The HB Reads Blogs

A Promise Fulfilled

2011-10-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

On March 23rd, 2011 Elva Trevino Hart gave a presentation in Spanish of her book 'Barefoot Heart' to a capacity crowd at the Oakview Branch Library in Huntington Beach, California. It was an emotion filled evening as her story touched the hearts and stirred the souls of those in attendance. Here was one of their own standing before them, a success in every imaginable way. Elva's story and her life illustrate the premise that no obstacle is insurmountable. She is one of the most genuine, kindest and giving souls you'll ever meet.

The following morning Elva gave a presentation in English to about 400 students from all the District Schools at the Huntington Beach High School Gymnasium. The students were touched and inspired by the stories they heard. For many of them these were also the stories of their parents and grandparents. The students also had the opportunity to touch Elva's heart in return. On display in the gymnasium were 85 pieces of Art produced by English and Art students at Huntington Beach High School for this event series. When Elva saw what they had done she was moved to tears.

During a lunch break Elva told us that she wanted to give back to HB Reads. She proposed returning to hold Writing Seminars to help others to tell their own stories. That evening at the public event for 'Barefoot Heart' she presented Joe Dagley of HB Reads with a $1,000 check as seed money towards next years event. Joe was singularly responsible for finding Elva and her book and bringing her here to us.

On October 14th and 15th Elva fulfilled her promise. On the 14th she held a writing seminar at HBHS for a group of 30 students from district schools. That evening she returned to the Oakview Community for a seminar there. On Saturday she led a fortunate group on a day long writing seminar at the Central Library as a fundraiser for HB Reads. I was one of those fortunate ones. I can only speak of my own experience but I am certain that all in attendance were extremely glad they were there. The series of exercises we partook in has on me effects which are still resonating and expanding. In order to grow a garden you must first till and aerate the soil. The clods of dirt must be broken that the seed can be planted, nurtured and helped to flourish. The mental exercises in Elva's seminar had this effect on me, breaking up the mental clods and fostering growth.

It was a great honor to be able to work with Elva in bringing this promise to fruition. It was en experience I will never forget.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who had a hand in helping to make this happen. Special thanks to Jason Ross at HBHS for bringing together students from other schools and for hosting the event. Also invaluable were Amy Crepeau and Claudia Locke at the Oakview Library. I would also like to thank Sid Burgess and Patty Fallahee from The Spot Gourmet Catering for providing lunch for the seminar.

Thank You, LeRoy Lucian 10-19-11

Student Art Walks

2011-07-14T23:01:00.000-07:00

One of the outstanding event features from our presentations for 'They Poured Fire On Us From The Sky' in 2010 was a poster project done by some of the Huntington Beach High School students. They imagined the book as a movie and made posters which were displayed at the Author Events. They were a big hit with both the event guests and the Authors.

We carried this idea forward to this years events for ' Barefoot Heart' and expanded it to include two showings at the Huntington Beach Art Walk in partnership with the Main Street Library. The first showing featured art by students of Matt Harward, Visual Arts Teacher at HBHS. The second showing featured art by students of Shawn McManus, English Teacher at HBHS. In total we had 88 student Artworks featured as well as a student made film trailer. (There is a link from our website home page to the trailer.)

When our Author, Elva Trevino Hart saw them she was overwhelmed and deeply touched. For this I thank each and every student for each and every brush stroke. It was my great pleasure to help in facilitating this portion of our project.

It is our hope to expand this project even more to include students from all the schools that participate in the HB Reads Program. Huntington Beach High School has provided us with a wonderfully supportive home base for our author events for the past four years and we are deeply grateful. HB Reads is an all volunteer organization and we strive to be all inclusive. We hope to expand our dialogue with English and Art Teachers at all the schools and to expand the Poster Project even more in the coming year.

Thank You All, LeRoy Lucian 7-8-11

HBReads Success Story -- Elva Trevino Hart

2011-04-16T23:54:00.000-07:00

A successful City Reads One Book program depends on a good book, a good author and lots of ideas for promotion. All these factors came together in Huntington Beach on March 24, 2011.

The HB Human Relations Task Force, founded in 1996, "to promote and celebrate diversity in our community through education and understanding", began the program in HB four years ago. They came to the Library Board in 2007 with the idea to bring Nancy Pearl's creation to HB. 2008 began with a citywide reading of Three Cups of Tea. Following years brought the books The Kids from Nowhere and They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky.

This year we decided on Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child by Elva Treviño Hart. By the time she arrived we had held bookstore promotions, book discussions, children's events, art programs and film showings. Our committee provided class sets for each of the seven high schools in HB. The evening of the day she arrived a special program was scheduled at our Oak View Branch Library -- in Spanish for the local Hispanic community. In pouring rain, over 70 parents and others showed up. Ms. Hart described her delight by saying, "We laughed and cried together." And she promised to return in the fall to provide a writing workshop for a community with whom she immediately connected.

Thursday morning, Ms. Hart appeared before a bussed in crowd of 600 high school readers and described her struggle to survive the migrant life, finish high school in the 1960s, go on to college (theoretical mathematics) and graduate school (computer science/engineering) at Stanford -- and going to work for IBM for 20 years. She was a sparkling success as a part of the corporate world but eventually discovered that something was missing. As she began to write her stories, she shared them with family and discovered her voice. Published 10 years ago, Barefoot Heart was a far bigger success than her publisher expected, garnering several awards including the American Book Award. The kids responded with a half-hour of questions and delighted responses at her answers: "Q: What one thing would you change in your life? A: I would like to look more like J. Lo!"

After an afternoon committee-sponsored private reception, Ms. Hart retuned to the high school to a crowd of about 300 interested community members. Again the Q&A session brought out stories of folks who shared their experiences and how the book moved them.

Here are some local articles about the author and her presentation:

A Heartfelt Success Story
Elva Treviño Hart, a former IBM executive, will be in Surf City as part of the HB Reads program.
By Michael Miller, HB Independent, michael.miller@latimes.com
March 23, 2011
hbindependent.com/news/tn-hbi-0324-happs-20110322,0,6123403.story

Ambassador for Migrant Workers
HB Reads author tells high school students what life was like as a migrant worker daughter and how invisible she felt.
By Michael Miller, HB Independent, michael.miller@latimes.com
March 24, 2011
hbindependent.com/news/tn-hbi-0331-hbreads-20110324,0,5604914.story

Hope for the Future

2011-02-09T00:02:00.000-08:00

In early January a caravan left San Diego heading for Phoenix, Arizona. Leading the way was Joseph Jok, who was instrumental in bringing Judy A. Bernstein together with a group of young men from Southern Sudan who would go on to write the book 'They Poured Fire On Us From the Sky'.

The reason for this journey was to vote. These young people who had been forced from their homeland by the ravages of war were now getting a chance to raise their collective voices and play a part in the future of their homeland. Among the many young men and woman were our friends Benson and Benjamin.

The voter turnout for the Southern Sudan Independence Referendum was over 60% and the latest results were @ 98.8% for secession from the north. There is still much to be done in the way of setting the boundary and determining the oil rights, but there is hope. Judy expresses "Doubt that Bashir would want to raise a fuss now with what's going on in Egypt!"

It was our great privilege last year to introduce Judy along with Benson Deng and Benjamin Ajak to the community. (Alephonsion Deng was unable to join us). Once you have met these individuals I can't imagine not opening your hearts to them and bidding them to stay. As we watch these events unfold our thoughts are with our friends and their families.

Judy asked me about our choice for this years HB Reads book. I told her briefly about 'Barefoot Heart' and some of our pending events including a showing of 'Grapes Of Wrath'. She commended us on our choice and told me that her father was a 'Grapes Of Wrath' dustbowl kid. We hope that you will all join us as our event series unfolds.

Thank You, LeRoy Lucian 2-7-11

Just Like Us

2011-01-18T20:07:00.000-08:00

The American Library Association met in San Diego in January for its annual Midwinter conference. Midwinter is where ALA committees meet for four days and announce reports and debate issues and declare winners of various book awards. The highlight is an early Monday morning when the Youth Media Awards are announced. They include the Newbery and Caldecott with about twenty other awards and the news quickly spreads across the nation of which books are the stars of the previous year. It is an exciting morning for authors and librarians as honor books, finalists and winners are announced is measured tones, with publishers' reps leading the cheers for their candidates. There are also a handful of programs, a huge exhibit hall and, of course, the delights of San Diego. This year the conference drew eight thousand participants.

In June, when the annual conference is held in New Orleans, there will be parties galore, ceremonial award dinners, famous authors and newbies, and over ten thousand people celebrating the variety of things that libraries do.

One of the programs I went to was a small gathering to listen to an author read and speak about her book. Published in 2009, Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America is the story of what is like to grow up with a confused sense of who you are and what is possible. It was written by Helen Thorpe, who spent over a year with the girls at their high school. Two of the girls are legal and two are not. The "illegals" have siblings who are legal, because at different times the family was north or south of the border. On top of the usual pressure of the teen years, to find identity and plan a future, these girls are stopped at many turns by rules they can't get past and a past they had no hand in creating.

One intriguing facet of the book is that Thorpe, as she read to us, was married to John Hickenlooper, the Mayor of Denver. Four days later he would be sworn in as Governor of Colorado. This added perspective to her story and insight to the political and social ramifications. Another facet of Thorpe's background is that she herself is an immigrant, born in London and growing up in New Jersey.

The event was sponsored by Midwest Tape, a company that produces books on tape (which now are on CDs) and copies of the CD were distributed after the event. I have been listening to the book since the conference and the debate over legal/illegal pales by comparison to the complexities of life for these young women.

I kept thinking about Elva Trevino and her story of growing up in Barefoot Heart. Legal status never came up as an issue -- rather it was discrimination that posed problems. Her high school years were an afterword to the main story. Here the high school years are central as decisions have to be made. But in both books there is a strong sense of trying to figure out where one belongs and what the choices are.

Please check out the tabs on the left side of our webpage: Bibliography, Teachers Resources, and Reader's Guide -- for further reading on this and related subjects and for ideas to spark discussion in reading groups.

Richard K. Moore

Building a Home Library for Your Children

2011-01-16T21:20:00.000-08:00

Children should have their own books on a special bookshelf someplace in their home. Books from the library and from school are wonderful. Books borrowed from friends are also important. However, nothing can replace books of one's own. The books you own are the ones you will read over and over again. They usually become the first books your child will read for himself. It is very hard for us as grownups to guess which books will actually become our child's favorites.

Buying books need not be terribly expensive. Our Central Library in Huntington Beach, as well as most of the branches, offers books for resale often for less than a dollar each. Garage sales are a good source where books may sell very cheaply. It is also important to encourage grandparents and other family members to give books as presents for birthdays and other celebrations.

