Posted in Explore and Discover on January 22, 2019 at 6:00 am
By Caitlin Wheeler A young boy grows up poor, not looked after by his foster parents. Abused, neglected, and destitute, he expects little from life, and life expects little from him. Until one day, everything changes. The child in servant’s clothes now wears a crown, and his childhood among the people turns out to have […]
Tags: adults, adventure, Arthurian, books, Britton, Guinevere, heros, kids, King Arthur, knights, knights of the round table, Lancelot, legend, legend of Arthur, magic, Merlin, monsters, Morgaine, Morgan le Fay, Morgause, myth, Nimue, reading, round table, Saxon, tales, tweens, Welsh, YA
Posted in Explore and Discover on January 3, 2019 at 6:00 am
by Dana Mannino “Do one thing every day that scares you.” I first met this quote on a refrigerator magnet. Since then, I’ve seen it online attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, Kurt Vonnegut, and several more historical figures. The website Quote Investigator says that it actually comes from a 1997 article by journalist Mary Schmich, but […]
Tags: fear, Gale, gale courses, karaoke, nature, New Year's resolutions, politics, reading, reading diversely, reading resolutions, resolutions, setting boundaries
Posted in kids, Parents and Teachers on December 4, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Susan Goertz The scent of holidays is in the air. Crisp frost and cinnamon seem to waft near every doorway. We scramble to prepare for social gatherings while dreaming of time. Time to relax and enjoy the season. Time to be with loved ones, remember seasons past, decorate, and eat all the desserts. The […]
Tags: Albers, art, artists, Basquiat, books, books about artists, Chagall, family, Grandma Moses, holiday gifts, holidays, Kahlo, kids, kids books, Matisse, O'Keeffe, parents, Picasso, picture books, reading, what if, young learners
Posted in Explore and Discover on November 27, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Melissa Rhoades One specific morning in fourth grade still stands out in my memory. I arrived early to class, sat at my desk, and opened a novel I was midway through. I don’t remember now what book it was, but I do remember becoming completely engrossed, sinking into the world on the page. Which […]
Tags: authors, books, close reading, deep reading, diverse books, fiction, health, nonfiction, parents, patience, print books, reading, reading comprehension, reading diversely, reading resolutions, slow, slow reading, teens, tweens
Posted in Explore and Discover on November 13, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Caitlin Wheeler THE DETECTIVE Tired of writing serial mysteries, Arthur Conan Doyle had just unceremoniously shoved Sherlock Holmes over a cliff mid-wrestling match with a never-before-mentioned arch nemesis. Fans were incensed, devastated, or both. Many of them turned to writing apocryphal works (writings of dubious authenticity), pastiches (im […]
Tags: adaptation, adults, apocrypha, authors, booklists, books, community, fan fiction, fandom, fanfiction, hobbies, homage, interpretation, movies, parody, pastiche, reading, teens, YA
Posted in Explore and Discover, kids, Parents and Teachers, Teens on November 6, 2018 at 6:00 am
BY SHERI BOGGS November marks the time of year when families start drawing close together for the holidays and you know what that means—lots and lots of family time! The Library District has got you covered with several themed booklists available on our popular OverDrive digital platform. FOR KIDS We Are Family is a handpicked […]
Tags: adults, audiobooks, booklists, books, devices, digital collection, digital library, eBooks, family, fiction, kids, Libby app, mobile, mobile devices, nonfiction, overdrive, reading, science fiction, technology, teens, tweens, YA, young learners
Posted in Parents and Teachers on October 9, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Rachel Edmondson There are lots of wonderful books about first-day school jitters. But reading to our kids about school doesn’t need to end once school is in full swing. There are all sorts of challenges that kids face while at school. Fortunately, there are also a wealth of books that cover situations such as […]
Tags: accidents, art, back to school, booklists, books, bravery, bullying, courage, creativity, embarassed, embarassment, family, fiction, fitting in, friends, kids, kindness, parenting, parents, playing, reading, teachers, teasing, young learners
Posted in Explore and Discover, Parents and Teachers on September 18, 2018 at 6:00 am
by Melissa Rhoades Banned Books Week is September 23–29 this year. Did you know that at least 23 of the 100 books on PBS’s 2018 Great American Read book list have been banned or threatened with a ban in the United States? That means almost one-fourth of America’s “most loved” novels (as determined by popular […]
Tags: adults, ALA, American Library Association, banned books, Banned Books Week, book challenge, books, censor, censorship, fiction, intellectual freedom, kids, nonfiction, parents, reading, teachers, teens, tweens, YA
Posted in kids, Parents and Teachers on August 28, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Sheri Boggs Most of us are not strangers to the first-day-of-school jitters—that delightful mix of excitement and mild apprehension as one contemplates what the new school year might bring. Such a feeling has as much to do with our need to connect and to be accepted as it does with our need to discover […]
Tags: back to school, book list, books, early literacy, early readers, getting along, kids, literacy, multicultural, parents, reading, young learners
Posted in Explore and Discover, kids, Parents and Teachers, Teens on August 21, 2018 at 6:00 am
by Caitlin Wheeler When I was young, I loved C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. I especially loved The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a book that, in my eight-year-old estimation, had everything a book ought to: quests, nightmares, magic spells, enchanted islands, warrior mermaids, anthropomorphized stars, and of course, dragons. Eustace Claren […]
Tags: adults, authors, booklists, books, dragon, dragons, fairy tale, fairy tales, fantastical, fantasy genre, kids, reading, speculative fiction, teens, tweens, YA