Charles makes sense of his world through stories and fantasy. He imagines people as dragons, trolls, and other mythical beings. Although he has trouble reading, he discovers that the library can be a magical place as well. His friend Will explains to him that at the "li-brar-y...they give books for free if you have their secret card". Even though he knows that he can gets things for free at the library, Will nevertheless, also has "tapes of Haitian music [he] stole from the library."
First and foremost I must say how much I hate the word "bitch". I avoid using it in just about any context, which is not to say I never say it. For instance, I might use it if it were part of the title of a movie I watched.
This film is tagged as Body Horror, Dark Comedy, Comedy, and Horror on IMDB. Yes, all of those things. Most importantly though, is that the library, and a librarian play piviotal roles in this film. Although the unnamed main character (Amy Adams) claims to hate Book Babies at the library and the other Moms she meets there, she discovers that they aren't so bad after all, and furthermore, the the librarian, Norma, (played by Jessica Harper) knows a lot more than just how to shush loud patrons. She has insights into motherhood as well as book knowledge. Our heroine not only recognizes Norma's worth, she commemorates it.
When teenagers Ben and Maxie decide to have sex (almost on a dare) they are dismayed to discover that the act resulted in a pregnancy. The fact Ben is gay adds an additional level of bewilderment to those who know him. Maxie (whose mother works at the public library) is ambivalent about the pregnancy and is under pressure from her parents to give the baby up for adoption. Ben, however, wants to raise the baby with the help of his mother and step-father. His mother provides some level of support for this idea, with the stipulation that Ben attend parenting and childbirth classes. Ben also checks out books on these topics from the public library.
A twenty-first century take on the 1977 classic He's My Baby Now by Jeannette Eyerly. Eyerly's book was adapted into the 1980 ABC After School Special "Schoolboy Father" starring a very young Rob Lowe.
This book was recommended to me by my son as I was recovering from a recent illness. The author recounts one-year of a decades long illness in which she was unable to even sit up on her own. She finds solace with a snail who lives in a terrarium next to her bed.
She specifically states that at the worst of her illness she was not able to even read to herself, and that the library was a place (among others) that she could not go. As she recovers a bit she can sit up enough to read again and requests "through interlibrary loan the twelve-volume compendium The Mollusca which covers the entire phylum of mollusks".
A quick, yet meditative read.
My reading goal for 2024 has been to read 60 books about dragons (because it is the year of the dragon, and I turned 60). So far I have read fify-eight and a half dragon books. I have every reason to expect that I will reach my goal. I did not necessarily seek out dragon books that were also library books, although serendipitously, many did fill the bill - a list is provided at the end of the post.
As part of the project, earlier this year I read The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill which told of a locked library. Evil doers were guarding knowledge from the riff-raff. The Ogress and the Orphans has similar themes.
A shape shifting dragon arrives in the village of Stone-in-the-Glen in the form of a hero who vanquishes dragons and becomes the mayor. As a dragon he first burned down the library, the school and other buildings and then as mayor convinced the villagers that he saved them. Without access to books and knowledge the villagers are convinced that the mayor alone can save them. After all "books are dangerous". The village orphanage, however, still has a library and the orphans are well read, and well equipped to truly save the town from the mayor (and itself).
For another library-positive dragon book by Kelly Barnhill read When Women were Dragons. I listened to this one on audio while in the car, so I don't have specific notes about the wonderful librarians in this work, but I will say it was probably my favorite of all the dragon books I've read so far.
As promised, other dragon/library books include:
Raising Dragons by Jerdine Nolan
Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
There's a Dragon in the Library by Dianne De Las Casas
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
The Dragon in the Library by Louie Stowell
The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
Daydreamer by Rob Cameron
Amy Anne is surprised to learn that there is a field of study called "library science" and enlists the help of Mrs. Jones to set up the BBLL. Mrs. Jones provides Amy Anne with some old equipment including a date stamp card. Once Amy has this she feels like a real librarian and only needed "a pair of glasses on a chain" to be ready for her "official librarian membership card."
One of the banned books is Judy Blume's classic work Are You There God? It's Me Margaret. Mrs. Jones explains that back in the day when due date stamps were used that libraries also used cards and pockets to keep track of who had checked out the books. She shows Amy Anne some old books that still have the cards and pockets. It is here that she learns that the parent behind most of the challenges (Mrs. Spencer) checked out Blume's work multiple times when she was a student at Shelbourne Elementary. Amy Anne "outs" Mrs. Spencer, which, let's face it, she kind of deserved. However, Mrs. Jones does take the opportunity to explain to Amy Anne about patron privacy.
I've been invited several times as a guest speaker on "The Dissidents" podcast. During the month of September, as a lead up to Banned Books Week (September 22-28) one of the hosts (Elizabeth) and I read LaRue's book and recorded four half-hour(ish) conversations about it. Last night, as a finale, we invited the author to speak with us about his work on a livecast. It was a fun (and hopeful) conversation.
Listen to all of our conversations:
