Sheryl McFarlane

Sad to hear that friend and author, Betty Waterton has died at the age of 88. She published her first book, A Salmon for Simon when she was 50, and she kept on publishing until 2008.  She was one of the first kid’s book writers to write about the west coast in picture book form, and was a real inspiration for me.  Another of my favorites was A Lighthouse Dog. I hadn’t seen Betty since she moved away from the coast a few years ago to be near her children and grandchildren.  Betty touched the lives of many children through her wonderful books. It’s nice to know that her stories continue to do so.  Here’s her obit link plus the link if you want to send condolences to her family.

This video of Lauren Conrad cutting  up Lemony Snicket’s books for a craft project has gone viral, but not for the reason the TV star had hoped.  Book lovers are livid over cutting up perfectly readable books.  Ms Conrad talks about using vintage books, but here she’s a little misinformed. The A Series of Unfortunate Events books are relatively current titles that are still popular with children.

I’ve seen old books made into lamps, tables, and even Christmas trees. I’ve made “lace-like” table runners out of the  pages of an old dictionary and I’ve seen some stunning art created from books as a protest against library cutbacks.  I’m not really ofended by someone reusing or repurposing things, even books. Although, in this case, I may have passed those particular titles on to young readers or a school library in need rather than cut them up.

Lemony Snicket was asked by the Huffington Post what he thought about his books being destroyed.  His response was hilarious.

“It has always been my belief that people who spend too much time with my work end up as lost souls, drained of reason, who lead lives of raving emptiness and occasional lunatic violence. What a relief it is to see this documented.”

What do you think? Should books, even mass market books, ever be used in ways which they were not intended?

Today is the beginning of a two day Dragon Boat Festival here in Victoria.  Our team has been practicing hard and we are ready to unleash our inner dragons.  So, if you live nearby, come and watch the races.  There’s something for everyone, a craft tent for kids, food, multicultural entertainment, and fierce dragon boat races. It will be loads of fun and you can even cheer for us.  We’re team St’Keya out of Victoria Canoe and Kayak Club (VCKC).  Wish us luck.

Go St’Keya!

The Oak Bay Horticulturist is at it again.  I’ve seen this flower spider reading, playing tennis, and now working on a construction site.  I wonder what he’ll be doing next. Too cute!

So sad that Simon Whitfield fell during the triathlon.  He’s such a class act.  I recall him coming to my kids’ school when they were young.  He was such an inspirational speaker. We were also following Mike Mason in high jump. He was on the UBC track team with my daughters so we were all so excited for him. He placed in the top 10 which is pretty awesome but we were pleasantly surprised by Derek Drouin who had never competed on the international stage and came away with a bronze medal in high jump.  Go Canada!

Next week I’ll be doing my very first Skype library visit with a library in Lahore.  I’m quite excited.  There is a 12 hour time difference, and I’m a total newbie at this, so I hope all goes well.