Book Look: "A Good Knight and an Ordinary Day" by Dawn Eddy

Take a Look at this New Book!

          Author, Dawn Eddy has written a children’s book in the hope of impacting her readers to live lives filled with compassion and valor.  Eddy, who hails from the Oneida area has published, “A Good Knight and an Ordinary Day” with Tate Publishing.  The book is geared towards children, ages 4 – 10 years old.

          “I thought about that book for more than fifteen years,” Eddy noted.  “It wasn’t until after my friend, who was diagnosed with cancer, encouraged me to write the book that I actually did just that.”

Eddy signed the contract for the book the same day her friend had cancer surgery.  It was also Eddy’s son, Christopher’s birthday.

          “A Good Knight and an Ordinary Day” is a book about a young boy, Christopher, who tries to make the right choices in his life.  Based on Ephesians 3 from the Bible, Eddy’s book inspires children to wear their invisible armor every day for God.  Their shield is their faith in God.  Their helmet and sword help children to fight for God’s word and to live their life the right way.

          “So many children go through life today not understanding their purpose and never hearing about God’s Word from the Bible.” Eddy said.  She mentioned that this book is to help kids to understand that they have a purpose—just the way they are—in ordinary days and times.  Eddy used true stories from son Christopher’s life to illustrate how children have a purpose.

          There are two more books in Eddy’s series that are in the planning stages.  Each book is for one of her children.  They will also be published by Tate Publishing. The next book is titled, “Tomorrow’s Knight” and is for Eddy’s daughter, Brandy.  “A Good Knight to be Fearless” is the third in the series and will be for Eddy’s son, Mitchell.

          Eddy is also working on a Young Adult manuscript titled, “Echoes in the Night”. 

          The book, “A Good Knight and an Ordinary Day” by Dawn Eddy is available on Amazon.     

Hoarding

There are five baby squirrels living in the tree just outside my window at the library.  Every day at about 3:30pm, they emerge from a big hole in the side of the tree to race up and down the trunk and out to the edges of the branches and back again.  Mom and Dad Squirrel remain close by watching the action.  I have never really seen squirrels at this close range previously and I am fascinated by their antics.  One of them loves to go to the outermost part of the branch where it is thinnest.  Another is an acrobat who loves to whip himself around and around the branch.  They love to chase each other up and down the tree.  Their tails are bushed right out full to help protect against the cold.  They look so cute and fluffy.  I could watch them for hours.

This morning, I was treated to a morning romp on the tree from my friends.  One of the babies sat directly across from my window eating an acorn.  He sat there for probably fifteen minutes, munching and munching at the nut.  I watched as Dad carried acorns to the nest in the tree…up and down he went at least four times today alone.  I hope that Mom and Dad Squirrel have enough nuts and other goodies stored away for the long winter ahead of us.  Squirrels hid their cache in lots of different places as well as their nest, apparently.  I guess you could call them “hoarders”.

As I watched the squirrel eat and thought about the long winter ahead, I thought about what I store away for the winter.  You may have already guessed what I have stored away, it is books!  I guess you could call me a book hoarder.  I have books that I keep meaning to read and never seem to have the time to do that.  I have books that friends have recommended.  There are books that I found on Amazon for my kindle.  The Annual Friends of the Library Book Sale also added a few books to my coffers.  Between my kindle and the books I’ve been saving from friends and the sale, I have about twenty books waiting for my undivided attention!  And, that doesn’t count the ten books that I have on my reserved list through the MidYork Library System.

Are you a book hoarder too?  Come to the library…we can help you.  Instead of buying books, you can borrow them and then return them.  Me?  I am going to do away with my book hoarding obsession right after I finish reading my stockpile!

Childrens and Teens Programs Begin Again

          Children are the future.  At the Canastota Public Library, Children and Teen Programming is at the forefront of all that we do.  We recently renovated the Children's Area on the second floor of the library to better enhance our programming efforts for today and for years to come.
       
          October is always a busy month for us at the Canastota Public Library.  Our children and teen programs begin again in full force.  Every year we hold Baby & Me Lapsit with Miss Angela for our babies up to age 24 months, Storytime with Mrs. Liz for preschoolers and our Librateen group for students in grades 6 and up.  This year, we are adding a special American Girl Reading Club for girls, ages 8 to 12 years of age and their mothers.

       

          Baby & Me Lapsit with Miss Angela introduces your baby to the wonderful world of books at the library.  This program is for babies, from birth and up to age 24 months, and their caregivers.  The weekly Wednesday morning program will begin on October 16th and run for ten weeks until Wednesday, December 18. Miss Angela begins the program at 10am with fingerplays, songs and stories.  The program ends with the babies interacting with each other!          

