The Ninja Librarians: Sword in the Stacks
Page 27
Discourses Concerning Government: This alas, was the book that got Algernon Sidney into so much trouble and put his head at such a sad distance from his neck. He strongly opposed the prevailing belief in the “Divine Right of Kings” to do as they pleased to citizens. He wrote that “God leaves to man the choice of forms in government… He who institutes, may also abrogate.” He believed governments should serve the populace, not dictate to it. “General consent…is the ground of all just governments.” Out in the eighteenth century, this book is currently being read by Thomas Jefferson and others involved in inventing the United States of America.
African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850–1920: Book by Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, written out in the twenty-first century. As you now know, out in 1913, all American women are not in the same place. Some women besides being women, are black and are struggling against racism as well as sexism. Lybrarian Davis tells me this book tells the stories of women who are finding the strength and strategies to battle both destructive stupidities at once. I’ve asked Mathilde to pass it on to me when she’s finished with it.
The Cherokee Phoenix: First printed out in 1828 Georgia in the United States, the Cherokee Phoenix is the first newspaper printed in a syllabary of the Cherokee language. For many years, its editor Elias Boudinot and Principal Chief John Ross have editorialized against the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
Against Women’s Suffrage: Some Reasons: A pamphlet by Grace Saxon Mills. The National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage passes it out at many of their events out in 1913 London. I’m afraid Dorrie, Ebba, and Mathilde are so indignant about the idea of women being denied the right to vote, they can only scoff at the reasons laid out by Mrs. Mills and haven’t really studied them. But if you do decide take a closer look at the pamphlet, it’s interesting to trace in Some Reasons a record of what people who oppose suffrage for women fear. Always worth understanding what people fear.
Fourteen Reasons for Supporting Women’s Suffrage: This is a manifesto created by the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. Millicent Fawcett leads this organization. The National Union favors peaceful debate and logical argument as their means of choice, rather than window-breaking. They fear that such direct actions will alienate potential supporters.
The Wasps: This is a play written in the fifth-century BCE Greece by Aristophanes. It’s funny! A comic gem! A total pantaloons-wetter! It’s about this son whose father is a “trialaphile.” He can’t stop volunteering for jury duty. He’s addicted to it. The plot revolves around his son trying to keep his father away from the Athenian law courts by any and all means. No really. It’s uproarious. I understand completely why Jalileh was so excited to win a ticket to see it. It’s probably playing right now somewhere in at least a dozen twenty-first-century wherens. Ask your parents to take you.
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times: Book by Pema Chodron. Pema Chodron lives and writes out in the twenty-first century and has written more than a dozen books on the challenges presented by the whole “being alive” thing. She draws many of her practices and insights from Buddhism. Her books have titles like The Wisdom of No Escape and Start Where You Are. In them, among other offerings, she shares methods for working with chaotic situations. They’ve become terrifically popular in Petrarch’s Library. Callamachus can’t keep them on the shelves.
Organisms, Inventions, and Other Uncategorized Marvels
Angelus Marshmallows: Though out in ancient Egypt, the Pharaohs are enjoying a heavenly confection made from the sap of a mallow root mixed with nuts and honey, many centuries are doing completely without anything like a marshmallow. Out in the nineteenth century, French candymakers are whipping up mallow root into difficult to make foamy sort of confection, but only the rich can afford it. But it’s out in the twentieth century that marshmallows are taking the world by storm. Inventors theren have substituted gelatin for sap. Frederick Rueckheim, the inventor of Cracker Jack, has been producing Angelus Marshmallows for six years now and they are his second most popular product.
Baklava: Heavenly dessert. The Turks and the Greeks are arguing loudly in the later centuries over which culture invented it. Setting that aside, it’s made of flaky thin layers of pastry, and chopped nuts held in glorious sticky togetherness by honey or syrup. Eat it whenever you have the opportunity. Even if it’s Fedya offering you a piece.
Gyromitra esculenta: I can’t disagree with Marcus’s comment that this mushroom looks like a purple brain. It grows in many parts of Europe and North America. Though ingesting the fungus raw can cause headaches, lethargy, vomiting, diarrhea, delirium, dizziness, coma, and death, people in many centuries continue to try to eat it, claiming cooking it thoroughly makes it safe. Let it be a feast for your eyes and not your stomach.
Mediterranean Monk Seal: Spinoza’s species. Though plentiful in ancient Athens and in many centuries following, it has fallen on hard times in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Where once their habitat extended throughout the Mediterranean, where they would give birth and socialize on a magnificent range of beaches, the shy creatures have retreated exclusively to underwater caves inaccessible to humans. Amanda used the google machine to do some research for me out in Passaic and says that only about seven hundred of Spinoza’s relatives are thought to still be alive in that century.
Acknowledgments
So many things to acknowledge.
Writing a second book is not easier than writing a first one.
It is possible to sprain one’s sitting muscle.
I was not, every time I told the children not to bother me because I was working, in fact, working.
Most importantly, I want to acknowledge that I depended heavily on friends, family, colleagues, and partners in creative crime to help me get these words into even this attempt at best order. Whatever distance the result has fallen short of the possible given the good advice, support, insights, wisdom, and talents on offer is, of course, the apprentice’s responsibility alone.
Thank you to friends, family members, and fellow writers Johanna Lindholm, Kate Bennis, Patty Culbertson, Rebecca Downey, Christina Downey, Matthew Rohdie, and Carolyn Fay who kindly used some of their precious time on earth to read the manuscript in its ancient, medieval, renaissance, revolutionary, restoration, second empire, and/or early modern forms. Each gave me invaluable feedback.
Thank you to my daughters, Lil and Georgia, who took their continuity and character consistency policing duties very seriously. Thank you to my son Finn, who didn’t read a word but whose ways in the world fuel my imagination.
Thank you to Aubrey Poole, Katherine Prosswimmer, Elizabeth Boyer, and Diane Dannenfeldt at Sourcebooks for bringing passionate, skillful attention to the editing process.
Thank you also to the Sourcebooks design team for working so hard to produce such a wonderful look for the book.
Thank you to Susan Hawk, my funny, engaged, stalwart gem of an agent, for keeping a steady hand on the tiller.
And most of all, I want to thank Stephen Brannan, who, when he came upon me quite lost in the story jungle, suspended his own quests and devoted his prodigious skills as teacher, guide, and editor to helping me find a path.
About the Author
Jen Swann Downey lives and works in Virginia where she revels in moments with her family, friends, and the occasional tree. This is her second novel for young people. She tries to walk away from Omelas.
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