Back in Cyberspace

Having trouble concentrating long enough to put fingers to keyboard these days. Work is hectic and E-bay & Amazon sales are zipping right along. A small part time job is becoming a big part time job. The book sales pay off debts, so it's a good thing though it does eat up the evenings.

I'm also still writing a monthly (more or less) column for BookThink. My latest is all about buying teacher and education books. . I'm pretty pleased at how it turned out. It came about after a dismal experience at a Childre's Only Book Sale. The pickings in the Kiddie Lit have been slim these days. Heading up to Austin on Friday for their Mini Monster Sale - I hope it is as good as it was last summer.

No Gays...Update

Some folks have asked if this story is really true- sadly it is, here's a link to the news story

http://news.yahoo.com/s/kprc/20061020/lo_kprc/10124161

And here are the links to Rick Casey's column - he's a writer for the Houston Chronicle, our local very conservative mullet wrapper.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/casey/4277355.html

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/casey/4274630.html

Wife of Garden Guy sent Mr. Casey an e-mail. She is quoted as saying that it has been a "privileged to see just what happens when you make the homosexuals and the devil mad."

Hummm...I didn't realize the Devil had a e-mail address!

No Gays or Dogs Allowed

Imagine if a hotel posted a sign in their window stating “No Jews Allowed”. Picture what would occur if a restaurant refused to serve African Americans or if a business refused to hire anyone of Hispanic descent. The NAACP, LULAC and the media would be outraged. There would be boycotts, marches, pickets and every politician up for re-election would grandstand in front of every TV camera they could find.

Here in Houston The Garden Guy, a local landscaping firm refuses to work for homosexuals. A gay couple, most impressed by their “before and after” pictures contacted the firm to request a quote. In the context of the conversation, the client referred to his “partner”. Five minutes after hanging up the phone, he found the following e-mail in his in-box “

From: Garden Guy IncDate: October 18, 2006 9:08:36 AM CDT
To: Mjlord@emailaddress.com
Subject: Cancel Appt -Garden Guy

Dear Mr. Lord,
I am appreciative of your time on the phone today and glad youcontacted us. I need to tell you that we cannot meet with you becausewe choose not to work for homosexuals.

Best of luck in finding someone else to fill your landscaping needs.

All my best,SabrinaTodd and Sabrina Farber
Owners,
Garden Guy, Inc.
visit us at: www.garden-guy.com


The story is getting press here in Houston. Sabrina opted to send an e-mail, rather than make a phone call so her message is also galloping loose in cyberspace and making the rounds of the biosphere.

Mr. Lord hired another firm and the Garden Guys are refusing all requests for interviews.
They did issue a statement saying that as a small business they had the right to pick and choose their clients.

I wonder, since they so firmly believe in the sanctity of marriage if they also refuse to landscape the yards of couples who can marry but choose not to, people who have a divorce or two in their past or couples who married in a temple?

It's Fall, It's Fall, It's Fall!

Fall in Houston lasts all of 2 weekends so we relish it while we can. The leaves don’t turn and there isn’t the smell of wood smoke in the air but we still know it’s fall.

I can go outside without my glasses fogging over.

The windows are open and crisp breeze is blowing through the house.

We had breakfast at an outdoor café.

My Beloved played golf yesterday and didn’t come home red faced and panting.

Everyone on the block is happily doing yard work.

The kitties are frisky.

The Friends of the Library Booksale Season has begun and new inventory is flowing into the house.

There’s a pot of soup on the stove.

We are only taking one shower a day, not 2 or three.

Kroger has replaced the lawn furniture displays with great stacks of firewood for sale. Not that we need it yet but it’s delightful to walk by it and envision a crackling fire in the fireplace.

The wheel of the year is turning yet again.

Are We Ready for Some Football??

185 Million dollars and the New Orleans Superdome is back in business. Are we ready for some football? The shrub is. He is going to do the coin toss. Where was he a year ago? I guess there were not as many good photo-opts a year ago as there will be tonight.

The Lower 9th Ward is still in shambles. Most of the schools have not re-opened. Ditto the hospitals, the libraries and many of the businesses. Rents have sky rocketed and folks are living in FEMA trailers. The people of New Orleans are still scattered far and wide – other than the criminal element which seems to be migrating back and is busily engaged in turf wars.

As far as many of the residents of the city of Houston are concerned, that criminal element is not migrating fast enough. Houston has a massive case of compassion fatigue.

But according to the strident voices of the sports announcers New Orleans is back in business.

Do you think the powers that be will be able to find an additional 185 million dollars to rebuild the schools, the Lower 9th Ward and the public housing complexes and the rest of the infra-structure?

