All right. Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I am your host, Krista Porter. Hi. Here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is a commission's weekly webinar series where we cover a variety of topics of interest to libraries. We are a webinar, as they are called, or online show. Whatever we are, the show is broadcast live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. Central Time. And we do record the shows every week, so if you're unable to join us on Wednesdays, that's fine. You can always go to our website and check out our archives and watch the shows at your convenience. And I'll show you at the end of today's show where you can access all of our archives on our Encompass Live website. We do a mixture of things here on Encompass Live. For those of you not from Nebraska, the Nebraska Library Commission is the state agency for libraries in Nebraska. In other states, it might be called your state library. That's us. So we provide services and training and resources and grants, et cetera, et cetera, to all types of libraries in the state. So on our show, we will have things for publics, K-12s, academics, museums, corrections. I don't even know what other kinds of special. Basically anything that is a library, we would have something potentially on the show about it. We do book reviews, interviews, mini training sessions, demos of services and products that we think might be of interest to libraries. We talk about things, sometimes we have library commission staff that come in to talk about services and things we're offering specifically here from Nebraska. But we also bring guest speakers from across the state or across the country actually to talk about cool things they're doing at their libraries. Today's show, we have a mixture of commission and non-commissioned staff. With me today is Sally Snyder. She is our coordinator of children and young adult library services here at the Nebraska Library Commission. And remotely with us is Dana Fontaine. Good morning, Dana. Good morning. How are you? Good morning. And she is from Fremont High School in Fremont, Nebraska. And this is the, we'll call it annual. Okay, yes, annual. For years now, Sally with Dana and sometimes other librarians across the state does a duo of sessions on best-new children's books of the previous year and best-new teen books of the previous year. And this is our children's one of best-new children's books of 2019. Discovering new books for the young and young at heart is the official title. So this is all things that come up out in the last year. And in a couple of weeks in February... February 5th, I think. ...will be the companion session if you are on best-new teen reads of 2019, February 5th. So if you do children's today's or children's books, February 5th will be the teen. So if you are a librarian doing either one of those, you know, attend both of them or the one that works for you. So I will hand it over to you, Sally, to take away topics, talk to us about what you guys have for us today. And February 5th is a read-aloud day. Oh, is it? Yes. It is what? Sorry, Sally didn't... It's National Read-aloud Day on February 5th. Oh, I didn't know that. Why didn't I know that? Thank you for mentioning it. Now I have to read-aloud during my... Reading book. Anyway, so, okay. So here's the Library Commission homepage. And what I want to show you before Dana gets started on her list is where you can find the handouts. So you're looking at the page and you go over here to this box, click in there, and then type in the word handout, and it pops up so you can go there. When you click, the top thing says Nebraska Library Commission Handouts. Click on that. And let's get out of there. So far, it says by staff of Nebraska Library Commission. And it could just say by Sally of the Nebraska Library Commission, because so far I'm the only one putting things here. And I'm happy to share this space because it's easy to search. But... All of your things, I love you. Okay, so our lists that we're going to talk about today are because we did this presentation at the joint conference. Yeah, for those of you who know, this is sessions were originally done for 2019 at our Nebraska Library Association Annual Conference in the fall every year. This past year was a joint conference with Nebraska and Iowa. So these are sessions that were done then. And then we always have them redone on our Encompass Live show. So anyone who wasn't able to attend in person to the conference can still get the information. So there's one book list that, after the title, says Sally and one that says Dana. So we each have a PDF that you can download right now if you want to and be prepared for us to talk. This is our presentation that we gave a conference and we're giving today. Now, up above that, it says 2019 best books. And this is my longer list of all the children and early elementary and later elementary, novels and nonfiction that I recommend for libraries to consider. So it's a longer list, but I won't be talking about that one today. I just wanted to know where that is. And the teen book list will go under this when I'm done adding a couple more titles. Before February. Before February session. Anyway, so you can go here, find your book list and be ready to, I better let you get this. Okay. All right. So we're going to switch over to Dana's presentation now. And I'll be quiet and Dana can talk and tell me when to change the page. All right, we're going to, if anyone scans the QR code, you can follow along or add this to your drive or go to this bit.ly. And you can just pull it up on your computer, but we're going to skip right along to hair love. Because hair love. Hang on a sec. We got clipped up to the wrong thing here. Hold on. Do we, do we have, do you have my list on there too? I think you did. I'm sorry. I need to go down to your list then. Okay. So because yours come up first in this presentation. I didn't realize this was both of our presentations. It's fine. If you go and just scroll down to hair love it. That's the beginning of my presentation. Sorry about that. Not a problem. We'll get there. Wait. Hold on.  Cause that's not too far. So if you have a little bit more. Right. That purple one right there. Yes. Okay. Hair love. Hang on a sec. There we go. All right. This, this is probably my all time favorite. This is my favorite children's book of 2019. I say all these books are my favorite or I will say that. A lot. So just, just disregard all these books are great. So. This book is diverse and sweet. And that's all about self love and confidence. Um, the dad is actually the single parent in this household because. The mom is gone and the mom's gone for an extended period of time in this book. And you don't really find out why. If you watch the short that I included down here. The short is actually nominated for an Oscar. So. It did. It just got. Yeah. Awesome. Yes. And it, the short is brilliant as is the book. And it's all about how a dad takes care of his daughter. Um, her hair is just wild and crazy. And so he tries to tame it and make it look good for when her mom comes home. And. It kind of tells that journey. And how, and. By the end, the dad's just exhausted. But the girl feels like a queen. She feels like a princess and a queen. And she just feels so good about herself. And so it's all about self confidence. And it's actually written by a former NFL player. And it's really unique because it tells a dad's. Perspective of it all. Great. Yeah. The next one is the, and teachables by Gordon Corman. And of course can Gordon Corman. Write anything that's terrible. I don't think so. He is. He's the best. And, um, this book is funny and it's meaningful and has a ton of twist interns. And so. There's this teacher, Mr. Kermit. He is kind of burnt out. I mean, there's probably no kind of about it. He's burnt out and they kind of push him in the corner classroom and give him all the kids that. Everyone has given up on. And so he just kind of sits there and does word searches and crossword puzzles. And the kids are like, um, are we going to learn something today? And so this girl comes in this girl student. And she's not really meant to be in this class. She is only going to be in the school for two weeks. And so she comes in the class and she sits there and he never takes attendance. So we kind of just doesn't realize she's there. He just thinks she's supposed to be there. And he, and a new teacher who's kind of idealistic and moves in right next to it, moves in right next to the classroom next to him.  