The 2022 Braille Book Project WISCONSIN BRAILLE 8,wis,brl0 Volume 23, Issue 2 Fall 2022 September, 2022 Dear teachers and parents of the visually impaired and school librarians, Now in our 23rd year as an organization dedicated to promoting braille literacy for blind children, Wisconsin Braille Inc. is very pleased to offer another new selection of free braille books, financially supported by the Glen Stacey Fund. Once again, this year’s collection was well researched and includes recommended children’s books not already available in braille after checking the Louis database at the National Library Service (www.loc.gov/nls). The book selection committee is very excited to offer this particular collection of 12 books. Through both prose and poetry, it offers books that are fanciful and fun to read. Are you interested in print/braille books with delightful content which also teach early concepts and promote positive self-concept…or in an early chapter book that recounts the story of a young cane traveler? If so, you will find books in this collection to match your interests. While this project is supported by Glen Stacey funds, none of these funds are used by Wisconsin Braille for its day-to-day operations. We rely on our membership dues to support our other activities, including a newsletter and a website. If you appreciate receiving these free books, we would urge you to become a member of Wisconsin Braille Inc. Annual dues are only $10 for a regular membership or $30 for a sustaining membership. A membership form is attached; it can also be found on our website: www.wisbrl.org. Wisconsin Braille does not sell its membership list to any other organization. For your convenience, it is now possible to pay dues or make a donation using PayPal, now loaded on our website. You do NOT need to be a member of Wisconsin Braille to order books from us. BUT one decided advantage of becoming a member of Wisconsin Braille Inc. is that you may order additional free books from our composite listings. A composite listing of UEB books has been posted and updated this fall to our website (www.wisbrl.org) in addition to a listing of books previously produced in EBAE. 2022 Book Offerings All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything by Annette Bay Pimentel This is the true story of lifelong activist Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins and her participation in the Capitol Crawl. This autobiographical picture book is beautifully illustrated and includes a foreword from Jennifer along with material in the back of the book detailing her life and the history of the disability rights movement. This book won the 2021 Schneider Family Book Award Young Children’s Honor Book (American Library Association) Ages 4 and up. Print/braille. The Bear and the Piano by David Litchfield One day, a bear cub found something strange and wonderful in the forest…he touched it and discovered that it made sounds! The bear learned to make magical melodies. Visitors to the forest told him that it was a piano, and invited him to play in the big city where he became a star. But he missed his forest friends…what should he do now? Gr. 2-4. Print/braille. By the Light of the Moon by Fran Preston-Gannon A little frog is singing to himself in the swamp one night. His song doesn’t seem complete, so he invites other animals to join in. Nothing sounds right until the littlest voice joins the song—that of a tiny firefly. Gr. 2-4. Print/braille. Daddy Hugs by Nancy Tafuri Little ones love Daddy hugs: furry bear hugs, whiskered fox hugs, downy woodpecker hugs. Just-Daddy-and-me hugs. The author takes her readers on an imaginative woodland journey in this story about the special love that is shared by daddies and their little ones. K-2. Print/braille. Hi! Fly Guy by Ted Arnold This book is super silly. It follows a boy as he befriends a fly and goes on to win a prize at a pet contest after proving that the fly is in fact a pet. This book is also a perfect book for children making the transition from picture book to chapter book. It introduces the concept “chapters” in a non-threatening way by keeping them very short and very silly. Boys will particularly love this book and yet it is perfect for all young readers. Grades K-3. Print/braille. Listen by Gabi Snyder, illustrated by Stephanie Graegin Isn’t the world a noisy place? “But what if you stop, close your eyes, and LISTEN? Can you hear each sound? Can you hear the quiet?” This beautifully illustrated picture book follows a girl