How to Buy a Love of Reading

How to Buy a Love of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson explores the idea that reading isn’t for everyone, especially not for Carley Wells who sees words as enemies and says of books,  “I’ve Never met one I like”.  So if she’s not into reading whose crazy idea is it to try and buy her love?  Her parents’ idea, that’s who.  They’re determined to commission an author to write a book that even Carley Wells can love.  And Carley’s into it too, if only to help distract her best friend, Hunter Cay from his blurry world of booze, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Vicodin.  Despite her resistance, Carley soon finds herself swept up into the fictional world being written for her and life will never be the same again.   Check out the interactive website and award winning book trailer too.

For the Sake of the Light

For the Sake of the Light, by Tom Sexton.  In his latest collection former Alaska State Writer Laureate, Sexton deftly guides us through a magical yet familiar landscape, with microscopic attention to detail and imaginative journeys inspired by natural objects. In “Redpolls” we are gripped by the fingers of hoar frost in the coastal forest, pondering snow bound mountains which lead to “endless sky that is… / not a path to that other world / where all is either miracle / or metaphor” but rather the origin of, the “thin-metallic song” of redpolls who descend to forage the snow for alder seeds, “on the breast of each male a bit of pink / like that of a petal glimpsed falling from / a rose. This is where we live, in this small / frenzy of beating hearts.” Sexton’s verse is simple in form, Zen-like in its praise of life’s overlooked pleasures, a bowl of blackberries, an albino deer and the song of tugboat engines as they maneuver a barge against the tide. From Fairbanks to Southeast, Sexton’s verse is as diverse as the Alaskan ecosystems he explores. While the poems of the natural world remain timeless, some revisit characters of the Yukon gold rush, fur trading expeditions in Ontario and childhood summers spent on the Maine coast.

If one poem can be read as a metaphor for Sexton’s careful celebration of simple language, “The Man Who Learned Dena’ina” would work wonderfully. In it, a quiet student, who has spent the winter listening to the songs and stories of the Athabascan elders, is given the opportunity to speak, “to try a few of their words in his throat”. Having done so, the student experiences a transformation of perspective, leaving the classroom and seeing, “that the ice was gone and the lake was covered / with shimmering scales. Dilah Vena, he said, / and it moved its tail. Dilah Vena, Dilah Vena.” In this way, the world according to Sexton leaps from the page, filling not only the eyes, but the ears and mouth of the reader. In Sexton’s world, one cannot help be swept away by the power of a single image, which becomes a poem within the poem, “sitting by the window watching night’s / long limousine drop the stars off one by one” (from “Signs of Spring”).

True to Eastern poetry traditions, the poems capture the often disregarded passing of time and changing of seasons, an essential element to Haiku and other short forms. When gentle rain begins to fall in “Reading Wang Wei” the reader tucks the book of 8th Century Chinese verse into his jacket and re-acquainting his eyes with the surrounding world, notices, “Spiderwebs are on the grass / for the first time this summer. / Highbush cranberries hang / like glowing lanterns on their stems. / For a moment / I’m too insignificant to be unhappy.” Which leaves this reader questioning what could have caused even a threat of unhappiness, perhaps the water stains upon the damp pages of the book or perhaps the rain on a summer’s day? Regardless of this insignificant detail, there are too many revelatory moments collected here that make one rejoice that we can call this land, this Alaska with all its terrible weather, brutal isolation, unique people and resilient plants and animals, our home. For the Sake of the Light will serve as a strong addition to any Alaskan book collection (despite poems collected here set in other locations) and should be prized and carefully studied by any student of poetics.

For the Sake of the Light contains fifty three new poems, each with their fingers tracing the contour of the land as if reading a Braille history of life in places of rugged beauty, like Alaska and Maine. Also included are a fine selection from Sexton’s seven previous collections, making this edition a very practical Sexton Reader and an unrivaled gift for the poet in your life. I leave you with four lines from “A Letter to Tu Fu” from, Autumn in the Alaska Range (2000, Salmon Publishing) and included in For the Sake of the Light. It has been a warm winter even in the valleys. Rain last night and now the willows like a gathering of wine-drunk poets are lifting small white cups to the dawn.

reviewed by Jonas Lamb

In the Stacks

Yellow labels on the spines of books on the adult fiction shelves show they’re meant for teen readers or young adult (YA), with more intricate and mature plots than chapter books but with themes aimed at young adults. Scan for them on the shelves, look them up in our computer catalogue, or use these titles as a starting point.

