North Gower library volunteers reach fund-raising goal

A community devoted to its library helps raise funds

Former library staffer Karen Craig with former Rideau MP and local historian Bill Tupper at the opening of Coral’s Corner in 2015.

December 29, 2016

The volunteers who operate the Coral’s Corner bookstore in the North Gower Branch of the Ottawa Public Library achieved their 2016 fund-raising goal, raising more than $1,500 for Friends of the Ottawa Public Library.

All book sale proceeds are reinvested in community libraries.

In previous years, the book store raised hundreds of dollars; the higher amount this year is the result of a new location in the library, and donations from the community, say volunteers.

“Up to now, the books for sale were located on a cart and then in a bookshelf in a back corner of the Library,” says Jane Wilson, Coral’s Corner bookstore manager and volunteer with the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library. Wilson is also co-chair of the Friends of the North Gower Library.

“Our new location is the renovated library is right in the front hall–everybody passes by Coral’s Corner as they come in, and they can see what we have on offer,” Wilson says.

“It helps that we have a community here that is devoted to the library, and has donated wonderful books for us to sell,” Wilson adds.

Hardcover books sell for just $2 at Coral’s Corner, paperbacks are $1, and magazines are just 10 cents.

 

You can help WRITE a book!

In this, the 170th year of North Gower’s history, the Rideau Township Historical Society is working on a history of the village, and needs community input.

If you are a current or past resident of North Gower, the Society would like to hear from you, and see any photos or memorabilia you might have.

They will be doing this throughout the rest of September.

Drop in to the Archives any Tuesday 9:30-4:30 or email Susan McKellar at susan.mckellar@rogers.com

You can pick up an information flyer at the Library or view the questions here:

While we have lots of historical documents, personal stories/memories paint a better picture. Think of the sights, sounds, smells, everything you can remember. What was the context/situation? Who was there? What year was it?

Can you tell me a story about an event in North Gower (e.g., a fire, a storm, a news-worthy event, etc.) and how it affected your life?

Do you have a memory of your school? Your church? The library? Any other building?

If you grew up in North Gower, tell me a story from your childhood, or your teenage years.

Describe a memory of spring in North Gower.

                        “           summer

                        “           fall

                        “           winter

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Do you have old pictures or documents that would enrich the book?

Renovated North Gower Branch open today

New seating area and racks for DVDs and magazines at North Gower –Photo Friends of the North Gower Library

After what felt like two very long weeks (we LOVE our Library!!) the North Gower Branch of the Ottawa Public Library reopened today.

Dozens of people had dropped by in the first hour, including Councillor Scott Moffatt, to see the new space, and new features for library patrons.

The space feels fresher and brighter said some visiting, including retired North Gower librarian Karen Craig, who couldn’t wait to see what the new space looked like.

Staffer Louise Drouin-Backs was kept busy showing how easy it is to use the new self checkout feature — everyone can still go to the service desk and ask staff to process books, though, if they wish!

Coral’s Corner used books is also back in operation, with a small supply of gently used books for sale. Once “back of the house” operations are straightened away, the renovations will be truly complete.

Staff member Louise Drouin-Backs and Councillor Scott Moffatt. “The staff here are amazing,” says Moffatt.

 

 

Renovations begin at North Gower!

Trucks and a storage pod are signs of work going on inside the North Gower Branch of the Ottawa Public Library!

The Library closed for renovations Monday July 11 and will reopen Monday July 25th.

We’ll bring you updates as we have them!

In the meantime, keep up with the TD Summer Reading Club, and register for library summer programs at the Ottawa Public Library website: https://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/program?f%5B0%5D=field_event_branch%3A1117

Funding for the renovations was provided by the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library. Proceeds from book sales at “Coral’s Corner” in North Gower are reinvested in our community.

***2016: 125 years of continuous library services to the community***

Sidewalk sale at North Gower Branch a success

Community members Karen Craig (L) and Christiane Bollinger at the Sidewalk Sale Saturday. In the basket, special custom Library Blend coffee, prepared just for us!

