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The Redlands Adult Literacy Program recently published its fourth volume of Our Stories, A Collection of Writings, composed of writings from adult learners enrolled in the Redlands Adult Literacy program. This year’s anthology is especially significant because many of the stories were written by adult learners who worked with their tutors remotely during the pandemic. Diane Shimota, Adult Literacy Coordinator, shared: “The community can celebrate the dedication of tutors and learners who prioritized writing during this difficult year. The anthology is filled with heart-felt and powerful stories, poems, and letters. The commitment to literacy expressed by each participant in the literacy program is evidence of the learners’ resilience.”

The anthology includes learners’ stories of overcoming challenges in their lives, including taking the first step to ask for help with reading and writing, choosing to leave home for a better life, or supporting relatives suffering from the Coronavirus. Manuela Ballesteros described her experiences of the past year in How the Pandemic Affected Me, sharing, “Fear and panic can paralyze you at any time and in any circumstance.” In her story, My Experiences During COVID-19, Maribel Mejia shared her experience as the mother of four children who spent the past year learning remotely from home. “It was stressful for everyone, but I am glad my kids were able to manage this situation and help each other with assignments. Two of my kids play the trumpet; you can imagine how noisy it was, but my other kids didn’t complain too much… they knew how important it was for their brothers to play an instrument.”

Personal stories highlight the authors’ transformative experiences or personal connections to people in their lives. Some learners shared their dreams for the future, their interests, or their important memories. In The Story of “Smallpox,” Yanhong Zhou shared the poignant story of her son’s love for his pet frog, a story that will touch the heart of any parent whose son has experienced love and loss of a pet.

Stories in this collection reflect the wide range of writing levels of adults in the literacy program. Each author worked diligently through the writing process with the assistance of a volunteer tutor. By working with their tutors, learners develop vital literacy skills.

Our Stories, A Collection of Writings, Volumes 1 through 4 are available for checkout at A.K. Smiley Public Library. Additionally, many of the authors who submitted writings for the anthology accepted an invitation to read their stories on videotape and share them with the Redlands community. These stories will be available for viewing soon on the literacy webpage, www.akspl.org/literacy.

Adult learners, their tutors, and the community can celebrate when an adult learner reads their first book or newspaper article, attends a computer class and sends their first email, or writes a letter or story that expresses their hopes and dreams. These literacy skills enable adult learners to step forward to achieve new successes and change their own and their families’ lives. We are grateful for the continued support of the community, the city council, the Library, and the volunteers who make adult literacy, and now family literacy, available in Redlands.

If you would like to volunteer with the Redlands Adult Literacy Program, please contact Diane Shimota, Adult Literacy Coordinator, at (909)798-7565 ext. 4138 or email literacy@akspl.org. You can learn more about the adult literacy program by attending the next volunteer tutor orientation scheduled for January 2022.  Please contact Diane for more information.

If you know of someone who needs help in reading and writing, please encourage them to take the first step in changing their life by contacting the Redlands Adult Literacy Program. Tutoring is free and confidential.

Halloween has arrived, so have you been scared enough yet? All over town, folks have decorated their yards with extremely scary, spine-tingling scenes which may yield a scream or two! Let me take this opportunity to give you a good, old-fashioned fright with some scary book recommendations for your young readers!

First on our recommended list is “The Doll in the Hall and Other Scary Stories” by Max Brallier, the first volume in the series of “Mister Shivers.” This book will have your young reader turn page after page to get to the end of each of the spine tingling tales.  Will your young reader be able to finish all five of these scary stories before dark?! Written for younger readers with large print and pictures interspersed throughout the book, this spooky book may need to be read over and over again!

The second chilling book recommendation for your youngster is “Attack of the Vampire Weenies and Other Warped and Creepy Tales” written by David Lubar. This foreboding book has not five, not 10, not even 20, but 35 terrifying tales to read! Short, but not sweet, stories of creepiness and eye-rolling adventures that will deepen the trance your young reader will be under as they navigate through each tale. Let us know which tale scares you the most!