And they know each other. They know each other from. I think that I'm not going to tell you about. And. No spoilers. Yes. Spoilers. I know. I'm. I really want to tell you, but I'm not going to. Okay. So. Mr. Kermit. Mr. Kermit. His room numbers like number 117. And there's a lot of interesting characters called Elaine, the pain. And a lot of these kids just have a bad rap. They aren't bad kids. They just have bad reputations because people have given up on them. And so Mr. Kermit finally starts to realize that. Huh. If I just reinvigorate my love of teaching. And then I'm like, I'm not going to tell you what I'm going to tell you.  Then maybe these kids won't turn out so bad. Oh, it's, it's a really good one. And I think it's a golden, golden sewer nominee for next year. I can't remember. I should have looked that up. I'm sorry. No, it's fine.  All right. The next one that I'm going to talk about. Is ghost boys by jewel Parker roads. And it's very timely. It's sad. And it's heart wrenching. It's sad. I've seen him. I mean, I've seen the African American boy. He's 12. But he's dead. So the police must took a toy gun. He was playing with for a real gun. And this story is told from Jerome's point of perspective in the afterlife. And. The catch is. The police man is, is in court. He's on trial for murder. And. He's white and his daughters white as well. And so she kind of tries to talk to him and she's very resentful of her father after she learns the whole story. And she kind of starts to become this activist. And it kind of has a little bit of an unexpected ending. I wasn't expecting it to end the way that it did, but it's very diverse and very good and it's very timely. And also Emmett Till and various other historical figures come into play and they kind of dodge a drone because this also reminds me a lot of Alfonso Jones if you've ever read that one. And just to back up a minute, Kristen looked it up and the NPTBLS is on the 2020-2021 Golden Sower list. That's a nomination, yes. Trace, I have a special place in my heart for scary books. They're my favorite. So this one, Trace by Pat Cummings is intriguing and it's spooky and it's diverse. So Trace gets lost in the New York Public Library.  So he goes down to the basement and gets lost in the stacks and here's somebody crying. So he kind of investigates where the crying is coming from and he sees a little kid and he can see through the kid, which isn't normal. And so he goes and tries to go get a security guard but the security guard kind of puts him in this box and says, you must be causing trouble because he's also, he's black. And so of course, he thinks that he's causing trouble but he's reporting an issue, not causing trouble.  And it kind of incorporates with their project that they're researching, which is really cool. And something that happened during the Civil War. So it kind of flashes back sometimes. Wow. Yeah, I know, it's really good. So granted, and I usually don't like fantasy but I loved this book. I could not stop reading this book. The characters in this book are so awesome. It's fantastical and adventurous and fun and it has a talking dog. Like how could you not love a book with a talking dog?  And it's kind of a protective place and these fairies have a job, they grant wishes. And so Ophelia is ready to go.  It's a big old mess. And so she follows the hum, which is the wish and it's on a penny. And so this little girl's wishing for a bike. And so she's ready for the job and she goes but then the penny gets put in somebody's pocket and then it gets thrown on the street. And then she meets this dog that takes her all over because she's a little fairy and she loses her communication device and it's just one thing after another and so to see if the little girl gets her wish granted, you can read Granted by John David Anderson. The next one is kind of creepy too in a realistic way. This is realistic fiction and stuff like this really happens. It's about a religious sect down in New Mexico and it's about Gentry Forrester. And she's a child of a polygamous commune in the mountains. And once a week, the prophet calls from his jail cell in Texas and gives orders.  She's playing her violin too much. And so she is set, somebody takes her violin in a way, but she and her brother still went to go to this music festival. And so they kind of sneak out and go to this music festival and then her father sees them and she's not supposed to be out. But then she sees everybody and she thinks, hmm, they're not really like what the prophet says. They're not nearly as bad as what the prophet says. And so she's kind of starts to realize that there's life outside of this. And she just kind of, you know, her beliefs are shaken. So she's kind of trying to determine who to believe and then people keep disappearing in her commune. And then she's promised to marry this fifth year old. And because people think that, oh, I know what she needs, she must need somebody to marry. And so at 13, she's promised to this adult. And so to see if she escapes or not, and to see what happens, you can read the prophet calls. And then again, I think I would put Erin and Trata Kelly along with Gordon Corman. Does she write anything that's terrible? I don't think she does. So this is another realistic fiction book and she's an award-winning author. And stuff like this really happens in this book. So this is the story of Lottie and Ben and it's told in alternating perspectives. Ben is picked on his, at a school indeed, doesn't really notice he's picked on until middle school and he wants to run for student body treasurer. And he doesn't realize he's alone until he starts running and he realizes he doesn't really have any true friends, which is super sad. And the competitive girl in his grade is also running. And it's about time that his parents announced a divorce and all of this family drama happens while he's trying to do something good within the school. Ben turns really bitter at his father and Lottie is also going through hardships as well. And her dad is older than most and he has a heart attack. And her best friend ditches her and says horrible things and she finally makes a friend and stands up for what is right. And Ben and Lottie kind of come together by playing this online scrawl game kind of similar to words with friends, but they talk to each other and confide in each other and really define what true friendship is. No matter if they're across the United States or if they're right next to you. And so Ben and Lottie don't really know what they mean to each other until the end of the book. The next one is also my all time favorite. It's scary, baby Eshwab. And it is also on the 2020, 2021 golden sewer list. Or is it 21, 2022? I don't know, I think it's one of those. All right, so it's really scary. 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20. So the Eshwab is a genius. These books are so engrossing and they're really a readable length. I think they're like around 200, 250 pages. So they're not like ginormous. Cassidy Blake is behind a veil. The veil is between the living and the dead. So Cassidy Blake can see ghosts. And she almost died and that's how she met her best friend, Jacob. But her best friend, Jacob is a ghost. So he's also just kind of alive as Cassidy is kind of dead. And she can communicate with them and sometimes cross over to the land of the dead. And her parents are the inspectors. Her dad is super skeptical of everything but her mom is this spiritual person who goes and talks her dad into doing this TV show where they go to various places around the world and ghost time. And her parents do not know that she can see actual ghosts. And so if they knew, she would probably be very useful to them. They travel around the world and Cassidy travels with her ghost friend. She travels to the United Kingdom where she meets another girl like her and they get into some trouble and they get into this dangerous situation where they might not get out of. But there's a book too? Yep, book two is Tunnel of Bones. So Tunnel of Bones is the, and then the third one is coming out this September, September 2nd, I think. All right. What? Which I mentioned too, for those of you who are not from Nebraska and don't know, we were talking about the Golden Sower nominees. The Golden Sower Award is Nebraska's Children's Choice Literary Award. Kids in schools and libraries, school or libraries can vote. So it's the children, the kids choose what they think are the best books out of these lists that are nominated. So those of you who are not from Nebraska are unaware. That's what we have here in the state. And there's the 2020, 2021 nominees are up and voting is open through Friday, April 17th. It was extended because of the Easter holiday weekend. It was kind of messing with the schedule on that. So just so that, you know. So that's for the 2019 to 2020 list that they're voting on now. Oh, okay. And then the 2020 to 2021 list is for next year. For next year, okay. Right. But the nominees are up. The nominees can be getting the books planned ahead. Okay. So you're voting. Yeah. Voting is now open for the 1920. Yeah. Just for those of you who didn't know what we meant, we kept talking about the Golden Sower Award. Thank you. Yeah. And so I and I are both on the committee for that. And so it's kind of our passion. All right. So 24 hours of nowhere reminds me a lot of holes. And for those of you that are searching for books about like biking and BMX, this is the book for you because I've had to buy it numerous times for students because there's not a whole lot of books out there, there are fiction that are about BMX bikes. And so this is about, this is in the desert. It's set in the middle of nowhere. Hence the name, 24 hours of nowhere. And this story is about Gus. It is, and it's located in Arizona. It's a typical desert town except for the bully, Bo Taylor. He is just big in me. And he bets his friend, well, actually Bo tries to make Gus eat a cactus and Gus is like, do I really have to eat a cactus?  