Just reading three picture books each week has been show to increase a child's vocabulary by fifteen to forty per cent. If your child resists reading, try playing an audio book while your child reads along in a copy of the book itself. Most picture books are very expressive and will have your child hooked in no time.

Another fun activity for your child is reading to a pet. New research from the University of California at Davis shows this activity could significantly boost your children's reading score. In their study, children from six to twelve read to therapy dogs once a week for fifteen to twenty minutes. After only ten weeks, the children read twenty-five additional words per minute. The kids also reported feeling more relaxed and confident after reading to the dogs. Try this at home as long as your family pet will sit still. It works best with animals that seem engaged like a dog or a cat, but it's worth a try if your child only has goldfish or a guinea pig. Anything that will get him or her reading out loud more often can be very, very helpful.

Love, Mary Lou

The River of Life

2011-01-04T00:05:00.000-08:00

In this journey called life there are many paths and opportunities that open up or present themselves to us. As is evidenced by the book selections HBReads has presented thus far; life is a journey not a destination. We perceive a place we wish to be and set goals for ourselves structured within a framework of ideals. As we work toward these goals the currents of the river of life test our resolve and influence our decisions. Often we turn a bend and are presented with options and opportunities, which are wondrous and unforeseen. My participation with HBReads is one of these wonderful unseen surprises.

Even as we strive to achieve the goals we have set before ourselves, it is very important that we remain open to these little gifts which life sets upon our doorstep. This does not mean that we should abandon our goals or set aside our ideals but rather that we be open to how they might fit within this new realm of possibilities. These opportunities serve to enhance our journey and to enrich our lives. Even hardships serve a purpose, they give us perspective and with reflection they can serve to enhance our understanding, compassion and wisdom. Much as water can wear away even the hardest stone, so these attributes can wash away that which is detrimental in our lives. Embrace life and all its possibilities.

At this very moment there is a gift from life waiting on your doorstep. Open your door and your heart to the possibilities it holds. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for the richness that you have brought to my life. May the richness of possibilities fill your horizons and bring you to new and wondrous understandings.

Thank you, LeRoy Lucian

Harvest of Shame

2010-12-22T21:34:00.000-08:00

Watching Harvest of Shame, the television documentary with Edward R. Murrow, is an eye-opening experience. The program originally aired the day after Thanksgiving in November 1960. Harvest was part of the television documentary series CBS Reports. It showed the plight of American migrant agricultural workers, herded into trucks and carried for miles to harvest fields at pennies per hour.

Harvest has some amazing visuals. The first footage strikes the viewer with the fact that it is African-Americans that are being loaded into trucks, not Hispanics. There are Caucasian men, and women and children, and all of them have the same weary face. Later we will see Hispanics in Texas and Asians in California.

One visual that struck me is of a truck stuffed with migrants going through a checkpoint, while on the right, new automobiles from 1957, '58 and '59 are in another line. With tail fins and long, sleek, Detroit bodies, it looks like Jay Leno's car collection. It reminds us that fifty years ago we drove around in (now) classic cars, while the folks who picked our crops were packed like sardines into the backs of trucks.

We don't think of ourselves in relation to the migrant farmers, but we were the ones in those cars. I remember traveling with my family, in 1962 when I was 14, across the country (in a not-so-classic Rambler), through the Blue Ridge Parkway and into North Carolina. We were there for vacation, taking in the mountains and enjoying the verdant forests. I don't remember checkpoints, but I do remember signs on restrooms that read, "No Colored." They baffled me, so my dad had to explain what they meant. Two years later Lyndon Johnson and Everett Dirksen would be passing the Civil Rights Act and I had a better understanding of race relations in the United States. At the time, Conrad had a cartoon in the Los Angeles Times with Johnson as the Carpenter and Dirksen as the Walrus and lines altered from Lewis Carroll: "The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things. Of Civil Rights and cloture votes and Martin Luther Kings."

These days, the trucks come down Slater in the early morning and pick up workers gathered on the corners and take them to job sites around Orange County. Some of them wound up on the HBReads poster, as the background shot for the book. They were there at Graham and Slater, picking beans one morning as I drove by, jumped out of my 1994 Thunderbird, and took some photos.

Since 1970, NBC News has taken on the task of updating the story of migrant farm workers each decade. Their White Paper: The Migrants aired on July 16, 1970. The entire series, now titled Children of the Harvest, is online:

1970 White Paper: The Migrants
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/38248547#38248547

1980 White Paper: The Migrants
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/38248631#38248631

1998 Dateline NBC: Children of the Harvest
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/38248011#38248011

July 18, 2010: America Now -- Children of the Harvest
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38312193/ns/dateline_nbc/

Murrow's closing words still ring true:
"Only an enlightened, aroused and perhaps angered public opinion can do anything about the migrants. The people you have seen have the strength to harvest your fruit and vegetables. They do not have the strength to influence legislation. Maybe we do. Good night, and good luck."

Richard K. Moore, InfoSherpa

Making Choices

2010-12-10T23:14:00.001-08:00

The posters are going up. I am practicing my patter, telling the story of the book, sharing the book across our community: The book is about a migrant farm family, taking off from Texas in the spring and getting back in time for school to start. See, here is the cover of Barefoot Heart and here is the cover of the Spanish edition. Blocks of print tell us when the author is coming, who is the sponsor and who are our big supporters.

One cool thing, I tell them, is that although the story is 50 years old, and the book just ten, the photo in the poster was taken this summer just north of the corner of Graham and Slater, here in Huntington Beach. The backbreaking labor goes on. It is down in an area that remains a debating point in the Bolsa Chica wetlands, with one side holding out for development while the other side works for preservation.

Choosing sides is a critical part of growing up. Elva has a father who models hard work and chooses to forego part of the harvest season in order to get home for the kids to attend school. Elva wants to be with her family, even in the fields, even when the work is hard and her age too young to do so legally. Later choices take her through college, into a successful career, and back to the story of her life, telling it so we can see the possibilities.

Here in Huntington Beach we make choices every day, swear in a new council every couple of years, and hope for an economic recovery that helps everyone improve their lives. I look for ward to hearing Elva tell her story, and until then attending book discussions and film presentations we have scheduled.

Your Local Library

2010-10-25T22:47:00.000-07:00

One of the most important places to take your children when they are growing up is your local public library. In Huntington Beach, we have the Central Library on Talbert Avenue near Golden West, as well as four branch libraries located in neighborhoods around the city. A child may have his or her own library card when he or she is five years old. Parents should make a “big deal” out of their child’s first library card. Laminate the card if at all possible to help preserve it. Help your child find a safe place to keep a library card and make this one of their personal responsibilities. Check out all the activities at your local library, and make the weekly story hour a part of your family routine.

Your local librarians can be a great help in choosing books for your children. They can often suggest books that are appropriate to your child’s grade level. If you child is interested in skateboarding or rocket ships or topics being taught at their school, you can select books related to these specific subjects. In the early years, children tend to use the library often. For example 59% of fourth graders use the library once a week on average. By the 12th grade, unfortunately, this has dropped to only 10.2%. Not only do our public libraries have thousands of books for your child, they often offer much, much more.

Pick up a list from your local children’s library of upcoming events. Performances often include story hours by trained story tellers, puppet shows, author visits as well as on-line computer services. A good librarian can recommend worthwhile reading books for different age levels and will share his or her enthusiasm for books. They can also suggest books a child might not choose on his or her own.

Summer reading programs at our local libraries are designed to motivate children to read even when school is out. Local merchants will offer rewards based on the number of books read each week. Remember a weekly trip to your local library is so important because your range of choices is wide. This opportunity alone can turn selecting books into a special family event. It also makes the library a familiar and comfortable place for your child.

Love, Mary Lou

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

2010-10-25T22:44:00.000-07:00

Self-determination and resourcefulness are positive attributes. The ability to accomplish goals based upon your own incentives is a valuable attribute, but; there is strength in numbers. The goals that a singular individual can accomplish pale in comparison to what can be achieved by a dedicated group working in concert with one another.

It is in this spirit of cooperation that I ask all of you to help in any way that you can. No gift is too small and no gift is too large. Together with your support we can continue to promote Literacy, Diversity and Cultural Understanding through our event series.

My fellow HBReads committee members and myself have worked very hard to build something sustainable and with your help I believe that we have. Participating in this program has for me personally been an amazing journey. For an ordinary individual like myself to take part in these proceedings and to have the opportunity to meet and befriend so many amazing individuals has indeed been an incredible experience.

As we prepare for our 4th season of 'Huntington Beach Reads One Book', we are looking to the community both large and small for participation and support. Although HBReads is based in Huntington Beach it serves the community at large. We have had guests at our events from all over Southern California. We are extremely grateful for the continued support of our community partners for their help in funding our projects and to those of you who make our efforts successful by your participation in them.

Our ties to the Huntington Beach Central Library have strengthened over the past several years and it is now our official home. One way that you can support our efforts is through monetary support. Checks made out to 'Huntington Beach Library / HBReads' can be dropped off or mailed to: HB Central Library 7111 Talbert Ave Huntington Beach, CA 92648. Contributions can also be made online via PayPal.

All of our Author events, our Film Series, Children's events, and other events related to our book selection and staffed by volunteers and are free of charge. I would like to thank all of our past, present and future donors for their support. We are looking forward to another exciting event series. Our book selection will be announced soon and we are already busy planning events leading up to and including our author Event.

Thank You, LeRoy Lucian

Parallels

2010-10-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

It is September and I am in a jet flying 600 mph at 38,000 feet over Minnesota. On my lap Elva Trevino Hart is telling me (for the second time) about her first summer in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Up here it is climate controlled, engines are humming, a neighbor's earphones turned up so loud the pop tune drifts across the aisle. Down below, beyond scattered clouds are plowed fields, set off in huge squares, rectangles and circles -- the geometry of farming. Long thin straight roads connect tiny centers of population.

Amazing the detail one can see from seven miles up. Just so, the detail Elva brings to her description of the migrant farmers' lives, like decisions about bending, which hurts one's back, or kneeling, which hurts the knees. Her brothers' and sisters' characters come alive on the page, even as her father strives for the best results and her mother copes with the hard work.

I am on my way to see my first grandchild and a family gathered to welcome a new generation. Meanwhile, Elva is surrounded by family, sharing a one-room house, warmed by a wood-burning stove. When I get back to California, I will be busy helping bring this new book, Barefoot Heart, to the Huntington Beach community.

