Sanity

I'm very glad that I went to Village Books this morning and spent some time in the children's section, picking out five books for their annual Giving Tree, as I've done every year since we moved here. It's one of my favorite holiday rituals.

This is the 20th year of the Giving Tree program, which over the years has provided books to thousands of children who would not otherwise have received them, according to the Winter 2015/2016 issue of The Chuckanut Reader, Village Books' quarterly magazine. Last year, thanks to the generosity of book lovers,  nearly 900 area children received books through seven local organizations.

Two of the books I chose today were ones that our grandchildren suggested last year that I might like to read. I followed up on their recommendations, and relished Savvy by Ingrid Law and The Giver by Lois Lowry. I particularly liked The Giver, which received the Newbery Medal in 1994, and borrowed the three subsequent books in that series from the library. 

They may have been written for children, but they are equally appealing to this adult. While doing research for this journal entry, I went to Lois Lowry's website. There I discovered transcripts of various speeches she's given at conventions and conferences for teachers and librarians, and I've just read her Newbery Medal acceptance speech. In the light of yet another slaughter of the innocents in this country today by men* who think shooting people is a good way to express anger, Lowry's words resonated with me:

The man that I named The Giver passed along to the boy knowledge, history, memories, color, pain, laughter, love, and truth. Every time you place a book in the hands of a child, you do the same thing.

It is very risky.

But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It gives him freedom.
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Addendum: I've just read that one of the two suspects killed at the scene by the local police was a woman. Both suspects were armed with assault weapons and handguns, according to The New York Times. 

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