Ivy + Bean Day!

The Marion Bookworm has teamed with the Science Center and other area businesses to celebrate “Ivy and Bean Day,”  with two big shows for kids at the Illinois Centre Mall on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 6) and day-long science-based activities, games and give-aways.

With more than 1 million copies sold, the Ivy and Bean series by Annie Barrows features two second-grade girls with supersize imaginations. The adventures of the irrepressible duo continue in the newly published book Ivy and Bean: What’s the Big Idea, which thrusts the pint-size heroines into the middle of the second grade science fair.

Ivy and Bean’s science fair theme makes a perfect connection to the Science Center’s outreach programs which focus on hands-on science. The Science Center will present two showings of “Air and Energy” at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday in the center court of Illinois Centre Mall.

“The Air and Energy show focuses on all forms of energy from fossil fuels to wind power and solar power,” says Tabitha Ayres, director of the Science Center. “It’s fun, it’s flashy and it’s hands-on with lots of participation.”

Featured during the shows will be a series of contained explosions, a large vortex cannon which shoots out giant smoke rings, and a hovercraft, in which youngsters can ride. In addition to the two shows, there will be science supplies for hands-on table-top exercises, Ayres said, including Alka-Seltzer cannons, volcanoes and slime.

“Explosions and slime – tried and true,” Ayers said with a laugh. But the shows more importantly trace the history and importance of fuels from the origins of fossil fuels to the present and future potential of clean technology.

Marion Pepsi and the Learning Zone in Illinois Centre Mall have joined Ivy and Bean Day to donate prizes for the day-long event. Exhibits and activities will be set up and available from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the mall’s center court. Volunteers and employees of the sponsors will be clad in white lab coats to help guide youngsters through the experiments.

Ivy and Bean: What’s the Big Idea, is the seventh book in the series which is hugely popular with kids, parents, teachers and librarians. Author Barrows is also the author of the New York Times Best-Selling The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society.

In Ivy and Bean: What’s the Big Idea some kids are making man-eating robots and some kids are holding their breath for a very, very long time. Some kids are doing interesting things with vacuum cleaners. The theme, obviously, is global warming. But what should Ivy and Bean do? Something involving explosions? Or ropes? Something with ice cubes? Or maybe … maybe something different.  What will budding Southern Illinois scientists come up with on Saturday?

Harry Potter vs. Edward Cullen

Hello, everyone! This is Elizabeth, again.  At this time of year, the world seems predisposed with a focus on the wicked, the scary, and the bizarre.  This translates for most cotemporaries as wizards, werewolves, and vampires, or perhaps Harry Potter and Edward Cullen.  These are the main male characters of the Harry Potter series and the Twilight saga, respectfully—a word that I use lightly as according to Webster’s online dictionary, saga is first defined as “a prose narrative recorded in Iceland in the 12th and 13th centuries of historic or legendary figures and events of the heroic age of Norway and Iceland.” That aside, I am curious as to why are we so obsessed with these characters.    Everyone has an opinion, good or bad, on these figures.  One mention of Edward Cullen’s name is sure to create a chorus of groans or sighs, and I cannot venture a guess as to how many arguments I have encountered concerning the evil nature of Harry Potter.  These are fictitious characters, heroes of an invisible world, but fans are addicted to them!   

Well like everyone else, I have an opinion of these leading men.  Edward Cullen, the mysterious vampire of the Twilight saga—once again, take this word lightly— scares me!  He thinks of Bella as a drug, watches her as she sleeps, and wants to kill her.  In my book, this translates as a dangerous man who needs some psychiatric help.  I guess one could say that it is romantic that the stalker ends up getting the girl in the end and turns out to be only an overly protective figure.  As an independent woman, I cannot say that I find this over-protectiveness particularly romantic, but at least, it reassures me that Edward is only a passionate vampire, not a demented one.     

Then there is Harry Potter, who despite my love for his world, is not the most lovable character.  He is generally lazy and always survives by utilizing the skills of his friends. Yet despite these frustrating qualities, Harry also survives because he is brave and loyal.  He loves, not because it is an addiction, but because it is an emotion; he even notes throughout the books that it would easier not to care, not to do the right thing.  He also wants to resolve a war, not create one—like Edward might because of his love affair with a human. Harry cares about more than just one person; his concerns lie in the world, in the greater good.  He, in my opinion, is a true hero….Maybe I like him more because he does not want to kill his girlfriend.

