All books you need

A program to increase community literacy entered its second year Thursday with copies of a book to read, share and discuss over the next four weeks.

The One Book, One Community program began with a different book this year, "Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonnenblick, a former middle-school teacher.

The story is about the year in the life of an eighth-grader who finds out his brother has cancer. Despite its potentially melancholy subject matter, the book has an "equal balance" of humor and serious topics, said East Richland Middle School Librarian Pat Carlson, who organized the program. Carlson got her idea from the national "One Book Projects" program and learned about a middle school in Mattoon that has participated in the program for eight years.

"We debated whether to use it," Carlson said of "Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie."

The book is used throughout the United States to give children when they have a sibling who has cancer, Carlson said.

The book is a 2008 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award nominee. The award is part of a statewide reading program and was developed to encourage children and young adults to read for personal satisfaction.

"This book is a little more simple than last year's book," Carlson said, referring to Priscilla Cummings' "Red Kayak," which chosen as a Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award nominee last year in Illinois.

Carlson again approached the Carrie Winter Charitable Trust about sponsoring the program. This time, she asked for $2,393.

Last year, the board approved funding the program for $1,500. Three-hundred books were distributed.

This year's request was approved and approximately 450 books will be distributed.

Half of the books will be given to the middle school, the rest will be given to some of the same places as last year, including ERES, St. Joseph School, ERHS and Richland Memorial Hospital.

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Prominent Indian and Pakistani personalities who underwent the trauma of partition have penned their personal experiences in a new book that gives an insight into the indelible pain and loss suffered by millions 60 years ago.

Titled "Partition: Surgery without Anaesthesia", the book, a compilation of 31 individual accounts including from noted writer and columnist Khushwant Singh and artist Satish Gujral, is being released by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC).

"The book is a compilation of individual experiences of partition. It has been compiled in such a way that the reader would be able to understand the pain and suffering that millions of people went through at the time," SPARC official Irfan Raza said.

According to the book, over seven million Muslims were forced to migrate from India to Pakistan and an almost equal number crossed the border from the Pakistani side.

Lahore's population before independence was 1.2 million, including approximately 500,000 Hindus and 100,000 Sikhs. However, after the dust had finally settled following the partition, Lahore was left with just 1,000 Hindus and Sikhs.

In the erstwhile West Pakistan, Hindus and Sikhs accounted for 18.4 per cent of the population, but by the 1951 census this percentage had dipped to 1.6 per cent.

Punjab province showed the most marked decrease in the population of Hindus and Sikhs from 20.5 per cent in 1941 to 0.2 per cent in 1951.

Maybe it isn't a tell-everything book, but it comes pretty close. A dead giveaway is the part about President Jimmy Carter pinching Kay Rooney's behind during a Steelers' visit to the White House after one of their Super Bowls.

You think Art Rooney Jr. would make that up about his wife?

It's there on the pages of "Ruanaidh" -- that's Rooney in Gaelic -- which is due out later this month. Countless books have been written about the Steelers, including one just last fall by team owner Dan Rooney, but none is as candid and revealing as this one.

"The book honors my father," Rooney Jr. said. It's true -- the colorful life of Steelers founder Arthur J. Rooney Sr. is examined exhaustively, warts and all -- but there's so much more. Rooney Jr.'s prime credentials as an author are two. One, he is a fabulous storyteller with a great memory and an even better eye for detail. Two -- and this is the biggie -- he as the Steelers' personnel director and Chuck Noll as their coach were responsible for the construction of the Super Steelers dynasty of the 1970s. The result is a fascinating read that opens the door to the inner workings of the franchise.

Both the positive and not-so-positive inner workings, it should be noted.

In Dan Rooney's book, you won't find anything about how he fired Rooney Jr. -- his younger brother by three-plus years -- late in the 1986 season. You'll read plenty about it in "Ruanaidh."

"It was devastating for me and my family," Rooney Jr. said the other day in his South Hills office, where he said he was "exiled" to oversee the Rooney family's real estate interests.

"It was the end of a way of life for us. All of my friends were in football. Suddenly, I was out."

Volleyball | Night Vision Rooney Jr. was so bitter after the firing that he never returned to the team's offices at Three Rivers Stadium. It made for some tense family gatherings, although Rooney Jr. and his brother managed to remain cordial in the interest of family business.

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Thursday begins the Year of the Rat in the Chinese zodiac calendar. And just in time comes this second book in Grace Lin's "Year Of" series.

According to Chinese legend, all of the animals were racing to the heavens for the emperor's birthday party. The first 12 to arrive would each have a year named for them, with the winner receiving the first year. It was a very tough race through rough waters. The rat rode on the water buffalo, the strongest swimmer, jumping off to finish first. So the rat is the first of the 12 signs in the Chinese zodiac.

The Year of the Rat signals change and new beginnings. For Pacy Lin, the book's main character, those changes don't sound good until she starts thinking of them as new beginnings.

Besides Pacy's sisters, the only other Taiwanese-American at her school in northern New York is Melody, her best friend. When Melody moves to California, a Chinese boy named Dun-Wei moves into her old house. He gets teased at school for being different, causing Pacy to worry that, because she is also Asian, people will start to think she is weird, too.

As she confronts changes in her life, Pacy must learn to be strong and brave like a tiger, the zodiac symbol of her birth year.

Tucked into the big story are short accounts about the lives of Pacy's parents before they came to the United States. Dozens of simple drawings (by the author) also help keep the book moving along.