through her school day as she listens to sounds across the city: caws of crows, shouts across the playground, and finally, the quiet beating of her heart and whispered goodnights. Ages 4-8. Print/braille. Mercy Watson to the Rescue by Kate DiCamillo Mercy is not just a pig — she's a porcine wonder. She lives with Mr. and Mrs. Watson. One evening, while in bed with the Watsons, disaster looms. Mercy escapes and when she does, she "alerts the fire department." This whimsical and very funny tale is a perfect first chapter book for young readers. Grades 1-4. Braille only. Nana Loves You More by Jimmy Fallon (a New York Times Bestselling Author) The author pays tribute to the special love and affection between children and their grandmothers whether they are called Nana, Granny, Grandma, or Abuela. K-2. Print/braille. Off to the Park author and illustrator Stephen Cheetham Come to the park! The park experience is so familiar to most children! This book has tactile features, play elements, high-contrast pictures and a rhythmic rhyming text. Baby-5 years. Print/braille. Tomatoes for Neela by Padma Lakshmi     Neela loves to cook with Amma, her mother. Cooking also helps her feel closer to Paati who lives in India. In this warm story, Neela and Amma go to the market to buy tomatoes to make Paati’s sauce. While they prepare the sauce together, Neela learns more about the tomatoes they chose. They even save a jar for Paati when she comes to visit! PreK-2. Print/braille. Two Canes on the Tundra by Mary Tellefson, illustrated by Destine Poulsen The setting for this book is an Alaskan Yupik village. An eleven-year-old boy, Apu, is blind and has to rely on his older cousin to guide him around the village. A special teacher flies in to teach Apu how to use a white cane. He is resistant, but his grandfather, in a very touching ceremony, helps him to understand that his cane is a tool for independence, similar to the importance of tools to his ancestors. There is a glossary of Yupik words in the back of the book. Ages 8 and up. Braille only. Why Not You? by Ciara and Russell Wilson Sometimes it’s hard to imagine our big dreams coming true. But what if someone saw all the amazing and spectacular abilities of us instead—and asked “Why not you?” In this book, the authors, who are themselves the parents of three, encourage young readers to see themselves capable of achieving their dreams no matter what they are. K-3. Print/braille. _____________ Please remember to submit your order by December 31, 2022 at the latest, using the accompanying order form; return it to Sandy Adams, using the address on the form. All our books are now being produced in contracted braille only. Teachers, please work with your school librarians to make them aware of our project and answer any questions they may have. Likewise, please alert the parents with whom you work about our project, especially those who do not have ready access to school libraries; this group may well include the parents of preschool blind children. You should receive your books in the spring of 2023. Many thanks for using our service! (Order Form on newsletter’s last page) Special Book Committee Members, Sandy Adams, Cindy Collins, Leanette Dieck, Alison McKee Email contact: adamssandra454@gmail.com _______________ Glen Stacey: Benefactor for thr Wisconsin Braille Special Book Project Every fall families, teachers and librarians, who order braille books from the Wisconsin Braille Special Book Project, are recipients of the generosity of the Glen Stacey Fund. Many have wondered who Glen Stacey was, and how the fund got started. This short piece comes to you as an answer to those questions. Glen Leroy Stacey was one of the eleven children of Philo and Maud Stacey (six boys and five girls). The family lived in Rewey, WI and Glen was born in 1920. In 1928 Glen was involved in an automobile accident that resulted in blindness. Three years later, in the fall of 1931, Glen’s family enrolled him in the Wisconsin School for the Visually Handicapped. (Today we know this as the Wisconsin School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.) Glen continued to go to school in Jansesville until the age of 16. Unfortunately, at the age of 19 Glen was involved in another automobile accident. This one took his life. Almost 50 years later, in 1988, the Glen Stacy fund was created as part of a bequest from the estate of Glen’s oldest sister, Leone Kuhe, and her husband Emil Kuhe. Their thoughtful gift has benefited many blind and