October is here and in no time at all we will bid farewell to the heat and welcome the cool fall air. I encourage everyone to take advantage of the cool months and warm up to good reading! Come to the Library and check out a wide assortment of book titles for any age reader. Whether you would enjoy a good romance or an intense thriller, or any genre inbetween, the Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library is the place to go!
The Director's October Book Recommendations:
The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance
by Timothy Gallwey
Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential
by Joel Osteen
In Contempt
by Christopher A. Darden; with Jess Walter
** All of these books are available at the Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library - check with your branch and reserve a copy.
Bargaining for Books
FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY LOWERS BOOK PRICES FOR ANNUAL SALE AT ‘FAMILY DAY AT THE PARK’
Even before the official 9:30 opening, early morning bargain-hunters, mostly teachers and lightly-clad runners, peruse the books (for sale and on sale) at Family Day in the Park on the University Park campus.
They want the best pick and the best buys that Friends of the Stockton Public Library has selected for The Record’s annual literacy promotion last month at the Stanislaus State University site in Stockton.
Nothing new about this ritual, first enacted at Victory Park and since moved to its current site, except that it resulted in book sales of $1,610, the highest ever in the years the Friends have set up shop at this event.
It seems a modest earning until you factor in the fact that softcover books are 25 cents and hardcovers are 50 cents. So you can imagine the zeal at which book-buyers search out titles for themselves or for their students.
Books are priced this low once a year and only at Family Day. The books normally sell at slightly higher (but still bargain) prices at the Friends’ bookstore at the Parkwoods Shopping Center on Hammer Lane.
Bookstore Manager Jann Bueno and her assistant, Sarah Russell, select and box books throughout the year, and in the months before Family Day store them on site ready to display them that day on tables under a huge tent.
Many, if not most, of these books are children’s titles. Hence the number of teachers who show up early to buy for their students, out of their own pockets ÿ a selfless act which should embarrass local school districts.
From the Friends tent you can see King Author’s Court, where eight authors of children’s books signed copies and talked to kids about their stories, Friends is happy to underwrite the appearance of these authors every year..
By noon most of the best buys were gone and by the 3 p.m. closing only three boxes of books were left to give to charities. By that time, a cadre of exhausted volunteer booksellers grinned, gulped some water and collapsed.
It is impossible to single out for praise any one of these volunteers who give a day in their lives to set up for the sale, sell and bag the books, and stick around afterwards to tally up the take, box the leftover books, and clean the area.
Impossible, but I will try, beginning with kudos to Ms. Bueno and Ms. Russell for overseeing the entire operation
Thanks also to the bookstore volunteers and Friends board members who volunteered; and for the students from Stagg High School and the Circle K (Kiwanis) at University of the Pacific. Yes, young people still do read books.
My personal thanks go to the Friends board secretary, David Scheffer, whose entire family helps out each year at this event and who this year in my absence kindly took over my usual presidential role.
Yes, for the first time since the inaugural Family Day, I was absent, enjoying an entire day in San Francisco with college friends, seeing a movie matinee and an evening at the theatre. My guilt disappeared halfway through dinner.
On Wednesday, September 23, over 15 Reading Ambassadors were present and honored at the Cesar Chavez Central Library as part of San Jaoquin A+ Reads Week. The Library hosted an event that not only celebrated the ambassadors, but also entertained over 80 third graders with an interactive puppet show performed by our very talented and well known Librarians, Suzy Daveluy and Lloyd Jansen. Laughter could be heard clear out in the main library as children enjoyed the fun method of storytelling!
Mayor Ann Johnston was present and spoke to the audience about the importance of reading and the value of public libraries. Sue De Polo of San Joaquin A+ introduced the Reading Ambassadors, and Pamela Sloan, the Community Services Director was the programs emcee.
Reading Ambassadors throughout the San Joaquin County will be making a difference in the lives of their school aged peers as they offer guidance and support to their peers in an effort to impromve r reading skills. Throughout the school year Reading Ambassadors will set time aside to mentor younger kids, helping them sound out words, recognizing syllables and understanding punctuation marks that are used to make a story come to life.
Many thanks to San Joaquin A+ for partnering with the Library to create a successful program that celebrates the youth in the community and the importance of gaining reading skills at a young age.
