The Friday Zone; 107; "Elsa Marsten Cliffs of Cairo, Mysteries/Library, Writing, Madeleine Segue, Talking Animals"

- Transcript
Hey. Everyone we've got a great show coming up for you and it's all about books. We're going to celebrate National Children's Book Week with a children's book author. My trip to the library after you read projects and ideas and some talking animals you might want to get out pencils and paper during this show because there's a lot of stuff to write down so stay tuned. The WTI you broadcast of The Friday zone is made possible in part by being into to the hospital and the health care system a nonprofit community hospital serving patients in nine counties in south central Indiana taking care of you close to home. And Guy Cinergy the parent company of PSII energy incorporated and by the Herald Times offering comprehensive news advertising burning and publishing for over one hundred twenty two years. And by the credit union full service financial institution focusing on family banking savings investment services and consumer borrowing offering six buildings and locations as well as electronic banking services and by Smithville telephone company Obering
ISDN to Ellisville as well as Internet services and custom calling features to such subscribers Smithville telephone company connecting you to the rest of the world. It's Friday every Friday so. That's I want. To carry it. All. Right. Well what you got. At the end of the week it's a big. Only. The. Ride is over. Welcome to the Friday zone. I'm Holly Gregory. And today is the beginning of National Children's Book Week all across the nation all week long. People are going to be celebrating children's books
here at Friday's zone. We think books are great. We've got a lot of them on our set and we love to read. I think that one of the neatest things about books is that they're so different you can always find a book about something you're interested in. And one of the reasons the books are so different is that there are all sorts of different people that write the books that you read. And today on Fridays on the first thing we're going to do is introduce you to an author I'd like to introduce you to Elsa Marsden. Elsa Thanks for joining us today. Hi. Hello. I'm glad to be here. Tell me a little bit about the things that you write. What do you like to write about. Oh I like to write about many different things. I like to write about it long ago and far away because even when I was a little girl I liked to know about other countries and wish I could visit them. And when I grew up I did have a chance to. So I write about archaeology and I also write about fantasy and things that go on in our life today in this country. So. So you write some things that are stories in other books that are not fiction
right. That's right. What is the difference between writing those two. Well it's often easier to get a contract to do a book of non-fiction than a story for instance I've written a book about archaeology in America the one called mysteries in American archaeology and a book about ancient Egypt and the way the religion and the way people thought. I'm just about to start a new book like that one about the Phoenicians who lived long ago in what is now Lebanon and Israel. And. Those words must take a lot of research like you spend a lot of your time in the library. Yes yes. I love to spend time in the library or bringing home piles of books and reading them at home. I really enjoy the research. What are some of your favorite things to read when you're not researching children's books. Yes. I spend most of my reading time reading children's books because that's that's
what I do that's my business. And I like to know what other people are writing. And just keep up with what's going on. And because I'd like them. So what do you do each day to be a writer do you sort of wake up in the morning and get dressed and go to a study somewhere or you know what do you sort of do each day. Well I don't have a very rigid schedule. I it's not hard for me to write because I'd rather do that than almost anything else except playing tennis. So it's not like forcing myself. But I don't insist that I spend a certain number of hours every day just as much as I can. Right now you said you were going to read some for us right. Yes. OK. This is from Cynthia and the runaway gazebo right Cynthia and the runaway goes. OK. Now while Elsa reads I'm going to hold the picture down here so that you guys can see them OK tell us what's happening here Elsa.
