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Big Red Lollipop by Rukhsana Khan

by Tahira

Rubina is excited about going to a birthday party. Her little sister Sana insists on going and ruins everything. When the tables are turned, Rubina has a choice to let her sister suffer the same consequence or to help out. Rukhsana Khan’s The Big Red Lollipop is a well paced entertaining tale that will appeal to any child who has a little sister, or who wonders what it would be like if they did.

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The Nymphet

by marshd

On August 18th, 1958, Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita was first published in the U.S. That makes tomorrow its 52nd anniversary.

The book is his best known, and was made into a film by Stanley Kubrick in 1962, and again by Adrian Lyne in 1997. Unlike many of his other works, Nabokov actually wrote Lolita in English, and then translated into Russian. It was--and probably still is--controversial; the story is narrated by a man named Humbert Humbert, who has an amorous obsession with his girlfriend's 12-year-old daughter.

Author Erica Jong, in a New York Times Book Review in 1988, said, "'Lolita' teems with loving lexicography, crystalline coinages, lavish list-making - all the symptoms of rapture of the word. ' Nymphet' was a coinage of this novel, as were the more obscure 'libidream,' 'pederosis,' 'nymphage' and 'puppybodies.'"

Here at AADL we have Lolita in not only its original English, but also in Spanish, French, and Russian. We also have an audiobook version read by film great Jeremy Irons, who actually played Humbert in the 1997 film.

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Fabulous Fiction Firsts #219

by muffy

U.S. born, Cornell grad Andrew Xia Fukuda's Crossing* was the 2009 semifinalist in Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Contest.

Inspired by the Manhattan Chinatown young immigrants that he works with, Fukuda allows his young protagonist to tell his story - one of loneliness, frustration and alienation.

Xing (Kris to his classmates) - pronounced Shing, meaning "star" , is a freshman at Slackenkill High School. As one of two Asian students in an all-white school, he has a hard time fitting in. When other fellow students start showing up dead, the police are baffled. It is Kris' ability to blend into the background that allows him to come close to the core of the grisly crimes, leading to a chilling climax that will resonate long after the last page is turned.

"Sad, elegant, and creepy" this deft debut will appeal to psychological thriller fans. The earnest depiction of disaffected youth will appeal to teens.

* = starred review

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Ann Arbor Blues in Black & White

by amy

Lightnin' Hopkins, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, B. B. King, Albert King, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker, Big Joe Turner, Junior Wells--that's the short list. The Ann Arbor blues festivals of 1969 and 1970 saw one of the most astonishing lineups of musical artists of any genre at any time (including the more famed Woodstock festival of 1969).

"Were you there?" was the question many blues fans were asking each another in 1969. But they didn't mean Woodstock, they meant Ann Arbor.

Michael and Stanley and thousands of others were here in Ann Arbor to witness and facilitate the spread of electric city blues as it made its way from the small Chitlin' Circuit to an enthusiastic larger audience hungry for this new, powerful roots-inspired American "folk" music.

Join us Thursday, August 19, 7-9 p.m. as Michael Erlewine, chronicler of popular music and founder of the largest music review database in the world, All-Music Guide, discusses Blues in Black & White: The Landmark Ann Arbor Blues Festivals, with stunning photographs by Stanley Livingston. A book signing, with books for sale, will follow the talk.

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Teen Stuff: My Name is Jason. Mine Too.

by Caser

"A poet. An artist. Black. White. We were college roommates. Now, close friends" opens My Name is Jason. Mine Too: Our Story, Our Way, a collection of poems and paintings inter-meshed to create one unique artistic vision. The creators of this collection, Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin, are a poet and a painter who write and paint something between introspective work and pop art in this brilliantly designed book that you can find in the AADL's Teen collection. One of the more personal poems, called "Sick," is hand painted on a bedroom wall, with the final stanzas reading:

Seems like sickbeds
Become signals
To selfish sons
Saying

Trouble don't last always
Nor do mothers

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Médecins Sans Frontières

by pkooger

What would you do if your child was on the edge of death and you had no way to contact a doctor? What would you do if a natural disaster or war had left you and your neighbors injured and homeless?