A rainy Saturday failed to dampen enthusiasm at the first-ever Sidewalk Sale at the North Gower Branch of the Ottawa Public Library as donated and decommissioned books from the Coral’s Corner used bookstore were cleared to make room for upcoming renovations.

Books sold included fiction, children’s story books, military history, and many fascinating books and booklets of local history.

Proceeds from the sale go to Friends of the Ottawa Public Library for reinvestment in the community libraries.

Retired librarian Karen Craig dropped in as did may other North Gower-Kars residents throughout the day. One lucky customer picked up a beautiful pressed flower kit; another spied a home health guide from the early 1900s—a collector’s item!

Renovations begin at the Branch, now in its 125th year of continuous library service to the community, in July.

Three new picture books for kids

From the Globe and Mail this week, reviews:

A Hungry Lion, or A Dwindling Assortment of Animals

By Lucy Ruth Cummins

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 40 pages, $23

This book opens on a menagerie of animals, counting out a hungry lion, a penguin, a turtle and a half-dozen other critters. As each page is turned, the smaller animals start to disappear, the lion appears increasingly menacing and the befuddled narrator has to restart the count. There are a lot of twists packed into such a brief story book, making it highly interactive; every child with whom I’ve read this book took great joy in shouting out their theories of where the animals were disappearing. Cummins’s scrappy illustrations (she colours within the line, more or less) add to both the innocence and darkness of the story, in the way that the presence of a children’s choir in a horror movie just causes everything to be that much more ominous. Kids who can’t get enough of Jon Klassen’s Hat books will eat this one right up.

The Stone Thrower

Written by Jael Ealey Richardson, illustrated by Matt James

Groundwood Books, 32 pages, $19

It’s the 1950s and Chuck Ealey is growing up in the segregated town of Portsmouth, Ohio. Poor and black, Chuck lives with his mother in the rundown North End neighbourhood. Chuck’s mother instills in him at a young age the drive to get out of the North End and pursue an education, but Chuck knows they can’t afford fancy schools. What follows is an original plan that will lead him to a football scholarship and later, the CFL. The problem with trying to distill the complexities of systemic inequality into a storybook include turning adversity into a feel-good narrative about the importance of working hard and having a good attitude, and with another author perhaps that’s what this book would be. But The Stone Thrower, based on a true story, was penned by Chuck Ealey’s daughter, whose focus lay more in preserving her father’s singular narrative, rather than moralizing.

Are We There Yet?

By Dan Santat

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 40 pages, $22

For a kid on a road trip, the line between exciting adventure and dull monotony is a thin one. This is what the boy at the centre of the latest book from Caldecott medalist Santat learns within the first two pages. The book takes a twist, literally, in an immersive gimmick that requires the pages to be rotated as its spiral into a journey through space and time, accompanied by a kid-friendly, Rod Serling-like narration. The car drives through the Wild West, medieval times, a pirate ship, ancient Egypt, onto which the parents look with wonder while the boy sits in the back seat, totally unenchanted and making comments as such (“I feel sick,” “My butt hurts”). It will take a lot more than jousting knights and cowboys to overcome the boredom of a long drive. Pack this for your kids to flip through on that summer road trip; Santat’s enchanting illustrations will hopefully engage them for a little while.

NOTE: All these books are available, or currently on order, at the Ottawa Public Library. Order now and pick up at the North Gower Branch!

Special Library Blend Coffee to be available soon!

Great news! Karin Rabuka of NoGo Coffee will be preparing some more of the special North Gower Library Blend coffee, roasted and prepared locally … and we’ll have it available, fresh, in sample bags at our Sidewalk Sale, June 11th.

We first offered this coffee at Christmas in 2015 after asking Karin to make us a unique blend of her coffee beans … and we sold out THREE TIMES, it is so good!

NoGo coffee is sold at specialty markets around the city, and at the North Gower Farmers Market — it is the ONLY coffee provided at Strathmere’s Retreat spa and cafe.

