Submitted by Marleen Nienhuis

The next speaker of the South End Writes season, pediatrician Claudia Gold, author of The Silenced Child, will be at the library on Tuesday, October 10. Gold argues that listening to children and interpreting their behavior as another form of communication makes more sense than labeling their acting out as deviant, or medicating children to keep them quiet. She will be followed by longtime former foreign bureau chief for the weekly news magazine Time, Sam Allis, who will read from his historical novel, A Hero of Two Worlds on November 28.

On December 5, celebrity chef Jody Adams will be at the library to demonstrate how to make pasta, and to talk about her career. Adams worked with another celebrity chef, Gordon Hamersley, in the early years of Hamerseley's Bistro, and helped perfect the now-closed restaurant's famous roasted chicken. Hamersley spoke about his life as a chef at the library a year ago.

Mayor Marty Walsh was at the South End branch last week as part of the South End Forum's September meeting, accompanied by many of his agencies' heads; he expressed strong support for the proposed renovation plans for both the South End branch library and Library Park. The novel public/private partnership between the Friends of the SouthEnd Library (FOSEL) and the Boston Public Library (BPL) to use both public and private funding for the interior renovation is a first step towards a larger commitment by the city of Boston for the South End branch's future expansion, according to Mayor Walsh. David Leonard, president of the BPL, described for the audience numerous other renovation and reconstruction projects underway throughout the BPL system which, when completed, will free up the resources and funding for the South End library's additional future needs.

Parks Department Commissioner Chris Cook told the audience that a public meeting to solicit comments about the refurbishment of Library Park is planned for this fall. Date and time are to be determined. Stay tuned.

Finally, the next Local/Focus installation in the Tremont Street window of the library will be organized by the Perkins Library, located on the campus of the Perkins School for the Blind, and feature services available to South End's visually impaired community of all ages, for free, via the South End library. It will be put together sometime in the final weeks of September and include some historical features and current devices and resources, including for children.

The South End Branch of the Boston Public Library is located at 685 Tremont Street. More informaton at www.friendsofsouthendlibrary.org