And that's like the only thing that Gus owns is his BMX bike. Cause he had all of his other stuff was like candy downs and second hand, and this is the only thing that's his outright. Rossi is Gus's best friend who's a girl and she's also a BMX biker.  And so Gus feels horribly guilty. So he has heard of treasure in the mountains around him. So he goes at midnight and tries to go into the caves and find the treasure so he can buy Rossi's bike back. But then Rossi and Bo catch up to him and they kind of become friends and try to team up cause they get lost in this cave system and they find so many interesting finds. And I'm not going to spoil it, but they find like they battle bobcats, glowing shrimp and the lake of bones. So that's only some of the things that they find. All right, the unsung hero of Bredsong USA. This is historical fiction and it's very diverse and it's all about small town living. So Gabriel is a proud owner of a new bike. He accidentally rides it into traffic and so he is brought to safety by Maryweather an older African-American man. And Maryweather fixes the bike and Gabe gives him a job at his father's mechanics or his father's garage because his dad is mechanic. And some people at the shop are super not welcoming to Maryweather. They're like, get out of here. Like what are you doing here? And Gabe's father is super cool with everything and defense Maryweather because Maryweather really saved Gabe's life and they caused trouble and the townspeople tried to run Maryweather off but then some people have a change of heart. And the next one is the season of Sticks Malone. Kikla Magoon is an award winner and she's an NAACP image award winner and she won that for The Rock and The River and this is great for middle grade because kids at that age are kind of testing their boundaries and that's what the kids in the story do. So Sticks Malone, he's a foster kid and he doesn't really have any guidance. And so he's kind of like a smooth talker and tries to get these kids to do things that they wouldn't normally do. And Caleb and Bobby Jean are the brothers and their father is extremely overprotected. He wants to stay in the small town. He won't let them go to a city at all and they really want to explore. And Caleb and Bobby Jean are bored and they're so ready for adventure and Sticks Malone is right there ready for them. And he just appears one day and he's very charismatic and it turns out he lives in the woods and he tried to hide it from the boys. He thought he told them that he lived in this big house and he had this big life of adventure and they found the bicycle or they find this bicycle and Sticks got this idea to trade for it. But this bicycle is like thousands of dollars. I mean, it's expensive. I don't know if it's thousands. I think it's like, it's expensive. And he gets this idea to trade the paperclip to for a pencil and then the pencil for something else and then a lunchbox or something else.  Caleb and Bobby Jean's mom. And she's like, I do not want you hanging out with them at all, ever. But then Sticks Malone kind of redeems himself but then he disappears. So if you want to read that, read the season of Sticks Malone by Keikla Magoon. The next one is actually nonfiction and it has great interesting pictures and facts and it's World War II adjacent. So World War II is just kind of like a footnote in this book instead of like the main theme. And it's very interesting. It's a nonfiction story. It's how the controversial radio broadcast of War of the Worlds almost brought down the United States. And I didn't even realize how true what people thought this radio broadcast was. People were like killing themselves because they thought that they were being invaded. Yeah, full on panic, yes. Yes, full on panic, yeah. And so, but then people would go out to the site where the aliens supposedly landed and there was nothing and people were still panicking. So it's very interesting to see the level of panic that people felt and what they actually thought in this book. Okay, the next one is Mercy Suarez Changes Gears. Mercy Suarez isn't really having the best of years. She's a real leader, but she's a scholarship student at a Ritzy private school. And, but this doesn't bother her, she has friends.  Your dad is a janitor. And the most popular girl in the grade finds out and she starts treating Mercy differently. And combine this with the fact that her grandfather is becoming super forgetful and absent-minded almost like he is losing his memory, like Alzheimer's, and to find out what happens you can read in Mercy Suarez Changes Gears. Time mom, they call this a dystopian, but I think it's a mystery. It's about it's realistic fiction kind of like it's in the near future, like very near. Like it could be next year, you know. And it's diverse and it says it's just so, but I think it's more mystery because a group of teens is hurt and trapped after a series of bombs go off in their school. And this was before school starts. And this is like in the summer when people are getting back to school, they're working on the yearbook. One of the bombers is trapped in the school with them and they don't know who the bomber is.  And the ending will shock you.  The book tries to make it seem like each student could have been the bomber. So there's Diana, Diana, the senator's princess, Frankie, the quarterback, Tad, who's biracial and part of the LGBTQ community, and Cass, the girl who came to the school looking for a way out the hard way. So when Rashid is also there, he's the one everyone thinks did it. But I don't know if he did. You have to read it to find out. I really like this. Joel Sharman, I really, I did some good stuff. All right, Surfside Girls are just some fun, fluffy graphic novels. They're fun beachy raids. Scooby-Doo meets Babysitter's Club meets like a Raina Telgemeier. Yay! Story, yes. It has something for everyone. And there's two so far. Yep, there's two so far. And the third's coming out pretty soon. So it has, it's received mixed reviews, but I liked it and my kids really liked it. And they read, like they love graphic novels and some of them are really hard to please and they liked it. The graphic novel is about Jayden Samantha and Jayda is growing up and noticing boys, but Sam's number one priority is surfing and just hanging out and being true to herself. And she starts to feel a little left out, but then something happens and she starts seeing ghosts. Not scary ghosts, but the ghosts are kind of calling out to her because they need help because the big development company wants to come in and develop the sacred ground and just to build a big hotel. And so yes, it would bring a lot of jobs, but Sam kind of feels torn about that. So one of the ghosts takes liking to Sam and she kind of develops a crush on him and she show, and that ghost shows her where the treasure is buried in the shipwreck. It kind of reminds me of the Goonies a little bit. And I just kind of how all the events. So Sam and Jayda get a lead that the PO box office of the development is being fraudulently used.  