PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 27, No. 11, Dec. 6, 2007

brief notes

Children's gifts

Free guide provides reviews for gift books

Experts in children’s literature at the UI are ready to jump-start your holiday shopping with a comprehensive list of warm and fuzzy, cool and hip books for any kid on your list. The 2007 edition of Guide Book to Gift Books offers shoppers hundreds of recent titles. The guide is organized by age and includes brief annotated remarks about every book.

Now available online, downloadable and free, the guide is an annual project of the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, part of UI’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science.

The editors receive some 5,000 new trade books for young people every year; they publish reviews for about 900 of them in 11 issues of their Bulletin a year. For the annual guide, the old and out-of-print books are purged and more than 100 new titles are added, bringing the total number of titles to about 300.

“This isn’t just a skimming off of the best books,” said Deborah Stevenson, the editor of the guide.

“It’s a list specifically designed with gift-giving in mind – with the notion that people like to give different kinds of books, just as young people like to read different kinds of books.”

Stevenson has her own favorites. “I’m really smitten with Emily Gravett’s ‘Orange, Pear, Apple, Bear,’ ” she said. “It’s absolutely ingenious, but not remotely complicated. It’s basically a triumph of cozy, kid-appealing minimalism.”

Come to think of it, it’s been a great year for animal-related nonfiction, she said.

“Two that I continue to enjoy are Jane Harrington’s ‘Extreme Pets!’ which is a breezy, browsable outing totally on the side of the kid who wants to bring home a snake/sugar glider/tarantula, and Ann Hodgman’s ‘The House of a Million Pets,’ which I think of as the contemporary answer to Gerald Durrell’s ‘My Family and Other Animals,’ except that Hodgman is a grownup making up for lost childhood time on the pets. Her book is affectionate, wise and extremely funny.”

Chancellor’s Distinguished Staff Awards

Nominations accepted until Jan. 21

Nominations are being accepted for the Chancellor’s Distinguished Staff Award. The program is designed to recognize outstanding contributions by UI staff members.

As many as eight support staff members will be honored this year with a plaque of appreciation, a $2,000 award and a recognition dinner in May. A permanent plaque in the Staff Human Resources Office honors recipients.

Any member of the campus community may nominate a staff member. The nomination information packet, which includes the nomination form, may be obtained at the reception desk at the Staff Human Resources Office. The packet also may be downloaded from www.pso.uiuc.edu/cdsa. Contact Jancy Hoult, 333-3101 or jhoult@uiuc.edu, for more information. Nominations are due by 5 p.m. Jan. 21.

I space

Exhibitions explore poster art, colors

Two colorful exhibitions at the UI’s I space gallery, on view Dec. 7 through Jan. 12, will illuminate Chicago’s River North arts district this holiday season.

• “Jay Ryan: animals and objects in and out of water” focuses attention on the poster art of the Chicago-based UI alumnus. Ryan, who founded his print studio, The Bird Machine, in 1999, is known in the Chicago area and beyond for his posters – typically teaming with whimsical, sometimes manic, creatures – promoting bands described by Chicago artist and author Audrey Niffenegger as “both obscure and well-known on the indie club circuit.”

“The posters function as advertisements for bands’ gigs, but they also unify a social scene and create an identity for a certain sound, place, time,” she said.

• “Bright,” curated by Lela Hersh, features the work of Chicago-based artists Jo Hormuth, Cheonae Kim, John Phillips and Eric Tucker, and German artist Markus Linnenbrink, all of whom use color as a primary visual element.

An artists’ reception, free and open to the public, is scheduled from 5-7 p.m. Dec. 14 at the gallery, 230 W. Superior St., Chicago. I space gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

UI Web site

Proposed Web redesign revealed

Faculty and staff members may attend one of three meetings on the redesign of the university’s Web site. Val Turner and Joel Steinfeldt of Creative Services at Public Affairs will share the new design for the home page approved by the chancellor and provost, give a project progress report and provide data regarding user behavior. They will present a summary of the methodology, research and analysis driving the design, answer questions and solicit feedback.

