Why are Gone with the Wind and The Lovely Bones on the banned books display?

The American Library Association launched Banned Books Week in 1982. It typically runs the last week of September, with the aim of educating Americans about censorship. Many libraries, including the Newton Falls Public Library, mark the occasion with displays that highlight famously banned or challenged books in their collections. We used lists such as “Frequently Challenged Classics,” “Top Ten Challenged Books by Year,” and “100 Most Frequently Challenged Books by Decade” on ALA.org and BannedBooksWeek.org for inspiration.

Though it’s called “Banned Books Week,” not all the books highlighted have been banned on a country-wide level (although some have been - for example, Salman Rushdie’s controversial 1988 book The Satanic Verses, banned in several countries including India and Iran, and James Joyce’s Ulysses, which drew complaints when it was being published as a serial in a literary magazine and was subsequently banned from the United States for more than ten years). More often, they are challenged in schools, where they are sometimes removed from reading lists or curricula, or libraries, where they can be removed from the shelves altogether. It’s worth noting that even if a book shows up on one of the banned or challenged book lists, it may have never escalated past the challenge phase. Sometimes a compromise is reached – teachers providing alternate book selections for a particular assignment, for example.

According to the American Library Association, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind has come under fire for its language and its portrayal of slavery. ALA.org cites two specific examples: a 1978 ban in a California school district and a 1984 challenge in an Illinois school district. In 2008, Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones was moved to the faculty section of a Massachusetts school library after it was deemed too frightening for middle school students.

How can you tell if a book is a first edition?

When collecting books, first editions are often more valuable than later editions, so it’s helpful to know how to identify them, but the answer is more complicated than we expected.

According to the page “Identifying and Collecting First Editions” on AbeBooks.com, in the publishing industry, “first edition” covers all copies of a book printed from the first setting of type. If revisions are made, the revised book is the second edition, and so on and so forth. The first set of books printed is called the first printing, or first impression. If these all sell out and the publisher decides to make more copies, the second set is the second printing, or the second impression. So something marked a “first edition” may not have necessarily been part of the initial print run – it could be from a later printing, but before any revisions were made. Collectors are generally most interested in the earliest copies published – so, the first printing of the first edition – and that’s often what they use “first edition” to mean.

Official Price Guide to Collecting Books: Sixth Edition, written by Marie Tedford and Pat Goudey, and First Editions: A Guide to Identification: Second Edition, edited by Edward N. Zempel and Linda A. Verkler, both give tips on identifying first editions. Some publishing companies will include information on the copyright page such as “First edition, First printing,” or “First published 2007,” which makes it easy, but some give no indication. Sometimes it’s only possible to tell that something is an early edition because the collector knows what to look for, such as a certain error that was later revised. For example, Tedford and Goudey use one of Laurie R. King’s books as an example. She wrote her dedication in Hebrew and in the first edition, it was printed backwards.  

What kind of nickname is Sagehen?

“In the book I’m reading, other characters call the main character the Sagehen. Why do you think they call her that?”

One of our patrons was enjoying The Last Midwife by Sandra Dallas, a work of historical fiction set in nineteenth-century Colorado. Gracy Brookens, the main character, is a midwife in a small mining town. Other characters sometimes refer to her as “the Sagehen.”

Our first guess was that it was akin to calling Gracy a mother hen or a mama bird in reference to her maternal nature. “Sagehen” is an informal word for the sage-grouse, a chicken-sized bird that calls the sagebrush of the American West its home. However, after doing more research, we found an interview with Sandra Dallas on the blog Let Them Read Books where she talks about what inspired her to write her novel. Her main inspiration was a poem called “In These Rude Airs” from Belle Turnbull’s book The Tenmile Range. Dallas met Turnbull in 1963 when the poet was an elderly lady living in a Colorado cabin, and remembers her as “a gentle creature” though her poetry had a hard edge to it. “In These Rude Airs” centers around another midwife called the Sagehen and Dallas created Gracy Brookens as a response, though she’s a much gentler character.

For curious readers, The Tenmile Range and The Last Midwife are both available for borrowing through CLEVNET.

How do I find old cookbooks on CLEVNET?

“Is there a way to search for books by publication date? I want to look at old cookbooks.”

