Holiday programming at the Library

Holiday Celebrations

Christmas is only a few short days away. I hope everyone is ready, with presents wrapped and stashed away somewhere they won’t be discovered.

We’ve all been enjoying the holidays at the library. There was a Bell Ensemble from the First United Methodist Church on December 3rd who played traditional and holiday music. The Redskin Singers came together and gave us a performance on December 12th, and we had our annual gingerbread house building event on December 14th, where children were invited to the library to test their artistic skills by decorating gingerbread houses. Santa even visited us during evening story time on December 17th.

 

Noon Year Eve Party

Children of all ages are welcome to our first ever Noon Year’s Eve Party. If you can't stay up until midnight, don't worry, because all through the day on New Year's Eve it's midnight somewhere. This year we’re going to celebrate the New Year during the noon hour. On December 31st from 11:00 - 12:30, we'll be celebrating the New Year with activities, crafts, music, games, a story, and fun.

Database spotlight

Did you know that you can search the state sponsored databases from within the library catalog and use it access magazines and journals (such as Consumer Reports)?

Suppose you wanted to find a new dishwasher in time for the big holiday get together aftermath but didn’t know which to buy. You could

1. login to our library catalog (http://catalog.lmlibrary.org) using your library card number and password
2. go to advanced search
3. under "Enter Search Terms" type in a search term “consumer reports” and change the drop down from “All Headings” to “Journal Title”
4. click on “Add Another Search Term” and type in “dishwashers”
5. on the right side of the screen under “Choose Resources”, uncheck Swiftnet (searches items within the library), and check “Magazines, Journals, Newspapers & Books” (searches online databases)
6. finally click “Search” on the upper right of the screen.

The first result in the list is “Dishwashers” from the Consumer Reports Buying Guide, publication date 2014. If you click on the blue underlined title, you will see information about the consumer reports article and you can click on “PDF Full Text” to see the full article.

Check out a National Book Awards book

The NBAs were held over three weeks ago. National Basketball Association? No! The National Book Awards! The librarians here at the library left that night prepared to watch the awards live. Okay, we didn't end up watching them.

The fiction winner was "The Good Lord Bird" by James McBride and finalists included The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner, "The Lowland" by Jhumpa Lahiri, "Bleeding Edge" by Thomas Pynchon, and "Tenth of December" by George Saunders.

One of the ladies in my Library and Lunch group read "The Good Lord Bird" by James McBride over the Thanksgiving holiday.  Carol thought it was hilarious and she loved it. I've heard from many that it's a pretty funny book if at times dark. McBride takes a variety of liberties with true facts but it seems a believable story of John Brown's fanatical and very righteous efforts against slavery.  Speaking of Library and Lunch, the January pick is “The Husband’s Secret” by Liane Moriarty.

"The Flamethrowers" by Rachel Kushner is beautifully written about SoHo in 1975 and motorcycle racing.  The main character Reno ends up in Italy with an amour amid her love for racing.  Some have said that her character is a blank slate that's difficult to relate to but its reasons are revealed in the end.  

One of my favorite authors, Jhumpa Lahiri also made it as one of the finalists.  I read all of her books the first or second year I moved out to southwest Kansas.  I haven't picked "The Lowland" up yet.  It's about two brothers bound by tragedy and different personalities. One brother stays in India and the other leaves home to pursue a life of scientific research in America.  When one brother learns what's happened to his sibling he goes back to India to pick up the pieces of a broken family and heal wounds.  

"Bleeding Edge" by Thomas Pychon is about Maxine Tarnow who is running a nice fraud investigation business on the Upper West Side and everything is great until she starts looking into the finances of a computer security firm and its billionaire geeky CEO. She finds herself mixes up with a drug runner in an art deco motorboard, a professional nose, a neoliberal enforcer with footwear issues, Russian mob and various bloggers, hackers, code monkeys, and enterprenuers.  This one looks like a fun read!  

The final finalist in the fiction category was "Tenth of December" by George Saunders.  It's a collection of short stories that have been described as his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet.

