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A.K. Smiley Public Library Blog

Serving the City of Redlands, California since 1894

Teresa Letizia

Beloved teachers, our guides to thinking for ourselves

August 13, 2023 By Teresa Letizia

Walking through the Redlands Bowl amphitheater today I read the inscription engraved over the stage, “Without vision, a people perish.” I pondered the meaning of the biblical verse. Does it mean that failing to examine ourselves, our culture, and the possibilities of our future, will lead to our downfall? Hm, too bad we can’t ‘phone a friend’ from ancient Rome…

Oh, I thought, in a sense, we can do just that—by crossing the street to Smiley Library. We can probably find some ancient Roman writings, or some historical analyses of ancient Rome right inside that building. If we study with these tools, we can learn from our ancient friends. Libraries are tool shops of critical-thinking implements for the self-examination that we need to survive. “Critical thinking” is defined as “disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence.” With such discipline, we can teach ourselves and create that needed “vision.”

Of course, our society relies heavily on professional teachers who take on that burden of creating critical thinkers of us. As most are preparing now or have already begun teaching school for the 2023-24 year, we really must honor them, (thank you, teachers!) for it is an unenviable task, and a gift, to be able to pull out of each of us individuals our own unique vision and voice.

To gain some insight into what these heroes go through, we return to the library for a tool of learning. New to Smiley Library is, The Teachers: A Year Inside America’s Most Vulnerable, Important Profession, a new bestseller by investigative journalist and substitute teacher Alexandra Robbins. She provides detailed accounts of the lives of three teachers working in various regions of the country over a period of a school year. Robbins describes everything from the challenges they encounter in their work to how that work encroaches on their personal lives (as well as busting the myth that teachers laze around all summer). She sprinkles in interviews with additional teachers nationwide who share their challenges and wins. Robbins also provides essays on many of the big issues facing the profession today, everything from “school violence to outrageous parent behavior to inadequate support, staffing, and resources.”

You know, whether we are studying for ourselves in the library, or presiding over a classroom of students, we, each of us, is a teacher. Not all may be cut out to be a professional one, but all of us are teachers. It may be as simple as your new co-worker asking you how to complete a task, or a tourist on the street asking if you know how to get to the best sandwich place in town. You think on your feet, put yourself in their place, and try to lay out the path for them.

One group who does this type of teaching, as well as a more formal kind, are parents, and others in the village who help raise our children. We have a book for them too, Raising Critical Thinkers: A Parent’s Guide to Growing Wise Kids in the Digital Age. Curriculum developer and longtime homeschooling parent Julie Bogart provides methods in this guide for “objectively evaluating data, learning investigative skills by making room for dissenting points of view, examining one’s own prejudices and biases, and understanding how bias plays into opinion making.” And she makes it fun with stories and activities for students of all ages.

Finally, Lessons Learned and Cherished: The Teacher Who Changed my Life is a feel-good and inspiring little book by ABC News journalist Deborah Roberts who curates a collection of essays and musings from celebrity friends and colleagues that share “how teachers changed them, imparted life lessons, and helped them get to where they are today.” Roberts has made a donation to DonorsChoose.org, a non-profit that encourages people to empower public school teachers by funding their classroom resources.

Filed Under: What's New

Readings on Juneteenth

June 16, 2023 By Teresa Letizia

Juneteenth commemorates the day that the last of enslaved people in the United States were informed of their right to be free. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. It wasn’t until U.S. General Gordon Grainger, accompanied by 2,000 Union troops, arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, and issued General Order #3 on June 19, 1865 that:

“The people are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property, between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them, become that between employer and hired labor.”

Though Juneteenth has been celebrated in the ensuing years, it became a federal holiday in 2021.

Learn about “The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth” at the National Museum of African American History & Culture: https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/historical-legacy-juneteenth, and check out our list of available books and e-books.

★ On Juneteenth / Gordon-Reed, Annette
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★ Juneteenth / Garrett, Van G. (YRR)
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★ What is Juneteenth? / Jewel, Kirsti (YRR)
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★ Juneteenth for Mazie / Cooper, Floyd (eBook)
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★ Juneteenth : our day of freedom / Wyeth, Sharon Dennis (YRR)
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★ Free at last : a Juneteenth poem / Rolle, Sojourner Kincaid (YRR)
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★ The night before freedom : a Juneteenth story / Armand, Glenda (YRR)
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★ African-American holidays / Winchester, Faith (YRR)
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★ Build a house / Giddens, Rhiannon (YRR)
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★ The strange career of William Ellis : the Texas slave who became a Mexican millionaire / Jacoby, Karl (Heritage Room)
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★ How the Word Is Passed : A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America / Smith, Clint (e-Book)

Filed Under: News + Events

The anniversary of the American Flag is June 14th – read all about it!

