September 1, 7 p.m. The Mechanics of Climate Change. Dr. Michael Golay, professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shares a presentation extracted from the popular Sustainable Energy Course at MIT.
September 8, 7 p.m. Canine Communication. Dog trainer Dee Ganley and sidekick Flip return to talk about communicating with your dog. An engaging speaker, Dee takes plenty of time to answer audience questions and tell dog stories. Back by popular demand!
September 15, 6:30 p.m. Tomie dePaola Pasta Night. Remember our favorite children's book author with food and stories. Please call or email the library to register. Suggested donation: $10 adults, $5 11-17, children 10 and under free.
Lego Night. Friday, September 5:30 - 7 p.m. Lego night is back! Pizza and snacks provided. Free.
New Telescope
Check out the library's new telescope! The Zhumell 130 has 10mm and 125mm lenses, and recently debuted at the Wilmot Community Association's Skywatch event. Borrowers must be at least 18 years of age, library members in good standing for at least one year.
Radon Detector
You can measure radon levels in your home by borrowing the Radon Detector from the library! The radon detector gives a short-term and a long-term reading for the room it's placed in. Loan period of one month allows for testing of different rooms.
Upcoming Programs
Donkeys and Donuts! Oct. 2, 1-3 p.m. Did you know donkeys like to be read to? Come meet the donkeys of Road to Independence, a local nonprofit supporting paths to independence for folks with disabilities. Donuts by Brothers Bakery in Franklin. Also, crafts, games, and live music by the FROGZ!
Notes from FOWPL
- Voting, Tuesday, Sept. 13 - Bake Sale We hope you will help us fill our table with baked items, desserts, casseroles, jams, jellies, etc. All the money raised will go to our wonderful library. Call Nola Aldrich with questions - 603-526-2942
- Second Annual Donut Fest - Back by popular demand! FOWPL will do a "crafty" donut with the kids and we need men's socks or any knee socks and any color will work. Socks can be dropped off at the library. Many thanks!
- Sweatshirts and Sports-tek Shirts - Yes, we are selling WILMOT shirts. Order blanks are being prepared and will be at the library.
- Visit our tent at Wilmotpalooza on September 11 on the town green. Crafts, free books, games, etc.
From the Director's Desk
"Three kisses to all the children in Wilmot (and Wilmot Flat)!" -- Strega Nona
Janet S. once met Tomie dePaola at Morgan Hill Bookstore, where he told her, "I used to live in Wilmot! I wrote Pancakes for Breakfast there!" He lived across from the monument, on Village Road, and is remembered fondly by those who knew him personally, and hundreds of thousands who know his books.
At the start of his life he thought he might become a priest. Instead, he became an artist and a children's book author. He brought to his work a sense of vocation, infusing every story with his love of humanity and a deep spirituality. He told one interviewer, "What I do is hard, and I take it very seriously. It has to be perfect, because it's for children."
I was one of those children, because Tomie, along with Trina Schart Hyman, was one of the illustrators of Cricket magazine back in the 70s, when I had a subscription. Honestly, I thought (and still think) Trina Schart Hyman is the greatest - her crickets, ladybugs and other creatures in the magazine margins inspired me to three years of peanut-man doodles climbing the edges of my school notebooks. Tomie dePaola's work seemed too sweet to me; I didn't want to be perceived as childish. I would not have asked for perfect; I wanted irony, a bitter edge.
And yet Hyman, in her preface to "Tomie dePaola: His Life and Stories", writes that she once set out to duplicate his work. "A clever forgery was actually what I was after, and I clearly remember thinking that it would take ten or twenty minutes of my time, tops. I'd always had a knack for imitating different drawing and handwriting styles, and I was sure I could knock off a 'Tomie' drawing as easy as pie for the book jacket or birthday card or whatever it was I was doing... Six hours later, sweaty, frustrated, and thoroughly puzzled, I tore up the thirty-eighth ruined piece of paper in despair. No matter how hard I tried -- in fact, the harder I tried -- the further I got from success; I could not imitate Tomie's style of drawing. That seemingly formulaic style, with its simple line, its folksy composition, and its childlike color, was a lot more complex and sophisticated than I had bargained for -- and almost impossible to duplicate in spirit."
Betty Edwards, in "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain," writes that most of us part ways with our artistic ability about the developmental stage where language takes over. We stop seeing what is there, and instead "see" what our brain tells us is there. We know the horse has four legs, so we draw all four whether they are visible or not, and begin turning into adults who declare, "I can't draw." Her book offers a series of exercises to regain that childhood perception, pushing the adult critic off our shoulders and accepting the visual world in all its disorienting newness.
DePaola, early in his career, was living in San Francisco when he began to lose touch with his art. It seemed boring, mundane, uninspired. "I had totally fallen for that old line, 'Don't be childish' and I had smothered my childlikeness; I had to like that child again."
How lucky we are that he did!
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