Michael Moore: End Wars, Fund Libraries

I am one lucky woman. My mom, The Bean, loves to spring for tickets to literary events --our deal: she gets tickets and I try to get the food --she usually wins the draw and reaches her wallet first. Together we've experienced wonderful authors including Diane Rehm and Maria Doria Russell, click the links to read our adventures. Recently she treated to "An Evening with Michael Moore" at Traverse City's State Theatre.

Before Michael read from his new book Here Comes Trouble he shared a couple of lists. The first brought to light a simple fact: we all have things in common, if we take pause and really give it a chance. Michael and I, we don't tighten lids; Michael and my brother, share a middle name --Francis; Michael and my family work hard to get along with neighbors (he even lived through neighbors spreading manure on his lawn); Michael and myriads love movies, books, libraries, and our moms.  I really whooped and hollered when he shared number six of his second list, Ten Things We Want: A Proposal for Occupy Wall Street: End Wars, Fund Libraries. Could it really be that simple? Well, of course there is much more to it --but that simple thought I am happy to share with The Sisters: fight less, learn more.

Here at Books for Walls Project we are always in the lookout for ideas that help libraries, especially with funding. During his book tour Michael is going the distance for libraries. In his home town of Flint, Michigan (free event, half price books) $10,000 was donated to the Flint Public Library. In fact, on every stop  a portion of book sale royalties are donated to a local library. We're trying to find out which Traverse Area District Library will receive the Traverse City event royalties, we'll let you know! 

Three local booksellers were offered an exclusive opportunity to sell autographed, first edition copies of  Here Comes Trouble. In turn, Brilliant Books, McLean & Eakin Booksellers and Saturn Booksellers donate $5 from each sale to help restore the State Theatre (a local gem in Traverse City). Our only criticism: at www.michaelmoore.com Here Comes Trouble seekers are sent to Amazon.com, where the book costs nearly half as much at the cover price. It's hard for folks, libraries included, to slap down full price when Amazon deals are dangled like cheap carrots in front of us. (Note to Michael Moore: If you're reading this, please consider linking to local bookstores on your website. Remember you told us  that change could be simple, so we're giving it a try! Imagine what your book sales could do for local economies --we can. And THANK YOU.)

Mike and Me
Thank you Mike for posing "Books for Walls Project Style"
and thanks for taking the time to listen!

Following a lively, cheering, laughing, audience involved talk we waited in line to get books signed and chat with Michael Moore; his charisma and ability to speak his truth is what America could be all about. He took a moment to hear our abbreviated stories --that The Bean (my Mom) and The Poet  (my Dad) met on the streets of Detroit during the riots on April 4, 1968 when Martin Luther King, Jr was shot, then married and raised three children just blocks away; we told him about BFWP and our Library Love plans --he listened as he signed his name. The night was about listening. Listening to him talk about his life, running for school board, twenty-somethings, his mother and his love of reading and oh yes, his love of  movies, listening to the audience react, listening to my Mom laugh, wondering how I will do a better job listening to everyone I meet. After our evening with Michael Moore and a theater full of hopeful people there was no way this Mom will ever wonder if the future of the world is all right.


In our perfect world libraries don't have to wonder how to remain open, which books to buy, and what services to provide. In our perfect world the knowledge that gives Americans power would be available 24/7 to every citizen --any age, with or without an address. We are giddy to imagine that world.

“I realized that this was the big secret of democracy 

-- that change can occur by starting off with just a 

few people doing something.” 

Michael Moore, Here Comes Trouble

Now get out there and support your library, 

donate a couple of books, 

join the Friends of the Library... 

use it or loose it!

Now for the FUN part:

We invested in two copies of Here Comes Trouble (that's $10 to help the State Theatre!) one for our personal library and one for YOUR favorite library. 

Would you like us to donate a signed, 1st edition to your library? 

Drop us a line info@booksforwallsproject.org, or post a comment, tell us about your favorite library --we'll collect the entries over the next couple of weeks and then The Sisters will pick one in a random drawing. 

This copy can belong to your library... 

• Interested in reading Here Comes Trouble? May we suggest borrowing a copy from your library, find it www.worldcat.org. 
• Want to invest in your own 1st Edition, autographed copy? Check out one of these bookstores: Brilliant Books in Traverse City and Suttons Bay, Michigan --they offer free shipping! McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petosky, Michigan and Saturn Booksellers in Gaylord, Michigan
• Send Michael Moore a love letter (we think this is his email address!) or visit his Facebook page ask him to link to local bookstores on his website and tell him the Books for Walls Project send you --and don't forget to thank him for supporting our libraries! 

Stop by again soon! We have all sorts of fun planned for December!

Listening Challenge 2011

We challenge you to listen, to collect stories, and to take 
part in StoryCorps National Day of Listening!