And they all band together as townspeople to talk about the development and the thief and crook is found out. Okay, who? All right, yeah. The next one is Lord Dean keeps breaking up with me. This one's so sad. I feel really bad. And this is for older middle. The next couple are for older, older students. And so this is an LGBTQIA plus graphic novel and it's very sad. And it's about Laura Dean is popular and she's one of the popular girls, but she kind of dangles herself in front of Frederica Riley and Frederica is so in love with her. She's the one for Frederica, but Laura Dean just kind of uses her and just kind of leads her. It does not help that Laura gets cheating on Frederica numerous times. And so she just kind of tries to process her feelings, but Frederica then visits a fortune teller for advice on how to proceed with this conundrum. And the fortune teller is like, really? Like you need to move on or maybe you need to love yourself first. So, so if you are interested, read Laura Dean keeps breaking up with me. My students love this book a lot. So it's never in the library because it's always checked out. Good to know. Yes. All right, kiss number eight. So what's the big deal with kissing? So this book has some milder, like some adult, like sophomore, junior, senior kind of themes in it. So I guess this would be maybe more the young adult section, but this is about, I think her name is Kate and she has kissed seven people. And then on her eighth kiss, her world is just blown, her mind is just blown.  Maybe I'm not the person I thought it was. And then her dad also has a secret. And so there's these two big secrets in the book and it's a graphic novel. Both of these, Laura Dean and this one, kiss number eight, keep kind of, I mean, they're graphic novels that kind of, they kind of fit in the same category. And so these two big secrets are like, you know, hinting at a big explosion later on in the book. All right, and the next one is Breakout by Kate Messner. So Wolf Creek is kind of a sleepy town and there's only two jobs that you can have. And Wolf Creek, either you can work at the school or you can work at the prison. And so this new girl comes into town, Elodie, and it's a rumor that her dad is incarcerated at the prison. And so Nora writes for the school newspaper and so she's trying to build this time capsule. And for Wolf Creek, for somebody to open like 50 years later. And so she tries to fill it up with text messages and notes and little bits of paper. And that's kind of how the format of the book is told. And so it's really kind of interesting. It's like 450 pages, but it does not take long to read at all. And so it goes pretty fast and everyone starts these rumors about Elodie, but then two men break out of the prison and everyone thought they were safe, but now everyone's just shaken to their core. All right, and then the last one that I'm gonna talk about is called The Benefits of Being an Octopus. And it's, what was that? I'm just, okay. No, it's just, it's cute. Yeah. Oh, it's super cute. Yes, it's realistic fiction and it's very sad.  So they're all in this trailer and it's packed in there and Lenny is very mean to her mom. And Zoe wishes her mom would just stand up to him and just leave.  And she's like, no, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. And Zoe's like, no, you're not fine. You're, I mean, and her mom depends on Zoe a lot to take care of everybody and to take care of the household. And Zoe's not very old. She's like 12. And her best friend Fuchsia is acting weird as well. And so she just wishes she had the hands of an octopus because she wishes she could do eight things at once. And she imagines that if she had eight arms, she could do everything at once.  And so her mom decides to deal with it. Yeah. Very happy books, I guess, but I mean, they have their redeeming qualities. All right. And that is the last book that I have. Sally, do you just want to use this one? Do you just want to use this presentation or do you have another one? I'll just use this one. So that it's here. Okay, what I'm going to do is going to go right from the beginning. Then you should be to yours. There you go. Thank you, Dana. Those are all fascinating. I've read some of them, but you had some of course I haven't seen yet. More reading to do. I have to finish this first though. So I'm doing the picture books and early chapter books list. So we'll get started. This is book two. The first one was just called Peter and Ernesto. And this is The Lost Sloth. It's a graphic novel format in a picture book. It's humor and survival, like it says up there. A hurricane hits the jungle and the tree in which Peter and Ernesto and their four friends live. In the morning, they're okay, but the surrounding area, their tree and the surrounding area is flattened. So they go off together on an adventure to find a new tree to live in. Because sloths spend most of their time in the same tree. They need trees. Along the way, they encounter a band of peccaries more than once who are chanting Jaguar, Jaguar. And they're looking, they're not seeing any Jaguar in the area, so they're not sure what the peccaries are about. But they do run into, they run from snakes, they sit in the mud to get rid of biting ants, and they need a friendly bird. Who else might they encounter? Will they find their new home? And will they avoid the Jaguar if there really is one? I'm looking forward to more tales about Peter and Ernesto and their friends. Can you spoil it? What is the Jaguar? There really is a Jaguar at the end of the book. The peccaries were right. But they defeat him. That's very clever. Sorry. It's okay. I love this one. Nobody hugs a hank. Hank the cactus lives in a pot on a window sill and he is content to be left alone. Rosie the tumbleweed always calls hi to him when she tumbles by, she's very friendly. A passing cowboy man just said the cactus needs a hug, but nobody hugs a cactus. Hank ponders this for a while. Maybe a hug would be okay. But while he's there, a cup gets stuck on one of his spines. It's a windy day and Rosie knocks it off for him on her way by, so that was very nice of her. And Hank finds a way to thank her. It's great illustrations of a grumpy hank. And while we have recently had new books about a porcupine and a hedgehog meeting house, this title sends a wonderful message of caring and being positive. And Hank, you know, he's getting a little more positive. By the end? Yeah. Well, sorry. Go ahead and talk when you want to, Dana. No, I love the illustrations of the, nobody hugs a cactus. I mean, I love the cactus one. It's, it's such a great grumpy look on him. Look at his face. He is determined to be grumpy. And nobody, you know, the bird flies by there. I don't want to talk to you. Things like that.  The stylized tree that the monkey lives in has branches that stretch out from the center to the edges. And at the top straight up, there is a little hole.  I bet you can't catch a minute as it begins its way around the tree. Once all of the yellow creatures have finished going around the tree, that's one hour, they leave in a new group of little green creatures come out. So this is a great title to reinforce learning the concept of time with minutes and hours on an analog clock. That's what it's set up to do. But it's also a lot of fun. The artwork is great. And of course, it's Michael Hall. So again, there are authors and illustrators who we just naturally gravitate towards. Your favorite, well, they do good work, yeah. This is a great idea. In rhyming texts, a girl talks about her different family members and what they look like in their own homes without their hijabs. She also talks about how each woman has one that fits her personality. So they're different according to what the individual is alike. For example, her grandmother wears one that clasps under her chin and is carefully folded. And her aunt wears a silky one with a handmade jewel. And her aunt's hair is streaked with pink and purple under her hijab. It's a recognition of women being their own persons and sending an example for the girl telling the story. It's very upbeat and positive. And I'm sure kids wonder, what do you look like underneath that? So you can see that in this book. Giraffes are some of my favorite animals, yes. A young giraffe plays hide and seek with her older brother. When looking for him, she asks different animals that they have seen him giving one characteristic of her brother each time that's a different characteristic. And if you look there, along the bottom, there's a tail sticking up. Keep an eye on that tail. See. She says he's tall or he has lots of spots or he's fast. And the animal will say, well, but you're like that too. And she begins to realize she does have those characteristics just in time to confront the leopard that has been stalking her. Young listeners will see her older brother following along behind her and hiding to be sure she's safe. It's delightful with beautiful illustrations. Plus giraffe, yes. How can that be? Oh, I wanted to say that I followed Dana's format. She was the one that thought of putting up the bullet points about what's important about the book. I thought, well, that's a great idea. So I copied you, Dana, thanks. Loving parents invite their young daughter to put her hands up for a hug, to celebrate, to get dressed, to play peek-a-boo, for high fives, and many other fun and loving ways to hear these words that sometimes are fearful and threatening. It is an exuberant, colorful, and positive book. And the story ends with a community march of people carrying positive signs. So it doesn't have to be scary. Sylvia loves to write poetry. So on the spring day, she writes a lovely one, and she ties it to the birch tree in the park. The next morning, she finds a different poem tied to the tree, and she thinks it's from the tree. Soon enough, she learns that a boy in her class, Walt, thinks the tree is his tree. They soon get past the ownership idea and begin to share poems under the tree. Kirkus says, a sweet and quiet homage to friendship, nature, and the power of words and poetry. I like the title, even how the titles were poetry. Poetry was very clever. And what was funny about that book, I read that to an English class, and each name in there is a name of a poet, of a famous poet. Oh, good point. I am so slow. Nicky. Good job. No, it took me like three reads. So if I'm like, oh! Yeah. Man. This is the first book in a new imprint, Pixar Animation Studios Artists Showcase. So keep an eye out for more of these if you're interested in Pixar Animation Studio Artists. This book takes place in Malaysia.  