June 12, 2023 By Teresa Letizia

The Continental Congress of the United States adopted this resolution on June 14, 1777:

That the flag of the United States shall be of
thirteen stripes of alternate red and white,
with a union of thirteen stars of white in a blue field,
representing the new constellation.

Both President Wilson, in 1916, and President Coolidge, in 1927, issued proclamations asking for June 14 to be observed as the National Flag Day. But it wasn’t until August 3, 1949, that Congress approved the national observance, and President Harry Truman signed it into law.

Find a book here to learn more about our flag, its history and stories, as well as memories and pictures:

★ The flag, the poet, and the song : the story of the Star-Spangled Banner / Molotsky, Irvin

★ So proudly we hail : the history of the United States flag / Furlong, William Rea

★ Long may she wave : a graphic history of the American flag / Hinrichs, Kit

★ Flag : an American biography / Leepson, Marc

★ History of the United States flag / Quaife, Milo Milton

★ Stars & stripes forever : the history, stories, and memories of our American flag / Schneider, Dick

★ What so proudly we hail; all about our American flag, monuments, and symbols / Krythe, Maymie R.

Filed Under: News + Events

In case you need to hear this: “You are more than enough.” Mental health awareness reading resources for us all

May 12, 2023 By Teresa Letizia

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♥ Body aware : rediscover your mind-body connection, stop feeling stuck, and improve your mental health with simple movement practices / Hornthal, Erica
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♥ The self-healing mind : an essential five-step practice for overcoming anxiety and depression, and revitalizing your life / Brown, Gregory Scott
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♥ Maya Angelou’s guide to hope : 50 simple ways to spread hope / Grant, Hardie
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♥ Influenced : the impact of social media on our perception /Boxer Wachler, Brian S.
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♥ Emotional labor : the invisible work shaping our lives and how to claim our power/ Hackman, Rose
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♥ Lighter : let go of the past, connect with the present, and expand the future / Yung Pueblo
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♥ My greatest save : the brave, barrier-breaking journey of a world-champion goalkeeper / Scurry, Briana
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♥ Invisible wounds / Ruliffson, Jess
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♥ Why has nobody told me this before? / Smith, Julie
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♥ Own your past : change your future / Delony, John
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♥ The urge : our history of addiction / Fisher, Carl Erik
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♥ Health and wellness / Saddleback Educational Publishing
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♥ In love : a memoir of love and loss / Bloom, Amy
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♥ What my bones know / Foo, Stephanie
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♥ Why therapy works : using our minds to change our brains / Cozolino, Louis J.
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♥ Pathological : the true story of six misdiagnoses / Fay, Sarah
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♥ Losing our minds : the challenge of defining mental illness / Foulkes, Lucy
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♥ Complex borderline personality disorder : how coexisting conditions affect your BPD and how you can gain emotional balance / Fox, Daniel J.
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♥ Mindful cognitive behavioral therapy : a simple path to healing, hope, and peace / Gillihan, Seth
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♥ A life in light : meditations on impermanence / Pipher, Mary Bray
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♥ Building happier kids : stress-busting tools for parents / Bhargava, Hansa
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♥ Happy at any cost : the revolutionary vision and fatal quest of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh / Grind, Kirsten
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♥ Eat to beat depression and anxiety : nourish your way to better mental health in six weeks / Ramsey, Drew
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♥ The anatomy of hope : how people prevail in the face of illness / Groopman, Jerome E.
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♥ Birds of a feather : a true story of hope and the healing power of animals / Lindner, Lorin
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♥ Unconditional : learning to navigate & reframe mental illness together / Garner, Allison
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♥ We’re not broken : changing the autism conversation / Garcia, Eric
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♥ Microjoys : finding hope (especially) when life is not okay / Spiegel, Cyndie
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♥ Broken (in the best possible way) / Lawson, Jenny

Filed Under: News + Events

Visit national parks–connect with nature for Earth Day; Redlands events, April 22

April 2, 2023 By Teresa Letizia

As I’m writing this from the Library, I am so thankful to be able to look out the window at the green space of Smiley Park around us. Not all of us are so lucky as to be able to experience an expanse of living and breathing grasses, plants, and trees at our places of work, or even at our homes. Though the Park is not as huge as, say, a national park, it does its job and provides a healing respite for us, even those of us just looking out the window at it.

