Next Parkland Reads Book!

The Parkland Reads' selection for 2012-13 is Into the Beautiful North, by Luis Alberto Urrea.

It’s a quirky book. It is a book about a road trip and U.S. pop culture. It is about poverty and immigration and stereotypes and the love of movies and bowling, and the drug trade and the border between Mexico and the United States.

Nineteen year old Nayeli works at a taco shop in her poor coastal Mexican village. She dreams about her father, who journeyed to the U.S. to find work, ending up in KANKAKEE, ILLINOIS. Recently it has dawned on her that he isn’t the only man to abandon the town. In fact, there are almost no men left in the village—they have all gone north.

After viewing the film, The Magnificent Seven, at the little local theatre, she comes up with a plan. Nayeli and three friends set out on a quest north to find seven Mexican men and smuggle them back into Mexico to protect the town from bandidos in the Mexican drug trade.

Their journey gives us an up close look at Mexican border towns as well as a look at the United States as a foreign country through the eyes of the travelers.

Luis Alberto Urrea is a member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame. He was born in Tijuana, Mexico, to an American mother and a Mexican father. He has used his experiences from living in dual cultures to explore themes of living in two worlds. His nonfiction work, The Devil’s Highway, became a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is also the author of another work of fiction, The Hummingbird’s Daughter. He teaches creative writing at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Billie Mitchell honored on 2012 Parkland Library READ Poster

Parkland Library is proud to have Billie Mitchell, director of Parkland's Adult Re-entry Center, grace our 2012 READ poster. The poster is on display in the library--come check it out!

Billie was honored at a reception in the libary on April 12. She spoke movingly about the importance of reading in her life. Here's the text of her speech:

"I'd like to thank Anna Maria and the Library staff for selecting me for this wonderful honor, and Jennifer Davis and the Marketing staff for this beautiful poster. I'm thrilled that an activity I've loved my life long brought me to this honor. Everyone here knows what a wonderful resource the Parkland Library is to our students, faculty, staff, and our community. A community without a library is a poor community indeed. I also want to recognize those here who work in literacy, because there are still people who have literacy issues.

Those of us who love to read have cherished memories about the activity of reading, and I'd like to share a few of mine. First was that I started out as a slow reader. When I was in first grade, the teacher separated the class into different levels of readers--all named after some kind of bird. I was put in the slowest reading group (the name of which I can't remember), but I wanted so badly to be a 'Bluebird' because they were the highest group. A wonderful memory is sitting with my mother as we practiced my reading together so that I could advance. Then when I was a teen, and the house had to be dark and quiet at night so that parents could work the next day, I discovered that I could read by the street light that shone through my bedroom window. Finally, stored away in my keepsakes is the first book my nephew ever read to me. I can remember how wonderful it felt, sitting with him as he read this little book out loud to me.

I wanted to close with an author's quote, and I have selected one from Betty Smith who wrote "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn": "The world was hers for the reading." How wonderful to bring other worlds and cultures to us, and experience someone else's life and joy through reading."

THANKS BILLIE for sharing your love of reading with us all.

National Library Week: April 8-14

Celebrate National Library Week!

The Library has what you need

To study, relax, enjoy, and read.

We have so many volumes of books,

There's even Librarians with pretty looks!

They've lots of resources for your studies,

You & the librarians will be best buddies!

Magazines for your leisure time

Even books on how to rhyme!

Computers to complete your work,

And always the helpful desk clerk.

Your favorite movies and TV

To take home and watch on DVD.

The Library will make you happy,

You can even swing by if you feel nappy!

So if your day is looking bleak,

Help us celebrate National Library Week!

Come to the Parkland Library's Annual READ Poster Reveal on Thursday, April 12 at noon in the Reading Lounge. We'll show off the latest addition to the READ Poster Hall of Fame, as well as reveal the new book choice for Parkland Reads: One Book, One College program. Who is on this year's poster? Come to find out! And as always, we will have yummy treats to enjoy too!

Librarian's Blend

Walking through Parkland's new food service vendor, Food for Thought, you'll notice they're selling Intelligentsia Coffee. It's exciting to see a localish (Chicago) coffee being served. One reason for the excitement? Librarian's Blend coffee. Wait, what? It's DECAF?!? Intelligentsia doesn't know the Parkland librarians very well. According to their website, this is how they describe the coffee:

The Librarian's Blend is named for that person who always told you to keep quiet when you were studying. This blend is representative of the soul of the librarian: steady, reassuring, and always there with that slight edge of eccentricity. It has a bold base with a bit of sparkle. Here's to good reading.

Okay, maybe they're partly right. What do you think?

Your fully caffeinated librarian,

Jane