Well first I'll tell you what I see is because although most people have seen one it's a funny word and not maybe not everybody knows what the CBO is. It's a little house that sits in the garden. It's not for living in but just to sit in on a hot summer day and read a book or drink your lemonade. OK. And then my story Cynthia is a very shy little girl. She's not very very healthy and she's quite timid and unsure of herself and she's come to visit her great aunt Isabelle who lives in a fine house in the country. OK. And the story takes place maybe a hundred years ago so it sounds a little old fashioned. OK. They're having a garden party and Cynthia is supposed to be the hostess to all the children. The children were sent down to the croquet court near the river. Then everyone stood and waited for Cynthia to start the game. But Cynthia had never learned how to play croquet. Oh dear she thought already I'm
failing in my duties as a hostess. Suddenly she felt a chilly breeze. Great black clouds had piled up out of nowhere a fierce wind blew. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed. The children ran to the gas depot. Scarcely had they all squeezed inside. When the heavens opened. Rain fell as if the very seas were turned upside down. Soon the gazebo floated right off its foundations with all the boys and girls aboard. It glided along the lawn until with a terrifying lurch it slid down the bank and into the raging river. The river grew broader and broader and soon it reached the sea. When the storm finally ceased the children found themselves tossing on the deep far from land. Cynthia you are the hostess said one of the girls crossly. Please lose no time in
getting us out of this horrid situation. I shall do my best said Cynthia faintly holding on to her railing as the gazebo rocked. Just then she spotted a sail on the horizon. Rescue was up hand. This page. But as the ship drew nearer Cynthia could see that the sails were as red as blood. Heavens. She said to herself not wishing to alarm her guests. I do hope they are not pirates. And if you want to know if they were pirates. You can read the book read them. Sounds like Cynthia might be in a bit of trouble if they are pirates. Well that's wonderful. Now how long have you been writing. How long did you start publishing. I started writing when I was eight years old because I wanted to be an author way back then and I started three novels that year while which didn't get
beyond the second or third page. But that was the stuff that was the start. So as a serious effort I've been writing almost 20 years. Well I thank you so much for coming and enjoying joining us today. And you can check out else's books in the library. Wonder for her to share these stories with us. And now we're going to take a look at some mysteries that I discovered at the library. This is one of our kids called Adventures and I'll tell you all about our Free Kids Club after we watch the adventure in the library. There will be a phone number at the end of the adventure. So if you've got a pen and paper handy you might want to copy that number down. Now let's go take a look at some mysteries of the library. Kids love adventure. One of my favorite places to come to get great books to read is the library. But the last time I was here I discovered a few mysteries that I thought needed solving day. I have come prepared. To solve them. Now. The first one is this right here. The book dropped mistreats the
librarian told me that if the library was close I could return my books by dropping them right through this suit. However my question is Where did the books go. Once I've dropped them through today why don't we. Find out. Have I thought it might be something like this. This is the inside of the library book drop. So what happened was I dropped my books through from the outside and they came down the chute just like they were going down the slide until they landed on the conveyor belt right here. Now. I can press one of these pedals on the floor. And move the books. Down the conveyor belt toward me. So what happens is I drop the books in they go down the chute onto the conveyor belt down the
conveyor belt and then the people that work here can take my books and check them back in so they know I have returned them. That is one mystery that has been solved. Let's keep sleuthing. Another thing I discovered when I was at the library was that a lot of these books have plastic on them like this one. So I wondered why do they have plastic and how
did they get the plastic. Well that's mystery number two. Let's go find them. This is technical services all of the new books that come to the library come here to technical services so that they can be put in the library's computer. And the books and have book jackets can get their plastic. When a book lives at the library. It has a lot of temporary owners. So to keep the books protected and to keep the book jackets in nice condition they attach these special plastic covers these plastic covers are made just for libraries. I did find one other sort of mystery. The library as well but this one wasn't a mystery that I needed to
solve. It was one of the mysteries that was already written. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. And after all that something I am ready to sit down and relax with a good book. So remember there are all sorts of mysteries you can solve. When. I called upon my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes one in the autumn of last year. And found him an. Elderly man. If you'd like to become a member of the WTU kids club please have your parents call 1 800 6 6 2 3 3 1 1. OK I'm going to give you that phone number one more time just in case you missed it. It's 1 866 2 3 3 1 1 and you can have a parent or grandparent call us and give us all your information then you can become a member of our kids club when you join the kids club. We will send you a lunch bag like this one. It's also a great toy bag or book bag and will also send you all sorts of cool stuff through the mail you get postcards and games and invitations to all our events. Plus you get a membership card with your name on it. You might have seen our kids club adventures on other times too.