Our next suggestion for a day or night of frights is part of the “Eerie Elementary” series by Jack Chabert, “The School is Alive.” Were you a school monitor when you were in elementary school? I remember being able to wear the important vest to signify that I was the monitor for the day! In our featured, hair-raising book list, this title will most likely end up on top! Let Sam and his friends help you decide if his school is really alive! Then when your youngster arrives at their school on Monday, they can decide if their school could be alive as well?!

You’re not afraid of a few zombies walking around town…are (say “are” for 10 seconds) you? When is the last time your sleepover had a zombies invasion? In “The Zombie Chasers” Zack and his buddies found out the hard way how to eliminate the zombie attack: with a little brain power and with his werewolf buddy assisting, maybe the sleepover can resume tomorrow night? This unnerving story will elicit a few giggles throughout the pages, intermingled with a lot of goosebumps!

Speaking of a book giving you goosebumps, you’ll need to come right over to the library and check out ”Only If you Dare, 13 Stories of Darkness and Doom” by Josh Allen. This book has 13, nightmare-bringing stories for your youngster to read and get chilled to the bone!  Let us know which one of these 13 tales keep lurking in your brain after you have read each and every evil tale!

Have a safe and fun Halloween!

Alarm bells are sounded daily concerning our environment: we are bombarded with disturbing news topics such as climate change bringing about hotter temperatures and ‘extreme heat events;’ increased wildfires; increased drought; warming, rising oceans; more severe storms; loss of species; pollinator decline; lack of nutritious foods; increased health risks; poverty and displacement; and so much more (from United Nations, www.un.org). It can be a lot to take in, so we tend to tune out much of it. When we do think about the challenges we are charged with as caretakers for our planet, we are concerned, but we’re not sure what we can do. . . Someone else will figure it out.

Dara McAnulty would ask each of us, however, to be that someone else and to attempt to find at least some small way to aid in ‘figuring it out.’ He too is burdened with the static of the world around us, but to a degree many of us have not experienced. Dara is an Irish teenager, environmental activist, and author of Diary of a Young Naturalist, who also happens to be on the autism spectrum. He shares with us his gift of a unique perspective–reminding us that each of us has one as well.

When he was diagnosed, Dara’s parents were told that he “will never be able to complete a comprehension.” That his book, which won the 2020 Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing, exists at all is a revelation. His memoir is one of a young man, wise beyond his years, who displays deep thinking and succinct writing. He is well versed in all things nature, and spills his hopes and fears and knowledge out onto the page with such lovely, lyrical honesty that we want to stand up and cheer, and then sit back and relax into his world. Dara’s diary is what we all need—a breath of fresh air.

He finds relief from his anxieties by reveling in the details of the natural world of his Northern Ireland home, and in serving as a herald for the needs of his beloved environment. He experiences it so profoundly that he can share minutia from the ecosystems of a variety of birds, insects, animals, plants, trees, landscapes, seascapes, etc., which he misses deeply when they are absent for a season, or when they have been destroyed altogether.

Dara writes, “I spy coltsfoot, bursts of sunshine from the disturbed ground. White-tailed bumblebees drink and collect hungrily. Dandelions and their allies in the daisy (or Asteraceae) family are often the first pollinating plants to flower in spring, and are incredibly important for biodiversity. I implore everyone I meet to leave a wild patch in their garden for these plants – it doesn’t cost much and anybody can do it.”

Here then is one way we can foray into our own activism, aiding biodiversity and providing for our pollinator friends, which also include birds, bats, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, wasps, small mammals, and most importantly, the bees, especially the prolific Native Bee. Many of these populations are in decline, which Pollinator.org attributes to a loss in feeding and nesting habitats, as well as pollution, the misuse of chemicals, disease, and changes in climatic patterns. “In some cases,” the site reports, ‘there isn’t enough data to gauge a response, and this is even more worrisome.”

