Book Week

 Next week is Book Week.

On Monday we will read all books about the moon.

On Tuesday we are all going to 'tues' our own books.

On Wednesday the books will be buddied up and there will be a mass wedding where the books get married to each other.

On Thursday, Thor will make a guest appearance in the library and there will be a culling of bad books

On Friday, it will be cookbook day where everyone brings their favourite recipe to make a cookbook and food and drink WILL be allowed in the library

On Saturday, the books will have a nap, and everyone will relax in reading hammocks and beanbags and tripillows and bibliotherapists will be on hand with cucumbers for sore eyes.

On Sunday, we will read aloud from the Holy Bible

Wait, said the children. Our school isn't open on Saturday or Sunday, we can't get into the library on those days! Whaea Selina just laughed and said that's why you need to find the book with the golden ticket inside. 

Better Work Stories - Born again

 I found out I couldn't be a born again Christian and a librarian at the same time, at least, not in the public library. Nativity displays had been disapproved of if not banned, and Bible reading was not to be done in work time, but I could do it on my days off. And at lunchtime, we had a Wednesday group at a Bible ministry called Bibles in Action where others met for prayer and read from the Word for Today.

Jesus saved and delivered me from being a weirdo. I no longer did yoga or reiki or any of those new age things. I didn't need to read Rainbow magazine and be pyschic or clairvoyant or whatever magic they were trying to tout. The books about Jesus in the library were alright, but some didn't seem to know who He was and claimed he was made up. I thought right, God, show me who you are. 

I needed a Bible so walked into the Bibles in Action shop. I can't afford a new Bible can you give me a spare old copy, like those King James Bibles. The only thing about the Bible was I could understand the stories in the shorter New Testament about Jesus as being superhuman but God? He was a mystery to me. The Alpha course seemed to say He is spirit, but I didn't really understand how that worked. 

I had to read the big Old Testament to find out. I don't know what happened, but what was before just words on a page become illuminated. It was the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. And there it was, Eve, desiring to be wise, was tricked by the serpent. She was like me. I had done a foolish thing wanting what was forbidden. My prayer was answered.

Forgive me God, I was like Eve. Then as I read on, Genesis became quite the story, and I read on and on and on until Mum became concerned I was reading the Bible too much. I read the whole Bible in a few months. 

I asked my boss if we could have Bible reading in the library. Just people taking turns to read the Bible out loud. That would be the way to share it. I thought it was a great story and it was all true. He said I could only do it outside work time. Thankfully I had Fridays off and so I gathered friends and those interested and we read the Bible on Fridays out loud until we were told off by people studying that we were too noisy, so we went tried to book a meeting room instead. 

And after that I had been working in the library for seven years God convinced me that it was time to have a break. Mum was not happy but there wasn't much she could do. They weren't giving out any paid sabbaticals but God was going to lead me somewhere else. 

Babysitters Club #100

 If there's one thing a librarian appreciates, is a long running series that hooks readers for the rest of their free reading time. 

.Which brings me to the Baby-Sitters Club. If you were a girl like I was in the 80/90s this was the series your big sister read and ordered from the Scholastic Lucky Book Club. It was about a bunch of American girls who start a baby-sitting club not because they need the money but because Kristy's solo mum needs a babysitter and was ringing around for a sitter. So Kristy calls three of  her 12 and 13 year old seventh grade girlfriends together to form a club at her neighbour Claudias house (because she has her own phone line!) and the Baby Sitters club is born. The first book was called Kristy's Great Idea and every book thereafter featured a different club member narrating their own book and experiences baby-sitting, friendships, and sometimes fall-outs.  

Never mind that these girls are actually underage and might have needed to be babysat themselves - this is fiction remember! They did not actually babysit babies either. All this is candy to a young reader perhaps wanting to be part of a cool club themselves but probably not able to find the time - they met three times a week and were extremely professional and committed, they had a President, a Vice President, a Treasurer and a Secretary and ran all things like clubs do with membership dues and a minutes book, and planned sleepovers and pizza parties with the proceeds from their babysitting jobs. Kristy ran it as a business, she was bossy, but as far as I know, every club member respected each others different personalities and roles and nobody tried to steal each others jobs or embezzle money. 