          

            Storytime with Mrs. Liz will begin on Thursday, October 17th and run for ten weeks until December 19th.  In this program, preschoolers enjoy read-aloud stories, games, crafts and a snack.  The fun begins at 10am in the Children's Area of the library.

          

            The first session of the American Girl Book Club will be held on Monday, October 7^th  at 6:30pm for girls, ages 8 – 12 and their mothers.  This first session will be a planning meeting to talk about the club, including meeting dates/times/etc. Each session will include book discussion, an activity and light refreshment. The first book will be available to borrow at this initial meeting.  The first book will be “Meet Caroline” by Kathleen Ernst, a fascinating story of a young girl growing up in Sackets Harbor during the start of the War of 1812.  Girls are welcome to bring their American Girl Dolls to the club!

        

           Librateens, the group for students in grades 6 and higher will begin their meetings on Wednesday, October 16th at 3pm.  As always, during the initial meeting, we will brainstorm our activities for the year.  Currently, there are several meetings already planned including the following:  Oct 16-Planning Meeting    Oct 23-Speaker Matt Lowery from Safe Place for Youth (Liberty Resources)     Oct 30-Day of the Dead Celebration (Mexican Holiday)      Nov 6-Speaker Jeanne Arnold who is an author.  Her book, "Stubborn" is scheduled for a January 2014 release. Other activities planned and held over from last year include an Iron Chef competition and a scavenger hunt at the library.  The group meets every Wednesday that school is in session from 3 - 4:30pm.

               The CPL hopes that you will bring your child and/or encourage your teen to get involved in library activities and programs.  If you have any questions, please contact us at 315.697.7030.  We hope to see you....at the library!

Renovations @ The Canastota Public Library

    

     As you may have heard, the Canastota Public Library's second floor is under renovations!  Thanks to the generosity of anonymous donors as well as the gifts from several of our library's clubs (the Bridge Party Group, The Knitters and The Friends of the Library), we are getting a facelift!  The facelift is long overdue as it's been about thirty years since the room has been updated.

     Two weeks ago, our staff began the process of boxing up our books in the Children's area and the teen area of the library.  That took us about a week.  We then pulled apart the old metal shelving units and they were donated to another library within our Mid-York Library System who had a need for them.

    Last week, the painters came in and painted the room a nice soft colored green!  We thought the room looked so much bigger once the shelves and books were moved out to the Carnegie Room.  And, the new color just adds so much to the room.  Following the painting, the old carpeting was pulled to reveal beautiful hard wood underneath our feet.  So, we have workers coming in this week to start refinishing the floor to bring it back to its' original luster.

     What will the changes be?  We had some of the old wooden bookcases removed and are having them rehabbed into window seats that will have book storage in their bases.  Our walls are crisp and clean with fresh paint. We purchased rolling book shelves for our books so that we can use the room as a multi-purpose room for presentations and parties.  We are having the floors refinished.  Our Toddler and Children's Area will be moved to a far corner, away from the staircase and our Teen Area will move into the main room.  The former Teen Room will become a meeting room and will be available for tutoring or general meetings.

     We are hopeful that our renovations will be complete by the end of August and the new area will be open just after Labor Day.  Our Facebook page will chronicle the changes as they happen if you'd like to watch our progress. 

     The Canastota Public Library is open during this renovation.  A selection of Children and Teen books are available on the first floor and we are happy to help you find other books that you may need during this renovation process.  We are hopeful that the renovations will continue to meet the needs of our patrons for many years to come!   

Budget Vote May 7 at Canastota Public Library

The Board of Trustees of the Canastota Public Library announces that it will hold a budget vote for fiscal year 2013-2014 on Tuesday, May 7, 2013 from Noon to 9PM at the Library in the Lawson Community Room located in the lower level.

The budget amount is $328,257. This is a 5.5 % increase over our previous budget amount of $311,036 which has been in place since our last election in 2006. The increase is primarily due to the large increase in the library's contribution to the New York State Employee Retirement System (it increased from $13,000 last year to $27,000 this year) in which we are required to participate as a Civil Service entity.

Voter registration will be held on Monday, April 15, 2013 from 9am to 8:30pm at the Main Desk of the Library. Any qualified voter who has not registered in the Canastota School District for the General Election held in November 2012 must present himself personally to the main desk of the Canastota Public Library for registration during the hours the library is open as follows: Monday 9am to 8:30pm. No person shall be entitled to vote whose name does not appear on the registration of the election district in which he claims to be entitled to vote.

