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Posts tagged Maine
“What was the first story you experienced?” by Devin Burritt
08 months ago
Our guest post today comes from Devin Burritt, Associate Director at the Jackson Memorial Library in Tenants Harbor, ME. I’ve had the chance to sit down with Devin a few times and talk about games and libraries and I come away from every conversation feeling so inspired. -Justin
In library school I was often confronted with the question “what was the story that got you hooked on reading?” I would look at them and rack my brain for a suitable white lie answer. There was the Brian Jacques Redwall series that I sort of remember spending Saturdays in bed reading. Or Hardy Boys when we moved in second grade. But these were what I read to pass the time; they did not instill a passion for literature in me. In fact, I left children’s literature behind around fourth or fifth grade when I started reading adult novels by popular fiction authors such as Michael Crichton and Dean Koontz. Inevitably I would get an embarrassed face and tell my peers what I thought was the truth: I had just returned from two years in the Peace Corps where I lived without electricity so I read, a lot, and found that children’s and teen books were the most enjoyable way to pass the time. I always felt guilty, that everyone else had a lifelong passion for books marketed towards children and teens, while I was relatively new to the game.
One day, as I turned my brain off and snuck into the black hole of time that is Facebook, I saw a post from Justin Hoenke:
Question: why do we ask people “What was the first book you read?” when instead it should be “What was the first story you experienced?” For me, it was Final Fantasy III for the Super Nintendo.
Epiphany. I didn’t hesitate as I had before; I immediately knew it was Final Fantasy VII for the PSX. I played Final Fantasy VII with three of my best friends everyday in the summer between 8th and 9th grade in what can only be called a communal caffeine fueled storytime. The story was the most compelling, and confusing, one I had ever seen in my young life. When my PSX was out of the picture, I bought the PC version to play on my own. When my new copy of Windows XP wouldn’t play it in college, I found a hack that allowed for compatibility. Ever since that summer I played other turn based RPGs with pure abandon, 8-12 hours at a time until the work week starts or it is completed.
This made for an easy transition when I, later in life, discovered kid lit. For those of you unfamiliar with old school turn based rpgs, most of the stories were based on a hero with a humble background making an epic change in the world, –or an anti-hero–, while growing as a person themselves. What better crossover is there than children’s and teen literature, where the protagonist often has low expectations placed on them, is put in a difficult situation and expected to rise to the challenge changing themselves, the community, or the world?
Videogames, not books, got me hooked on stories.
Devin also just started a small video game collection at his library. Awesome!
The Best Snow Day Ever
11 year ago
Finn not only enjoyed the snow, but also really dug Kirby's Epic Yarn
On Wednesday January 12, 2011, Portland, ME got walloped with snow. It wasn’t the biggest snowstorm the town has ever seen, but it did shut everything down. Part of that shutdown was the call I got at 7:00am saying that the library was closed. While I was bummed that our patrons couldn’t get into our building on a snowy day to relax and unwind, I was a bit giddy inside knowing that I got to spend the day with my family.
Two days before, I had borrowed Kirby’s Epic Yarn from my library. It was my favorite game of 2010 even though I didn’t get to spend too much time with it. This time around, I set my goal on completing the whole thing….with some help. Teaching your two year old about video games and all the talk around that has been swirling around in my head long before 8BitLibrary existed. Some will say it’s good, some will say it’s bad. I try to listen to both sides of the story and take a balanced approach. My son Finn and I have played Beatles Rock Band quite a bit before taking on Kirby’s Epic Yarn, but it was just for a moment or two. I’d play 2-3 songs on the bass guitar while Finn drummed along. He picked up some tunes from the game which he can be heard singing (with great alternate Finn lyrics) at the top of his lungs in our apartment almost everyday (EX: BE! SEA! OCTOPUS’ GARDEN! SHAVE!).
Kirby’s Epic Yarn, on the other hand, wasn’t going to be a 15-20 minute thing. I approached playing this game as a story time between myself and Finn. I’d do the playing (unless of course, he wanted to) and as the cut scenes were occurring I’d read them to him. I’d point out interesting things happening on the screen and try to craft an on the fly Kirby narrative as I played the game. I used Kirby’s apartment as a place where Finn and I could experiment with him getting the hang of the controls. We dabbled in placing our found items in the house. Finn wasn’t too interested in this and instead really got into it when I was playing the game. We gave names to some characters and locales in FinnSpeak©.
All in all, I had a blast playing Kirby’s Epic Yarn and I think Finn has a new found love for Kirby as a character. While I can’t see a practice like this being adopted for story times in a public library setting (prove me wrong, please!), for one on one interaction with a child it is a great way to both teach them about video games and get some story time in there as well.
Library’s game to attract teen patrons (via the Portland Press Herald)
01 year ago
Photo by Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer for the Portland Press Herald
When I talk about gaming in the library, I’m often vague and quite hippie-ish with what I’m going for. I need an editor for everything I do. Luckily, the teens of Portland, ME are there to finish my sentences.
All summer, Max and Josh Tommer, ages 10 and 16, respectively, have been coming to game night, playing a board game called Settlers of Catan.
“I just wish this was our house,” Max said.
This is why we’re gaming in the library.