Archives for staff picks

Good Trouble: Music – Protest and Activism, Part 3

Good Trouble: Music – Protest and Activism, Part 3

This installment of Good Trouble continues a look at the strong connections between music and activism, as well as individual artists who have made an impact.  In this post, find books related to two powerful songs:  “We Shall Overcome” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”  For earlier Good Trouble: Music – Protest and Activism posts, click here: Part 1 and Part 2. “We Shall Overcome” We Shall Overcome: the Story of a Song by Debbie Levy, art by Vanessa Brantley-Newton A bright and colorful introduction to the Civil Rights movement, the history of the song, and its place in history
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August 5, 2024 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: Good Trouble, music, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

New Books in the Trove: July 2024

New Books in the Trove: July 2024

We have new books coming in all the time with them on display right as you enter the Trove. Here’s some of our recent favorite new titles! For Wee Ones Alphabot: Mix and Match Robot Parts From A to Z by Vicky Fang Birth to 3 years old Library Catalog “Fine. I’m a sucker for the mix and match books. So sue. This is actually a STEM board book/mix and match title, which puts it in the company of … no other books out there. So it’s definitely on the older side, but these robotic terms aren’t pushy at all.
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July 22, 2024 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: books for children, children's book, new books, new books in the trove, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

New Books in the Edge: July 2024

New Books in the Edge: July 2024

One of the best parts of my job is ordering new books for the Edge–reading the reviews, seeing what popular authors come up with next, or finding out about an upcoming sequel to an old favorite. Read on to find out about some of the new YA fiction titles coming to our shelves this month. Dangerous Ones by Lauren Blackwood Grades 9 and up Library Catalog  “A superhuman teen reluctantly teams up with a vampire to avenge her family and kill the monsters who enslaved her. Set during the U.S. Civil War, in an alternate universe where the real-life horrors
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July 17, 2024 2:39 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: new books, new in the Edge, staff picks, staff recommendations, YA Fiction, and YA literature.

July Middle Grade Pick of the Month

July Middle Grade Pick of the Month

Middle grade is a term that refers to books written for readers between the ages of eight and twelve. In this column, Erica will recommend great books for children in this age group! Shiny Misfits by Maysoon Zayid and Shadia Amin All available formats here Bay Ann knows that she’s destined for stardom, but when fellow student Alyee Maq gets his fifteen minutes of fame off of her victory (and assumed helplessness due to her cerebral palsy), she’s determined to kickstart her stardom and outshine him, whatever the cost! But is her potential fame really worth what she’s willing to
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July 14, 2024 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: middle grade, middle grade fiction, Middle Grade Pick of the Month, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

Good Trouble: Make a Difference

Good Trouble: Make a Difference

This installment of Good Trouble features three books for older kids about ways they can make a positive difference in the world. Make Your Mark, Make a Difference: A Kid’s Guide to Standing Up for People, Animals, and the Planet by Joan Marie Galat Library Catalog Broken into four parts – Examine Your World, Animal and Earth Issues, People Issues, and Change is Everywhere – Galat’s work first encourages kids to learn about activism, then work towards choosing a cause that means something to them by introducing them to various issues Earth-wide, before finally giving some interesting out-of-the-box suggestions for
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July 11, 2024 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: activism, climate activism, climate change, Good Trouble, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

July Creepy Chronicles

July Creepy Chronicles

For the kids looking for more dark and twisted tales, Erika is here to bring you a middle grade scare! Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn All available formats here Graphic Novel adaptation illustrated by Scott Peterson Physical format available here eComic available on Hoopla Twelve-year-old Molly and her ten-year-old brother, Michael, have never liked their seven-year-old stepsister, Heather. Ever since their parents got married, she's made Molly and Michael's life miserable. Now their parents have moved them all to the country to live in a house that used to be a church, with a
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July 10, 2024 11:07 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: books for kids, Creepy Chronicles, middle grade, middle grade fiction, Spooktober, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

Beautiful Bilingual Books, Part 22

Beautiful Bilingual Books, Part 22

BEAUTIFUL BILINGUAL BOOKS, Part 22 LINDOS LIBROS BILINGÜES, Parte 22 The Library has a lovely collection of bilingual Spanish/English books. To celebrate reading in two languages, we are featuring our beautiful new books in a monthly blog – so enjoy practicing your Spanish and English skills with these picture books. La Biblioteca tiene una colección hermosa de libros bilingües en inglés/español. Para celebrar leyendo en dos idiomas, le presentamos nuestros lindos libros aquí. Así que disfrute practicando sus destrezas en ambos idiomas con estos libros ilustrados. Little Red Riding Hood / La caperucita roja, de Joana Costa Knufinke Library Catalog
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July 2, 2024 5:19 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: Bilingual, Bilingual books, books for children, picture books, spanish books, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

Beautiful Bilingual Books, Part 21

Beautiful Bilingual Books, Part 21

BEAUTIFUL BILINGUAL BOOKS, Part 21 LINDOS LIBROS BILINGÜES, Parte 21 The Library has a lovely collection of bilingual Spanish/English books. To celebrate reading in two languages, we are featuring our beautiful new books in a monthly blog – so enjoy practicing your Spanish and English skills with these picture books. La Biblioteca tiene una colección hermosa de libros bilingües en inglés/español. Para celebrar leyendo en dos idiomas, le presentamos nuestros lindos libros aquí. Así que disfrute practicando sus destrezas en ambos idiomas con estos libros ilustrados. ¡Hola, cara! = Hello, Face!, by Aya Khalil Library Catalog From laughing to cooing,
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June 18, 2024 10:31 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: Bilingual, Bilingual books, books for children, picture books, spanish books, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

New Books in the Edge: June 2024

New Books in the Edge: June 2024

One of the best parts of my job is ordering new books for the Edge–reading the reviews, seeing what popular authors come up with next, or finding out about an upcoming sequel to an old favorite. Read on to find out about some of the new YA fiction titles coming to our shelves this month. Trajectory by Cambria Gordon Grades 7 and up Library Catalog  “Seventeen-year-old Eleanor is recruited for her math prowess to support U.S. efforts during World War II. It’s 1942, and Eleanor, who’s Jewish, lives with her family in Jenkintown, just outside Philadelphia. The Schiffs anxiously await
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June 18, 2024 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: new books, new in the Edge, staff picks, staff recommendations, YA Fiction, and YA literature.

New Books in the Trove: June 2024

New Books in the Trove: June 2024

We have new books coming in all the time with them on display right as you enter the Trove. Here’s some of our recent favorite new titles! For Wee Ones Flora and Friends ABC by Molly Idle (Birth to 3 years-old) Library Catalog “Molly Idle has GOT to stop being as good at her job as she is. Seriously, this is beginning to become a problem. To the best of my knowledge, there are only three Caldecott Honorees that regularly pour their hearts and souls into their original board book creations. One you’ve already seen in Juana Martinez-Neal and her
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June 18, 2024 9:49 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: books for children, children's book, new books, new books in the trove, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

June Middle Grade Pick of the Month

June Middle Grade Pick of the Month

Middle grade is a term that refers to books written for readers between the ages of eight and twelve. In this column, Erica will recommend great books for children in this age group! Eli Over Easy by Phil Stamper All available formats here After a move to New York City and the sudden death of his mother, Eli has been left reeling. His father has become anxious and overprotective, but refuses to talk about his – or Eli’s – grief, instead working long hours. But then he discovers that his mom left behind recipe videos, and the cute boy next
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June 17, 2024 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: middle grade, middle grade fiction, Middle Grade Pick of the Month, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

Good Trouble: LGBTQ Icons

Good Trouble: LGBTQ Icons

This installment of Good Trouble features a few books about the activists and icons of the fight for LGBTQ rights. The first six titles in this month’s Good Trouble are collections of short biographies of LGBTQ activists and icons.  While there is some overlap, these six books do a wonderful job of introducing a wide variety of more and less well-known, historical and contemporary, individuals – such as Ian McKellan, Krsiten Stewart, Freddy McConnell, Laverne Cox, Bayard Rustin, Jonathan Van Ness, Jazz Jennings, Francisco Manicongo, We’Wha, Alla Nazimova, George Michael, Leonard Bernstein, James Baldwin, Virginia Woolf, Alvin Ailey, Larry Kramer,
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June 12, 2024 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: activism, Alla Nazimova, Alvin Ailey, Bayard Rustin, Francisco Manicongo, Freddy McConnell, George Michael, Good Trouble, James Baldwin, Jazz Jennings, John Lewis, Jonathan Van Ness, Krsiten Stewart, Larry Kramer, Laverne Cox, Leonard Bernstein, LGBTQ+, LGBTQ+ Pride, LGBTQIA+, McKellan, Pride Month, staff picks, staff recommendations, Virginia Woolf, and We’Wha.

Gayathri Waring LGBTQIA+ Pride Month Storytime

Gayathri Waring LGBTQIA+ Pride Month Storytime

Celebrate LGBTQIA+ Pride Month In June! Author Visit & Family Storytime Off to Nana and Grandma’s Home written by Gayathri R. Waring & illustrated by Hallie Guidry Saturday, June 22nd at 11:00 a.m. For Families Location: Galaxy Hall Come join us to celebrate LGBTQIA+ Pride Month! Enjoy a Special Author Storytime with Gayathri R. Waring who will be reading her book, Off to Nana and Grandma's Home. The storytime will also include a fun craft activity! In the book Off to Nana and Grandma’s Home, explore the heartwarming relationship between a child and his two lesbian grandparents. Each expresses her
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June 5, 2024 3:25 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Events, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: author storytime, author visits, children's literature, Gayathri R. Waring, LGBTQ+ Pride, LGBTQIA+, Pride Month, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

New Books in the Trove: May 2024

New Books in the Trove: May 2024

We have new books coming in all the time with them on display right as you enter the Trove.  Here’s some of our recent favorite new titles! For Wee Ones DJ Baby by DJ Burton & Andy J. Pizza (Birth to 3 years-old) Library Catalog “While some may say that babies do not need to learn how to do a record scratch, I for one disagree heartily! These are important skills and, happily, we finally have an interactive board book to go along with this need. Now if I were handing out awards for the most creatively constructed board books
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May 24, 2024 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: books for children, children's book, new books, new books in the trove, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

New Books in the Edge: May 2024

New Books in the Edge: May 2024

One of the best parts of my job is ordering new books for the Edge–reading the reviews, seeing what popular authors come up with next, or finding out about an upcoming sequel to an old favorite. Read on to find out about some of the new YA fiction titles coming to our shelves this month. Vanishing Station by Ana Ellickson Grades 9 and up Library Catalog “Ellickson delivers an ambitious, fast-paced fantasy crackling with complicated family dynamics and forbidden love in this simmering debut. Since her mother’s death, 18-year-old Ruby Santos and her father have been forced to rent out
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May 22, 2024 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: new books, new in the Edge, staff picks, staff recommendations, YA Fiction, and YA literature.

Creepy Chronicles: May 2024

Creepy Chronicles: May 2024

For the kids looking for more dark and twisted tales, Erika is here to bring you a middle grade scare! The Clackity by Lora Senf All available formats here Ghosts are real in Blight Harbor, the 7th most haunted town in America and where Evie resides with her beloved paranormal expert Aunt Desdemona. Most of Blight Harbor is inhabited by harmless, albeit lonely ghosts, except for the abandoned slaughterhouse possibly inhabited by the spirit of the infamous serial killer. After Des disappears in front of Evie, she makes a deal to venture into the otherworld to find and save her
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May 16, 2024 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: books for kids, Creepy Chronicles, middle grade, middle grade fiction, Spooktober, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

Summer Reading Graphic Novel Picks

Summer Reading Graphic Novel Picks

We are excited to share many new graphic novels gracing our shelves this summer. Here at some of new available titles: Call Me Iggy by Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado(ILT) Library Catalog Ignacio “Iggy” Garcia is an Ohio-born Colombian American teen living his best life. After bumping into Marisol (and her coffee) at school, Iggy's world is spun around. But Marisol has too much going on to be bothered with the likes of Iggy. She has school, work, family, and the uphill battle of getting her legal papers. As Iggy stresses over how to get Marisol to like him, his
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May 15, 2024 1:44 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: books for teens, graphic novels, manga, staff picks, staff recommendations, summer reading, YA Graphic Novel Pick of the Month, and YA Graphic Novels.

May Middle Grade Pick of the Month

May Middle Grade Pick of the Month

Middle grade is a term that refers to books written for readers between the ages of eight and twelve. In this column, Erica will recommend great books for children in this age group! Wishing Upon the Same Stars by Jacquetta Nammar Feldman All available formats here When Yasmeen Khoury moves to Texas, she feels isolated in a way she never did in Detroit – at least until she begins to make friends, including with Ayelet Cohen, an Israeli-American girl in her grade. But as she and Ayelet learn more about the destruction each others’ countries have wreaked on their families,
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May 14, 2024 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: middle grade, middle grade fiction, Middle Grade Pick of the Month, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

Good Trouble: Music and Protest

Good Trouble: Music and Protest

This installment of Good Trouble continues a look at the strong connections between music and activism. Part 1 can be found here. Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday and the Power of a Protest Song by Gary Golio, art by Charlotte Riley-Webb Library Catalog Discover some of Billie Holiday’s music Billie Holiday was no stranger to racism and prejudice, and when she was given Abel Meeropol’s song “Strange Fruit” – a song about lynchings and violence in the South – she embued it with her own pain. She did not know how the song would be received. She knew, as her mother
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May 12, 2024 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: activism, Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, civil rights, Good Trouble, Jean Ritchie, John Lewis, music and protest, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

Beautiful Bilingual Books, Part 20

Beautiful Bilingual Books, Part 20

BEAUTIFUL BILINGUAL BOOKS, Part 20 LINDOS LIBROS BILINGÜES, Parte 20 The Library has a lovely collection of bilingual Spanish/English books. To celebrate reading in two languages, we are featuring our beautiful new books in a monthly blog – so enjoy practicing your Spanish and English skills with these picture books. La Biblioteca tiene una colección hermosa de libros bilingües en inglés/español. Para celebrar leyendo en dos idiomas, le presentamos nuestros lindos libros aquí. Así que disfrute practicando sus destrezas en ambos idiomas con estos libros ilustrados. Mamá Goose: A Latine Nursery Treasury = Un tesoro de rimas infantiles, by Alma
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May 8, 2024 10:31 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: Bilingual, Bilingual books, books for children, picture books, spanish books, staff picks, and staff recommendations.