Farewell, E.L. Konigsburg

The children’s literature world has lost a most singular writer. Elaine Lobl (E.L.) Konigsburg passed away April 19, from complications of a stroke: she was 83. Konigsburg is also the only children’s author to have won the prestigious Newbery Award (given for excellence in children’s literature by the American Library Association) AND the Newbery Honor in the same year (1968), for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth, respectively.

Other books Ms. Konigsburg has written include Silent to the Bone, Up From Jericho Tel, A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, Father’s Arcane Daughter and The View From Saturday (for which she won another Newbery in 1997.)  Paul Vitello, in the New York Times (April 22, 2013) had the following quote listed in his obit for Ms. Konigsburg:  “Children’s books, she once said, are ‘the key to the accumulated wisdom, wit, gossip, truth, myth, history, philosophy, and recipes for salting potatoes during the past 6,000 years of civilization.’ “

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler  is a favorite of lots of readers. One of this writer’s colleagues (herself a published writer) stated, “My husband and I were so disappointed when we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and discovered they’d gotten rid of the fountain where Jamie and Claudia had collected coins.  How dare they!” And this writer has fond memories of Mixed-Up Files because she booktalked it years ago at her interview for her current position! Writer/illustrator Brian Selznick (who himself won the Randolph Caldecott Award—the American Library Association award for excellence in picture book illustration in 2008) references Konigsburg’s Mixed-Up Files several times in his book, Wonderstruck. Selznick said in a Publisher’s Weekly interview (Sue Corbett, August 4, 2011) that it was one of his favorite books, and then added “I mean, it’s one of everybody’s favorite books.”

And it will be for years to come.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Read Full Post »

MEET THE LENDERS

Fremont Main Library
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
9:30 – 12:30 p.m.

Interactive Business Seminar and Resource Fair

This seminar and resource fair is a must for any business owner interested in securing debt or equity financing. Be ready to participate in a panel discussion with lenders offering advice in today’s tough lending environment. Participation is a must for any business owner interested in securing debt capital.

Learn how a wide range of banks and other lending organizations evaluate your loan application and the types of funding they can provide.You will be given an overview of how to get “capital-ready” before you approach a lender to insure a greater chance of success. 
 

Participants will learn:

• What the 5 C’s of credit are and how they apply to the participant
• How a wide range of lending organizations evaluate your loan application
• The types of funding different lending organizations can provide
• What types of information the lenders are looking for and why

This seminar is free to all attendees.  Advance reservations are required.  Please register online at  http://acsbdc.org/node/13414. Refreshments will be served.

Sponsored by the City of Fremont, the Fremont Chamber of Commerce and the Alameda County Small Business Development Center (ACSBDC) and the Alameda County Library System.

 

Read Full Post »

Fresh Produce Coming to Fremont Main

One day in the not so distant future, you’ll be visiting the Fremont Main Library and leaving with a bag full of library items and another bag of fresh produce.  Fremont Main is entering into a partnership with Dig Deep Farms and Produce, a social enterprise and a project of the Alameda County Deputy Sheriffs’ Activities League.  The Dig Deep Farms website describes a weekly delivery service of fresh produce; the partnership with Fremont Main Library is a pilot project that will bring Dig Deep produce stands once a week to consumers for the first time.  That those first produce stands will be on library grounds certainly says something of Fremont Main’s role in our community.  So how about that?  With one trip to the library, you will be taking home food for the mind as well as food for the body.  It certainly is a good deal to look forward to.  You’ll know when it’s here.

Read Full Post »

Preview: Summer Reading Game 2013

This year’s summer reading game theme, “Have Book—Will Travel” will take you on journeys. You can explore new places and experiences, meet travelers from around the world, and even plan your own summer adventure.

The library has many titles and formats for you enjoy. You could plan a road trip, join a marathon race, or live for a time in a very different place. Try these adult titles: “My First 100 Marathons” by Jeffrey Horowitz, “Road Trip USA,” by Jamie Jensen, or “A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail,” by Bill Bryson.

The game will run June 10 through August 10, using a bingo game format – you’ll win prizes by reading or doing the optional activities. However, the best prize is the one you give yourself, taking the time for an enjoyable reading adventure. Reading is for all ages.

Read Full Post »

iFUSD – Newly Developed App for Fremont Unified School District

If your child goes to school in the Fremont Unified School District, and if you owned one of the Apple i-products, you might want to down load this free app from the App store.

iFUSD is the official iOS Application for the Fremont Unified School District.  It has really awesome features such as Push Notifications about important updates for the schools that you choose, emergency status updates,  grades and attendance data access for Junior and high schools, access to District news and calendar, information on the community/Board of Education, schools locations/maps, and function like 1-click calling to your children’s schools.

This app was made in coordination with the FUSD Technology department, an involved parent, a high school student developer, and many other high school students from Mission San Jose High school.

For more information about the app, please click here.