In the spirit of this respite, ahead of Earth Day on April 22nd, I’m featuring Smiley Library’s newest books on our national parks. Our 63 parks are treasures which a lot of us may not make the time to visit, but which really should be experienced—they hold such grand magnificence! The more we get to feel mountains of earth beneath our feet and the warm sun and whirling wind on our skin, the more we get to breathe in deeply the fresh aromas of nature and listen for the trickling, falling, gushing of water, and to get to spy—just the vast, open space! — and the variety of creatures who live within the ecosystem of a national park, the more we will fall in love with the natural world which supports us, and the more we’ll be inspired to care for it. It’s ultimately our home, after all. And it’s what Earth Day is all about.

I’m really looking forward to Guardians of the Valley: John Muir and the Friendship That Saved Yosemite, by bestselling author Dean King (Skeletons on the Zahara), now available at the Library. Naturalist John Muir, known as the founder of the Sierra Club, was an author and environmental philosopher, and an early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States. King’s account describes how Muir evolves from “self-styled hobo” to fervent advocate with the help of his longtime editor and friend, Robert Underwood Johnson, magazine editor and pragmatic 19th century influencer. In a visit to Yosemite in 1889, they were horrified to witness great destruction to the land from damming, logging, grazing, mining, and tourism. The ying-yang balance of their personalities became the catalyst that saved the landscape of Yosemite, made it a national park, and heralded in the U.S. environmental movement.

Fast-forward half a century to the setting of journalist Nate Schweber’s This America of Ours: Bernard and Avis DeVoto and the Forgotten Fight to Save the Wild. Engaging from the very first page, it reads as a novel in which the DeVotos are superheroes in the making. Yes, superheroes were still needed to defend our open public lands from greed and corruption. Prolific writer Bernard and his wife and editor, Avis, took on the fight and ultimately were censored and blacklisted in the 1950s, but came back with a grassroots coalition to help save our national parks.

Others resources for park visitors include:

Yosemite, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, by Michael Grosberg;

Fodor’s Utah: [with Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Capitol Reef & Canyonlands National Parks], by Shelley Arenas;

Fodor’s the Complete Guide to the National Parks of the West, by Shelley Arenas;

Fodor’s the Complete Guide to the National Parks of the USA, by Karen Anderson;

National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the United States, by National Geographic Society (U.S.).

You may also want to look for Ken Burns’ spectacular documentary on the national parks on PBS, or on a streaming platform, or his book in our catalog, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea: An Illustrated History, by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns.

And don’t forget; Smiley Library patrons can now use their library cards to gain free parking while visiting over 200 California state parks. California State Library Parks Passes circulate for two weeks and are non-renewable.

As a reminder, the Library holds a lot more items on natural sites to explore, whether it’s national parks, state parks, wilderness areas, hiking trails, particular flora and fauna, etc. For example, with our recent wet weather and the super blooms it is bringing, you may want to know more about wildflowers and where to find them; hopefully some are growing within these parks. Look for Yosemite Wildflowers: A Field Guide to the Wildflowers of Yosemite National Park, by Barry Breckling.

You may want to carry with you, as a nod to April being National Poetry Month, American Wildflowers: A Literary Field Guide, with which to serenade your companion among the wildflowers. A delightful compilation of diverse representation and works edited by Susan Barba, the offerings of writers who wax poetic on these elusive creations of beauty, are organized among a field guide and feature charming watercolors by Leanne Shapton.

♥ Celebrate Earth Day in Redlands on the morning of Saturday, April 22, by participating in your choice of a variety (dozens!) of hands-on events around town sponsored by ANCA (Accelerate Neighborhood Climate Action) and many other Redlands environmental organizations. Refer to www.redlandsearthday.org/ for more information, and to register.

♥ Donate books in front of Smiley Library on Earth Day, and at Redlands Community Center, from 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. “The 3 R’s: Recyle & Reuse *Books* to Reduce the Carbon Fooprint!”

♥ Learn why so many have been observing Earth Day since 1970; take a look at “A Brief History of Earth Day,” a short, enlightening PowerPoint presentation by ANCA member Andy Green, as well as our reading list post of books on environment-related topics.

Enjoy your time exploring our Great Outdoors!

Filed Under: What's New

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