Stories from the Stacks
The Monthly Liaison: October 2022
| |
Wood River Middle School students explore Audubon bird prints at the Library in early October | |
The yellow school bus creaked to a stop, then rattled like a giant carton filled with eggs trying to hatch. Three dozen middle schoolers pecked their way out of the bus and bobbed up to the front of The Community Library. It was Friday, a warm October day, and they were on a field trip. They crackled with energy.
The students all had read the novel Okay for Now. It is the story of twelve-year-old Doug, who moves to a new town and struggles to make a place for himself amidst family troubles and friction at school. He finds his way (albeit reluctantly) to the local library, and there he becomes mesmerized by the Audubon bird prints that he finds on display. He starts sketching those bird pictures in exquisite detail, looking more and more closely at the lines of feathers, the colors of sky, the position of eyes. He enters a world of composition and light.
As the story progresses, we learn that Doug cannot read – he looks at a page of text and sees a crumbling tower of impossible lines – but an astute teacher helps him to see those lines as letters, and sentences, and stories. Step by step, the door opens, and he enters a world of words that give shape to stories.
It is 1968 and the rest of the world swirls chaotically around Doug, beyond his careful drawings, and beyond the words he is learning to read. His brother, Lucas, comes home from Vietnam with both legs amputated. When this young veteran approaches the library in a wheelchair with his little brother, he faces a concrete tower of five big steps to the front door. Determined to do it himself, Lucas grimaces as he jerks and rolls his wheelchair up one step at a time. It takes two pages of the book for him to make his way up the steps. At the top, he must wait for someone to hold the door. Breathing hard and glistening with sweat, he enters the library and the world that has become a refuge for his brother.
Here on a luminous October morning in 2022, the middle-schoolers gathered themselves around that story as we paused together, for just a minute, outside our own Library’s entrance. We got a little quiet recalling Doug and his older brother. Fifty years after the time setting of that book, we looked together at the long gentle ramp to this Library’s entry; we considered this Library’s automatic door - things we might overlook but that would have made a world of difference to Lucas. We talked about the Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990, midway between the time of the fictional story and our present day. Then everyone – in a ruffle of notebooks and chatter and all different gaits – fledged through the front door and into a world of books.
| |
Jenny Emery Davidson, Ph.D.
Executive Director
| |
Reflections on the Path through Dyslexia
October is Dyslexia Awareness Month
By DeAnn Campbell
Children's and Young Adult Library Director
My father grew up on a dairy farm and loved animals. He had a gentle way with all of them, but especially large beasts like cows and horses. Apparently, he had wanted to become a veterinarian. After high school he attended a single semester of college where he decided that this path of study would be impossible. He dropped out. My mother once told me that it was likely my dad had a mild form of dyslexia.
My father could read. He always read the newspaper and I saw him (especially later in life) studying intently from scripture. His reading, though, demanded an intense amount of time. It demanded quiet and concentration and was not a casual undertaking; it was work. His favorite section of the paper was the comics. He never did much writing, but when he did there were errors: Bs confused for Ds, missing letters, no punctuation.
Dyslexia is much more complicated than just these signs, which can also be developmental. And, if he did indeed have dyslexia, it was never officially diagnosed.
First off, I don’t have an educational background or any formal training in the diagnosis or treatment of dyslexia which is defined as “a general term for disorders that involve difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols, but that do not affect general intelligence.” What I do have is a grainy photograph of my father on a horse and a handful of notes from him written in block letters that are riddled with spelling errors and missing punctuation.
My nephew, Ryden, has an official diagnosis. Luckily, Ryden’s diagnosis came early—in kindergarten. His mom is an elementary school teacher and is currently working on a master’s degree with dyslexia as her focus.
| |
Dad (17) on horseback, 1967 | |
Up until this point, though, much of what she now knows about dyslexia was learned through her experience of having a child with dyslexia and not through her formal educational studies. Ryden’s family has found that most teachers have no specific training for aiding dyslexic students. Despite all this, Ryden does receive a lot of support and formal tutoring.