When her mom becomes ill, Aliyah shows her love for her mother with a flower and a statement, inshallah, I will always be by your side, as her mother had often said to her. Family love, support, and connectedness is celebrated. And yes, her mother does recover, so that's a nice ending to it, because it would have been bad. I love this one. This is such a great tradition. This is based on a Navajo tradition told by a Navajo illustrator, and I believe the author, the original author, was Navajo. Roseanne Tauhe has passed away, and Nancy Bull Flood helped finish creating this book so that it could be printed and give the first author spot to the lady who passed away. Anyway, the welcoming of a new baby to an extended family, each family member tries to be the one to cause the baby's first laugh. So whoever, aunt or cousin or whoever's playing with the baby, they're really hoping they get the first laugh, because that person will host the child's first laugh ceremony. And it's an honor to be able to do that. It's a wonderful look at a new life, laughter, family, and community. I think it's just a terrific book. OK, the panda problem. This book's narrator is thrown when he says the panda had a big problem. And the panda says, nope. I'm good. He has to have a problem to solve in order to be a story. So the panda decides to be the narrator's problem, and things get crazy. Kids will enjoy making up their own problem look after hearing this one. Because what is this? Oh, I won't even go there. I was going to do the Smothers Brothers when Dickie told Tommy to take it, and he said, no. My family grew up on the Smothers Brothers. Sorry. OK, I have a few beginning readers, and this one is amazing. I'm astounded. This is a monkey and cake book. This is book one of three. It's a look at the concept of Schrodinger's cat for the very young set. And by the way, just so you know, both monkey and cake love pie, because pie comes up. This is a Wall Street Journal pie. I thought it was cake versus pie. Which one do you like better? It could be the cake loves pie, monkey loves pie, and they have some at the end of the book. So they talk about what's in this box, and it could be this, it could be that, it could be something else. And it's the concept of Schrodinger's cat. And Wall Street Journal said, this is full of philosophical inquiry. And I can read picture books. Children's book? Yeah, cool, OK. So both two are about ownership and sharing. If I look at that, cake says, he owns the area of where his fort is built is. Nobody else can be there. This is my area. And he is not going to share with monkey or anybody.  That's yours? The rest of everything is mine. OK, well, they have to work on finding a compromise. Obvious, apparent, obviously. They ultimately do, but yes, that is a concept. Book three came out in September, and I don't even know what the title is, because I didn't go check on it. So there is a book three, and it's another concept of this style type of book. And maybe Krista can find it for me while we go on ahead to Wrappy and his favorite things. This is the second book that Dan Gettman has written about, Wrappy. Ah, I found it. Oh, she found it. My tooth is lost. Oh, my tooth is lost. It's book three of monkey and cake. And I have a few. Monkey loses the tooth. So monkey loses the tooth in book three. My tooth is lost. I love how cakes are character. I love how. Monkey has lost the tooth. This makes monkey sad. Cake reassures monkey that the tooth fairy will come. But monkey isn't so sure. Can cake help find the lost tooth instead? No, possibly. So it looks like there's just three so far. I assume there'll be more if they're doing well. Could very well be. So back to Wrappy. He does not want to write a poem in school. No, it's just boring. Soon enough, his teacher goes out of the room, and he is rapping instead about many of the things he likes. Imagine his surprise when their teacher, Mrs. H, tells him rapping is poetry. He was already making poems, and he can't. He's surprised. Now, these two books so far, they are completely written in rap, timing, rap, not lingo, but what am I trying to say, cadence. I am not good with that, so I cannot read this out loud. But many, many other people can do that practice it. It's a good idea. Make sure you practice if you want to read it a lot. But it's an I can read book, too. And I love these series of books by Milgram. Where am I? Oh, I have to turn the page. These are about Ollie, the robot. But today, in this one, if you look at the cover, you can see, oh, Ollie, it's Otto, the robot. Ollie, the rhino, is in a bad mood. But Otto, the robot, doesn't know that. He doesn't pick up on the expression on Ollie's face. He goes high to Ollie's back, and Ollie chases Otto when they run right through the monkey's flipping clops, artist area. Now, flipping sloppers in a bad mood, and they are chasing Ollie and Otto. They stop when a lightning storm starts up. Ollie says, hop on, and the three ride Ollie out of the storm. Everyone is in a good mood now. I really like this, because these are very good early, early beginning reader books. Because they're told in brief rhyming phrases and short phrases. And this one is a good look at anger and handling emotion. And there's a series of books, so you can look for the other one. This is hilarious. I know. I was so excited for this one. What did you say, Miss Zett? Oh, I'm super excited for this one. I love these. Harold and Hogg decide to pretend, for real, to be elephant and piggy. Hogg has a hard time being piggy, since piggy is carefree and loves to dance. Hogg is too careful. And he suggests that Harold is too extroverted to be elephant, even if he puts on some pretend glasses. The answer? Hogg can be elephant, and Harold can be piggy, because those personalities match out better. So it's just a lot of fun about elephant and piggy whose run has ended, but another way to visit them, kind of. And I love the pretend, for real. That is such fun. So non-fiction picture books. This is a picture book-linked poem honoring the many well-known African-American people who were successful and forced to that for the right of all. Beautiful illustrations by Kader Nelson. Each person is identified at the back of the book and given one brief paragraph about his or her life. It's a celebration of African-Americans and of humanity. It's a great addition to your collection. Well, I'm an animal fan. Giraffes were kind of at the top of my list. But this has 13 poems, as it says, and it's about animal sounds. What kind of noise does a moose make? He looks like they make a fellow. Two voices are indicated by the color of the text. So you could do a, it's reminiscent to me of Joyful Noise, the 2005 or so Newberry winner, where it was poems for two people to read. Two people could read this together. And you know which part is yours by the color of the text. And there is added information at the back of the book about each of the animals included. And I love camouflage books. And this, of course, this is Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. It has wonderful art. And animal camouflage is something kids love too. There are tidbits of information at the back, as it says, but you have all different kinds of animals included in here. This is on ocean floor, and I think there's an octopus on this cover, if I remember right. And at the back of the book, there are more notes about the different animals. So again, it's a beautiful illustration. You have to look to find the animal or animal, and then you get some more