26 in 2026: Go to at least 1 author talk -- Shelly Van Pelt

 When Fox Cities Reads announced that Remarkably Bright Creatures was going to be the Fox Cities Read for 2026, I knew I had to attend the author talk. I read the book back when it first came out and loved it. I even convinced that my book club to read. Unfortunately my book club meeting was the same day as Shelly Van Pelt's visit. I hoped to be able to do both but figured it would have been doubtful. 

Remarkably Bright Creatures is a delightful book about an escape artist octopus, an older woman, and a lost soul. Even though an octopus is a main character, it is truly a book about friendship and life. It is Shelly Van Pelt's debut novel.

Shelly Van Pelt was scheduled to speak at 6 at the Appleton Library. Having seen several well known authors as part of the Fox Cities Book Festival and know how many people will show up especially for this book, I knew how I had to get there early. I got there at least 90 minutes before hand. I was not the first person there. We waited outside the room for about 45 minutes before being allowed in. I chose a seat about half way back. By the time it started it was standing room only.

Shelly Van Pelt not only is an amazing author, she is also a great speaker. She spoke for about 45 minutes about how the story developed and the upcoming movie. I loved how she would spend hours at the Atlanta aquarium watching and observing the animals as part of her research. She took questions for about 10 minutes. 

After she was done speaking, she was going to sign books. This is where it got insane. I ducked out while she was still answering questions. There was at least 50 people in front of me. The line snaked from the outside the conference room, down the hall, and into the library. The moved slowly but it was worth the wait.

I got my book signed and even got a picture. I made a comment about it being a long night for her and she was like I get to sit here. You guys have to stand the entire time. She was very personable and nice. 

If you ever get a chance to hear her talk, do it. If you get a chance to hear any other speak do it. They love meeting readers and share their books. 

7446. Make a cornhusk doll

 Every year the area libraries do a Fox Cities Reads book where all the area libraries and schools read the same book and then there are author visits. This year they picked two books There There by Tommy Orange and Apple in the Middle by Dawn Quigley. Both books were written by Native Americans which was their focus this year. As part of the Fox Cities Reads, they sponsored a cornhusk doll project at several libraries. Kimberly had one during the day and Little Chute had one at night.

I opted to go to the one in Little Chute. It stated at 6 pm and was limited to 30 people. I was worried that it was going to fill up quickly so I got there about 5:45 and was the second person there. We had a total of 6 people which was great since we were able to get a lot of one on one help.

Yntlekalau McLester, who is part of the Oneida Tribe, walked us through the steps of making a corn husk doll. We had directions and on paper they looked fairly straight forward. In reality it was as easy as the directions made it seem.

You start by layering 4 corn husks on top of each other (3 if you don't want hair) and tie them at the top with sinew. Cornhusks must be wet for this to work.

Leaving one piece separate for the hair make a head about an inch or two from the top. I messed up the order of my husks and my hair is longer than I wanted it.

If you want fancy arms, you can brand 3 husks together to make arms. You would do this twice.. one for each arm and then tie them together.

You then push them up under the head and tie it off under the arms to make a chest.

Then you take two husks and criss cross them off the chest to hide the strings and arms. 

To make hair, you pull your husk apart to get a Medusa look. Then braid it.

You add one final corn husks around the middle for a skirt. And hopefully it stands up.

Mine stood for a few hours and then would fall down. I tried to re-soak the skirt and it still falls down. I think my skirt is too long and wide to properly stand. 

While we made our dolls, we learned the history behind the corn husk doll. There are two stories on why they don't have faces. Basically an Indian Maidan thought herself to be beautiful and it got her in trouble. 

It was a fun class. I am glad that the libraries offered this event. I wish more people would shown up. Hopefully I will get to hear Tommy Orange speak in May. I can't wait to see what next year's Fox Cities Reads is and what ancillary events they have to go with it.

Fox Cities Reads 2017: Stella by Starlight

This year the Fox Cities Reads book and the Fox Cities Boo Festival are 6 months apart with the book festival being held in October while Fox Cities Reads is now. The book chosen this year is Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper. We read it for book club in March.

Stella by Starlight is set in the 1930s in rural North Carolina. Stella, a young black girl, is struggling with writing in school as well as the KKK presence in her small community. Despite hard economic times, her neighbors and her family learn the true meaning of community as they gather together when the traveling salesman drops in and pitch in as one of their own homes is lit on fire by the KKK.