Highly unlikely. That wouldn’t provide as good a photo opt for the shrub.

Tale of Two Classes

Constitution Day is Friday and once again, I am letting the other teachers off the hook and presenting the mandatory “Constitution” lesson. I did the same last year and my feelings on the subject of “Mandatory Constitution” have not changed one whit.

Among today’s classes were two fifth grade classes. One a regular (not the Gifted and Talented class, but a bright bunch none the less), the other a 5th Grade Bi-Lingual class.

I start the first class with my standard lead about whether they have classroom rules and build up to explain the Constitution is the rules for the United States. Earlier one of the boys had expressed amazement that we had a biography of Hitler in the library and I use that comment as a springboard to discuss Freedom of Speech and Freedom to Read.

We talk about how Hitler may have been evil but he still changed the world for the worse while Martin Luther King changed it for the better. We talk about the fall of Nazi German lead to the creation of Israel and affect on their lives today. We also touch on the KKK, the war in Iraq, 9/11 Day and restrictions on airline travel. 35 minutes later I look up and realize my next class (5th grade bi-lingual) is at the door.

First class gets up to get books, second group sits down. Same lesson, same lead in and again we are sidetracked. Not on the lasting effects of Nazi Germany, not on why the KKK is allowed to assemble, not even on the effects of 9/11. No, we are sidetracked on “what country do we live in?” I get various responses ranging from Houston to Texas to Mexico. A few know that they live in the United States but it is not a universal answer.

Their teacher, whose Spanish, is better than mine helps interpret and by the end we think everyone knows where they live. I think about asking which continent but figure I had better quit while I am ahead and besides, I have yet another class at the door.

The Powers That Be that passed the Mandatory Constitution Law are the same Powers that mandated Bi-Lingual Education. Perhaps they know how to teach the meaning and importance of the Constitution to a group of 11 year olds who are not sure where they reside.

What is sad is that these are not recent immigrants; these children are mostly native-born American citizens. And what’s even sadder is that in about 8 years many will go off and become Cannon Fodder in whatever war we are fighting . I hope they figure out what the Constitution is before they end up dying to “Protect and Defend” it.

I also hope the Powers That Be take a long hard look at Bi-Lingual Education and make some radical changes.

To Young to Be a Widow

One of my favorites on my blogroll is The Library Lady Rants. We’ve a number of things in common- we are both librarians, liberal Democrats, the mothers of daughters and lovers of kid lit.We actually found each other via the Betsy Tacy list and then meet up again a number of years late on Blogexplosion.

She marked the upcoming 5th anniversary of 9/11 with a post entitled “Dead at 21”.
Some 3000+ young men and women have given their lives for The Shurb’s little overseas adventure. I’ve been ruminating a similar post round in my brain for some time.

The local news always covers “The Death of a Hero”. There have been all too many of such sad segments. Texas has more than its fair share of enlisted men and women. Most are Hispanic or African American – reflecting the racial make up of our “All Volunteer Army”. The Anglo soldiers hail from East Houston and smaller towns surrounding the Houston metroplex – areas that are overwhelming blue collar – the land the urban cowboys call home.

These soldiers are oh so young and most are fathers. Only 19, 20 or 21 they already have a wife and one, two or three children. Many of the wives are living with their extended family and look much too young to be bear this kind of burden. They are 17, 18, 19 years old and should be in school, out shopping with friends or exploring the world. Instead, they are coping with motherhood, single parenthood and now widowhood. A lifetime of living in just 3 or 4 years.

That is not the way it is supposed to be. Nature intended us to spend 30 or 40 years on this life path, not 3 or 4. They look at the camera and talk about being “proud that he died doing what he believed in” yet we never see any follow up stories. We don’t know how they feel 6 months or a year later. Do they still mouth the party line? Or has reality set in? Do they realize that their husbands gave their lives for oil prices and party politics?
Are they angry? They should be.

The politicians sent their husbands off to war and turned them into widows’ way before their time. Yet the children of said politicians are safe in college, marrying, starting families, beginning their careers with no thought of going forth to fight and die in the heat and squalor known as Iraq.

In the eyes of the administration, the war is a good war, so long as the black and brown citizens of America are fighting it. What is going to happen when we run out of black and brown cannon fodder? The Soccer Moms who brought this President to office will turn on him like a lioness defending her cubs if the draft is reinstated to feed the war machine.

And the first one will be the Wife of the Shrub – her blond, blue eyed daughters are just the right age to go forth and fight their Daddy’s little war. He knows they never will, which is why he thinks it is a good little war. The newly made widows would beg to differ.