information. Some early chapter books. This is by Tom Engelberger, who has written the, wait a minute, Inspector Flytrap, it says right there. Well, in this book, the very first thing is Inspector Flytrap is on vacation because his mom came to visit. So he's not available to help solve the street. But Didi Dodo, Future Spy, is available. And this, of course, is so silly. Poor Coco Dodo needs help. His super secret fudge sauce has been stolen. And it is time for the annual Queens Royal Cookie Contest. Who can help? Didi Dodo. Hilarious, silly antics abound, including traveling two fast via roller skates. Escaping a herd of angry yaks, because how often do we run into that? And sliding through the mall to get to the cookie contest. Fans of Inspector Flytrap will feel right at home with this one. And I don't know if there's been another one out yet or not, but that's the first one we met, too. This is the first book about Frankie Sparks, third grade inventor, is the name of the series. And this one is about the class pet. Frankie is enthusiastic about experiments and she loves science and math. Her class is going to get a pet and they will vote on what kind they want. Frankie is sure a rat will be the best choice and keeps trying to convince her best friend to vote rat. But Maya wants to vote for a hermit crab and she is beginning to feel that Frankie is not listening to her opinion. In the meantime, Frankie has to invent something that will allow the rat to be fed over the weekend when no one is at school or they can't have a rat. There has to be something that nobody has to take care of over the weekend when they take home. Yeah. But she does work on this. Soon there are some misunderstandings, but things come right in the end. It's a good start to a new series with science in the forefront. And these are fun. This is the first compilation. I think that the individual chapters came out separately at first, but this is a four story compilation about Yasmine and her Pakistani-American family and her school. She is in second grade and her imagination is her tool for solving problems. She is creative and she stands confidently when challenged. The stories in this book are titled Yasmine the Explorer, Yasmine the Painter, Yasmine the Builder, and Yasmine the Fashionista. And the sequel is called Yasmine in Charge, which I read recently and that's also a good, it has four stories in it as this one does. So that's also a good choice. And I think that's the end of my list. Yes, because then we're back to her level. So again, the book lists are on the Library Commission webpage if you search hand out. And what we will do too, if anybody has any questions or comments or book suggestions you have, feel free to share them in the question section or you can always reach out to Sally or Dana at their respective places of work. We will also link to this presentation. I'm going to hit Escape. There was, I know, Dana, you put at the very first slide the bitly, the short one is there too. So if you can go yourself there, but we'll also add that to the session's webpage when I put up the archive as well. So we have a quick access to that too. When you can scan the QR code too if you want. Yep, so many options. Yeah, if you have a phone that can do that. All right, so many options. Some of us are old-fashioned. Yeah. It looks like we've just got people saying thank you for the session and great ideas and we all have lots of reading to do now. Yeah, I do too. So I think that wraps it up. We're just pretty much almost exactly on time for our wrapping up for today. We started a little after 10 a.m., central time. So thank you Dana and Sally for sharing all these titles with us. As we did mention on the webpage, there is Sally, you have a longer list. You have that still here somewhere. This is the one that's, so these two here are the ones that you just saw today. Right. But this is even more titles added to it. That I just, yeah. Beyond what was meant to say. So if you're looking for another title, check that out as well. Yeah, get more ideas. So that will wrap up for today's show. Thank you everybody for attending today. We're gonna go to the Encompass Live website now. You can search on the questions page, but if you just go into whatever your search or choice is, just type in Encompass Live, the name of our show. Go ahead and hit enter. So far, we're the only thing that's on the internet. Yay. Nobody is allowed to call themselves that yet. I don't know what the show's meant to be about. So, let me just see here. I've got some people, I'll just see what it is. Thanks for the great webinar and letting us know about all these wonderful books people are saying, yes. So this is our Encompass Live page where you can see here is our upcoming shows for the next, actually January and February. And right underneath them is where you can access the archives of our shows. So if you click on that, the most recent ones are always at the top of the list. This is last week's show. So today's will be up there. It should be available by the end of the day today as long as YouTube and GoToWebinar, everybody cooperates with me. Everyone who attended this morning or registered for today's show will get an email from me letting you know when the archives available. It'll also be promoted out on our Twitter feed, Facebook page, the usual places out there. Mailing lists that we have here in Nebraska. We'll have a link to, I'll just show you from last week's show, we'll have a link to the recording on our YouTube channel and there'll also be a link to the handouts. The handouts page that has those PDFs and then there'll be a third link to the Google slides that have both Sally and Dana slides all together will be here. So I'll just mention too, while we are here on our archives page, we do a search feature here. This is the entire archives of Encompass Live. You can search our full archives or you can just look at the most recent 12 months if you want to. Encompass Live smeared in January 2009. So we're going on our 11th, 12th year, we've been around for over 10 years. So there's a lot of archives here. But we are librarians, so we save and archive and keep things for historical purposes. So these will always be available here. But do pay attention, run a search on the top if you wanna search. Pay attention to the public date that was originally broadcast, though. Some things may be old, outdated information. Services or products might not exist anymore or they may have changed since we talked about them on the show. So just pay attention when you are searching on here for things. So the first topics are always gonna be good and appropriate like best new team books for 2015 are still gonna be good to share today. They're just not new anymore. But so you can do that or if you just want the most recent updated info, just limit it to just searching the most recent 12 months. We also do have a Facebook page as mentioning for Encompass Live, if you do like to use Facebook, we post reminders here. Sometimes we kiss reminder for, no, I don't wanna log in right now, thank you Facebook. Reminder to log in for today's show, where our recordings are available, I post on here, other things of interest to libraries. So if you do want to give us a like over on Facebook to keep an eye on what we're doing there. So that's all for today. I hope you join us next week when it is our pre-sweet tech session for the month. Pre-sweet tech is our monthly session done by Amanda Sweet who's a technology innovation librarian here. Generally it's the last Wednesday of the month. That's what we try to stick to, but sometimes it has to be adjusted due to other scheduling issues. So this month it's one week ahead. And next week should we talk about technology solving real world problems. So if you are into tech, are you the techie person at your library, keep an eye on her pre-sweet tech sessions that she'll be doing on the show. And also you can see our other sessions here are all set up and you'll see more appearing for March and April as I start nailing down and confirming dates for things. So thank you very much everyone for attending. Thank you very much, Sally and Dana. And we'll see you. Oh, here's the new teen session. We talked about this at the beginning for those of you. Today with the children's books, best new teen reads will be on February 5th and that's just Sally on your own for that day. So if you are the children's through all the way up to teens type person at your library, you can watch the companion piece to today's show, the teen reads. One on June 7th, February 5th for that one. Now that wraps it up. Okay, thank you everybody. And we'll see you another time on Encompass Live. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye, Dana.


