… but there are some who, like me, greet the kids.  It is important.

I see over half of the district’s students as they grow from K-8th grade.  I love seeing them when I occassionally need to make a trip through the halls at our adjoining high school.  But one day as I walked through the halls over there one of the students who attended the school where I do not serve commented after I passed, “She is SO grade school.”  Why?  Was it my Santa Claus shirt?  Very appropriate at the grade school since it was December.  Too grade school for high school, I thought at first.  And then I wondered if it was my smile and greeting as they passed me.  I didn’t know them, but I said hello anyway.  Shame on me for breaking through their adolescent detachment.  How “grade school” of me.  So- high school librarians – I beg you to smile and greet your way through the halls in spite of their cynical resistance.  When they need information assistance they are more likely to approach you for help if you do.

A smiling, positive, friendly attitude is something that school libraries of all size budgets can afford.  And unlike the book budget, the SMILE quota never runs out.  So hit the doors next August with a smile, won’t you?!  We will be…

Our back-to-school theme this year will include around 50 smiley face balloons.  (The balloons are being recycled from my husband’s 50th birthday party in May!)  Hopefully it will set the tone for all that we are happy to be back to school… and happy to see you in the library!