The Ways of the Evil Empire

1. 
   I know many call Starbucks “The Evil Empire” but when it comes to customer service they have the market cornered – at least the ones I frequent do!
   
   A new one just opened in my neighborhood and the employees already know their customers. They know names, habits and beverage preferences. It gives a small town feeling to living as an anonymous soul in a sprawling city.
   
   The assorted fast food joints in the neighborhood seem to have new employees ever other week. Said employees don’t appear to like their jobs very much either – and it shows in their attitude toward the customers. The checkers at the local Kroger are to busy gossiping with the sackers about the manager to ever favor the shoppers with a second look. The gas stations are all self -serve – in fact with the automated pumps you don’t even have to talk to anyone to fill up the car.
   
   I don’t know how Starbucks manages to inspire their employees to go the extra mile, to appear to enjoy their jobs, their colleagues and their customers. But whatever it is they do, I wish they would package it, like their coffee or fairy dust so it could be scattered around at the other neighborhood establishments.

Where'd They Go

Schools been session for a week and the dust is settling.
The cries of “Welcome Back” and “I’m so Glad to See You” are mere echoes.

Then I look around and I notice some children aren’t with us any more. We have a high mobility – it’s in the 90+% so we’re used to kids coming and going but there are some that make a niche for themselves. And they leave an empty space behind when they vanish.

Where’d the 3rd grader who loved to read go? She’s a recent immigrant, just learning English and could read circles around everyone when it came to the Spanish language books. She loved the 2 Harry Potter books we had & over the summer I’d ordered the rest of the series in Spanish just for her. I hope her new school library has them.

And where is the 2nd grader who was in my G/T class? I dropped her off at daycare one day a week as a favor to her single, working Mom and she talked my ear off the entire trip. She so wanted a pet – I hope they moved to a house so she can have one.

What about M? He’s the determined 4rd grader who is switching from Spanish to English and gobbling up the Bailey School Kids books as fast as he can. He was determined to earn his way into the Sleepover for the second year in a row and by golly he did. I hope he landed at a school that will give him a little extra attention. He has the potential to break out of the cycle of a life as a day laborer and construction worker.

Z is gone too. A precocious 1st grader, he wasn’t just gifted, he was profoundly gifted.
Give him a laptop and PowerPoint and he’d be engaged for hours. I hope he ends up with a teacher, who will appreciate his very outside the box comments and observations.

So is A, just six years old, with a smile a mile wide that show his missing front teeth.
He was so sweet though I’d heard through the grapevine that his parents were none to pleasant. I wonder if his permanent teeth came in over the summer?

I really miss G, a little owl eyed boy with wire rimed glasses. Rarely said much –my Spanish and his English are on about the same level but he did love the M& Ms game I had on one of the library computers. Computers transcend the language barrier. I hope his new librarian realizes that too.

His little spokesperson is gone too. Big brown eyes rimmed by long, lush lashes and an amazing command of the English language for one who spent most of his time in a Spanish dominant environment. He was always willing to help with translations.
I hope he has found a teacher who appreciates his gifts.

Of course, we have new kids to fill up the empty slots. I’ve dubbed one Mr. Math. He’s barely 9 and can do decimals in his head. I’ve a 3rd grader who is reading 4 books a day and is so proud that she’s learned to check the books in and out by herself. There will be others as the year progresses. However, there are always some children I will always remember and wonder about, no matter how many others have come and gone.

What Fresh Hell Is This?

To quote Dorothy Parker, when it comes to teacher in-services, the phrase that comes to mind is “What Fresh Hell is This”.

Today we all found out.

The background: The children arrive next Wednesday. Rooms need to be set up, bulletin boards done, welcome letters written, PR folders read, lesson plans created – the treadmill is beginning to rock n’ roll.

We’d spent the morning gathered together reviewing test scores and welcoming the new teachers and such like. And while we might begrudge the time we certainly understand the reason why we were gathered together.

At 1pm we are ordered all to present ourselves, along with half the employees (2,300 other souls), for a “Convocation”. Attendance is mandatory for everyone from the custodians to the principals.

A bit more background: My school is at the far east end of the district, the “Convocation” is being held at a coliseum at the far west end of the district. Between Point A and Point B is 15 miles of seriously under construction interstate that is normally bumper to bumper, no matter what the time of day. It’s a 45 minute commute and gasoline is currently hovering at $3 a gallon.

We arrive. A quick glance at the audience (and the empty seats) shows that the word “mandatory” has many different meanings to many different people.

One of the high school orchestras serenades us. We listen to a rather rambling speech about all the important people who have graduated from our district and the important people whose children attend them now. For some reason the name of one of our alumni, who was recently in the news is not mentioned. Granted, he was killed in a home invasion and granted he was doing the invading but it was newsworthy.