So, just check it out!!  iFUSD will help you stay safe and up to date!

Read Full Post »

Money Smart Week @ Your Library

Money Smart Week®, a joint effort of the American Library Association and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, aims to promote financial literacy. As a Money Smart Week partner, the Fremont Main Library at 2400 Stevenson Blvd. will host the following free programs in April. No registration is required. Fremont Main is wheelchair accessible and an ASL interpreter will be provided if requested at least seven working days in advance. Contact 510-745-1421 or TTY 888-663-0660.

Preparing for Home Ownership
Tuesday, April 16, 7 – 8:30 p.m.

Learn from George Duarte, MBM, CMC, President of Horizon Financial Assoc., about the pre-purchase planning process; what you need to know to ensure success purchasing or refinancing your new home
Annuity Scams & Other Schemes

Annuity Scams and Other Schemes
Friday, April 19, 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

Neil Granger and Prescott Cole will discuss annuity and other common scams and what you must know to protect yourself from fraud. Neil Granger, a 30-year independent Life Agent in California, is a member of the California Department of Insurance Curriculum Board, which makes recommendations on educational standards for Insurance Agents in California. Prescott Cole is an 18-year attorney for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR).

Estate and Gift Tax Law
Tuesday, April 23, 7 – 8:30 p.m.

Atashi Rang Law Firm presents current estate tax developments and how the new tax law can impact you and your loved ones by passing wealth from one generation to the next.

Estate Planning Mistakes
Saturday, April 27, 2–4 p.m.

Atashi Rang Law Firm will discuss how to avoid the seven biggest misstates in estate planning and how to successfully detect and avoid them.

Read Full Post »

Tax Season Brings Out Scammers

Your mother warned you not to trust strangers, promising big returns. And, such advice is very timely especially where it concerns unlicensed tax preparers. Some fraudulent tax preparers promise big refunds and do deliver by lying on the tax returns they prepare. They get a payout and so does the naive taxpayer because the Internal Revenue Service pays out refunds automatically. However, the bill comes due when the return is audited. Now, the taxpayer is required to repay the IRS. And of course, the fraudulent tax preparer is nowhere to be found. For more details and sad stories, please see the San Jose Mercury News March 20, 2013 article, “Tax-Fraud Scheme Rampant.”

You can find a California licensed and registered tax-return preparer at:
California Board of Accountancy: dca.ca.gov/cba
California Society of Certified Public Accountants: calcpa.org
State Bar of California: calbar.ca.gov
California Society of Enrolled Agents: csea.org
California Tax Education Council: ctec.org
IRS: irs.gov
Source: California Franchise Tax Board, California Tax Education Council

Or, for low-income earners, you could get free tax preparation help at the Fremont Main Library, 1:00 – 4:00 PM, through April 2.

Read Full Post »

Reverend W. Awdry

Today is the anniversary of the Reverend Wilbert V. Awdry’s death (March 21, 1997). Reverence Awdry was the creator of the beloved Railway Series, featuring Thomas the Tank engine and his friends. In his youth, Awdry lived near train tracks and could hear the trains at night, chugging up a steep grade. The first of the Railway Stories was created in 1943 when his son was sick at home. Awdry created the story to entertain his son, and continued writing new stories afterwards (a total of 26 stories, before Awdry stopped writing in 1972). For more information about Awdry, please check out the wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilbert_Vere_Awdry

Read Full Post »

Warm Springs, Fremont

Warm Springs, Fremont is the latest offering in Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of America  series. Local authors, Philip Holmes and Patricia Wipfli Schaffarczyk, are historians at the Museum of Local History in Fremont. Together they have assembled the best images from the collections to tell the story of the once-tiny village of Warm Springs and nearby Drawbridge. This pictorial history boasts more than 200 vintage images and provides readers with a unique opportunity to reconnect with the history that shaped their community.

Join us at the Fremont Main Library on Saturday April 6th between 10 and 2:00 to learn more about this unique segment of Fremont’s history, meet the authors, and get your signed copy of the book.

The Museum of Local History is also hosting an exhibit of photographs and epherma related to Warm Springs in the Maurice Marks display room on the second floor of the Fremont Main Library. The exhibit is available during the library’s open hours through the middle of April.

Read Full Post »

Happy Birthday, Virginia Hamilton!

Author Virginia Hamilton was born March 12, 1934. In her lifetime, Ms. Hamilton wrote over 40 titles for young people, including M.C. Higgins the Great (a National Book and Newbery Medal winner), The Planet of Junior Brown, Zeely, The Time Ago Tales of Jahdu, Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush, House of Dies Drear and The Mystery of Drear House, The People Could Fly, In the Beginning: Creation Stories From Around the World, Her Stories, and many more. The winner of many book awards, Ms. Hamilton (who was married to poet Arnold Adoff) died of breast cancer in 2002, but will live on in her books for children.

Virginia Hamilton

 

Read Full Post »