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Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Weeding Wednesday 3


Lest I create the impression that I am a heartless destroyer of books, I thought I'd feature this week, some books that I've decided NOT to weed.


Look at this! The Third Planet from Altair by Edward Packard! This is a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book. Normally, I can't keep these on the shelf. I'll have to double-check and make sure it's been cataloged correctly.


Now imagine my surprise when I ran across this old gem. It's an older book, and hasn't checked out of the library in a ridiculously long time, but I can't bear to part with it, because it was a childhood favorite! Konrad by Christine Nöstlinger. This was the first book that I ever sat down and read all in one go. I stayed up 'til four in the morning, with flashlight hidden under a blanket racing through this story. I'm not sure, if I re-read it now as an adult if it would hold up, but I was enchanted with this book when I was in fourth grade.


No one is more surprised than Mrs. Bartoletti when she receives a large mysterious package on her doorstep... it turns out to be Konrad, a made-to-order, perfectly-behaved robot boy, who emerges from his barrel once a little water has been added. Mrs. Bartoletti is a bit of an eccentric grandmother type, but she soon grows fond of him, and is horrified when she's informed that Konrad's been delivered by mistake and the company that made him wants to ship him to his "real" parents. She and the neighbor girl hatch a plan to teach Konrad how to be naughty and full of mischief - in other words, more like a normal kid and less like a perfect robot, so that she can keep him.


As a child, this premise absolutely tickled me! A wacky old grandmother teaching a perfect kid to be naughty? This turned everything I understood about the world on its head. I'll definitely have to try "handselling" this title and see if I can get it circulating again.


Finally, we have a copy of Elmer and the Dragon. I didn't read the My Father's Dragon trilogy by Ruth Stiles Gannett until I was an adult, but I love the sense of magic and adventure in them. Why hasn't this book circulated in years? Well, if you look closely, you'll see the whole spine is torn off. Ouch. I know that makes this a candidate for weeding, just based on the condition, but it's such a classic... I'm going to wait until I get some money in my budget to replace it before I let this copy go.

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