An elementary school chorus sings a couple of numbers. The 2006 Valedictorian rehashes his speech. I didn’t care for this sort of thing when my own children were involved, never mind children I don’t know. We listen to another rambling speech. The person to the right of me is sleeping, as is the person 2 seats over. Several people are text messaging, others are whispering. I play solitaire on my PDA. The person to the left of me is jealous; he wishes he had a PDA too. The speech rambles on. And on. And on.

We all then get to watch a video. The powers that be seem to have forgotten that the district has the technology to broadcast live video over the internet and has their own in house TV channel. The noise wakes my neighbor. We create a TAKS math problem:

2,300 hundred district employees spend 45 minutes en route, plus 2 hours sitting through and 45 minutes returning from a “Convocation”. The employees are paid approximately $25 an hour. How much did this event cost?

1. To much, teachers are overpaid and get the summer off


2. Not enough, teachers are underpaid


3. $230,000


4. Priceless – how can one put a price on the joy of bonding with one’s colleagues?

The correct answer? Well, that would depend on the point of view of the person answering the question! What do you think it is?

Musings on the Medical System

A particularly venomous migraine that defied all oral medications landed My Beloved in the hospital where attempts are being made to tame the beast with IV drugs. My Beloved, despite her robust appearance is a fragile flower so she has had many hospital and medical adventures. Actually, I should say “we” since where she goes, I go. I function as a combination patient advocate, practical nurse and security blanket. By now, I’ve gotten so good at the nursing aspect that I’ve been asked by hospital staff members if that’s what I do for living. “No” I tell them, I have just had lots of experience – and I have a strong stomach!

I noticed that most of the nurses in the Houston hospitals are either African American or imported from a certain third world country. The Anglo nurses tend, at least in Houston to end up in Doctor’s offices or day surgery units. I suspect hospital ward duty is harder and the hours must be horrid so perhaps that explains the division.

The African American nurses we’ve meet are a delight. Chipper, cheerful, accommodating and friendly. No matter what I ask, they are happy to comply and they seem to be grateful that I’m taking over some of the nursing duties. They always have a smile, a quip and a joke.

Not so the nurses from the third world country which shall remain nameless. The ones we have encountered are competent in a detached sort of way but bedside manner is not their strong point. They are brusk to the point of rudeness and seem to consider patients a necessary evil. They are also firmly convinced that they know best and resent any suggestions or advice. My Beloved has bad veins and it’s hard to get a good stick. We both know this; we warn them but they go ahead and jab anyway. The African American nurses, on the other hand take one look, listen to what I have to say and call in “the expert” – the one person in the hospital who can always hit a bad vein on the first try.

This “I’m always right” attitude spills into their relations with the other staff members too. Last night we were privy to some rather loud altercations between staff members, one of which cumulated in the slamming of a door. Hospital room walls are thin.

I’m not sure where this post is going and realize that some it comes across as very prejudicial and judgmental. It’s not meant to be, but I wonder if some of the bad press the hospital system receives isn’t the result of culture clash between the expectations of American patients and the nurse training that is prevalent in the third world country that shall remain nameless.

Hospitals who recruit from there might do well to insist on a class in Beside Manner 101 once their nurses are stateside.

Things I Hate

Robin over at The Other Mother suggested I do the “20 Things I Hate” meme to get out of my doldrums. The doldrums are very noticeable today because tomorrow I HAVE TO GO BACK TO WORK. Which means getting up at 5:30am as opposed to 7am.

I checked my contract and it says I don’t have to report till the 7th. But for some reason I have meeting after meeting scheduled for next week so I might as well bite the bullet and get into the routine. Texas teachers have no union with any power so when the administration says “Be There” we have to “Be There”. Or else. And “or else” does nothing toward getting the bills paid

