Christopher Robin Milne, son of A.A. Milne, was born on Aug. 21, 1920. On his first birthday, Christopher Robin was given a two-foot-tall, Alpha Farnell teddy bear who he named Edward. Edward the bear, along with an actual bear at the London Zoo named Winnipeg and a swan named Pooh, became the basis for A. A. Milne’s classic children’s character, Winnie the Pooh. Milne introduced Winnie the Pooh in his 1924 book of children’s verse When We Were Very Young. Winnie the Pooh was soon joined by Christopher Robin’s other beloved stuffed animals; Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, and Kanga. As a child, Christopher Robin was happy to have stories published about him and his animals, but as he grew older and was teased by classmates, he began to resent his fame. Christopher attended Cambridge and served in the Royal Corps of Engineers in World War II. In 1948, he married his first cousin, Lesley de Selincourt, and opened the Harbour Bookshop with her. Although he disliked his notoriety, Christopher Robin ultimately accepted it during his crusade to protect Ashdown forest-the inspiration for the Hundred Acre Wood-from oil exploration. He dedicated monuments to his father’s stories as a means to preserve the forest. Christopher Robin gave his original stuffed toys to the editor of the Pooh books, who in turn donated them to New York Public Library in 1987. They have been on display ever since. Christopher Robin Milne died in 1996 at the age of 75. Disney’s Christopher Robin opens August 23rd nationwide. Explore the Hundred Acre Wood and check out these titles
This year, PBS is celebrating the power of reading with an eight-part documentary series that explores America’s 100 favorite novels. This series will delve into how and why authors create their fictional worlds, what the relationship is between these worlds and the reader, and what these stories tell about us and our experiences with the world. Using the polling service, “YouGov,” PBS conducted a survey ensuring that it was demographically and statistically representative of the country. Results were narrowed down with selection criteria from a panel of 13 literary industry professionals. You can vote for your favorite book on the list at PBS.org and on Facebook and Twitter leading up to the finale on October 23, 2018. More information and the TV schedule can be found at www.pbs.org.greatamericanread
The Crown Point Library will have a display of the 100 books from the PBS list available to check out. This display can be found on the main floor near the mysteries.
Did you know that July is National Blueberry Month?! It seems like there is a month or day for anything and everything. Unlike some modern trends, having a National Blueberry Month actually makes sense if you look at the history of the blueberry in the United States. Blueberries are native to North America. Europeans were unaware of the berry until the Native Americans introduced blueberries to them. In the Native American culture, blueberries were used for a variety of purposes. The most common usage was in a bread or pudding made with cornmeal. The berries were also mixed with meat to create pemmican, a pounded mixture of meat and fat, combined with other ingredients, to serve as a source of concentrated nutrition. The berries would also be dried and eaten during the winter months as an additional food source. They were also put into cakes, puddings, and soups.
Indigenous people also used blueberries for medicinal purposes. Blueberry juice was cooked down into a syrup used for sore throats and coughs. Even the leaves of the blueberry plant were used to create a tea as a muscle relaxant for women during childbirth, for purification of the blood, treating colic in infants, inducing labor, and as a diuretic.
Native Americans also used the juice to dye cloth and baskets. It is still used this way as a natural dye. The indigenous people also used the blueberry as a sacred plant. Oral tradition holds that during a time of hunger, the Great Spirit gave his children star berries to feed them. The star berries were given to another group of people when they were hungry, the Europeans by the Native Americans. The Europeans were not prepared for the new land they were living on and had little experience with the indigenous food sources. Most people have heard about the Native Americans introducing the Europeans to corn, but they also gave them blueberries.
As time has progressed, the North American origin of blueberries has mostly been forgotten. People still gathered blueberries for pies, jams, and other purposes, but the plants were grown in the wild. Frederick Coville, a USDA botanist, began investigating the possibility of domesticating the plant as early as 1908. In 1910, he discovered that blueberry plants will only grow in acidic soil. The following year Elizabeth White, the daughter of a cranberry farmer, read of Coville’s research in blueberry cultivation and invited him to use her family’s New Jersey farm for experiments. She became his research partner, having a great interest in adding the crop to her family’s berry business. After several years of successful experiments and crops, they harvested and sold the first crop of domesticated blueberries in 1916. The popularity and interest in blueberries exploded as the market grew.