“We work with him all the time,” my brother tells me. “He has so many resources and tools available to him.” He attends specialized tutoring specifically geared towards kids with dyslexia in his home state of California. He must travel to a nearby city to access these resources. In one tactile strategy, Ryden traces letters and blends in trays of sand. But even with countless hours of practice and reading instruction and the time and the financial cost, my brother wonders, “How much it is helping? [Reading] simply does not stick in his brain.”
Ryden’s diagnosis is Severe Dyslexia. My brother’s voice catches at the word “severe.” Over the phone I can hear the emotion and the pain, “It is sad.”
This year, Ryden has tested at a first grade, third month reading level.
He is in fifth grade.
| |
For Ryden, though, none of it comes easy. It isn’t for a lack of trying…Ryden works so, so hard. | |
My brother reminds me that a first grade reading level is pretty rudimentary. Meanwhile, Ryden’s younger brother, who is in third grade, can read like a whiz. My brother explains that his third-grade son reads “10 times better” than Ryden. One look at a word and he’s got it. He retains the spelling, the pronunciation, and the meaning. For Ryden, though, none of it comes easy. It isn’t for a lack of trying, my brother says. Ryden works so, so hard. And though there are some moments of frustration and tears, overall, he keeps a remarkably good attitude. He tries and tries again. While his brothers and sister are shuttled to sports practices and extracurricular activities, Ryden’s extracurricular activity is learning to read. “He has worked harder on learning to read than my other kids have on any athletic skill,” my brother says. Not being able to read is not his fault.
Although the reading connections don’t happen in his brain the way they do for others, Ryden is intelligent and bright. He is highly organized and very spatially aware. Misplace something? Ask Ryden. He also has an incredible memory. He excels at puzzles and intricate tasks. He has an uncanny ability to see the big picture and solve problems. He thrives on order.
“I am not worried about him in life,” my brother says. “Ryden is so, so smart.”
But worry creeps into our conversation. So much of school and society is based on reading and taking tests. My brother hopes for people willing to give Ryden a chance within a society that places importance on a college degree. “We have a lot of conversations with him about the school system and how it isn’t the best system for you, but it is in the system we are in.” Ryden has an Individualized Education Program (IEP) and accommodations. When texts and math story problems are read aloud to Ryden, he performs well. Still, my brother says that teachers typically don’t have adequate training to deal with such a severe case of dyslexia as Ryden has.
Sometimes, the accommodations, like reading materials aloud to him, aren’t followed. My brother and I talk about text to speech technology and advancements that will surely be made to help those who struggle with dyslexia. We talk about audiobooks and how listening to stories brings him joy. We talk about finding people and resources to be your reader and your voice, if reading and writing aren’t your strengths. We talk about how to find your way in a world that is built for those who excel at reading and writing. These are things I’ve always been good at. I do not live in Ryden’s world.
There is a famous quote about dyslexia, attributed to Albert Einstein*, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
| |
I see this in Ryden: A brain that that thinks carefully
and expansively. A mind that watches the world
with scrutiny and wonder.
| |
I think back to my dad. He still lived and worked around big animals his entire life. Growing up, I watched him pat and stroke the backsides of cows as he milked them. I watched him give cows shots through their thick hide and put pills down their throats when they were sick. He concocted his own recipes to help calves with diarrhea and dehydration. He would wake us up in the middle of the night to watch the birth of a calf. While he never became a veterinarian, he loved those parts of being a farmer. He still carved out a life he loved.
I’ve watched Ryden stay fixed on a task when everyone else has given up. I’ve seen the way he observes and notices the world. I see that he carries a level of concentration that is missing from most of us. He seems attuned to things the rest of us overlook. Sally Shaywitz, a neuroscientist whose emphasis is on children with reading difficulties, has said, “Dyslexics think differently. They are intuitive and excel at problem-solving, seeing the big picture, and simplifying. They are poor rote reciters but inspired visionaries.”
