New This Week
April 4, 2011
Column: At the Library
From: Cranbrook Public Library
By Mike Selby
In “Patriot Hearts,” John Furlong gives readers an insider’s look at 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, and how he and 25,000 volunteers overcame the sometimes overwhelming setbacks leading up to them.
Budding scientists should enjoy Michael Sequeira’s “Cell Phone Science.” This fully illustrated book explores the scientific and technological workings of this now common place device, which up until a few years ago didn’t even exist.
Preschool Story Time this Wednesday at 11:00 am, 1:15 pm, & 6:30 pm, and Toddler Story this Friday at 10:30 am will be all about Rain!
Any teens interested in history and historical fiction are invited to attend the next meeting of Chatterz Book Club, which takes place Thursday, April 14th, at 3:45 pm. Come out and discuss historical novels, make something creative, and eat some ‘old’ snacks (if you dare!). Please sign up for this event at the Library’s front desk, or call Deanne at 250 426 4063 for more details.
Don’t forget to come and check out the amazing artistic woodwork of Elmer Higgins, currently on display.
ADULT NEWLY AQUIRED SHELF:
The Illustrated Practical Encyclopedia of Archaeology (930.103)
Haircare & Hairstyles " Nicky Pope (646.724)
Reader’s Digest New Complete Guide to Sewing (646.2)
Screamfree Marriage " Hal Edward Runkel (646.78)
Never Say Die " Susan Jacoby (305.26)
American Idol: The Untold Story " Richard Rushfield (791.4572)
The Next Decade " George Friedman (909.83)
Late for Tea at the Deer Palace " Tamara Chalabi (956.7)
Scorecasting " Tobias J. Moskowitz (796)
Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think " John Brockman (303.4833)
A Concise History of Spain " William D. Phillips (946)
A Wilderness Dweller’s Cookbook " Chris Czajkowski (641.815)
15 Minutes Outside " Rebecca P. Cohen (790.191)
The Feminine Mystique " Betty Friedan (305.42)
How to Prune " John Cushnie (635.91542)
Buying & Selling A Home for Canadians for Dummies (643.120971)
Attics and Basements " Mike Holmes (643.5)
Get Fit For Free & Ditch the Gym " Scott Tudge (613.7)
Master the Art of Beading " Genevieve A. Sterbenz (745.5942)
Express Oil Painting " George Allen Durkee (751.4543)
Russia: A History " Gregory L. Freeze (947)
Eco-yards " Laureen Rama (635.0484)
Macs for Dummies " Edward C. Baig (004.165)
Mini Encyclopedia of Dog Health " Roberta Baxter (636.7)
Learn How To Blow Glass " Anne Kramer (748.20282)
Backroad Mapbook 2010 [Vancouver, Thompson Okanagan, Vancouver Island,
Central Alberta, Cariboo Chilcoton] (912.71175)
Surviving a Shark Attack on Land " Laura Schlesinger (158.2)
A Family of Readers " Roger Sutton (011.62)
GED Math Workbook " Johanna Holm (510)
Haynes Piano Manual " John Bishop (786.2)
Mongolia: Nomad Empire of Eternal Blue Sky " Carl Robinson (915.17304)
Empires and Barbarians " Peter Heather (940.1)
The Money Class " Suze Orman (332.024)
Patriot Hearts " John Furlong (796.98)
Children Come First " Howard H. Irving (306.89)
The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels " Ree Drummond (bio)
The Company We Keep " Robert Baer (bio)
The Land of Painted Caves " Jean M. Auel (fic)
Heartwood " Belva Plain (fic)
As Long as the River Flows " James Bartleman (fic)
The Tiger’s Wife " Tea Obreht (fic)
Betrayal " Fern Michaels (fic)
The Ghost Brush " Katherine Govier (fic)
Joyner’s Dream " Sylvia Tyson (fic)
The Omega Theory " Mark Alpert (mys)
Learning to Swim " Sara J. Henry (mys)
Death of a Chimney Sweep " M. C. Beaton (mys)
Mystery " Jonathan Kellerman (mys)
Breach of Trust " David Ellis (mys)
A Discovery of Witches " Deborah Harkness (sci fic)
Thr3e (DVD)
Hangman’s Curse (DVD)
Letters to God (DVD)
Children of Huang Shi (DVD)
The Tommyknockers (DVD)
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (DVD)
Where the Wild Things Are (DVD)
YOUNG ADULT & CHILDREN’S NEWLY ACQUIRED ITEMS:
Drawing Fantastic Furries " Christopher Hart (ya 743.87)
The Canadian Campus Companion " Erin Millar (ya 378.198)
Cell Phone Science " Michele Sequeira (ya 621.38456)
The Floating Islands " Rachel Neumeier (ya fic)
Famous " Todd Strasser (ya fic)
Bliss " Lauren Myracle (ya fic)
Across the Universe " Beth Revis (ya fic)
Small Persons With Wings " Ellen Booraem (ya fic)
Amazing Animals " Margriet Ruurs (j 591.5)
From Then to Now " Christopher Moore (j 909)
The Famous Five "Penny Dowdy (j 305.4)
The British North America Act " Penny Dowdy (j 971.04)
The October Crisis " Penny Dowdy (j 971.404)
The Battle of Vimy Ridge " Penny Dowdy (j 940.431)
Africans Thought of It " Bathseba Opini (j 960)
You Just Can’t Help It " Jeff Szpirglas (j 599.9)
A True Princess " Dian Zahler (j fic)
Billionaire Boy " David Walliams (j fic)
Benji: The Ultimate Movie Collection (j DVD)
MIKE\'S BOOKNOTES
Susan Eloise Hinton was frustrated.
Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Hinton first attended Will Rogers High School in 1965. Hoping that the cliques of middle school would finally be dissolved, she dishearteningly found them to be stronger than ever. The students of the midsize oil town had clearly drawn a line between the lower class, and the upper middle one. The hostility between the two was so strong they used separate doors to enter the school. After seeing a movie, a ‘lower class’ friend of Hinton’s was walking to her house to visit her, when he was beat up by a group of ‘upper class’ kids. It was a frustrating time and place to be a teenager.
What really frustrated Hinton more than any of this was the books she read. They were terrible. None of the books she read featuring teenagers reflected reality in any way. She found them all to be “Mary Jane-Goes-to-the-Prom junk.” Apparently, the only way Hinton was going to be able to read a book about real teenagers, was to write one herself.
Which she did.
Just 16-years old, and only scraping by in English class, Hinton began to write a first-person narrative about Ponyboy Curtis, a lower class ‘greaser’ who is being raised by his brothers Darrel and Sodapop. The difficulty of having no parents in compounded by the chronic harassment Ponyboy experiences from the upper class socials, called “socs.” After his friend Johnny kills a “socs,” the two flee town. They end up saving a group of kids from a fire, but Jonny dies from his burn injuries. Ponyboy returns to live with his brothers a hero, and begins to write about his life for his high school English class. Hinton framed Ponyboy’s story around the Robert Frost poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay.”
Hinton worked on this story for more than a year. She wrote a lot of it between classes at the school’s library. Discovering she couldn’t read some of her handwriting, she taught herself to type. She finished the story when she 17. She called it “The Outsiders.”
It was suppose to end there. She had written a story she wanted to read, but was ready to move on to other things. But one of her friend’s mothers read the story, and contacted an agent in New York. Viking offered Hinton a small advance, but she would have to be published under S. E. Hinton, as a female writer “would offend male critics.”
In the spring of 1967 “The Outsiders” was published by Viking Press. By the end of the school year, 17-year old S.E. Hinton received her first royalty check (10 dollars), and a D in creative writing.
Although the book earned high critical praise, it wasn’t a big hit, and its modest print run was almost sold out. Yet soon enough teachers and librarians were purchasing numerous copies of it, pushing “The Outsiders” towards the best seller lists. It wasn’t just a hit, it was also a watershed event; a turning point in literature for young adults. Over the decades it would sell over 13 million copies, turned into a blockbuster film, and remains second in Publishers Weekly’s “All-Time Bestselling Children’s Books” (Charlotte’s Web being first).
As publishers and fans demanded more books from Hinton, she froze. She found herself unable to write a word; terrified that it wouldn’t live up to everyone’s expectations. It took a few years but she did write again, creating the now familiar young adult classics “That Was Then, This Was Now,” “Rumble Fish,” and “Tex.”
Hinton then quit writing. By then she was married, and devoted her attention to raising her only son. In 2004"37 years after she wrote “The Outsiders,” Hinton returned with “Hawkes Harbor,” a horror novel aimed at adults. She followed this with “Some of Tim\\\'s Stories,” a 2007 collection of short stories. Both received mixed reviews, with most readers hoping to find similar stories to “The Outsiders,” the book that continues to speak to countless generations of young people, whose readers "like Ponyboy"“watched susnsets and looked at stars and ached for something better.”