Meetings will be Dec. 17, from noon-1 p.m. in Room 213 of Gregory Hall; Dec. 18, from noon-1 p.m. in Room 2240 of the Digital Computer Laboratory; and Dec. 19, from 3:30-4:30 p.m. in the Heritage Room of the ACES Library, Information and Alumni Center.

More information is online at www.uiuc.edu/webteam/.

Veterinary Teaching Hospital

Dentistry service now open on weekends

The dentistry service at the UI Veterinary Teaching Hospital now offers appointments on two Saturdays a month, from 8 to 11:30 a.m. Dogs or cats will be given a complete oral examination to evaluate their dental health. The cost of the exam is $25, which can be applied toward a dental cleaning completed within 90 days of the initial exam.

To schedule an appointment, call dentistry clinical coordinator Misty Finn, 333-5859, or the Small Animal Clinic client services desk, 265-5163.

Illini Hockey Club/Campus Rec

Win free airfare at hockey games

Campus Recreation and the Illini Hockey Club are giving hockey fans a chance to win free airfare by entering the American Airlines ticket giveaway raffle. One fan will receive round trip airfare to anywhere in the continental United States on American Airlines.

Raffle tickets are $1 with all proceeds going to the Illini Hockey Club to help cover travel expenses of the student-run organization.

The raffle continues through Dec 7 and 8 as Illinois State University comes to the UI Ice Arena. The winner will be selected during the second intermission of the Dec. 8 game.

‘Midnight at the Oasis’

Ring in the New Year at Allerton

Celebrate the New Year in the century-old Allerton Mansion, with picturesque winter views from a cozy, festive, holiday atmosphere. This year’s celebration will feature a Moroccan-themed epicurean meal with unlimited champagne and specialty cocktails, party favors and more.

Belly dancers also will perform throughout the night. Dinner will be served in the traditional Middle Eastern family style at 8 p.m. Spend the night at the charming Allerton Retreat Center and wake up to a gourmet breakfast. Space is limited. To view menus and make reservations, visit www.allerton.uiuc.edu or call 333-3287.

Champaign County Camera Club

Campus category added to competition

The Champaign County Camera Club has added the UI’s Urbana campus as a new category in its annual “Best in Show” photographic print competition. The requirements for this category are any image that has been taken of activities or persons on the Urbana campus since Jan. 1, 2007. In this category, both photo-realistic images and highly manipulated images may be entered, provided that they convey an idea relevant to the Urbana campus. The entry deadline is Feb. 9. For the entry form and for more information, visit www.champaigncountycameraclub.org.

‘See Your Soldier’

Sign up for video visit with your soldier

Dozens of Illinois families will have the chance to visit face-to-face with their soldiers in Iraq on Jan. 8 and 9 through UI Extension’s videoconferencing system. 

Soldiers at Camp Al Asad (Air Force) and Camp Taji/Cooke (Army) will be able to see and talk with family members in private 30-minute “See Your Soldier” sessions. Most of the sessions will be hosted by UI Extension offices in 15 communities. There is no charge to participate.

Families must register online at www.seeyoursoldier.uiuc.edu no later than 5 p.m. Dec. 17 to be eligible for a time slot; reservations will be made on a first-come, first-served basis. Locations for the videoconferences also are available online. When registering, indicate the preferred location for the video visit.

The live audio/video linkages are being offered in collaboration with the Freedom Calls Foundation, which provides the videoconferencing equipment and satellite connection in Iraq. When a family has registered, the military will alert the service member about the opportunity to visit with friends and family, and the time and date of the Internet transmission. If the soldier’s duty schedule can accommodate the visit, family members will be assigned a time for their 30-minute session.

The program is limited to military personnel at Camps Al Asad and Taji/Cooke.

Back to Index