Freeport Library is Goin’ to the Dogs!

A column in the Freeport Journal-Standard touts the upcoming Freeport Family Book Fest.

Born to bark. Born to run. Born to be read to? Absolutely. This week’s column is going to the dogs – literally a special group of tail-wagging canines who, along with a dozen award-winning authors, all from Illinois, will participate this year in the third Family Book Fest May 2 at the Freeport Public Library.

Hanni and I are tickled to be appearing at the Family Book Fest with such other great childrens book writers from Illinois: Leone Castell Anderson, Cheryl Bardoe, Marlene Targ Brill, Laura Crawford, Ophelia Julien, Donna Latham, Tim Magner, Janet Nolan, Kimberly L. Sullivan, Darwin McBeth Walton and Sheila Welch. That last author – Sheila Welch –also helped put this year’s Family Book Fest together in the first place. I was flattered when Sheila contacted me last year to ask us to be part of the fest, but when I found out how far away Freeport is from Chicago, I thought I’d have to decline. Freeport is hours away, past Rockford, and too small a town to have a train or bus station.

Sheila to the rescue! The two of us put our heads together and figured that if Hanni and I take a commuter train as far west as it goes, Sheila and her husband Eric could pick us up and drive us the rest of the way. Fellow author Janet Nolan, who lives in Oak Park, generously offered to drive us back home after the fest. Transportation taken care of, Sheila put Hanni and me on the Family Book Fest program. Not only that, but she worked with the other fest coordinators to develop a “dog theme” for the day.

Representatives from the Paws for Reading program (part of a local chapter of Therapy Dogs International) will be there, and it’s rumored that Clifford the Big Red Dog will be among costumed storybook characters roaming the library. The other authors there (if you read their bio’s, you’ll see that many are professed dog lovers!) will be giving private 10 to 15 minute presentations throughout the day — attendees can hear their full stories and have time to ask questions.

And Hanni and me? We’re the main presenters! From the column:

This year, one wonderful pooch in particular, a golden lab/retriever and Seeing Eye dog named Hanni will appear along with her owner and author, Beth Finke, to tell their story. Beth is the main speaker at the Book Fest and will talk about how she, as a blind person, and Hanni developed the companionship and teamwork necessary to work together and meet her needs.

Beth lost her vision when she was in her 20s, following complications that occurred from juvenile diabetes.

She will read in Braille from her award-winning picture book “Hanni and Beth: Safe and Sound” about how a Seeing Eye dog does an important job.

This book won a Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 2008 and is available in print as well as in Braille for children who are blind. The book also contains four pages of information describing the Seeing Eye school where these special animals are trained. She autographs the books both in Braille and in print and Hanni’s paw print is rubber-stamped onto each individual copy.

Beth lives, works and travels around Chicago with help from Hanni. She also is the author of an adult book, her memoir, “Long Time, No See” and has published articles in Woman’s Day, the Chicago Tribune, Dog Fancy and Dogs for Kids.

The Family Book Fest runs from 10 am to 4 pm this Saturday, may 2 at the Freeport Public Library, 100 E Douglas St in Freeport, IL. For more information, call the library at 815.233.3000 or link to the Freeport Public Library web site.

Flo on the Pot

That's Flo calling from the bath-phone. Get it, Robin?

 

Flo – that’s my mom — turned 93 on Monday. My four sisters and I celebrated by taking Flo to Geneva for a two-night stay in a beautiful restored old inn. This was in Geneva, Illinois, but if you talk to Flo about it all, you might think we brought her to Switzerland.

Trying out her poster bed, enjoying her first ever massage, looking over the balcony at the series of brides being photographed in the courtyard below…Flo was enthralled. We did a bit of walking around town, but most of our time together was spent in our two adjoining suites, talking, laughing and drinking wine.

My sister Bev had brought her laptop along, and conversation often turned to topics like Facebook or Twitter. At one point Bev skyped her son Brian, who teaches English in South Korea. Flo could hardly believe her eyes – she was watching her grandson on the computer screen from all these thousands of miles away. “I just can’t keep up!” she’d explain. “I’m not in this world!”

That phrase became the theme for the weekend, and after Flo’s first trip to her hotel bathroom she was convinced she really was in another world. It wasn’t the bidet that threw her off — it was the phone. “It’s right by the toilet!” she giggled. She’d never seen – or imagined – such a thing, and she could hardly get over it.

With our encouragement, she went back in the bathroom, picked up the phone and gave my husband Mike a call. She practiced her lines out loud as the phone rang. When Mike answered, she was ready.

“Mike?” she asked, somehow managing to stifle a laugh. “You know were I am?”

