Between 2010 and 2019, Cauli Le Chat (2006?-2020), feline roving reporter for Mooresville Public Library (Mooresville, Indiana), reported all things interesting to cats (and humans) happening at the library. Related stories from across the state (and beyond) were also included.
This week a charming new children's picture book arrived at my library. I think that title's misleading, however. Those seven cats were never so bad! At least, not from their point of view.
Seven Bad Cats, by Moe Bonneau
(MPL Book Trailer #435)
The book's available to checkout from our Evergreen Indiana catalog. It is a wonderful readaloud that human kids (and cats) will enjoy. The book is written in rhyme, so that's how we did the book trailer.
Remember, cats having fun are never bad. That's our story, and we're sticking to it!
My library has these little handheld metal baskets patrons may pickup and carry around to hold all the stuff they want to checkout. They're perfectly adequate for ordinary needs, but what if you want to checkout LOADS of books, movies, audiobooks, kits, music CDs, or whatever? You'll need a REALLY BIG book cart for that. Fortunately, we've got you covered.
Click Photos to Bigify
Key Words: Inside and Return Here
Obviously (Duh!)
These grocery carts are kept next to the Hold Shelves by the elevator. Patrons may use these carts throughout the inside of the library. Don't take them outside, or else we'll unleash our finely-trained crew of feline enforcers--like this dude.
You've Been Warned
After gathering together everything you wish to checkout, and our helpful circulation staff (or our self-checkout kiosks) have checked the items out to you, then you should return the cart to where you found it. If not, then, once again, it's attack cat city. Nobody wants that.
It's practically April--it has been raining for the past two days--so it's time for my library to put up some Spring-themed displays. As always, click the photos below to bigify.
CatPro, our relatively new (she's been here a couple months) technical services coordinator, created this display for National Garden Month (April). Checkout these (and other, similarly topical) books (and other stuff) using your Evergreen Indiana library card.
The Decorinator added this John Deere toy display to the glass cabinet next to the library's front entrance. You can't get more Spring than farming in Indiana.
Drop by to see these (and other) displays. It makes sense to come into the library. It's raining outside.
Meet the official mascot of my library's youth services department.
Meet Captain Book, by Mooresville Public Library
(click arrow above to play video)
What about moi?, you may ask. Why am I not the official youth services mascot? For starters, I am the library's official feline roving reporter (retired), which is much higher on the food chain than a mere mascot. So the captain can do that--it's okay by moi. I'm just relieved that I'm not being replaced.
TV's Amanda did a great job introducing Captain Book in that promo trailer (video). She's a natural talent, given her family's television background.
What will Captain Book be doing at the library? You'll have to drop by to find out! What am I, a social secretary? Not!
Seriously, the captain will be doing lots of fun things with TV's Amanda in her children's programs. Those superpowers will come in handy once programming resumes on Monday, January 29.
Our technical services director, Lady RaDA, has just mentioned on Facebook this bizarre little pop-up book that came across her desk, which we presume is not recommended for those suffering from bibliophobia.
The Pop-up Book of Phobias (1999), created and written by Gary Greenberg, illustrated by Balvis Rubess, with pop-ups by Matthew Reinhart, is listed in our Evergreen Indiana catalog as missing. Apparently, it has been found by Lady RaDA. Better her than moi, I'd venture.
This must be a grown-up parody of children's pop-up books, I'm hoping. Maybe adult humans will get some laughs. But for us felines, it's just too freaky. We like things in our environment to look normal, as we cats see things. That's why it scares some of my housemates when Scowl-Face wears a hat--or just enters a room, actually.
Let moi know if you think of a way to un-see all this. Thanks.
Your (Retired) Roving Reporter On The Go,
Cauli Le Chat
P.S. We close with "Phobia," by the Kinks, from the album Phobia (1993).
Although I've been retired for some time from my job as MPL feline roving reporter, I couldn't resist blogging about an exciting new children's chapter book, Lucky, by Chris Hill. It's about scurrydogs. Well, that's what I call them. You may call them something else entirely.
Lucky, by Chris Hill (MPL Book Trailer #263)
You'll see why this red scurrydog is called Lucky in our book trailer (above). I'll help with the reading-between-the-lines bit:
Lucky escaped the talons of a hawkenswooper (humans call them hawks, probably for short);
He was "adopted" by a grey scurrydog clan called the Cloudfoot;
He hasn't gotten beaten up (yet) by the rival scurrydog clan, the Northenders;
He's living in Albion Park, which has bunches of places where humans toss away perfectly good food (plus the trees have nuts, the bushes berries, etc., which I assume scurrydogs eat);
None of the many other predators in the park (including slobberdogs and felines) have decided to make a snack out of him; and
He's a character in a book, so the writer can get him out of any tight jams with a flourish of keyboard strokes.
Actually, it's quite an exciting story for children who enjoy chapter books (so we're talking human elementary school grades 3-6, presumably). I'd recommend it for humans aged 8-11. Younger felines, of course, might enjoy it, too. Slobberdogs might, also, if they had someone to read to them (like our Paws to Read program at the Library).
While in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1944, Valentine Davies (1905-1961) wrote the story from which director George Seaton (1911-1979) wrote the screenplay for the movie Miracle on 34th Street (1947). Davies was discouraged by the rampant commercialism that had invaded the Christmas holiday season, and so he wondered what the real Santa Claus would say if he were to walk into a modern American department store after Thanksgiving. So he created this wonderful fictional tale of Kris Kringle, who lived in a senior citizens community home on Long Island but became the store Santa at Macy's Department Store on West 34th Street in Manhattan.
