Blogs

Music fans rejoice! April is Jazz appreciation month and it's time to spend some quality time with the syncopated rhythms of Billie Holiday, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and more. As you listen to the distinctly unique sounds of jazz, there are many library books to learn about these musicians and the history of jazz as an American export.  For an overview of the time period, kids will enjoy checking out What Were the Roaring Twenties? The book describes many aspects of American life during the decade including not just music, but politics, fashion, and the Stock market crash that concluded the decade.

Before the onset of the pandemic last year, the Downtown Branch had a weekly meeting for teens to hang out and play board games, as well as Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder thanks to our volunteer Dungeon Master. With things as they are, meetings in person have been cancelled since the library has been back to work but the group has still been meeting virtually to continue to hang out and create new adventures! Utilizing Discord voice chat and Roll20 to facilitate our games remotely Wednesdays from 4-6pm, if you have a teen or are a teen interested in joining the group please contact jschafle@hmcpl.org for more information.

What is Dungeons & Dragons?

St. Patrick's Day holds a special place in my heart. It's my birthday! So, I'm a little biased towards it. However, it's also a day that many of Scots-Irish descent celebrate their heritage. The history of St Patrick's Day goes back to 1631 when the Roman Catholic Church created a "Feast Day" to commemorate St Patrick's death date 1200 years prior. If you're unsure of what all St Patrick did and what the culture of the time was like, check out some of the following library books! Click on the following link to find a list of the titles in your library catalog: St Patrick's Day and the Celts.

Women of Action!

I was thrilled when I was asked to compile a list of movies featuring strong female characters. I love movies featuring women who can take control of an uncontrollable situation and get the job done. Whether it's Sarah Connors saving the fate of mankind in T2 (1991) or Annie making sure the bus never drops under 50 mph in Speed (1994), I love movies that feature strong, uncompromising female leads.

Are your kids history buffs? Maybe, maybe not. For me there's so much to delve into that I could spend unreasonable amounts of time on it. Believe me, I've spent many hours in cemeteries and archives soaking up all that info! Much more than just dates in a textbook, history is made up of family dramas, battles and wars, advancements in science, math, philosophy, etc. I think there's a lot to learn from, but also to appreciate. Now, if your kiddos are into personal stories of individuals throughout history (as the popularity of Hamilton seems to attest to), there are certainly some budding historians among the newest generations. Maybe it's that they love George Washington as much as I do or anything on Madame C.J. Walker is automatically added to the "want-to-read"shelf. Clearly there are a few people throughout history who really pique our interests.

During the quarantine last year I took the time at home to practice my sewing and stitch one a bunch of band patches to my denim jackets and decided to make it into one of our library guides when I got back, showing how to make your own battle jacket and I even complied some lists of heavy metal and punk inclined reading for our youth, young adult and adult collections (you can find the full guide here). Below I've curated some of my favorite family friendly titles to share with your children to introduce them to some of your favorite genres and artists...though I must admit I am a bit partial to punk and metal:

Picture Books

Who Exactly is The Sandman? - A Brief History

The upcoming series "The Sandman" is based on the series of comics written by acclaimed writer Neil Gaiman, though his incarnation of the Sandman character wasn't the first.

Golden/Silver Age Sandman

I didn't know Random Acts of Kindness Day, which happens on February 17 this year, even existed until very recently. Of course, I know there are people who choose to be kind every day, but I had no idea it was an official day! So I found out more. As any modern person does, I searched online. Discovering the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation was pretty exciting for me! On their website, the Foundation shares tons of resources including real-life stories, downloadable materials, and many celebrations of kindness you can see and do in every day life. This got me thinking of the types of stories and inspirations we at the library have to offer for Random Act of Kindness Day. Of course, the library has many materials to choose from. However, I am including in this particular blog only children's nonfiction books.

With the new year, the American Library Association (ALA) has released the 2021 Youth Media Awards which recognizes youth and young adult books for outstanding achievement based on certain criteria, below I've listed the awards winners and when available linked the titles we have currently in the library catalog. For a more in depth look at past and present winners and honorees check out our comprehensive libguide, Award Winning Youth Books.

John Newbery Award

The John Newbery Award is named after an 18th century British bookseller and given annually for "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children."

Most organizing books have the same general principle, although they each have their own spin to them. Out of the many organizing books, these three stuck out the most to me personally. If there is a particular one you liked and want to read similar books or just books similar to the author, you can use our Novelist tool to find them.

1. The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and Spark Joy by Marie Kondo