Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness around the world.

September 30, 2006

Today’s Queue Stories

~**~**~

ValueSpeak

A Weekly Column

By Joseph Walker

valuespeak@msn.com

PEACE IN THE BACK SEAT

            It wasn’t like my sister Kathy and I didn’t have entertainment choices when we went on long trips in the back seat of Dad’s Impala back in the day.

            We could listen to AM radio, which pretty much meant Montovani or static (sometimes it was difficult for my rock-n-roll-lovin’ ears to tell the difference).  Or we could race drops of sweat down the naughahyde upholstery.  Or we could play a game called “Beaver,” during which you searched oncoming lanes of traffic for Volkswagens, and the first person to see one coming shouted out “Beaver!”

You may ask: why did we shout out “Beaver!” instead of, say, “Beetle” – or even “Fahrfenugen”?  I have no idea.  Ask Kathy.  It was her dumb game.

Or we could play “The Alphabet Game.”  This game required that you know the letters of the alphabet, and that you spot them – in their proper order – on signs and billboards as you drove past.  This game had two variations.  The first required that the letter be the first letter of the word on the sign.  The second allowed the letter to be anywhere within the word.  We usually started out playing by the first set of rules, but always shifted to the second set of rules about the time we got to the letter “Q.”  This game was usually won by whoever was close to the end of the alphabet by the time we got to the exit for Zzyzx Road in Southern California.

            It’s difficult to imagine more fun entertainment choices than those, isn’t it?  Unless, of course, you throw in an occasional outbreak of hostilities when “Beaver” is shouted by two alarmingly similar adolescent voices simultaneously, followed by Dad’s threatened “Don’t make me turn this car around” and a quick retreat to our respective corners of the back seat.

            Oh, yeah.  We really knew how to travel back in the day.

            And yet, there we were last week, zipping across the American western desert with nary a “Beaver” to be heard from the back seat.  Instead, our teenagers Beth and Jon sat in contented, air conditioned silence, blissfully unaware of the sand and sagebrush as we rolled through it.  Beth was accessing the internet on her laptop computer – don’t ask me how – while engaging in cell phone text messaging with friends back home.  Jon was watching cartoons on a portable DVD player.  And Anita and I were enjoying the latest Michael Bubl? CD on our car’s stereo and wondering if we could trust the authenticity of a Mexican food establishment called the Kan Kun.

            When we drove past Zzyzx Road nobody noticed.  Or cared.

            Except me.  I began to worry that we were missing something – that perhaps technology was eliminating some of the important bonding moments of family travel, turning a shared experience into an exercise in motorized narcissism.

            “Hey, guys!” I sang out to my children in the back seat.  “Let’s play Beaver!”

            “I don’t think they can hear you,” Anita said.  “They’re both wearing earphones.”

            “But shouldn’t we . . . you know . . . interact or something?” I wondered.

            “Oh, I think there’s plenty of interaction,” Anita said.  “And we’ll be doing nothing but interacting when we get there.  Meanwhile, they’re happy.”

            I glanced at them in the rear-view mirror.  It was true: they were both wired for sound – and smiling.  There was peace in the back seat, and that had to be worth something, didn’t it?

            So I’ll continue to treasure memories of family trips back in the day – the sweating, the alphabet, the Montovani.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t also embrace a new and – OK, I’ll say it – improved way of doing things today.  Like they say, you CAN teach an old dog new tricks.

            Not to mention an old Beaver.

~**~**~

Sent in by Martha Jette

Join the 25th Anniversary of Banned Books Week

Since 1985, Banned Books Week has been held the last week of September. That means that this week is time for you to celebrate your right to read any book you wish.
Last year's most challenged book, according to the American Library Association was
"It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health" by Robie H. Harris.
The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom received 405 challenges last year, with most complaints coming from public libraries, schools and school libraries.  A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or inappropriateness. 
It is difficult to imagine that such books as "To Kill A Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and even The Great Gatsby" were almost pushed off bookshelves. These literary classics were challenged hundreds of times.

Books are still being banned every day, including 10 of the great classics:

1) Ulysses by James Joyce. Published in 1918, this book was banned on sexual grounds. In 1922, 500 copies of the book were burned by the United States Department of the Post Office.

2) Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Published in 1884, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" has been banned on social grounds. Concord Public Library called the book "trash suitable only for the slums," when it first banned the novel in 1885.

3) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. Published in 1857, "Madame Bovary" was banned on sexual grounds. In the trial, Imperial Advocate Ernest Pinard said, "No gauze for him, no veils--he gives us nature in all her nudity and crudity."

4) The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Published in 1850, "The Scarlet Letter" was censored on social grounds. The book has been challenged under claims that it is "pornographic and obscene."

5) Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was controversial. When President Lincoln saw Stowe, he purportedly said, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war." The novel has been banned for language concerns.

6) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" has been frequently banned on social grounds. The book has been called "offensive" and "vulgar" because of the language and characterization.

7) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Published in 1932, "Brave New World" has been banned with complaints about the language used, as well morality issues. "Brave New World" is a satirical novel, with a stringent division of the classes, drugs, and free love.

8) Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence. Published in 1928, "Lady Chatterley's Lover" has been banned for its sexually explicit nature. Lawrence wrote three versions of the the novel.

9) Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. Published in 1722, "Moll Flanders" was one of the earliest novels. The book dramatically depicts the life and misadventures of a young girl, who becomes a prostitute. The book has been challenged on sexual grounds.

10) Candide by Voltaire. Published in 1759, "Candide" was banned by the Catholic Church. Bishop Etienne Antoine wrote: "We prohibit, under canonical law, the printing or sale of these books..."

Google Book Search has joined libraries and bookstores across the country to celebrate Banned Books Week by helping people learn about and explore banned books. You can start by browsing 42 classics at Explore Banned Books with Google.
You can also Listen to a podcast interview with ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom Director Judith Krug. Curriculum Review editor Frank Sennett and Krug discuss our freedom to read, book challenges in schools, and the first-ever Banned Books Weekobservance.

Then Vote for your favorite challenged book - from "Captain Underpants" to "Of Mice and Men." The books all have faced expulsion from U.S. schools and libraries in the last 25 years. Votes will be tallied and announced Oct. 2, 2006.

Get involved. Find out how!

For more information on book challenges and censorship, please visit www.ala.org/bbooks.

If you've never read a classic, why not start a banned book today? Here are a few banned books, a list of banned classics, banned plays, and more resources related to banned literature.

The "10 Most Challenged Books of 2005"

"It's Perfectly Normal" for homosexuality, nudity, sex education, religious viewpoint, abortion and being unsuited to age group;

"Forever" by Judy Blume for sexual content and offensive language;

"The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger for sexual content, offensive language and being unsuited to age group;

"The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier for sexual content and offensive language;

"Whale Talk" by Chris Crutcher for racism and offensive language;

"Detour for Emmy" by Marilyn Reynolds for sexual content;

"What My Mother Doesn't Know" by Sonya Sones for sexual content and being unsuited to age group;

Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey for anti-family content, being unsuited to age group and violence;

"Crazy Lady!" by Jane Leslie Conly for offensive language; and

"It's So Amazing! A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families" by Robie H. Harris for sex education and sexual content.

Off the list this year, but on for several years past, are the Alice series of books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain.

During Banned Books Week there are a number of things you can do to promote the freedom to read. You can download these free audio public service announcements and help spread the word about Banned Books Week! You could also organize a Socratic Seminar in schools to discuss such things as the First Amendment and current civic issues to help increase critical thinking and communications skills of students. Here are some resources that are designed for this purpose: Abilock, Debbie (2004). "21st Century Literacies: Tools for Reading the World" contains "You are Shocked" and "Libraries and the First Amendment" under "Political Literacy and News Media Literacy;" Beard, Carla (25 July 2005). "Debate in the Classroom and the National High School Debate Topic" Web English Teacher; Ladewig, Brian. Socratic Seminars.
For the first time this years, the ALA Online Store is selling the 2006 Banned Books Week materials. (The BBW Kit!) Phone information is 1-866-SHOP-ALA. You can also check out the following links:
Banned Books Bracelets

Banned Books Week Web Badges
Vote for your Favorite Banned Book!
ALSC Intellectual Freedom Brochure (wiki)
Explore Banned Books with Google
deletecensorship.org
Download a free chapter of each of the following at Audible.com: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Chocolate War and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Check out the most challenged books so far this century (and the briefer version, Most Challenged Books of 21st Century, 2000-2005.). The ALA reports there were more than 3,000 attempts to remove books from schools and public libraries between 2000 and 2005.

Martha Jette

marthajette@yahoo.com

P.S. - If you take my advice only 1 time this year, take
it now... I just picked up $397 package at no cost! You
need to see this right away:

http://www.intensivegiveaway.com/thank-you.php?id=3813

Martha Jette, Editor & Author

Please take the time to visit my site!

http://www.freewebs.com/paranormalbooks

~**~**~

Poetry Section

~**~**~

A Single Mother

 Mary Dees

Stretch and bend then break a dollar,

You’re on schedule every night.

Tuck your kids in bed like always,

Leaving on their closet light.

Feel the soft cover warming,

Your aching body as you fall in.

To the bed that's never made,

~Tomorrow reigns again~

The alarm a constant timer,

Teeth are brushed and breakfast is served.

The kids are out the door in such hurry,

While the bus is waiting at the curve.

One more shout.... "The bus is here,"

"Grab your backpack and I Love You."

"Take your brothers hand sissy,"

And "OH, here, I packed your lunches too."

One big sigh --- You did it!

They'll be at school on time.

Grab your shower...don't do your hair,

Your already runnin' behind.

Make the beds, do the dishes,

"OH my -- look at this dirty floor."

Sweep mop, and do the laundry,

Now, Just what is a trash can for?"

Go fill up the car with gas,

Send your bills out with the mail.

Don't forget to stop at the market,

This week, chicken is on sale.

Back home you warm the skillet,

What is it, that they'll both eat?

