Archives for Library News

Storybook Dancing Fall Events

The Library is happy to (virtually) host the fantastic program, Storybook Dancing, presented by Steffi Nossen School of Dance throughout the Fall. A creative, movement-filled program for young ones to hear stories and then dance them to life! Thursdays, 10:00 a.m., September 10 and 24, October 8 and 22, November 5, and December 3. (link to calendar) Supported by the White Plains Library Foundation. NOTE: To increase security in youth-focused programs, we are now requiring attendees to have a Zoom account to login to the event. Creating an account is easy and free.
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Categories: Events, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

How Did I Get Here? Virtual Career Panels

This October the Library will be hosting three career panels on Zoom. Our first panel on October 1st at 6:00 p.m., will feature New York State Assembly person David Buchwald. He will talk about his career in politics and public service. The next two panels on October 13th and 15th, at 4:00 p.m., will have employees from Verisk Financial, an analytics company in White Plains. Their careers deal with coding, product development, user interface design, and, well, analytics. Our fourth career panel on October 22nd, at 6:00 p.m., will feature Randy Altman, owner of Altman Rentals. His company rents production
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Categories: Events, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.

Stream Jester Jim’s Library Performance

The talented and extremely funny Jester Jim performed live for the Library on Saturday, October 10, juggling knives!, fire!, toilet plungers?! while leaving attendees laughing and amazed. In order to extend the experience so that more White Plains community members could see the show, Jim graciously allowed us to share the recording of the show. Check it out right here, anytime you want! This program was supported by the White Plains Library Foundation.
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Categories: Events, Evergreen, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Peculiar Picks

Peculiar Picks are a selection of odd, funny, interesting, curious, moving, irreverent, and otherwise wonderfully awesome, but perhaps not well known, reads. Peculiar Picks are books for younger readers and their grown-ups, handpicked by the Library's Youth Services Manager, Joshua Carlson. National Dictionary Day is celebrated on October 16. Today’s two Peculiar Picks celebrate words and vocabulary. I may have mentioned a couple times, here or there, that my daughter has an impressive vocabulary. It may seem like bragging (I’ll be honest, I like to brag about it. Just a little.), but I know exactly why her vocabulary is so
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Virtual Youth Meet-Up

Would you like to connect with Library friends virtually? Using our Zoom and Roblox platforms, teens are able to participate in a variety of fun activities on Library-hosted servers. Many devices are able to interact simultaneously, from smartphones to laptop computers. There are many fun virtual worlds to have shared fun, such as “Epic Mini Games” and “Hide and Seek Extreme.” Please sign up here to join in on the fun: Thursday 10/15/2020 4:30 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. Register Here Thursday 11/5/2020 5:00 p.m. – 5:45 p.m. Register Here Thursday 11/19/2020 5:00 p.m. – 5:45 p.m. Register Here Thursday 12/17/2020
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Categories: Library News.

Race Consciousness: Recommended Reading, Part 4

On Wednesday October 21st, Sachi Feris of the blog Raising Race Conscious Children will lead a workshop to help parents and caregivers learn how to talk about race with young children. Each week until the workshop, I’ll share an article or resource to help you begin thinking about some related topics. Recommended Reading, Part 1 Recommended Reading, Part 2 Recommended Reading, Part 3 For our final recommended reading piece, let’s check out a post from Sachi’s own blog: “100 Race-Conscious Things You Can Say to Your Child to Advance Racial Justice.” As you may infer from the title, this post
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Categories: Featured and Library News.

Fall Virtual Table Top Gaming Events

Need something awesome to do after school? Then join librarians Ashley and Erik from the Trove and the Edge to play fun virtual table top games! We use the platform boardgamearena.com to play the games while we have a conversation on Zoom. Kids and teens that haven’t attended the program before will need to create a free account on boardgamearena.com. Note: Boardgamearena.com does have a for-pay premium service. Please take care when creating your account to not incur any unwanted charges. To increase security in youth-focused programs, we are now requiring attendees to have a Zoom account to login to
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Categories: Library News.

Youth Poetry Workshops

Westchester’s first Youth Poet Laureate, Danielle Kohn, is leading two poetry workshops for young people in October. Danielle was named Youth Poet Laureate in January 2020, and has since been busy sharing her love of poetry with libraries and communities around Westchester. Danielle believes that poetry is for everyone. She uses approachable activities to encourage participants to give it a try. In these workshops, participants will learn about different forms of poetry, engage in fun writing games, follow stimulating prompts, and create their own masterpieces. The virtual workshop on Tuesday, October 6th at 4:30 p.m. is for children in grades
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Categories: Library News.

Reads Revisited

When children or their caregivers come to the Library asking for recommendations, I often find myself suggesting some of my favorite books from when I was a kid. There’s something really comforting about rereading an old favorite! I came up with this idea for a blog post series so that our Trove and Edge librarians could recommend some of their favorite childhood stories. I hope that you’ll enjoy reading them as much as I’ve enjoyed rereading! I was the kid that was always reading – in class (when I definitely shouldn’t have been!), in the lunchroom, and I even brought
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

STEAM at Home: Flying Dragon

This week we are going to make a dragon fly and learn about how levers work. Materials: Toilet Paper Roll Construction Paper Marker Pencil Ruler Glue Tape Yarn Getting Started: We are going to start by making our dragon. Cut a piece of construction paper so that it covers your toilet paper roll. Use tape or glue to attach it. Next design the head, wings, and tail of your dragon. Cut them out and attach them using glue or tape. You can use a marker to decorate your dragon and draw eyes and a mouth on it. Prepare For Flight:
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Categories: Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

Red Door Readers

In conjunction with Gilda’s Club Westchester, the Library will offer a book discussion group for cancer survivors, their families, and caretakers. The focus will be on literary fiction and all meetings will be held over Zoom. We meet the third Thursday of each month, from 1:00-3:00 p.m. Registration is required and limited. Upcoming selections include: Thursday, November 19: How It All Began, by Penelope Lively. Click here to register. Physical Catalog: Book OverDrive and Libby: eBook Set in London, this novel examines the role of chance in people’s lives, exploring how our lives can be altered irrevocably by someone we
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Categories: Library News.