(WARNING: if you watch the video you will be inspired 

and will learn everything you need to do to get started!)

The Books for Walls Project is pleased to be an official state partner of the acclaimed oral history project StoryCorps in celebrating the fourth annual National Day of Listening on Friday, November 25, 2011. 

On the day after Thanksgiving every year, The Books for Walls Project and StoryCorps are asking all Americans to start a new holiday tradition: set aside an hour to interview a friend, a loved one, or someone in their community about his or her life.

To record your own National Day of Listening interview:

• Find someone you’d like to interview

• Create your question list

• Sit down to record your conversation

StoryCorps has created a free Do-It-Yourself (DIY) interview guide with step-by-step interview instructions, equipment recommendations, and sample questions that is available online at www.nationaldayoflistening.org. You can record your interview using equipment that is readily available in most homes—from cell phones to tape recorders to computers or even pen and paper.

The National Day of Listening was started by StoryCorps in 2008 as a way to provide an alternative to "Black Friday" shopping sprees. By participating in this year’s National Day of Listening, we hope you’ll find that taking the time out to interview someone about his or her life is the least expensive but most meaningful gift that we can give.

The StoryCorps mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, preserve, and share their stories. 

Join the Books for Walls Project and take part in the National Day of Listening!

Word of the Day from The Uncle: Bibliophage

This just in from The Uncle (hopefully we'll get him to be a regular one day!) Today's Word of the Day from www.dictionary.com:

bibliophage

   \BIB-lee-uh-feyj\ , noun;\BIB-lee-uh-feyj\, noun:

An ardent reader; a bookworm.

You may recall, if you are something of a bibliophage, that the late Sylvia Plath had a story with a similar name.

-- Corey Mesler, We Are a Billion-Year-Old Carbon

The borrower, heedless, reckless bibliophage cares nothing about all this; into the midst of these learned pleasures he leaps like a fox into a hen-roost; he is smitten all at once with an overmastering hunger for reading...

-- Elliot Stock, The Bookworm

Bibliophage derives from the Latin biblio meaning “books” and phage meaning “a thing that devours.”

We'd like to coin a new term... librarybiliophage: an ardent reader of LIBRARY books! Now go and and celebrate your librarybibliophageness... visit your favorite library and tell them we sent you!

Best of BFWP: The A book, a quote! Tell us, please do! Which is the Best of the Best Seuss for You? Challenge

On Sunday we shared some exciting news in the world of children's books... new Dr. Seuss. The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories, according to publisher Random House, holds seven stories including:

The Bippolo Seed "in which a scheming feline leads an innocent duck to make a bad decision" and The Strange Shirt Spot "the inspiration for the bathtub-ring scene in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back." 

We have several Dr. Seuss books and somehow we never, ever tire of reading them and cannot wait for the new one, just over 120 days until it is released (September 2011).

For a little fun The Big 

Sister invites you to say 

this passage from Fox in 

Socks 3 times fast:

"Through three cheese trees

three free fleas flew.

While these fleas flew,

freezy breeze blew.

Freezy breeze made

these three trees freeze.

Freezy trees made

these trees' cheese freeze.

That's what made these

three free fleas sneeze."

Our challenge this week is to think about Dr. Seuss and share your thoughts, here are some ideas to get you started:

• Which is your favorite Dr. Seuss book?
• What do you know about Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss? We've been wondering about the story behind his nom de plume, does anyone know how he came up with Dr. Seuss? 
• April is National Poetry Month, try your hand at a little iambic pentameter -one of the wonderful poetry rhythms Dr. Seuss used. We found great lessons from Smithsonian in Your Classroom, titled The Music in Poetry, click here for a PDF of the issue.
• Share a favorite book passage or Dr.Seuss quote.
• Tell us a Seuss-y story --perhaps a book that your read over and over and over!

Take a moment to learn more about The Books for Walls Project --we were in the newspaper this week!  Keep up with the latest on literacy, libraries and book love with us on Facebook or sign up for our RSS feed.

Now, without further ado, 

please take 

the 

challenge!

Best of BFWP: The Sidekick Challenge

Our Sidekick

This week's Challenge is brought to you by The Dog. We realized it was time to let him get a chance to share what he thinks is important...

So, let's talk sidekicks. What is a sidekick? The Big Sister says, "a sidekick is the main character's buddy, sometimes real, sometimes imagined and very important!" The Dog is definitely a sidekick --or are we HIS sidekicks?

The Big Sister helped The Dog work out the details of this week's challenge and both Sisters helped him go incognito for his photo, they decided to forgo the regular "Behind the Book Pose" and chose instead a wig, scarf and sunglasses. (Very nice, no?)





Take the Sidekick Challenge:
Tell us about a sidekick
in a book you love
--or tell us a story
about your
favorite sidekick!