Bringing in a new generation of bibliophiles

The Delaware County Dis­trict Library offers such a vari­ety of ser­vices and mate­ri­als — DVDs, audio books, Inter­net, e-books, best­sellers, etc. — that some­times the most basic and fun­da­men­tal core ser­vice that we offer may get over­looked: help­ing peo­ple to appre­ci­ate the writ­ten word and to fos­ter a love of reading.

In devel­op­ing pro­grams for all ages, the library staff is con­tin­u­ally inte­grat­ing ways to encour­age peo­ple to read and to learn to love read­ing. Even the “funnest” pro­grams like video gam­ing or musi­cal story times incor­po­rate read­ing fundamentals.

There are sev­eral excit­ing pro­grams com­ing up in the next few weeks that can inspire your tod­dler, preschooler, tween or teen to enjoy read­ing, and you will even find a pro­gram or two to sat­isfy your own joy of read­ing and books.

For exam­ple, at 7 p.m. Wednes­day at the Delaware (Main) Library, chil­dren ages 7–11 are invited to “Crazy but True Book Group,” and at 7 p.m. Thurs­day, the Amer­i­can Girl parent-child book club will meet. At 4 p.m. Fri­day, it’s “Free Book Fri­day” for teens. And at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 6, “Paws for Read­ing,” an oppor­tu­nity for your child to read aloud to an adorable ther­apy dog, will be held — but don’t for­get to pre-register.

You will find many other book dis­cus­sion and read­ing pro­grams at the Orange, Pow­ell and Ostran­der branch libraries through­out the month of Octo­ber, too. Visit delawarelibrary.org and click on “Events” or pick up a copy of the library’s quar­terly newslet­ter, “Check It Out!” for a com­plete list of events.

What are Benandanti?

The Benan­danti (“Good Walk­ers”) were an agrar­ian vision­ary tra­di­tion in the Friuli dis­trict of North­ern Italy in the 16th and 17th cen­turies. They were men and women who believed that they ensured the pro­tec­tion of their com­mu­nity and its crops. They believed them­selves to have been marked from birth to join the ranks of the Benan­danti by being born with a caul cov­er­ing their face. They reported leav­ing their bod­ies in the shape of mice, cats, rab­bits, or but­ter­flies. When not tak­ing part in these vision­ary jour­neys, Benan­danti were also believed to have mag­i­cal pow­ers that could be used for heal­ing. The Benan­danti were active dur­ing the Roman Inqui­si­tion, which pros­e­cuted scores of peo­ple for heresy, blas­phemy, sor­cery, and witch­craft. Inquisi­tors inves­ti­gated the Benan­danti and at first claimed them heretics, but ulti­mately decided that their activ­ity was “benign magic” and not Satanic. No Benan­danti were exe­cuted, but the Inquisition’s ini­tial denun­ci­a­tion left them unpop­u­lar with the vil­lagers. They became syn­ony­mous with the witches they fought against, and the cult declined and dis­ap­peared. Check Wil­son Biogra­phies Plus for more information.

How long did Mary, Queen of Scots, reign?

Mary, Queen of Scots, was queen reg­nant of Scot­land from Dec. 14, 1542, to July 24, 1567, and queen con­sort of France from July 10, 1559 to Dec. 5, 1560. Mary was the only sur­viv­ing legit­i­mate child of King James V of Scot­land. Accord­ing to The World Book Ency­clo­pe­dia, she was six days old when her father died and she suc­ceeded to the throne. On July 24, 1567, she was forced to abdi­cate in favor of her one-year-old son. After an unsuc­cess­ful attempt to regain the throne, she sought the pro­tec­tion of her first cousin once removed, Queen Eliz­a­beth I of Eng­land. Mary had pre­vi­ously claimed Elizabeth’s throne as her own and was con­sid­ered the legit­i­mate sov­er­eign of Eng­land by many Eng­lish Catholics. Per­ceiv­ing her as a threat, Eliz­a­beth had her con­fined for 18½ years until Feb. 8, 1587 when Mary was found guilty of plot­ting to assas­si­nate Eliz­a­beth and was beheaded.

Was there a Sammy Davis Sr.?

Yes. In the book, In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Jr., Sammy Sr. was described as a suc­cess­ful dancer and vaude­ville enter­tainer along with his wife, Elvera Sanchez, dur­ing the 1920s. When the pair split up in 1929, Sammy Sr. took his four-year-old son on the road as part of a new dance act, and he spent the rest of his life in show business.

If you have a ques­tion that you would like to see answered in this col­umn, mail it to Mary Jane San­tos, Delaware County Dis­trict Library, 84 E. Win­ter St., Delaware, OH 43015, or call 740–362-3861. You can also email your ques­tions by vis­it­ing delawarelibrary.org or directly to Mary Jane at mjsantos@delawarelibrary.org. No mat­ter how you con­tact us, we’re always glad you asked!

Posted by Mary Santos on Sep 28 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.