New This Week
May 11, 2010
Column: At the Library
From: Cranbrook Public Library
By Mike Selby
Yann Martel, the mega-bestselling author of LIFE OF PI, returns to fiction with his latest novel BEATRICE AND VIRGIL. This time out the story is about an author, a taxidermist, a donkey, a howler monkey, and the Holocaust. Heavy in allegory and just as dark, BEATRICE AND VIRGIL is a difficult and complex read, sure to please his many fans.
While aimed at children, parents may get just as much out of the new film, SESAME STEET: 40 YEARS OF SUNNY DAYS. This 2 DVD set contains hours of iconic moments from over 4 decades of the television phenomenon. Favorite songs, celebrity segments, and hours of behind-the-scenes footage are sure to please youngsters, while their parents can wax nostalgic for the black and white pre-Elmo days.
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 Rodents!
Up for Adoption! 100\\\'s of magazine subscriptions. Help the Friends of the Library maintain the magazine selection. Purchase a magazine subscription from our list and receive an income tax deductible receipt. Please phone Loopy Pratt at 250-426-4771 for more information.
Just a note that BOOK BITES will be having their final meeting of the year on Thursday, May 20, at 4 pm. The CHATTERZ book club will also be having their final meeting on Thursday, May 13, at 4pm. Even if you only came out to only one meeting this year, you are more than welcome to attend. As always, snacks will be provided.
Author Charles Scheideman is coming to the Library on Friday, 14 May at 2 pm. He will be reading from his book POLICING THE FRINGE: THE CURIOUS LIFE OF A SMALL-TOWN MOUNTIE. With wry humour and a policeman\\\'s eye for relevant detail, Scheideman will recount events that range from the ridiculous to the horrific to the tragic, spanning 3 decades of policing the darker corners of BC, especially the Kootenays.
The Library is looking for a Summer Reading Club Coordinator & Library Assistant. Interested applicants may submit a resume and cover letter by Wednesday, 12 May 2010, to Deanne Perreault, Children’s and Youth Librarian, by dropping it off at the circulation desk a the Library or by mailing it to the Friends of the Cranbroook Public Library, 1212 2nd St. North, Cranbrook, BC V1C 4T6. You may also phone Deanne at 426-4063 for more information.
Don’t forget to come and see Elmer Higgins’ artistic woodworking, currently on display.
ADULT NEWLY AQUIRED SHELF:
Use Your Head to Get In the Door " Harvey Mackay (650.14)
2010 BC Securitizes Act and Rules Annotated " Jeffrey A. Read (346.71)
The Spice Necklace " Ann Vanderhoof (910.916365)
God Never Blinks " Regina Brett (646.7)
Canadians in the Winter Olympics " J. Alexander Poulton (796.48)
Is A Door " Fred Wah (811.54)
Rich by 40 " Lesley Scorgie (332.02400842)
Running " John Stanton (796.42)
Connecting the Dots: Breakthroughs in Communications as Alzheimer’s Advances (616.831)
The Smart New Way to Get Hired " Lisa Caldas Kappesser (650.14)
Local Library, Global Passport " J. Patrick Boyer (027.4713)
Frommer’s Thailand (915.93)
Honouring the Child: Changing Ways of Teaching " Pamela Proctor (371.10092)
Make Job Loss Work for You " Richard S. Deems (650.14)
Living With Grief & Loss " Judy Murphy (155.937)
Dress Your Dog " Sys Fredens (746.432)
Unlocked: The Life & Crimes of a Mafia Insider " Louis Ferrante (bio)
Game Over " Fern Michaels (fic)
Return to Sender " Fern Michaels (fic)
Savor the Moment " Nora Roberts (fic)
Solar " Ian McEwan (fic)
The Surrendered " Change-Rae Lee (fic)
Beatrice & Virgil " Yann Martel (fic)
The Serpent’s Tale " Ariana Franklin (mys)
Shoot to Thrill " P.J. Tracey (mys)
Lucid Intervals " Stuart Woods (mys)
The Bride Collector " Ted Dekker (mys)
Deliver Us From Evil " David Baldacci (mys)
The Mapping of Love and Death " Jacqueline Winspear (mys)
The Double Comfort Safari Club " Alexander McCall Smith (mys)
The 9th Judgment " James Patterson (mys)
Arcadia Falls " Carol Goodman (mys)
Eight Days to Live " Iris Johansen (mys)
This Body of Death " Elizabeth George (mys)
A Mighty Fortress " David Weber (sci fic)
The Defiant Hero " Suzanne Brockmann (pb)
Crusade " Taylor Anderson (pb)
Death of a Hangman " Ralph Compton (pb)
No Survivors " Tom Cain (pb)
The First Deadly Sin (DVD)
The Battle of Britain (DVD)
The Ranger, The Cook, and a Hole in the Sky (DVD)
The Planets Epoch 2000 (DVD)
New York: The Center of the World (DVD)
Secrets of Enlightenment " Deepak Chopra (MP3)
