Coloring Party!

It's almost Fall!

Here at Franklin County Library we are looking forward to Fall.  The few rainy, cool days we've had in the last couple of weeks have made us long for the pleasures of Fall - cool days, crisp nights, hot cider and hot chocolate, cozy fires, sweaters and jackets. 

Along those lines, Christian has been working on our Fall bulletin board.

She is much more artistic than the rest of us, and she put a lot of thought, effort and detail into the bulletin board.  It's very colorful and fun!  We've told her that from now on, whether she is working for us or not, she has to come and put together our bulletin boards!

Julie's Journal : Book Challenges Update

Back in January with I put up several challenges that I was going to try to complete this year.  I wanted to complete a Classics challenge, a To-Be-Read (TBR) challenge, and an A-Z challenge.  The original post can be read here. 

I'm happy to say that I have completed the A-Z challenge!

I enjoyed some books more than others.  Some I read just because I wanted to and others I read just to fill in a letter.  X was the hardest letter to find.

I'm still working on both the TBR challenge and the Classics Challenge.  I need some help coming up with a forgotten classic.  According to the guidelines of the challenge, a forgotten classic has less than 1000 ratings on Goodreads.  I also need a classic play that is easy to read.  I am NOT a Shakespeare buff!  If you have any ideas, let me know.

New Stuff!

Chance is hard at work today putting in new books, movies, and an audio.

Silver Linings - Audio by Debbie Macomber
E.T
Disney's Short Films Collection
The Best of Me
One Upon a Time : Season 4
Avatar the Last Airbender : Book 1 Water Volume 3
The Giver
Patty's Pantry : Family Recipes
Prairie Evers by Ellen Airgood
The Education of Ivy Blake by Ellen Airgood
Friction by Sandra Brown
Everybody Rise by Stephanie Clifford

Julie's Journal : Vacation Week

Last week was my husband Jason's last week of summer vacation and, as usual, I took it off with him.

When I left here Friday evening, I went home and didn't leave again until Monday afternoon!  I like being at home!  I was able to start and finish several projects that I had been wanting to do, including making a new batch of Goat's Milk Soap.  I've learned a new technique for soap making that I think works better than the first few batches I made.  This batch is Anise scented, and my whole house smells wonderful from it.  I don't have a picture of the soap, but below is a picture of the goat that gave the milk for the soap. 

Her name is Patches. 

We took off Thursday for a "mini" vacation.  We visited Jason's grandmother in Carrollton, then went to Glen Rose to spend the night.  Friday morning we visited Fossil Rim.  If you've never been to Fossil Rim, I highly recommend it.  It is a drive-thru safari.  We were able to feed ostriches, wildebeests, zebra, giraffes, and several different kind of deer.  The animals come right up to your car.   

This deer is shedding the velvet off his antlers.  It looks painful, but it is perfectly natural.  We saw several rubbing against trees.  In a couple of days his antlers will be dry and hard. 

This is an Aoudad, a type of sheep from North Africa.

This elk stuck his head as far into the truck as his antlers would let him.

 

Although my pictures were not very good, we enjoyed the scenery as well.  It is very different than flat East Texas!

Later that day we made our way back into the Metroplex and attended a Texas Rangers Game.  Jason was interested in the game, but I enjoy people watching more than anything.  It was Star Wars night, so Darth Vader and other characters from the movies were walking around talking to people.  We stayed for Star Wars themed fireworks after the game, too. 

After that it was back home for a couple more days before we both went back to work this morning.  It was nice to get away for a little while, but just as nice to come back home! 

Poet's Perch : Trees by Joyce Kilmer

Trees

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

Joyce Kilmer

Chance's Corner: To Kill a Mockingbird Movie Review

Ever since Hollywood was a thing, books have been adapted into feature films. It's an exciting prospect to see your favorite characters jump off the page and onto the screen, but ultimately film adaptations have been a mixture of the good, the bad and the downright ugly. The old saying is: "The movie is never as good as the book." I'm just going to throw that saying out the window as I reflect on the film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. Based upon Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning book, To Kill a Mockingbird is a movie marvel that stays true (and rings true) to its source material.

Things start off simple in Maycomb, Alabama, for youngsters Scout and Jem Finch. They laze around in the summer days, rolling around in tires for fun, and concocting wild stories about the Radley boy down the street to frighten their new friend Dill (a caricature of Lee's childhood friend Truman Capote). Things soon heat up, though, when their father, Atticus, a local, well-respected lawyer takes on the case of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a young white woman. Time and fate are stacked against Tom (segregation is firmly in place during The Great Depression) despite Atticus' best efforts to defend him.

Despite the heavy subject matter, the film follows the book's blueprint of humor, warmth and heart. The real showcase is the interplay between child actors, Mary Badham (Scout) and Phillip Alford (Jem), with their onscreen father, Gregory Peck (Atticus). The moments they share are so heartfelt that Harper Lee broke down into tears on set. If that isn't the cherry on top, Peck won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and Badham became the youngest actress to be nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Despite Lee's novel being originally published in 1960, and released theatrically in 1962, the themes of racial prejudice and injustice are still being actively discussed to this very day. To Kill a Mockingbird isn't the product of some long-forgotten, bygone era. It's as relevant as ever, and I believe that it's messages of compassion, courage and tolerance are something we can all still learn from.




 

Watermelon Day!

Tomorrow is our annual Watermelon Day on the square. We will serve fresh, cold watermelon to anybody who wants some at 10:00 on the square. This is our last event of the summer, so be sure to stop by.

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We will be gearing up for fall in the next few weeks, so be sure to watch this blog, Facebook, and the Optic Herald for news about our upcoming events.

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I apologize for this blog being so quiet lately. The library has been dealing with internet difficulties for several weeks now.  I'm sure you can imagine how frustrated we have been.  We hope to be back to normal soon.