 

Let's skim over the non-fiction category. The non-fiction winner was "The Unwinding: An inner history of the New America" by George Packer.  I talked to someone who is currently reading it (surround yourself with readers I say!) and they're really enjoying it.  Its focus is on the decline of America over the last thirty or forty years and is on the moderate spectrum.  No one is left smelling like roses.  The finalists included "Book of Ages: the life and opinions of Jane Franklin" by Jill Lepore, "Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields" by Wendy Lower, "The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832" by Alan Taylor, and "Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief" by Lawrence Wright.

Our children's librarian, Casandra read all of the finalists in the children’s category.  I asked her her thoughts on the books.

The children's winner was "The Thing About Luck" by Cynthia Kadohata.   Kadohata is the author of the Newbery Medal-winning book Kira-Kira.  The main character is a Japanese-American girl named Summer who goes with her brother to stay with their grandparents in Kansas while their parents deal with a family problem in Japan. According to Casandra, the grandmother is a great character and they are part of a custom combining crew that travels from Kansas to Texas and other states harvesting a wheat crop. It's intended for an older audience and adults might like it more than kids. Much of the story is a "coming of age" tale involving this girl, but other parts describe quite accurately the lifestyle of the harvesters.

According to Casandra, some of the finalists were quite good on par with the winner.  

"The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man" was a really great book.  It's by the Kathi Appelt, Newbery author of "Underneath".  This book is about two raccoons that are the main characters.  They have to wake up a monster in a swamp because wild pigs are coming to devour the sugar cane. (I had to check out a more info on this one and the cover is adorable.)

"Far Far Away" by Tom McNeal is about a boy who has the ghost of Jacob Grimm following him around.  He's an outcast who becomes more so with Jacob Grimm.  He meets a girl, forms a friendship, and then they get into a little bit of trouble.  

"Picture Me Gone" by Meg Rosoff is about a girl and her father from London who go to New York City to find her father's friend who seems to have disappeared.  The girl has a power of perception. "Boxers and Saints" by Gene Luen Yang is about the Chinese revolution as told through the eyes of a Chinese peasant.  It's a hilarious book. The main character learns kung-fu and tries to defeat the foreigners.  It's not really a children's book but geared more so for older young adults.  

She also gave a shout out to "Flora and Ulysses" by Kate DiCamillo that didn't make it into the short list.  This one is about a squirrel who gets sucked up by a vacuum and develops powers of strength, flight, and poetry!

We have all of the children's books available for check out in the library!

For the latest library programming take a peek at the library website or grab a newsletter from the circulation desk. Stay tuned and connected through our social media pages.  If you have any question or suggestions about books or programs don’t hesitate to ask.  See you at the library this holiday season!

Play at the Library

When most parents think about the library, they think only about the books – either the ones that they check out for themselves or the books that they read to their children before bedtime every night. Many people don’t think of the library as a place to play. Liberal Memorial Library has been a Family Place Library for almost a year now, and we are starting to get the reputation as the place to go to play. Family Place Library is a program that brings the community together. It gives parents a place to learn about parenting and children the place to play. The library always has toys out aimed at children from birth to five years of age. The toys are free for all families in the community to come and use in the library at any time.

While many parents (myself included) are nervous about their children hitting the milestones on time and want to try and educate their children, research has shown that one of the most important things that a parent can do is to play with their child. Put away those flashcards and baby learning DVDs and just play. It may seem strange at first, but your child is actually learning a lot.

When a child plays with an adult, they learn new vocabulary and literacy skills. When playing with toy dinosaurs, you probably didn’t even think about it but you just taught your child the words armor, carnivore and scales. When having a tea party, making a menu together will reinforce the idea that words have meanings. When a child plays with a parent or other children, they learn team work, sharing and other social skills that they won’t get in a classroom setting or through flashcards. Pretend play gives children a place to imagine a different world and experience different roles. Parents might feel strange at first putting a strainer on their head and pretending that they are an alien from outer space, but it gets easier and your child will guide you through the scene.

