Incidents in the life of sugar addicts

One rather alarming moment in the life of sugar addicts appears below. Because you can't eat in the library, kids often end up in the front foyer having a snack when the weather is cold. Our desk is separated from the foyer by only a large pane of glass, which gave us the opportunity to catch Branden eating a lollipop while holding the giant chocolate rabbit from which Starlyn had rather cruelly bitten the ears off. That's Starlyn on the right, giving it two thumbs up.

Onward with pictures of sugar overindulgence. Below, left to right, Brianna, our homework helper from Johnson and Wales, Yisel, and Brenlee, in the middle of our Valentine cookie decorating party, which involved 3 tubs of icing. This isn't the picture in which Yisel looks alarmingly sick.

Valentine head, valentine tree

A visit from Valentinehead, possibly an escaped cartoon or comics character who leaked out from the TV? Milly N in background: not scared of valentine head exactly, but half amused and half wary.
Closely followed by the images below of our valentine tree, and an awesome closeup of the decorations.

WPK party central for valentine's day!

the VIDEO GAMES are coming!!! the video games are coming!!!!

the VIDEO GAMES are coming!!!

the VIDEO GAMES are coming!!!
the VIDEO GAMES are coming!!!
the VIDEO GAMES are coming!!!
It's almost too exciting to say much more- but soon, people of Washington Park, the video games will be on the shelf!

WPK Library is adding about 30 video games and if things go well, we will keep adding them. Once we have them, they will go out for one week, with overdue fines of 25¢ a day. Like our DVDs, you won't be able to renew them.

So... our first purchase went like this. Sir Tim of Gamestop (I call him that, but I'm guessing other people call him Tim) put together a package of games from lists different kids had made, according to our budget. We decided to only buy games rated Everyone through Teen so that pretty much everyone who wants these games can play all of them at a good comfort level.

We will not reveal the full list of games here and now, but I will say that someone named Mario appears more than once.

It's snowing!

It's snowing and we've got our holiday spirit going on-
check it out!


Silvio, our Foster Grandparent, 
with Santa!

The all silver tree!

Leilani, with Santa!                                                        

Julio, our security guard, with Santa!?!















Brenlee and her 
close personal friend, Santa!                                                                  

3D at WPK

Sometimes, after school on a not very beautiful afternoon, there's nothing much better than sharing some 3D glasses and a movie at the library.

Non-Violence

Many people will speak about non-violence. I think that very few people explain it, if you're just used to more violent thinking. The fact is: you, yourself, don't have to be part of that.
On the left: Malcolm X. He struggled personally, and went through early life as a petty thief, and through a period of deep anger when he worked to secure equal rights for black americans during the violence of the American civil rights era. As he engaged in the struggle for black rights, he became a person who worked to define those rights, and he made a deeply felt commitment to achieving change through non-violent actions.
It would be fair to say that as Malcolm X travelled widely, and spoke to more people from more cultures who had increasingly wider ideas, Malcolm became increasingly inclined towards peace. Unfortunately Malcolm's life was cut short, as was Doctor King's. Let's all take a moment to think on what the ideas of peace and non-violence mean.