Médecins Sans Frontières (known in the U.S. as Doctors Without Borders) is an international medical humanitarian organization devoted to supporting and aiding people in lands crippled by poverty, violence or catastrophic events. They have brought medical aid and public health services to places such as Rwanda, Kosovo, the Congo region, and Haiti. MSF was created in 1971 and has been saving lives all around the world ever since.

Dr. James Orbinski is a well known humanitarian activist and a former President of MSF. He accepted the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize on the organization’s behalf. His book, An Imperfect Offering, recounts his experiences in Somalia and Rwanda, while asking tough questions about one's responsibilities to the suffering. Triage is a documentary that follows Dr. Orbinski as he returns to Africa. This powerful film questions the ability of one individual to effect change in the face of political forces we cannot control. Triage “celebrates the best in the human spirit while staring unblinkingly at the worst.”

For several perspectives of what it is like to enter a crisis zone to save lives, see Writing On The Edge, a collection of essays from 14 different authors.

The Photographer is an award winning account of one man’s journey into Afghanistan with MSF during its war with the Soviet Union. This moving graphic novel uses photographs taken during the journey to help the reader understand the mental and emotional pressures felt by the author.

Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders is a recently released Oscar-nominated documentary focusing not on the work of MSF, but on the lives of doctors and volunteers who have chosen to live in the most dangerous places on Earth and devote themselves to helping the needy. The film has not been released on DVD yet, but I look forward to seeing it in AADL’s collection soon.

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Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney

by Tahira

In February 1960 four young men stood up for justice by sitting at a segregated lunch counter. This simple act of defiance helped moved America toward integration. Andrea Davis Pinkney powerful prose illuminate the courage and fortitude of the Greensboro Four.

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Author Birthdays: Ann M. Martin

by marshd

August 11th is the birthday of American author Ann M. Martin.

Best known for her 14-year-long series The Baby-sitters Club, Martin has written quite a few novels and other series for children as well.

Among the other series are The Doll People and Main Street.

Among the novels are Belle Teal, which features a young girl who encounters racism, death, and abuse as she grows up, A Dog's Life: The Autobiography Of A Stray, which is told by a stray dog and gives a great perspective on the many perils homeless animals face, and the 2003 Newbery honor book A Corner of the Universe, which tells the story of a girl named Hattie, set in the 1960s.

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PreK Bits - Pet Wash

by ryanikoglu

This week is the END of Summer 2010 Preschool Storytimes.
Look for Fall Preschool Storytime RETURN week of September 13.

Ms Rachel opened a Pet Wash to bathe snakes, raccoons, bears, cats, .... but NOT baby brothers!
We bought "5 Brown Buns" from the bakery shop, as Peter Allard does in his recording Sing it! say it! stamp it! sway it! and Sharon, Lois & Bram do in Great Big Hits.
Then there was the demonstration on how to take care of Teddy Bears.

For more on the life of Teddy Bears look into these titles;
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Teddy Bear's Picnic with the Persuasions' recorded version in The Good Ship Lollipop or the Bill Shontz recorded version inTeddy Bears' Greatest Hits

Red Ted and the Lost Things and
One Ted Falls Out of Bed tell tales of lost Teddy Bears.
And don't forget Teddy Bears' Mother Goose !

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Made in Michigan Writers Series

by breaking_glass

Have you heard of the Made in Michigan Writers Series? Published by Wayne State University Press, the series features Michigan authors in the fiction, non-fiction, short story and poetry genres.

The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit, by Michael Zadoorian
Short fiction stories about characters living in and around Detroit, surviving the odds.

Eden Springs, by Laura Kasischke
Using historical sources, a novella about the House of David religious colony that was based in Benton Harbor, Michigan in the early 20th century.

As If We Were Prey: Stories, by Michael Delp
Darkly humorous yet touching collection of short stories about men in a small northern Michigan town.

Birth of a Notion; Or, The Half Ain't Never Been Told: A Narrative Account with Entertaining Passages of the State of Minstrelsy & of America & the True Relation Thereof (From the Ha Ha Dark Side)
by Bill Harris
Using prose and poetry, Harris studies preconceived notions of “blackness” in nineteenth century American culture to the early twentieth century, investigating sources of lasting stereotypes and racist imagery.

An American Map: Essays, by Anne-Marie Oomen
Northern Michigan native Anne-Marie Oomen’s contemplative and inspirational essays from her travels across America.