Books, Bookstock, and Book Angels
Bookstock: Meet the man you may know as Officer Clemmons of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Vermonter François S. Clemmons continues virtual Bookstock 2020 with his appearance via webinar on Thursday, November 19 at 7 pm. Invite yourself by clicking here. It’s easy—just scroll down and click to register.
Clemmons made history as the first African American actor to have a recurring role on a children’s television program. Clemmons is the founder and director of the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble; and from 1997 until his retirement in 2013, he was the Alexander Twilight Artist in Residence and director of the Martin Luther King Spiritual Choir at Middlebury College in Vermont, where he currently resides. Want to know more? Click here for a revealing interview and a short excerpt from his book.
Book Angels at the Norwich Bookstore: That little girl in the stock photo, above, could easily have been me. Throughout my childhood, nothing made me happier than reading, and owning a book was a rare luxury. If you’re a reader (I’m betting you are) and you’d like to make a child happy this holiday season, there’s no better opportunity than Norwich Bookstore’s long-established annual Book Angels program. The bookstore works with local organizations to get books into hundreds of young hands. You can select a specific book to donate, you can choose a specific age, or (and this is me because my knowledge of children and young adult literature is nil) you can simply donate some dollars and the good people at Norwich Bookstore will make selections for you. You’ll want to act now to make sure kids get their books in time for the holidays. Click here for the details.
Books: And bookstores. There’s a lot of talk in the Upper Valley about the importance of buying local for holiday gifts. Books are perfect presents for the readers in your life. In addition to the Clemmons memoir, the first volume of Barack Obama’s book about his White House years has just been released. And there are mysteries, biographies, cookbooks . . . You can whittle away at that holiday gift list and feel doubly good about it if you support your local bookstores. Some are allowing in-person browsing, all have an online presence and can get books into your hands via mail or through the magic of curbside pickup.
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Susan B. Apel retired from a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.