The CLEVNET catalog offers a lot of different ways to narrow down your search. Once you’ve typed something in the search bar at the top, you can narrow your search by library, audience (adult, children, or teen), language, content (nonfiction, fiction, or undetermined), and more, including published date.

Different searches bring up different results. When searching for “cookbooks” as a subject and narrowing our search to show only items available at Newton Falls, the earliest publication date was 1972: The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas. However, searching “cookbook” as a keyword instead of a subject brought up Mary Emma Showalter’s Mennonite Community Cookbook, published twenty-two years earlier. The keyword “recipe” showed us an even older book: Marcelle Morphy’s Recipes of All Nations, published in 1935.

If you’re looking for old-fashioned recipes, they may not necessarily be in the oldest cookbooks. The Little House Cookbook by Barbara M. Walker is a book of authentic frontier recipes published in 1979. Grandma’s Wartime Kitchen by Joanne Lamb Hayes, published in 2000, deals with World War II cooking and the recipes people developed to get around rationing. We even have The Thirteen Colonies Cookbook by Mary Donovan, published in 1975.

What won the Newbery Award this year?

Established in 1921 and named for eighteenth-century bookseller John Newbery, the Newbery Medal is awarded annually by the American Library Association. Winners are chosen by committee and must meet certain criteria. The book must be written for children (defined by ALA as people fourteen years-old and younger) and must be written in English by an American author and published in the United States. The award is given to books published the previous year. Fiction, nonfiction, and poetry are all eligible. The committee does not consider the book’s popularity, only its artistic merit.

ALA announced its winners on February 2. The Newbery went to Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover, a novel in verse about twin basketball stars who must deal with a crisis in their family. Cece Bell’s El Deafo and Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming both took home Newbery Honors. Past Newbery winners include Susan Cooper’s The Grey King (1976), which is also the fourth book in Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising series, Sharon Creech’s Walk Two Moons (1995), and Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book (2009). A full list of Newbery Medal and Newbery Honor winners can be found on the ALA website. 

The American Library Association awards a variety of prizes to distinguished media for children and young adults. It announced the rest of its winners on February 2, including the winners of the Randolph Caldecott Medal for most distinguished picture book, the Michael L. Printz Award for excellent young adult literature, and the Coretta Scott King Awards for African American authors and illustrators of outstanding children’s and young adult literature. The Caldecott Medal went to The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, written and illustrated by Dan Santat. The Printz was awarded to Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun. Jacqueline Woodson picked up the Coretta Scott King Author Award along with her Newbery Honor for Brown Girl Dreaming, and Christopher Myers won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for Firebird, which was written by Misty Copeland.

All of these books can either be borrowed at the Newton Falls Public Library or ordered through CLEVNET, so patrons of all ages are welcome to come in and enjoy some award-winning books.

Can non-Mormons attend BYU?

“Can you go to Brigham Young University if you’re not Mormon?”

After our library book discussion group read David Ebershoff’s The 19th Wife, which focuses on characters who have various relationships to Mormonism and made several mentions to Brigham Young University, one of our patrons was curious as to whether or not people were welcome to attend even if they weren’t members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We checked the BYU website and it turns out the answer is yes. Originally established in 1875 for the purpose of infusing academics with LDS values, they nevertheless accept students of other religions – though the number is relatively small. According to the statistics published on their website, 29,293 students in Fall 2014 identified as Mormon, while 379 either identified themselves as members of other religions (including Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and several different denominations of Christianity) or indicated no religious preference.

For a non-Mormon student to attend, they must first meet with a local LDS leader. They must also agree to follow the school’s honor code, which includes being honest and respectful, abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, tea, and coffee, and abiding by the modest dress code. Because part of the Church’s tithing goes to the university, LDS students pay less for tuition. In the 2013-2014 school year, Mormon students paid $4,850 for tuition while non-Mormon students paid $9,700.

Can I Have More Information about the Orphan Train Program?

Our library book club recently read Christina Baker Kline’s Orphan Train. The title refers to a program developed by the Children’s Aid Society (with a similar program developed later by the New York Foundling Hospital) that transported orphaned and homeless children from the big cities in the East to new lives in the West. Some found loving families, but others weren’t so lucky, meeting with abuse often in the form of unscrupulous adults who saw fit to use them as unpaid labor. The orphan trains ran from 1853 until 1929.

