Saddle up with TheBookJeanie

Check out this innovative way to spread the love of reading! The Biblioburro travels throughout the Magdelena River Valley in Columbia, delivering books to remote villages.  Luis Soriano, the creator of this unique bookmobile, travels every weekend with his burros, Alpha and Beta, to deliver books and help promote literacy in this rural region.  

Take a journey back to the early days of the National Parks

After watching Ken Burns' series The National Parks: America's Best Idea, this slim volume caught my eye at the local library book sale: Letters from Yellowstone, by Diane Smith.  Smith won the Pacific Booksellers Association Book Award for this beautifully composed novel that follows Alex Bartram,  a young medical student from Cornell, as she joins a scientific field study through Yellowstone, America's first national park.  The mission of the naturalists, headed by Dr. Howard Merriam of Montana State University, is to collect, record, and analyze as many plant specimans as possible during the spring and summer of 1898.  Merriam is pleased with the impressive credentials of his latest volunteer but is shocked when she, rather than he, arrives and expects to become the only woman on the expedition. While the other members of the team are equally appalled by Alex's presence, it is too late to seek a replacement and they must forge ahead despite their misgivings.  The wild and pristine beauty of Yellowstone becomes the heart of this story, as we learn how even a hundred years ago, the expansion of tourism threatened to destroy the very wilderness that the national parks program aimed to preserve for the American public.  Each member of the expedition holds uniquely individual views about the impact of man on this natural environment, revealed in the diverse collection of letters that form the narrative of this novel.  As the frequently arduous journey progresses, Alex becomes aware of not only the complexity and fragility of Yellowstone's ecosystem and the politics that threaten it, but also gains knowledge about herself and her own abilities to influence change.  Not only is this a thoroughly enjoyable read, but it also gives us a broad historical view of the political, social, and economic factors that influence the preservation and maintenance of our national parks. 

Remember this book?

In the great green room

There was a telephone

And a red balloon

And a picture of ---

The cow jumping over the moon

Then be sure to make a stop at the Connecticut Children's Museum in New Haven if you are ever driving north from New York City and see the magical re-creation of Clement Hurd's famous "great green room" from Margaret Wise's classic children's book, Goodnight Moon.    

Goodnight comb

And goodnight brush. . .

And goodnight to the old lady

whispering "hush"

And goodnight from Toby and TheBookJeanie. . .

Have a great week everyone. . . keep reading!