Special Effects Artist Ray Harryhausen Passes

Ray Harryhausen

The world has lost a giant in the world of special effects.  Stop motion/Dynamation pioneer Ray Harryhausen passed away at the age of 92 on May 7. Countless Baby Boomers remember 1953’s The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (in which Ray Harryhausen brought to life The Beast, based on “The Fog Horn,” penned by his good friend Ray Bradbury.)  We also remember the octopus in It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955), the flying saucers in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), the Ymir in 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957),the myriad of creatures in The 7^th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), and especially the skeleton scene in Jason and the Argonauts (1963). When asked which was his favorite of the creatures he created, Mr. Harryhausen was quoted in the May 7^th edition of The Guardian as saying, “It would be Medusa. But don’t tell the others.” Medusa appeared in Clash of the Titans (1981). Mr. Harryhausen received a career Academy Award for Technical Achievement (the Gordon E. Sawyer Award) in 1992. At the program, actor Tom Hanks famously said, “Some people say Casablanca or Citizen Kane–I say Jason and the Argonauts is the greatest film ever made!”

(Check for 3 Worlds of Gulliver and Clash of the Titans on DVD in the Alameda County Library, and Ray Harryhausen: an Animated Life and A Century of Stop Motion Animation: From Melies to Aardman, both by Ray Harryhausen and Tony Dalton, in the non-fiction book section.)

Mr. Harryhausen may have left this world, but the mythical creatures he created will be enjoyed by generations to come.

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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

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Greg Heffley Is Coming Back !!

The newest diary of Greg Heffley – Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 8 will go on sale in the United States in November 2013. Following major marketing and social media promotions in the U.S.,  seven international publishers will launch their respective campaigns around the world. The United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Greece, Japan, Korea, and Norway will release the book in their respective territories just after the U.S. debut.

Books in the core Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney include:

1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2007),
2. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2008),
3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw (2009),
4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (2009),
5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth (2010), and
6. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever (2011).
7. The Third Wheel,  (2012)

Jeff Kinney has also written and illustrated The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book (2011) and The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary (2011).

Here are some trivia for the series to share with you:

• On November 13, 2012, book 7 in the series, The Third Wheel, released with a 6.5-million-copy first printing in North America.
• These books are a fixture on the USA Today bestseller list (the first book in the series has remained in the top 150 for more than 200 weeks) and the Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists.
• The series has remained consistently in the top spots on the New York Times lists since the publication of the first book.
• More than 85 million Diary of a Wimpy Kid books are in print around the world.
• The series have been sold in more than 44 territories in 42 languages.
•  Author Jeff Kinney was named one of Time magazine’s most influential people in the world.
• Three movies based on the book series have grossed more than $250 million internationally.
• The book series won Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards in 2010, 2011, and 2012 (and is nominated for one in 2013)
• Jeff Kinney won a Children’s Choice Book Award in 2012.
• These books have won numerous awards voted on by students and teachers around the globe.
• The Wimpy Kid Island on poptropica.com, a virtual world for kids, remains one of the most visited on the site.

Kinney’s work has been widely praised for its ability to turn reluctant readers on to books.  If you are struggling on leading your kids into reading, if you hadn’t heard about this series from your kids, if you wanted to know why you couldn’t always find Jeff Heffley in the library, click here to reserve your copy; and stay tune for the newest development of the Wimpy Kid ….

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An Afternoon with Opera San Jose

Spend the Afternoon of Saturday, May 18, from 2 to 3 pm, with Opera San Jose at Fremont Main Library.

Join the resident artists from Opera San José as they perform arias and duets from the 2012-13 season, including Verdi’s powerful drama Il Trovatore and Puccini’s two contrasting pieces Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi.

Tickets will be handed out at Fukaya A Room, starting at 1:30 pm.

All are welcome!

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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.

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Celebrate Frogs!

You may be aware that April is National Poetry Month, but did you know that it’s also National Frog Month? It sure is! Frogs are very interesting animals known as  amphibians. That means they live in both water and on land during their lifetime. Frogs start life as tadpoles living in the water and then they change into a frog. This change is called metamorphosis. April is almost over but there is still to time learn about frogs and amphibians. The library has lots of books about frogs you can read. You can also learn about frogs from the WorldBookDigital database that is provided through Alameda County Library.