While the back of the book provides a lot of information about the orphan train riders, one of the members of the book club was curious about the aid workers’ side of the story. Were there any primary sources available from them?

The Children’s Aid Society still exists today. They understand that people are curious about their history, and they give a phone number (212-949-4847) and an email address (archives@childrensaidsociety.org) for people to contact to learn more about the orphan train program. They also provide access to the Victor Remer Historical Archives of the Children’s Aid Society. A guide to the archives can be found online here. While you’ll need to be at the library of the New-York Historical Society to view most of the materials yourself (which include journals and memoirs of Children’s Aid Society agents and correspondence with children who were placed out), some of the material has been digitized and can be viewed here. 

We also found a book about the founder of the Children’s Aid Society, Stephen O’Connor’s Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed, which is available through CLEVNET.

If you’re ever in Concordia, Kansas, and want to know more about the orphan train movement, you can visit the National Orphan Train Complex. (For more information, their website is located at http://orphantraindepot.org/.)

Can You Help Me Find A Short Story?

"Can you help me find a short story I read in high school? I want to read it again, but I can't remember what it's called or who wrote it." At the Newton Falls Public Library, we understand how discouraging it can be when you can't find what you're looking for. Our patron remembered that the story was about a son going through his father's belongings to discover that he had been a prisoner of war in Vietnam. She also remembered that her high school had used the Language of Literature textbooks.

Putting "Language of Literature" into an online search engine brought up http://www.classzone.com/literature.cfm, which gives a list of all the Language of Literature textbooks along with short summaries of the contents. After browsing the summaries, our patron found the story she was looking for: David McLean's "Marine Corps Issue."

Searching '"David McLean" "Marine Corps Issue"' turned up a lot of study guides, since it still seems to be a popular story to teach in schools. However, we did manage to find an archived review that David McLean had written. At the end of the article, there was a brief biography noting that "Marine Corps Issue" had been published in Prize Stories 1994: The O. Henry Awards. Our patron was very excited to be able to track down a copy to reread.

CLEVNET carries many volumes collecting the O. Henry Prize stories, including the 1994 edition. If our patron is interested in browsing through more short story anthologies, the Newton Falls Public Library carries a variety of different collections, including "Cold Noses and Warm Hearts: Beloved Dog Stories by Great Authors," "The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm," and "After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia."

If I Have Trouble Reading Small Print, Is There Anything That Can Help Me Keep Reading?

"As I get older, I am having difficulty reading small print.  Do you know of anything that would help me to keep reading?"  As we all age, the Newton Falls Public Library staff has become aware of vision difficulties faced by our patrons and ourselves. 

The first step for many readers is to borrow the larger print paperbacks and the large print books available at our library and through the shared Clevnet catalog.  There over 20,000 fiction and nonfiction items from which our patrons can make their selections. Unfortunately, large print materials were no longer big enough for our patron.  We then searched online for tools to more greatly magnify the text.  The terms "lighted page magnifier for visually impaired' brought up many unusual ones and the article "Guide to Buying Low Vision Magnifiers" by Marilyn Haddrill, with contributions and review by Mary Lou Jackson, MD. We gave these ideas to our patron for her consideration.

While at the Newton Falls Public Library patrons may use the TeleSensory machine.  It magnifies, and also has the capability to make a positive image negative.  This is useful for individuals who find it easier to read white letters on a black background.  It can also be used to closely examine small items such as stamps and coins.

Individuals who enjoy the technology of eBooks can download titles from Clevnet's eMedia collection to their computers, tablets, and eReaders. Once downloaded, the user can select the font and page brightness which are best for them.

If the needs of the reader have become greater, the Library of Congress' National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped is available. "Through a national network of cooperating libraries, NLS administers a free library program of Braille and audio materials circulated to eligible borrowers in the United States by postage-free mail."  The website, www.loc.gov/nls, has the application to apply for the service. Local contact information and instructions for this network can be picked up at the Newton Falls Public Library.

Is there an Audiobook Player for the Visually Impaired?

“I have a relative who has trouble reading print.  We’ve borrowed Playaways from the library; I would like to find something for her so we can download audiobooks from CLEVNET. “The Newton Falls Public Library staff discussed it further with the patron and discovered the newer touch screen MP3 players are not an option as the screen can be difficult to read. The patron actually needs something that works with buttons.