So if you don't want to do it today don't worry about it you can do it some other time. But I invite all of you to become members of our kids club. Now it's time to take a look at our Herald Times challenge every week. The Herald Times prints a challenge question for us in their fourth and goal section. And today or no sorry Wednesday the challenge question was about Giants because the Colts are going to play the New York Giants on Sunday. And the question is lots of fairy tales include giants as characters. One of the most famous is Jack and the Beanstalk. What new character would you add to the story. Jack And The Beanstalk if you could. So think about that. Who would you add to the story. The first thing I did to answer this challenge question was that I went to the library and I got a copy of Jack and the Beanstalk. And so I read up on that and you guys know the story right. Jack and his mom need to sell their cow she sends Jack to the market to do it and he's supposed to come back with money and instead he comes back with what magic beans and she says Jacqui. You know what are you going to do with these magic beans she tosses
him out the window. It sprouts into a huge beanstalk. Jack climbs up the beanstalk and meets the Giants. OK so that's the basic story and then other things happen there's a golden goose in there and a singing harp it's very interesting. But our challenge was to find some new characters so I started to think about who wasn't in the story. Well it's just Jack and his mom was there was a sister right. What if there was Jack's sister Josephine or what if there was another brother one of Jack's little brother went with him to the market. What about that or what if once he got to the giant There was another person who lived in the land of the giants. What about whereas the Jahnke it is so dry. What if there's a huge giant Baker who makes big giant loaves of bread. That's all we really need to do to answer these sorts of challenge questions is just to think about it and think about the other things that might happen in the story and how you would expand on it how you would make the story a little different. And I want to show you another writing game two of them actually they're really fun to play. I went to Fairview Elementary School and visited with a fourth grade class there and they were very helpful
with me when I played the full down story again which all you have to do is start with this one sentence is the idea of a story at the top of the page. So for instance this one said no one knew how it happened but they're in the middle of the street set three enormous tomatoes and then each person you sit in a group with and I'd say maybe four or five other people and each person gets to add a sentence and you can kind of fold down the top. OK so that's a full done game. And they came up with several different stories and then you could also play another game where you put the different ideas like places in one bucket and names of characters in the other buckets and then you pick them out. And that gives you an idea so I could pick out let's see Alien and lunchrooms so that I'd write a story about an elite in the lunchroom. All that you guys can come up with a lot of great stories so just think about that these is my challenge to you guys is to come up with some stories. And now it's time for our spotlight show of the week. This week it's an Arthur the first story is about D-W and her imaginary friend named Dean. And the second story is all about Arthur's last
library book. He has a library mystery to solve as well. So we'll be back with some great ideas for projects after you've read a book and also some squawking animals so we'll see you after Arthur. There it is painted. We had pumpkin painting in our first show. Pretty soon I think that pumpkin is going to. Be. A hundred. OK. Yeah. I mean we definitely it took us a couple of shows to sort of but now it's great because we're starting to get you know camera people and crew people that have done it a couple of times and it's just sort of unusual to explain. You know then you need to take a shot of the
sign and you know that can mean a lot of different things. It means in general the sun is in the shot you know. So it's just nice to be able to say things like that then you do the sign of it's like OK you know. And so it is. I mean if he's going to think that. But yeah it is. It's just fine when it is glittery. Yeah. Hey what do you think of Slinky's Slinky's the ones you know were like kind of hanging from the ceiling like Big Springs. 30 seconds. I thought those are interesting glittery though. I opened to three. OK.
That prompter is sliding that prompters. Welcome back to the Friday zone. We are celebrating National Children's Book Week today and we're talking all about books. I want to introduce you to Rosa Liesel and her mom Mary and they're going to show us a couple of neat things to do after you've read a book right so many things to do. You read a book I mean reading books is great right. But there's so much to do afterward to kind of extend the fun. You can try science projects after reading books if you read a book about the snow and you want to try a science project about the snow. You might read a book like Strega Moana about lots and lots of pasta and make a dish. The stone soup. We've done that at home before. Stone Soup. What are some of your favorites. ROSE What are you what do you like to do after you read. About.
Do you like to get your. Do you like to make stuff. Yeah. Show us so is this one Rosy's walk right. This is one of Rosens favorite books right. Who's Rosie. Rosie's Rosie is bad has and she is staying one step ahead of this fox it goes along all over the farm here they pass some Bumblebee's and she's just fine. And he gets stung and she passes a pond and she goes fine and he falls in all these things that happen to them. She passes a haystack. And of course he falls in. Well it seemed to us to lend itself to a game. Now I like to make things that don't require a lot of a lot of time or materials. I have an old file folder. We made a Rosy's want game meets Rosie and the fox will start off at home base here. We roll the dice and they move through the same events that are in the story. Each time they come home they get a corn kernel and the first person to collect three corn kernels wins. It took probably 15 minutes to
make this. And it's a fun to play and then late thinking about the book right. Sure OK. And what about this one. This is a favorite story of ours right. The Mitton about a small mountain that grows and grows and grows as various animals find their way inside like a rabbit and a hedgehog even a bear fits they saw inside the Mytton absolutely a traditional folk tale and it was extremely easy for us to find the Mitton in our house and we might not have a hedgehog but we have things like a cat that can come along and we can recreate the story we can act it out. And so that the Crow might come along and say Is there any more here from me. They might say. They use them in season. So you can act a story out many ways some day. We walk around and do Rosy's walk play with the mitten to show you maybe a variety