Their 1952 Chevy reminds me that my first car was a '50 Chevy, tricked out with chrome rims, a floor shift and a Madman Muntz 45 rpm record player under the dashboard, not the cramped vehicle of Elva's long journeys. Every detail reminds me that Elva Trevino had a very different life than mine. But she discovered books at a public library, just as I discovered them at the high school library. While she was reading The Secret Garden, I was reading John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. In each case, the books drew us back for more and the stories made our worlds larger.

That is why I take part in HBReads. I hope that through books, and the sharing of stories, we can have conversations about the world that ask, in Steinbeck's words, "What are Americans like today?"

Book Selection, Bookfair and Hispanic Art

2010-10-05T22:08:00.000-07:00

Hello Readers, our next HBReads selection has been made. 'Barefoot Heart' by Elva Trevino Hart is our current selection. We encourage you to join us as we showcase this story of a woman who as a child traveled with her family on the migrant farm circuit.

HBReads is holding a Bookfair at the Bella Terra Barnes and Noble on October 13-15. Portions of your purchases benefit HBReads. More details and a downloadable Voucher can be found on our website www.hbreads.org .

In line with Hispanic Heritage Month and the theme of our book there are several interesting Art Exhibits opening this week or currently ongoing. We invite you to visit them as a way of seeing a unique and varied culture through the eyes of its artists.

Opening Friday Oct. 8th with a reception from 6-8 PM and running through Dec 31st is a Jose Lozano Retrospective at The Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton. Mr. Lozano was born in Los Angeles and raised in Juarez, Mexico.

Opening Saturday Oct 9th with a reception from 6-9 PM and running through Jan. 8th is 'Peregrinacion: Mexican Folk Ceramics' at The American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona. There will also be a 'Day Of The Dead Festival' on Oct. 30th from 6-9 PM. Children's Day will be on Nov. 6th from 1-4 PM and the kids can make their own 'Mexican Head Banks' and hear folk tales.

Running through Jan 9th at Muzeo in Anaheim is 'Miradas: Mexican Art From The Bank of America Collection' featuring more than works by more than 95 Mexican and Mexican American artists.

Running through Jan. 30th at The Museum Of Latin American Art in Long Beach is 'David Alfaro Siqueiros: Landscape Painter.

Running through Jan. 9th at The Autry National Center in Griffith Park is 'Siqueiros in Los Angeles: Censorship Defied'.

We hope that you will join us as we venture forth on this exciting cultural journey.
Thank you, LeRoy Lucian

A Good Read

2010-10-03T21:26:00.000-07:00

On the other side of the door waited my friend Lucille Straub with a huge smile and an even larger hug. It's always a pleasure spending time visiting with Lucille. She is a Piano Teacher and Art Collector and we enjoy sharing stories and reflections on life.

On my last visit I had recommended that she read Greg Mortenson's recent book 'Stones into Schools'. I likened the difference between it and Greg's earlier work 'Three Cups Of Tea' as between that of a field sketch and the resulting studio painting. Lucille could not thank me enough for the recommendation.

With the benefit of several years of lecturing to groups large and small and with added perspective gained in the time between, Greg's narrative voice has matured and developed. It is an excellent read and I recommend it heartily to all, especially if you have read 'Three Cups Of Tea' which was our 1st HBReads book selection.

It is always pleasing to introduce someone to a great book that truly resonates with them. There are a few which I will not mention here as they are possible candidates for future HBReads choices.

Another outstanding book that was under consideration this year is 'Half The Sky' by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. I recommended this book to Christina Skoski, one of my volunteers at the Library. She was very grateful for the suggestion.

Though not an easy read, it is definitely worth the effort. This book not only shines a light on many of the injustices heaped upon women around the globe, but it also highlights the efforts of the many individuals and organizations working to counteract their effect. There is an Appendix in the rear of the book which links you to the groups mentioned .

Another book I recommend is Tracy Kidder's 'Mountains Beyond Mountains'. It is the story of Dr. Paul farmer who has been administering aid the poor in Haiti since 1983, when he was still a student. With all the recent troubles in Haiti the subject matter of this book is very timely indeed.

Read, Learn and Share what you have read and learned. Inspiration is like water, it nourishes as it flows. When something inspires you, find someone to share it with that will appreciate the gift.

Thank you and good reading, LeRoy Lucian

Strength In Numbers

2010-09-29T14:15:00.000-07:00

Self-determination and resourcefulness are positive attributes. The ability to accomplish goals based upon your own incentives is a valuable attribute, but; there is strength in numbers. The goals that a singular individual can accomplish pale in comparison to what can be achieved by a dedicated group working in concert with one another.

It is in this spirit of cooperation that I ask all of you to help in any way that you can. No gift is too small and no gift is too large. Together with your support we can continue to promote Literacy, Diversity and Cultural Understanding through our event series.

My fellow HBReads committee members and myself have worked very hard to build something sustainable and with your help I believe that we have. Participating in this program has for me personally been an amazing journey. For an ordinary individual like myself to take part in these proceedings and to have the opportunity to meet and befriend so many amazing individuals has indeed been an incredible experience.

As we prepare for our 4th season of 'Huntington Beach Reads One Book', we are looking to the community both large and small for participation and support. Although HBReads is based in Huntington Beach it serves the community at large. We have had guests at our events from all over Southern California. We are extremely grateful for the continued support of our community partners for their help in funding our projects and to those of you who make our efforts successful by your participation in them.

Our ties to the Huntington Beach Central Library have strengthened over the past several years and it is now our official home. One way that you can support our efforts is through monetary support. Checks made out to 'Huntington Beach Library / HBReads' can be dropped off or mailed to: HB Central Library 7111 Talbert Ave Huntington Beach, Ca 92648.

All of our Author events, our Film Series, Children's events, and other events related to our book selection and staffed by volunteers and are free of charge. I would like to thank all of our past, present and future donors for their support. We are looking forward to another exciting event series. Our book selection will be announced soon and we are already busy planning events leading up to and including our author Event.

Thank You, LeRoy Lucian

Encouraging Children to Read

2010-09-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

Reading is and should be a part of every child’s life. Children should have fun reading and books should be their friends. What can adults do to make this happen?

Let your child see you reading. Curling up with a good book sets a great example. Have lots of things around your house to read: books, magazines, newspapers, even cereal boxes. Sharing a passage from a book you are reading with your child gives you the chance to encourage her or him to do the same.

Look for ways to link reading with pleasure. Children like to do fun things and will keep coming back for more. Always allow them choices. Children have different tastes. The more they read, the more varied their choices will become. When a parent questioned the author Ray Bradbury about allowing children to read comic books, he replied: “you have to read some junk in order to know when you are reading something of value.”

Talk to your children but also listen. Resist the temptation to teach when you are reading together. Ease up. Keep it light. Don’t rush to try to get through a certain number of pages or chapters.

Let your children read to one another. If no other children are available, suggest that your child read to favorite dolls or stuffed animals. Imagine the fun of reading “Peter Rabbit” to a bunny! Children especially seem to love reading books out loud with lots of rhymes or repetitive phrases.

Above all, remember there is no magic age or timetable for learning to read.

Four Little Letters

2010-09-08T12:25:00.000-07:00

“Well?” Four little letters and a question mark, but they spoke volumes. The voice on the other end of the telephone was my friend Marsha Judd and I had just finished telling her about our choice of They Poured Fire On Us from The Sky as our third HBReads choice. The question implied was if I was leaving to work in the refugee camps. I replied that I was not.

I felt that by making the most of the position I was in that I could hopefully do more good by promoting the message through our group effort; that hopefully along the way we would inspire others that they might in turn do likewise. I do hope that this has proved to be the case.

During the course of our event series and in seemingly random locations following them I have encountered a wide variety of individuals who expressed their gratitude for our work in presenting the series of events leading up to and including our Authors Event.

I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to play a part in bringing this program to the community. It has been and continues to be a life changing experience for me.

I find it especially gratifying to see so many young people energized and inspired by the speakers that we have had the privilege to present so far.

Two young women who have been with us from the beginning have graduated from High School and are now in College. We wish them both continued success and are grateful for their support.

Jennifer Rojas, as a HBHS student was a volunteer at our kickoff event for Three Cups Of Tea and recommended They Poured Fire On Us From The Sky to us. She was also present at many of our events this year as a representative of 'OC For Darfur'.

Mukta Mohan came to our Three Cups Of Tea author event with a group from Fountain Valley High School. I met her this year at one of our Film Screenings where she had come with the FVHS 'Friends Of Africa Club' of which she was President.

Our newest addition is Adam Joe who came to us this last year as President of HBHS 'Save Darfur Club'. His group participated in our author events at the High School. Adam is currently an HBReads Committee member and acts as our liaison with the student community.

We have been very busy making our selection for the coming year and discussing the possibilities it presents. I hope that you will all be joining us again this year. We look forward to your participation and support.

Thank you all, LeRoy Lucian

An Evening to Share

2010-04-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

There is no truth to the rumor that Benson Deng will be auditioning for American Idol. His singing and playing of his handmade Dinkan lyre-like instrument was a hit with the kids and the adults, but he is past the AI maximum age of 28. He'll have to settle for all of the clapping and foot stomping that rocked the gym on March 11 as the Huntington Beach Reads One Book program for 2010 reached its climax.

In the morning, it was amazing to hear the silence as high school students gave full attention to these "Lost Boys," now fully grown men, and their ability to not just survive but bring us a new perspective of ourselves, even as they shared the tragedies still occurring and offered opportunities to participate in solutions.

In the evening, the adult, public audience (including some returning students), swayed to the same music and shed some tears as the truth of the genocide in Darfur was described by these eyewitnesses. Mayor Green expressed her joy at the success of the program. Tables displayed both artifacts relating to Africa and the program, but also opportunities to participate in other programs designed to relieve the suffering still happening today.

Cousins Benson Deng and Benjamin Ajak, joined by their coauthor Judy Bernstein, told their stories and made their audience laugh with memories of first encountering our strange western culture: ordering a Coke and being baffled to get only an empty cup, until Judy Bernstein's 12-year-old son showed them how to use the soft drink machine. They told of being on their own at age seven and having to discover the skill of cooking just to survive.

Benjamin brought a serious air to the presentation, showing by example what can be not only endured but also conquered and surpassed. We all walked out grateful for the lessons and thankful for what we have here at home.

Each story came with the touch of humor, even as it evoked the listener's sympathy for the struggle to survive and the fortitude to continue. Those who read the book as a part of HB Reads were prepared for of the details of the challenge, but all were delighted by these young men and their confident, optimistic outlook.

The HB Reads program, now completing its third year, is growing in aspects none of us imagined in the beginning. The members of the committee have come up each year with ways to share, not just the book, but also the art, culture, and music of the regions covered in the books. Everyone takes away something different, even as each of us contributes something to enhance the project.