My sister bought the series and she must have collected up to book #45 until she grew out of them. I was reading the junior series Baby-sitters Little Sister about Kristy's 7 year old step-sister Karen. Except Karen was the star of each and every title that also ran on forever although I think I only had the first 10 or so books. 

Every character was always described in great detail at the beginning of the books, their looks, personality and family background. Girls were extremely self-aware, so there was Kristy the boss, tomboy who's dad abandoned the family, Mary-Anne the shy sensitive listener only child who's mother died when she was a baby, Claudia the Japanese-American funky creative artist with the genius sister and Stacy the permed blonde New York sophisticate diabetic who's parents got divorced. 

More sitters joined later on and the series became extremely popular. I thought I had left the series behind in my childhood after I got into the classics and wasn't reading about tweens anymore. I skipped Sweet Valley High and went right into Gone with the Wind, War and Peace and Jane Austen.

The Baby sitters Club never died though as it came back as Graphic Novels and became the most popular books in the school library (amongst girls) with new full colour editions. The first seven books flew off the shelves and totally outpaced the original chapter books. Even when they came out with fresh covers and Netflix series tie-in. 

I've now gotten into the e-books editions of the original chapter books on the public library's Libby platform as the paperbacks we had to ditch. My sister had stored them under the house I have no idea why - and they'd gotten mouldy. Was she hoping to save them to give to our younger cousins or what because that moment had totally passed them by and they were into Harry Potter and the Divergent series. 

It's interesting reading the rest of the series as an adult and finding out that new club members had been added, some of the girls start dating and that, shock horror for the hundredth book Kristy decides to disband the Baby-sitters Club. Then there's all the spin off books, the mysteries, the super specials in which the Baby sitters travel far and wide (how can they afford??) and the diary series, and even after their 8th grade graduation, a Forever Friends series in which their friendships are explored after they stop baby sitting. The entire Baby-Sitters Club series is more than 200 books which possibly beats Danielle Steel's output but maybe just a bit below Nora Roberts and James Patterson. 

If there's one series to binge read and like me you  don't really get the whole manga thing, want to avoid any cringy sex scenes because secretly, you never really grew up anyway -  the Baby-Sitters Club may be just your gateway drug into the delights of reading. 

Sometimes boys are shamed into reading Baby-sitters Club by their teachers but actually I know quite a few liked them, even though it was mostly a girls club (Mary Annes boyfriend was an associate member)   but honestly I think there could worse things adolescent tweens could be reading, and nobody practised witchcraft or fell in love with a vampire or zombie in this series. Thank you Ann M Martin - who knew you would create so many happy readers. 

Library wishlist (17)

 The garden outside was flourishing. The children had decided after finding out where sugar came from, and whether they could grow it themselves. This was why half the school field was now sown in sugar cane, a quarter had maple tree saplings, and the far corner had wildflowers and was  dedicated to beehives. 

Where are we going to play rugby? Asked Mr Kell. He was a bit annoyed and would have to revise his sports curricula. 

The children invented a new game, or rather, they convinced Mr Kell that hide and seek was actually a better game to spend time playing than rugby. 

But how will we compete against other schools? This isn't right. 

The children wrote letters to the other schools saying they could come over and learn how to play hide and seek too. And they would also make up a new haka. This time, they would dig kumara pits in the field so that they could literally act out the haka. Everyone thought this was a wonderful idea.

Even the lunch ladies got into growing kumara which spread over the rest of the field. 

Whaea Selina rubbed out Pyjama Day, that was over, and it was now Matariki. They were going to have a Library Lockdown where those who remembered to wear their pyjamas, bring their cuddly toys and books were now treated to what Kahu 4 and 5 always wanted - A knock down, drag out Pillow Fight.