“Well, you’re probably all sitting at a round table, each with a glass of wine, right?” It was a pretty good guess. Flo was delighted to tell him he was wrong.

Sisters, sisters.... From the top (of the stairs) that's Bobbie, Bev, Cheryl, Marilee, me, and mom Flo.

“No,” she said, taking another big breath to avoid laughing. “I’m sitting on the pot!”

Mike was stunned to silence. Flo repeated. “I’m on the pot!” she said, finally bursting into giddy schoolgirl laughter.

As the weekend drew to a close, we asked Flo what it was like, living into her nineties. She said she doesn’t really think about her age much. “One thing, though,” she said. “Every year, something new happens. And it’s always something I would have never, ever thought of myself.”

Flo, having her cake and eating it, too, at 93.

University of Illinois Lucks Out: Sandra Says Yes

Sandra Merullo, future Illini.

You might remember my guest blogger Sandra Murillo – she wrote a post here back in November about voting in her first presidential election.

Sandra lost her sight when she was three and has always attended regular public schools. I met Sandra when she was still in high school – I interviewed her for a Chicago Tribune story exploring how kids who are blind are educated in the public school system. Sandra is a very impressive young woman – she’s bilingual, a great writer, sweet, smart, and funny, too. The thing that impressed me most about Sandra when I first met her, though? Her math skills! From my Tribune article:

In geometry, however, learning can be far more complicated. Using raised line drawings to read graphics, push pens and rubber bands to form angles, and special paper and pens to create diagrams, Sandra is managing a 96% in geometry so far. “My textbook is 63 volumes!” she exclaimed, opening one page of her Braille textbook to demonstrate how big the raised-line drawings can be.

Sandra and I have kept in touch ever since that article came out. We talk a lot about writing – she’s known for years that she wants to be a journalist, and through the magic of talking computers I’ve been able to read quite a few of the many articles and stories she’s had published.

When Sandra wrote that blog post for me in November she was a sophomore at South Suburban College, hoping to transfer to the journalism school at the University of Illinois in Fall. She responds to my blog posts fairly often, and those of you who follow the comments here know that Sandra was nervous about whether or not she’d be accepted. The University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign is my alma mater, and I’ve been confident she’d get in – just didn’t know whether she’d say yes when the time came. I mean, c’mon, the girl is so talented, I worried she’d get other offers!

The time came last week. Sandra got her acceptance notice from the University of Illinois. I was the first person she emailed. She said yes. She’ll be starting at U of I in the Fall.

When I wrote her back I asked if she’d be willing to email me a photo of her so I could use it in a blog post announcing the good news. She said, “sure!” and attached a couple of photos. “They were both taken at a wedding in which I was a bride’s maid, and I look sooo pretty (that’s what I hear from my family.)” She ended that last sentence with one of her favorite words: *smile* I did.

Obama’s Book Club

An NPR story called Obama: A New Force in Publishing describes how our president is helping authors sell books.

When he’s seen reading a book on a plane or carrying one in his hand during his travels, it can create a stir. When Obama was photographed holding Fred Kaplan’s Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer, the book’s sales bumped immediately, and requests for media interviews with the author surged.

Now, that’s the sort of surge I’d love to experience! So here’s my plan: I’m going to send a copy of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound to the schools the Obama kids go to. Both Obama daughters attend Sidwell Friends School, but Sidwell’s lower school is in Bethesda, Maryland — that’s where Sasha attends second grade. Malia is in fifth grade, and that’s part of the middle school, located on the same campus as the high school in Northwest Washington.

I’ll send a letter along with each book, explaining the visits Hanni and I make to schools. I’ll tell them about our dear friends in Alexandria, Virginia. “We visit Pick and Hank a lot,” I’ll write.” Next time we’re in town, Hanni and I would love to come visit your students.” I suppose the Sidwell Friends School gets barraged with offers like this, but am hoping my letter might stand out:

• I live in Chicago, and that’s where the Obama girls are from.
• it’s rumored Melee and Sasha will be getting their new dog as an Easter present tomorrow, so dogs will be all the rage at the school.
• Because I can’t see, I won’t know which of the kids in the school are the Obamas. This means I won’t gawk.

I came up with this great idea (to send a book to Sidwell) months ago, when the Obamas first announced that the girls would be attending that school. But as Thomas Edison liked to say, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” So far I haven’t worked up one bead of sweat composing the letter, much less addressing the envelopes or asking Hanni to guide me to the post office to slide the packets into the mail. Now that I’ve put this idea out to the public in this blog post, though, I have to do it, right?