I know that there are plenty of fans who disagree.  That is what makes these characters so interesting to discuss and in part, what makes them phenomena. Now that I have shared my opinions, I would love to hear yours.

Book Review of Hush Hush By Becca Fitzpatrick



Available NOW at Bookworm!

Available in Bookstores October 19

What ever happened to those angels that in defying God were cast down from Heaven? Authors from Milton to J. R. Ward have explored this question, but none as interestingly as Becca Fitzpatrick in her debut novel, Hush Hush. This work incorporates all the elements loved by modern day readers: Stocker-type guys, near death experiences, unrealistic situations, and a smart girl who does stupid things for a guy. Putting all that aside, the novel is very well written and keeps the reader reaching for the truth behind Patch’s mysterious past and Nora’s impending future until the last page…however, just don’t let your mind reach too far, or you might too become one of the fallen.

Pick up your copy of Hush, hush at the Marion Bookworm located in the Illinois Centre Mall, Marion IL

Book 2 is the series Crescendo falls into bookstores on October 19, 2010.

Elizabeth Hileman

Banned Books…what are those?

 Hello, my name is Elizabeth, and I am an employee of the Bookworm in Marion.  This week, we are celebrating the American Library Association’s Banned Book Week.  All this means is that in towns across the nation, books have been removed from classrooms, school libraries, and public libraries.  We just want to let people know that our freedom to read has been and is being challenged in several locations throughout the United States.  We think that everyone should be able to choose what to read for him or herself.

 We kicked off our freadom celebration with a readers’ forum in Illinois Centre Mall.  In the middle of the mall, we had a display of thirty banned books with their reasons for being banned listed.  As I was listening to the readings, I noticed that several people would walk away in anger or confusion from our display.  When the readings ended, I was able to speak with some of these people.

Do you agree with banning books?  You’re joking; books aren’t banned in the United States!  I’ve read most of these books!  I just read this book in high school; I read this book in high school.  Why is this banned?  I let my kids read these books!  This is ridiculous; how can someone else tell us what to read! 

Every person who passed by found one book that they had read and a book whose banning they didn’t understand.

A Light in the Attic is banned because it encourages children to break dishes!  Maya Angelou is racist; how?   Junie B. Jones uses bad grammar, so what!  I read Fahrenheit 451; isn’t that about the dangers of burning books?  A Time to Kill is banned for its representation of murder, but isn’t that what the book is about?  And on and on and on they went…

Every person had one book he or she disagreed with.  Every person was offended that at least one book had been banned.  More than that, they were worried that this had never come to their attention before.  How could we not know this was happening?  

However, there are always two sides of the story.  While I heard many objections, each person seemed to understand that there was some truth to the reasoning behind the banning of some books, some reason for concern.  I, myself, am able to understand the concern some parents might have about their children reading certain books.  (Even one book caused me to blush.  It is a children’s book about puberty with illustrations entitled It’s Perfectly Normal).  However, I also question if this gives us the right to keep these books from other children.   

The question that is raised is simple: who should choose what we read?  My answer is this: “read for yourself and let others do the same!”  

How do we stop books from being banned? Become informed.  For more information about banned books, please visit the American Library Association’s website: www.ala.org.

Banned Books Week – Better Banned Books List

Alright banned book fans, we finally managed to track down a better banned books list! This one is a lot more up to date and has some pretty interesting titles on it. It just went up on our website at www.TheBooksYouLove.com so take a look! (The link below will take you straight to it)

http://www.thebooksyoulove.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22&Itemid=26

For more information about banned books week or to pick up a few of books on our list stop in to one of the Bookworm’s two Southern Illinois locations in Marion or Carbondale.

Bookworm Carbondale inside the Eastgate Shopping Center – 618 E. Walnut Carbondale Il, 62901
     Phone: 618-457-2665
Bookworm Marion inside the Illinois Centre Mall - 3000 W. DeYoung St. Marion IL, 62959
     Phone: 618-997-3790

BANNED BOOKS WEEK: September 25 – October 2, 2010

Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.  Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week.  BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.