The Shadow Speaker, by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu. This latest offering from the author of “Zarah the Windseeker” has created a spell-binding world of spirits, life, and possibility. It is 2070, and the post-war Earth that fourteen year-old Ejii lives in continues to change as aftershocks from the Peace Bombs roil through the world. Created to bring harmony to the world by causing enough mutations that no one could take sides, the Peace Bombs had unplanned effects, the latest of which is a joining of disparate worlds hostile to each other. Now, Ejii, who is a mutant of a type known as a shadow speaker, has been told by the shadows that she must leave her home to prevent a war. Set in the Sahara, this novel uses the cultures and religions of the area as a base to build on in creating a wonderfully intricate new world.

Looking for JJ, by Anne Cassidy. When Alice was ten, her best friend died. Was killed. Murdered. By Jennifer Jones. What could make one child kill another? And what happens to child murderers? But the question on everyone’s mind at the moment is: where is she now? And is she safe to be around? Alice knows. She’s worked hard to put her past behind her, but it sure wasn’t easy. Alice has a home, a boyfriend, a job, and a future, all of which could fall apart at any moment if anyone finds out who she really is. And then, out of the blue, a reporter appears and everything depends on who can make the best and fastest deal. Can Alice save her new life, or will someone else make the deal that sends her running again?

Defect, by Will Weaver. David’s the weird kid you try to avoid at school, the one with the mashed-up face, hearing aids, bad acne and a bad attitude. He’d be fine if the school bully would leave him alone, but Kael didn’t and now the practical joke David played on Kael and his friends has gotten him transferred to an alternative school. No one hides anything much at Oak Leaf Alternative: his new friend Cheetah talks freely about her grand mal seizures and other kids in school are just as up front about what brought them to Oak Leaf. But David isn’t ready to share the fact that he isn’t really “defective,” he’s “enhanced” – something not even his foster parents and his girlfriend, Cheetah, know. Suddenly, his secret is out and he is given a chance at a “normal” life – but is normal what he wants?

Lizard People, by Charlie Price. What happens when your mom won’t take her meds and goes off the deep end in the school office and claims the secretary is one of the feared Lizard People? When your dad can’t take it anymore and leaves? When you make a friend at the hospital who claims to be from another planet? Ben is a high school junior when he’s left to deal with his mom’s mental illness by himself. He meets Marco in the hospital lobby, and even though Marco seems sane, he confirms that the Lizard People don’t like the color red, just as Ben’s mom says. It leaves Ben with some hard thinking. Is there is a planet of lizard people that both Marco and Ben’s mom have been to? Or is Marco mentally ill, like his mom? Or maybe Ben’s the one who is ill – he knows it runs in families. This fast-moving story will keep readers guessing and the answer won’t be anything you expect.

Master storyteller Jim Weiss recently visited the Juneau Public Library and presented some amazing classic stories for all ages.   If you missed it, check out JPL Podcasts where very soon you will be able to listen/download two stories from his Downtown Library performance.  Not familiar with Jim Weiss? Get a taste of his storytelling by listening to one of his many recordings owned by the libraries.

For information about our upcoming programs, or to place a hold on any of our material, please visit us at www.juneau.org/library or call us at 586-5249.

WWII for Young Readers

With my family connection to WWII (my grandparents fled Lithuania during the 2nd Soviet invasion aided by Germans) I’ve always been fascinated with the non-text book accounts of the not-so-great war.  I remember when I was in middle school coming across the Art Spiegelman’s inventive, Maus series, which plays out the Nazi saga with cats and mice and devouring it.

And today, I’ve discovered Alan’s War:  The Memories of G.I. Alan Cope by Emmanuel Guibert sitting on my desk, waiting to be read.  Turns out NPR Books did a great story about the process of creating the book  and the post contains a link to a 7 page preview of the text/illustrations.