Surpassing supper they say.....Mommy,

I'd rather have my favorite treat.

Sit down, lets do your homework,

No friends over until you do.

I know that you know the answer,

But Mommy wants to help you find it too.

Punch in on that time clock,

The most dreadful part of your day.

Your kids now settin at the sitter's,

Because there is always bills to pay.

Pulling' in, you carry them one by one,

To their rooms where they will sleep.

Again you tuck them tight in bed,

Your kisses warming their cold cheeks.

Once again, you collapse in bed,

~But this time~

Turning the alarm clock towards the wall.

Tomorrow you realize...is Saturday,

And you'll be giving your boss a call.

For what is it all worth?

This life we're living for,

If we can't pay attention,

To our kids a-little more.

I'd rather take a "Thank you Mommy"

Then 5 or 6 one hundred dollar bills.

Because, just one hug from a child can replenish,

Any anguish a mother feels.

We will always owe the boss our time,

And we know the bills won't go away.

We're aware of all the debts ,

A single mother has to pay.

Yet the greatest reason standing,

The one that helps you to go on.

Is those little voices in your ear,

The ones that call you...... Mom.

By Mary M. Dees

 marlena7694@yahoo.com

~**~**~

 Old Faithful

Mary Dees

Ky kids went to bed early last night,

This morning my sheets and floors are clean.

Can I then, just lay here,

And dream a little dream?

No, I'll eat a muffin,

My own reward that I had saved.

Next, I suppose I'll take a bath,

While I still have time to shave.

Then maybe, after the mirror told me,

That I should contribute a-little more.

To this face and to this body,

Lord my temple has been ignored.

I'm not a "dress"  kinda gal,

But I suppose I own a few.

Heck, I guess I'll get much braver,

And wear one with my high heeled shoes.

My make-up bag was dust covered,

But I still made time to paint.

On this canvas, where rent is due,

A timely old complaint.

 Now I'm all dressed up and ready,

~I thought~

Let's give this "young lady look" a whirl.

I smiled... in the drive through (at Arby's)

Wearing my old faithful Cover Girl.

BY Mary M. Dees

marlena7694@yahoo.com

~**~**~

 Daddy, (But First)

 Mary Dees

Will you meet your angel?

Will she lend a wing or two?

Daddy please don't go with haste,

While I still yearn for you.

Daddy don't close your eyes tonight,

Although you may swim in his holly bath.

The Lord will hold a seat for you,

But first, am I granted your lap?

Daddy, I've dreamed of your leavin',

This life, but not without Thee.

I know you've seen a Kentucky sunrise,

But first will you share a sunset with me?

The Lord, he is so merciful,

He will give and He will share.

For this, I know he'll grant me,

My longest runnin prayer.

So don't you think of given' up,

Don't leave me here this way.

I need a chance to say I'm sorry,

For not forgiving you yesterday.

Daddy, OH I'm proud today,

I've learned now,  what I would give.

30 years of my life somehow,

If granted, you could live.

Please don't go before me,

They say a child has no right.

But put absence in a daughters heart,

And see who gets the spice.

Smile Upon heaven tonight,

Send up a request from one Father to another.

Ask him please to grant you,

One more day with your oldest daughter.

By Mary M. Dees

marlena7694@yahoo.com

Readers Feedback

Senior Writers

Chief writer: Sharon Bryant

Chief researcher/historian: Hartson Dowd

Agee, Vance; Apted, Violet; Baker, Kathy; Batt, Al; Berry, Nell; Blaine, Pamela; Boda, Ginger; Booher, Paula; Buhagiar, Victor; Cassady, B.J.; Costner, Joan Clifton; Cavalera, Robyn; Crider, Mark; Dees, Mary; Deming, Barb; Doherty, Maria;  Dowd, Hartson; Dowd, Helen; Gilbert, Robert, Jr.; Gold, Ron; Goodier, Steve; Grisham, Mary-Ellen; Braun-Haley, Ellie; Harris, Kathy Anne; Henry, Linda Ann; Hunt, Sharlett; Hymes, Christina; Jacobson, Gary; Kiser, Roger Dean; Kerens, Claudia; Kevin, Tim; Jenkins, Pamela; Liles, Norma; Lily Jodi Flesberg; Lock, Joyce; Marlor, Janice Bumbalough; Mazzella, Joe; Meeks, Carol; Mizrany, Mary Carter; Morris, Deepak; Ojeibge, Georgewaters; Petry, Dianna Doles; Roberts, Susan; Shiveley, Debra; Shaw, Bob; Sims, Richard; Smith; Michael; Streidel, Saskia; Swarner, Ken; Vaknin, Sam; Verhoeff, Jan; Walker, Bill; Walker, Joe; Warner, Gordon, K; Walsh, Sue; Weymouth, Barbara J.; Whirity, Kathy;

Wainland, David; Westerfer, Clara; White Robert;

Storytime Tapestry Staff

Carol Roach - Founder/publisher

Thelma Hartselle - Co-Founder, Moderator

Clara Westerfer – moderator

Bob Johnston - moderator