Conversation Starter--Video Killed the Written Word

Over the past year I have been exposed more and more to the world of streaming. There are video streamers for games, movies, music, fashion, and even books. You name a topic, you can find someone who has a streaming channel through a growing list of platforms. Admittedly, I even have a YouTube channel that I typically only use for random creative endeavors or instruction materials to help my students. With all this and more one has to ask has video killed the written word?

So, their is song Video Killed the Radio Star. Well I honestly think it only helped the radio, as it is another platform for individuals to begin their conversations, but how about the written word. Even prestigious papers, such as the New York Times and Washington Post have video available on their website. In that last year and a half of working at the library, I've noticed my student patrons leaning towards what has been turned into a movie more than books that aren't movies, yet. It is only a matter of time that more books are made into movies, as I'm seeing more remakes and sequels than anything else, unless you go to the indie film circuit.

I've also seen an increase in our audiobook requests and check outs. Some of it I do believe stems from students struggle to comprehend what they are reading, but at the same time when provided the option of being able to read a novel that provides insight into the character's inner thoughts and a film that really only touches on the surface of the novel, they choose the film. Do to less time, more action, less need for practicing comprehension and imagination skills.

Individuals who find that I have a blog dedicated to trying to share about different novels out there, they are cynical and comment that I would get more individuals participating if I made it a vlog on YouTube than the written word. Why don't I? Well, one I don't like the idea of filming myself and just talking, I'm not a graphic design genius who can make videos that have the razzle dazzle a lot of people have access to, and I'm in love with the written word.

This is why I ask my fellow beings on the internet, has video killed the written word?

Let’s Booktalk: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

from Goodreads

Abraham Lincoln, the 16^th  President of the United States, leader during the American Civil War, signer of the Emancipation of Proclamation, and vampire hunter.

“It had been another simple errand, another name on Henry’s list. But this place was different. Extraordinary. Abe was on his knees, certain he’d stumbled into some kind of vampire hive” (p. 163).

If we are to believe the fantastic, then it may be truth that vampires exist and that through a series of events Abraham Lincoln chose to become their hunter.

“It turns out that the towering myth of Honest Abe, the one ingrained in our earliest grade school memories, is inherently dishonest. Nothing more than a patchwork of half-truths and omissions” (p. 15).

Through journal entries and letters, Grahame-Smith explores the fantastic life of America’s 16^th president, Abraham Lincoln, the vampire hunter.

Let’s BookTalk: The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

“My life is over. Behind the morphine dreams is the nightmare of reality” (3).

from GoodReads.com

Jessica was one of the “lucky” students who survived a horrendous bus crash. However, while many of her peers walked away, she did not. Jessica lost her leg in the accident, which for her feels like the end of what she loved to do most, running for her track team. Now, she sits at the back of her class.

Rosa, who is wheelchair bound due to cerebral palsy, welcomes Jessica back after her time in the hospital. Although the two girls never conversed before she helps Jessica catch up on her work in their math class. From their time together, Rosa and Jessica become friends. Jessica learns more than just math from her new friend Rosa.

“That night I have the running dream again. When I wake up, I cry like I always do, but my tears are interrupted by the memory of something new in my dream. A mermaid fountain. A mermaid fountain and Rosa, waving from her porch as I run by” (139).

Jessica discovers that with a special prosthesis she could run again. But, will this mean she will make her running dreams a reality?

Let's BookTalk: The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Meddlestone by Jaclyn Moriarty

"I was ten years old when my parents were killed by pirates" (p. 1).

And so, Bronte Meddlestone's adventure begins. She wasn't usually the kind of child who took adventures. Ever since her parents left her in the lobby of her Aunt Isabelle's apartment building. It was her Aunti Isabelle who raised her, as her parents were off on adventures.

The first inconvenience, Bronte's parents being dead, as in their will they give strict instructions on a journey that she must take alone visiting her other ten aunts across the Kingdoms and Empires of the world.

The second inconvenience, if Bronte does not fulfill her parent's last wishes exactly as they outlined her home town of Gainsleigh will be destroyed, torn apart, all because her parents made their last will and testament binding through faery cross-stitch.

And their are more inconveniences to come; babies in rivers, avalanches, pirate attacts, spellbinders, dark mages, and more. "As we raced about, Aunt Isabelle drilled me on the dangers of Dark Mages...and covered other dangers too. Getting my new frocks muddy. Forgetting to say thank you. That kind of thing" (pp. 14-15).

Let's BookTalk: Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

from GoodReads

"There's a trick they do with one pea and three cups which is very hard to follow, and something like it, for greater stakes than a handful of loose change, is about to take place" (p. 24).

And that was how the apocalypse began...maybe.

There are no abosulutes when it has come to prophecies about the end of the world, because their are so many versions of it. However, when you have a stylish, optimistic demon and a soft hearted, head strong angel team up together to stop the apocalypse, can a prophecy of impending doom really get things spot on. Agnes Nutter may be the witch and prohetess to have predicted just these events leading to the end of the world and the ulitmate battle between Heaven and Hell.

Than again, was it the friendship of angel and demon that stopped the end of days or the pea and the three cups snafu that really led to the apocalypse of Agnes' prophecy?

Theology, humor, a slight of hand gone wrong...maybe Good Omens come in more ways than we realize.

