Well, let’s address the elephant in the room. I’ve been gone a while and even though my absence was much longer than I or anyone else expected I’m glad to be back! Hope you’re all ready for an extra-long post this week because there’s a lot to catch up on.
First of all, our booth at the City of Krum Meet and Greet this last Sunday was a huge success! We had close to 175 people visit our booth and 3 new volunteers joined the Friends of the Library. We greatly appreciated everyone’s attendance during this event. We are so proud of the community we have cultivated, not only here in the library, but in Krum as a whole. It’s always a good thing to build meaningful connections in your community and we hope this event did just that. Who knows, we may have another Meet and Greet sometime in the future.
Have you seen the fliers for the fundraiser Krum Friends of the Library is doing? The fundraiser is all about beautifying the library and all proceeds are going towards planting our own tulip bulbs in the planters outside our wall of windows. Packets come with 10 mixed triumph bulbs and cost $15 each. The fundraiser will continue while supplies last, so make sure to get yours before they’re gone!
We here at the Krum Public Library celebrate everyone’s freedom to read. Reading not only connects us to new and exciting ideas but also to each other, which is why we celebrate Banned Book Week (Oct 1st-Oct 7th).
Banned Book Week is a protest to the historical and present-day establishment of book-banning and censorship not only in libraries but the reading world as a whole. Schools, libraries and booksellers all across the nation have been battling with the omnipresent threat of book-banning. According to statistics gathered by the American Library Association in 2022 alone there were 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources, that’s nearly double the amount recorded in 2021. Now for a little fun trivia I’ll give you a list of books and their outrageous reasons for being banned.
· Where’s Waldo By Martin Handford: depiction of a side boob.
· Where the Sidewalk Ends By Shel Silverstein: “promoting cannibalism” and “encouraging” kids to break dishes instead of washing them
· Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? By Bill Martin Jr: The author had the same name as a different Bill Martin who wrote a book on Marxism.
· The Diary of Anne Frank: “Too depressing” and a brief mention of genitalia
· Little Red Riding Hood By Trina Schart Hyman: The illustrated cover showed Red Riding Hood with a bottle of wine in her basket
We hope for a day when book banning and censorship is a thing of the past, a bad dream that we inevitably awoke from. However, all we can do at the moment is keep on advocating for the rights of readers everywhere.
Not going to lie, I missed writing Mason’s Musings while I was out, but it feels so good to be back and updating all of you on the latest news. Wishing you all a fantastic week ahead and I’ll see you all next time!
Library Events 10/6-10/13:
Friday October 6th – Friday Free Play! Preschoolers and their adults are invited to come to the library for a free play time every Friday 11 AM to Noon! Toys are changed out monthly so this will be the first day with the October toys!
Tuesday October 10th – Homeschool Meet-Up with librarian Joy! Homeschool families are invited to come down to the library every second Tuesday of the month from 1-2 PM. We will be learning art principles the we will demonstrate with a string art project that uses wood, hammers, nails, and yarn.
Wednesday October 11th – Children’s Hour with Ms. Katie! Bring the little ones for story time with Ms. Katie. Stories, songs, activities, and crafts are all part of the fun. Children’s Hour starts at 10:00 AM and occurs every Wednesday of each month (excluding January and August).
Friday October 13th – Friday Free Play! Preschoolers and their adults are invited to come to the library for a free play time every Friday 11 AM to Noon! Toys are changed out monthly.
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