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