Nonfiction Monday-- The Philippines

Nonfiction Monday was started by Anastasia Suen and is hosted this week at 100 Scope Notes. Make sure you hop over there to check out all of the links to nonfiction reviews!

Sheen, Barbara. Foods of the Philippines.
Thomson Gale 2006

This book was very helpful in not only explaining what foods are commonly eaten in the Philippines, but in giving recipes that are adapted to cooking in the US. We did try a recipe for chicken adobo, which included, among other things 3/4 C of vinegar and 1/4 C or soy sauce. The fumes!

Tope, Lily Rose R. and Detch P. Nonan-Mercado. Cultures of the World: Philippines. Benchmark Books, 1990, 2002
I have weeded out most of my country books, because they become outdated so quickly. The other day, I had a girl whose family is from Ghana come looking for a book to show to a friend about that country. The one I had was from the early 1990s, and the girl said that Ghana didn't look anything like that. This title from the public library is also probably dated. I have an entire set of Gareth Stevens Festivals of the World books from the early 2000s that are probably not really accurate.

Philosophical Rant:

What is the answer to providing information about countries? For statistical data, of course, I tell students to check out the CIA World Factbook. But what about cultures, traditions, and pictures of the landscape? How many books do we need, and when do they become dated? I keep one about Greece from 1985 because it has a picture of the store in the Plaka where I brought my briefcase. It's so hard to tell if the information in these books has ever been accurate. Guess I'll just have to go visit all the countries!

Weeding, or things that make me very sad

One of my parent volunteers was in yesterday and asked what she should do. I said "It's that time of year again. We need to look at weeding." "No, we don't," she scoffed. "There can't possibly be anything LEFT. I've been weeding here for six years!"

I turned and pulled a suspiciously faded book on Hinduism off the shelf. 1979. Is there anything that was published in 1979 that is still current?

Well, except for Cross Country Runner (1975). And My Robot Buddy (1977), which I just bought a copy of on Half.com because our library copy is always out and quickly being reduced to glue and tape.

The point being is that I am absolutely not opposed to old titles. Some old titles I adore. They circulate all the time. Students love them. That Cross Country Runner still has reserves on it.

What I had to look at yesterday was books that have NOT been circulating. Books that are taking up valuable room on the shelves. That are dusty. That smell. Yes, since we had a sculptor in the library (more later) and it was a weirdly busy-then-not-busy day, I spent a lot of the day SMELLING BOOKS. The ones that appear at the top of this post? Ponging. Or, as one of my students said "Not a bad smell exactly, just like my grandmother's house."

I love Up a Road Slowly, but no one has checked it out since 1997. Not only that, but the back cover is barely attached. It just looks sad. I tried to get children to check them out, but the only luck I had was with Alias Madame Doubtfire and the saddest copy of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang you have ever seen. I only got someone to check that out because I told them the book was older than I am!

If only for hygienic reasons, these books need to go. But it's hard. It's like ripping little bits off of my soul. I can weed nonfiction fairly easily, but fiction requires the help of understanding volunteers to hold my hand... after they have ripped books from it. It helps if they then hand me a tissue.

Do I need to get out more, or is this a fairly common reaction to weeding?