The staff offered the option of the free Talking Books program through the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. After the application is completed and approved, qualified users are supplied a Digital Talking Book player which plays audio versions of books and magazines. Materials are sent directly to the patron and there is no postage fee for returning the items.

Our patron still wanted to know if there was something that would fit her need and could be used to download from the library’s collection. Searching online, the staff found a couple of items for the patron’s consideration. One response to a similar question was found at answers.yahoo.com. “If you are looking for something with no screen, the previous generation of the iPod Shuffle would be a really good choice, particularly if you are visually impaired. All the buttons are on the front in a simple arrangement and it has a built-in clip . . . There is also the Creative Zen Stone which is a small screenless player that just plays music, like the Shuffle. It has a similarly simple button arrangement on the front of the player as well . . . You may also want to check out the Samsung S2 Pebble . . . or the Sony B series.”

Signed Old Book

The caller said to the Newton Falls Public Library staff, “I have an old book that says it was given to Clyde Howes by Ada Alderman, teacher. It was dated Feb. 24 1893. I was wondering if this could be true, that these people really existed.”

Library users in Ohio can access Ancestry.com through the library’s databases on OhioWebLibrary. We typed in both Ada Alderman and Clyde Howes. Looking at the dates and locations given, we found some compatible people in the 1930 census. There was an Ada Alderman born about 1867 who lived in Windsor, Ashtabula County, Ohio. This would make her about 26 years old in 1893. The same census says that Clyde A. Howes was born about 1884, so he would have been about 9 years old when the book was signed. In 1930 he lived in Mesopotamia, Trumbull County, Ohio. These communities are not far from each other.

Extending the search to the birth, marriage, and death indexes at the aforementioned site, we found that Clyde Howes was born on January 21, 1886 in Windsor, Ohio. The death records for Ada Alderman were inconclusive, so we extended our online search using a popular search engine. Using the words, Ada Alderman teacher Windsor Ohio, we found a link to starbeacon.com/archive/x1449203863 which has a photograph of “Ada Alderman, teacher at the Alderman School in Windsor, was photographed in her sleigh in front of the school . . . “

We next searched for the Alderman School in Windsor. History of the Western Reserve, Volume 2 by Harriet Taylor Upton, Harry Gardner Cutler digitally stored at books.google.com, included the history of the Alderman family. Ada was the eldest of the children, born March 13, 1867. She began teaching at 16 years of age, and taught in Windsor, Huntsburg, Trumbull, Mesopotamia, and New Lyme. She was also the first woman to be elected to the Windsor School Board. The Upton History also includes a photograph of Ada, her parents and her brothers.

Searching using the words Clyde Howes 1886 Ohio, we found a link to the site www.findagrave.com.  The information there said that Clyde was born in 1883 and died in 1971. He is buried in the Windsor Township Cemetery.  We were able to inform our caller that the information in the front of the book seemed to match actual people during this time period.

Is There Another Portable Way to Listen to Books?

Our caller said, “I really enjoy audio books, but my CD player broke. I would like to try something other than a CD one. Is there another portable way to listen to books?” Many members of the Newton Falls Public Library staff also enjoy listening to works by their favorite authors while driving or doing chores.

Many of us listen to books on Playaways, each holding just one title. The more popular choices are MP3 players and iPods. Our patron asked for a recommendation. Since we felt that her choice needed to be dependent on her personal preferences of product capabilities, price, etc., we recommended that she either talk to others who own them, visit local stores that carry them, or view online reviews.

Consumer Reports last reviewed MP3 players in December of 2010. Technology changes so quickly and our patron wanted newer information, so we looked online. We typed in “MP3 players reviews” and found several sites for her including http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players and http://mp3-players.toptenreviews.com/flash-drive.  We recommended that she duplicate our search to learn more about what was available.

Once our patron decides which player she would like; she can download free audio books from the library’s catalog. Newton Falls Public Library is presently part of the Ohio eBook Project.  Beginning November 1^st, titles can be downloaded from our new Clevnet catalog. 

What is the proper way to dispose of an old Bible?

“I know there are guidelines for the disposal of an old, damaged flag, but is there a proper way to dispose of an old Bible? While familiar with those for flags, the Newton Falls Public Library staff was unfamiliar with rules for disposing of Bibles.