Play also promotes good health, which is important when a child starts learning in the traditional way. Times have changed and children are spending less time outside and more time in front of a screen. Experts recommend at least an hour a day of physical activities for kids. While going to the park every day is ok at first, after a while both parents and children will be bored of the same old same old. Try sharing some of the games that you played in your childhood. When others in your neighborhood see you out having fun, they will join in and you will probably have enough kids to form teams.

Play is important. Some even go so far as to say that the job of a child is to play. The next time that you walk into the library and see (or hear) kids playing in the library, just remember that they are actually doing their jobs and learning.

If you still need help finding fun at the library, sign up for the next parent/child workshop, where parents and children spend an hour a week playing together for five weeks. The next one will be held in early spring. We are starting a separate Family Place Library Facebook page, so parents of young children can learn about this excellent program and keep in touch with each other. Story time and special programming are a way to have fun and are open to all. Story times incorporate music and art activities, which are another form of play. For more information or to get a schedule, stop by the library or email me at childrens@lmlibrary.org.

Graphic Novels can be "Super" Without the "Hero"

When you think graphic novels, you’re probably thinking Batman, Superman, Spider-man and Captain America. But graphic novels cover more than just the superhero genre. It can be fiction or non-fiction, comedy or romance, science fiction or western. Graphic novels can cover the spectrum of genres.

If you’re looking for a graphic novel that is different and a little more challenging, the Library has something for you. And graphic novels run the gamut – in terms of age – from children to young adult to adult.

Check out these new graphic novels at the Library.

Maus by Art Spiegelman is definitely not for kids. It may look like a kid’s book with mice and pigs and cats, but it’s not. The book tackles the subject of the Holocaust and survival in a concentration camp in graphic novel form. The characters are portrayed as animals – Jews are mice, Poles pigs, Germans cats, Americans dogs, and French frogs.

Boxers (Boxers & Saints) by Gene Luen Yang is a story about China’s Boxer Rebellion in the late 19^th century.

In 1898 China, bands of foreign missionaries and soldiers roam the countryside, bullying and robbing Chinese peasants. Little Bao has had enough. Harnessing the powers of ancient Chinese gods, he recruits an army of Boxers - commoners trained in kung fu who fight to free China from "foreign devils." Against all odds, this grass-roots rebellion is violently successful. But nothing is simple. Little Bao is fighting for the glory of China, but at what cost? So many are dying, including thousands of "secondary devils" – Chinese citizens who have converted to Christianity.

For something more traditional, Batman: Death of the Family depicts the return of the Joker and his twisted plan to gain revenge against not only Batman, but his super-hero family. Does the Joker actually succeed? It’s a suspense-filled, thrill ride right down to the final pages.

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If you’re into romance, we’ve got what you’re looking for. The Library recently received the entire six-book Harmony series written by New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Jodi Thomas. The series takes place in the small town of Harmony, Texas where you’ll read about the romance and escapades of its citizens. The books are: Welcome to Harmony, Somewhere Along the Way, The Comforts of Home, Just Down the Road, Chance of a Lifetime and Can't Stop Believing.

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We’re having a book sale from Thursday, December 5 to Saturday, December 7. The book sale will be open during Library hours. There will be hundreds of books for sale – fiction and non-fiction and hardcover, paperback and large print. Hardcovers will be 10 cents while paperbacks will be five cents. First come, first serve with no reserves or holds.

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Don’t forget about our annual Gingerbread House Decorating event. Kids from to 4-11 can come down to the Library and decorate gingerbread houses for free! The event is on December 14 at 9:30 and 11 a.m. Sign-ups are required and begin on Monday, December 2.

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Musical events return to the Library in December with a Bell Ensemble and the Redskin Singers.

A Bell Ensemble will grace the Library with an assortment or holiday and instrumental music through the bells on Tuesday, December 3 at 7 p.m. Among the songs being played include Angels we Have Heard on High, Carol of the Bells, and Amazing Grace.

The Redskin Singers return to the Library once again for their annual presentation on Thursday, December 12 at 7:10 p.m. Come down and listen to the some traditional and not-so-traditional holiday fare from the local youth at Liberal High School.

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The Library will be closed until 4 p.m. on Wednesday, December 3^rd. We will be open from 4 to 8 p.m. All due items can still be returned through the drop boxes.