International Internet

Today I am in love with the internet.

I saw a news article yesterday about how a newly-developed custom of chaining locks onto the oldest bridge in Rome has turned into an infrastructure problem. Someone's set up a website where lovers can put virtual locks and chains on a virtual lampost: www.lucchettipontemilvio.com.

Visiting the website made me feel very nostalgic. When I was a junior in high school I went to Italy for a month as part of a summer student exchange. I have often thought of Alessandra, my exchange partner, but not known how to get in touch with her after all these years. As I was looking at the locks on the lucchetti website, reading the names and hoping to see one with her name on it, it occurred to me that the Internet could help me get in touch with her again.

I "googled" her name, but didn't find any contact information for her. However, I did find her brother's name on a website. I filled out a contact form for the website asking the webmaster to pass along my email address.

All this was last night about 10:00. I went to bed thinking maybe my efforts would pay off in a couple of months, if ever.

At 7:00 this morning I got an email from Alessandra!

So I'm in love with the Internet today.

People used to talk about wanting Internet access so they could keep in touch with distant friends and relatives. In reality, people forward cutsey emails with funny or poignant sayings--glurge, my husband calls it. Rarely do people actually communicate with each other.

I'm not a forwarder. If I forward something to you, it's because I really think you have an interest in the information. And I always vet the email at www.snopes.com if it's some warning about poisoned pets, etc.

At work, I use email for quick and succinct communication--just the facts, ma'am.

I'm not any better at using email for keeping in touch with friends and relatives than I was at using snail mail for that. But after today, I vow to do better. I'm going to send a meaningful email to my distant friends and relatives at least once a month.

The internet really can be used to bring us all closer. Today, I'm in love with the internet.

Q is for Duck: An Alphabet Guessing Game by Mary Elting and Michael Folsom

I've discovered a delightful picture book. Lively informal drawings are brightly colored to illustrate the pattern: "A is for zoo. Why? Because animals live there."

Each page is a little riddle for your pre-school or Kinder student or child to solve. The pattern is easy for a pre-reader to pick up on and enhances his or her print awareness.

Q is for Duck has become a favorite at our house. I won't be surprised if it's the first book my daughter reads.

Moldy Goldies

I just ordered Flight From Bucharest by R. T. Stevens for my mother for Christmas. She had been moaning that she couldn't find this favorite book in any libraries or bookstores anymore. You see, the librarian at the high school where my mother taught for 28 years, weeded the collection. Mama said, "I bet I was the last one to check out a lot of those books." And the librarian said, "Well, yes you were."

Which got me to thinking about how I was probably the last one to check out Jane Hope by Elizabeth Janet Gray from that library in the mid-1980s. I'm sure it went out with trash, too. Which is a shame because it is a charming historical novel set in Chapel Hill just before the Civil War.

Rebecca's War by Ann Finlayson is another out-of-print gem. When I was in 5th grade I read my copy so many times it fell apart. Rebecca's father and grandfather are off Privateering for the Continental Congress, leaving her older brother in charge until he runs off to join the Continental army. The Big Secret is that gold lent to the fledgling nation to shore up it's currency is hidden in the boards of the staircase. Will Rebbecca be able to keep her cool when the British occupy Philadelphia and quarter two officers in her house?

My 4th grade teacher read us Roosevelt Grady by Louisa Shotwell. I'm not sure why the book captured my attention so well. Nothing could have been further from my own experiences. Roosevelt Grady is a migrant worker, shuffled from place to place and school to school and working long hours after school to help his family bring in other people's crops. I'd love the chance to read that book again to see if I could figure out what made me feel so connected to that little boy.

I am thankful for B&N Out of Print dealers. My mom will be thrilled when she opens her used copy of Flight from Bucharest on Christmas morning. And I'll be able to make sure my daughter has the chance to spend a week living in Revolutionary War Philadelphia and my son has the chance to connect with a child whose life experience is far different from his own.

Do you remember any gems you'd like to re-read or to be sure your kids or grandkids have a chance to re-read? What favorite book of yours is hard-to-find now?

Harry Potter! Harry Potter! Harry Potter!

I'm not one of those people who takes off work early so I can see the first matinee of a blockbuster movie, and though I have enjoyed reading the Harry Potter series, I didn't ever feel like I had to have one as soon as it rolled off the press.

But I gave in to the hype and pre-ordered Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I knew it would be a long time before I got a copy from the public library and I wanted to read it before school starts back up and my students are asking for it.

School Library Journal's review puts it at 6th grade and up, but we elementary folks know our students are going to be asking for it. What are your thoughts? There's a lot of violence in this book. A lot. Is it an appropriate selection for elementary? If you buy it for your elementary library, are you going to restrict it in any way? If you aren't going to buy it, what are you going to tell students who ask for it?