An online search brought up a wealth of websites, some particular to different faiths and denominations. The Human Condition website has an information paper on the Handling and Disposal of Sacred Texts, Spiritual Writings and Religious Items by CH (COL) Chet Lanious, Director, Center for World Religions of the Chaplain Center and School in Fort Jackson, SC.  It covers items related to Roman Catholics, the various Protestant denominations, Orthodox Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islamic sects. The paper also includes links to religious sites.

Our patron informed us that she was interested in what would pertain to the Methodist Church. The information paper connected us to the United Methodist Church, GBOD’s (The General Board of Discipleship) website. The GBOD developed a service for the disposal of old Bibles and devotional books, written by Daniel T. Benedict, Jr. The service concludes with either the burning or burial of the books. A full copy of the service was made for the patron to share with her congregation.

I'm Curious about Braille

“I’ve always been curious about Braille. Do you have anything for sighted people to look at or to feel?” Over the years others, such as students and scouts, have asked this question of the Newton Falls Public Library staff.

The Braille cell contains six raised dots which are numbered vertically: 1, 2, and 3 are arranged from top to bottom in the first column; 4, 5, and 6 are in the second. Letters, numbers, punctuation, music, and music symbols are created by using various combinations of these cell dots. For example the letter A contains only dot 1, B contains dots 1 and 2, and C is made up of dots 1, 3, and 4. Dot 6 placed before a letter signifies that it is a capital letter. Patrons may borrow sheets of Braille which have these raised cells to both feel and see.

Also available to be taken home are Expectations: a gift for blind children from Braille Institute (The Little Engine That Could in Braille), The Constitution of the United States, and The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin and Rosana Faría. This last item encourages readers to imagine living without sight. The illustrations are done with raised lines and descriptions of colors based on imagery. There are Braille letters with the illustrations and a full alphabet for sighted readers to help them read along with their fingers.

Patrons interested in this subject may also be curious about sign language. There are books, films, and kits available to teach signing to adults, children, and infants. Sign Language Interpreting: a basic resource book by Sharon Neumann Solow would be a good place for adults to begin. Parents might want to consider examining Teach Your Tot to Sign: the parents' guide to American Sign Language by Stacy A. Thompson and Baby Sign Language for Hearing Babies by Karyn Warburton.

Where Have the Books Gone?

“Where have the books gone? I was in the library the other day and noticed some empty shelves.” Keeping available materials current and pertinent are part of the duties of the Newton Falls Public Library staff. The task is called weeding and, as in gardening, it means to remove what is not wanted to make room for what is needed. As in your garden, it also means that you are able to enjoy more items without digging through that which is no longer useful.



Some items may not have been weeded, but transplanted. Before the Internet, libraries kept large collections of reference materials, books which could only be used in the library. We have recently chosen to move many of these items to the circulating collection, where patrons may now borrow them to use at home.



“But how do you decide what to take away and what to leave?” We look at materials which no one has borrowed from the library for at least four to five years and make decisions on the disposition of these materials based on several things.


• Is the information current? This is very important when looking at items concerning medicine, law, science, and the Internet.


• Are there other books available on this subject that people are selecting instead of these?


• Does the library have multiple copies of a title that is no longer in high demand?



“What happens when you are done?” The books withdrawn from the collection are given new life. Some of them are sent to the public schools for use in their libraries and classrooms. Others are placed in the Friends of the Library’s book sales, where people in the community may purchase them. The Friends use the money raised to help support library programs throughout the year. This support allows the library to offer these programs at no cost to those attending. The next book sale will be held on Saturday, April 24 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.



As in a garden, the space created by weeding allows us to have space on the shelves for new materials. These new items are purchased to meet the current needs and interests of our community.

What is a Playaway?

“I saw something called a Playaway on your New Books’ shelf. What is it?” The Newton Falls Public Library enjoys introducing patrons to new ways to enjoy books.

 The Playaway is a type of audio book; perfect for people who enjoy listening to books. This simple-to-use player is smaller than a deck of cards and contains an entire book. It is not necessary to change cassette tapes or disks while listening. Besides the player, all one needs for listening is an AAA battery, and a set of ear buds or headphones. It will also work through the speakers of your car if the vehicle has a place to plug in an MP3 player. Many of our patrons enjoy listening to Playaways while exercising or walking as the players come with lanyards and can be worn around the neck.


