{"id":4048,"date":"2012-04-07T02:00:42","date_gmt":"2012-04-07T06:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=4048"},"modified":"2012-04-07T08:17:54","modified_gmt":"2012-04-07T12:17:54","slug":"attending-the-arbuthnot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/attending-the-arbuthnot\/","title":{"rendered":"Attending the Arbuthnot"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m writing this just a few hours after having attended the 2012 May Hill Arbuthnot <\/a>Lecture<\/a>, held this year at Miami University in Oxford, OH<\/a>.\u00a0 I had been so looking forward to this rare and wonderful opportunity to see and hear one of my all-time favorite author\/illustrators \u2014 Peter S\u00ed\u00ads<\/a> \u2014 and this evening’s events did not disappoint!<\/p>\n

Reading in the dark\u2026this is how Peter\u00a0S\u00ed\u00ads \"\"<\/a>described growing up behind the Iron Curtain.\u00a0 Reading in the dark.\u00a0 Many of us have warm childhood memories of sneaking a flashlight into our bedrooms after our parents had given the last \u201clights out\u201d\u009d announcement of the night, the thrill we had of reading when it was \u201cforbidden\u201d\u009d.\u00a0 For Peter S\u00ed\u00ads, however, this image does not connote warm fuzzy feelings.\u00a0 This evening, before a packed house, he described how books and stories were his lifeline — confusing and often contradictory, but a lifeline, nonetheless — \u00a0during his childhood and young adulthood.\u00a0 He told us, his rapt audience, how difficult it was to obtain banned reading materials, yet how people risked so much to obtain them.\u00a0 He described what it was like to come to the United States and get a taste of the freedoms we enjoy and take for granted.\u00a0 \u00a0He described the difficult decision to stay in the U.S., in direct opposition to the demands of his government. \u00a0He described his new life in the U.S., how his family and the events of our day \u2014 like 9\/11 \u2014 have influenced his work.\u00a0 And he described all of this with great warmth and humor and insight.\u00a0\u00a0 Just like his art, his speech was articulate and detailed and colored with his own unique expression.<\/p>\n

Overall, Peter made an impression on me of how critically important it is for us to realize and appreciate and make use of the freedoms we have.\u00a0 As a children\u2019s librarian, I was reminded of the huge impact I have on the children I serve and for whom I am an advocate…how privileged we all are to have dedicated and talented artists like Peter producing outstanding art for children…what a significant role we play in seeking out books and getting them in the hands of children.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Peter S\u00ed\u00ads, for sharing your insights.\u00a0 Thank you, ALSC, for providing this opportunity to me and everyone who was able to attend tonight\u2019s lecture.\u00a0 As for this librarian, I\u2019ll spend my days making sure no one has to read in the dark.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Our guest blogger today is Kris Lill<\/a>, a Children\u2019s Librarian at the Allen County Public Library<\/a> in Fort Wayne, IN, \u00a0a frequent blogger on the <\/em>ACPL Kid<\/em><\/a> blog. <\/em><\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at alscblog@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m writing this just a few hours after having attended the 2012 May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture, held this year at Miami University in Oxford, OH.\u00a0 I had been so looking forward to this rare and wonderful opportunity to see and hear one of my all-time favorite author\/illustrators \u2014 Peter S\u00ed\u00ads \u2014 and this evening’s events did not disappoint! Reading in the dark\u2026this is how Peter\u00a0S\u00ed\u00ads described growing up behind the Iron Curtain.\u00a0 Reading in the dark.\u00a0 Many of us have warm childhood memories of sneaking a flashlight into our bedrooms after our parents had given the last \u201clights out\u201d\u009d announcement of the night, the thrill we had of reading when it was \u201cforbidden\u201d\u009d.\u00a0 For Peter S\u00ed\u00ads, however, this image does not connote warm fuzzy feelings.\u00a0 This evening, before a packed house, he described how books and stories were his lifeline — confusing and often contradictory, but a lifeline, nonetheless —…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[22,134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-literature","category-guest-blogger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}