Last minute Halloween costume ideas

In a panic for costume ideas? Easy Halloween Costumes for Children by Leila Albala (646.47 ALB) is for you.

By just using a few things such as panty hose, garbage bags, and other objects found around the house, you can make your child into a Martian, a monster, or some other scary creature.

Here are two other books still available at the library:

Creative Costumes for any Occasion by Mark Walker (646.47 WAL)

Halloween Costumes from the Singer Sewing Reference Library (646.478 HAL)

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

Confessions of an art dealer

Author John Howard Swanson was a very successful art dealer in San Francisco. He has written an autobiography called Confessions of an Art Dealer (709.2 SWA in the biography section).

Before I begin with an overview of his experiences, readers should remember that not all art dealers do inappropriate tactics for selling art. He's only talking about what he had seen in San Francisco.

Before he set up his own art galleries, Swanson worked at a gallery that bought blank paper with only the signature from Salvador Dali and had a local printer print, as needed, a particular image. The gallery sold these as original prints. ("Notice that the artist hand signed it!")

Swanson was one of the few art galleries in the San Francisco area who promoted local artists. During the '60s and '70s (same as now) San Francisco was a thrilling place for new artists to live. Instead of relying on "prints" from the established names, Swanson took a chance with local artists. He even made a promise, which he kept, that he would pay the artists every month for artwork that was sold. Many of the art galleries did not pay the artists on time, sometimes not at all.

Of course, he also had to deal with the egos of the artists who wanted more space or a larger percentage of the sales.

Overall, it's a fascinating look at the art world through the eyes of an art dealer.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

Focus on the Hocus Pocus

Hocus Pocus! (745.5941 HOC) is another book currently available at the library for those who want to do last minute decorating. Spooky decorations that can be made include:

• Pumpkin place mats
• Pumpkin lantern
• Skeleton banner
• Beaded spiders and webs
• Caldron Candles
• Haunted tree decorations
• Spooky party favors

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

Are you doing last minute Halloween decorating?

If you are like I am, you may be a procrastinator still thinking of decorating for the Halloween season. Have no fear, we still have a few books on quick, fun decorations to "deaden" (not liven) your house.

Appropriately called Halloween Decorating, by Cowles Creative Publishing (745.5941 HAL) has 50 projects and ideas. They range from the usual pumpkin carving and scarecrow to party decorations to picture frames and wreaths.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

In the cool of the evening, when everything is getting kind of spooky...

Halloween - the time of year when ghosts and goblins come out. To get in the mood of the season, here are two books written about spooky stories of Iowa that have been collected by the authors. These are very short stories; they can be read at a Halloween party in just a few minutes. They aren't really that scary, making them great for the entire family to hear while Mom or Dad reads them around a campfire on a dark, cold night.


Ghostly Tales of Northeast Iowa by Ruth D. Hein
(977.7 HEI)
I thought there would be some stories based in Waterloo or Cedar Falls, but there don't seem to be any. They are in Decorah, West Union, and other places. At least you won't get scared about some location you might frequently go by.

Ghosts of Johnson County, Iowa by Lori Erickson (cover not shown) (977.7655 ERI) Most of the stories are from the Iowa City area.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

Halloween is fast approaching. Every place you look, there seem to be pumpkins for sale. If you are planning to buy one of them, are you planning on doing the traditional carving of it? This time of the year, Martha Stewart and others promote different ideas for carving.

The library has a fascinating book called Extreme Pumpkin Carving by Vic Hood and Jack A. Williams (745.594 HOO). The authors use non-traditional tools for their creations: toothbrush, a pocket knife, and wood carving tools. There are 20 ideas to spark your imagination. They include a witch and several old men (including Santa Claus himself). The photographs of the finished pumpkins are a treat to look at, even if you don't care to go through the work of carving a pumpkin.

If you're interested in a more basic book on pumpkin carving, check out Pumpkin Carving by Ed Palmer (745.5941 PAL).

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

Richard Chamberlain

You don't hear much about Richard Chamberlain anymore. But this past week, I listened to a pianist who played music from "The Thorn Birds," which she informed me was one of her favorite movies.

I'm too young to really remember Richard Chamberlain in "Dr. Kildare," but I do remember "The Thorn Birds," one of the more prominent movies Richard starred in.

Shattered Love (792.028 CHA in the biography section) is Richard Chamberlain's memoir. Of course he discusses his rise to fame as an actor, becoming a heartthrob in the 1960s. He's much more, though. He's also an accomplished painter.

