New Items at CDPL

Over 400 young readers have enrolled in the "Read-A-Lot" schedule at the Crawfordsville District Public library. Enchanted rewards have been furnished by the Crawfordsville Park and Rec Department, Applebees, Dairy Queen, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut. More than a few parents have remarked how highly the event has motivated their children. The big display of children's photographs, the castle, and the aura of dragons and knights and dress-up accessories have enhanced the popular attraction. Random House is furnishing a book to each student who completes the program that continues until July 31st. The whole project is underwritten by the Friends of the Library from their monthly Second Saturday book sales. The Friends generosity is enabling the Youth Department to offer 100 teenage participants reading opportunities for final drawings of an IPOD Nano, an IPOD Shuffle, and "The Princess Bride" and "The Prestige" movie DVDs. Congratulations are due! The Youth Department circulated a record 10,000 items in June, many to the 500 participating youngsters. Pleasant new offerings begin with "Shirley Temple: A Pictorial History of the World's Greatest Child Star" by Rita Dubas. Another large book presentation called "Strike Beyond Top Gun" by Rick Llinares shows the Navy Flyer's creed and facilities at Fallon, Nevada where high-performance jet aircraft training is centered. The third is Phil Bergerson's atmospheric "Shards of America" a folio of photographs depicting small town living. Indiana is represented by a living room in Richmond from 1998, and the Spiceland, Indiana senior class picture from 1968. Autobiographical books are Zac Unger's "Working Fire" with the details of his life as a Berkeley, CA fireman, Pat Conroy's "My Losing Season" (The Citadel basketball squad 1966-7), Emily Wu's story of her spellbinding childhood during China's Cultural Revolution titled "Feather in the Storm", and "Born in the Rains" Fadumo Korn's brutal treatment in Somalia as a seven-year-old who survived only because she was sent to Germany. Elizabeth Edwards (wife of John) tells her story "Saving Graces" about how she survived loss and disease, and how she credits the power of community to make our lives better and richer. Geoffrey Canada's shattering story of his sidewalk childhood in the middle of the 1960s Bronx drug scene is "Fist Stick Knife Gun". "Fried Eggs with Chopsticks" is Polly Evans' trip through China observing the culture torn between modern architecture and ancient mysteries. "Adventures in the City" by Ian Frazier "makes us fall in love with New York all over again". "Stick Figure" is Lori Gottlieb's childhood story of being obsessed with Beverly Hills thinness, told as a cautionary tale about the dangers of living up to society's expectations. "The Cowboy and His Elephant" is Malcolm MacPherson's look at Bob Norris (the Marlboro Man) as he adopted a female orphan to raise and return to Africa. "Rabble-Rouser for Peace" is John Allen's biography of Desmond Tutu, Nobel laureate and spiritual father of a democratic South Africa. Poems from the 1950s by Lawrence Ferlinghetti are entitled "A Coney Island of the Mind". An anthology of sacred prose from the B.C. E. era to the mid 20th century as poetry of fulfillment is "The Enlightened Mind" edited by Stephen Mitchell.