Twilight Whispers " Barbara Delinsky (MP3)
Absolute Power " David Baldacci (MP3)
YOUNG ADULT & CHILDREN’S NEWLY ACQUIRED ITEMS:
If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge (ya 936.2319)
Creating Your High School Resume " Kathryn Kraemer Troutman (ya 650.142)
The Midnight Twins " Jacquelyn Mitchard (ya fic)
The Diamond of Darkhold " Jeanne DuPrau (ya fic)
The Children’s Baking Book (j 641.71)
Eyewitness Dinosaur (j 567.9)
The Midnight Curse " L.M. Falcone (j fic)
Out of My Mind " Sharon M. Draper (j fic)
The Very Little Princess " Marion Dane Bauer (j fic)
Woods Runner " Gary Paulsen (j fic)
February Friend " Ron Roy (j fic)
Shooting the Moon " Frances O’Roark Dowell (j fic)
Olivia and Her Ducklings " Veera Hiranandani (j easy)
The Mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle " Jeff Belanger (j easy)
Lyle and the Kindly Viking: Veggietales (j DVD)
40 Years of Sunny Days (j DVD)
MIKE’S BOOKNOTES:
After an 80-year hiatus, Tintin is returning to the Congo. This time however, everyone’s favorite quiffed Belgian reporter is not hunting down criminals, or even lost treasure. He is facing charges of racism (well, his publishers are), and the willful promotion of xenophobia. These are serious civil charges brought about by Congolese accountant Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo, who testified before a Belgian court his belief that Tintin “conveys the idea that the black man is inferior.” Mr. Mondono’s statements to the court were supported by England’s Commission for Racial Equality, who found the book TINTIN IN THE CONGO full of “hideous racial prejudice.” While the outcome of this trial is expected by the end of the month, the 200 million readers of Tintin"including Steven Spielberg, who is in the middle of bringing him to the big screen"anxiously await their hero’s fate.
Tintin is the creation of Georges Prosper Remi (nicknamed Hergé), who was born in 1907 in the capitol of Belgium. Displaying an early predilection for drawing, he was soon contributing a series of comic strips to a newspaper published by the Boy Scouts. After finishing school, he was hired by one of Belgium’s largest newspapers, Le XXe Siècle. It was here the editor told him to create a strip featuring “a young hero.” Using the American invention of speech balloons, Tintin made his first appearance in the January 10th 1929 issue. Each story line would last about a year, in which the newspaper would release them in book form; the oversized, slender, and brightly colored ones kids around the globe are familiar with. 23 books where published before Remi’s death in 1983.
For whatever reason, Tintin appealed to...just about everyone. With his trusted fox terrier Snowy, and friend Captain Haddock (who desperately needs an intervention), Tintin solved mysteries in Peru, China, Scotland, Russia, Tibet, the Red Sea, the North Pole, the Moon, and of course, the Congo. Children weren’t the only ones enthralled with his adventures. Tintin is a folk-hero to journalists everywhere; he gets sent on the best assignments, and never once files a story. Pop artists Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol both felt Remi’s work heavily influenced their own.
So what about the current charges of racism? In the original comic strip TINTIN IN THE CONGO, the Africans are stereotypically portrayed as primitive simpletons, with one woman stating \"White man very great. White mister is big juju man!\" It is scenes like this which form the basis of the current legal charges.
Yet Remi was very aware of the situation long before he died. He gave a rare interview to French journalist Numa Sadoul denying his work was racist; it was merely portrayed Belgium’s attitude towards the Congo in the 1930s. “I only knew things about other countries from what other people told me: Africans were great big children, thank goodness for them that we were there!”
Kelly Moore, executive director of the Canadian Library Association, supports Remi’s position, believing it accurately reflects the social prejudices of the time. TINTIN IN THE CONGO can help readers learn about the historic perspective of the global village, so they “don’t have a false sense of what’s right, now.”
If found guilty of racism, it is unlikely Mondondo will be awarded any monetary compensation. At most a label would be applied to all copies of the book, warning readers that the contents within are offensive; the absolutely last word one thinks of when reading Tintin.