If you're looking for gossip on other actors and directors, this book isn't for you. Richard doesn't get into all the back biting bitchiness that other performers do.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

A strange title for a memoir

The Camel's Nose (571.1 SCH in the biography section) is a memoir by Knut Schmidt-Nielsen, a Professor Emertus in the Department of Zoology at Duke University.

Schmidt-Nielsen grew up in Oslo, Norway. He received his education in Oslo and Copenhagen. As a scientist, he traveled all over the globe, from the Brazilian rain forest to the Sahara Desert to the Artic islands. He conducted experiments to understand the lives of animals living under extreme conditions.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

This book is worth its weight in salt

When I was in high school, all I knew about salt was from chemistry class. It's sodium chloride, two nasty elements that come together to form a tasty compound perfect for sprinkling on french fries. Oh, and that it rusts cars. Maybe I learned more, but if I did, I forgot.


It wasn't until I visited Europe that I really appreciated what people do to produce salt. At Salzburg, Germany, they give tours of a salt mine (at least they did back in the '70s), like a tame amusement ride. It actually quite fascinating.


Author Mark Kurlansky tells you everything you want to know (and more) about this subject in Salt: A World History(333.8563 KUR). Nowadays, salt is common and cheap (unless your buying some of that gourmet, speciality kind). In ancient times, it was a valuable commodity traded between different countries.

To those who haven't read this book, the subject may seem dull. Believe it or not, the author is capable of keeping the book interesting.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

The radioactive boy scout

Reporter Ken Silverstein writes a true story about a teenager who was clever enough to deceive his parents and the U.S. government to build a nuclear reactor in his back yard.

The Radioactive Boy Scout ( 621.483 SIL in the biography section)centers around a science geek named David Hahn who lived in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. His interest in science first started with old science books that talked about nuclear power. Passing himself off as a professor, he contacted the U.S. government and industry experts for additional information on radioactivity. Through the use of parts found in common items found in different sporting goods products, junk yards, and antique stores.

The crude nuclear reactor that he did build had to be destroyed by the EPA and buried.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

Because of my age and not having children, I had never heard of Raffi. It wasn't until I started working in the library that this work became known to me; we have several CDs and videos of his.

For those who are like I was, with no clue, his music is very familiar to millions of children and parents. As told in this autobiography, Raffi (782.42 RAF in the Biography section), Raffi Cavoukian is of Armenian descent and lived his early life in Egypt. His father's photography talents became world-known. The family eventually moved to Canada.

Raffi's own career began as a folksinger in coffee houses. With his rising fame, his concerts began to sell out - even at Carnegie Hall and on Broadway. He has dozens of platinum and gold records - and the majority of the records have been through his own independent record company. When he did negotiate a contract with MCA to sell his music, he was able to get MCA to get rid of the cardboard "longboxes" that were about 12" long that would contain only one small cassette.

If you have an interest in Raffi's music, here are a few of the titles we have in youth: "Baby Beluga," "Raffi in Concert with the Rise and Shine Band," and "Raffi on Broadway."

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

A woman with split personalities

Tell Me Who I Am Before I Die is an autobiography by Christina Peters,who has multiple personality disorder. If anyone has seen the movie "Sybil" or read the book based on it , "The Three Faces of Eve," you know what that is. Because of a traumatic childhood, Christina fragmented herself into five distinct personalities, each with its own name and awareness. Marie was the mother and wife. Linda love to get drunk and high. Charlene came to the rescue of the other personalities. Michael emerged to pull all the personalities together.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

You know about Anne Frank's diary, but you may not know about another diary that survived - one by Edith Velman who grew up in a Jewish household in the Netherlands and endured the German occupation during WWII.

Edith's Story (940.5318 in the Biography section) is Velman's autobiography using her diary entries as a starting point for talking about her experiences growing up. At first, after the German occupation, she was like any other typical school girl, she didn't notice that much difference. But as time went on, more and more restrictions were put on her family. New rules would crop up one at a time: public transportation was forbidden; a yellow star had to be sewn on her exterior clothes; the family was only allowed to buy food during a certain time of the day; public school was forbidden. She writes in her diary about each new regulation, saying that it's not so bad - it's just one rule. Her personality, even after several more restrictions, was mostly upbeat, saying that eventually the Germans would leave. She was optimistic that Great Britain or the United States would save them.

