The Wizard of Oz

As a librarian, I’m always curious about new film adaptations of books. New film releases always create a buzz and increase the circulation of books; The Hunger Games, The Twilight Trilogy, The Help… I am thrilled there is another remake of the Wizard of Oz about to come out. I have no idea if it is good, bad or somewhere in between. I’m excited because it has the potential to turn young readers on to a great overlooked classic.

Recently, while perusing the Libra Vox catalogue, I found an interesting dramatic reading of the Wizard of Oz. Listening, I realized this reading wasn’t evoking scenes from the old film classic, rather it was creating its own rich imagery from my imagination. Frank Baum had a wonderful way of bringing his characters and settings to life.

I knew I had to dig out our Baum Classics from the collection, blow off the dust and display them proudly for a new generation. I hope a few kids will be tempted to check them out after watching “The Great and Powerful Oz” this weekend. The books are old but the stories are fresh and new to a child reading them for the first time. Simply timeless.

Homeschoolers and Teachers: Here are some great lesson plans that link these tales to everything from weather, geography, math and anatomy! And be sure to listen to the free Libra Vox recording:

Wizard of Oz Unit Study

The Wizard of Oz: An American Fairy Tale

The Wizard of Oz – Dramatic Reading

 

Books Loved to Death

The hardest thing about being a librarian is “weeding” books. Some are outdated. Some simply aren’t being checked out, passed over for newer hot topics and genres. And some are in poor condition. The hardest to let go are the well-worn children’s classics. It feels like banishing old friends. We know our patrons love these books, they get checked out repeatedly! But we can’t keep patching pages and bindings together. It makes it especially hard to let these books go because we don’t know when or if it will be in the budget to replace them.

This is where you can help out! If you have a set of classics sitting on the shelf collecting dust, because your child has outgrown them, please consider donating them to the Library! We will give you a tax-deductible receipt and reassurance that they will go to good use. ***Note: please bring donations of books to be used in our collection (or the library book sale) to the front desk. We do receive a percentage from the Better World book drop but we do not have access to the drop box to choose what we’d like to keep.

Here are a just few of the classics we have loved to death:

The Hardy Boys Series

The Nancy Drew Series

The Harry Potter Series

The Junie B. Jones Series

Comic Books(especially Calvin and Hobbes) and Graphic Novels

Authors: Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle, Beverly Cleary, Marguerite Henry…

All libraries have budget constraints and patrons love to have new books. The gently used classic you donate could mean the difference between having it on our shelf, ready to check out, or not.  And these donations free up resources for us to invest in current books.