In more recent years the blueberry has become a staple in supermarkets. The USDA proclaimed July to be National Blueberry Month in 1974. Then in the 1990s, experts examined and affirmed the antioxidant properties of the blueberry. In 2003, New Jersey named the blueberry the state berry, and eight years later, blueberries were planted in the White House kitchen garden. Farmers celebrated the 100th anniversary of domesticated blueberries in 2016. There are festivals all over the United States to celebrate this little berry. Check this list to find one near you: http://www.pickyourown.org/BlueberryFestivals.php.
Sources and Further Reading:
Foods Indigenous to the Western Hemisphere. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.aihd.ku.edu/foods/blueberry.html
Grubinger, V. (1998, June). University of Vermont. Retrieved June 2, 2018, from https://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsheets/blueberrie.html
Hummer, K. E. (2013). Manna in Winter: Indigenous Americans, Huckleberries, and Blueberries. HORTSCIENCE, 48(4), 413-417. Retrieved June 2, 2018, from https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/pdfs/hummer-hortsci-48-2013.pdf.
Moerman, D. E. (2009). Native American medicinal plants: An ethnobotanical dictionary. Portland, OR: Timber Press.
Valentine, E., & Mowery, M. (2018, January 16). History of Blueberries. Retrieved June 2, 2018, from https://www.blueberrycouncil.org/about-blueberries/history-of-blueberries/
Thank you to Allison DePrey Singleton for this history tidbit!
If you have never tried listening to a book, we would like to encourage you to give it a go. Listening to a book, narrated by a skilled voice actor, can be a wonderful experience and provide a mini-vacation for tired eyes. With multiple formats available, and more titles coming out in audio than ever before, nearly everyone can find listening happiness with an audiobook.
The Crown Point Community Library has two great resources for downloadable audio – The Overdrive and RBDigital collections. Both require you to load apps on your device, which is very simple and our staff can help you with this process. Overdrive recently introduced its Libby app, which simplifies the whole searching, downloading and listening process.
Create a Lego sculpture and bring it into the Winfield Branch between June 19th and July 10th. Creations should be original creations and not from a kit.
We are still accepting applications for Summer Reading volunteers at the Crown Point Youth Services Department and the Winfield Library. Applications are due May 14th!
May is “Get Caught Reading” month. Laura Clemons, Communications Specialist “caught” the Library’s new Programming and Outreach Librarian, Peter Lewis, reading! Come meet him in person along with the library’s new director Julie Wendorf and other members of the library’s leadership team at a “Meet & Greet” event on Wednesday, May 16 from 4-6 p.m. in the Tri Kappa meeting room at the downtown Crown Point Library. This event is free, refreshments will be served.
Christopher Robin Milne, son of A.A. Milne, was born on Aug. 21, 1920. On his first birthday, Christopher Robin was given a two-foot-tall, Alpha Farnell teddy bear who he named Edward. Edward the bear, along with an actual bear at the London Zoo named Winnipeg and a swan named Pooh, became the basis for A. A. Milne’s classic children’s character, Winnie the Pooh. Milne introduced Winnie the Pooh in his 1924 book of children’s verse When We Were Very Young. Winnie the Pooh was soon joined by Christopher Robin’s other beloved stuffed animals; Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, and Kanga. As a child, Christopher Robin was happy to have stories published about him and his animals, but as he grew older and was teased by classmates, he began to resent his fame. Christopher attended Cambridge and served in the Royal Corps of Engineers in World War II. In 1948, he married his first cousin, Lesley de Selincourt, and opened the Harbour Bookshop with her. Although he disliked his notoriety, Christopher Robin ultimately accepted it during his crusade to protect Ashdown forest-the inspiration for the Hundred Acre Wood-from oil exploration. He dedicated monuments to his father’s stories as a means to preserve the forest. Christopher Robin gave his original stuffed toys to the editor of the Pooh books, who in turn donated them to New York Public Library in 1987. They have been on display ever since. Christopher Robin Milne died in 1996 at the age of 75. Disney’s Christopher Robin opens August 23rd nationwide. Explore the Hundred Acre Wood and check out these titles
