Shari Della Penna
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"Small acts of kindness can change and humanise our world."
   Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks 1948-2020
   ​Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, 1991-2020
                         Author, Advocate, Advisor

I Read Banned Books

9/25/2018

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You might learn
a way to earn
a few dollars
or how to make doughnuts . . .
or kangaroo collars
          . . .
SO . . .
that’s why I tell you
to keep your eyes wide
keep them wide open . . .
at least on one side.
                                        from I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!
                                          written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss
                                                       Random House, Inc. 1978

    I decided to read Blubber by Judy Blume for my personal celebration of Banned Book Week this year. When the book was published in 1978, I was in my mid-twenties with two small children. It’s been on my list ever since and finally made it to the top. 
    
Blubber is the story of a girl who was teased, then bullied, for being fat. It is also about another girl, the main character, who didn’t really participate in the bullying, but stood in the periphery not trying to stop it, either. Until she, herself, became the bullies’ target. 
    Censorship has probably always taken place, but in since about 1980s, it became accepted, in some circles. Kinda like Jill, the main character in Blubber, most everyone stood complacently by as book after book was banned or challenged by some teacher or some school system or some (well-meaning?) parent. Suddenly and increasingly, adults decided not only what their own children could not read, some adults thought it necessary to decide what *all* children could not read. 
    Banned Book Week has been held during the last week in September since 1982. The American Library Association calls attention to books that are challenged by schools, parents, and other gate-keepers who want to allow us (okay, mostly children) to read only what is deemed wholesome, gratifying, appropriate . . .
    So who really decides? And what are the criteria for choosing a book to ban? 
    According to the American Library Association’s website, “The year 2017 saw an increase in censorship attempts and a revitalized effort to remove books from communal shelves to avoid controversy.” http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/NLW-Top10  Sometimes without even following their own policy.
    Most censorship involves preventing kids from learning about sex. Fiction and non-fiction titles are included in lists. Even the American Heritage Dictionary! That was allowed to stay on the shelf. Some are. Many more are not out-and-out banned, but restricted. A parent or guardian’s okay is required for a child to read a particular book.
    A quick Google search (remember last week?) showed me a list of several books and gave reasons why they were banned and by whom. Many are classics. Most are award-winners. All have children or teens as main characters. You can find the Huffington Post’s report here:
​
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/most-banned-and-challenged-books-in-america_us_58ecf60be4b0df7e20459961
    And just for fun, Barnes and Nobel posted this on their blog recently: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/11-books-that-were-banned-for-completely-ridiculous-reasons/ 
    Judy Blume said “Censors don’t want children exposed to ideas different from their own. If every individual with an agenda had his/her way, the shelves in the school library would be close to empty.” And this: “Having the freedom to read and the freedom to choose is one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me.”  
    So pick a list, pick a book, pour something hot, cold, or bubbly and enjoy a good book! And don’t forget to thank a librarian!
                                                                  -—stay curious!
    
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Just Google It!

9/18/2018

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Tek’s parents tried everything to
pry him away from his gadgets,
but Tek wouldn’t budge.

“I need to light a fire under that boy’s

butt,” grumbled Tek’s dad. “Except 
I haven’t invented fire yet.”
                             from: Tek: The Modern Cave Boy
                             written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell
                             Little, Brown and Company, 2016

   The other day I read an article announcing Google’s 20th anniversary this month. I tried googling the company to find out more about its history and —- forehead slap! I realized that the proper noun has become a common verb.
    Googling is something everybody does, whether we’re using that particular search engine or something else, kinda like wiping your nose with a kleenex, even though it might be a Puff or a generic brand.

    Turns out, a couple of guys, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, decided it would be a cool thing to organize all of the Internet’s information. I remember hearing about that. I was a working librarian, after all. I thought of the daunting parameters they had set for themselves. I was curious about how they would go about getting it done, and how it would work, and what it would look like. 
    For my blog research, I typed <google> into my search engine. The following choices appeared:
google
google translate
google maps
google docs
google classroom
google drive
google flights
google earth
google news
google photos
    Because I’m curious, I chose <google photos> expecting to be able to search women’s hats in 1920 united states or lemmings or sunflowers. Imagine my surprise when my own photos that I took in 2015 with my then new iPad appeared! I went back to the search engine page and typed <google images>. Wow! I could search for photos of everything I could ever think of, ever!
    But I digress. Of course I do! Google has turned the internet and all our home and business computers into a giant-sized rabbit hole with paths and branches limited only by the searcher’s imagination. 
    I re-focused. This time I typed <history and development of Google, the company>. Two clicks later I had a thorough and lengthy Wikipedia article at my fingertips, complete with footnotes and bibliography. 
    Google began in 1996 as a research project. By September, 1998, it had an index of about 60 million pages. In March 1999, the company moved into a real office in Palo Alto, CA. As of November 2014, Google operated over 70 offices in more than 41 countries. Its current estimated worth is $800 billion. 
    Now I wonder, how is Google changing the way we think? And the way our kids and grandkids think? How do I avoid those rabbit holes? And how can we all live without Google?
    The world evolves. So does the Internet. Do you know Siri or Alexis? They don’t require typing. Maybe future generations will evolve to have more thumbs than fingers? Or thumbs and no fingers! Will our brains be bigger, smaller, or just different?
    And now that I know they are there, even though Google assures me that only I can see them, what do I do with those old photos?
    Heaven help us if the electricity goes out!!
                                                                  -—stay curious!