visually impaired students at the Wisconsin School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and throughout the state of Wisconsin, since that time. Wisconsin Braille is just one of its recipients. _________________ The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found by Frank Bruni Reviewed by Cindy Collins Frank Bruni is a bestselling author of 5 non-fiction books, and he is a writer for The New York Times.The Beauty of Dusk is his latest book, published in March of 2022, and it is a memoir. One morning in late 2017, when he was 52 years old, Mr. Bruni woke up with strangely blurred vision in his right eye. He thought, and hoped, that it was a fleeting annoyance, but it turned out that overnight, a rare stroke had cut off blood to his right optic nerve, rendering him functionally blind in that eye — forever. A neuro-ophthalmologist warned him that the same stroke could occur in his left eye, so he could lose his sight altogether. The doctor quoted a 40% chance of that second stroke. This was a fork in the road for Bruni, reminding him that he had the agency to choose his path. Does he give into his “sadness and scaredness,” or take “deliberate, concrete steps to move beyond them?” In The Beauty of Dusk, Bruni recounts his adjustment to his new reality, both medically and spiritually. He reappraises his own priorities but also reaches out to, and gathers wisdom from, friends and new acquaintances who had navigated their own medical and personal forks in the road. Bruni says his attitude was as important as his treatment options. “I held my breath; I exhaled. I said hello to new worries; I said goodbye to old ones. A clever friend of mine summed up my status wittily and well: ‘When one eye closes another opens.’” Bruni claims to be a half-full kind of guy, and he tells us his story isn’t about making lemons out of lemonade or how the night is darkest before the dawn. “It’s about dusk. It’s about those first real inklings that the day isn’t forever and that light inexorably fades.” Bruni talks about the brain’s neuroplasticity, and reminds us that the capacity for change remains with us throughout our lives. “Each sunset, be it from illness or aging, is a new opportunity.” His message is also “Be kind to others. You never know what someone is going through.” The result of Bruni’s examination of the limits that all of us inevitably encounter is poignant and ultimately uplifting. He discusses the lenses through which we choose to evaluate our circumstances and the tools we have for perseverance. Bruni’s world blurred in one sense, but sharpened in another. In confronting unexpected hardship, he eventually felt more blessed than ever before. As it says in the title of the book, there was vision lost, but there was also vision found. This book is available in large print and recorded versions. It is also available as a download from the Milwaukee Library for the Blind and from BookShare. ________________ Braille Corner Dear Readers, I began my teaching career in the field of vision in 1975. No digital reading devices, cassettes; no computers, Perkins braillers and slate and stylus, and of course no Unified English Braille (UEB); English Braille American Edition (EBAE) only, and only in North America. You might have called these times the dark ages in the field of vision education. It wasn’t. We managed. Things changed. As things changed, the graphic novel emerged. I advised teachers, when they had a braille reading student in their class, to avoid such books for reading instruction. There just didn’t seem to be a way to transcribe them. Enter UEB and the continual growth of graphic novel literature. Today our students can read graphic novels just as their peers do. The following note, addressed to Ms. Perkins, describes for transcribers, and parents, how this is achieved. Yours, Alison Mckee - retired TVI Dear Ms. Perkins, I've been a transcriber for students for many years, and these days I'm getting more requests to braille graphic novels. Kids of every age must love them! Would you please review the formatting rules for graphic novels? Sometimes I get confused about how to braille both descriptive material and dialogue for the same frame. Also, should I give my reader a transcriber's note explaining the format? Thanks for any help you can send my way! Sincerely, Looking for Advice Dear Looking, Oh, yes, graphic novels have been ever so popular! Transcribing them well makes the fun available to braille readers, as well. The guidelines for