1. I hate the alarm at 5:30 am. I really do like my job, I just wish school didn’t start at 7am
2. I hate the Katy Freeway (also known at Interstate 10 West). It is under a state of permanent construction.
3. While I don’t mind getting old, in fact life gets more and more interesting with each passing day, I do hate the fact that my eyes and knees don’t work as well as they used too.
4. And while I’m at it, I hate the fact that my metabolism doesn’t work as well as it used to either. Once upon a time, I could anything and everything. That was then, and sadly, it is no longer now.
5. I hate folding the sheets.
6. I hate buying clothes – especially in large department stores because the staff would rather do anything but be helpful. Houston just got a Nordstrum where I understand the staff is actually happy to assist customers. I plan to check them out the next time I need “real clothes”. Which I hope won’t be till one of my daughters marry. Which isn’t about to happen anytime soon. Which is good.
7. I hate it when the state or any institution squanders thousands and thousands of dollars on fancy furniture, parties and trips while children haven’t health insurance and park workers are laid off to accommodate budget cuts.
8. I hate it when parents seem to have money for cigarettes but not for glasses for their children. You’d be amazed how common this is.
9. I hate writing book descriptions for E-bay. I love scouting for books and selling books, but writing descriptions is an almighty bore.
10. I hate it when my computer is balky.
11. I hate the fact that the school district is so worried about cyber predators that they throw out the baby with the bath water and ban all access to blogging sites and anything else that might cause a problem. Wouldn’t it be better to teach the kids safety rules instead?
12. I hate this stupid war. It’s pointless. I wonder what all the Soccer Moms who supported the shrub will do when their children are called up for provide cannon fodder? With enlistments going down I wouldn’t be surprised to see the draft reappearing.
13. I hate Hummers. What a useless excuse for a car and what a statement in selfish conspicuous consumption. Have you noticed that people who drive one are always on their cell phones and think traffic laws and traffic courtesy are for everyone but Hummer Drivers?
14. I hate out of control children. For someone, a portion of the population who shops at thrift stores thinks nothing of letting their children turn the place into a playground. They also see nothing wrong with letting their baby or toddler scream and cry for a solid 20 minutes.
15. I hate it when the cat pees where she shouldn’t. It’s normally when she’s mad at us. She is one smart cat.
16. hate talking to technical support people who reside in another continent and yet try and convince me that they are stateside. The jig is up when your accent is so heavy that I have to ask you to repeat everything 3 times. That’s the main reason I didn’t replace my Dell with another Dell.
17. I hate anything having to do with Health Insurance. Yes, I’m lucky to have it, but why does it have to be so cumbersome and difficult to deal with.
18. I hate it when Amazon and E-bay buyers have unrealistic expectations regarding mailing times. If someone buys a book on Monday it is not going to show up in their mailbox on Tuesday. And despite what they think, I have no control over how long it takes the USPS to deliver. If I had that kind of power I wouldn’t have to work for a living.
19. I hate ED commercials. The golf channel runs 24/7 at our house and I’ve decided that men spend way to much time worrying about that particular portion of their anatomy. I consider those commercial to be TMI to the extreme. The enlarged prostate medication commercials are just as bad.
20. I hate it when the car breaks down. In my next life I want to live in a city with good public transportation and not own one.

You know, it worked, I do feel better! I’m not passing this on to anyone but take it and run with it you want to! It is very cathartic!

A Bit to Much Time with Books?

Dallas
I’m happily wallowing in a DVD of second season of Dallas -my favorite prime time soap. One of the characters walks over to a bookshelf and pulls down a book. I notice that shelved beside it is the The Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book, Third edition.

I start to wonder – why is that book on the shelf? Sue Ellen hasn’t been sent away to dry out yet nor admitted she has a problem so she wouldn’t be reading it. Even though I know it, and all the books were just stuck on there by some set dresser with no thought as to what the titles were.

Then I muse “What would it worth on E-bay?”

And to make it worse, I already know the answer – not much, I’ve sold 3 of them lately! To bad it wasn' the First Edition.

Back in Cyberspace Again

Though I've not been posting them, I'm still writing my monthly article BookThink. It's great fun and makes me feel like I'm a real bookseller - as opposed to an E-bay Bottom Feeder!

Buying and Selling Children's BooksThere's No Business Like Show Business
Guusje Moore dances onto the BookThink stage today, and the theme song is children's books with a show biz angle - and a special emphasis on ballet. As always, key authors in the genre are identified and flashpoints abound. Speaking of flashpoints, Guusje also illustrates a pattern in books with special value: The best ones often possess two or more flashpoints.

There's No Business Like Show Business
Many girl's novels from the 1940s to the 1960s were written by middle and upper class white women for middle and upper class white girls. These were times when women had, wrote Betty Freidan in The Feminist Mystique, very limited options, especially in career choices.

Girl's fiction reflected these limitations. Many of us dreamed of careers in television or the movies. After all, wasn't Annette starring in the Mickey Mouse Club? And what girl didn't dream of being the next Shirley Temple or Margaret O'Brien in the movies? There was also ballet. The annual ritual of the Nutcracker Suite ballet inspired dreams of more than just sugar plums. From these dreams grew the show business genre. Yes, the chances of any child making it in the entertainment business were and still are slim to none, but what 10 year old is a realist? In any case, childhood is a time to dream big.