This need for more data brings us to another featured book: The field guide to citizen science : how you can contribute to scientific research and make a difference. This primer is written by Darlene Cavalier and Catherine Hoffman, the minds behind Scistarter.org, an online citizen science hub where there are registered more than 3,000 projects, searchable by location, topic, age level, etc. This new movement means we can easily join a project and assist a scientist, finding that ‘one small way’ (or big way!) that Dara requested we do in aid of our mother Earth!

Besides the titles listed here, Smiley Library holds many more books on various topics concerning the natural world and the needs of the environment. Come explore the Library (or ask a librarian–we love to be of service!), or search our online catalog, find topics of interest to you, and discover how you can help.

 

If we each can do a little, together we can do a lot.

 

• Hope matters : why changing the way we think is critical to solving the environmental crisis
• The pollinator victory garden : win the war on pollinator decline with ecological gardening : how to attract and support bees, beetles, butterflies, bats, and other pollinators
• Where have all the bees gone? : pollinators in crisis
• 100 plants to feed the monarch : create a healthy habitat to sustain North America’s most beloved butterfly
• How to attract birds to your garden
• Trees in trouble : wildfires, infestations, and climate change
• How to love animals : in a human-shaped world
• The climate diet : 50 simple ways to trim your carbon footprint
• Can I recycle this? : a guide to better recycling and how to reduce single-use plastics **
• Plastic : an autobiography
• 
• The new climate war : the fight to take back the planet
• How to avoid a climate disaster : the solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need
• The physics of climate change
• Unsettled : what climate science tells us, what it doesn’t, and why it matters
• Overheated : how capitalism broke the planet–and how we fight back
• Brave green world : how science can save our planet
• Disasterology : dispatches from the frontlines of the climate crisis
• Toxic legacy : how the weedkiller glyphosate is destroying our health and the environment
• How to prepare for climate change : a practical guide to surviving the chaos

2020

• What can I do? : my path from climate despair to action
• Our house is on fire : scenes of a family and a planet in crisis
• The fragile earth : writing from the New Yorker on climate change
• As the world burns : the new generation of activists and the landmark legal fight against climate change

**For more information on recycling in the City of Redlands, visit the City’s website,  https://www.cityofredlands.org/solid-waste-recycling-services

“Dinner is where the magic happens in the kitchen.”  Kris Carr

If you are looking for quick, balanced dinner recipes with less waste and easy cleanup, then definitely check out “Everyday Dinners” by Jessica Merchant. One of the secrets to Jessica’s kitchen success is her easy 10 minute meal prep. You can learn all about the time-saving technique plus her tips for making veggies more enticing to picky eaters. Speaking of vegetables, Jessica supplies an abundant variety of vegetarian dishes. To start, there is Crispy Orange Cauliflower with Coconut Rice. Cheater’s Tomato Pie uses a trio of grated cheeses and fresh basil leaves atop a golden, flaky puff pastry crust. Smoky BBQ Baked Black Beans Burgers smothered in guacamole, sliced red onion and micro greens, or a bowl of hearty Tuscan Cheese Tortellini Soup would be a welcome addition to a meatless Monday dinner rotation. For meat lovers, Jessica shares her recipes for fragrant Lemon Butter Chicken, Sheet Pan Cashew Chicken with colorful bell peppers, red onion, and scallions, One-Pot Sausage, Greens, and Beans Pasta, kid-friendly Chicken and Bacon Ranch Puff Pastry Pizza, and lastly, Honey Dijon Pretzel-Crusted Salmon.

There are loads of delicious-looking recipes on the web and within cookbooks that require a long list of ingredients and a fair amount of time to make. However, at the end of the day, most of us are tired and just want our final meal to have a short ingredient list, with clear instructions and for it to taste great. America’s Test Kitchen is here to help with their latest book, “Five Ingredient Dinners.” With over 100 recipes to try, like Coconut Rice Noodles with Shrimp and Snow Peas, Loaded Sweet Potatoes, Skillet Tortellini with Sausage and Cherry Tomatoes, Cod with Cilantro Rice, Refried Bean and Cheese Melts, Grilled Flank Steak with Zucchini and Spicy Honey Butter, you may be adding lots of new meals to your dinnertime rotation. For a post-turkey leftovers option, try the Thanksgiving-ish Calzones baked with two kinds of cheese and dried cranberries.

