Rachel @ Auburn Archive.

When the movie Whip It - starring Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page - was released last fall, rollergirls across the nation were thrilled.  Did this signal roller derby's return to mainstream?

Roller derby has been around since the the 1920s and 30s, but the sport really hit its stride it the 60s and 70s, playing in televised bouts to crowds numbering in the tens of thousands.  Sadly, the sport eventually rolled into obscurity, due at least in part to the pro wrestling-like approach to game play.  In the early 2000s, however, women began forming skater-operated leagues, skating both banked track and flat track roller derby.  These leagues now number in the hundreds, with some as far afield as New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates.  Once again, the sport is growing in popularity; over 5,000 fans attended a recent Rat City Rollergirls bout in Seattle, a first for modern roller derby.

Whip It is based on the novel Derby Girl by Shauna Cross.  Stuck in Bodeen, a tiny Texas town, Bliss Cavendar longs for a more exciting life.  Her pageant-crazy mother wants her to compete for the Miss Bluebonnet crown.  On a trip to nearby Austin, Bliss sees an ad for the Lone Star Derby Girls and attends her first bout.  Inspired, she digs out her old Barbie skates and tries out for the league, earning herself a spot on the Hurl Scouts team under the moniker Babe Ruthless.  But Bliss hasn't told her parents about her new life as a roller derby queen, instead claiming that she's taking SAT prep classes.  When her secret derby life threatens to collide with her mother's pageant expectations, how will Bliss find her way out of a jam?

Written by a member of the L.A. Derby Dolls, Derby Girl has plenty of thrills and spills, along with a message of female empowerment and some hilarious commentary on mother-daughter relationships.  After you read it, you may feel inspired to strap on your skates and roll around the rink a bit!

In honor of Valentine's Day, I decided to revisit Book Crush by Nancy Pearl, author of the reading guides Book Lust and More Book Lust.  I've seen Nancy speak a number of times, and her enthusiasm for books and reading is infectious.  It's always fun to hear the murmurs of approval from audience members who've read whatever book she's talking about.

Unlike her reading guides for adults, Book Crush is split into three sections according to the reader's age: Youngest Readers (birth to age 8), Middle-Grade Readers (ages 8-12), and Teen Readers (ages 13-18).  The categories are simply guidelines, though, as older or younger readers may enjoy many of the books listed in each section.  Of course, being a Teen Librarian, I couldn't help but head straight to the third part of the book!

In addition to listing the traditional genres (fantasy, science fiction, romance, etc.), Pearl includes many inventive lists.  Want a wordless picture book to build your preschooler's narrative skills?  Check out Tuesday by David Wiesner, one of the suggestions under "One Picture is Worth a Thousand Words." Has your child read all the J. K. Rowling books umpteen times?  Have him or her try The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud, listed under "Before and After Harry (Potter, of course)."  As for me, I'll be reading Deb Caletti's Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, a teen romance filed under "Our Love is Here to Stay - Or Not."

Nancy Pearl will be appearing at the King County Library System Foundation's 2010 Literary Lions Gala.

Steam trains are as much a part of Jimmy's life as breathing. His father is a foreman on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad that passes through their tiny West Virginia town, and Jimmy plans to be a railroader one day, just like his father and older brothers. His father, however, says steam trains are a dying breed, soon to be replaced to diesel engine trains. He wants Jimmy to find work elsewhere, maybe even go to college.

Set in the early 1940s, When the Whistle Blows is divided into seven slice-of-life chapters, each of which takes place on Halloween -or All Hallows' Eve, as Jimmy's father calls it. The first story follows twelve-year-old Jimmy as he sneaks out late at night to observe a meeting of The Society, a secret fellowship to which his father belongs. In subsequent tales we see Jimmy grow into a young man and hear stories of Halloween pranks, football championships, and trimuph and tradgedy on the railroad.

Fran Cannon Slayton perfectly captures the rhythm of small-town life during and after World War II, but where the book really shines is in her depiction of Jimmy's relationship with his taciturn yet loving father. Just like the steam engines he works on, Jimmy's father is slowly dying. As Jimmy is finally inducted into The Society, the book comes full circle, but as Jimmy notes, his story is only beginning.

Comments (0)