A Hunger for Books

The Guardian carried the full text of newly laureled Doris Lessing's Nobel Prize acceptance speech and it is a very moving and thoughtful piece. Here's the link to read it in its entirety, including vivid passages about the hunger for reading in Zimbabwe, India and other parts of the globe. It is often easy to overlook the great wealth we have here in the United States and when one is a bookseller surrounded by books at work and at home, I often forget how very rich I am to have the thoughts and knowledge of so many writers at my fingers.

At Old Saratoga Books, we are reminded of our book wealth at monthly intervals by a friend, Joyce, an education professor at a local college. Several years ago she asked about children's books featuring black children in them and I managed to find a handful from the stacks. She told me she takes them down in her luggage to Antigua where she goes twice yearly to help train local teachers. She said that the teachers are ecstatic when she hands out the books, because their classrooms don't have many books, and indeed, the entire Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda (69,180 population) has only one public library, in the capital of St. John, which holds 50,000 books.

We have been donating books for this annual pilgrimage to the Antigua schools ever since that first encounter. Twice yearly Joyce and some of her accompanying graduate education students fill their suitcases to the airline poundage limit with these books and stagger off to Antigua to pass them around. They used to send M-Bags full of these books before the postal prices went up this past Spring but now just use themselves as book mules.

Thankfully, our small contributions are not the only book resource for Antiguans. I just did a little Internet research and found that there is a New York City group, The Friends of the Antigua Public Library, that raises money to help the library with operating expenses, books and reading program materials, so this is a positive development. They accept book donations for Antigua, so metropolitan NYC residents might want to check this out.

Incidently, Antigua boasts a fabulous native writer, Jamaica Kincaid, whose Annie John relates the education of a young, bright girl coming of age in a stifling environment, where she yearns to break free of the limited life paths that set before her. (Kincaid is today a citizen of the kingdom of Vermont and a renowned writer of fiction, memoir and beautiful garden books). In today's Antigua, my friend tells me that the school system is fairly well geared to grooming future workers for the nation's luxury tourism industry, although individual teachers try to offer other options to their pupils.

Hungry for books indeed.

My Father's Dragon Lady

Today I had a customer come in and politely ask for directions to the children's section. She came back a few moments later and had the good taste to have a copy of L.M. Boston's "The Children of Green Knowe" in her hand. We chatted as I rang up her purchase and she commented about how used bookstores are such nice repositories of older titles and mentioned that she was an author herself. Ever-curious and ever-bold from my downstate New York upbringing, I asked what she had written. She demurred and said that she had written a book published way back in 1948 and that I probably had never heard of it. I pressed on with my queries and she very modestly said that she had written a children's book called "My Father's Dragon".

My mouth flapped open. Not heard of "My Father's Dragon"! Unthinkable! This book is a wonderful children's fantasy, and a winner of Newbery Honors. I not only read and loved this book as a kid, but I read it aloud to my kids when they were younger and have pressed many copies into the hands of parents and grandparents asking for recommended reading for their small fry. I restrained myself from running around the counter and squeezing the no-need-to-be modest Ruth Stiles Gannett in a bear hug, but couldn't resist asking if I could take a picture of her holding a copy of her much beloved book. She was gracious enough to inscribe this new family heirloom to my two girls, "daughters of the enthusiastic seller of books of yore".

I mentioned this author encounter to my next several customers and both were knocked out. They too, had not only heard of this book but had read, re-read and gifted this book to others. I found out that there are two sequels to this title, "Elmer and the Dragon" and "The Dragons of Blueland", which I will now have to purchase. A euphoric day at the old bookshop indeed.

Hooray for Harry!

The Book Trout is besotted by Potter! My eleven-year-old daughter Amy and I went to a
Harry Potter party last night and had a blast. The local independent bookstore in Glens Falls, New York, Red Fox Books, partnered with the local library to deck out their parking lot and several "Diagon" alleys around them with all kinds of activities: face painting, origami, free cake, a trivia contest, a costume contest, displays of turkey vultures and owls, sales of sticky sweet Butter Beer specially brewed by the local microbrewery and a short theater production.

I mostly spent time holding our place in various lines, so my dogs are killing me this morning and my eyelids are propped up with toothpicks, but Amy flitted around with a pack of other tweens wearing her Harry Potter glasses and was so excited about getting her copy of Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows and staying up until MIDNIGHT! It was hard not to gush along with her, but I was mostly using my extendable ears to listen to other kids' conversations about what they thought would unfold in the final book.

Red Fox Books owners Naftali Rottenstreich (dressed in professorial robes) and Susan Fox (in witch accessories), had presold 200 copies of the book and there was a huge line of people who had not done so who were hoping for the remaining 100 other copies. Lots of gothic types strolling about of all ages, but the strongest hyper-vibrations emanated from the various elementary and junior high school kids at this Woodstock for fantasy lovers.

It really was astounding. We weren't in line to get the latest X-Box, Gameboy, I-POD, Star Wars movie premiere ticket, sale-priced plasma TV, etc. We were in line to get a book, by gum, and as a bookseller, mom, book lover, reader, that was brilliant, to use a British-ism favored by Rowling's characters.

