Page 63 - Sonoma County Gazette - January 2020

The Trumpet Lesson
By Diane McCurdy
The Trumpet Lesson intertwines the activities of a lost dog, an eccentric friend, a bi-racial trumpet player, a street kid and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. All the action is perceived by a chipped statue of a jaguar who often passes judgment on the proceedings.
1000 Books Before Kindergarten
Callie Quinn is a translator
of Spanish and French and has abandoned her Chicago roots and slipped away to a small colonial town in the Mexican highlands called Guanajuato. The area is known for its stunning geography and its love of international art, music and literature.
Sonoma County Library encourages families and caregivers to read 1,000 books with their children before they enter kindergarten. Reading aloud to children from birth helps strengthen language skills and build vocabulary - two important tools for learning to read.
It’s easy to reach this milestone:
3 books a day for 1 year = 1,095 books 1 book a day for 3 years = 1,095 books Sign up at any Sonoma County Library
The author, Dianne Romain, actually lives there so the reader is given a certain authentic flavor for the novel’s setting. Callie is obviously a tortured and guarded soul. Her best friend is Armando who is gay but struggling with his orientation. To call him eccentric is a euphemism, he is terminally bizarre but delightful.
Branch and pick up a printed reading log. If you are eager to begin, register on a computer OR a mobile device: download and install the Beanstack Tracker app from Apple iTunes or Google Play.
When Callie hears a trumpet
player, Pamela, blowing out a poignant
rendition of “The Lost Child” on
her horn in the town square, she
decides she must have a trumpet
lesson from her. Her stern, controlling
father had played the trumpet and she had purchased one recently from Juanito the scamp who periodically sells her damaged goods. This inflames Armando because he believes that Pamela has stolen his dog, Tevele’. To further his dislike of Pamela he feels that she has besmirched the integrity of the maestro of the orchestra that they are both members of. The Jehovah’s Witnesses thicken up the plot nicely and before the last page Callie’s newly affianced mother arrives on the scene as does Pamela’s mother and Callie is rescued from an avocado tree by the Witnesses themselves. Although some of the situations may sound comical and indeed they are, the novel can also be serious and intense and deal with issues surrounding family, adoption, racism, homosexuality and the mystery of all encompassing love.
Although the author is from the mid-west, she has a degree in philosophy from Berkeley and was a professor at Sonoma State University where she taught feminist ethics and the philosophy of emotion. Her many Mexican students motivated her to delve into the history and art of that country and to experience the whole Mexican mystique. She was enchanted. As one would expect Romain’s style of writing is elevated and peppered with foreign phrases. Some situations that are presented are perplexing however, they are usually resolved several chapters later or maybe they are not resolved at all. There is a dash of magical realism here and there, a style that can only be properly implemented on Latin American soil. Consider that plaster jaguar who seems to be not only omniscient but discriminating and checks out all the protagonist’s deeds in this thoroughly engrossing novel.
Show us Your Reading Logs: When your child finishes 100 books, bring the completed sheet to the library and have it stamped “completed” and collect the next page. If you’re keeping track through Beanstack, come in after your child has received the online “badge” for 100 books. You’ll get a tote bag to carry all the books you’re reading!
When you get to 1,000, you’ll receive a new book to keep!
Winter Reading Challenge
Can Sonoma County read a million minutes in a month?
Join the library in the nationwide 2020 Winter Reading Challenge.
Track Your Reading: Each time you read a book with your child, log it on your reading log. You can log online using your Beanstack account, or by
marking circles on your paper reading log.
The library has set a goal for Sonoma County to read a million minutes in January and is asking each participant to read at least 600 minutes (20 minutes a day) during that time. All reading logged between Wednesday, January 1, and Thursday, January 31, will count toward the challenge.
Participants can track their reading and participation in the program online at sonomalibrary.beanstack.org and through the Beanstack app. Paper logs will also be available at each branch.
If Sonoma County readers are among the communities who read the most during the challenge, the library has a chance to win books and author visits.
Sign up for the Winter Reading Program at your local library branch or by visiting sonomalibrary.beanstack.org. The Winter Reading Program is free and open to all ages. This program is a partnership between Penguin Random House and Beanstack. The hashtag for the program is #winterread2020.
1/20 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 63