We look forward to more of our HB friends joining us, first to pick the next book, then to create activities that will again culminate in an evening to share.

Richard K. Moore, InfoSherpa

The Experience of a Lifetime

2010-04-05T17:49:00.000-07:00

In the weeks leading up to March 11, 2010, HB Reads hosted a variety of events directly and indirectly related to the central theme of “They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky.” It was very gratifying to see the level of community involvement that was engendered this year. I believe that we have grown as an organization and as a community through participation in these events.

Not a day goes by that I don't encounter someone who engages me in conversation to express their thanks for what we've done this year. Whether it's at the Library in Huntington Beach or at a store in Westminster; someone will stop me to discuss how these events touched their lives. It has been an honor indeed to be a part of this event series. I have met a number of amazing people in the course of events and made some new life long friends.

Everyone brings something different to the party and everyone takes away something different as well. As much as we are all connected and alike we all also have our own unique perspective.

I was discussing this with Judy Bernstein (“They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky” co-author) on the evening of March 11th, and she related to me that each time she hears the Authors speak something new comes out. The stories may be the same but there is something in the telling that adds another dimension to the tales.

I could see this during the course of the day. The framework of their tales shifted one way for the high school students and another for the adult audience. The afternoon reception revealed yet another dimension in the telling of the stories of their lives. In the casual atmosphere of a sun-drenched living room, a certain ease infiltrated the conversation. Perhaps it was the opportunity to relax and joke and laugh with a few new-found friends. As I look at photos from that afternoon I see Judy, Benson and Benjamin truly enjoying themselves and everyone in the room completely enamored with the three of them.

The events of that day changed the lives of all involved, even if only incrementally. For me personally, the effect is still sinking in. The depth of gratitude I have for everyone who helped to make this series of events the success that it was is boundless. It is my hope that all of you will carry that change in you forward in your daily lives. I hope that each of you will reflect on the strength and wisdom shown us by these fine young men and the woman who helped them tell their tales, and in your own unique way continue to make a difference.

Thank you all,
LeRoy Lucian

When the reading clicks - Mary Lou

2010-02-10T19:45:00.000-08:00

Think back and remember being read to when you were a child—by your parents, your teacher, your siblings or maybe a friend. These experiences are not just about companionship and precious time together. They also whet a child’s appetite for reading. Nothing better prepares your child for that moment when “reading” clicks in than being read to aloud. Even when children have learned to read, they still love listening.

A Children’s Story Hour event is being presented locally:

February 18, 2010: Central Library, Tabby Theater at 3:30 p.m.

The Children’s story hour features:

African Folk Tales for children: colorful stories from the past

Chip Royston, author of the children’s book “Emelia Makes a Difference”. Chip will talk about the joy of writing and how exciting it can be!

African drumming – instruments will be available for all the children to play

Both events are FREE and all children are invited. Parents too!

Love Mary Lou

Hear The Songs - Paul Tayyar

2010-02-10T19:43:00.000-08:00

In reading the book, They Poured Fire On Us From the Sky, I was most particularly struck by how wonderful it was to see that an account of African life told from the perspective of African citizens had become a genuine commercial and critical success. In all my years as a student of literature—in my undergraduate and graduate studies—though we were assigned plenty of texts that dealt with Africa, these texts were almost entirely written by western writers primarily interested in Africa as a backdrop for the experiences of their white, western main characters.

For years, the majority of knowledge I had on African politics and culture had been taken from books I read in school—books like Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, or films like Director Sydney Pollack’s Out of Africa. Though these texts—particularly Conrad’s and Kipling’s—were not without literary merit, the danger is that rarely are American students exposed to literature, poetry, and film that is composed and produced by Africans themselves. In other words, though actual Western Imperialism may be a thing of the past when it comes to the “conquest” of African locales, cultural imperialism is still thriving. Even books that purport to be “sensitive” to African culture—Conrad’s Darkness, for instance—articulate that “sensitivity” from an often condescending, patronizing viewpoint. Chinua Achebe brilliantly captures this type of ideological imperialism in his scathing counter to Conrad’s version of Africa, “An Image of Africa,” when he quotes Albert Schweitzer’s deeply problematic summation on his feelings about Africa: “The African is indeed my brother but my junior brother.” Thus, even when western writers and thinkers purport to be “enlightened,” they often reduce Africa to being a footnote or mere backdrop in their narratives.

Reading They Poured Fire On Us From The Sky, then, is the type of book that should be assigned in schools with regularity, given that it is a book where we get an insiders’ “image” of a particular part of Africa—in this case, the troubled, devastated region of Sudan. This is the type of book that should be as central to our English reading lists as anything by Conrad or Kipling. We must demand more from ourselves and our academics.

In the spirit of this column, then, I have provided below a short list of African texts, films, poets, musicians, and artists, that will inform and enlighten as surely and fully as They Poured Fire On Us From the Sky. Though by no means is it comprehensive, I hope that it provides a strong introduction into the rich, beautiful artistic traditions of Africa.

Films
Black Girl (Dir. By Ousmane Sembene)
Rage (Dir. Newton Aduaka)
Brightness (Dir. Souleymane Cisse)

Books
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (Olaudah Equiano)
Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)
The Forest of a Thousand Demons (Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa)
So Long a Letter (Maiama Ba)
When Rain Clouds Gather (Bessie Head)
The Beautiful Ones are Not Yet Born (Ayi Kewi Armah)
Disgrace (J.M. Coetzee)
Petals of Blood (Ngugi Wa Thiong’O)

Poets
Leopold Sedar Senghor
Christopher Okigbo
Wole Soyinka
Dennis Brutus

African Painters
Sokari Douglas Camp
Traci Rose

Musicians
K/Naan
Zola
Youssou N’Dour

My journey vs. the Lost Boys - Richard Moore

2010-02-10T19:41:00.000-08:00

My main job as a member of the HB Reads committee is to take our poster around to stores in Huntington Beach and ask folks if they can help us publicize the events. The people working in the shops are always courteous, welcoming and helpful. That's their business. So far no one has sent me running into the tall grass.

When it is a locally owned business, they are most likely to say yes, they will be happy to put the poster up -- often in a front window. The smaller the business, the friendlier they are. They ask questions about the program, share their memories of past programs, and sometimes are already reading the book. This happens most often when the person at the cash register is high school age. "I'm reading that book in school," they tell me.

To generalize: bars are very eager; nail salons not so much; banks will check with the manager; liquor stores tell me "Put it up!"

Sometimes they notice the Kiwanis logo on the poster. "That's the book Ed Vickery told us about!" Then we talk about good people who offer help when it is needed.

But sometimes, it is a franchise store or restaurant. The windows have no posters; everything is spotless, shiny in order to make "Central" or "Corporate" happy when they come for an inspection. "No, sorry, nothing in the windows" … So I ask if they have a back room for employees, and their eyes light up. I encourage them to put the poster up in the back and they always say yes. I am getting to know the community, in fact, several communities. I stop for lunch in a new neighborhood, sample the food, and work the strip mall. Then I continue my journey.

Just as communities interacting finally bring success to the “Lost Boys,” it is community here in Huntington Beach that massages individual actions into community success. The boys, though separated and wandering, get word of each other and meet up occasionally. Starvation and brutality are on their journey, not on mine. I wind up with small anecdotes, they with stories that rivet and enthrall with terror and suspense. I type up a column; they write their stories and hand them over to Judy Bernstein to make into a powerful documentary.

That written record is “They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky.”

Let Freedom Ring - LeRoy Lucian

2010-02-10T19:32:00.001-08:00

On August 28, 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King delivered one of the most inspirational speeches in modern history. Dr. King had a dream; a dream of all people of all colors, of all religious persuasions standing side by side and hand in hand, A Promise Of A Brighter Tomorrow. In one passage Dr. King declares "We cannot walk alone...And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we will always march ahead...We cannot turn back."

I can imagine that—although they had never heard of Dr. King at the time—similar thoughts passed through the hearts and minds of the authors of “They Poured Fire On Us from The Sky” as they marched countless miles through perilous conditions. Their focus was on survival and the dream of an education. The desire to survive and to learn and to gain an education burned within them like a fire.

Now, here on our shores, these two dreams have come together. These young men and many of their brothers and sisters have survived, have come here, and are gaining an education. The dream of an education is but the first step. Education provides us with the tools necessary to help those left behind as well as those we meet on our path as "we march ahead".

We have not arrived at a place of Peace in the World. We do not have to look far to see examples of mans’ inhumanity to man; but intertwined with these images are examples of the best that mankind has to offer. Peoples of all races and beliefs reaching out to help those less fortunate; lending a hand to those in need. Reaching out to those in despair and providing them with ‘A Promise Of A Brighter Tomorrow’. It is my belief that although we have not arrived at a 'Place Of Peace In The World,' that this Peace exists in the hearts and minds of those of you who are reading these words, that the fire and the dream burn brightly within you and that you will carry that torch forward, for "We cannot walk alone... and...We cannot turn back".

On March 11, the Author event for “They Poured Fire On Us From the Sky” takes place at the Huntington Beach High School Gymnasium. In the coming weeks we are hosting a number of events here in Huntington Beach related to the topics of HB Reads’ current book selection. Documentary films, book discussions, children's events, an African art display and topical speaking engagements are being provided free of charge. We hope that you will be able to join us. Please check the Calendar and Events section of the website for details.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those of you whose efforts and inspiration have aided us in our journey. Your names are too many to mention here, but are engraved in my heart.
Thank you all, LeRoy Lucian

Through The Looking Glass - LeRoy Lucian

2010-01-15T23:47:00.001-08:00

On the Wednesday before Halloween a group of HB Reads Committee members were gathered in the Balboa Room at the Central Library. If you’ve ever been seated facing the fountain in this room with the blinds open then you too know how the goldfish feels. It’s a somewhat surreal sensation and was about to become even more so.

She appeared on the ramp which spirals upwards around the fountain, dressed in blue with her white apron and clutching in her arms a real white rabbit. Flowing behind her like the pages of the Children’s Library come to life was a procession of Supermen and Superwomen, Princesses and Ladybugs, Wizards and Witches: and with Pirates Large and Pirates Small they gathered ‘round her one and all. Then music boomed throughout the Library and the parade began.

Those of you familiar with the Children’s Library probably recognize the Alice in our story as Mary-Pat Gonzalez, Senior Children’s librarian. She was very pleased when I told her that we stopped our meeting to wave and cheer on the Kids. The whole idea was for everyone to stop what they were doing and remember for a moment how it felt to be a child and do such things.