So mark that date: special book sale AND Library Blend coffee, June 11, at the Library.

Proceeds go to Friends of the Ottawa Public Library for reinvestment in our community library.

North Gower: now celebrating our 125th year of continuous library service to the community

Local authors Cumyn, Pignat release new books

Ottawa Citizen, April 30, 2016

Two of Ottawa’s most celebrated authors each have a new book out this spring that features egocentric, overbearing high school student council presidents confronted by social misfits.

The most timely is Caroline Pignat’s Shooter, an unfortunately all-too-real novel scheduled to hit bookstores by May 3. Like Alan Cumyn’s recently published Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend, Shooter is billed as a young adult novel. But both books can certainly be enjoyed by grown-ups peering voyeuristically into the world of teen angst and social mores.

Shooter largely takes place in one room – a high school boys’ bathroom – in which the super-organized student council president Isabelle finds herself trapped with four classmates she calls “antisocial loners;” a gunman is on the loose and the school is in lockdown.

One by one we get inside the heads of Isabelle and the “loners.” Pignat, a real-life teacher at All Saints Catholic High School, definitely knows how teenagers think, speak and feel. There is a ring of truth to the characters, their backstories and their reactions to horrific events.

The plot is cunningly unpredictable. There is a lot more to these “antisocial loners” than Isabelle ever dreamed. And Isabelle has some eyebrow-raising revelations of her own as the story moves to a nail-biter of an ending. Reading Shooter, it is easy to see why Pignat has already won two Governor General’s Awards for children’s books, Greener Grass and The Gospel Truth.

Cumyn, with two Ottawa Book Awards among his trophies, is perhaps best known as the author of such adult novels as Man of Bone and Burridge Unbound. But he has also written some children’s books, including The Owen Skye Trilogy.

Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend really falls in between the categories of adult and children’s books, although some of the erotic scenes involving Shiels, the gorgeous, super-organized student council president, may be a bit too steamy for some parents. Face it: Many high school students have a sex life; Cumyn is just reflecting reality.

Sheils has her life and that of her school perfectly organized until Pyke arrives. Pyke is a pterodactyl-boy, a beaked, flying dinosaur who has learned how to speak (sort of), to sit still in class and to be a rock-star chick magnet. Yes, Cumyn told The Guardian newspaper, “the premise is ridiculous.” …

Read the full story here

Alan Cumyn’s new book is in the Ottawa Public Library collection and, at the time of writing, available in several locations. Order online at biblioottawalibrary.ca and pick up at North Gower.

Earlier works by Caroline Pignat are also in the collection and available.

Ashton losing store, and lending library

April 15, 2016

People love libraries. If they don’t have one, they’ll make one, as shown in Ashton Ontario where the General Store is closing after 150 years.

The little store was a community meeting place, and also featured a little lending library,where the community could drop off books, and pick up something to read. An informal arrangement—but it worked.

It reminds us of North Gower which, as of this November, will celebrate 125 years of continuous library services. The stories have it that the library was in a general store in North Gower, too, and for a time in the living room of a resident.

The North Gower Library is a community centre too, as you can see if you drop in any Saturday, or Tuesdays when the Knitting Club and Book Clubs meet.

To read more about the General Store in Ashton, go here: http://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/news-story/6495119-ashton-is-losing-its-community-meeting-place/

Cookbooks on sale at North Gower

From donations to our little “Coral’s Corner” gently used bookstore, and from decommissioned books in the library collection, we still have a few fabulous cookbooks on sale.

On Saturday we still had for sale:

Laura Calder, Dinner Chez Moi

The Bocca Cookbook, by Jacob Kenedy (this book was $47 new)

and

The Reluctant Entertainer, by Sandy Coughlin

Also on sale, books on gardening, crafts (including origami!) and a fabulous book on how to turn yard-sale finds into great home decor!

All proceeds from books sold at Coral’s Corner go to friends of the Ottawa Public Library, and are re-invested in our communities in equipment and furnishings.