Carol's Home Page
Common Place Family Learning Center
About Carol
My name is Carol Turbett. I have lived most of my life in the Peoria area. I am the Academic Advisor for the Adult Literacy Program at Common Place. I help tutors and students select materials and methods that will help them meet their goals. I meet with them periodically to see how they are progressing and if they need any new materials.
Sometimes I teach class. Many times I read Let’s Connect! Books with the class so that they will be ready to discuss the books at Book Club. This year I read The Reappearance of Sam Webber with the group. We really enjoyed the book and meeting the author when he visited Common Place. Between Let’s Connect! Book Club and Peoria Reads! Our Adult Learners have many new experiences with books, field trips, and meeting authors.
Before I worked at Common Place, I was a classroom teacher. I have certificates to teach elementary school and high school. I could also be a principal of a school. However, I have always been interested in helping people who have had to drop out of school or who had problems with learning. I really love adult education. It is rewarding to see the Adult Learners enjoying learning new things and growing in their capabilities.
As you must have guessed, reading is my absolute favorite thing to do! My grandmother signed me up for my first library card when I was eight years old. I lived in a rural area for a while and had to depend on the Bookmobile for reading material. I was thrilled when the Peoria Public Library was able to raise enough money to replace their worn out bookmobile. Not only is it new, it is bigger and has many new features. Long live the library and the bookmobile.
Favorite Author
Favorite Books
Fern Michaels is another author whose books I enjoy reading. Her two latest books, TRADING PLACES and LATE BLOOMER, combine humor, suspense, and support of family and friends to weave an enjoyable tale.
In TRADING PLACES, twin sisters trade places to solve a crime. Although they are identical twins, their personalities are opposites. Their job choices reflect their differences in personality - one is a police detective; the other works in a Las Vegas Casino and is a skilled gambler. As you may imagine, it is difficult for the gambler to act like her straight as an arrow sister. However, she gives it her best and the sisters succeed in solving the crime.
The term LATE BLOOMER has a double meaning in this book. A significant event happened at a Judas tree which was always the last one of its kind to bloom each year. The people who were present when the event happened also were LATE BLOOMERS emotionally because they all denied knowing about the event. The people were children ten and thirteen years old. They were frightened to admit their knowledge of the incident. They thought that something terrible would happen to them. When one of the people who had been involved moved back to town, everyone had to decide what to do about telling their part in the event. Their struggle to tell the truth or not reveals much about their characters. You must read this book to find out what happened.
Debbie Macomber knows about family relationships and friendship. She has written several books lately that make this evident. THURSDAYS AT EIGHT, BETWEEN FRIENDS, CHANGING HABITS, 16 LIGHTHOUSE ROAD, 44CRANBERRY COVE, 204 ROSEWOOD LANE, AND 311 PELICAN COURT will make you both laugh and cry. Debbie makes her characters come alive. The reader cheers each person on, agonizes over problems, and cries at unsolvable problems (at least from the character's point of view.)
Debbie began writing in the 1980's. I have read nearly all of her books. These last ones are some of her best. Maturity as a person has deepened her as a writer. Some of her first books are being released again. Visit any bookstore and choose one of her books.
This page maintained by: Carol Turbett -
(commonplace@sbcglobal.net)