What does mystical theology really refer to? So mystical theology is an approach to theology which has its ultimate goal in contemplation in the leaving behind of all thoughts and words and concepts to have this encounter with God, an unmediated encounter with God. I saw a quote once that said Bonaventure was the saint who did theology on his knees. Theology for him was a spiritual work because the purpose of it was to enlighten the mind and motivate the heart to be more intimate with God. His mysticism is always firmly grounded in a strong and solid theology, but his theology is always done with a prayerful humility and openness to this, as he would describe it, illuminating ray of light.


It's time for the Lawn Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour brought to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, a presentation of the Lawn Jean Wittner Watch Company, maker of Lawn Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner Distinguished Companion to the World Honored Lawn Jean. Good evening. This is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Lawn Jean Chronoscope? Larry Lusser from the CBS television news staff and August Hector, chief editorial writer for the New York Herald Tribune. Our distinguished guest for this evening is the Honorable Homer Capehart, United States Senator from Indiana. A couple of months have passed since the Federal Housing Administration slipped and fell into a sticky morass of scandal. Nearly 10 years were told, sharp operators have made windfall profits out of various FHA projects. Now our guest tonight as chairman of the Senate Banking and Finance Committee is investigating the scandal. So we'd like to ask Senator Capehart, since some prominent names have been mentioned in this mess, both builders and their backers, all these people actually guilty of violating the law. Well, I don't know that I should answer that question there because we're investigating it with the moment and I'm chairman of the committee and I always try to be fair and honest with these people and I don't think I should prejudge them. However, I will say this that it looks as though at the moment there's been a lot of irregularities. It looks as though there has been a lot of miss or maladministration on the part of those administering the law and laws in the past and it's been very loosely handled. Whether there'll be violations remains, of course, for the courts to decide. Well, would you pass this on to the Department of Justice? Your findings? Oh, yes, of course. And the Department of Justice, of course, have someone sitting there each day at our hearings. Senator Capehart, when did these hearings begin? They began on Monday of this week. And how long will they continue to expect? Well, I suspect it's going to take the biggest part of this year. I doubt very much if we finish before December. Well, Senator, do you think this is going to be a political issue? Actually, the the malfeasance was started perhaps in the previous administration, but it has been going on apparently on the present administration now. Is there any political angle to it? Well, I don't think we certainly are not doing it for political reasons, but however, as I have repeatedly said, we're going to let the chips fall where they may. And of course the the 608 projects that you read so much about on the papers happened a hundred percent, of course, under the Democratic administration, because the law was passed in 1940 and expired in 50. I would say that all the rental properties that are involved, and that is the big end of it, of course, happened prior to Eisenhower's administration. Now, the Title I, that's loans for repair purposes to homes. That has been going on since Mr. Eisenhower took office, and I suspect there's been some irregularities since that time, but you want to remember that the President of the United States and Mr. Cole, the top administrator, are the ones that exposed this whole matter and called it to the attention of the Congress and the American people and asked it something to be done about it, and they have discharged quite a number of high government officials. Well, Coleman Andrews says that about 65 and a half million dollars has been made hay out of, and now is there any chance of recollecting that money? I can't answer that. That's a matter for the courts to decide. It's hard for us at this stage to say whether it can be collected or not. I just don't know. Senator Capehart, have these irregularities been due, do you think, to basic effects in the law or to bad administrators? I think it's been due to both. I think the law was loosely drawn. I think it was bad administration, and then I think part of it is just the good old ingenuity of the American people or the American businessman to get around the loopholes. Well, Senator Capehart, the administration has been counting as President Eisenhower said on a booming housing program to keep the national economy in balance. Now, is this going to hurt the housing program, you think, to scandal? This shouldn't hurt it. It ought to help it, because it ought to get more what I call real honesty and constructive ideas into the housing business. Well, now the housing bill, as I understand it, is in conference. Has that bill taken into account, the defect that has been shown up? Yes. The House had passed the bill before the irregularities broke. We in the Senate had finished our hearings, but we had not handled the bill in committee. And when the so-called scandals broke, we held some hearings, primarily with government officials. And we believe that we have written into the existing law a sufficient legislation to stop all the loopholes. And is the new housing program more liberal in its credit terms? Does it make it easier for people to build homes? There's no question what the present housing bill that we're considering at the moment, and I think will become a law within the next couple of weeks, is the most liberal it has ever been offered to the American people. In other words, the scandal hasn't hurt the liberality of the program. Well, that's correct. But have any provisions been written in to close the difference between the estimated cost of building and the amount that allowed under these FHA mortgages? We have written into the law that when a builder is finished with this project that he adds up the total costs and then certifies that that is the cost and then the government only insures 90 or 80 or 85 or 95 percent, depending upon what the law is under specific titles, that amount. And we certainly are going to stop what we what we know and think of as windfall profits. We're not going to permit that anymore. Do you think the American people don't want it? And I don't think the builders want it. That is the honest builder. I don't think he wants it. Well, is it at least some dwellers in multiple housing projects have refused to pay their rent for a while? Are they legally in their rights to do so? I don't think they're legally within their rights. And we've heard very little of that. And I think that if we find that any of them are within their rights, that ought to be adjusted peacefully and they ought not to organize and get excited about the matter. Because that won't help any. Senator Capehart, will this housing bill formed, do you think, an important part of the president's program? Will it be an important issue in the coming campaigns?  