Edith was lucky to have a courageous Protestant family take her in the same month as Anne Frank, and was passed off as part of the family.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

Curses! Broiled Again!

This is the book for those who miss the "Weekly World News" since we no longer get it. Curses! Broiled Again! is a collection of wacky stories that fit within the style of that defunct newspaper.

Author Jan Harold Brunvand is a folklorist who collected, classified, compared, and catalogued urban legends. She's published several books on the subject and wrote a column called "Urban Legends." The articles in her column are compiled in this book.

When I was growing up, I remember urban legends told to me that friends swore were true: "New York's sewer system is full of alligators;" "One popular fast-food restaurant served horse meat and not beef." This book is full of stories, some really funny, some really disturbing, that people had sent into the author. Some of them were originally found in newspapers.

After getting the story, Brunvand does a little research, checking for reliable sources, looking for older accounts with the same details, trying to discredit the information. All of this is recorded in this book.

Oh, and by the way, the title refers to an urban legend that a woman who was desperate to get a fake tan as quickly as possible. Because tanning salons only allow so many minutes a week under the tanning lights, she signed up at several salons to speed up her tanning. After doing this, she complained of burning sensations and discovered that her insides were cooked. Like I said, this is full of weird stuff.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007

A collection of stories by a staff writer for the "Washington Post's" Style section

Hank Stuever has a way of finding offbeat stories around the U.S. Off Ramp (973.92 STU) is a collection of some of those.
Here are some of them:

He follows the crew from the hit TV show, Changing Rooms, recording his experiences with Douglas Wilson and Hildi Santo-Tomas as they destroy and reconstruct two rooms.

He visits the home of Dan DeCarlo, who is most prominently known for creating and drawing "Josie and the Pussycats", and modernizing Betty and Veronica after Bob Montana, the creator of Archie, retired.

He goes to a scifi convention where Star Troopers from Star Wars congregate.

He interviews Phil Jimenez, who writes and illustrates DC's "Wonder Woman," giving new life to an old icon created by a psychologist by the name of William Marsden.

He tries to understand those who go camping at the Kampgrounds of America franchise, talking to everyone from RV grannies and European college students.


c Waterloo Public Library 2007

More books that have been banned or challenged

The Tall Man From Boston by Marion L. Starkey (+133.4 STA)
Set in 1692 in Salem, John Alden is accused of being a witch simply because he was "a tall man from Boston." This book was challenged at the Sikes Elementary School media center in Lakeland, FL, in 1985 because it contradicts the teachings of the Bible.

School Girls: Young Women, Self-Esteem, and the Confidence Gap by Peggy Orenstein (305.235 ORE)
In 1990, the American Association of University Women conducted a poll about the low self-esteem young girls have once they reach adolescence. This is the conclusion from that study. Challenged in 1996 at the Courtland, Ohio, High School because of bad language.

When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago (974.7 SAN)
A true story about Santiago's life in Puerto Rico with 10 brothers and sisters - a harsh life with a battle between the sexes and poverty. It was challenged in 2001 in the Newark, California, Unified School District because of sexually explicit language and in 2002 in the Fairfax County, Virginia, elementary and secondary school libraries because of profanity.

The source for this information is Banned Books by Robert P. Doyle
(025.213 DOY).


c Waterloo Public Library 2007

More books that have been banned or challenged

With the help of Banned Books by Robert P. Doyle (025.213 DOY), I have a list of four more books that have been banned or challenged in the United States.

Final Exit by Derek Humphry (362.28 HUM) Nonfiction
This New York Times best-seller discusses a very controversial issue: offering people who are terminally ill choices on how and when to end their lives. This book was challenged at the Cook Memorial Library in Libertyville, IL, in 1991 because it discusses assisted suicide and drug use.


Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat (593.773 MOW) Nonfiction
Mowat, a biologist for the Canadian government spent an Arctic summer watching and tracking a family of wolves. Banned from the Panama City, FL, school classrooms and libraries in 1987 because of bad language.


In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen (305.897 MAT) Nonfiction
The author researched thousands of pages of documents from both the FBI and the Indians to reveal the treatment of the Indians in 196s and '70s. South Dakota Governor William J. Janklow sued three bookstores for not stopping the sale of this book in their store.


365 Days by Ronald J. Glaser (959.7 GLA) Nonfiction
The author is a former Major, United States Army Medical Corps stationed as a pediatrician in a Japanese hospital which averaged six to eight thousand patients a month. This book was banned in Baileyville, ME, in 1982.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007