November is Family Literacy Month, and with the sunny days growing shorter what better time to gather together and share a great book?

Week One of NaNoWriMo

“All write, all write, all write.”

Welcome to NaNoWriMo! What is NaNoWriMo you ask? It’s National Novel Writing Month, the annual challenge to write a novel to in 30 days. You can pick any 50,000 words to put in any order and tell a story.

Thanksgiving is the time of year when our thoughts should turn to togetherness, unity, and appreciation for each other and our love towards our family and friends. It's a great time to share these ideas with your kids and explore what it means to be a kid and thoughtful person and to help out and celebrate the season I've put together a list of 30 books from our Youth Services collection that show off these ideas of thankfulness, empathy and kindness:

♦ Picture Books ♦

Trick or Treat?!

Maybe both.

If you don’t know who Paul Lynde was, he was an actor and entertainer, most famous for his role in Bewitched as Uncle Arthur and for his time on Hollywood Squares. He is unfortunately no longer with us, but his brand of slightly off-color humor and his mischievous grin are hard to forget. You can find his beloved 1976 Hallowen Special on Amazon prime, complete with special guests Kiss (in their first TV appearance ever), Florence Henderson, Margaret Hamilton reprising her role as the Wicked Witch of the West, Betty White, and Donnie and Marie Osmond.

Beginning October 30, the Huntsville Museum of Art is hosting an exhibit on Gloria Vanderbilt called "Gloria Vanderbilt: An Artful Life."  The exhibit includes memorable photographs of Vanderbilt and artworks from the legendary fashion designer and artist. The presentation will continue through January 24, 2021. For more information about the Gloria Vanderbilt: An Artful Life exhibit, please click here.

We have curated a list of books that complement the Museum's exhibition. Click on the book cover images below to checkout the library's catalog.

The Library introduces its new #Libraryonwheels

Library’s outreach services play role in connecting services to communities

The Huntsville-Madison County Public Library (HMCPL) unveiled its new Outreach vehicle, thanks to a funding gift from Madison County Commission Chairman Dale W. Strong. The new van joins the Bookmobile in the Library’s fleet of vehicles that brings Library services to the community.

Halloween Drive-in

Double Features #5

Most of us have studied a second language at some point in our lives. You may have taken two years in high school Spanish, been lucky enough to take a Gap Year and backpack across parts of the world, are just a huge Star Trek fan and learned Klingon in your free time, or you may never have studied but always wanted to.

Halloween Drive-in Double Features #4

Is it me or is this month flying by? I hope these lists have helped you to keep the season spooky and steered you toward a couple new scary flicks you may not have known about.

In this episode, Rob talks about his writing for genre film magazines over the last decade, his personal history with the horror genre, and the history of the genre itself. Michelle discusses how the brain works while watching a horror movie and why people enjoy the genre as a whole.

You can find some of Rob’s writing this month in the Halloween special edition of Rue Morgue magazine (The cover story, actually), and other places around the web.