It is so very important that we hold fast to that childlike sense of awe and wonder. Life is an adventure and without those qualities the journey loses its vibrancy. As adults we are told to ‘Put away childish things’; but we must be careful to put them safely into our hearts and never let them stray too far. They are as a lifeline to our soul. They connect us to who we are. If we lose the ability to Laugh and Dance and Sing it is not the actions which become lost but rather it is us.

Mary-Pat and I have had several conversations regarding ‘They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky’. As someone who is constantly surrounded by children and admittedly reads mostly Children’s books she had some difficulty reading the book due to the immense tragedy and hardships that the children had to endure. I think we all empathize more when it is Children who are in peril. It can be sometimes difficult to see how our actions can make a difference in the face of such overwhelming oppression; but it does make a difference. Our actions however small can have the power to enrich and even to save the life of a fellow human being. Please join us on our journey.

Thank you, LeRoy Lucian

Listening to the Mayor - Richard K. Moore, InfoSherpa

2010-01-15T23:45:00.000-08:00

On Monday, December 7, I attended the HB City Council meeting where Cathy Green was sworn in as our new Mayor. I was delighted to hear her speak highly of our HB Reads selection this year. I hope we can help her to achieve her goals. What follows is a portion of her remarks.

“…Where do we look for answers? From what source can we draw our strength and determination? One source for me is the book selected this year for everyone in Huntington Beach to read. The Human Relations Task Force selected the book and the selection was endorsed by the City Council. It is a diary of three boys entitled “They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky.” It is the true story of three lost boys from Sudan.

Briefly, their villages in Sudan were destroyed in a civil war, parents and sisters were killed and as many as 15,000 boys – some as young as three years old – were refugees wandering throughout the deserts and jungles of Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia. Always starving, they were thirsty, malaria ridden, and afraid of being conscripted into an army that was taking children as young as 10 years old. We have all seen pictures of these children at various relief centers in central Africa.

About 3,000 boys were selected for resettlement in the United States in about 30 cities. The three boys who wrote the book – Alephonsion Deng, Benson Deng, and Benjamin Ajak live in San Diego and have been invited to Huntington Beach this Spring to discuss their experience and their book. What did I carry away from reading of their desperate journey? Two major points:

· First, the value of the bond between family members, within a village and in a tribe. These boys kept looking for family, for friends, for anyone who spoke their language and dialect. They were truly lost boys when the bonds were broken and actually elated when a bond was renewed. Family and Community bonds hold us all together.

· Second, education is of extreme importance. They would seek out schools and teachers. Even if the school was under a tree and the teacher was not very well educated. Books, any book, were cherished and clutched tightly and read over and over again.

What are the implications and lessons for us as we face challenges? We must hold families, neighborhoods, communities and cities together with the bonds that we have formed over the years. We must hold onto one another and be especially supportive of those experiencing difficulties. Let us support one another and hope that this time of economic trials will pass quickly.

And second, education at all levels of study should receive our strong support. At a time when Cities are closing libraries, ours must remain open. The City should develop more cooperatives with school districts and Golden West College. An educated populace should continue to be a top priority for all of us, whether in the field of education or not.

I sincerely, believe if we do everything possible to strengthen community and family bonds that bind us together and if we continue to hold education at all levels as a top priority, we shall emerge from these crises more robust, more vigorous and a stronger City.”

Richard K. Moore, InfoSherpa

A Patriot - By Paul Tayyars

2010-01-15T23:43:00.000-08:00

Twenty-five years later and it is a song that is still omnipresent, on classic rock stations, in sold-out NBA arenas, at Fourth of July parades. Ronald Reagan famously tried to use it as the soundtrack for his 1984 re-election campaign. The cast of Sesame Street gave us a child-friendly cover version of it.

In short, Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” a four-and-a-half minute juggernaut of a single that is still the most identifiable piece of music he has ever produced, doubles as rock’s most consistently misinterpreted song. A track that, as Springsteen himself has said, was intended to express the frustrations and despair of a generation of Vietnam War veterans instead has wound up, even decades later, largely being used as a jingoistic affirmation of the kind of rah-rah, hollow patriotism Springsteen has spent much of his career railing against. From his on-stage response to Reagan’s cynical attempts at musical co-optation to Springsteen’s release of an acoustic, bluesy version of the song that stripped the song’s ethos down to something so melancholy the track could be diagnosed with clinical depression, the tension between Springsteen’s sense of the song and America’s relationship to it is a microcosm of a larger problem in American art: that we are so often desirous of affirming America’s greatness that we often only want our art to reflect the way we want to see the world around us.

In other words, America treats “Born in the USA” as a fist-pumping, America-First anthem because to recognize it as anything else—a critique of military adventurism and a brutal capitalist ethos—would demand that we reconsider everything we have come to believe about the country we live in. Thus, we focus on the components of the song (in this case its martial drumming, and its rugged, dignified vocal) that supports our desires, and ignore everything else (the despondent lyrics, Springsteen’s increasingly desperate wails).

What we lose in such a reading is the complexity that makes great art potentially meaningful. We cannot only look for affirmation in the art we seek out; we must also be challenged, critiqued, and exposed to realities we have not considered or tried to ignore, and, having considered those realities, feel empowered to change. This is what makes art, especially art that attempts to deal with the costs of trauma, psychic and otherwise, valuable in a free society. And this is what a song like “Born in the USA,” allows us to do, if we listen carefully.

‘Anansi Does The Impossible’ - By Mary Lou

2010-01-15T23:41:00.001-08:00

One of the most honored authors of folk tales for children is Verna Aardema. This noted American author is a premier re-teller of stories, particularly from Africa.

In 1976 Aardema was given the Caldecott Medal, awarded annually by the American Library Association to the author of the most distinguished picture book. One of her deliciously funny books that is sure to delight readers of all ages is "Anansi Does The Impossible".

Anansi is a cunning little spider who wants to buy back all the folktales that are owned by the Sky God. The price is high: a live python, a real fairy and forty-seven stinging hornets. Anansi's clever wife hatches three ingenious schemes to secure the required items.

This wonderful book, based on a West African folk tale, is waiting to be checked out at your local branch library. It is the kind of story children love, perfect for reading aloud.

Find more children’s books and Anansi stories on the HB Reads “Bibliography” page on this website, http://www.hbreads.org/biblio.html.

Reading Aloud to Children - By Mary Lou Hughes

2009-11-16T17:03:00.000-08:00

Hopefully we all remember being read to as children. Reading aloud together not only bonds the reader and the listener, but whets a child's desire to read on his or her own.

Fairy tales, myths, fables and folk tales are filled with talking animals, scary monsters, lovely maidens, wise rulers and astonishing feats of magic. These stories can both capture a child's vivid imagination and teach important life lessons. They are also a look at how people in different societies interact and communicate. Many of the stories have been handed down by word of mouth from one generation to the next.

Check out one of this genre of children's books from your local library. See how much you can learn about a different culture from reading just one picture book. There may be no more rewarding family activity than reading these stories aloud together.

Love, Mary Lou

Here’s a list of children’s books relating to this year’s HB Reads book, “They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky”:

The Origin of Life on Earth: An African Creation Myth. Anderson, David. Sights, 1991. Pre-kindergarten- Elementary. A well-told and wonderfully- illustrated retelling of the Yoruba (Nigeria) creation myth.

How Anansi Obtained the Sky God’s Stories. Washington, Donna. Children’s Press, 1991. Pre-kindergarten - 3rd grade.

How Stories Came into the World: A Folktale from West Africa. Troughton, Joanna. Peter Bedrick, 1989. Pre-kindergarten- 3rd grade. A collection of six West African creation myths.

Yoruba Folktales. Tutuola, Amos. African Book Collective, 1987. Elementary-Middle school. Includes seven Yoruba folktales.

Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock. Kimmel, Eric. New York: Holiday House, 1988. Pre-kindergarten- 3rd grade. A trickster tale where Anansi uses a magic rock to steal food from his friends in the forest. The tale is still told in the Caribbean.

How Spider Tricked Snake. Benitez, Mirna. Raintree/Steck Vaughn, 1992. Pre-kindergarten-3rd grade. Adapted from a Jamaican story of the West African Ananse tradition.

Anansi Goes Fishing. New York: Holiday House, 1991. Pre-kindergarten- 3rd grade. Another trickster tale, with the implied moral lesson about the pitfalls of telling lies.

Find more books on the “Bibliography” page of this website, http://www.hbreads.org/biblio.html.

First Things First for Refugees - By LeRoy Lucian

2009-11-16T16:46:00.000-08:00

"It was Joseph Jok..." With these words Judy Bernstein begins her introduction of the man who introduced her to the Authors of "They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky". These words also begin the book introduction.

Judy first introduced Joseph to a group of HB Reads committee members when we visited the International Rescue Committee in San Diego a few months ago. I recently saw Joseph again after having lunch with Judy and several staff members of the IRC.

We spoke of many things including cultural differences and misunderstandings. Joseph told us how the Authors were initially confused by offers to visit the Zoo and the local mountains. Why would you want to go to see these things that were abundant in Africa? I don't know if the Authors have changed their minds about the Zoo, but Judy says that after spending enough time in our 'Concrete Jungles' they have come to appreciate the respite of Nature.

I was given a tour of the 'First Things First' Educational Program that morning by Colleen Krause, who with her able staff and wonderful volunteers provides the first stable educational experience that many of the new refugee community have ever experienced.

It was very heartening to see community partnership in action for such a worthy cause. This program in partnership with The San Diego City School District (which provides buildings, utilities, internet, phones and proximity to the community) and The San Diego Community College - Mid City Campus (which provides a part-time Adult Education/ESL Teacher). The School Partnership saves the Program $25,000 a year and the Community College Partnership saves the Program an additional $40,000 a year. Additional Community Support enables this program to continue.

Our own Huntington Beach Friends of the Library was able to donate Children's books for the program because of the community support that it receives.

I toured three classrooms. First the Kindergarten/Nursery where the Children are taught and the Infants of Adult Students are cared for. Next up is the 'Intermediate Class' for those Adults with some writing and language skills. The third classroom is for the 'Beginning' Adult students who have thus far in life been denied even a basic education. In many cases before entering this program, they are completely illiterate. There is also a 'Store' where store credits earned by fulfilling certain tasks can be exchanged for useful donated items. The students can also work and learn job skills such as working a cash register thus helping them to gain in self esteem and confidence.

These new arrivals are very grateful for the opportunity to become hard working, productive citizens. According to Sharon Darrough, Development Manager for The IRC San Diego approximately 200 refugees were processed in the month of September and approximately 1,300 in the last fiscal year. By comparison the year following 9/11, 105 refugees were processed.

