Mildred Wirt Benson deserves Credit

Mildred Wirt Benson was sworn to secrecy and couldn’t reveal she had written the first twenty-three Nancy Drew Mysteries. there is no person Carolyn Keene! What?

Here are two Nancy Drew Mysteries in a Free Little Library in Columbus, Ohio.

Carolyn Keene was a pseudonym for ghostwriters of Nancy Drew Mysteries but Mildred Wirt Benson (1905-2022) wrote the first 23! (Click to read article)

Did you ever read a Nancy Drew mystery? Here’s another article about Carolyne Keene and the the syndicate behind the authors.

Little Free Library Extraordinaire

Clintonville, Ohio a neighborhood in Columbus. There are wonderful Little free libraries all over and when we walk we see them but this one takes the prize. Take a Book Share a Book. “

“Building community.

Inspiring readers.

Expanding book access.”

What fun with all the Playmobil figures setting the scene
Blank notebooks and pencils, sidewalk chalk and pencil sharpeners all available to take
So creative and inviting

I posted about a Little Free library at the bus stop in Pittsburgh in 2021 and also about the Little Free libraries on a post tiny libraries in 2016

Little Library at the Bus Stop

I had to stop and get out of my car to photograph this new (to me) scene.

Little Libraries have been posted on the blog before -in the snow , one Laura found and one in Pittsburgh on Friendship Avenue

Here’s the one I saw today

And a bench to sit on and read while you wait for the bus

Charlie’s Favorite Author

Last Friday, March 19, when visiting my family in Ohio, I photographed this colorful set of books on top of Charlie’s dresser. I’d not seen them altogether in this format . I know they’ve been read aloud numerous times to Charlie.(5) he always tells me about a grandmother in the books who knits.

Then one week later on March 26th my sister sent me this NYTimes obituary – Beverly Cleary passed away at 104 years of age.

Her books were always a favorite at school, too.

Prisoner 88 Author at Kate’s Kid Book Bash!

People at Work Series- Young Adult Author Leah Pileggi with her book Prisoner 88 

Leah Pileggi, Author, at her table display where she signed her books we purchased 

from Leah’s Website 

A ten-year-old in prison? Prisoner 88 is my middle-grade historical novel set at the Idaho Penitentiary in 1885. Check out the trailer!

Awards for Prisoner 88:*Indies Next List pick

  *2013 list of Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts by the NCTE

*2014-15 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award (DCF) Master List (State of Vermont)

*2015-16 Nebraska Golden Sower Award List (in the YA catagory)     

*2016 Charlie May Simon Honor Book (State of Arkansas)

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The scene was the Ace Hotel in East Liberty.

The event was Kate’s Kid Book Bash! on Sunday December 8th.  

“A holiday children’s book marketplace celebrating the life of beloved Pittsburgh picture book author, Kate Dopirak. Proceeds benefit Reading is FUNdamental/Pittsburgh. Buy your favorite kids books (board books, picture books, middle grade, young adult) and have them signed by dozens of authors in attendance. Pop Up Bookstore by Riverstone Books. Storytime for little ones. Art demos by children’s book illustrators. Meet members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Bring your reusable shopping bags!”

Illustrator Cori Doerrfeld drawing a bunny while an appreciative audience watches in awe.

Below are two more books I purchased at the pop-up Riverstone Bookstore.  

Then we went to each author’s table display to have them signed.

Author Sharon G Flake’s book

Signed by author Marjorie Dennis Murray

Geppetto Café in Lawrenceville

At noon, I met my former teaching colleague and friend Jennifer for lunch. Her suggestion. My first visit to Geppetto Café –  Butler Street in Lawrenceville neighborhood ofPittsburgh. Open for breakfast or lunch. It is a delightful place to eat and the service was excellent.

Coffee,latte, espresso, teas, milkshakes (a Nutella milkshake was on the menu) and ice cream. too.