Many, many girls took ballet lessons and avidly read the Susie books by Lee Wyndham: Susie and the Dancing Cat, A Dance for Susie, On Your Toes Susie, Susie and the Ballet Family, and Susie and the Ballet Horse. A couple of these were published as Scholastic paperbacks, and while they aren't worth much individually, they still sell well in lots. Susie and the Ballet Horse follows the familiar rule of series books: It is the last and the hardest to find, and it commands the best price. You can easily expect to get $50 for it on eBay, and it might even break $100 if multiple bidders are competing for it. You'll notice this title has another flashpoint - "horses" - besides "ballet."

Wyndam was a prolific author who also wrote career romances. Candy Stripers, Beth Hilton: Model, Slipper Under Glass, and Golden Slippers are all common since they were available in paperback, but Lady Architect is worth a very tidy sum.

Eunice Young Smith set her Jennifer books in the mid-west at the turn of the century. Her most popular, Jennifer Dances, has a ballet theme, but her scarcest book is - following the same pattern - the final one in the series, High Heels for Jennifer.

The girls across the pond are just as ballet crazy as their American counterparts, and British kid lit feeds this passion. You'll find many of these books listed on eBay from sellers located in Australia or England. US bidders who are uncomfortable with overseas sellers will naturally gravitate to listings closer to home, especially if you emphasize that they will only have to pay USPS Media Mail rates.

Mabel Esther Allan, creator of the Ballet Family series, was the most prolific British writer in this sub-genre. As Jean Estoril she wrote another ballet series, the Drina books. Using her own name and the noms de plume Anne Pilgrim and Priscilla Hagon, she wrote many other books for girls. The Ballet Family books (The Ballet Family, The Ballet Family Again, and The Dancing Garlands) were published in this country under her own name, but overseas they sometimes appeared under Estoril. We Danced in Bloomsbury Square is part of the series: It also appears under both names, and it's another book with double flashpoints - ballet and twins.

The Drina books begin, as so many ballet series do, with Drina taking her first ballet lesson, and end with Drina as a prima ballerina. Long out of print, they have a devoted fan base and even the paperbacks sell, and sell well. Each one of them has the name 'Drina' in the title, making them easy to spot. In fact, this is a common trait of most series books: The main character's name is usually part of the title. That made it easy for children to find them on a library shelf, and today it is equally easy for a bookseller to find them at an FOL sale.

Most of the books Allan wrote as Anne Pilgrim and Priscilla Hagon are stand-alone books written for teenagers, and they too sell very, very well. I once sold a very ratty, battered, rebound, ex-library copy of Clare Goes to Holland for $50. She also wrote a number of books set in British boarding schools - a very collectible genre all of its own - as well as mysteries and young adult romances.

Keeping pace with Mabel Esther Allan was fellow countrywoman Lorna Hill. Hill wrote more than 30 books, and thank goodness she wrote them all under the same name! Like Allan, she wrote series books - the Marjorie series (not about ballet), the Sadler's Wells series (this was the original name of the Royal Ballet School and is also a flashpoint; the theater was commonly referred to as "The Wells"), and the Dancing Peels series. Snap up any of these you see. It doesn't matter if they are paperback, hardback or ex-library. Her other non-ballet books are the Vicarage Children series and the Patience books, and there are three books for adults as well.

Non-series books of these prolific authors often command higher prices than series titles. Often, not as many copies were printed, or libraries didn't buy them, preferring to allocate their always insufficient budget toward the series books instead.

Noel Streatfeild, whom I've mentioned before, is best known for Ballet Shoes.
This title is still in print and not worth listing, but she wrote many other show business books. The American editions were all re-titled to include the word "shoes," including Dancing Shoes, Skating Shoes, Movie Shoes, and Family Shoes. The English editions retain the original titles: Wintle's Wonders, White Boots, The Painted Garden, and The Bell Family among them.

Little girls still dream of being ballerinas, and there are many contemporary books available to satisfy their passion. ChildrensLit has an extensive list, with pictures for those of you who are visual learners. And you'll also find lists on Amazon. The best approach for more recent titles is to use bag day sales to put together lots.

Along with ballet, there was the lure of the bright lights of Broadway. Helen Dore Boylston is best known for her Sue Barton nurse books, but she also wrote (with the help of her actress friend and neighbor Eva Le Gallienne) the Carol Page books - Carol Goes on Stage, Carol on Broadway, Carol Goes Backstage, Carol Plays Summer Stock, and Carol on Tour. These are much, much harder to find. A full set of this series might get you close to Power Seller status on eBay!

