Arianna Grassia - School Librarian

Arianna Grassia is the new librarian at Hastings middle and high school. She brings her own buoyant enthusiasms into the library.

“I love the job. I love the village. I love the people .” But what’s her favorite?

“The students! They are wildly entertaining. They’re self possessed and enthusiastic and they can hold a conversation. I really enjoy having them in the library. The space feels lonely when they’ve gone.”

Arianna is a young librarian but even so she didn’t come directly to it. She majored in English at the University of Buffalo. “Of course,” says Arianna. “My parents would have been stunned if I’d majored in anything else. They were both English majors and we always had books in the house. Everywhere. I’ve read all my life. I find it very comforting to have books around. I have shelves and shelves in my apartment.”

After she graduated, Arianna worked for MTV, which owns Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. Grassia was Executive Assistant to the producer. Her boss created Blues Clues and Umi Zoomi. Arianna Grassia liked the work in some ways, but was eager for something more directly related to English.

“On a whim, I applied to library school. It turned out to be a very interesting degree and a perfect fit.”

Grassia had important mentor librarians. She student taught at libraries in Rye and in Rye Brook. Diane Harrington – recently retired – was “incredibly supportive”. Petra Bova was unusually kind.

Dee Ratteree, the Hillside librarian in Hastings, was a fascinating model. “She is wildly eccentric, in a lovely way. She has great presence and is incredibly knowledgeable. She is a great and a wonderful guide for me.”

Arianna graduated less than a year ago. She took a job in the Dobbs Ferry Public Library, where she still works. I wondered if that didn’t put her in a loyalty bind at athletic contests since there is such a lively rivalry between Hastings on Hudson and Dobbs Ferry.

“Oh no,” said Arianna. “I will always cheer for the Hastings students. Those are my kids.”

One of her many kids is Francesco Scioscia, a ninth grader at HHS. Francesco and Arianna were conversing in the library about books. He wanted a recommendation. Arianna Grassia recommended The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

“It is well plotted, with good characters, slightly dystopian, but a very good read for young adults. The rights for the trilogy have already been sold to the movies.”

Here is a Grassia prediction: The Hunger Games will be the next Twilight.

Ariana offered to reread the first volume of the trilogy with Francesco so they could talk about it. They chatted more. Arianna was waiting for her father who was picking her up that day. “He’ll be forever,” said Arianna. “He found a bookshop in town that he loves! In it, he just forgets all about time.”

What a coincidence! Francesco Scioscia is named for his grandfather, who founded that exact same bookstore where Mr. Grassia was browsing in time warp at that very moment . riverrun.

Mr. Grassia recommended books to his daughter all her life. When she was quite young, he recommended the Great Illustrated Classics. They are abridged and there are illustrations on every page. She enjoyed them then and she recommends them to young readers now. “People don’t seem to gravitate to them nowadays, but back in the 1990s, when I was growing up, they were the cat’s pajamas!”

Growing up, Arianna liked William Steig and Shel Silverstein. She’s still a big Harry Potter fan.

Her adult favorites are American authors like Mark Twain, Henry James, Herman Melville, and William Faulkner. They people her bookshelves at home where she revisits them often.

I asked about her favorite books as a child. “Nancy Drew,” she answered unhesitatingly. “She’s the best. So clever.”

When Arianna’s mother was young, she’d read the Cherry Ames, Nurse series. Her mother told Arianna about them. Arianna remembers telling her mother, “that nurse sounds stupid compared to Nancy.”

Grassia still loves children’s book and books for young adults. She was tickled to learn that Biscuit’s author, Alyssa Capucilli, lives in town. “Biscuit is one of my favorites. I love, love Biscuit.” Grassia knows that there are many more authors and illustrators in town. She’s excited about discovering who’s here, perhaps meeting them and teaching their children.

“There are very special vibes in this place,” she said. “You get it right away from the children who come into this library.”

I asked what her plans for the future were.

“Keep reading. Discover new authors and share them with the kids.”

Ms Grassia has started a blog for students and others:

http://lloydlibrary.tumblr.com/

Hunger Games author reads chapter 1 of Mockingjay:

http://www.scholastic.com/thehungergames/

about William Steig:

http://www.kidsreads.com/authors/au-steig-william.asp

the Great Illustrated Classics @ Waldman Publishing:

http://www.greatillustratedclassics.com/SearchResults.asp

an unofficial Nancy Drew site:

http://www.nancydrewsleuth.com/

Cherry Ames Nurse Stories site:

http://www.series-books.com/cherryames/cherryames.html

Alyssa Capucili's website

http://www.alyssacapucilli.com/

Nixon Newspaper

For some reason this paper happened to be lying on top of a box of books at riverrun.

August 1974. A turning point in American history.

Ford committed political suicide by pardoning Nixon the month after he became president. But was it the right thing to do for the country? It probably was.

Two years later two very decent men faced one another in the contest for president.

Nixon's resignation speech

Sept.8 1974, Ford's pardon Nixon speech

Read Street Blog mentions resignation and promotes All the President's Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

Barbara Morrow

Morrow is a scholar of classical Greek. She had fun composing clerihews for the Hastings on Hudson Literature Club Clerihew contest around great Greeks of old. She won the contest. riverrun offered a book prize. Barbara had as much fun redeeming the book prize as earning it. She spent an afternoon considering books. Her house is already full of books so she felt some pressure to be extremely discriminating. It was even fun being discriminating!

Was there really a poet named Homer?

Some scholars say definately no, sir.

The ancient bard

Is taking it hard.

The iambs of witty Archilochus

Were bawdy, scathing, and scurrilous.

He made a name

For his power to defame.

The lyrics of lesbian Sappho

Made all the girls tingle and gasp so.

In Athen sage Solon did cry,

"Let me learn her new song and then die!"

