Library releases two news books

Today two new additions to the list of locally produced publications officially hit bookshelves. Treasures of a Century is a collection of twentieth century poetry collected and edited by the Poetry Committee of the Belize National Library Service and Information System and Culture Groups of Belize, written by Lawrence Vernon, is a reference guide on local ethnicity. This morning Principal Librarian Vernon described both books.

Lawrence Vernon, Principal Librarian
“We covered the four major groups, the Maya, Mestizo, Creole and Garifuna along with the smaller groups like the Mennonites, East Indians, and of course I included a part on the Wika, which most people don’t know about. By the way, the word Wika is Creole word for Mosquito Indians of the Nicaraguan coast. I targeted the fifth and sixth standards in the primary school and the first and second forms. And also it should be useful for visitors coming to our country, the tourists, it’s not very heavy reading, not very many pages so it isn’t something you really have to study. It’s something that you get information from.”

“And we thought that we would just compile the poems of the twentieth century dating back from 1920 to 2000, just to give everybody an idea of what poetry was like in those days to compare to what it is today.”

Janelle Chanona
“Is that meant to reinvigorate the public?”

Lawrence Vernon
“Yes because the type of poetry written is quite different as you might know, there is no rhyme nowadays although there was strict rhyming in the old days. Now it’s just telling a tale, a story in poetry form.”

Both publications are on sale at the Leo Bradley Library on Princess Margaret Drive. Cultural Groups sells for fifteen dollars while Treasures of a Century retails at twenty.