Janet Lambert, another author who has previously appeared in my columns, couldn't resist the lure of the theater in some of her Penny Parrish books. In fact, she had so much fun putting Penny on the stage that she wrote the Parri MacDonald series about Penny's daughter, who also aspires to tread the boards. Happily, if you're a reader (or sadly, if you're a bookseller), Janet Lambert has been re-printed in paperback, but her avid fans will still snap up any hardbacks that you come across.

Showboat Summer, one of the Pam and Penny books by Rosamund Du Jardin, is a summer romance book with a theater background. Again, note the double flashpoints; this time it's theater and twins.

The eight-volume Peggy Lane series, written by Virginia Hughes, was actually penned by a syndicate in the 1960s. The Girls' Series Companion sums it up rather well:
"This series is based on the premise that a girl from Rockport, Wisconsin - having no previous acting experience - can come to New York and become a stage and screen actress in a short period of time. Initially, Peggy gets some unbelievably lucky breaks that will irritate anyone who has struggled and starved to become an actor." These are more common in paperback, although Grosset & Dunlap did publish hardcover versions with quite sophisticated and distinctive cover art. Keep an eye out for later titles such as Peggy Finds the Theater, Peggy Plays Paris, or Peggy Goes Hollywood.

The crossover genre of career romance novels for young adults of course includes books on the theater and dance. Yankee Ballerina by Marie-Jeanne and Hollywood Starlet by Dixie Wilson are but two examples.

Have you noticed a trend here? Many desirable children's books have double if not triple flashpoints. I can't recall any books about an orphaned little witch who becomes a dancing sensation and then adopts a pet cat, but I am sorely tempted to write one. It would become an instant classic. In the meantime I'll keep looking for books with pictures of stage lights and tutus on the cover!

Something Else!

I really feel like writing today- I’m finally feeling ahead of myself book listing wise and I’m allowing myself to do SOMETHING ELSE!

Among the something elses is surfing Blog Explosion, reading the blogs and looking for the gold nuggets among the chaff. Trust me; there is a great deal of chaff out there in the blogsphere!

I did find Dementia Blues, written on a subject I thankfully have little experience with, but so well written than I just kept reading the posts. From experience, I know that folks with well-written blogs link to other well-written blogs so I clicked around and found, A Long and Writing Road which had one of those fun “snapshot” memes that are always enjoyable to read and complete.

1. Yourself: Contented & semi hungrey.
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend: Alternately dozing and watching golf while prone on the couch
3. Your hair: Brown with threads of gray.
4. Your Mother: In Holland visiting her sister and showing off her two granddaughters.
5. Your Father: Died 3 years ago this month.
6. Your Favorite Item: Laptop and WiFi
7. Your dream last night: Bizarre and muddled.
8. Your Favorite Drink: Coca Cola – the Real Thing or a Starbucks Latte.
9. Your Dream Home: Library or a well stocked thrift store.
10. The Room You Are In: Living Room
11. Your fear: Overstaying my welcome on this earth
12. Where you Want to be in Ten Years? Retired
13. Who you hung out with last night: My Beloved, our 5 cats and my buddies on the Internet.
14. What You’re Not: Pessimistic.
15. Your Best Friends: Few but cherished.
16. One of Your Wish List Items: Wall to wall built in bookshelves.
17. Your Gender: Female
18. The Last Thing You Did: Listed books to sell on Amazon
19. What You Are Wearing: T-shirt & shorts
2o. Your favorite weather: Houston in March – not to hot, not to cold, which is unlike Houston the rest of the year.
21. Your Favorite Book? Changes every week if not every day!
22.Last thing you ate? Lentil & rice salad with feta cheese.
23. Your Life: busy, active and fulfilling.
24. Your mood: Cheerful.
25. The last person you talked to on the phone: Sister in law.
26. Who are you thinking about right now? That a margarita or cold beer with some Tex-Mex would taste really good!

Whom am I passing this one too? Nobody, but if you feel so inclined go for it!

Books Books Books Can One Overdose on Books?

Lately my life appears to be all books, all the time! Not only do I spend my workday surrounded by them, they occupy my nights and weekends too.

The big difference between the school year and the summer is that along with reading children’s books, selling books, scouting for books, packing books and listing books I add reading adult books to my list of literary mania. Some I read for pleasure, some are professional and some are both. Summer is my time to explore new authors and come up with new lessons to for the upcoming school year.


Persephone Books

In the new author department, I’ve actually discovered a new publisher - Persephone Books of London, England. In their own words: “ Persephone prints mainly neglected fiction and non-fiction by women, for women and about women. The titles are chosen to appeal to busy women who rarely have time to spend in ever-larger bookshops and who would like to have access to a list of books designed to be neither too literary nor too commercial. The books are guaranteed to be readable, thought-provoking and impossible to forget .”