So you see that the need is great for Community Support whether large or small. It matters not where or how much you give but that you do. The most valuable commodity that you can give is to give of yourself, to invest your time and your energy. The dividends you reap are beyond measure.

Thank You, LeRoy Lucian

The Movement Continues - By Paul Tayyar

2009-11-16T16:40:00.000-08:00

Use the term “Civil Rights” in an American college classroom and you will find a great majority of students have a narrow, limited understanding of the term’s genuine meaning. For most, the Civil Rights Movement was a two-decade window of time when men like Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Medgar Evers, and a cross-section of anonymous Americans—hippies, priests, homemakers, carpenters, schoolteachers, veterans—peacefully, gallantly fought to guarantee that no man or woman should be discriminated against because of the color of their skin. It is good to know that by the time our students are eighteen or nineteen years old, they are familiar with King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the heroism of Rosa Parks, and the assassination of Malcolm X. Some students—though not nearly enough—know that it was Lyndon Johnson who ensured passage of the Civil Rights Bill, and that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would not have happened without the bravery of men like John Lewis and Edward Kennedy.

But the Civil Rights Movement is as old as America itself. And it is a Movement that, at various times, has focused its energies not only against virulent racism, but against sexism, economic inequalities, and religious discrimination; the Civil Rights Movement is the story of the struggle for worker’s rights, women’s suffrage, and gay equality. Therefore, when it comes to discussing Civil Rights in American classrooms, students should not just know about King and Parks and Evers, they should know about Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who in her tireless quest for women’s rights composed The Woman’s Bible, a text that provides a feminist reading of the Old and New Testaments; they should know about Woody Guthrie, the folksinger who crisscrossed the country for decades singing his workingman’s ballads, whose lyrics demanded the ethical treatment of Mexican laborers and itinerant Midwestern farmers; they should know that Cesar Chavez earned his holiday by organizing a series of grape-workers strikes that galvanized activists across the country; they should know about Walt Whitman, the Father of American poetry, whose poems about the devastating violence that the Civil War wrought—for soldiers on both sides of the conflict—sought to heal a ruptured nation.

I write this because the beauty of the contemporary American college classroom—where, in each and every class, there are students from countless nations and various faiths, with often vastly disparate economic backgrounds and lifestyles—has not happened overnight, nor has it occurred by accident. Rather, the wondrous diversity of individuals that I interact with every day in the classroom has been made possible by the sacrifices of men and women for hundreds and hundreds of years. And so we owe it to our students to make sure that the names of those who have made such educational diversity possible are celebrated and discussed in our classrooms—that is the role we can play in seeing that the American Civil Rights Movement never subsides, loses faith, or surrenders to cynicism or fatigue.

Comparing my travels to the “Lost Boys” of Sudan

2009-10-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

In 1969 after four years of college I climbed into my roommate's 1956 T-Bird and we drove across the country. We had read Kerouac and wanted to see his road. We got to New York just as Woodstock was happening, Manhattan in time to see Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway in Hello Dolly, Long Island for a couple of months of working and visiting NYC, and drove back across a snowy Canada on our way home -- at trip that lasted about four months.

Every few days I wrote on notepads I had bought, first a letter to my girlfriend, then on a separate sheet a summary of the day. I asked her to save the diary, so that I would have the beginning of my great book when I arrived home. When I got home my girlfriend gave me the saved letters, broke up with me and said goodbye. I still have those stories in a box somewhere in the garage.

Our authors for “They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky” had a far different fate. As I read the book I am drawn into a very different place and time, lacking the freedom, sparkling with description but drawing closer to tragedy with every page. This book of memories, then, is a miracle of survival and a testament to hope.

That hope grew when they started writing their memories and their friend turned into an editor and shaped their stories into a terrific read. Even as she teases us in the introduction with the way they started writing, their writing hints at the horrors to come, even as it relates the day-to-day details of joy and life in their part of the world.

I can only feel fortunate and relieved that my journey's most traumatic occurrence was a blown transmission on the highway in Alberta. "I can tow you to Pincher Creek or Cardston," the man said. "What's the difference?" we asked. "Cardston is dry," he replied with a smile. "Take us to Pincher Creek!" Even so, a week waiting for a '56 T-Bird tranny in remote Alberta left us with little to do. I did do some soap carving.

On the other hand, these “Lost Boys” show resourcefulness that puts my travels to shame. As they take turns telling their stories, they pay attention to tradition as it is transmitted through their elders' tales of long ago. The survive mishap and take heed of warnings. They bring us their message, filled with caution, inspiration and challenge

Children’s Events planned for HB Reads!

2009-10-22T12:54:00.000-07:00

Children’s Events planned for HB Reads!

This year three special Children's Events are planned in connection with Huntington Beach Reads One Book!

Each afternoon program will feature folk tales from Sudan and related activities and art projects designed to help children better understand the life of the Sudanese people. Three different Huntington Beach locations will be used in order to make the events accessible to families in different parts of the city.

Mark you calendars:

Oak View Branch Library Friday, January 29 2:00 p.m. (Kindergarten - Third grade); 3:00 p.m. (Fourth - Fifth grade)

Barnes & Noble at Bella Terra Monday, February 28 2:00 p.m. (Kindergarten - Third grade)

Central Library Thursday, February 18 3:00 p.m. (Kindergarten - Third grade)

Parents and children of all ages are cordially invited to enjoy the stories and work together on the art activities. Africa is an especially vibrant continent and its children's stories are both colorful and entertaining.

Love, Mary Lou

The King of Santa Barbara - By Paul Kareem Tayyar

2009-09-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

I have always been partial to poets whose verses possess a touch of the lyric: perhaps it is because the earliest poets I loved were those who refused to let adulthood stifle the romanticism that childhood provides us in spades. I can still remember the first time I read Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud” (thirteen years old, the Huntington Beach Library, there was a girl involved that I was trying to impress), Langston Hughes’ “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” (UC Santa Barbara Bookstore, in between classes, I remember I re-read it five or six times to make sure I wasn’t dreaming), and Dylan Thomas’ “And Death Shall Have No Dominion” (a late-night DVD viewing of the American remake of Tarkovsky’s Solaris starring George Clooney, where the poem plays a featured role), and those types of I’ll-Never-Forget-Where-I-Was-When-I-First-Read kind of experiences are still how I judge whether I consider a writer’s work worthy of being placed into my literary Olympus. I read poetry heart first, and I am a fan of poems that make me feel like the world is a parade of the wondrous and the mystic. And there is no writer who makes me feel this more consistently than Barry Spacks (the former Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara), whose poems speak to the heart in a way that makes me wonder if when he dies and the doctors open him up for an autopsy bluebirds and butterflies will fly out of his chest. He is that good.

If a large part of this column is motivated by trying to turn readers on to writers whose work is interested in reminding us of the infinite moments of peace, beauty, fellowship, and spirituality that are waiting to be found every day on this earth, then one must pick up one of Barry Spacks’ breathtaking books, which include The Hope of the Air (Michigan State University Press), Regarding Women (Cherry Grove), and his latest, the-so-lovely-it’s-gospel Food for the Journey (Cherry Grove). In Spacks’ poems readers will be transported into a world where Christian and Muslim find common ground on a downtown street corner, where unicorns still roam a postmodern earth, where women fall in love with magical trees that forever protect them through summer and storm. In “Whitewater Vision,” the first poem from Journey, Spacks works through the desire to find meaning in a difficult world that so often seems like it is sitting on top of us:

Like everyone else I’ve served my time

Lying under the weight of a mountain

breathing stones…

In the poem, Spacks reminds us to slow down and take time to commune with ourselves, to remember that we are possessed of a richness and mercy that cannot be found anywhere else, and the poem closes with a stanza that we can repeat like a prayer:

On days when it seems the food for the journey

is clay, not bread, and the spirit famished,

as dusk transfigures everything

I pause, near silence: listening.

It is the self as a budding mystic, an artist whose canvas is the interior world, aware that his daydreams are much more than the mere passings of time.

Whenever I find myself going through particularly difficult periods in my life, be it dealing with the sickness of a relative, the death of a friend, or the awful feeling that the world will never realize the potential it holds, I find myself going back to read Barry Spacks’ poetry. His poems remind me that we can always make the world a little better than it was when we found it.

Our next Huntington Beach Reads One Book selection - LeRoy Lucian

2009-09-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

Our next Huntington Beach Reads One Book selection—“They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky”—tells the Authors’ stories as 'Lost Boys Of Sudan'. Their long and harrowing journey takes them from their childhood village through desert, jungle and inescapable war. They find their way despite seemingly insurmountable odds to survive and eventually land upon these shores. They now live here in Southern California.

The average stay in a Refugee Camp is 15 years. The life in these camps is harsh and often brutal. Survival under such conditions is a hard fought goal which many do not attain. Through the many acts of kindness and compassion which come from people just like you many of these refugees do survive and do find their way out of the camps and to a place of safety.

Our Authors’ stories are such as these. Our 'Concrete Jungles' have their own laws of survival. Through a network of support and guidance these new arrivals find their way in this new world.

One such instance involves the Somali Bantu community in San Diego. Being from an agrarian society they are accustomed to growing their own healthful organic food. Finding themselves now living in small apartments and lacking enough space to grow food even in containers they sought help from their mentors at the International Rescue Committee. After a long journey through the halls of Bureaucracy finally their dream is real. The New Roots Garden is a community effort and beautiful to see. I was a guest at the Grand Opening of what will hopefully be but the first of many such gardens in San Diego.

The name 'New Roots' is especially appropriate. Many of the community members are refugees and as new members of our society are putting down new roots in their lives in many ways. The garden is as a microcosm with members of diverse cultures working side by side with a common goal. The fruits of an enterprise such as this go beyond the edible. Friendship, Cultural Understanding and Respect are I believe among the many fruits which will sprout from this plot of land.

We are busy planning many exciting events leading up to our Authors’ Event so please follow our progress here or sign up for our mailing list.

Thank you all, LeRoy Lucian

A Little Paperback Magic - By Paul Tayyar

2009-08-04T15:55:00.000-07:00

Lost in most discussions on the role that books do—and should—play in society, is the fact that they are tools that allow us to engage with people we will never meet. Why does this matter? Because without a means of connecting and empathizing with strangers, we risk seeing them as “others,” somehow less human, less vital than ourselves. As a teacher of English and Literature at Golden West College, I am constantly reminded of just how important it is to use books as vehicles to broadening the social, cultural, political, religious and creative awareness of my students. Yes, I want them to be able to write intellectually rich, grammatically complete sentences, and yes, I want them to compose essays of such philosophical richness and stylistic grandeur that F. Scott Fitzgerald or Richard Wright would have been impressed, but more than anything else I want them to become more sensitive, committed human beings, who will be inspired and moved by the narratives they read and discuss in my classes to volunteer in their communities and to realize that they must be active, enthusiastic participants in the continuing improvement of the world they live in.