transcribers are found in Braille Formats: Principles of Print-to-Braille Transcription, 2016, Section 14.11 and Sample 14-12. Graphic novels are like very long cartoons in book form. Follow the cartoon format described in 14.10, especially 14.10.5, for multi-frame cartoons. There are lots of details there, too much for this column. Essentially, each frame on a print page is numbered by the transcriber. (Be sure to use transcriber’s note indicators, transcribers!) The transcriber describes the illustration and action. It’s kind of like described movies, but in written form. (Transcribers, the frame number and description are in 7-5.) Then the dialogue is brailled, after the frame number and description. (Transcribers, the dialogue is in 1-3.) The only explanation needed regarding format is described in 14.1.7, when there are three blank cells between the speaker’s name and the first word of speech, as explained in 14.6.2. Watch out for those Japanese graphic novels that are read with the binding on the right and the frame sequence is counterclockwise! Happy graphic noveling, readers! Sincerely, Ms. Perkins __________________ Wisconsin Braille Inc. Special Book Project Order Form Fall, 2022 Check here if you have ordered from us in the past. _____ Customer Name: __________________________________________________________________ Address: _________________________________________________________________________ Email address: ____________________________________ Phone: __________________________________________ Date of order: _________________ Note: All orders will be sent in hard copy, contracted braille in the spring of 2023. _____ All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything by Annette Bay Pimentel (print/braille) _____ The Bear and the Piano by David Litchfield (print/braille) _____ By the Light of the Moon) by Fran Preston-Gannon (print/braille) _____ Daddy Hugs by Nancy Tafuri (print/braille) _____ Hi! Fly Guy by Ted Arnold (print/braille) _____ Listen by Gabi Snyder (print/braille) _____ Mercy Watson to the Rescue by Kate DiCamiillo (braille only) _____ Nana Loves You More by Jimmy Fallon (print/braille) _____ Off to the Park written and illustrated by Stephen Cheetham (print/braille) _____ Tomatoes for Neela by Padma Lakshmi (print/braille) _____ Two Canes on the Tundra by Mary Tellefson (braille only) _____ Why Not You? by Ciara and Russell Wilson (print/braille) Additional books from previous years: You may order from our composite lists if you are a current Member or a new member of Wisconsin Braille. (See composite lists on our web site: www.wisbrl.org). You are welcome to suggest books for next year’s production here: (Graphic novel titles welcome!) By December 31, 2022 send your book order to this address: Sandra Adams, 3520 Valley Ridge Rd., Middleton WI 53562 If you wish to become a member of Wisconsin Braille, please send dues ($10/year) to: Wisconsin Braille Inc., Membership Chair, 557 Milky Way, Madison, WI 53718 Please remember, your membership in Wisconsin Braille, Inc. will go a long to help us cover our operating expenses. Many thanks for your consideration! Enjoy your books with your children! ________________ Membership Application Date ______ Use this form to join WisBrl, or to renew membership. Regular membership, annual dues $10 ____ Sustaining membership annual dues $30 ____ Lifetime membership $200 ____ Additional donation $30 ____ Total amount enclosed ____ Check ( ) cash ( ) money order ( ) Donations to WisBrl are tax exempt. NAME: _____________________________ ADDRESS: ___________________________ ____________________________________ PHONE: ____________________________ E-MAIL: _____________________________ 2022: ( ) New member ( ) Renewal Newsletter format requested (choose one) Regular type _____ E-mail _____ Braille ####_____ What is your affiliation with the braille reading community? (Check all that apply.) Teacher _____Producer _____ Ed. Assist. _____ Transcriber _____ Proofreader ____ Parent ____ Administrator _____ User _____ Other (specify) _______________________ Make checks or money orders payable to WISCONSIN BRAILLE INC. Return application and payment to: Membership Chair 557 Milky Way Madison, WI 53718 Please Join Us For Our Next Board Meeting October 22, 2022, 10:00-12:30, Our meetings are always open to the public. CONTACT Leanette at ljdieck@madison.k12.wi.us TO GET A LINK TO THE ZOOM MEETING Contributors to this issue are: Sandy Adams, Cindy Collins, Alison McKee, Judy Sherry, Julie Sumwalt