I chugged my coffee this morning and dashed out of the house in time to open the shop, but not before peeking into the living room, where Amy was up to page 50 or so in the book, wearing her Potter specs. I said goodbye to her, and she waved me off impatiently, "Mom, Dumbledore's secrets are being revealed!".

Long live J.K. Rowling.

The Book Trout Predicts Harry Potter VII

The Book Trout and her two fingerlings eagerly await the arrival of the seventh and concluding book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series which will arrive at the stroke of midnight this Friday. We will be going to a Potter Party at Red Fox Books in Glens Falls, New York to eagerly await its distribution and can't wait to dive in. After rereading Books 6 and 7 in the series and watching the new film based on "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", Book 5, I, like Hogwarts Divination Professor Sibyl Trelawney (seen above played loopily by the divine Emma Thompson) have some predictions about what might happen in the final installment.

1) Aberforth Dumbledore, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore's brother, who is only briefly referred to in the books, will have a major role in the final chapters. He is the bartender at The Hog's Head, the seedier of the two taverns in the nearby village of Hogsmeade and is mentioned by Albus as having had some shady dealings in the past with a goat (?!?). In the Order of the Phoenix movie, in the scene where Harry has his first meeting with other students to see if there is interest in having him teach them some of the defense against the dark arts tactics, they meet at the Hog's Head and there is a brief shot of a rotund bartender with a long beard chasing a goat out of the bar. A minor detail in the book, but significantly included in a film that cut a lot of other more important subplots and details. I believe Dumbledore is truly dead, despite his having a special affiliation with his pet phoenix, but that Aberforth may have promised Albus to look after Harry in the event of his death.

2) I think that Neville will be killed in this book, although he will not go out without having defended Harry or jumped in the way of a fatal curse or something equally deadly from Voldemort. He will be shown to be another kind of hero, one with bravery and loyalty, but without the natural coordination and flash that Harry has. I think his mastery of Herbology will serve him well in Book Seven, and he may cure one of his buddies with some kind of herbal potion.

3) Rowling has also stated that a second major character will meet his/her demise in this "bloodbath" novel, and I think it may be Lucius Malfoy. There is a lot of sympathetic treatment of his son, Draco in Book Six, when he procrastinates and agonizes over the task which Voldemort has given him, the assassination of Albus Dumbledore. Equally, Lucius' wife, Narcissa, is also seen sympathetically in the opening scenes of Book Six, with her grave concern for Draco and his dangerous assignment. I think there could be a dramatic scene with Draco gaining redemption for himself and his mother, with some intervention in a battle between Harry and Lucius.

4) I think ultimately, Harry will end up killing Voldemort or diminishing him back to his wormlike state by destroying all or six out of the seven horcruxes, and that he will not become an Auror, but the Defense against Dark Arts instructor at Hogwarts.

5) Snape will ultimately be proven to be a hero in this book as well. I think Rowling sets up the reasons for his initial attraction to dark magic very sympathetically, i.e. parental abuse, bullying at school, and though I haven't reasoned out why Albus Dumbledore believes him to be completely trustworthy, I think he is truly a double agent for the Order of the Phoenix. Perhaps my faith in Snape lies in my crush on actor Alan Rickman, who purrs as he delivers his cutting Snape lines in the Potter films, but that simply can't be helped.

I can't wait for the delicious pleasure on Friday night. Maybe one of my predictions will be accurate, or maybe I'm like Trelawney and just off the mark entirely. In either event, I can't wait for Rowling's magic to unfold.

Waiting for Harry with Skellig

The kids are in their last quarter of school and we are making summer plans. Not too many, because we like our summers a bit lazy on the kid end as they are busy on the bookshop/gardening/adult socializing end. One of the most exciting plans is to attend the midnight Harry Potter party at our local independent bookstore on July 21st when the seventh and final book in the series becomes available. I have read each book aloud to the girls, sometimes in marathon sessions requiring multiple throat resting breaks, but for the final book I broke down and preordered two copies for each kid to consume.

Because of the long breaks between the publication of each of these eagerly-awaited books, we've taken to reading some other great fantasy fiction. I and the other Jags can recommend the mordantly funny Baudelaire orphans series by Lemony Snicket, Susan Cooper's creative and literate books, "The Boggart" and "The Boggart and the Monster", and Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy.

After noting the recent ten best children's books list put together a Carnegie Medal panel to celebrate its 70th anniversary, daughter Amy and I both read "Skellig" by David Almond, the 1998 Carnegie winner. We both really enjoyed this book about a young boy, Michael, who moves with his mom, dad and sickly infant sister to a rundown house. While his parents are preoccupied with the baby's health, Michael explores a dilapidated garage in the backyard and finds a pale man in a dirty black suit weakly sitting in the back, covered with cobwebs and dead flies. At first he is terrified, but he screws up his courage and returns to find the man in the same spot the next day, unmoved. He ends up bringing him bits of food and drink and with the aid of his new homeschooled friend, the William Blake-quoting Mina, he gets the man, Skellig (a Celtic word for rock), up on his feet and moving. The rest of the book centers around how Mina and Michael perceive Skellig. Is he part bird? Part angel and healer? Is he human or divine or extra-terrestrial? It's quite an interesting plot, overlaid with side issues highlighting the difficulties of being an adolescent and therefore part child/part adult, part innocent/part worldly-wise.