        
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Do-Overs, Start-Overs and Second Chances

9/11/2018

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… the manager must have been having a bad day, because lying there on the floor, right in front of everybody, he started to cry. The dog leaned over him, real concerned, and licked his face.
    “Please,” said the manager. “Somebody call the pound.”
    “Wait a minute!” I hollered. “That’s my dog. Don’t call the pound.”
    All the Winn-Dixie employees turned around and looked at me, and I knew I had done something big. And maybe stupid, too. But I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t let that dog go to the pound.  
​                                                  from Because of Winn-Dixie
                                                                
by Kate DiCamillo
                                                       Candlewick Press, 2000
                                                    2001 John Newbery Honor

    I’ve started over many times lately and long ago. I looked at each first day of school as a start-over. Even now, show me a stack of fresh notebooks, full glue bottles, and pointy crayons and I’m right back in school, breathing ditto ink. I’m in the same physical place, but emotionally I’m back there, but somewhere new, too. 
    I call it starting over when I climb back on the Weight Watchers wagon. I’ve slipped off, crash-landed, and disembarked knowingly so many times that it might not even count as a second chance. Actually, I stopped counting years ago. I wake up each morning with intentions to eat consciously, cook healthy meals, and make good choices. Lots of days it all works out fine. But not always.
    Sewing quilts for my grandchildren gave me many do-over opportunities. Whether I attached a piece in the wrong place or chose the wrong piece altogether, the patten was upset. There was nothing to be done but take it apart and do it over again. One time I cut my pieces in the wrong direction. That mistake was so big it required a trip back to the fabric store to replenish.
    But that’s not what I mean. The do-overs and start-overs and second chances I’m thinking about are tricky things. And they all have to do with forgiveness. Accepting forgiveness from others is not hard for me. Asking for forgiveness from others is usually harder. It involves deep thoughts and careful phrases. And it's face-to-face personal..
    But even that is easier for me than forgiving myself. When other people are involved, I usually know who and what I need to forgive. If I have sincerely tried to make amends, but receive only rejection, it hurts. I won’t fool you about that. But if I truly did all I could, well, I did all I could. 
    When I’m the only one involved, the forgivee (me) and the forgiver (me again) both have to be willing to accept responsibility *and* forgiveness. I’ve let myself down by not following through on projects I thought I wanted to do. I’ve disappointed myself by not keeping in touch with friends I know (hope) want to hear from me. I’ve been angry with myself for choosing badly, talking too loudly (figuratively and literally), and not stepping up when I knew I could. 
    A dog named Winn-Dixie got a second chance. He deserved it. He had a loving nature.
    Maybe we all deserve second chances. We all have loving natures, even if we hide them.
    This is the time of year for forgiveness. I’ll start by forgiving myself.
                                                 -—stay curious (and forgiving!)




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What's the Big Idea?

9/4/2018

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Olivia would love my idea
and even if she didn’t
she’d be happy
I had one.
    from: Macy McMillan and the Rainbow Goddess
    by: Shari Green
    Pajama Press, Inc., 2017
    2018 winner: Schneider Family Book Award 
         (“…honors an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.”—ALA)


       Where do ideas come from? It’s a question I’m often asked and one I regularly ask myself.
       Roseanne Cash, Johnny Cash’s daughter, thinks ideas are living entities. She quoted her friend Steven Pressfield in a 2014 interview with Krista Tippett on NPR's show On Being:        https://onbeing.org/programs/rosanne-cash-time-traveler/

       Roseanne says Pressfield “wrote a great book called The War of Art, and he has this great line in it. He says, ‘You have to show the 
Muse you're serious.’" She goes on to say that if your Muse knows you’re serious, she will send you ideas. 
      I think she’s onto something.
      Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Big Magic is inspirational. She describes an idea as a living being, a life-form of its own. She says ideas are out there looking for someone to give them substance. The form can be art, music, literature, or poetry, but the idea looks for the person. I think she’s also onto something. The idea can be straight-forward, complicated, profound, or unexpectedly universal. You can watch Elizabeth's interview with Krista Tippet here: https://onbeing.org/programs/elizabeth-gilbert-choosing-curiosity-over-fear/
      If Roseanne and Elizabeth are right (and most of the time I suspect they are) allowing an idea to find you takes a person with willing awareness. The awareness to see an idea in the first place and the willingness to entertain it.
     A third component, bravery, is probably the most important of all. Acting on an idea, giving it substance is the point on which all ideas pivot. Ideas are the instruments of change, after all.
     When I’m at my best, I like to think of myself as a person with willing awareness. If I keep my mind, my heart, my ears, and my eyes open, I’ll find those ideas floating around looking for me in many places:
    the news, mostly NPR
    frozen moments, a writer I know says to mine these from your childhood memories
    overheard stories/conversations, and ones I participate in, too
    kids’ comments, mine and not mine (the kids, not the comments!)
    historical events
    radio stories
    biographies
    books and magazines
    dreams, on those few occasions when I remember them. 
Much ends up here in this blog. 

      I keep paper handy so I can remember the ones I hope will be good ones. Not all of them are. Some are pesky. Some nag. A few come to life. 
      Mom used to say, “Keep your eyes peeled.” 
      Gram used to say, “Put your eyes in your hands and look.”
      Other people say, “You find what you expect to find.” 
      They’re all right. Roseanne and Elizabeth, too. Some people are better at spotting ideas than others. Some people are better at receiving them. I expect ideas are out there. We look for each other and when we find each other, life gets more interesting. 
      Even the idea for *this* idea must have been out there looking for me. I’ve heard it before, but this time I listened, and acted.
                                                                  -—stay curious!








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         I'm a children's writer and poet intent on observing the world and nurturing those I find in my small space .

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