From the Library

by Margaret Woodruff, Library Director, December 1, 2011, page 8.....December Afterschool Programs
Winter Craft Time: Grades 1-3; Monday, December 12, 3:15 to 4:30 p.m.
Winter Craft Time: Grades 4-6: Monday, December 19, 3:15 to 4:30 p.m.
Learn to make some fabulous holiday treasures from felt, paper and other ordinary supplies.
Registration required; call 425-3864 or email charlottelibraryvt@gmail.com to sign up. Students can ride the bus from CCS with a parent note.
December 6 Is Mitten Tree Day
Help us fill our “tree” with mittens, hats, scarves and other warm accessories for the winter months to come. We will donate the items to our neighbors in need around the community. If you’d like to knit mittens or a hat, drop by the library for a look at our knitting how-to books and magazines. Winter accessories can be dropped off at the library during open hours beginning December 6.
Cheryl’s Gift List
Find the perfect picture book for a loved one’s holiday using these suggestions from our Youth Services Librarian, Cheryl Sloan.
We have found some really wonderful books this fall at the Charlotte Library that would make great holiday gifts for the children (or adults) on your shopping list. Some of our favorites for young children are:
Press Here, by Hervé Tullet, magically comes alive in the reader’s hand. The illustrations are merely colored dots, but by following simple directions like tapping the left one or clapping twice or shaking the book, readers feel as if they are on a ride inside a pinball machine.
The Rabbit Problem, by Emily Gravett, is not a new book to the library, but it would make such a charming gift that it needs to be mentioned. Laid out in calendar form, the reader follows rabbits quickly reproducing month by month in Fibonacci’s Field. As the seasons change, the rabbits’ problem changes (fleas, sunburn, overpopulation). Mementos such as birth announcements, carrot cookbooks and ration cards are scattered throughout the book. The last page is a grand fold-out surprise.
The whimsical illustrations by Sophie Blackall are reason enough to purchase Edwin Speaks Up, but the innocent world that April Stevens creates for Edwin makes the book a must read. Ride along to the grocery store in a large sedan with mother ferret and her five active children. Edwin, the baby, babbles incoherently throughout the journey, and the reader soon comes to realize that things would go much smoother for the busy mother ferret if she could just understand what the observant Edwin is trying to say. Check the December 15 issue of The Charlotte News for our gift suggestions for adults and older children.
Another Holiday Gift Idea
Vermont Library Association wall calendars
give you a glimpse of other libraries around the state and support your library at the same time. These colorful wall calendars are on sale at the circulation desk, $20 each.

Waiting for Something New to Read?
We’ve got a fresh batch of books on order, and you can place a hold on any of them so they’ll be waiting for you the day they arrive at the library. Call the library to get your user ID and password set up so you can place your holds online from home. In the meantime, check out these great titles:
Non-fiction
The Time of Our Lives by Tom Brokaw
Blue Nights by Joan Didion
Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher
Natural History of the Piano by Stuart Isacoff
Thinking, Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Then Again by Diane Keaton
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark by Brian Kellow
Jack Kennedy by Chris Matthews
Here on Earth: A Natural History of the Planet by
Tim Flannery
Shiny Objects: Why We Spend by James A. Roberts
Survival of the Beautiful: Art, Science and
Evolution by David Rothenberg
China in Ten Words by Yu Hua
Fiction
The Drop by Michael Connelly
Prince of the Ravenscar by Catherine Coulter
The Time in Between by Maria Duenas
The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam and The
Good Thief’s Guide to Venice by Chris Ewan
Returning the Favour by Sarah Harrison
Breaking Point by Dana Haynes
House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz
Nothing Can Make Me Do This by David Huddle
The Sisters by Nancy Jensen
11/22/1963 by Stephen King
The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak
Freezing by Clea Koff
Roam: A Novel with Music by Alan Lazar
1Q84 by Hurakami
The Complaints and Impossible Dead by Ian
Rankin
How-To’s
Kneadlessly Simple by Nancy Baggett
Weekend Hats: 25 Knitted Caps, Berets, Cloches
and More by Cecily MacDonald
Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best
Wine Bargains by Natalie MacLean
Bake Until Bubbly: The Ultimate Casserole
Cookbook by Clifford A. Wright
Georgia Edwards Reviews
The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak, Reviewed by Georgia Edwards
Andrew Krivaks’s debut novel tells the moving story of a young soldier who joins the Austrian army to fight against Italy during World War I. More than a war story, The Sojourn is also a powerful tale of family bonds, love, loss and coming of age.
Josef Vinich’s story begins at the turn of the century in Pueblo, Colorado, where his immigrant parents have settled to begin a new life. A horrible family tragedy sends Josef and his father back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where they live as shepherds. In the rugged Carpathian Mountains, the boy is taught from an early age to hunt and shoot using his father’s prized Krag rifle.
When World War I comes to the Southern Front, the under-aged Josef and his cousin enlist in the Kaiser’s army. Recognized for their rifle skills, they are trained as sharpshooters and become part of an elite team of snipers. In the harsh landscape of the Italian Alps, the two teenagers stalk and kill high-ranking enemies. Their innocent dreams of glory become lost to the cruel realities of war. “We were hunters…who were now being taught to hunt men. You must find the soldier of rank and then kill as if it were your only chance to live.” Josef is eventually taken prisoner and, in the final portion of the story, will try to survive and find his way home.
The Sojourn is well researched and rich with historical details of a lesser-known part of World War I. Some of its content is based upon the life of the author’s Slovakian grandfather. It is a poignant and compelling story that is narrated in a deliberate and spare manner. Krivak’s writing style is quiet, elegant and poetic. Each word is carefully chosen and each sentence highly crafted. He sometimes uses paragraph-long sentences, which may be an effort to read, but are rewarding in their beauty:
“The northwestern Carpathians, in which I was raised, were a hard place, as unforgiving as the people who lived there, but the Alpine landscape into which Zlee and I were sent that early winter seemed a glimpse of what the surface of the earth looked and felt and acted like when there were no maps or borders, no rifles or artillery, no men or wars to claim possession of land, and snow and rocks alone parried in a match of millennial slowness so that time meant nothing, and death meant nothing, for what life there was gave in to the forces of nature surrounding and accepted its fate to play what role was handed down in the sidereal march of seasons capable of crushing in an instant what armies might – millennia later – be foolish enough to assemble on its heights.”
Because the novel is in large part a war story, scenes of violence and death do appear. Krivak describes these in a serene, steady voice and, as another reviewer puts it, approaches combat “…with the placid nature of a Zen master.” Some readers may find the book to be dark, but this is balanced by its positive messages of persistence, hope and survival.
It is rare to find a book that is so memorable the reader wishes it would not end. The Sojourn is that kind of book. It was a deserving finalist in fiction for the 2011 National Book Awards. Hopefully it will be considered an important contribution to World War I literature.