Blog Post
Best Books of 2016
by muffy
Let's start with probably the most anticipated - New York Time's 100 Notable Books of 2016 and the just released The 10 Best Books of 2016.
Well-chosen are The Washington Post's list of this year's best of the best, and I am astounded how similar the 2 lists are.
NPR’s Book Concierge Guide To 2016’s Great Reads lists over 300 titles that the NPR staff and critics loved this year, many of them award-winners.
Speaking of winners, look no further than the ">2016 Goodreads Choice Awards in 20 categories. I should mention that they are the only major book awards decided by readers.
For the fiction reader among us, check out The Huffington Post's the 18 Best Fiction Books of the year; and the Library Journal's best in Genre Fiction (in categories of African American Fiction, Christian Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Romance, SF/Fantasy, Thrillers, and Women's FIction), as well as Graphic Novels.
Publishers' Weekly Best Books 0f 2016 is notable for a list of the Best Children's and YA Books 2016.
Among specific subject lists, check out The Smithsonian's picks for The Best Books About Science of 2016.
Happy Reading.
Blog Post
Lois Lowry's Photographed Life
by mansii
Youth author Lois Lowry has been a long-standing beloved household name for a number of her Newberry winning books, not the least of which are The Giver and Number the Stars. The Giver many might know from its 2014 movie rendition including star actors such as Meryl Streep. Lowry has always been one to write stories that not only capture the imagination but challenge her readers to question, and to hang tight to all the goodness they can find. They are insightful and provocative for both the young and old.
Her newly updated and expanded autobiographical work retains this legacy. Looking Back: A Book of Memories reads like an album. The reader flips through glossy page after glossy page of photographs paired with a short, page-long reminiscence. Each glimpse of Lowrian history is also joined with a quote from one of her books, so we can trace her inspiration for characters and passages. Lowry traces the lines where her personhood is inextricably linked to the stories she has crafted.
In a simple style aimed towards the middle grade audience her novels have been written for, Lowry uses these pages to welcome us into her own family. She points out details and gives backstory, shares personal responses and humorous anecdotes, much like one might pass down stories to a grandchild. She conveys not only her own life, but includes photographs of her parents, children, grandchildren, and even some friends, showing the web through which we form our identity.
Looking Back is not entitled a “Book of Memories” for nothing; Lowry gently asks many questions about the nature of memory throughout these pages, a theme readily seen in The Giver as well. When we see a face but cannot remember a name, what does that do to a person’s identity? Does time’s inevitable morphing of names and details mean that our memories become false? How is our memory influenced by the fleeting moments captured by the camera, even when these moments would be seen differently in light of a bigger picture? One thing becomes clear: memory is a gift, and the small moments of our lives make history.
Blog Post
Are We There Yet?
by manz
Long car rides can be downright boring. Especially for the kids in the backseat calling out “are we there yet?” The picture book, Are We There Yet? is by Caldecott medalist Dan Santat (The Adventures of Beekle) and is a funny look at one family’s road trip adventure. The beautiful illustrations set the backdrop for a looooong ride to Grandma’s house that's filled with imagination. The book has you turning it round and round, upside down and backwards to follow the adventure, in a way that won’t make you carsick. The moral of the story is, you never know where life may take you, so sit back and enjoy the ride.
Blog Post
Learn About Bees with Bee Present Honey!
by Beth Manuel
Join us Saturday November 12, 2016 from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm in the Pittsfield Branch Program Room!
We'll learn about some of the health benefits of honey, learn a bit about beekeeping and make some Bee-utiful crafts. See what all the buzz is about Saturday!
This event is intended for grades 2-5
Blog Post
Election Day Reads for Kids
by evelyn
Want to talk to your kids about election day and civic engagement? Look no further than your library!
For a basic primer on voting and democracy, check out Every Vote Matters or School House Rocks: Election Collection.
Help your little ones learn about the people who fought for the right to vote with these great titles. I especially recommend the beautiful and moving book Lillian’s Right to Vote, which is about the Voting Rights Act of 1965. With lovely illustrations and stirring text, this book will help kids learn understand how hard citizens have worked to earn the vote.
For even more books on voting and democracy, take a look at this list!
Blog Post
New Beautiful Fall Picture Books
by manz
I found two cute picture books on the NEW shelf recently and they happen to have the same illustrator. The illustrations are the main reason I grabbed each of these books! The images by Susan Gal are made with charcoal on paper and digital collage and the result is bold colors in broad strokes of oranges and reds that fully illustrate that fall feeling. Looking through these books makes you want to head outside and look all the lush fall colors this October.
Hocus Pocus, It’s Fall! takes the reader on a fall tour and finds things like dried pods, squirrels, red leaves, apples and more fall staples. It’s a darling rhyming story.
With a similar palette, Bella’s Fall Coat is an actual story. Young Bella has a favorite coat, and her Grams urges her throughout the story that it’s time for a new coat, as Bella is getting too big for her old one. “But it’s my favorite,” cries Bella. And out the door she runs to play. As fall turns into winter, it might just be time for a new coat after all, and what should happen to Bella’s old favorite coat? Well, it finds a precious new home. A lovely, lovely book!