My fantasy, of course, is that Sidwell asks Hanni & me to come. Malia and Sasha love our presentation so much that they take Safe & Sound home from the school library. Their dad greets them on the White House lawn when they return from school, and they hand the book over to him before receiving their hugs. Snap! Snap! Snap! The cameras start clicking, and next thing you know President Obama is pictured hugging his girls with one arm, the other arm hugging a copy of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound. This could be bigger than…well…bigger than Oprah.

From the NPR story:

Perhaps, Seroy (Jeff Seroy, a publicist for the publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux} likes to say — only half in jest — Obama will have the kind of influence on book sales that his supporter Oprah Winfrey has had.

“I think there’s room for two Oprahs, and I think if there is a new Oprah, Oprah will be happy that Obama is the new Oprah,”

I’m in first place…

…at least for a couple days. Go Spartans!

And Now, for Sports

That's Billy (and me). Let's hope we're still friends after Monday night.

Four years ago I won an award for a White Sox story I did for Chicago Public Radio. Ever since, I’ve been telling people that I am the only blind woman in America to win an award for sports broadcasting. I don’t know if that’s true, exactly, but so far no one has told me differently. It is in that spirit that I am sharing news of three momentous events from this week in sports that could change our lives.

1. I picked Michigan State in the NCAA pool at our local tavern, and for the first time ever, in my entire March madness life, I am still alive going into the final four. Not only that, but I have a chance, although remote, of winning the jackpot. My stiffest competition comes from beloved bartender Billy Balducci. He has North Carolina beating UConn in the final, I have Michigan State beating UNC in the final. In order to get to that final, though, Michigan State has to beat UConn tonight. Mike, Hanni and I will be watching the game from Hackney’s – Billy is bartending, which means he’ll be waiting on us hand and foot as we enjoy a Michigan State victory. Go Spartans!

2. Yesterday NFL quarterback Jay Cutler was traded to the Chicago Bears by the Denver Broncos. Normally I don’t follow football, but this trade is noteworthy to me because Cutler was diagnosed with Type I diabetes a year ago. I have Type I diabetes, too – that’s the disease that caused my blindness. Yahoo Sports had a sportswriter whose own son was diagnosed with Type I a few years ago write a piece about Cutler. The description of Type I in the article is one of the best I’ve ever read. The writer points out that two very different conditions are referred to as “diabetes” – Type I, formerly known as juvenile diabetes, and Type II.

Type II diabetes, often brought on by obesity or poor nutrition, involves a breakdown in the body’s ability to process the insulin it makes. For that reason, improved diet and exercise can often improve the condition and lead to the reduction or elimination of the need for insulin injections. Type I is an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks itself and destroys its insulin-making cells. There is no behavior that “causes” it; doctors believe it is a genetic condition often triggered by an environmental stress, such as a virus. It is more typically diagnosed in childhood but in recent years it has become increasingly common for people Cutler’s age or older to become symptomatic. Those who suffer from Type I are completely insulin dependent, and there is nothing that can be done to change that fact.

The writer explains how Type I diabetics balance food, exercise and insulin to walk a tightrope between high and low blood sugars, and how we use blood glucose monitors to check our blood sugar levels regularly (mine has audio output that calls my results out loud).

Yet control not only requires hyper-vigilance, but it also correlates to a risk in the regular occurrence of hypoglycemic episodes, or “lows” – the scariest day-to-day element of diabetes management.

To control blood sugars, most people use one of those finger-stick kits like the one Cutler carries to check their blood-glucose reading on a frequent basis, certainly before meals and often as much as 15 times a day. When that number is higher than the intended target range, additional insulin can be given through shots or via a battery-powered pump that is threaded into the body (the plastic insertion devices typically must be removed, reloaded and relocated every two or three days). When the number is low, fast-acting carbohydrates – usually juice or glucose tablets – must be ingested. It is also important that a person accurately computes the amount of carbohydrates he/she consumes, ideally by reading labels and measuring or weighing portions. Insulin is then dispensed according to a preset ratio (which also needs to be tweaked based on frequent testing).

Sounds pretty complicated. That’s because managing Type I diabetes is complicated. but the writer goes on to say that Cutler isn’t the only pro athlete who has Type I, and that plenty of people with Type I diabetes manage to live happy, fulfilling and healthy lives.

For now Cutler – like Charlotte Bobcats forward Adam Morrison, Seattle Mariners pitcher Brandon Morrow, golfers Scott Verplank, Michelle McGann and Kelli Kuehne, swimmer Gary Hall Jr. and other pro athletes with Type I – can help the cause simply by conspicuously continuing to perform at a high level, despite the daily challenges he faces. And if seeing him suck down a juice on the sideline or prick his finger during a timeout helps some observers gain a better understanding of the rigors of Type I management, that’s not a bad thing.