I see this in Ryden: A brain that that thinks carefully and expansively. A mind that watches the world with scrutiny and wonder. A child who slows down enough to see and to make connections. I hope for innovative approaches to help him navigate the part of the world that is built on words and stand back in amazement at the part that is not; that is where he soars.
*This librarian could not confirm that Albert Einstein said this, though Einstein was dyslexic.
| |
Herald from the Hemingway House | |
"Bugling elk in the evening. Rainbow trout in the Big Wood River just down the hill. A Library staff eager to make wonderful things happen, such as locating relevant materials no one else has used. Hours and hours of quiet to absorb what Hemingway himself experienced. What an incredible gift!"
~John Maclean, writer-in-residence at the Hemingway House in late September
| |
The Boy, the War, and the
Big Two-Hearted River
While in residence at the Hemingway House, John Maclean presented a new piece he's writing for a book of essays celebrating the centennial of Ernest Hemingway's short story, “Big Two-Hearted River.” The collection will be published in 2023—the centennial of Hemingway's writing of the short story—
by the University Press of Kentucky.
Watch the Replay here.
| |
|
Weird Fiction, Part 1 of 2
by Nicole Lichtenberg
Director of Operations
It’s spooky season! Halloween is my favorite time of year. It has it all—fun snacks, costumes, activities—for all ages. Please allow me to recommend some accompanying content.
| |
|
I will be focusing on Weird Fiction, a flexible subgenre of fiction that can include elements of magical realism, fantasy, horror, science fiction, speculative fiction, even western!
Generally, part of the plot includes the transgression of various norms—something is real that is not real in real life (allegedly), or in weird fiction some rule or value is turned topsy-turvy, or something else completely different. It’s a genre completely open to possibility.
I’m including here books that are weird, but not necessarily super scary. Part I is for the haybale Halloween crowd, not the horror/terror/gore folks. Many of these books feature characters with diverse identities and life experiences.
| |
This is not necessarily what qualifies them as Weird Fiction—a variety of good books and movies, in my opinion, reflect the presence of diversity that is so important about being human—or in one case, a flat rock. More... | |
It's a spooky-fun time of year, and we've curated some titles in print, digital, English, and Spanish for you to peruse while snuggled under a safe, warm blanket. All are available through The Community Library, with your free Library card. | |
20th Century Fox
Available in DVD.
| |
Por Mary Shelley
Disponible en versión impresa en español/impresión.
| |
By Mel Brooks
Available in print.
| |
by Mary Shelley
Available in print.
| |
by Edgar Allen Poe
Available in print.
| |
by Edgar Allen Poe
Available in print.
| |
by Rainbow Rowell
For Young Adults
| |
by Shea Ernshaw
For Young Adults
| |
|
by Patricia Toht
For Kids
| |
|
by Roseanne Thong
In Spanish for Kids
| |
THANK YOU to September Donors | |
Francie and Ed Blair
Roberta and Ronald Bloom
Frank and Susan Countner
Susan and Reuben Perin
Patsy and William Pinney
David Remington
Trudi Schneider
Duella Scott-Hull and Tom Hull
James Stavridis
Joel Vilinsky
| |
Becky and Peter Smith in Memory of Sean Flynn | |
Robyn and Todd Achilles
Bigwood Landscape
Daphne Coble and Patrick Murphy
Kathleen Diepenbrock and Kelly Weston
Claudia and John Gaeddert
Kyla Merwin
Elaine and Mike Phillips
Narda Pitkethly
Gay Weake
Anita Weissberg
| |
The Community Library is supported by people who believe in the free flow of news, entertainment, and information.
It’s never too early to start planning to make a gift from your IRA (also known as IRA Charitable Rollover Gifts). Money can be transferred directly from your IRA to a 501(c)(3) charity, such as The Library, TAX-FREE! Donors must be 70½ years of age, and a gift from an IRA helps you meet your Required Minimum Distributions.
Strategize now to save on next year’s taxes. Director of Philanthropy, Carter Hedberg, is here to assist you.
| |
Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram | | | | | |