Our café/bookstore is open for business. The official opening is next Wednesday, but you can stop by the Everyday Health Café this week, which is also the home of the Friends Bookstore. Delicious food, great books at ridiculously low prices, outdoor seating!

Tonight, Wednesday, we have dueling programs. Poetry Slam & Open Mic, featuring guest poet Rico Frederick, is in the Community Room at 6:30 p.m., while the Percy Grainger Piano Mini-Festival will be in the auditorium at 7:00 p.m.

Trove Time, our new program for 2-4 year olds and their caregivers launched this week, and there are two sessions tomorrow, Thursday, one at 11:00 a.m. and another at 1:30 p.m. In this hour-and-a-half program children and their caregiver will play together, hear stories, and learn about enriching a child's life and increasing their early literacy skills. Tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis 30 minutes prior to the program.

Did you miss the opening of Haiti in Color: Contemporary Haitian Art? Don’t despair. You have until May 25 to check out this beautiful show in our second floor gallery.

This Sunday, in conjunction with ArtsWestchester, we will be celebrating Paraguay’s Independence with traditional music, dance and food from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Next Wednesday, May 9, the Artists Loft will be back featuring Art Bennett, jazz, and Alec Lichtenberg, dance. In the community room/café, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Brian Kenney

Library Director
bkenney@whiteplainslibrary.org

If you love audio books, then you know that the narrator makes all the difference. Each year, members of the American Library Association pick the best audio narrations of the year, Recordings are selected because they are engaging and make one reluctant to stop listening; because the narration creates a new experience, offering listeners something they could not create by their own visual reading; and because the narrator achieves an outstanding performance in terms of voice, accent, pitch, tone, inflection, rhythm, and pace. Below are some of the winners for 2018, which are available as downloadable audio books through Cloud Library, OverDrive, and/or Hoopla.

What's a downloadable audio book? A digital, eAudiobook, or downloadable audiobook is a recorded book that can be played on a computer, smartphone, or tablet. You have a variety of options as a White Plains Library cardholder - you can borrow downloadable audio books with Cloud Library, Hoopla, OverDrive, and OverDrive's Libby. If you'd like to learn more, visit our website where you can set up an appointment to learn how to access the titles listed below and many more.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. Narrated by Cathleen McCarron. Books on Tape. (Cloud Library)
Listeners hear a socially awkward woman's transformation from brusque and friendless to someone able to confront her traumatic childhood. Enhanced by a native Scottish accent, McCarron's empathetic portrayal of prickly Eleanor and her newly acquired social circle traces the change from so not fine to completely fine.

The Force by Don Winslow. Narrated by Dion Graham. Blackstone Audio. (OverDrive)
Winslow exposes the fall of dirty-cop Denny Malone as he desperately tries to salvage his family, friends, and honor. Graham taps into the seamy core of New York City, expertly bringing forth its many accents and identities, creating a visceral listening experience that thrums with grit and tension.

The Lady Travelers Guide to Scoundrels and Other Gentleman by Victoria Alexander. Narrated by Marian Hussey. Harlequin Audio. (Hoopla)
This series opener follows a priggish British spinster to fin de siècle Paris as she falls for the irresistible charm of a roguish duke. Hussey's witty tone and expert comedic timing nail the high-spirited verbal sparring and cheeky banter in this romantic romp.

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney. Narrated by Xe Sands. Macmillan Audio.
(Hoopla and Cloud Library)
Octogenarian Lillian takes a sentimental journey on New Year's Eve 1984, strolling across Manhattan wearing her poetry-loving heart on her fur-coated sleeve. Sands channels this venerable working girl's wit with nuance and creates a host of distinct supporting voices, concluding with a conversation between author and narrator.

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Narrated by Nick Offerman and others. Books on Tape.
(OverDrive and Cloud Library)
Abraham Lincoln pays one last visit to son Willie, laid to rest in Oak Hill Cemetery amid a host of spirits keeping watch as the boy makes his final passage. An unprecedented cast of 166 narrators combines in a spectral chorus, telling their stories in an astonishing gabble of voices that teem with pathos, tragicomedy, and the tenderest love.

The Reason You're Alive by Matthew Quick. Narrated by R. C. Bray. HarperAudio. (Cloud Library)
Crusty Vietnam veteran David Granger recounts his life story, a testimony to a sometimes violent and maverick past. Bray embodies this in-your-face character's charged language and attitude via gravelly tone and staccato inflection with a hidden compassion that reveals Granger's humanity.

Sourdough by Robin Sloan. Narrated by Thérèse Plummer. Macmillan Audio. (OverDrive)
Plummer captures Sloan's sprightly tone in the odyssey of an unlikely recipient of a sourdough starter infused with ancient epicurean power. Deliciously quirky voicings and bubbly sound effects concoct a listening treat seasoned with a soupçon of magic realism and origial musical compositions.

“If you see something, say something” is advice given by many authorities, but all too often victims of childhood bullying are afraid to speak out for reasons that range from not wanting to be pitied to fears of retribution from the instigators. The tragic results have included suicides, revenge killings (including one at a Bronx high school last year) and mass shootings.  The perpetrator of the February 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL., was bullied while growing up as were the two mass murderers 19 years ago at Columbine High School in Colorado.

All are reasons why Tim Collins’ “STANDING BY, STANDING UP” carries much relevance.  It is described as a “powerful interactive one-man play about bullying and cyberbullying prevention and bystander intervention.”  The 55-minute performance for elementary, middle-school and high-school students, parents and educators is coming to our second-floor auditorium on Wednesday, May 16, at 7:00 p.m.

The St. Louis- and NYC-based Collins grew up in Sherrill, N.Y., near Utica, and he says that he had friends who were bullies and were bullied.  “I witnessed it in my school, and that induced me to want to start a conversation with kids before anything occurs, because the spectrum of violence starts at a young age.”

Since 2001, he has done so through theater. “In ‘STANDING BY, STANDING UP’ I portray five characters: four students and one teacher. The kids are the bullied and the ‘henchmen,’ and they reveal their stories on how bullying affects them.

There will be a discussion after the performance, and Collins says that “I have found that students who attend a performance often continue the conversation at home and at school.”

Library youth services director Josh Carlson, who is from Utica and helped recruit Collins, says that “STANDING BY, STANDING UP” is all the more relevant to White Plains because of the incidents this winter at New Rochelle High School, which included the murder of one student by another.

New Hartford, N.Y., BOCES teacher Linda Perras says: “Collins takes the difficult topic of bullying and discusses it, explains it, and shows different types of situations.  He helps his audience figure out what to do if they ever encounter these situations as a friend, acquaintance and/or a victim of bullying.  I highly recommend Tim Collins’ one-man shows.”

Collins’ honors include “Best Dramatic Script” at the 2012 United Solo Theater Festival and “Best Educational Show” at the 2013 United Solo Theater Festival.  He has also written and performed “THE SCRIPT” for military audiences on preventing sexual assault.

Steve Cohn

Come hear college advice from current college students on Monday, May 7 at 7:00 p.m. The panelists will discuss their experiences with the transition to college life. Topics include the admissions process, class registration, and roommate management.

This event is reserved for teens in grades 7 through 12. No registration required.