of things that can be done with a certain book. Of course here is the classic Madaline about that plucky young girl and Rose you're a madeleine fan right. Absolutely. So let's show a few of the things that we can do with Magdaline let's say for just a second there and now we have kids at the library where I work I'm a children's librarian at the Public Library. They want to know about all these things. What is this place and where is she walking. You might want to come and find a nonfiction or true story about so that they can find out that this is the Eiffel Tower. That is always in France and she's in Paris right. She's in Paris in an old house covered with vines. Oh there's the old house covered with vines right now. This is just a good old paper plate and Madaline can play here she can make her entrance. I would love for you to show the art project that you made based on Madeleine. Now if you'll remember Medline there are 12 little girls and they walk right into straight lines. Oh here they are right on the cover. They are two little girls two lines. There you go. OK. The point is made again and again that they walk in
two straight lines. Rose took two pens and taped them together and made them walk around Paris. You want to show some of the things that they pass along the way where is the house covered with vines. I mean that on her own. What else do they see as they go along. What's this place. The Bridge. What happens on that bridge. She does Salzar the river. Do you remember that in the name of this place full time. How about this thing over here. I bet if anyone has read this book they might remember what that is attacking Israel. It's Tiger in the zoo. This is neat. This is a really neat idea of Rose you just took so the blue line as one line of girls in the black line is another line of girls right and you just moved them all over the place. It was great. It was great fun. I was making dinner while she was doing this and she explained the whole thing and everything needs something that we could also. This is leftover from a party that we had we had plastic plates and bowls leftover in the
roses little sister Sophie Can-Can where I live in mid-July. So this is this red yarn or string yarn and then on top there's a yellow plastic bowl and in the bottom it's a yellow plastic plate and absolutely. Doesn't take much. And one of our favorite stories of all in fact Rose's sister Sophie's favorite story is Goldilocks and the Three Bears. This is something that Sophie and I made just this week. We all have our Christmas catalogs coming right now. And what to do with them all recycling. Here is the house in the woods in which the three bears live. And there is Goldilocks. You want to hold up Goldilocks in front of the house because that's what she does. She goes over and visits that house. And these are just little puppets right. I think they're finger puppets they have a loop of we show you the back of this. We go see how it's made it's just a little piece of construction paper with some scotch tape there and then the bear was cut out from a catalog with absolutely.
And then you just slip your finger in like a ring and you've got a finger puppet so she can come over and she can find how many bowls of course like say three either one or two have one that's to call and one let's just try. Absolutely. Great idea. It's fun. Thank you so much for coming in and sharing these ideas with us. These are great ideas to keep sort of the fun of reading after you're finished reading the book resolutely. Thanks Rose. Thanks for coming in. I've also got a couple of books here about talking animals and one of my favorites is Charlotte's Web. It's one of my favorite books and it's full of barnyard animals that not only talk but they read and write too. Now don't forget that you forget that you can send us book reviews of all the books that you really like or books that you thought were terrible that's very review as you can tell that was good or bad. And you can send us those via our Web site at. W w w w t you that Indiana dot edu backslash right. Or you can e-mail us which is zone at Indiana edu. I'm always looking for good suggestions for books. I'll
read you just a little bit of Charlotte's Web after we take a look at some great things that you can do this week on Friday November 12th. You can have a wild time with Kevin holiday knows all of the latest songs and dances and we'll teach them to you at 7:00 p.m. at Borders Books and music and Warmington. You can meet Clifford the Big Red Dog at Barnes and Noble in Bloomington this well-meaning but enormous pooch will make two special visits at 7:00 p.m. on Friday November 12th and at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday November 13th Saturday November 13th you can enjoy a mini zoo of poison arrow frogs and snakes and more at the wonder live exhibit at Wonderland in Bloomington. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for $2 per child you can ask questions and observe some unusual animals. On Saturday November 13th. Come see the pup player's puppet show at the Monroe County Library in Bloomington. They'll be celebrating National Children's Book Week with great performances at 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. under the Native American museum the Dobb's park in Terre Haute for Native American storytelling on
Saturday November 13 beginning at noon. Dan Helgenberger of the public will do a performance and storytelling session for free next Thursday November 18th. You can celebrate National Children's Book Week with modeline at the Monroe County Library called the library or register for this free appearance on film at 7 p.m.. Don't forget that for more information about these events check out your Herald Times newspaper. OK let me read you just a little bit of Charlotte's Web. This is where Wilbur the pig is getting bored of being in the barnyard OK says when I'm out here he said there's no place to go but it's when I'm indoors. There's no place to go but out in the yard. Well that's where you're wrong my friend my friend said a voice. Wilbur looked through the fence and saw the goose standing there. You don't have to stay in that dirty little dirty little dirty little yard said the Goose who talked rather fast. One of the boards is loose. Push on push push push on and come on it. What's that. Wilbur said slower. At the risk of repeating myself said the Goose I suggest that you come on. It's wonderful out here. Did you say that the board was loose. That I said that I did. Said the Goose. Wilbur walked up to the fence and saw that
the goose was right. One board was loose. He put his head down shut his eyes and pushed the board gave way. In a minute he had squeezed through the fence and was standing in the long grass outside his yard. The goose chuckled. Well you can tell that goose's kind of squawk. So now let's find out the science of noisy animals. I have Emily Cooper here with me and she is going to show me how to make some animals Right. Okay show me one that you've already got made here so that we can see what we're doing and show him how it works. I put my wonder LeVay print on Emily's wedding her sponge a little bits and so in the noise it makes. So those are our squawking animals. OK what's the first thing we need to do Emily. Paper or plastic cap. Poke a hole.