It is impossible for me to imagine the man I would have become if I had never read Kafka’s Metamorphosis (which my father loved), Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley (which my mother adored), Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being (a gift from an old friend), or Toni Morrison’s Paradise (I’ll take credit for discovering that one on my own), but I do know these books, along with countless others by the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Walt Whitman, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edward Field, William Wordsworth, Rumi, Hafiz, Sappho, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gerald Locklin, Mary Oliver, Jonathan Lethem, Percy Shelley, Yehuda Amichai, Walter Mosley, Ernest Hemingway, John F. Kennedy, David Halberstam, Joan Jobe Smith, Hunter Thompson, Rudyard Kipling, and a cast of thousands have contributed to the man (and, by extension, the teacher) that I actually have become. Literature is as vital a necessity as any other: just as we need water, food, shelter, and sunlight to survive, so do we need stories and poetry and music. Our souls and spirits need to be nourished as much as our bodies.

This column will try to create an awareness of important books that may be of interest to the follower of HB Reads, and to stimulate a love and passion for narratives that might help to beatify our often stressful, difficult lives. Given that HB Reads is a program that is dedicated to using books as a means to improving the lives of people around the world, I hope to do justice to their mission by contributing thoughtful essays that enlighten and inspire.

Until next time!

Paul Kareem Tayyar

An Afternoon with Merle - By LeRoy Lucian

2009-07-25T06:41:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support for the Huntington Beach reads One Book program.

Our second selection 'the kids from nowhere'—while a decidedly lower profile selection—provided a vast array of insights into a world few of us had been privy to before this undertaking. It afforded us a look into the world of the Yu'pik culture of Western Alaska.

It was a very enlightening experience for me personally. I became acquainted with Richard Wisecarver who shared his words in the 'Postcards From The North" found on our website. I also met Brian Kulik, a gifted carver whose work was featured in the Central Library exhibit along with “snow goggles” by Richard Wisecarver's son, Noah.

The culmination of all our efforts was the author events at the Huntington Beach High School gymnasium on March 5, 2009. We held discussions with “the kids from nowhere” author, George Guthridge, and Merle Apassingok, one of the main characters in the book.
The following morning I was afforded the privilege of spending a few hours with Merle before he left for home. We visited the Library and spoke with many of the Librarians and Friends. We were joined by HB Reads member Mary Urashima.

One of the points that Merle stressed was the symbol of the Grey Whale, that same whale which passes by our coast can also be seen from Merle's home. Merle sees that as a symbol uniting our two communities. The fact that our eyes behold the same creature thousands of miles apart is just one more example of how alike we all are.

We also discussed how Gambell has no Library, not even at the school! Merle talked about how the kids are lacking in Art and School supplies. Various members of our community are working to remedy that situation. (Let me know if you’d like to help be sending me an email at info@HBReads.org).

It was a wonderful experience and I am grateful to all of you who came along for the ride. We are currently working on our next selection and, with your support, look forward to another exciting and culturally fulfilling experience.

Thank you, LeRoy Lucian

Well, we did it!

2009-03-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

For the second year, HB Reads has presented an author, this time George Guthridge, author of “the kids from nowhere,” talking about his book to folks in Huntington Beach who love to read.

George joined students at the Huntington Beach High School gym in the morning, and with a former student, talked about the book, life in Gambell, and what the future holds for Alaska. One of the themes of “the kids from nowhere” is the competitive academic program that Guthridge introduces, Future Problem Solving. In the evening, George spoke to a gym filled with adults attracted to the program. He stayed after his book signing to talk more with the audiences about Future Problem Solving.

We also were fortunate to have one of George Guthridge's students join him. Merle Apassingok, former "kid from nowhere" and resident of Gambell, St. Lawrence Island, held everyone’s attention as he described life in Alaska and a philosophy that makes for a successful life.

He included in his talk aspects of tradition and culture that shape his thinking. Life in a Yu’pik village places him in a world with a generation of young people who have lost the Yupik language and whose taste for native, traditional foods has been won over by chicken nuggets and pizza.

In a story on NPR, Merle shares his view of life in Alaska: "I think we're on the verge of great success or great failure," he says, standing next to his whaling boat near the beach in Gambell. "We're literally in between two lifestyles. And then we're in between two continents, in between two languages. We're literally the island in between."

Merle has another life, that of an artist. In Alaska, if one is to create carvings, one must first obtain the walrus tusks to be carved. By Alaskan law, the animals caught must also be used primarily for food, so that unnecessary carnage does not take place. It is legal for the Eskimo in Alaska to carve ivory and use other marine mammal parts so long as there is a significant transformation of the item. It is illegal for non-Natives to own the raw, unworked ivory tusks or other marine mammal parts.

Merle's carving can be found online, a wolf with an "expressive face," an "elegant" cormorant with an amazing stretched out neck, highlighted with baleen beak and eyes, and a more traditional hunter poised to strike in his kayak.

But it was the talk of life lessons that held the audience, with comparisons of whale hunting and leadership with learning and responsibility. These are men who have learned harsh lessons from life, survived, and gently share what they can.

As an extra treat, George's wife, Noi, was there taking it all in and sharing her insight in private conversations with attendees at both events and at a private fund-raiser in the afternoon. Soft-spoken and delightful, she added sparkle to an inspirational tale.

Here are some websites to explore:

George Guthridge, www.thekidsfromnowhere.com

Future Problem Solving Program International, www.fpspi.org

NPR: Climate Changes Lives of Whalers in Alaska, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14428086

Gambell, Alaska: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambell,_Alaska

Alaska Native Art: Tradition, Innovation, Continuity, By Susan W. Fair, Jean Blodgett, Published by University of Alaska Press, 2007; http://books.google.com/books?id=2cTWpk0e12cC&printsec=frontcover

SLED DOGS

2009-02-23T19:25:00.000-08:00

Whenever I think of Sled Dogs, I first imagine our little toy poodle, Cooky, all nine pounds of him, sopping wet, with seven friends: 72 pounds of dog pulling 246 pounds of me out of trouble in the snow.

Then I realize no, poodles aren't sled dogs, right? They save that for dogs with names that sound big: Siberian Husky; Alaskan Malamute. Fifty-five pounds of eager muscle multiplied by eight or ten gives me a better chance to cross the tundra.

Over the years, dogs have been bred for endurance, speed, and strength: the Canadian Inuit Dog, the Alaskan Husky and, believe it or not, according to that bible of knowledge, Wikipedia, "from 1988 through 1991, a team of Standard Poodles competed in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race." Hear that Cooky? Uncle Pastry Chef might be a sled dog!

The Iditarod sled dog race is the longest dog sledding race in the world. It runs from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska, covering more than 1,100 miles of Alaska's most beautiful and challenging terrain. It commemorates Balto's 1925 run in which an antitoxin was transported from Anchorage, Alaska to Nenana, Alaska by train and then to Nome by dog sled in order to combat a diphtheria outbreak.

What you want in a sled dog is strength, stamina and the ability to concentrate on a job. Kind of like a defensive lineman. Don't let that that tackle stop you, just keep at it so the QB on the sled can deliver the medical cure. These are amazing creatures that pull a wheel-less vehicle on runners (a sled or sleigh) over snow or ice, by means of harnesses and lines.

Huntington Beach Reads One Book brings this year's book, “the kids from nowhere,” to life with a furry visitor from Adventure Quest Institute. Bring the family to meet a real Iditarod sled dog at the Bella Terra Mall outdoor plaza 4 p.m., Wednesday, February 25. Made famous by the annual Iditarod race and the historic race for medicine by the sled dog Balto in 1925, sled dogs have an important place in the history of arctic survival.

Adventure Quest will provide a tail-wagging one-hour program with a working sled dog, hands on equipment displays, and a media presentation. Adventure Quest instructor Robert Stradley visits from his home base in Wrightwood, where he offers dog sled tours through the wilderness. Stradley's dog team trains for the annual Iditarod race, logging over 1,000 miles in the cold at trail elevations of up to 8,000 feet. The sled dog demonstration will be held in the outdoor plaza near the movie theaters at Bella Terra Mall, 7777 Edinger Avenue (corner of Beach Boulevard and Edinger Avenue).

MUSH!

A Conversation with LeRoy

2009-01-20T22:04:00.000-08:00

I had the great pleasure of interviewing fellow HB Reads committee member, LeRoy Lucian, who also is an expert on art. Enjoy our discussion about the art of the Northwest:

Info Sherpa: How do you go about learning about Alaskan artists?

LeRoy Lucian: When we decided on “the kids from nowhere”, I began to focus on Pacific Northwest Culture and looked to see what I could find online. I began with Yup'ik Carvers and discovered research materials, books and even art.

Info Sherpa: What have you found?

LeRoy: I have made several new friends during my online research into Native Alaskan Art. Among them is Richard Wisecarver, who has so graciously shared his views on Yup'ik culture through his letters as well as advice on books, which have been added to our Huntington Beach Library collection. Another new friend is Brian Kulik, a gifted carver from Fairbanks whose work will be on display at the Huntington Beach Central Library along with snow goggles made by Richard's son Noah and other examples of Native Alaskan and Pacific Northwest Art.

Info Sherpa: What is the difference between art and craft?

LeRoy: In my opinion the differences between craft and art are transitory. Great art is well crafted, but it goes beyond that. It is an expression of the soul of the artist. It becomes more than an aesthetically pleasing object, it draws you in and gives you an insight into the heart of the artist and also into your own.

Viewing art to me has much in common with reading a book. It can transport you to another place, another time. It tells a story and offers insights into the mind and world of its creator. The materials used and the stylistic aspects reflect on the culture of its origin. On a more humanistic level the emotional impact it conveys illustrates just how much alike we all are.

Info Sherpa: What have you learned?

LeRoy: Pacific Northwest, as with all indigenous art, traces its origins back thousands of years. In the beginning was function: to survive. When time and prosperity allowed, decoration came into play. Most often these decorations were a form of prayer: for a successful hunt, a bountiful harvest, or a way of giving thanks.

Most indigenous cultures live close to the earth, in harmony with nature, wildlife and the land. It is more than simply survival; it is a way of life, which seeks to honor those creatures whose sacrifices sustain their lives. Prayers and thanks are offered to the spirits of these animals and in that sacred trust nothing goes to waste.