The children got all excited and said it was going to be even better than Ranui's Got Talent. 

The prizes were assigned - 3rd Prize - Bunny slippers, 2nd Prize - Fluffy Comforter and 1st Prize Reading Tent.

The 'no food and drinks' in the library rule was broken, and now steaming mugs of hot chocolate and marshmallows would be served along with the enormous hangi that had been cooking for two whole days. 

Whaea Sheree and Deputy Principal Alissa kept the parents at bay by holding a Quiz Nite in the hall, at the same time. 

Let's do a maths round and a spelling round, suggested Whaea Sheree. I want to see if the children are teaching their parents anything. Mr Kell asked if there was going to be a sports round. No said Whaea Sheree, you'll be too busy refereeing the Pillow Fight. 😀

Better Work Stories - Come to Jesus

 My come to Jesus moment was then. I had a vision when I thought Jesus had forgotten all about me. I had worked on Sundays because I never had any church commitments and the library was a seven day operation. I knew Jesus lived in churches as I had gone to one once and everyone talked about Him there, but, since my family only went to churches when there were weddings I thought that was the extent of it. I wasn't going to marry anybody anyhow, so really,  what use was church for me?

Then I remembered that Jesus laid hands on people and healed them. At least, that's what the Bible had said although I had given up on the Bible long ago when I couldn't make sense of it. Christians were constantly going on about the Bible that they were known as Bible Bashers at school and people to avoid as do-gooders and ones who got married as soon as they left school, because it was such a big deal to be married in church, in a big white gown, and have lots of children, even though having children was expensive. This was not going to be my fate. My mother made it quite clear that Christians were deluded religious people who were only after money and they were just as bad as other people but just had a get-out-of-hell back up plan. 

God doesn't look after you, I do, she said. And when you die, you are not going into Jesus loving arms, you'll just be dead. 

Thanks mum, I thought. Real comforting. Except those Christians seemed so certain in their beliefs. They weren't burning paper money so that their hungry ghosts would be appeased with cash in the afterlife of hell. Their souls would just sleeping in peace and waiting to be resurrected in heaven. 

I decided to rebel and find out more about Jesus anyway, in case he was real and not just a figment of my imagination, or as Richard Dawkins put it, having a  God Delusion.  So in my time spend shelf-checking the non-fiction I went to the 200s and secretly borrowed as many books about Jesus as I could. In the name of research. 

And lo and behold my workplace was even having what they called an Alpha Course for anyone curious about what this whole Christianity thing was. They were even giving out free breakfast at the staff cafeteria. If Jesus wasn't real at least I would be having scrambled eggs and baked beans on toast and I wouldn't have to spend too much of my pay on buying lunch. This time I would pay attention instead of reading my own books and being told off by the Bible teacher at primary school. 

Library Wishlist (16)

 Whaea Caryn reckoned she knew her way around the library. She also knew where Anne of Green Gables was located.

She looked amused as TT headed towards the Rainbow Section of the library where all the ROYGBIV books were and tried to find it under the Green category. 

Ha! She doesn't know Anne of Green Gables is under M. 

Sometimes Whaea Caryn could be sneaky when she knew something nobody else did. It was a way of giving herself a Gold Star for being super smarter than everyone else. Whaea Caryn casually walked over to the M section, in the fiction, certain the book would be there. She forgot that the Childrens and Teens books were separated from the Adults books though and soon found herself looking at a shelf of murder mysteries. 

Murder Mysteries were books where somebody dies and nobody knows who murders them. Everyone says 'it wasn't me' until a super clued up Detective saves the day by revealing it on the last page. The moral of these stories seemed to be - if you murder someone, you just don't tell anyone and keep them guessing, instead of being honest about it. Only Adults could read these stories, children didn't have the patience. Also, they weren't that interested in death and dying. Children were more interested in reading ghost and zombie stories where the deceased came back to haunt everyone. 