Here are a few frog facts that I found really interesting:

-Frogs don’t drink water, they absorb it through their skin.
-Frogs can breathe air through their skin too.
-Frogs have eyes that rotate so they can see in almost every direction.

Take a look at theses websites to learn more about frogs:

kidzone.ws – learn all about a frogs life and habitat

sfbaywildlife.info – learn about frogs in the San Francisco bay area

oaklandzoo.org - learn about amphibians at the Oakland Zoo

Animal Diversity Web - listen to different frog sounds

A celebration of National Poetry Month and National Frog Month:

Here is a frog haiku written by Matsuo Basho, a famous Japanese poet.

The old pond–
a frog jumps in,
sound of water.

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Turn off those Electronic Screens for a Week (I dare you!)

Yes, I know  it’s difficult to put those electronic gadgets away.  My current addiction is playing Candy Crush Saga on my Ipad!  I also love Words with Friends,  Hanging with Friends, Skee Ball, etc.  You get my drift.  Dare I say, the time I used to devote to reading seems to be taken up by my IPad activities. Then of course, there’s TV.  Now I just have the basic digital package from Comcast, but that means there are still a lot of stations to watch which uses up my free time. I also have Netflix streaming which adds to the goodies I watch.  It is wonderful to be be able to watch whenever I want to. Thank goodness, my cell phone is a dumb one or that would take up even more of my time.  Reading unfortunately, is now pretty much confined to what I can listen to on CD books in my car while I’m driving around the area.

I didn’t grow up with all these digital devices, but I sure can’t live without them now or so I think. My family got our first computer in the 1990′s when my kids were in elementary school.  We also got our first VCR then.  We had a great time with these devices.  Playing games, recording programs, etc.  Then the cell phone became ubiquitous, and now, I panic if I forget my cell phone at home, and I’m driving around without one.  My Ipad usually is with me wherever I go. My, how life has changed!

We are all so attached to our devices that sometimes we forget that there’s a world out there, and so much to do when we turn off all the screens that are demanding our attention.  This coming week, April 29-May 5, Screen Free Week reminds us that there is  life beyond our digital devices. Get outside and experience the beauty of nature.  Play a game. read (a real book!), daydream, enjoy family and friends in person, not just on a screen!  The hope is that this week of turning off the tv, the Ipad, the Kindle, the Blackberry, whatever you use that keeps  you away from real life, will be the beginning of a lifestyle change where you discover or perhaps rediscover that it’s more fun to get out and interact with life than just passively interacting with a screen all the time. Moving and getting out will give you real health benefits too.  You may find that losing those few extra pounds is a little easier when you move more and sit less. There is a place for our digital devices, but we need to realize that we can’t let them take over our lives.

Go to  the website for Screen Free Week and check it out today. There are ideas and resources to get you started.   When Monday comes you can start the challenge!   Are you in ?  Join me!

104/365 screen free week (Photo credit: edan idzerda)

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NATIONAL MEDITATION MONTH: LET’S CELEBRATE MAY WITH “TOTAL HEALING: THE MEDITATION PRESCRIPTION”

At the Fremont Main Library
Saturday, May 4, 2013, 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

What can meditation do for you? Meditation can help you deal with stressors in your life, it can boost your immune system, and it will help with your physical and emotional problems. In this presentation, Dr. Zaslove will present the latest medical and scientific data regarding meditation, as well as providing information on how to prevent and treat many diseases including high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, and chronic pain. He will talk about the vast amount of research spent on how meditation is the antidote to stress. Also Dr. Zaslove will explain how and why meditation helps you live in a way that gives expression to your spirit, the source of all healing and he will show you how you can use meditation to access your own healing powers.

Dr. Zaslove has been a resident in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1969. He was educated at the University of Columbia and trained at the University of California Los Angeles, School of Medicine and the Neuropsychiatric Institute. Dr. Zaslove has been practicing meditation daily for over 39 years and has served on the Board of Directors to Science of Spirituality.

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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.

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Nowruz celebration @ Fremont Library in pictures

 

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