In this spirit, art enters the everyday. The decorations that adorn their clothing, tools, musical instruments, pottery and homes are a way of offering a silent prayer. It is a way of life which sees everyone, everything and everyday as sacred. The interconnectedness of all things is the cornerstone of this belief system. To fail to honor any life is to stand outside the circle.

Info Sherpa: Ivory -- when it used, are there protections involved for the animals from which it comes?

LeRoy: Ivory and bone were traditionally used as tools because of their strength and durability; metals were either not available or very scarce. The modern ivory carvings we see have evolved from tools, totems of shamanistic pieces, and they are representative of that interconnectedness. Modern ivory art is made from new or fossilized walrus ivory and bone as well as whalebone and baleen. It is a violation of federal law for anyone other than Native Alaskan Tribal Members to collect or excavate those materials and it must be altered by them to be legally sold. See: The Maritime Protection Act as well as Federal Trade Commission at:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/products/pro05.shtm

Info Sherpa: Will Alaskan artworks be on display during the HBReads Events?

LeRoy: Yes! We have a wonderful display of Northwest art on the main floor of the Huntington Beach Public Library. From the main entrance, walk straight ahead to the used book sales area. The glass display case is in front.

Info Sherpa: Can we view some of the artists’ works online?

LeRoy: Yes, here are some links for our artists and others:

Ivory Carvings -- Brian Kulik - http://briankulik.com

Yup'ik Masks -- Phillip John Charette - http://www.yupikmask.com

Smithsonian site -- Arctic Studies Center - http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/features/yupik

Yup'ik 'Transition Art' -- http://www.daysknob.com/Inuit.htm

Bookfairs

2008-11-23T09:28:00.000-08:00

Shopping has gotten to be a challenge. We know the holiday season is approaching, families will gather, gifts will be exchanged. But there on the news are stories of stocks falling, houses in foreclosure, and folks trying to make ends meet.

This is when shopping takes special care, when planning becomes important, when accomplishing more than one goal with one purchase suddenly seems like a great idea.

That's where the HBReads Bookfair concept kicks in. We have teamed up with Barnes & Noble at Bella Terra to provide some shopping days when your purchases can not only take care of family and friends, but benefit the local Huntington Beach Reads One Book program at the same time.

On our website -- click on "Calendar and Events" -- you will find a calendar of Book Fairs:

Friday, Nov. 28 – Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008
Thursday, Jan. 22 – Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009
Sunday, March 1 – Saturday, March 7, 2009

And notice that there is a line that reads: "Download Bookfair voucher here"

Barnes & Noble at the Bella Terra Mall hosts a "Bookfair" as fundraising support for Huntington Beach Reads One Book. Funds are used to purchase a copy of the featured book, "the kids from nowhere" for local schools, host readers’ events, and to bring the author, George Guthridge, to Huntington Beach.

Once you have printed out the voucher, do your shopping and then just tell the cashier you are participating in the Bookfair for Huntington Beach Reads One Book and a percentage of your purchase will be donated to the program. This applies to any book, CD, or DVD you purchase during the Bookfair. Help start the New Year in a charitable way this week and support HB Reads!

Then write and tell me what you think of those amazing Alaskan kids!

My Interview with Fred Provencher, Chairman of HB Reads

2008-09-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

How did you first get the idea for HB Reads One Book?
Three years ago I was at a conference in Chicago. While touring the city I came across brochures for Chicago Reads One Book. The Chicago program had discussion groups, book clubs and other programs for the community. It seemed such a great idea to have the community come together to share the ideas presented in a book.

I knew immediately that I would like to be part of such a program. I researched Reads One Book programs and found none in Orange County. Both Long Beach and San Diego have successful programs.

As a member of the Huntington Beach Human Relations Task Force I asked the other members to take on the project. They did and here we are in year number 2! The HB Reads One Book committee we formed last year is continuing this year with our new book selection, “the kids from nowhere”.

What is the Task Force's mission?

Our mission is to promote and celebrate diversity in our community through education and understanding.

The idea of HB Reads One Book is to have all adults, new readers, students and families in Huntington Beach engage in conversations about issues raised in books in order to build bridges of understanding between neighbors and increase the understanding of different cultures.

How was the HB Library involved?

HB Reads One Book involves literacy. Getting the Library Board of Trustees involved was a natural step. They signed on early last year when we presented our program to them. The Friends of The Library generously provided seed money last year and purchased books for all of the branches last year.

We look forward to their increased participation this year and are having our kickoff event at the main Library on Jan. 22, 2009. More details will be posted on our website “events” page.

Are there guidelines for choosing a book?

We have three general guidelines for selecting a book:

1. We look for a contemporary message of diversity. We look for subjects to encourage understanding the various cultures of our city and of the world.

2. We try to select books around or under 300 pages. We want to encourage reading.

3. The material should be age 15+ appropriate. We want as many people as possible to be involved reading and sharing our book selection.

This is the second year we have provided a set of books for each of the high schools and their libraries in the HBHUSD district. Last year we had over 700 students who had read Greg Mortenson’s book show up to see and hear the author of “Three Cups of Tea”. It was very exciting!

Why did you decide on “Three Cups of Tea” as your first selection?

After we set our criteria last year we set about looking for the right book. We read and discussed quite a few books. “Three Cups of Tea” was the first book that the entire committee liked. It is the story of a medic/mountain climber who becomes a humanitarian. He is a contemporary hero both in the United States and in Pakistan and Afghanistan where he has built schools in the countryside. He was one of the first Americans allowed into the area after 9/11.

What activities are associated with HB Reads?

We are still in planning stages for events this year. I mentioned our kickoff event in January. We will be having three fund raising book fairs at the Bella Terra Barnes and Noble and several book discussions at various locations throughout the City. The author, George Guthridge, will be in Huntington Beach on March 5, 2009. Please keep checking our website for dates, times and locations.

How can people get involved in the events?

The first way to get involved with HB Reads One Book this year is to check out the rest of our website! The website is brand new this year. It is chock full of information. You can also call the city at 714-374-1645.

The second thing to do is read the book. It is available at the City libraries and local bookstores.

A third possibility is to contact us about volunteering, by phone or send us an email at info@HBReads.org. We need discussion leaders, assistance at events, and people with skills they would like to share. We really want everyone to be a part of HB Reads.

How does a company or group participate as a sponsor?

As with any community-driven program we are constantly looking for sponsors. HB Reads One Book is endorsed by the City of Huntington Beach and sponsored by the Human Relations Task Force and the Library Board of Trustees.

Last year we had great support from the Art Center and major sponsors, including the Kiwanis Foundation of Huntington Beach, Barnes and Noble at Bella Terra, Friends of the Library and the Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort. We also had individual contributions of all sizes.

HB Reads is a truly positive program that brings people of all ages together! I invite anyone interested in supporting HB Reads One Book to call 714-374-1645 or send us an email at info@HBReads.org.

Word Problems

2008-09-07T22:02:00.000-07:00

September 1, 2008

Remember when you took math in school? Remember what everyone's most hated activity was? Word problems. The dreaded text with trains and distance and teaspoons and Bob and Sally, all rolled up into a question about time or weight. Why were we compelled to mull over these questions that seemed to bear no relevance to us?

Except that I could never understand that response. To me, word problems were a sign that math had meaning in the real world. They meant that if I ever did step foot on a train, I had a chance of getting where I was going. Word problems were a chance to use new skills to figure out real problems in a world different from mine, where I was asked to cook, or run, or set my watch.

Other students seemed perfectly content to grumble about a sheet of subtraction exercises or long division and grind away at the results. My mouth watered at the thought of helping Grandma modify her old family recipe for six-inch blueberry pancakes so that the grandchildren could have a whole bunch of small pancakes instead of just a few big ones. Get out the Syrup!

Of course, I was probably influenced a tad, both genetically and directly, by a father who taught math and physics for nearly forty years. He would be driving the car and point out that it was 45 miles to Bakersfield and his speedometer was set on 60. He would ask how long it would take to get there and back and, given that we needed to eat lunch before reaching our final destination, ask if we had time, given that it was now nearly 11am. I jumped at the chance to answer, while my brother refused to even glance up from his comic book. I think he was secretly doing the math in his head, as eventually he became a computer systems analyst while I wound up running the library.

But when George Guthridge introduces Future Problem Solving to his students, I am SO there. Not only do they get to solve problems, the get to make up the problems themselves. Lots of problems, then brainstorm solutions, then pick their best solution and do the research to defend it. Wow.

Guthridge plays to his students' strengths, their intuition, astonishing memories, and challenges them to think about a world outside their own, with the skills they have used to survive in the wilds of Alaska. And he pays attention to them -- his problem kids.

The First of Many

2008-07-20T02:07:00.000-07:00

The InfoSherpa
The InfoSherpa was mentored by a Wise High School Librarian beginning in 1961. He studied with her for four years, then transferred to coastal regions for in-depth training and prowling in the deep caverns of libraries of all kinds. When the WHSL moved on to a higher plane of being, the InfoSherpa stepped into her temple and continued her work bringing knowledge and wisdom to the eager young. Today, in his retirement, he works for the improvement of the Community Mind, seeking wisdom and knowledge wherever it is offered.

When Huntington Beach Reads One Book (HB Reads) was first suggested in 2007, the challenge was to find a title. We had set a goal of finding a book that 1) had diversity as a theme, 2) would appeal to male readers as well as female readers, and 3) was under 300 pages. We wanted buy-in from the start.

Independent bookstores are a great place to look for interesting books, so the committee looked at several titles from the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association (SCIBA), www.scibabooks.org. SCIBA publishes weekly lists of bestsellers. There we found Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Today, it is still number one on their trade paperback non-fiction list.

We were delighted with the results as the publicity went out, the posters went up, and the book was being discussed. This was what Fred Provencher, the chairman of HB Reads, had in mind when he brought the idea back from a visit to Chicago. Over the months we held book talks, cultural events, fundraisers. As the visit of the author drew close we booked the Huntington Beach High School gym and hoped for a crowd. That morning we got 800 high schoolers who had read the book listening to Greg tell his story. Then, in the evening, we held our breaths . . . and 1600 more showed up -- adults and kids from all over Huntington Beach, all over Southern California!

The City “reads one book” idea began back in 1998 as a brainchild of Nancy Pearl, librarian at Seattle Public Library. She called it "If All Seattle Read The Same Book" project. It was a huge success and has been copied all over the country. Her emphasis from the start has been to select books that people will enjoy. Pearl's advice for enjoying reading is her Rule of 50, which states "If you still don't like a book after slogging through the first 50 pages, set it aside. If you're more than 50 years old, subtract your age from 100 and only grant it that many pages."

Contact the "Guybrarian"
Email: guybrarian@hbreads.org