It is book for the middle grades... perfect to read as a family and discuss how what Stella faces is similar or different from our own world today. Many of the issues that were illustrated in the book are still common today and are important to address. Racism, community, struggles with school, helping at home, voting rights are all things we still see in 2017.

Part of the Fox Cities Reads Campaign was several author visits in the community with Sharon Draper. She visited several area schools and talked to students about the book and writing. However, she also had two community appearances. Even though I was not feeling well, I did go to UW-Fox Valley to hear her speak since that would be my only opportunity.

Sharon Draper was an amazing speaker. She didn't talk about the book or her writing too much because she wanted time for questions and didn't want to keep us there all night. Being a fiction writer, she calls herself a professional liar which if you think about it pretty much what she is. She writes fiction to talk about reality. It is much easier to talk about today's issues from someone's else view.

Besides talking about the writing process, how she became a writer (challenged by a student), and her books, Ms. Draper had two key takeaways:
   1. Find your gift or your joy -- don't do something you're not good at if it doesn't make you happy.
   2. Talk to your parents and get there story -- this seems to be a common theme among authors this year. Don't wait until it's too late to learn your family history, how your parents met, what was school like for your parents. Have a conversation with them and write it down or record it.

Despite trying not to hack up a lung and infect everyone sitting around me, it was a very pleasant evening. I am glad I went. I really enjoyed hearing Sharon speak. Fox Cities Reads is a great program that brings the community together and hopefully I will get to read the book next year too.

#6333 Read a Fox Cities Read Book

Every year as part of the Fox Cities Book Festival, there is a book chosen for Fox Cities Read. Fox Cities Read is a program where "the public libraries of the Fox Cities have come together with the goal of building a larger sense of community and to promote literacy"-- Fox Cities Reads website.

This year the book chosen was Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. The ladies at the cookbook club were talking about it one night saying it wasn't as depressing as it sounds. I decided to reserve it for my Nook. It was a phenomenal book. The basis of the historical fiction book was to shed light on orphan trains that took orphaned, abandoned, and homeless children off the streets of New York and other Eastern cities and transported them to new families in the Middle West, usually as indentured servants. However, the book wasn't entirely devoted to Vivian, an orphan train rider. It was also about Molly, a teenager that was coming to age in the Foster Care system. Molly is volunteered to help Vivian clean out her attic as part of a community service sentence. During the time they spend together, Molly learns about Vivian past and in turn Vivian helps Molly through some difficult times.

Before reading the book, I did not know such a travesty occurred in our history...just another piece of history that would rather have been forgotten by the masses. I was quite interested in learning more about Orphan Trains and why Christina decided to write about an Orphan Train rider. 

Because Orphan Train was the Fox Cities Reads book, Christina made several appearances at the Festival including a meet and greet cocktail reception at the Appleton Public Library. I was lucky enough to find one that wasn't during the day or conflicted with Jessie Garcia. Tonight, I went to the History Museum at the Castle to hear Christina's final presentation. It was standing room only. I got there about 6:10 for the 6:30 presentation and there were only a few seats left. I did offer my chair to one older woman, who declined and stood the entire time. At least I offered.

My burning question "Why did you decide to write about an orphan train rider" was answered within the first 5 minutes. It turned out that during a blizzard while visiting her in-laws over Christmas in Fargo, ND, her mother-in-law pulled a dusty book off a shelf to try to entertain her grandson when she discovered an article written about orphan trains in Jamestown, ND. (The book was a publication celebrating the town's 100 year anniversary or something.) Her mother-in-law turned the page in that book and discovered her father and his siblings were train riders. No one every talked about it. After extensive research, Christina found this to be common, as the children were instructed to forget about their old lives.

What surprised me was the number of people int eh room that knew an orphan train rider. Like I said before reading this book, I never heard of orphan trains, yet at least 5 people in the room crossed paths with an orphan train rider or a relative of an orphan train rider. Okay so most of those people were much older than I am. 

Other surprising tidbits about how Orphan Train Riders were hiding in plain site throughout children's classics:

- An orphan train rider was mention in the Little House on the Prairie Books. She didn't say which one but now I must reread them to figure this out.

-- One of the American Girl book girls' best friend was an orphan train rider. Again not sure which one but based on the time frame of the Orphan Trains (1850s-1920s), it could be Kristen.

--There was a whole children's book series devoted to orphan train riders probably in the 1960s-1970s judging on the lady who mentioned it age.

Thank you Christina for opening my eyes to Orphan Trains and writing such a great book.