Reading Role Models: Mrs. Kim edition

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Last week, like many of you, I visited my family for Thanksgiving. While playing our go-to game Qwirkle cubes,* Mrs. Kim (aka my mom) asked me, “Have you heard of a book called The Book Thief?” I almost fell out of my chair in disbelief, and my mom didn’t know what was so odd about her question. I exclaimed, “Have I heard of it?!? It’s my favorite book in the whole world!!!” She said the Korean translation was split into two volumes, and that she enjoyed volume 1 immensely, but was interested in reading it in original English, because she could imagine the writing would be beautiful.

The_Book_Theif_t250Instead of a review of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, for which I would need considerable time to do the book justice, this post is about how my mom was instrumental in me becoming the book nerd that I am. But quickly, anyone who is 7th grade and above who is looking for a CYL (“change your life”) kind of book should read this one if you haven’t yet! The audiobook is amazing as well.

Back to my homage to my first reading role model…I have many fond memories of going to the Cerritos and then later the San Leandro library with her. She taught me how to use a library by taking me along with her to peruse shelves, use a card catalog (remember those?!), sit in comfy library chairs, and use a book drop. Going to the library with her wasn’t drudgery but a treat I looked forward to. When I was old enough, she would let me roam the kids’ section on my own and she would go find her books, and we would leave happily with our next two weeks’ worth of reading! (With the distance of years, all of my memories are positive, but there were plenty of times I got in major trouble for overdue fines, too!)

Looking back now, I realize the memorable reading experiences with my mom continued even as I got older. Some of the memorable conversations we had about life, about human nature, about people, happened around talking about literature I was reading at school. I remember being amazed at how many of the “classics” my mom had read, first in Korean, and then in English. When I was in 11th grade, we talked about The Grapes of Wrath, and she helped me to grasp the deeper meaning of the ending that confused me in my teenaged immaturity.  We discovered The Joy Luck Club together (yep, we bought it at Costco!), taking turns reading about Chinese-immigrant moms and their Chinese-American daughters and crying buckets of tears in empathy. I also remember how she decided to read the unabridged Les Miserables, but at about 800 pages in, she wasn’t enjoying it so much anymore, but she felt like quitting was wimpy and really not an option, so she pushed through to the end. That’s the vintage indomitable Korean-mom spirit!

When I think about it, I don’t know if my mom was conscious of the impact she was having on me as a reader. She didn’t do anything special or intentional — she just let me in to her reading life. We continue to share titles with each other, and so I’m super excited that my mom is going to soon be reading one of my favorite books in the world. I look forward to talking with her about it.  

Mrs. Kim with part 1 of the Korean translation of the BBE (Best Book Ever) — The Book Thief. As a reader of the blog, she obliged me by posing for the first picture with a non-English book. Thanks, Mom! (Not just for the picture, either.) 🙂

Who are some of your reading role models?

*I’m not being paid to endorse this game, but it really is the best!

 

DIY Christmas Tree for Book Lovers!

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All the parents of K-5th students at Gracepoint Berkeley church are experiencing the joys of early dismissal all week long…what to do with the kiddos for the entire afternoon?!

Kristen and Allison made great use of their energy and time by engaging in a simple but awesome Christmas DIY project — I introduce to you the Book Christmas Tree!! It doesn’t smell as nice as a real tree, but it’s definitely easier to maintain. No water needed, and no shedding either. Here are Allison and Kristen with a step-by-step tutorial!

beginning the tree

You basically Jenga some books in a tree shape. If you have a gazillion green books, you can go spine out, but these ladies decided to go spine in.

tree in progress

After a few false starts, the girls achieved a tree shape (as opposed to a rocket!)

tree before lights

Tree topper of choice is Shepherd Snoopy holding mini-Shakespeare standing in as a yellow star.

tree with lights

Then you add the lights!

tree picture with 1st graders

Now you can have all sorts of “family pictures” around the tree — here the creators are with the 1st grade girls. 🙂

A very affordable alternative for those who want to get into the holiday spirit. You can use the books you have already! And you can showcase your book love for all your friends and family. Super cool, eh?

 

Recycling in the Rain

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Apologies for the lack of posts this past week! On the heels of multiple Thanksgiving Celebrations throughout our church, the headquarters of the Bibliopolis Recycling Fundraiser reached a crisis point, and it was imperative that we go the recycling center before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Since the center is closed on Monday, that left today to take care of business, but as those of you at Gracepoint Berkeley church are aware, this morning we had much needed rain.

But my crew was dauntless and determined. There was a light drizzle as we loaded all of the bags into the NV (Thanks, Uncle Joe!)

filled up the back of the NV

We filled up the entire back two rows, and the trunk space too!

We thought maybe the line at the recycling center would be short since it was raining, but it seemed some other people had the same idea. 🙂

that's a lot of bottles and cans

We confess that we tried to make the pile look as big as possible. Does it look impressive?

Once we started the actual work, that’s when the rain started coming down pretty hard. And we needed all hands on deck, so unfortunately, I have no pictures (or potential B-roll) for this portion. But I think we made quite an impression on the neighborhood recycling regulars. We got to tell them that that it was for a fundraiser at our church. And the young man working at the center very kindly lent us an umbrella.

Thanks to so many of your uncrushed cans, we were able to make quite a lot of money using the machine, but that did mean putting each one in individually. We went the weighing route with the rest of the cans, plastic bottles, and glass (thank you, Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider!).

Interestingly enough, the rain stopped just as we were finished recycling. We played informal “Price is Right” to guess how much money we made, and we were all very surprised when we saw our receipts.

It was an hour well spent during a week vacation from school — we raised another $90.61 for Bibliopolis!