Amen.

3. Thanks to Hanni, Mike and I managed to get tickets to Monday’s White Sox home opener – the game is sold out, but since she needs room to lie down we qualified for seats in the handicapped section. Rumors are flying, pardon the pun, about Barack Obama throwing out the first pitch. Our president is a big White Sox fan, you know, and he does have experience — Obama threw out the first pitch during the 2005 playoffs, and the 2005 World Champion White Sox won 8 straight games afterwards. I can’t imagine President Obama returning from the G20 Summit overseas in time for Monday’s 1 pm start, and once he sees the weather forecast I doubt he’ll make the White Sox game a priority –it’s supposed to snow.

OMG, it’s 4:37 already. Time to head to Hackney’s. Go, go Spartans!

The Technical Consultant is on the Air

A comment left on one of my Wait Until Dark posts suggested that my experience at Court Theatre might make for a good radio essay.

Beth, I like your description of how you feel after doing this work, an emotional “hangover.” This seems like the kind of thoughtful topic you would talk about on Chicago Public Radio, especially with the connection to the local theater scene! Is it in the works?

I ran that idea by the folks at Chicago Public Radio, and they agreed to send Joe DeCeault, one of my favorite producers, along with me on one of my visits to a rehersal. Joe was with me there for hours, recording me talking with the director and the actors, then following me around with a microphone while I toured the set.

In the end, though, none of that sound made it on the finished piece. My guess is that Joe ended up with so much sound and background material that it just got too complicated. So he kept it simple – just my voice, telling the story of my fifteen seconds of fame. I was disappointed –I really liked the voices of all the people involved with Wait Until Dark and thought the variety would make for a more interesting piece on the radio.

After giving it a bit more thought, though, I realized Joe’s task as a radio producer is much like mine as a journalist — for some stories you can do hours and hours, days, even weeks of reporting and then have to narrow it down to a 500-word story. A lot ends up on the cutting-room floor.

I’m heading down to Court Theatre with a few friends tonight. I know it’s crazy, I’ve seen the play twice already, but I just want to go again. Plus, the friends coming with me are really fun!

It’ll be interesting to find out if any of the folks at Court heard the piece — it aired this morning on Chicago Public Radio’s 848 show. If you missed it, you can take a listen online to see (okay, hear) what you think. Although it wasn’t exactly what I expected, I hope the radio piece does produce the result I hoped it would. That is, I hope it encourages more people to go out to see Wait Until Dark. They better act fast, though — the show closes this Sunday.

Martha Speaks, Hanni Listens

That's Hanni and me at Daniel Street School in Lindenhurst, NY.

Is it March 31 already!? Seems like an April Fool’s joke! This sure has been a busy – and rewarding — month for Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound. In one month, Hanni and I visited five elementary schools, two libraries, one health education center, one teacher education center, and appeared at one author-illustrator night. We traveled by planes, trains and automobiles to New York, Michigan and various Illinois locations. Somehow, we always managed to make it home, you guessed it: safe & sound! While Hanni and I were traveling around talking to folks aboutSafe & Sound, experts behind the scenes were giving our book some attention, too. This month Hanni and Beth: Safe & sound was included on a new American Library Association list of about 25 or so “outstanding books that portray emotional, mental, or physical disability experiences.” It’s a thrill to have our book listed with all those other sensational titles. But the thrill doesn’t end there: in this same month of March, my publisher at Blue Marlin Publications got a message from the kids TV show Martha Speaks at WGBH in Boston. If you’ve never seen Martha Speaks on TV, you can link here to watch videos to see what Martha’s show is like. From the Martha Speaks web site:

Martha Speaks is an animated series on PBS KIDS. Aimed at viewers between the ages of four and seven, Martha’s educational goal is to teach kids new words. Based on the children’s book series by Susan Meddaugh and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the series stars Martha, a beloved family dog. She is accidentally fed alphabet soup — this gives her the power of speech and the chance to speak her mind to anyone that will listen.

The educational outreach program folks from Martha Speaks contacted my publisher to order copies of our book for a new program they’re testing out in Boston and New York City. Our book will be given to students in city schools, and if the pilot program works, a national rollout will feature Safe & Sound online activity guides and other online materials in conjunction with a Martha Speaks recommended book list. So if all goes well, more libraries and other organizations across the country will hear about Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound — as they say in TVland…stay tuned!