Does the idea of spending less time in the kitchen preparing homemade dinners without sacrificing flavor appeal to you? If it does, then you’ll want to check out Jenna Helwig’s book, “Bare Minimum Dinners.” Her easy recipes and strategies can help you save time with shopping, preparing, and cleaning up. If time is scarce, then you’ll appreciate Cauliflower and Chickpea Tikka Masala, Enchilada Bowls, and Short Cut Salmon Burgers. All of these dishes and more can be on the table in 30 minutes or less. If quick cleanup is a must, one pot or pan recipes for Skillet Pizza, One-Pan Pierogi Supper, and Baked Chicken with Artichokes and Feta may be the answer. There is one chapter devoted to Instant Pot and Slow-Cooker dinners. They include Instant Pot Pork and Bean Burritos, Instant Pot Turkey Chili, Slow-Cooker Beef Ragu, and Slow-Cooker Big Batch Lasagna.

In her latest book, “Sheet Cake,” award-winning author and baking instructor Abigail Johnson Dodge reveals her easy-to-follow techniques for turning a simple half sheet cake into a fancier rolled or triple-layer cake. The sweet and spicy aromas of autumn will fill your kitchen when you bake Pumpkin-Ginger Cream Cheese Cake, Cinnamon-Bun Swirl Cake sprinkled with toasted pecans and cinnamon chips, or a Rolled Maple Walnut Cake filled with Vanilla Mascarpone Cream Frosting. Apples receive the star treatment in Cinnamon-Apple Upside-Downer Cake with a layer of gooey brown sugar, butter, and fresh apples. Apple butter, apple brandy and apple compote come together to make a fantastic triple-layer Brandy Apple Cake. Fall never tasted so good!

As Hispanic Heritage month ends, we take one more opportunity to celebrate authors who have been kind enough to share their unique and diverse voices with us.

Thrown in the Throat, the debut by National Poetry Series winner Benjamin Garcia is unapologetic in its examinations of society. Garcia explores through his poetic works how a country built by immigrants seems to revel in anti-immigration sentiments. The author also explores his own sexuality and the complex nature of being loved by a family that does not love who you are. Using unique style and composition, Garcia renders his history as an undocumented child with honesty and allows the reader a clear view of the life they led. With powerful verse and unfaltering confidence Garcia’s debut gives access to a voice that deserves to be heard.

Another voice that brings their own perspective is John Paul Brammer in his book of essays: ¡Hola Papi! How to come out in a Walmart Parking lot and other life lessons. Originated as an online advice column, ¡Hola Papi! began as a commentary on the somewhat racist interactions the author received on Grindr. Overwhelmed by the responses he received, Brammer decided to respond with honesty and to be a source of help for his readers. In this collection of essays, Brammer looks inward in order to give the best advice he can by sharing his own experiences, no matter how embarrassing or heartbreaking. From figuring out how to define race, to writer’s block, to understanding one’s own identity, ¡Hola Papi! is an introspective look at the questions we ask ourselves and gives not the answer we want but the internal reflection we need.

Speculation Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology, allows several authors a chance to explore the themes of identity and belonging through the lens of speculative fiction. Focusing on a new generation of authors also gives new perspectives on ever enduring themes such as identity and the desire to belong. The anthology starts off with a mysterious young boy with strange dreams, a mother who sews and keeps dark secrets, and a world in which neither are welcomed. Another story deals with a future America that is divided along the lines of culture and race leading to secession and the establishment of new nations. Each story allows the author a chance to explore a world set by their own rules and thoughts. The outcomes are intriguing and give widely different answers to the question of what if?

Come check out these books and more at A.K. Smiley Public Library.