The Canastota Public Library is located at 102 W. Center Street in the village of Canastota, New York.

New YA Book Set To Launch

The Complete Tales from the Edge of the Woods

Launches Soon

At the Canastota Public Library

By Author and Guest Blogger, Rachael Z. Ikins

From the chapter entitled "The Messenger" from the upcoming book to be released, " The Complete Tales from the Edge of the Woods" (Icarus Aloft: SLM Bookworks, Selkirk, NY) by Rachael Ikins:

".....Next to their cottage stood a weather-beaten barn. It sheltered Merthwyn’s workshop, a dozen hens led by a majestic striped rooster who went by the name of Papi and a black pot bellied pig named Pucky. His nose disc sported a pink dot and his hooves, four white socks....."


The oil painting illustration is by RoseMarie S. Langley. She happens to be 88, previously unpublished though she majored in art at Syracuse University in the 1940s. She is my mother. With her, I combed the woods and fields of my childhood at our summer camp in Skaneateles.  The camp encompassed  60 acres of pristine forest, field and lake shore and I was always in search of faeries, witches and other magical creatures when visiting there. The barn in Mother's college painting stood next to our driveway. Once we drove past that barn, station wagon crammed full of pets, kids, food, suitcases and dreams for a summer of 8 weeks in the wild, we knew we'd almost arrived.

Many of the protagonists in The Complete Tales are elder members of a society. The above quote is from the chapter, also published by Aurora Wolf Literary Journal in 2010 and a winner of a third place award in that year's Rebecca Eddy Memorial Writing Contest, held by the Canastota Public Library.  I selected the quote as it introduces us to one of the book's most entertaining individuals, Gabriella. Gabriella is a retired messenger dragon troubled with myopia or nearsightedness. She lives a depressed and lonely life on the far side of Fire Mountains in her cold, messy cave.  Gabriella constantly removes her goggles, which were made to help her see better, and sets them down on piles of stuff.  Later,  she realizes that she is bleary eyed and desperately searches for the very goggles she cannot see to find.

Against all odds, as can happen to any of us on any given day, Gabriella awakens one morning to a surprise: the desperate ultrasonic and magical broadcast "SAVE THE BABIES! SAVE THEM NOW!" She imagines some young dragon rocketing off a cliff to rescue whoever these babies might be. Still the message blares on.  Her head aches with the noise. She wonders will nobody respond? Is there no dragon out there to answer it? And then, she realizes something she had long ago forgotten. The dragon who hears the message is the one who is to answer the call.

Stiff and clumsy, wings floppy from disuse, Gabriella musters herself to fly. She stuffs her mail pouch, which is on the front of her belly like a kangaroo's, with sweet Timothy grass to keep the babies warm, once she has them safely inside it. Goggles jump into her paws for once, and heart pounding as she teeters on the lip of her cave in the sunset, ready to vault into the clouds and stars, she marvels at the beauty detailed beneath her. She harbors a tiny bit of doubt and anxiety that she will get lost and confused among once familiar constellations and skyways, because it has truly been a very long time.

But then, on faith, she unfurls her great gorgeous wings and thinks to herself, "I may fail, but at least I will go out trying if I do."

On April 30, Tuesday evening at 7:00 p.m. come to Canastota Public Library to hear Rachael read from The Complete Tales, to meet both author and publisher. To share tasty treats, fine literature and maybe to find out what happens next, to learn how the barn enters Gabriella's story...            

Do You Have The Card?

There's an important card I have that helps to save me money...it isn't a credit card or a debit card or a "get out of jail free" card...It's my library card!  And, I didn't realize what a savings it would be to me until I started making other cost-cutting efforts around the house. 