One book stood out from the rest because it didn't have a black cover or spine like the rest of the murder mysteries did. Her teacher's intuition told her that this book was in the wrong place. 

She read the title. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty.

Liane Moriarty? Was this what L M Montgomery's real name was? Truthfully she had forgotten. She picked up the book anyway. She read the back cover, hoping to find the answers. It seemed to be about a Primary School Quiz Night, and something about bullies. This might come in useful for Quiz nite, she thought. 

Meanwhile TT was under the impression Princess Anne had written Anne of Green Gables, but the graphic novel version would be illustrated by someone else,  which was why she headed to the Rainbow Section first. She found that all the Green books were about gardening. 

Library books were arranged rather differently in Canada. 

Library wishlist (15)

 There were rows and rows of books at the Saskatchewan Public Library. TT didn't want to admit she was a bit intimidated by them all and would have absolutely no idea where Anne of Green Gables was located. She could ask a librarian but that would mean admitting she didn't know something. Teachers were always supposed to know everything. 

Sensing TT's fear, Whaea Caryn said don't be afraid, it's only a book.

Isn't there a tv show on Netflix I could watch instead? 

Whaea Caryn sighed. CCTV wouldn't allow it. It was required reading for their conference talk didn't TT know?  Now she knew why she'd been assigned to accompany TT. TT wanted to copy Whaea Caryn's notes and have her do all her homework for her. She had bribed Whaea Caryn with some duty free Tim Tams before they got off the plane. 

Hey I read Teaching to the North-East and that was enough for me. TT was going to be the keynote speaker on this very topic. She had her graphs and maps all loaded on her Powerpoint. 

Well that's not going to help us on Quiz Nite. I just know there is going to be a whole round on Anne of Green Gables. At least read the first chapter.

Ok...

I'll test you. Who wrote Anne of Green Gables?

a) Anne Frank

b) Anne Green

c) Anne Perry

d) Princess Anne

Library wishlist (14)

 It was Pyjama Day at the library.

TT and Whaea Caryn hadn't returned and so there were really no head teachers to tell anyone what to do. This was a strange situation and soon word got round that Whaea Selina was now putting up instructions on the glass door of the library on what to do at school now and only if you could read them you'd have any idea.

She put them in her best handwriting in florescent orange chalk marker, to make it clear. 

1. Tomorrow is Pyjama Day. Come to the library in your pyjamas. 

2. If you are not wearing your pyjamas, your teachers will take you to McDonalds for work experience emptying rubbish bins.

3. Prizes for the best pyjama and cuddly toy/book combo.

Most of the teachers had agreed that this was the best solution for lazy readers. Some of them thought it was madness but they soon learned Whaea Selina had a method in her madness. 

After she'd introduced Lego after much resistance (why did we have Lego books but no actual Lego? she asked the teachers) the boys got busy building weathertight houses. She'd warned them what would happen if they didn't put a proper roof on their houses, by filling up her watering can and watering their creations. If they had no roof it would all collapse and the girls paper dolls inside would get wet. 

Then she put on her glasses and went back to reading the rest of Dork Diaries. 

Well, she's a librarian the teachers all said, not a teacher, we can't expect her to make kites and paper lanterns , wear correct uniform and yell at everyone like the rest of us. 

Some disgruntled teachers murmured that they thought librarians were an odd bunch and did not belong at school. The library monitors were always cutting class and saying they had to work in the library, but who knows what they were really doing in there? Playing hide and seek? 

Library Wishlist (13)

 TT and Whaea Caryn never made it back to school for Term 3. Their plane had emergency crash landed over Saskatchewan and TT had saved the day by commandeering the plane. Who knew that her teaching skills also ran into hijacking? She knew how to do everyone else's jobs too and was great at telling people what to do. And so instead of the lake of thin ice that it was headed for TT had expertly guided the plane to an abandoned wheat field and everyone got off safely. 

This is really teaching to the North East, said TT. Leading by example. 