OK we're going to poke a hole in the top and you can do that with a hammer and a nail. We've already got one there so let's go ahead and use that. And what you do is you just take it on the top poke it through and then what's the next step that will be Emily you told this time. Around the paper. OK. Take the string and tie or on a paper clip. We have some paper clips in this bag. OK and here's our string. How long of a string do we need. All right. Hey let's cut that off. And that's. And then the string goes through this whole right can you thread that one through for me. And then the other end of it gets tied to the paperclip. And sometimes it's hard to get that string through the hole is kind of small. And then this side gets tied to the paperclip and then you can you can decorate your cup any way you want it. These ones have lots of feathers on them and you can tell that they have eyes too we just get used construction paper for a little beaks that we have a little bit of a chicken looks kind of a
funky chicken. And then on the side that doesn't have the paperclip the side that is going to get through there. You tie on a little bit of sponge. This is just like a kitchen songs that you've cut into pieces right just a normal sponge and then you tie that and are not doing my job here in I'm not on a paper clip. And then you tie the. The non paper clip end on to there we go on to here. Our string is kind of thick for a. And then you try this on here and then you make not wet. And when you pull it makes the sound right. You ought to squawk that one. Is the one that we've made over here. That's actually all the time that we have today for on Friday zone. We didn't have quite as much time to make these as we would like to hear. They sound great. I'd like to think everybody who came in today Elsom Arsen the delete SOS and Emily for helping me with these animals and I encourage you to go out and celebrate National Children's Book Week find some interesting books to read at the library and enjoy them. Next Friday we'll be live with another great show. I'll introduce you to some turkeys when I'm at the farm.
We'll also have a guest from the Native American museum is going to show us some great Thanksgiving recipes. We're going to look at the science of fat and makes some Cornhusker Gall's. I'm Holly Gregory and I'll see you guys next time on the Friday. So OK first we're going to try that one over there. But WTU broadcast of The Friday zone is made possible in part by moving to the hospital and health care system a nonprofit community hospital serving patients in nine counties in south central Indiana taking care of you close to home. And Guy Cinergy the parent company of PSII energy incorporated and by the Herald Times offering comprehensive news advertising writing and publishing for over one hundred twenty two years. And by the credit union a pay service financial institution focusing on family banking savings investment services and consumer borrowing offering six patients as well as electronic banking services and by Smithville telephone company offering
ISDN to Ellisville as well as Internet services and custom calling features to subscribe to Smithville telephone company. Connecting you to the rest of the world.
- Series
- The Friday Zone
- Episode Number
- 107
- Episode
- "Elsa Marsten Cliffs of Cairo, Mysteries/Library, Writing, Madeleine Segue, Talking Animals"
- Contributing Organization
- WTIU (Bloomington, Indiana)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/160-78gf240w
If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip/160-78gf240w).
- Description
- Series Description
- The Friday Zone is a children's show that features segments on activities and information for kids.
- Broadcast Date
- 1999-11-12
- Genres
- Children’s
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Duration
- 00:33:33
- Credits
-
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
WTIU (Public Television from Indiana University)
Identifier: TheFridayZoneEp107CairoMysteriesTalkingAnimals (WTIU)
Format: Betacam: SP
Generation: Master
Duration: 00:30:00
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
- Citations
- Chicago: “The Friday Zone; 107; "Elsa Marsten Cliffs of Cairo, Mysteries/Library, Writing, Madeleine Segue, Talking Animals" ,” 1999-11-12, WTIU, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed August 3, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-160-78gf240w.
- MLA: “The Friday Zone; 107; "Elsa Marsten Cliffs of Cairo, Mysteries/Library, Writing, Madeleine Segue, Talking Animals" .” 1999-11-12. WTIU, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. August 3, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-160-78gf240w>.
- APA: The Friday Zone; 107; "Elsa Marsten Cliffs of Cairo, Mysteries/Library, Writing, Madeleine Segue, Talking Animals" . Boston, MA: WTIU, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-160-78gf240w