Front Page News

Enjoy this article about Pages Across the Ages in today's Daily Herald! :)

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120716/news/707169930/

First Pages Across the Ages Social is a Success!

The Social on Saturday was a HUGE success.  Almost all of the partners were present to meet each other for the first time!  Parents stayed with the young participants, as they were extremely interested to meet their child's partner as well.  Three generations filled the rooms of Clare Oaks.

I welcome our first guest to the Social as Anne of Green Gables

A young participant surprises us all and dresses as Anne of Green Gables too!

We held a Book Character Costume Contest and one child surprised us all with her own Anne of Green Gables costume!



The two hours were full of opportunities to further the bond between the pen pals.  We  played a version of BINGO where the spaces were made up of questions the partners asked to get to know each other.  Questions included everything from "Have you ever owned a pet?" to "Have you ever broken a bone?" (Something the residents of Clare Oaks joked should not be mentioned).  Partners also decorated picture frames and had their pictures taken together.  I will deliver the frames to them with the picture inside with their next letter delivery.

The best thing that came out of this event was the fact that partners made plans to meet even outside of this program.  Friendships are taking flight!!!

A young participant dressed as Pinkalicious with her partner form a friendship

Pages Across the Ages Video

Our library created this video about Pages Across the Ages.  At this point, only the children and seniors in this video have met each other.

The big day for all the partners to meet each other will be this Saturday, June 16.  I am more excited about this day than I have been for every birthday and holiday combined!

I will let everyone know how the event goes after Saturday!  Enjoy the video. :)

Challenge Activity: Re-read an Old Favorite

“Yesterday was a very happy day for me.  I visited our library at Clare Oaks and was given a book and a photograph.  The picture was of you.  I was truly excited to see such a pretty girl who would be my partner in reading.  But then I was even more excited when I saw the book you chose – namely Charlotte’s Web.  Actually I read that book a long time ago.  It was when I was teaching the third grade.  […] The night I read it, it was nine o’clock.  I read one chapter, then another, and so on.  I said to myself – maybe one more chapter… I’m reading and reading – all of a sudden I heard the birds singing.  I said to myself – what’s that?  I finally realized it was five o’clock in the morning.  I stayed up all night to finish the book – It was so good.  I should have paid attention to Charlotte when she told Wilbur to go to bed ‘sleep is important’ (see page 81).” – Sister Connie

Whether you are 8 or 108, chances are you have experienced what Sister Connie experienced when she first read Charlotte's Web.  

It is a universal human experience to lose oneself in the world of a book.  

Sharing how we feel during this experience is one way we can cross generational boundaries and connect with each other.  No matter how our lives may be different, we can share how we feel when we let go of all our other thoughts and focus solely on the book in our hands.

Have you ever had this experience?  

Have you ever re-read a book you read when you were younger?  

What was the experience of reading the book for the second time?

Challenge Activity

Find one of your old favorite books and re-read it.  Share the experience with someone.  Consider choosing someone with whom you think you have very little in common to talk about getting lost in a book.

A Letter Exchange: Verdi by Janell Cannon

“It was funny when Verdi is scared that he will turn green because that meant that he was old.  But he thought that meant he was going to become lazy.  […] Then he understood that he could still be happy even if he was green.  He was still the same inside.”

 – Sean, age 8

“Verdi doesn’t want to grow old and green! […] He gets tired and old and decides that being old and green isn’t so bad after all!  My name is Pat.  You’re 8 and I’m 83.  I don’t mind being old but I hope I don’t turn green.” 

- Pat, age 83

Does anyone know what to expect as they age?  Do we not have similar fears when we are 8, 18, 28, and 88 when it comes to change?  In this exchange between these two partners, an eight-year-old boy and eighty-three-year old woman bond over this fear and pick up on the lesson of accepting oneself through change. 

If I hadn’t noted the age of the writers, would you have guessed the age of the people writing these statements?  

Sometimes we catch an eighty-three -year-old in an eight-year-old’s body and an eight-year-old in an eighty-three-year-old’s body.

This program reminds me every day that the young and old have more in common than they have differences.  It reminds me that we can help each other navigate life, accept ourselves, and laugh about the changes we experience and our fears about these changes.

Pages Across the Ages: An Intergenerational Reading and Writing Exchange

This blog will be about what is Real.  It will be about the relationships between people who have been young for a short time and people who have been young for a long time.  It will be about the children's literature that draws people of all ages into conversation with each other.  It will be about the program Pages Across the Ages: An Intergenerational Reading and Writing Exchange.  

Let this excerpt from the Velveteen Rabbit explain what I mean about what is Real:

Skin Horse:  “Real isn’t how you are made […]  It’s a thing that happens to you.  When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

Rabbit:  “Does it hurt?”

Skin Horse:  “Sometimes,” […] When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

Rabbit:  “Does it happen all at once, like being would up, […] or bit by bit?”

Skin Horse:  “It doesn’t happen all at once […] You become.  It takes a long time.  That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.  Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby.  But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.

Rabbit:  “I suppose you are Real?”

And then [the Rabbit] wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive.  But the Skin Horse only smiled...

The Velveteen Rabbit.  Original text by Margery Williams.  Original Art by William Nicholson.  Doubleday & ompany, INC.  Garden City, New York: pp. 17-21

Kimberly as Anne of Green Gables from the children's book with a participant in Pages Across the Ages.

It is my firm belief that we are all more Real when we connect with each other across the generations.  When we ask the questions about things we are hesitant to question yet all need to know.  Let's use this blog as a place to launch our intergenerational adventures!