Blog Post
A Child of Books
by manz
I am a child of books. I come from a world of stories and upon my imagination I float.
That is the first line in a beautiful new picture book, A Child of Books, written by Oliver Jeffers, with Jeffers collaborating with Sam Winston on the illustrations, which are done in watercolor, pencil, and digital collage.
Amid the words that tell the “story” are more words typed and piled up in shapes such as a wave, a mountain, a tunnel, a tree, and a monster. Also in the tiny words are nods to children’s classics – Little Red Riding Hood, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Gulliver’s Travels, and many more.
The book encourages readers to explore and imagine through books and reading, which can take you so many places on so many journeys! It’s a quiet thinker of a book, and will also be adored by adult audiences who enjoy these types of picture books, and who love books and children’s literature. The cool kids' books aren’t just for kids!
Definitely look at the catalog page for this book to check out a preview of the book just at it appears.
Blog Post
A Look Back, a Step Forward
by Lucy S
How do you write about recent, disastrous history in a middle-grade book? And why? Jewell Parker Rhodes answers both of these questions in her new book, Towers Falling. This isn't the first book in which she has tackled hard, real life issues. Rhodes won The Coretta Scott King Award for her 2010 book, The Ninth Ward, the story of a girl braving Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In Towers Falling, Rhodes has again created a necessary and captivating book focusing, in part, on the events of September 11th. A class of fifth-graders in a Brooklyn school begins their school year by learning about the missing towers in the New York City landscape they see from their classroom window. As the year is 2016, none of these children were alive on September 11, 2001, and this towerless panorama is the only one they know. Their teacher, Ms. Garcia, uses this cityscape and its significance to begin a dialogue on interconnectedness, and the idea that history is alive. The students eventually come to realize that they are all connected to one another through this living history and therefore linked to the victims and witnesses of September 11.
At the heart of this story is fifth-grader Deja, who has recently moved into a homeless shelter, The Avalon, with her parents and two younger siblings. When asked to do a project about her home, Deja struggles, and then replicates her family instead of her physical dwelling. In so doing, she underscores Ms. Garcia’s message of affinity, the strength of relationships, and the nuanced meanings of family and home.
Deja and her two friends, Saleem and Ben, carry on this conversation and their learning outside of the classroom as they work on a homework assignment together. In creating a study of the “far past” and the “recent past” in America, these three arrive at an understanding of what it might mean to be an American, no matter where you’re from, or how or when you arrived. Deja is African-American, Saleem is Turkish and Ben has Mexican heritage. Their shared experiences make them realize that as part of the “American circle,” they are “different but still American.” “Some histories repeat; some events are unique. There is regional, statewide, and national history. We share all of it in common as Americans.”
Towers Falling is marketed towards 8 to 12 year-olds, and does, eventually provide some striking details from September 11, which are never easy to encounter. Still, this book is important for readers of all ages, teenagers and adults included, who will benefit from learning Deja's story, and grow because of the experience.
Blog Post
Fall Programs at 826Michigan
by Sunny29
Have you heard about 826Michigan? It's a wonderful non-profit just around the corner from the Downtown library branch housed in the Liberty Street Robot Supply and Repair Shop. They inspire school-aged students to write confidently and skillfully with the help of adult volunteer from their communities. This fall, 826Michigan's Liberty Street location has a number of tutoring sessions, drop-in writing programs and creative writing workshops.
In addition to tutoring options at AADL and Brainfuse, which you can access at any AADL branch or from the comfort of your own home with your library card, here's more about what 826Michigan has to offer this fall.
TUTORING:
September 26th- December 8th
- Monday-Thursday, 3:30-5:30 p.m.-
DROP-IN WRITING, ages 6-10:
September 28th- November 16th
- Wednesdays, 6-7 p.m.
CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOPS:
Saturdays, October-November
*Registration begins Saturday, September 24th on their website.
Blog Post
One to Make You Cry, One to Make You Spy
by manz
Here are two new and absolutely fabulous picture books from the new shelf in the youth department. And yes, one will make you cry and one will get you to spy!
Let’s spy first. Search and Spot Animals is a beautifully illustrated book that invites young readers to look at the illustrations and find assorted animals! One moment you’re searching for dogs on their morning walk, and the next you’re searching for animals that belong in the forest. It is a wonderful book to read and seek together.
Okay, time for the grown-ups to cry. Perhaps. I love You Always starts out with a little boy being put to bed by his mother. He asks, “Mom, will you love me my whole life?” Her reply: “Well, let me tell you a secret.” And she goes on to tell the child how she has loved him from the day she met him and even before then. How she loves him when he can see it and when he can’t. The book goes on and on in this manner, and it is tender and dear and may just pull on those heart strings. This book would also make a great readaloud, especially in a quiet moment, or before bedtime.