The books featured during Banned Books Week have been targets of attempted bannings.  Fortunately, while some books were banned or restricted, in a majority of cases the books were not banned, all thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, booksellers, and members of the community to retain the books in the library collections.  Imagine how many more books might be challenged—and possibly banned or restricted—if librarians, teachers, and booksellers across the country did not use Banned Books Week each year to teach the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature, and to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society.

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association; American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of American Publishers; and the National Association of College Stores.  It is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

Think for yourself and let others do the same!

Support you local bookstore and read banned books! The Bookworm bookstore is located in Southern Illinois. In Carbondale in the Eastgate Shopping Center and in Marion inside the Illinois Centre Mall.

Bookworm Carbondale: 618 E. Walnut. Carbondale IL, 62901. 618-457-2665

Bookworm Marion: 3000 W. DeYoung. Marion IL, 62959. 619-997-3790

List of Banned Books

• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) – Mark Twain 
• Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain 
• Age of Reason – Thomas Paine 
• Andersonville (1955) – MacKinlay Kantor 
• Animal Farm – George Orwell 
• Arabian Nights 
• As I Lay Dying (1932) – William Faulkner 
• Awakening – Kate Chopin 
• Beloved – Toni Morrison 
• Black Beauty – Anna Sewell 
• Bless Me, Ultima – Rudolfo A. Anaya 
• Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison 
• Brave New World – Aldous Huxley 
• Call of the Wild – Jack London 
• Can Such Things Be? – Ambrose Bierce 
• Candide – Voltaire 
• Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer 
• Catch 22 – Joseph Heller 
• Catcher in the Rye (1951) – J. D. Salinger 
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl 
• Civil Disobedience – Henry David Thoreau 
• Color Purple – Alice Walker 
• Confessions – Jean-Jacques Rousseau 
• Death in Venice – Thomas Mann 
• Decameron – Boccaccio 
• Dubliners – James Joyce 
• Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury 
• Fanny Hill – John Cleland 
• Frankenstein – Mary Shelley 
• Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell 
• Grapes of Wrath (1939) – John Steinbeck 
• Hamlet – William Shakespeare 
• Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood 
• House of Spirits – Isabel Allende 
• Howl – Allen Ginsberg 
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou 
• Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde 
• Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy 
• King Lear – William Shakespeare 
• Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D.H. Lawrence 
• Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman 
• Lolita (1955) – Vladimir Nabokov 
• Lord of the Flies – William Golding 
• Lysistrata – Aristophanes 
• Macbeth – William Shakespeare 
• Madame Bovary
• Merchant of Venice – William Shakespeare 
• Moll Flanders – Daniel Defoe 
• Monk – Matthew Lewis 
• Native Son – Richard Wright 
• Nigger of the Narcissus – Joseph Conrad 
• Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell 
• Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck 
• Origin of the Species – Charles Darwin 
• Passage to India
• Portnoy’s Complaint (1969) – Philip Roth 
• Rights of Man – Thomas Paine 
• Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie 
• Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne 
• Separate Peace – John Knowles 
• Silas Marner – George Eliot 
• Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison 
• Sons & Lovers – D.H. Lawrence 
• To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee 
• Tropic of Capricorn – Henry Miller 
• Twelfth Night – William Shakespeare 
• Ulysses – James Joyce 
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe 
• Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle 
• Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

Get to Know Your Bookworms…

Staff Bios – Carl & Kelly Rexroad – Owners

Carl and Kelly Rexroad moved to Southern Illinois in 1988 to work in regional media. After Carl’s 12 years as a newspaper editor and Kelly’s newspaper work in marketing and advertising, the two avid readers decided to turn their passion into a business. The two opened the Carbondale Bookworm on May 9, 2001 — their son Nic’s 17th birthday. The store has grown over those nine years — as have Nic and his sister Carly, who recently graduated from college. Nic survived the birthday start-up to graduate from SIUC, and he continues to help in the Bookworm’s development, even as he attends to his own full-time job.

With the announcement in late 2009 that both of the chain bookstores in the Marion and Mount Vernon malls were closing their doors, the Rexroads decided to tackle a new bookstore in Marion — despite the economic doom and gloom preached by many. Marion’s Bookworm opened in May 2010 inside the Illinois Centre Mall, helped along tremendously by Marion Manager Nancy Hileman Skovgaard, her father and her brother-in-law, who were instrumental in painting and refurbishing book cases and installing a new wood floor.