As an aside, in delving into the Internet ether about the Harry Potter release date I found the Holy Observer website, a gently satiric look at contemporary religious issues. The Holy Observer piece about how to protest other fantasy titles while waiting for the next Harry Potter to come out is a hoot, especially this advice:

Whenever possible, avoid reading these books as you protest them. It's best to avoid the appearance of evil, and you never know when you may be affected. More than one Christian has become addicted to evil, thinking he was more resistant than he actually was. Don't fall prey to this common trap of the devil.

Books for Easter

My two egg-chicks will be getting books in their Easter baskets tomorrow. I went hippity-hopping to my local independent new book shop, Red Fox Books, run by my buddies Sue Fox and Naftali Rottenstreich in downtown Glens Falls, New York. I made sure to preorder a copy of the final Harry Potter book for Summer reading, and then picked up two books which I think will be hits with the kids. My artsy 14-year-old is getting "The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl" by Barry Lyga, which looks intriguing. A first novel for the author, the plot follows the trials of high school sophomore Fanboy, who is not enthused about an imminent new sibling from his mom and "the stepfascist", and who finds refuge from tormenting bullies at school by creating a graphic novel. His befriended by the outrageous and cynical Goth Girl, who shares his love of comic books.

Daughter Number Two will receive Brian Selznick's "The Invention of Hugo Cabret", which is a sweeping graphic novel about an orphaned clock keeper and thief, the eponymous Hugo, who lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station. At first I thought this 500+ page doorstop might be a bit off-putting for my sixth grader, but my bookstore pals gushed over it and I can see why. It is full of soft pencil illustrations of shadowy subterranean warrens, streetscapes, cinema halls, and best of all, bookshops! Check out the gorgeous bookshop interior in the accompanying photo. I want my shop to look like that. Mine's too orderly and the staircase is too straight and wide. I need some more classical statues around.

Can't wait to read these two books after the kids are done with them. Hope you find some good Spring reading too!

Puns and Polar Bears

Lately we've been going through the many boxes of books purchased throughout our tenure in the old open shop and categorized as "to be dealt with later". After ten years, we're not exactly sure where the majority of these books come from. On a busy Saturday of book trading and selling we might have someone drive up with a pick up truck load of books to offer and they go down in the basement so as not to clog up the aisles. Alternately, we might have bought a large private collection or hauled away a gargantuan load from a fantastic library, church, estate or garage sale and they get tucked away.

My New Year's Resolution was to mine through the stepped pyramid of book boxes in the cellar and the following treasure of unknown provenance comes from this biblio fritto misto. It was part of a particularly dusty batch of children's books and unreadable older novels. Three soft rags later, I knew that it was a great book because it had pictures and rhymes by Edward Lear and many other charming poems and illustrations by other clever types. I was flipping through it carefully, because children's books tend to have a lot of wear and tear and I wanted to be sure all pages were present and unblemished.

Everything looked alright and I got out my pencil to write in the price on the front free endpaper when I my eyes roved over to the polar bear bookplate on the front pastedown. Polar bears are unusual subjects for bookplates and teddies are the usual bears of choice for children's books. Then I noticed the owner's name: Marie Peary Stafford. Hmmm. Peary, polar. The image of my high school social studies teacher floated above my head knocking me with a blackboard pointer. It finally clicked. Robert Peary is credited with discovering the North Pole! Maybe Marie Peary Stafford is related to him. A little book and Internet research later and the mystery unfolded...

This book is available for sale in the shop and online at our bookstore website. Here are the particulars:

Such Nonsense: An Anthology, edited by Carolyn Wells, NY:
NY George H. Doran Company, 1918, first edition. Decorative grey cloth binding. 249 pages, index of titles, index of authors. Many whimsical illustrations accompanying this compendium of humorous verse, drawings, stories and other tidbits, intended for younger readers. Boards splayed, soiled and rubbed, several pages lightly soiled. Polar bear bookplate of Marie Peary Stafford on front pastedown endpaper. Gift inscription to Stafford on front free endpaper from her Uncle and Aunt Bobby.

Marie Peary Stafford (1893-1978) was the Arctic-born baby of Rear Admiral Robert Peary, nicknamed the "Snow Baby" by the Greenlanders of her birthland. Robert Peary is the persistent discoverer of the North Pole in 1909, ably assisted by African-American explorer Matthew Henson and many Inuit guides. The Snow Baby grew up to champion the plight of Denmark and Greenland during World War II, when German blockades threatened food and other supplies to these icebound areas. She also helped lead an expedition to the Arctic to erect a monument memorializing her father's North Pole discovery. $125.00