Following development of the movie, Davies wrote a novelization based upon the screenplay (and also elements from his original story). The book is as good as the movie, and we have it available to checkout from our Evergreen Indiana catalog. Our book trailer summarizes the plot.
MPL Book Trailer #233 Miracle on 34th Street, by Valentine Davies
Davies received the 1948 Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story, while Seaton garnered Best Adapted Screenplay. Edmund Gwenn, who played Kris Kringle in the movie, captured the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
The movie was remade in 1994, and I'm sure it was fine. My minions said it was okay. We're not big fans of remakes, but that's no reason not to watch it, if you want.
Treat yourselves to this wonderful book and the movie, too, which is also available in our Evergreen Indiana catalog. There's a colorized version (2006), but it's better in the original black-and-white. See if you can find a copy of the original.
I love this movie and book. Okay, minions, time to read to moi, then we'll watch the film. Snacks, sooner than later, minions. Just saying.
Your Roving Reporter On The Go,
Cauli Le Chat
P.S. Here's a clip from the original 1947 movie in which Kris Kringle explains that Christmas isn't just a day; it's a frame of mind. What a wonderful philosophy!
A Tale of Two Beasts, by Fiona Roberton, is a delightful children's picture book that looks at a human/wild critter encounter from both perspectives--the little girl's and the critter's. The little girl thinks she is giving the wild critter a happy home, but the critter thinks otherwise. Eventually, they find common ground based upon mutual affections. The book is available to checkout from our Evergreen Indiana catalog.
I had a similar experience once. Back in December, 2010, when I was hanging around outside Mooresville Public Library (mostly in the Kinder Garden outdoor program area), it was getting well below zero degrees Fahrenheit at night. Assuming I was a stray, Kindly Couple, one of whom worked for MPL (the other volunteered here), thought that I might freeze outside, so they hustled moi into their car and took moi to their home. I stayed for a couple weeks in their son's bedroom, which was nice and toasty warm. They fed moi some excellent meals, I must say. I was safe and secure. But it wasn't my style; I'd been a free-roaming feline for years, and I hankered to return to the travelling ways. One day, they let moi out the front door for some fresh air, and I was off in a flash! They didn't catch moi again, but I decided it was nice having a human house to lounge around, so I moved into a neighbor's home just up the hill from Kindly Couple's abode.
Of course, I returned to the Library frequently to resume my then-newly established feline roving reportership. It wasn't such a long journey, and I was accustomed to walking vast distances everywhere. So I reported about all things Library-related (or anything else I felt like blogging about) until my retirement in March, 2015. I'm pretty much an indoor kitty now, only roaming around the yard at my forever home (I decided, after all, that Kindly Couple were fun to hang around.) As I've gotten older, I don't have wanderlust so much.
Don't get moi wrong: I truly appreciated Kindly Couple's thoughtfulness back in 2010. But we freedom felines don't like to be hemmed in; it cramps our exploratory natures. There's a lesson there, minions.
Explore the Maine wilderness of over 150 years ago with Henry David Thoreau in his classic travelogue, The Maine Woods. Our book trailer elaborates.
MPL Book Trailer #226
The Maine Woods, by Henry David Thoreau
It should come as no surprise that one of my ancestors was a roving reporter who hung around Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. He even wrote about my relative:
"The very dogs and cats incline to affection in their relation to man. It often happens that a man is more humanely related to a cat or dog than to any human being. What bond is it relates us to any animal we keep in the house but the bond of affection? In a degree we grow to love one another." (Thoreau, Henry David. Journal, April 29, 1851.)
"Even the cat which lies on a rug all day commences to prowl about the fields at night, resumes her ancient forest habits. The most tenderly bred grimalkin steals forth at night, -- watches some bird on its perch for an hour in the furrow, [....] Caressed by children and cherished with a saucer of milk. Even she can erect her back and expand her tail and spit at her enemies like the wild cat of the woods. Sweet Sylvia!" (Thoreau, Henry David. Journal, April 30, 1851.)
Did I mention that my ancestor's name was Sylvia? We don't have any sketches or daguerreotypes of her, but we have a modern rendering of what she may have looked like:
Yep. Pretty Much. (Click Photos to Bigify)
Seriously, we have a photo of one of Sylvia's descendants:
Champion Max (ca. 1895)
Maine Coon Cat
Boston, MA
Human: Mrs. C. F. Taylor
We have a daguerreotype of Thoreau:
Henry David Thoreau (1856)
(Photography by Benjamin D. Maxham)
If I could time travel, I'd accompany Thoreau during his adventures in the Maine Wilderness in 1846, 1853, and 1857. But reading his lively account of his journeys is practically the same thing. Thoreau reports his experiences and observations in a straightforward, journalistic manner, only occasionally philosophizing (he was, after all, a philosopher). Wry wit and poignant insights appear throughout. It is as close as modern humans can come to having seen this largely uninhabited wilderness before the American Civil War.
The Maine Woods is available to checkout from our Evergreen Indiana catalog. If you love walking in the backwoods, you will thoroughly enjoy this wonderful historical treasure.
Your Roving Reporter On The Go,
Cauli Le Chat
P.S. Coincidentally, the movie adaptation (2015) of the book, A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, by Bill Bryson (1998), is set for release this Labor Day weekend. Here's the official movie trailer.