Savory crepes, sweet crepes, eggs, fruit, waffles, paninis and salads. Mmmm. I had the Challah French Toast. Jen ordered The Bonjour pictured below- scrambled eggs and Brie in a crepe with fresh fruit on the side and Applewood Smoked bacon on top. A leaf shaped  dish of maple syrup.

Patrons have contributed much of the decor. I didn’t count all the wooden Pinocchio figures but the owner graciously showed all the items that people have brought in- the books, paintings,wooden Pinocchio puppets and marionettes.

Margaret Welsh wrote a wonderful review in City Paper calling Geppetto Café a “European-style breakfast nook.”

Hospitable Owner Evren Karabacak

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How about all these books suspended in net from the ceiling?

A snowboard bench in the front.

P.S. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinocchio_(1940_film)PInocchio is a 1940 American animate musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions based on the Italian children’s novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. It was the second animated feature film produced by Disney, made after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)”  Geppetto was the wood carver/carpenter who created the wooden puppet Pinocchio who can” become a real boy”

Man’s Best Friend and Books

The sculpture of the dog with a stack of books on his head has always caught my attention when I drive by the Millvale Community Library.  Tonight Steve  and I walked down Grant Avenue after dinner to see it up close. What an invitation to come inside and find a good book to read.

The artist is Pittsburgh sculptor James Simon and the sculpted dog’s name is Pages.

And how about those magnificent door handles? I know there’s a story there.

Miilvale. Just across the Allegheny River from the city of Pittsburgh. You’ve seen my posts of Panza Gallery, Grant Avenue Bar, McWalker Yarns, Jean-Marc Chatellier Bakery, Tazza D’Oro, bicycle racks and Esthers’s Hobby Shop  -to name a few.

 

Millvale Community Library  213 Grant Avenue   Millvale, Pennsylvania

http://millvalelibrary.org/staff-board/

McWalker Yarns Hosted a Poetry Reading in Millvale

Thursday evening in Millvale, Amy McCall, owner of McWalker Yarns hosted poets Sheryl St. Germain and her former MFA student at Chatham U, Michael Bennett.

The yarn store was a wonderful backdrop for Sheryl St. Germain’s reading. Surrounded by skeins and skeins of colorful yarn, Sheryl read her powerful essay (from Stitching Resistance:  Women, Creativity and Fiber Arts  edited by Marjorie Agosin). She told of the role crochet has played in her life since childhood, but focusing on how crocheting with yarn helped her cope while parenting a son who was in trouble with alcohol, drugs and the law. She also read poems about her son’s dying of a heroin overdose from her book The Small Door of Your Death.  Her words touched the audience as she described the helplessness and grief, her numbness, as she centered herself every evening after a long day- crocheting an afghan for her son.  The repetition of hook into yarn loops as a meditation, an ease from depression and the stress of hopelessness. A healing.

 

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Pittsburgh native Michael Bennett read his poetry first and opened for Ms. St. Germain.  Michael  has worked for three years with Words Without Walls program, teaching incarcerated Juvenile offenders, teenagers being tried as adults.


Cellist David Bennett and McWalker Yarns supporter introduces the poet and provided delicious desserts  by Millvale Baker Jean-Marc Chatelier


New Orleans native Sheryl St. Germain has published six poetry books, two collections of essays, and co-edited two anthologies. The Small Door of Your Death, a collection of poems about the death of her son from a heroin overdose, appeared in 2018 with Autumn House Press. A forthcoming book, Fifty Miles, is a collection of essays about healing that include a couple of essays about working with yarn. Sheryl directs the MFA program in Creative Writing at Chatham University where she also teaches poetry and creative nonfiction, and is co-founder of the Words Without Walls Program . She was named Louisiana Writer of the year in 2018. Sheryl is an avid and accomplished crocheter, and a much less accomplished knitter. See: www.sheryl-stgermain.com/ for more information.

 

Desserts  created  by  Jean-Marc Chatellier French Bakery