Virtual Teen Volunteering

Almost everything about the 2020-21 school year is different, and that includes earning community service hours. Usually around this time the fall sessions of the Do Gooders, the Library’s teen community service group, would be well underway. With library services restricted by safety concerns, we’re offering a different opportunity for teens to earn volunteer hours directly through us. We’re collecting book reviews written by teens, to be featured on our website. Teens can submit a book review by filling out this online form; each review is worth one hour, with a cap of 8 hours per person per month. I’d
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Categories: Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.

Horror Stories: Books & Movies

To celebrate Halloween and a favorite genre to read and watch in October, we've put together a list of recommended reading and watching available through our catalog and digital resources. Find our curated list of frightfully creepy reads for Halloween and beyond on OverDrive here. For something a little less scary, find our list for “Halloween Treats for a Spooky Night In” list here. Books The Year of Witching by Alexis Henderson Library Catalog OverDrive and Libby: eBook “Immanuelle’s mother dies in childbirth, proclaiming, with her dying breath, that her baby is ‘a curse.' Now a teenager, Immanuelle can’t find
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Categories: Authors & Books and Library News.

Halloween STEAM Project: Zombie Dance!

Join us on Zoom for Zombie fun! On October 27th, we will be conducting a fun STEAM activity that raises a zombie using pure magic! It’s really a scientific method that uses static electricity but you can amaze your friends and family with this trick. First, we will read Fright Club by Ethan Long, and then we will work together to try to raise our zombies. If interested, please register for the event because supplies are limited to twenty activity kits. The activity kit includes a balloon, tissue paper, a marker, and a cut out zombie (to trace on the
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Categories: Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Ibram X. Kendi Visit

Registration is now closed for this event. The White Plains Library Foundation, in partnership with the Thomas H. Slater Center and with the support of other sponsors, is presenting a special virtual event with the award-winning author, historian, and thought-leader, Ibram X. Kendi on October 28, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. This program will be the highlight of the Library’s city-wide reading initiative, One Book, One White Plains. In the meantime, mark your fall calendars and look into our digital and physical copies of the two books we'll be reading: How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (available in
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Categories: Library News.

Race Consciousness: Recommended Reading, Part 3

On Wednesday October 21st, Sachi Feris of the blog Raising Race Conscious Children will lead a workshop to help parents and caregivers learn how to talk about race with young children. Each week until the workshop, I’ll share an article or resource to help you begin thinking about some related topics. Recommended Reading, Part 1 Recommended Reading, Part 2 Recommended Reading, Part 4 This week, I’d like to share a few different resources that I’ve encountered as a librarian, but have found useful as a parent as well. These resources can help parents think through the way they use children’s
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Categories: Library News.

STEAM at Home: Puking Pumpkins!

Halloween is a time to celebrate creepy crawlies, eat your favorite candies, dance like zany zombies and carve plump pumpkins! Halloween is also the perfect time to show off your creativity! Why not wear black nail polish to bring out the goth in you? Use purple Manic Panic to dye your hair! Wear your ghost or goblin costume and feel free to be a bit ghoulish! Have you ever been to Sleepy Hollow? If not, I highly encourage you to visit Sleepy Hollow with your family this year; it’s a great Halloween destination. You could take pictures of the Old
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Categories: Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Halloween Reads

Are you looking forward to Halloween as much as I am? This year we might be limited in our normal Halloween activities due to COVID, but there are still some fun things to do. You can dress up and take photos with your family! In the past two years, I have had fun dressing up as Wednesday Addams and Punk Eleven from Stranger Things Season 2, Chapter 7: “The Lost Sister.” You can also treat yourself to a movie marathon. Some of my favorites include Beetlejuice, Practical Magic, Shaun of the Dead, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and It’s the Great
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

Jester Jim LIVE!: October 10

Juggling fire and spinning iPads is just the start. With a background in film making and over 3 million views on social media The Jester Jim Virtual Comedy Show is just what you need! This 40 minute live broadcast packed with tricks, balancing, and laughs, will leave you wanting more. Come join us for all the fun and interact with Jim and his amazing show, LIVE! To attend the show at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 10, click here to get the Zoom link! This program is supported by the White Plains Library Foundation.
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Categories: Library News.

National Cookbook Month

With the weather getting cooler, now is a good time to warm our homes with the smells of home cooking. It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or an experienced cook, if you have all day or only an hour, if you have a sweet tooth or prefer something savory, here is a list of cookbooks containing recipes for everyone to enjoy. Celebrate National Cookbook Month with us and let us know what you're cooking! Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking by Toni Tipton-Martin Library Collection OverDrive and Libby It illustrates the diversity, sophistication and influence
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.