The Newton Falls Public Library owns over 130 Playaways. Our shared TiPL [Trumbull Independent Public Libraries] catalog permits patrons to select from over 380 players. The titles can be found by going online to http://www.newtonfalls.org/. Click on Search the Catalog. At the Keyword Search, select Keywords, then contain, and finally type in the word playaway. Selecting Newton Falls shows what is owned here; selecting All Branches will show what is owned by all the libraries in our shared catalog.

A Very Special Library Lover

The Newton Falls Public Library received a special donation during Library Lovers’ Month from a very small library lover. Six year old Melody Jacques visited the library to select books and to make a gift to the library. In July of 2009, after a discussion with her parents, Heidi and Les Jacques, about how the library depends upon donations to have books and stay open, Melody informed them she wanted to give money to the library and have her name put into the big book in the foyer. Her mother helped to make a box, covered with stickers and surrounded by books, to hold her fund. Good deeds and hard work were rewarded with green stones in a jar, which earned her money each week. When Melody received money as gifts from family members, the money went into her fund. Upon reaching $50, her pediatrician Dr. Giorgio Vescera matched her fund. On February 13 Melody presented her gift to the library staff for the purchase of more of her favorite books.

Melody and her favorite books with Youth Services Librarian, Chrissy Braun.

Is There a Sequel to Moby Dick?

Patrons of all ages ask questions of the Newton Falls Public Library staff. A young man, age 11 years, wanted to know “Is there a sequel to Moby Dick?” We first went to a locally purchased research database, Literary Reference Center Plus. This new database will be especially useful enabling students to research authors and titles, and to view full text versions of books online.

In the database, we found an article, Biography of Herman Melville by Harold Bloom. It says the book was written by Herman Melville in 1851 following an eighteenth month sea voyage he took in 1842. Looking through various articles in the Literary Reference Center Plus, we were unable to find a sequel to Moby Dick listed.

The library staff frequently uses websites which list books in a series. Examining both What’s Next? [http://www2.kdl.org/libcat/WhatsNextNew.asp] and Fantastic Fiction [www.fantasticfiction.co.uk] showed that there was no sequel written to Melville’s classic.

While searching online for the answer to this question, we typed in Moby Dick sequel and found some interesting sidelights. The opening line of the book, “Call me Ishmael” has spawned the complementary title, Don't Call Me Ishmael. There is a young adult book by Michael Gerard Bauer and a webcomix written by George O’Connor [www.smithmag.net/nextdoorneighbor/2009/04/05/story-26] by that name. There is also a blog titled Herman-Melville [http://herman-melville.blogspot.com]. The author of the blog posted on Sunday, February 19, 2006, says “As noted above, I currently am deceased. Recently, however, we got wireless” and discusses his in-progress sequel to Moby Dick, which he anticipates titling Son of Moby Dick.

We had to inform our patron that there is no sequel to Melville’s classic book.

Are the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration Still in Cleveland, Ohio?

“I just finished reading a book titled Stalking the Divine by Kristin Ohlson. She lives in Ohio and her book talks about a group of cloistered nuns, the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, who reside in a monastery behind a church in Cleveland. They pray continuously for the sorrows of the world. The church is St. Paul on Euclid Avenue. Are the nuns still there?” Many of the Newton Falls Library staff members have lived here most of their lives and had never heard of this group of faith filled women. Questions that teach us something new are always interesting to answer.

Searching online, we found the website of the Sisters [www.thepoorclares.com]. It includes beautiful photographs of St. Paul and the nuns, as well as information about the order and the church. Three of the general requirements listed online for becoming a part of their community are: “The ability to live in community and to work with others. A love of prayer. A desire to serve God by serving people through intercessory prayer.”

If you would like to read other books about Ohio women, try American Grit: a woman's letters from the Ohio frontier by Anna Briggs Bentley, The Best of That's Life by Marty Douce of Newton Falls, Buckeye Women: the history of Ohio’s daughters by Stephane Elise Booth, Ohio Women, in honor of contributions to the growth and progress of Ohio, and Ohio's first women elected officials: 1895-1995.