Whaea Caryn said, you ought to receive a medal, or at least a gold star. Wait, I have a roll of them in my handbag. She opened her handbag and peeled one off for TT. Next stop, Prince Edward Island.

?

It's even further North East. I've always wanted to go there.

Why? TT shivered in her puffy vest. She couldn't wait to get to the CCTV* hotel where a hot bath would be waiting for her. 

That's where Anne of Green Gables lives.

Anne of Green Gables? 

What you've never read Anne of Green Gables? Whaea Caryn was incredulous. 

Um no...

Whaea Caryn was dismayed, and proposed to march TT straight to the Saskatchewan public library where there would be sure to be a copy. 

*Canadian Council of Teaching Veterans.

Better Work Stories - The Reiki Master

 One time I had a student job cleaning for a rich lady in Remuera. She had a giant villa with a mosaic floor in the kitchen and operated a Hawaiian massage room in the parlour. She was from Manhattan divorced with four children and I remember that her Kiwi husband had left her after she'd had the big house and the big car and maybe it was all too much for him to handle so he ran away to live by himself on Great Barrier Island. 

She would leave me home made muesli bars to munch on while I mopped and vacuumed her floors and a cheque for $50 for doing that for 5 hours. It was a big house so it did take that long. I thought it was the best job ever because nobody was on my case telling me what to do. As long as I got the job done. 

I soon was fascinated with her trippy massage room though and later when I had to leave the job after my studies ended I asked if I could have a massage, and it was there that she read my colours. She had these bottles of liquid colours I could choose that were meant to represent the state of my soul or some kind of new age thing, and weirdly, I also had some kind of trauma that was present in my body when she touched it. Was it true, that I had been mishandled as was carrying all this trauma in my 19 year old body? Possibly? 

Anyway such was that I became an adept at alternative therapies to treat what was then known as my spells of manic depression which nobody could ever find any cure for. I was deathly afraid that I would end up in some kind of group home and never be able to hold down a job like a handicapped mentally deficient person that needed to be locked up. I'd read about such people in Abnormal Pyschology textbooks where it was known that Princess Leia also suffered from Bipolar Disorder, amongst other celebs that mostly killed themselves if they hadn't self-destructed before that. 

I wanted to get well I really did, and so tried them all - polarity therapy, shamanism, acupuncture, bowen technique, chiropracters, osteopaths, psychotherapy, yoga, pranic healing, tai chi and my favourite - reiki. Reiki involved lying down on a couch/horizontal massage surface while a Reiki master laid hands on you and moved your energies around. It was all about balancing your aura. 

I thought thats it, I will become a Reiki Master. I will then be able to heal myself and others too. It will be fine. So I went to all the workshops and found a healer somewhere in Coatesville and got all the attunements and everything and was well on my way to becoming a master. I did distance healing and even had a session with my ex-boyfriend healing him of childhood trauma and his alcohol problem. I attracted all kinds of broken people who really, just needed a good cry but as I was unable to prescribe crying as a way of releasing trauma the next best thing was to have them lie down while I let the reiki flow out of my hands over their bodies. I could never charge for these sessions, but I knew Reiki Masters taught others how to do it and they would charge for their workshops. The phrase 'love and light' and 'Just for today' was often on their lips and it felt very Zen. 

One day while I was having a session of my own after doing some volunteer work gardening for a free clinic in Te Atatu and the healer started having visions. It was not uncommon in some new age circles to encounter these, avatars, angels, and guiding spirits.  I'm seeing...Tara she said. Tara was one of the Hindu goddesses. Huh. She was seeing Tara but I was not. We had our eyes closed and were meditating while all this was happening. We were in the spiritual zone. I wasn't seeing Tara. I was seeing Jesus Christ. He was wearing his crown of thorns and he was on the cross and he was being crucified. This vision stayed with me until the end of the session but I didn't want to tell anyone cos I was a bit spooked. Why was I seeing Jesus? 

to be continued...