As I said before, it's the most liberal housing bill ever offered the American people and it ought to go and will go a long ways towards particularly furnishing houses for the more they low income people in the United States. And and we and we have a new angle in this housing bill that that will that will eliminate slums in the future. We're we're trying to avoid the slums occurring rather than waiting until we do get a slum condition and clear it up. We're we're we and this bill we've written in some features that if it works and I think it will work and I hope it will, we hear in the future, we will never have slums. They will stop them before they develop in the slums. Well, Senator Capehart, now that you're talking about the work of the president administration, actually, now that your party has the authority and the responsibility for running the country, how do you still feel that the standby controls which you were once against and then favored should be a part of the national economy in this international situation? I was ever against them, but I certainly am in favor of them. And I've always been in favor of standby controls. I I think we ought to have a standby controls, giving the president of the United States the right to impose imposed price, wage and rent controls the minute an emergency occurs rather than waiting either even 24 hours. Senator, I think I've always been in favor of that and and think that we ought to have that sort of a law. Now, you remember, I introduced it last year and tried to get it through. But I failed and I see no chance to do it this year. Well, Senator, speaking of the international situation as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, you made an intensive tour of Latin America last year, I guess it was. And when you were down there, did you think there was anything we could do to prevent these Latin American countries from adopting extreme political systems? Well, yes, I think what we ought to do is to pay more attention to Latin America. And I think we ought to cooperate with the more than we have in the past. And I think we ought to loan them more money on longer terms. And when I say loan more money, I'm not mean. I don't necessarily mean the government. I'm talking about private enterprise. I think we ought to give them longer terms on the things that we sell them. I think we ought to know more about them and we ought to encourage them to build up their own production, their own factories and their own processing of food plants. And we ought to help them to build up their own industry, thereby giving jobs to their own people. Well, how about our tariffs? Are you in favor of reducing those simple trade bill? I think the tariff is the least end of our this international trade business. I I I'm not for either extreme high tariffs, and I'm certainly not for free trade. But I think we pay too much attention to the tariff. I think the thing that we ought to pay more attention to is is long terms and and more loans and more credit rather than the tariff, because our tariffs in comparison to other nations are quite low. And we we do not have export taxes as they do. And while I think we ought to pay attention to the tariffs, I don't think they ought to be too high. Nevertheless, I can't see much good in in in throwing 10 million Americans or 10,000 Americans out of work in order to give 10,000 people someplace else jobs. I'd rather handle it on the basis of loaning the money and helping them to create their own factories, thereby having money to so they can sell and buy among themselves. I want to create more jobs in in foreign countries as well as more jobs here. I don't I don't want to handle this whole business on the basis of throwing people out of work here in order to give jobs there or throwing people out of work there in order to give jobs in this country. I think it can be handled on a basis of of everybody having a job. But then you feel that as the jobs are built up and the factories are built up in the other countries, the trade with our country increases. That's right. That's no question about how about these dollar shortages as these other countries complain of, sir. Well, of course, they got dollar shortages. I've always had a dollar shortage, too. And I suspect you have. I don't know anybody in the United States that hasn't had a dollar shortage. I've never had enough dollars. They don't have enough dollars. Therefore, we ought to give them more credit. So make the dollars that they do have go farther. That's what we do in the United States. We sell on the installable. Well, should the government do this or should private industry give this to the long term? Government possibly can do part of it, but it primarily ought to be done with with by private industry. Well, thank you very much, Senator Kaplan, for a very frank discussion. Well, thank you, sir. The opinions expressed on the Laun Jean Chronoscope were those of the speakers. The editorial board for this edition of the Laun Jean Chronoscope was Larry Lissere and August Teccher. Our distinguished guest was the Honorable Homer Capehart, United States Senator from Indiana. What does the name Laun Jean mean to you? It means a watch to be sure, but much more. The name Laun Jean on the dial of a watch means that here is one of the finest of all the world's watches. 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Why not insist on getting a Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, the world's most honored gift, a premier product of the Laun Jean Wittner Watch Company, since 1866, maker of watches of the highest character. This is Frank Knight, reminding you that Laun Jean and Wittner watches are sold and serviced from coast to coast by more than 4,000 leading jewelers who proudly display this emblem. Agency for Laun Jean Wittner Watches. There is only one Atmos, the perpetual motion clock created by LaCoultre. Atmos runs without winding, without electricity, powered only by unfailing daily variations in the temperature of the air. Atmos, product of LaCoultre, Division of Laun Jean Wittner.


Well, development continues to be under way at the Niswa Lake Park and Recreation Area. Sarah Winkelman joins us live now from our Brunner studio with an update on the project, Sarah. Yeah, Dennis. Tonight, community members gathered in Niswa to celebrate the work that's already been done at the park and to get a sneak peek at what's still to come. The idea of the Niswa Lake Park was first put into action over 10 years ago with the formation of the Friends of Niswa Lake Park. After years of fundraising, the group received a large donation to help gain momentum. And we decided to accept a donation for $35,000 to start the trails out in the park. Behind that large donation was community member Millie Jertson, who tonight was recognized for her efforts. Although she says her love for the outdoors made her contribution a no-brainer. I said, why not? But she didn't stop there and made an additional $50,000 donation to build a picnic shelter at the park. I don't know how to even describe the gift that she gave to the city by donating. Already underway are the ADA compliant trails leading Niswa Lake into downtown and the new picnic shelter. Things are actually starting to shape up out there. But a major item still on the to-do list is the construction of a new dock system for people to tie up their boats and head into the city of Niswa. The one thing that Niswa has always kind of lacked is access to water. You know, we're so close to it and it really encapsulates everything that we do up in the Brainer Lakes area. Also in the future plans is the addition of a new boardwalk along the waterfront. The value in this park and seeing what it's capable of to help out the city of Niswa. And as for Millie, she can't wait for it to warm up and go enjoy a picnic at the new park. It's just something I enjoy. In a new park built for tourists and locals alike. The park is the result of many, many people over the years. A scene of vision for creating a legacy for our future. Now the goal is to have the trail, the pavilion and the other picnic areas set to go by the 4th of July. And as for the other projects, they'll be completed as soon as the funds come in over the next few years. Dennis. Alright, thank you very much Sarah for that live report from our Brainerd studio tonight. Information on how to make a donation to the park can be found on our website at lptv.org. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.