I came across Persephone while prowling Amazon – Persephone is responsible for the re-appearance of one my favorite authors, Noel Streatfeild. I’ve all her children’s books and while I knew she started out as an adult author I’ve never read any of her gown up books. So I’m most ways through Saplings, which I’m thoroughly enjoying, though it’s odd to read a sex scene written by an author I avidly read as a child. Sort of the same feeling one gets when one realizes that yes, one’s parents did actually “do it” !

I have since bought a few more of their offerings and I’m delighted with their choices. The books are also physically very attractive, with sturdy silver covers and unique endpapers.

In the professional books section, Judy Freeman, who is every school librarian & school teachers best friend produced a new 4th edition of her hefty tome Books Kids Will Sit Still For. I stumbled across the first and second editions at a library sale so now I have a full set. It's a companion of Books Kids Will Sit Still For 2. Not only does she include the most detailed book lists and bibliographies on the planet; for good measure, she includes a hundred or so pages of lesson and activity ideas. It is an entire library programs wrapped up in 900+ pages!

The Librarian & Teacher Bible

When I am not reading I am listing books. Summer time is catch up time. It’s when I start hauling the boxes of books purchased at the spring Friend of the Library Sales out of the garage and getting them into my auction program. Summers are always slow on E-bay so I put them in the hopper and upload them when the holiday buying season begins in September.

Books, Books, Books!


So, can one overdose on books? Maybe, but it hasn’t happened yet!

Hunched Shoulders

Ah, the joys of summer and leisure time – I treated myself to a pedicure.
Here in Houston, Vietnamese immigrants staff almost all of the strip center nail saloons.
The man of the family runs the cash register and guards all the money while the women beautify the customers.

Sitting there, being pampered I noticed the bent over shoulders of the woman who was working on me.

A century ago, the immigrant women were bent over sewing machines as they worked in the garment sweatshops. The garment industry is now outsourced to the Orient and today’s immigrants are hunched over the feet of the descendants of those exploited workers. And the exploitation still continues.

I wonder, when the 22nd century rolls around what task the hunched and bent shoulders will be doing?

Is He or Isnt He?

I have never given much credence to conspiracy theories. Figured that those were the province of the crackpots, the crazy folks, the wild eyed ones.

An amazing number of intelligent, sane, literate people really do believe that Ken Lay isn’t dead. Sane literate people whom I know and respect and who are my friends and family. I find myself agreeing with them. It is a scary feeling – am I suddenly in my dotage? I am not old enough for that stage of life yet (like all Baby Boomers I am not embracing old age)!

Go to Goggle and type in “Ken Lay is Not Dead” – and up come hundreds of hits.
The conspiracy blogs are buzzing. When the news came out that Lay was to be cremated, with no viewing the blogs began to sound like a hive a angry of bees.

It was all just so “coincidental”, the timing is all so perfect. Ken Lay, was much to his surprise convicted. Despite claims that he has no money he manages a vacation in a small town near Aspen. Conveniently, he dies there, far away from big city media and the one of the best high tech medical centers in the nation.

Lay has the money, he has the political connections (after all, he’s Kenny Boy to the The Shrub ), he has the smarts, he has the cunning and he has the nerve. Anyone who testifies with a straight face that he did not know what was going on in his own company and thinks he can bamboozle the jury with his story has nerve aplenty.

I bet John Grisham already has already finished his first draft!

Ken Lay is the new Elvis

According to the local news Houston Talk Radio is all abuzz that Ken Lay isn't really dead. He's faked his own death and it's all part of a big conspiracy so that he won't have to go to prison.
He's taken all the money and run away to Argentina or Costa Rica. He called in his political markers and George Bush & the CIA helped him get away. He's sitting on a beach somewhere sipping Pina Coladas and laughing his ass off.

KHOU- TV has a section for readers comments and there are many like this one:
"My first reaction was that his death was staged and he's on his way to Argentina for a little plastic surgery. "

Fascinating theory - and the scary part is that nobody would be surprised if it was true!

Ken Lay 1942-2006

Well, he cheated the system yet again. Yes of course I'm sorry for his family, sorry he's dead but I think he got off easy and so did his family.

But all the people who lost their jobs, lost their life savings and lost their idenity will never finish picking up and putting together the pieces of their lives. They know Ken Lay will never have to do any of that any more.

Oddly, the news media are busy returning him to sainthood. They appear to be bending over backward not to speak ill of the dead. Yesterday he was a crook, today he's a "good man". Go figure.