Euripedes'lengthy career

Was more than a little bit drear.

How tragic he had to die

Before winning first prize for The Bacchae!

The beauty of young Alcibiades

Set strong men on fire with desire to please.

So imagine his dismay

When Socrates turned him away.

Bookstore

photo November 1979

Frank Scioscia moved his Dobbs Ferry Bookstore to Hastings on Hudson in 1978. He named his new store riverrun.

riverrun is an inviting store. On the day of this picture though, two of Frank's grandchildren preferred to read outside the store in the bright sunshine.

Mary, almost 6 in this photo, grew up and spent several years cataloguing books and organizing shows for riverrun. Michael, just turned 9 in the photo, is now the manager of riverrun. Like his grandfather and his father, Michael loves the store.

Back then riverrun was a hobby, not really a business, for Frank. He put considerably more money into the store than he took out. But it was worth it. riverrun was a hobby he truly loved. Everyone did.

Not a business and, after all, not a hobby either. riverrun was Frank Scioscia's calling.

Davy Crockett's Wild Sports in the West - 1837

This almanac chronicles some of Davy's wildest adventures. Crockett grapples with mighty beasts and rushes, headlong, into peril.

The pamphlet was published in Nashville Tennessee, more than 150 years ago, by "the heirs of Col. Crockett". It is dramatically illustrated by an artist who relied on rumor and imagination a bit more heavily than on strict observation.

Giant elks romp in the West for hunters willing to risk elk-revenge. The pamphlet includes humble little contributions to the field of natural science: Elks "are fond of the great forests, where luxuriant vegetation affords them an abundant supply of buds and tender twigs; or of the great plains, where the solitude is seldom interrupted, and all bounteous nature spreads an

immense field of verdure for their support." But watch out! "When at bay, and especially if slightly wounded, he fights with great eagerness, as if resolved to be avenged."

Crockett describes childhood entanglements with the fearsome alligators that lived near his home, breathtaking dangers with wild boar, panthers, and bear. He can parry attacks by fierce animals with scarcely an uptick in heart beat, but the one beast he just can't stand comes from the damned north:

"Of all the cursed Adam varments in creation, keep me clear of a yankee pedler. They swarm the whole valley of the Mississippi, with their pewter watches and horn gun flints, peppermint drops and essences. Although the greatest chaps in creation for brag and sarce, they always play possum when there is danger; and skulk out the back door and over the fence in no time."

No skulker Davy Crockett. That's for sure. The almanac describes with admiration a noble

mastiff defending ladies from mountain cats, a brave farmer turned on by his bull gone berserk, a man from Ohio who, being pursued by a black snake, through cleverness and dexterity managed to get the snake to tie itself into a knot.

The almanac also includes important regional information for foreigners - about the American rifle for instance. "It admits the ball being sent home from the very muzzle by a mere wad; and is further peculiar in there being no kind of attention to balancing the length and weight of the barrel by the size and make of the stock. Practice alone will teach you to hold it with ease to yourself. There is a great deal more coquetry displayed in the use of the American rifle; and the nicety with which an object may be struck at 50 or 100 feet by a knowing hand is undoubtedly extraordinary."

There are also survival tips gleaned from far distant and remote bits of the globe, like India. Basic almanac information, like high tides and sunsets and various other astronomical calculations for the year 1837, is also included.

The illustrations and suspenseful narratives and useful tidbits are so intriguing that, despite its limited relevance to the 21st century, I am sorely tempted to reprint this pamphlet. In case I don't ever get around to it, I leave you with this account by Col. Crockett himself for your use in case you want to cross a dangerous river unmolested by various varmints.

"Of all the rivers on this airth, the Mississippi beats all holler. Many a tough time have I had in swimming across its turbid waters. I always rubbed myself thoroughly with skunk's grease before attempting to cross. By this means I kept the alligators and wild cats at a distance as they can't bear the smell of this crittur."

biographical outline

another account of Davy Crockett

His tombstone reads: "Davy Crockett, Pioneer, Patriot, Soldier, Trapper, Explorer, State Legislator, Congressman, Martyred at The Alamo. 1786 - 1836" more from American west

Lone Star Junction

a collection of facts about the Mississippi River

Harper & Brothers Publishers

probably 1950s

This curiously-styled photograph is likely taken at the Harper offices, then on 44th Street in NYC. I think these men make up the national sales force. Frank Scioscia is seated all the way to the right. I almost remember the name of the man seated next to him. But who are the others?

Joe DeVoy - Walking on Clouds

Joe DeVoy signed copies of his novel, Walking on Clouds, at riverrun yesterday. He doesn't really think of himself as a writer yet he says, although he does like to write.

Walking on Clouds was born out of a writer's block. "I was working on another story, a love story actually, but I'd come to a place where I didn't know what was next. I couldn't figure it out. I couldn't write anymore." Just when he was most stumped and frustrated, an entirely unrelated idea came to him. "It didn't have anything to do with the one I was writing. I kept thinking about the new idea every time I tried to continue the love story. My wife encouraged me. I developed the new ideas into this book."

DeVoy's wife is important in his life. "Family is the most important thing to me," he says. DeVoy's grandson was on hand at riverrun to see his grandfather sign books.

Joe DeVoy has lived through an experience that other writers haven't. In fact, he's lived through an experience that other people haven't. He once fell six floors down an elevator shaft. His legs were broken and crushed. I wondered if that terrifying and painful episode showed up in his book.

"No," he said. "Not in anything I've written. Recovering from something like that is slow and you can't do much of anything. It gives you a lo

t of time to think."

This novel is about something that requires a lot of thinking on the protagonist's part.

He has to figure out how what to do in an ethically complex situation.

Walking on Clouds by Joe DeVoy.