Posts by Anne Barreca

The most graceful way to come to terms with the memory of tragedy and destruction is often through the act of creation. In remembrance of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, staff and volunteers at the Battery Park City Library have been folding paper cranes for the past four months for a "Peace Crane Project." The culmination is a special origami exhibition displayed in the library throughout the month of September.

Do you have a "voracious appetite" for reading? Have you ever “devoured” a book? Have you ever had the depraved desire to slather your first-edition F. Scott Fitzgerald classic with whipped cream and chocolate sauce? Do you look forward to resuming that book you put down on the subway with the same hunger that you anticipate that chocolate cake at your favorite restaurant? Does a good dessert make you feel equally comfortable as a good book, like you would want to curl up in bed with either (aside from the crumbs that a dessert might shed, of course)?
 
If you answered “yes” to these questions, then you, like me, are a 

Do you remember the first time in your life when you started to question things adults had taught you? Do you remember the first time you thought about why you were here or what your purpose was? Do you ever find yourself still grappling with questions like these? If so, you will identify with the protagonist of Rebecca Rupp’s most recent middle-grade novel, Octavia Boone’s Big Questions about Life, the Universe and Everything.