Evolution of Alice exhibit at Milner Library

Photos from the new exhibit of "The Evolution of Alice in Wonderland for 150 years" at Milner Library at Illinois State University. 

Title of Alice in Wonderland exhibit near Special Collections on the 6th floor of Milner Library at Illinois State UniversityA first edition of Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and materials inspired by Alice.

Alice puppets from the library's Lois Lenski collections

(Un)Birthday Celebration at UNC-Charlotte

Thanks to the Children's Literature Graduate Students and Mark West at University of North Carolina-Charlotte's English Department for inviting me to be part of their (Un)Birthday Celebration of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

I am looking forward to meeting with students and talking about "Alice and Multiple Wonderlands." How has Alice endured for so long? How did Lewis Carroll, particularly as the controller of the Wonderland empire, help to cement the book's legacy? What is it about the books that still appeals to readers? These are some of the questions that I have been pondering as I prepared the talk.

Speaking on children's book censorship on WTVP's "At Issue"

I will be discussing children's book censorship on the Peoria PBS roundtable discussion show, "At Issue."  The show will air tonight (Thurs, Jan 10) at 8:30 pm on WTVP-HD, on FridaJan Susina speaking on WTVP's "At Issue"y at 8:30 pm on WTVP-World and Sunday at 4:30 pm on WTVP-HD.  Click here for a link to the show information.

Moderator H Wayne Wilson asked me to participate in the discussion about issues concerning censorship and banning of children's and young adult books.  Since I talk about this often in class, I was glad to contribute.  While book censorship may be somewhat on the decline, choosing which books to teach in a class is a difficult challenge for all teachers.  So in my classes I focus on helping education majors understand how and why they choose books and to be able to defend them as appropriate for the classroom.  Two librarians discussed issues of censorship by their patrons.  They noted that censorship is not too prevalent in the Peoria region.  However, challenges to books by parents continues throughout the country, including Illinois.

Thanks to H for inviting me.  He was a very thoughtful leader, just like Charlie Rose.  The other panelists -- Genna Buhr of the Fondulac District Library and Robert Koscielski who is the Associate Director of the Peoria Public Library -- were also engaging and had good perspectives on the topic as well.

Great upcoming local literature & film events

It's really spring!  The birds are chirping, tulips are blooming, and cool local children's literature and film events are coming up for central Illinois.

Whenever Candace Fleming comes to town it's a treat and she'll be here this Saturday, April 16, from 2 to 3 pm at the Normal Public Library.  Perhaps my favorite book of hers is The Lincolns: A scrapbook look at Abraham and Mary. Others in our house have enjoyed her chapter book The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary School and there's a new book about Fifth Graders. One of her most recent is the picture book Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!. We are reading her new book Amelia Lost about Amelia Earhart. After her talk, there will be refreshments and books available for purchase and autographing.

We'll be running over to the TheatresCool in downtown Bloomington shortly after that on Saturday to see the Broadway Workshop Performance: Comedy Tonight! directed by Cristen Susong.

Celebrate El Dia de los Ninos/El Dia de los Libros (Day of the Child/Day of the Book) on Saturday, April 30, at the Bloomington Public Library.  The fourth annual event, from 11 am to 1 pm, will feature a local soccer star, Dora the Explorer, an authentic Mexican band, Mexican crafts, and Mexican food.  Reading is important in all languages.

Finally, one of the highlights of the year is always going to EbertFest, the film festival at the University of Illinois-Champaign-Urbana, that celebrates Roger Ebert, films he enjoys, and the people who create them.  Even though Ebert's health is not as good as when the festival started, he continues to be an enthusiastic champion for great filmmaking.  This year the festival is April 27 - May 1.  It'sAt EbertFest a few years ago. held, once again, at the beautiful Virginia Theater, 203 W. Park Ave., in downtown Champaign. 

The experience of watching a film in the Virginia Theater with about 700 film enthusiasts on a beautiful spring afternoon when we all could be outside is always such a treat.  The people who go to EbertFest just love films.  They applaud, they clap, they laugh, they weep -- their participation as an audience makes the interesting films Ebert chooses even more wonderful to watch.  Then afterward, a key person from the film (usually the director or an actor) talks about the film.  Yep, right in central Illinois it's Hollywood for a few days.

Also, although festival passes sell out months in advance, we have always had success getting a ticket for specific films.  You just wait in line for about 20 to 30 minutes beforehand and you'll get a seat.  Maybe not the best seat on the main floor.  But we've always had a good seat.  Don't miss the opportunity.

Group reading of Lincoln's Farewell Address at Milner Library

Stovepipe hats, amazing hoop skirt fashions, and train whistles carried us back 150 years during a group reading of Lincoln's Farewell Address at ISU.  We were part of a national record-breaking effort to have the most people reading en masse.  The reading was the short speech that Abraham Lincoln said to well-wishers as he left Springfield, Ill., to his new position as President in Washington, D.C.  The words are heartfelt, melancholy, yet hopeful.

I would like to thank the librarians at ISU's Milner Library who helped organize the event and particularly asked if Jacob would enjoy leaving school for awhile and participating in the event as one of the lead readers.  We were happy to have him participate in a different educational setting for a few hours.  He appreciated being part of the interesting Lincoln event.  He wore the stovepipe hat that my parents bought for him at Lincoln's birthplace in Kentucky.  He also wore a black t-shirt from the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, which we have visited many times.  We thought it was great to see his name as a lead reader in the program.  And it's cool that he's in the lead of the article by the Pantagraph reporter.

When the Lincoln re-enactor gave the speech again after our first mass reading, he had a wonderful way of conveying the sadness and optimism that the new President must have felt. Gary Simpkins, playing Lincoln, understood the gravity of the situation that the Illinois man was facing.

The reading was also the kick-off for the Sesquicentenial of the Civil War.  Guess I'll have to work to remember how to spell that word because remembering the 150th anniversary of the Civil War is going to be an important moment to recollect the War Between the States.  Sometimes that seems long ago.  Then we read books, such as Russell Freedman's wonderful Lincoln: A Photobiography or Candace Fleming's The Lincolns: A Scrapbook, visit the battlefields of Gettysburg or Antietam or Shiloh, see the first capital of the Confederacy in Montgomery, contemplate the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., listen to the wistful tunes of the day, re-read Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, examine dagguereotypes, consider the long-term effects of slavery, listen to the continuing battle of states rights vs. federal rights, and suddenly those days don't seem so long ago.  The historical anniversary is welcome.