In an effort to save money, one of the first things we did was pull the plug on our cable television. We did this about six months ago. It has been a savings to us but we've also found that we are no longer held captive to the television set! I suppose, like most Americans, we didn't realize how captive we were until, well, we weren't.
I can tell you that I do not miss game shows, soap operas or movies depicting violence, profanity and horrific acts. I do not miss the news. I do not miss re-runs of shows that I never watched when they were on the tube for the first time. I do not miss commercials. I do not miss the ads for the newest in prescriptions to prevent depression, heart disease or any prescription where the side effects are worse than the original disease. I do not miss commercials for cleaning products, dog food, cat food, or any other type of food, especially snack food that only makes me hungry. I do not miss commercials for car insurance, house insurance and life insurance. I do not miss reality television that illustrates life as a pregnant teen, life in a rich, large or bigamist family. I do not miss shows about hoarders, addicts, drug dealers, gun runners, apocolyptic endings or what I should or shouldn't wear.
I am spending more time at the library. I know. I work there. But, I am finding that I am saving money by using library resources that are available to anyone in the community.
I am reading more. I've been able to read several newly released books since we've turned off the television. To purchase these books, I would have spent close to $25 - $30 per book.  I have also been able to go back and read some books that I wanted to read again! Again, the savings were significant.  And, my favorite magazines are available for me to borrow from the library.   The magazine I read regularly  is Writer's Digest which costs $5.95 per edition.  I read about six each month so the savings would be about $30 - $40 per month.  The garden is a project that we are planning for the spring and the library has been a wealth of resources with books on planting vegetables, landscaping, and helping us to learn how to compost.
Next on my library list to borrow are books on crafting. My dear mother, before her passing, was a huge crafter. She left me with several quilts to finish and skeins and skeins of yarn. Not being a quilter, the library was my obvious source for information on quilting. As well, the library has two knitting groups...as soon as I'm finished reading, I'll be there learning how to knit on Thursday nights.
As well, I'm borrowing movies that I'd like to see--both newly released videos and some of my old favorites. All of this is free--with my library card.
Do you have a library card? They are very easy to procure. Just stop in to your local library with some form of Identification and fill out a form. Within minutes, you will have access to all of the resources of your local library!   And, I have to tell you...it's the most important card in my wallet!

January Is Renewal Time For Many

   

     January is a time for renewal for many of us. It is a time to reconsider our lives and perhaps make changes or slight tweaks to our daily schedules. The Canastota Public Library is offering some great programs during the month of January to keep you informed and involved in many new projects!


     For many years, the library has been the site for the Canastota Canal Museum’s Canalside Talks. Leading off the Seventh Annual Canalside Talks on Monday, January 14, will be Ann Hopkins. Mrs. Hopkins, an avid postcard collector and recently retired Alliance Banker, will present, “Greetings from Madison County, A Postcard History.” This program will be a chronology of the picture postcard with regional and local examples. The program begins at 7pm in the Library’s Children’s Area on the second floor. The program will last one hour and include a question and answer period. Light refreshments will follow the program.

     Our artists for the month of January are Sandra Zeigler and Shirley Thomas. This dynamic duo will display their beautiful quilts as well as handcrafted jewelry and purses. Both women are members of the Canal Town Quilters and have been creating art for many years. Their exhibit will be held all month in the Lawson Community Room. An Artist’s Reception will be held on Thursday, January 10 at 7pm for the public to come and view the exhibit and meet the artists!

     The library has a variety of groups that meet regularly at the library that may be of interest to folks looking to make some changes to their schedules. All of the groups are open to the public and are free of charge.

     If you are interested in joining a book club, why not consider our Book Chat Club? The Book Chat meets the last Wednesday of every month. On Wednesday, January 30 to discuss the book, Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Anyone interested in reading and attending this month’s Book Chat should stop in to pick up a copy of this month’s novel at the Library. The Book Chat Club meets in the Lawson Community Room.

     The Canastota Public Library Writer’s Group will continue with their regular meetings on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month beginning at 3 pm in the library’s Lawson Community Room. Additionally, the Evening Writer’s Group will meet on the fourth Monday evening this month from 6:30 – 8:30pm.

     Scrapbooking is a group that meets at the library on the second Monday evening of every month beginning at 5:30pm. Scrapbookers bring their projects to the library, including their photographs and supplies and meet with other scrapbookers to share ideas and new techniques. The group meets in the Lawson Community Room.

     Bone Builders, a program of RSVP, will meet each Tuesday afternoon at 1pm in the Library’s Lawson Community Room. If you are interested in joining, come on Tuesday afternoon and talk to the coordinator, Christine Crandall.

     Party Bridge is played every Thursday afternoon at the library at 1pm. Participants should be experienced Bridge players and not beginners! Party Bridge is an open group and welcomes players to attend whenever they are available.

     Thursday Night and Friday Morning Knitting Groups welcome both new and experienced knitters to join them for fun and fellowship. The Thursday Night Knitters meet at 6pm and the Friday Morning Knitters meet at 10am. Both groups meet in the Lawson Community Room.

     For more information on these events and our regular weekly programming, go to www.canastotalibrary.org and click on the Mid-York Calendar of Events. Or, just stop by the library on the day/date listed and let us know that you are interested in joining us!