Let's BookTalk: Sweep by Jonathan Auxier

from Goodreads.com

“She and her Sweep had both gone to bed as they always had, nestled against a chimney stack beneath the starry sky. But when the girl woke the next morning, her Sweep was gone” (p. 13).

Nan is an 11 year-old girl in the late 1800s. She is in contracted servitude to work as a chimney sweep, along with four other children ages 7 to 12. Food is scarce, work is dangerous, and there is very little for her to be hopeful for, except that someday her Sweep, original master, may one-day return. All she has left of him is his hat and a piece of char that still feels warm somehow.

The “Devil’s Nudge,” a dangerous method used by master chimney sweeps to get their chimney climbers (child laborers) unstuck from a chimney stack. They light a fire under the stuck child and they either scramble their way to freedom or burn.

One day while cleaning chimneys, Nan got stuck…

###

A Note from Ms. Stimpson: I don’t often give my opinion on a book, as I prefer the reader to discover their own preferences in reading. However, there are not many stories often written as this one. Nor do all stories touch your soul. Sweep is one of those stories, because even in the darkness and despair, hope can make the darkness more grey than it had been before.

Let’s BookTalk: Guitar Notes by Mary Amato

from Goodreads.com

“It’s as if there are six strings inside him, tuned to the same pitches, and when the guitar is strummed it cause his sting to ring out, too” (p. 22).

Tripp is a loner type, who loves to play the guitar. He is an odd character and very often speaks his mind. Lyla is the first chair cellist in the school’s orchestra. She is Lyla Marks, who has perfect grades, perfect friends and everyone adores her; however, Lyla is keeping a deep secret that she feels she cannot share with anyone.

The story mainly takes place at Rockland school. The characters Tripp and Lyla are both going through communication issues with their parent. Both are feeling pressured by their parents to be involved in activities they do not want to do.

Is there ever a time when you “thrum?”

Written by Amanda Baca

Library Educational Assitant

Let’s BookTalk: I’m OK by Patti Kim

from Goodreads.com

When your name is Ok, how can you be anything but ok?

Ok Lee is a 12 year-old Korean-American who wants to be a good son for his mother and make his father proud, which sometimes makes things less than ok. After his father died in a roofing accident, Ok wants to help make life easier for his mother, but it doesn’t seem to work out that way.

“I stare up at the ceiling. I knuckle my head twelve times, for each year I’ve been alive, mumbling, ‘pabo, pabo, pabo, pabo,’ just as my father would’ve done. Don’t call me stupid. My name is Ok” (p. 9).

In this coming of age story, Ok decides to learn a new skill and a talent in order to help bring in some extra cash. He soon comes to find that he is good at styling hair for the girls at school and everyone feels better with a style form Ok.

“Demand is high. Girls follow me, stop me in the halls, pass me notes. This volume of attention form the opposite sex is unprecedented” (p. 58).

Things seem to be going ok, once he masters a bankable skill, then his mom decides she will re-marry and all Ok can think is that it’s not ok. His father hasn’t been dead long, the man she is betrothed to is a thief, and he can’t help but think she is doing it all for money with an easier lifestyle.

When things aren’t going ok, having Ok for a name can be cruel.

Let's BookTalk: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

from Goodreads.com

“Once upon a time there was a hazel-eyed boy with dimples. I called him Khalil. The world called him a thug. He lived, but no nearly long enough, and for the rest of my life I’ll remember how he died” (p. 442-443).

Starr is a teenager caught between two worlds. One world is where she lives with her family and helps them with their store in Garden Heights; a low income, hardworking neighborhood, facing violence in the streets due to the competing gangs in the area. The other worlds is where she goes to school, Williamson. In this world there are gated communities, suburbs, and what some would call “champagne problems.”

Both her worlds are shattered, when a police officer guns down a childhood friend in her neighborhood during a “routine traffic” stop and all she could do was watch from the passenger side of her friend’s car.

Now, she must make a choice. Silence or Speak Out?

“I always said that if I saw it happen to somebody, I would have the loudest voice, making sure the world know what went down. Now I am that person, and I’m too afraid to speak” (p. 35).

Let's BookTalk: Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

from Goodreads.com

“Ruth and me are free, Pastor. Miss Finch freed us in her will. Momma, too, if had lived. It was done up legal, on paper with wax seals” (p. 9). Isabel Gardener is a slave in the year 1777 with a promise of freedom, but a corrupt system has her and her sister sold off to a high society family in New York.

Curzon, another slave who dreams of freedom, which has led him to ally himself with the Patriots, a radical group wanting to divide from the British monarchy to be free. He talks Isabel into being a spy for them, as her “owners” are British sympathizers who know of an impending British invasion.

Isabel will not be a slave and finds her own way to fight for her freedom and possibly even the freedom of a nation?

Let's BookTalk: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

from Goodreads.com

There is power in a name, his momma taught him that much before she died. His name is Bud, not Buddy. If she had wanted him to be called Buddy, she would have named him Buddy.

Bud learned many things from his momma, except who his father was, she only left a flyer for a band as a clue. Now Bud is a runaway orphan in Flint, MI on a mission to get out of town before he is the most wanted boy in town. Life isn’t easy for Bud and with a depression going on across the country things can easily go from bad to worse.

Yet, Bud has these rules that help him stay alive and out of trouble, almost. With only an old card board suitcase to carry his few prized possessions in the world, Bud goes on a journey to find his father and maybe the allusive dream of a home.