The Carbondale store continues it main mission of providing low-cost used books on all topics to Southern Illinoisans, while the Marion store features new books and magazines. Both stores are proud to display books by fellow Southern Illinois authors and books about the history and attractions of the region. Both stores continue to feature local authors at book signings and pull together local books that aren’t readily available in any other single location.

Both Rexroads are life-long readers and enjoy books on just about any topic. Through the years, sharing book titles with customers has resulted in both the Rexroads and customers discovering fascinating new authors. Carl and Kelly both love the mystery genre, although Carl’s true passion is The Wizard of Oz and all related books — a passion he has nurtured since childhood. And Kelly also has a soft spot for children’s books of all types — old and new — from Dr. Seuss to Harry Potter and beyond.

A Few of Carl Rexroad’s Favorite Books

• Wizard of OZ – L. Frank Baum
• Caves of Missouri – J. Harlen Bretz
• Silent Partner – Jonathan Kellerman
• Die Trying – Lee Child
• Everything by Robert B. Parker
• Maracle Life of Edgar Mint – Brady Uhall
• Black Cherry Blues – Lee Burk
• From Getto to Glory – Bob Gibson
• The Men of Pierre St. Martin – Jacques Attout
• If I Ran the Zoo – Dr. Seuss
• The Camel Club Series – David Balldacci

A Few of Kelly Rexroad’s Favorite Books

• The Alex Cross Series – James Patterson
• Dave Robicheaux – James Lee Burke
• The Stephanie Plum Series – Janet Evanovich
• The Eve Dallas Series – J. D. Robb
• Susan’s Diary for Nicholas – James Patterson
• 19 Minutes – Jodi Picoult
• The Spenser Series – Robert B. Parker
• Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen
• The Lincoln Rhyme – Jeffery Deaver

To find more information on the Bookworm locations in Carbondale and Marion vist our website at www.TheBooksYouLove.com

SALE!!!!

End of Summer Sale!!  July 23-Aug 1

Huge sale going on right now at both Bookworm locations!!! All books buy 4 get the 5^th book FREE! I don’t know about you but I plan on picking up a few books I have wanted to read.

Hurry over to Bookworm located in the East Gate Shopping Center Carbondale or in the Illinois Centre Mall Marion.

Grand Opening

On June 5, 2010 we are going to be having our Grand Opening at the Bookworm Marion Location. The event will offer many one day only sales such as 35% discount for all Best Sellers, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stepheine Meyer will be on sale for only $9, and all Children Books will be on sale for 25% from 10:00 am to noon.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

10am – Noon: TIMMY THE TRACTOR

TIMMY THE TRACTOR STORYTIME

BOOKWORM COLORING CONTEST

Pick up your FREE crayons & coloring sheets. Win

BOOKWORM gift cards! 25% OFF All Children’s Books.

1pm – 3pm: KEN GRAY BOOKSIGNING

MEET LEGENDARY U.S. CONGRESSMAN KENNETH J.

GRAY. Gray will sign copies of his biography, Pass the Plate:

The Legend & Legacy of United States Congressman Kenneth

J. Gray written by Maxine Pyle and Marleis Trover.

2pm – 4pm: JOHN GRISWOLD BOOKSIGNING

BOOKSIGNING with JOHN GRISWOLD, author of Herrin:

The Brief History of an Infamous American City and

Democracy of Ghosts, a novel of the Herrin Massacre.

3pm – 5pm: KAY RIPPELMEYER BOOKSIGNING

BOOKSIGNING with KAY RIPPELMEYER, author of Giant

City State Park and the Civilian Conservation Corps.

6pm – 8pm: LOCAL AUTHOR BOOKFAIR

LOCAL AUTHOR BOOKFAIR. Meet authors from around

Southern Illinois who write area history books, mysteries,

poetry and more. Scheduled to appear:

6pm – 8pm: LOCAL AUTHOR BOOKFAIR

• JON MUSGRAVE

• JACOB ERIN-CIBRETO

• ANNE-MARIE LEGAN

• RONALD RAY SCHMECK

• ADAM E. STONE

• EDMOND P. DEROUSSE

• MARTIN MCMORROW