Friends of the Thousand Oaks Library Launches Online Bookshop, Good Friends, Good Books

Friends of the Thousand Oaks Library (FTOL) has launched an online bookshop, Good Friends, Good Books.

The Friends of the Thousand Oaks Library Good Friends, Good Books online bookshop currently offers over 4,000 titles, including children’s books, adult fiction and nonfiction as well as CDs, DVDs and gift books.

The shop includes books and other items that have been donated by the community and range in quality from like new to gently used. All proceeds support the Thousand Oaks Library; all sales are final.

Items ordered before Friday evening will be ready for COVID-safe pickup the following Sunday morning at the main entrance of the Library between 9:30 am and 11:00 am.

If you miss visiting the FTOL bookshop inside the Grant R. Brimhall Library, this is the next best thing! The Library is located at 1401 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks.

The mission of the Friends of the Thousand Oaks Library, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is to increase awareness of, raise funds for, and actively assist the Thousand Oaks Library and its branch(s) to promote learning, literacy and cultural knowledge via materials, programs such as Summer Reading, materials and technology and services made available to the community.

Visit the bookshop at shopftol.org.

Gateway Community School in Camarillo For At-Risk Kids Lauded in New Book

Gateway Community School in Camarillo, which serves some of Ventura County’s most troubled kids, is receiving recognition for major reforms that have made it a model for schools across the country.

It’s About Time: Planning Interventions and Extensions in Secondary School, edited by Mike Mattos and Austin Buffum, dedicates a full chapter to the changes Gateway has undergone since it began implementing reforms in 2010. In the chapter titled “From a Last Resort to a Model School of Choice,” the book describes Gateway’s transformation from a troubled, underperforming school to an example of success. The chapter was authored by Dr. Jane Wagmeister, the Executive Director of the Curriculum and Instruction Department at the Ventura County Office of Education.

Students are sent to Gateway Community School from their home districts due to repeated suspensions, expellable offenses, severe substance abuse and gang involvement. Prior to the reforms, Gateway suffered from low attendance and frequent disciplinary problems, with only 30% of students passing the state high school exit exam.

To address these issues, the Ventura County Office of Education, which operates the school, began a complete restructuring that included the hiring of James Koenig as the new Principal. After a careful assessment of the reasons for the school’s troubles, an extensive series of reforms were put in place. These included improved training of teachers and staff, an updated curriculum, adjustments to the school schedule and separating the middle school from the high school. Perhaps the most important change was shifting the school culture to one that gives students positive feedback, emotional support and a clear understanding of expectations.

The results were dramatic: the daily attendance rate at Gateway increased from 75% to 88%, the number of eleventh and twelfth graders passing the high school exit exam rose from two to 15, and the number of suspensions due to physical altercations decreased from 451 to 14.

Another positive outcome is that Gateway students have a newfound respect for service to the community. They are working at giving back by organizing blood drives, serving as volunteers at the local animal shelter and collecting donations for the homeless in Ventura County.

About the Ventura County Office of Education

The Ventura County Office of Education provides a broad array of fiscal, training and technology support services to local school districts, helping to maintain and improve lifelong educational opportunities for children, educators and community members. VCOE also operates schools that serve students with severe disabilities and behavioral issues and coordinates countywide academic competitions including Mock Trial and the Ventura County Science Fair. Learn more at www.vcoe.org

Lot of Buzz About New Bookstore That Opened Today at The Oaks Mall

UPDATE: This location closed effective 3/1/20 but owners anticipate relocating elsewhere around town.

Conejo Valley Guide Facebook followers were abuzz today about the new The Open Book bookstore that opened at The Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks this morning. It has been quite a number of years since there was a bookstore at The Oaks, and from the oohs and ahhs shown on Facebook, there are still quite a number of folks chomping at the bit to buy books!

According to its Facebook page, The Open Book was previously located at the Topanga Westfield Mall in the San Fernando Valley. According to owners, The Open Book sells new books and DVDs at significantly discounted prices. The store contains an inventory of an estimated 20,000 items, which also includes out of print and vintage books. In addition to a Sunday children's storytime, the store plans to initiate a book club at a future date.

The Open Book is located on the 2nd floor inside The Oaks in the store that previously was occupied by Coldwater Creek. In, fact, they indicated that dressing rooms were demolished to make room for an amazing kids' department. The store is located next to the doors leading to the outdoor shops, restaurants and Muvico.

Call (805) 494-5056 for more information.

Long-Time Newbury Park Resident John Mulhall's Debut Novel "Geddy's Moon"

Long-time Newbury Park resident John Mulhall’s debut novel is called Geddy's Moon.

"Tyler is an amnesiac, drifting aimlessly across the country, struggling to regain his lost memories. When he arrives in Geddy’s Moon, a sleepy town in the middle of the Kansas wheat fields, fragments of his past begin to resurface. But as he establishes new relationships in town, and spends time with the local librarian and her son, he finds himself tormented by nightmares that grow more unsettling each night. What horrific events took place before Tyler arrived in Geddy’s Moon? And could he have brought a terrifying – and possibly supernatural – danger along with him? As the pieces of his fractured memory begin to fall into place, he fears that it may already be too late to keep himself, and those he’s begun to care about, safe from a vicious evil."

In addition to being an award-winning video and event producer, John is also the author of several short stories, plays and a collection of poetry. He began developing Geddy’s Moon more than twenty years ago at age nineteen. In fact, Mulhall indicated that "Geddy's Moon" is actually set in a fictional version of Newbury Park circa 1983.

There will be a Geddy's Moon reading and book signing at the E.P. Foster Library in Ventura at 7pm on October 11th. Your chance to meet the author and learn a little more about his debut horror novel! Visit www.johnmulhall.com to learn more.

Local Author Publishes New Adventure Novel Geared Towards Teens and Launches Book Caches in Local Mountains

Local author David Smith has written a new young adult action adventure novel about a boy named Kief whose life is thrown into a grand adventure when his dead grandfather leaves him a mysterious map on his birthday.  Beyond his action adventure novel for teens, David is offering his readers something more than a great story – the opportunity to go on their own personal adventure.

In the mountains surrounding the Conejo Valley from the Simi Hills to the Santa Monica Mountains, David has hidden copies of his book in old-style treasure boxes.  He calls it “Book Cache Adventures” and you can learn more about it at his website www.fundautum.com.

After hiding the treasure boxes, he posts the GPS coordinates of their locations on his website and his Facebook page The Dark Eagles.  Young adventurers, along with their parents, can print maps using a link he’s provided on his website that will help guide them to the location.

The book and treasure box are the prize to the first person who finds them.  David hopes his story, and subsequent stories in the series to come, will inspire young people to get out and explore the world around them, and to never stop dreaming about their own possibilities.

His “Book Cache Adventures” are a small way he’s trying to encourage adventure in young people. “When we are kids, we dream and believe in all kinds of things.  Somehow as adults, we lose that spirit.  I hope to encourage and instill that adventuresome nature in kids so that they don’t lose it when they grow up,” David says.

Learn more about David’s action adventure novel The Dark Eagles – First Flight at his website www.fundautum.com .