Blog Post
Middle-School Novel Celebrates Human Kindness
by annevm
One of the best books I have read recently is Wonder by R.J. Palacio. A recommendation by youth librarians, the book champions kindness in a way that somehow manages not to be preachy. It also reflects the value of loving one's family and not judging people by appearance.
The star of the novel is August ("Auggie") Pullman, age 10, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities. His mother homeschooled him until fifth grade; as the novel opens he is about to enter a private middle school in Manhattan. The novel covers Auggie's turbulent first year, as he struggles to be seen as just another kid. He is gentle and bright, but faces heartbreaking challenges to fit in.
Written for readers in about fourth through seventh grades, the book is entirely believable in its presentation of various personalities and challenges faced by middle-school kids. As the story moves along, the characters develop and grow. Multiple narrators -- Auggie, two new friends at school, Auggie's sister (struggling as she starts high school), and his sister's one-time best friend -- add richness and balance to the story. Auggie's parents are unforgettable, as are his friends, which he does make, one by one.
Blog Post
Life Boats and Tigers and Boys - Oh My!
by hassle55
Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel that follows a young man through a perilous journey – both physically and psychologically – and shows that life, no matter how tragic and hopeless it can seem, is always worth fighting for.
Pi Patel, the title character in Yann Martel's 2001 novel, is not an ordinary teenager. He is a practicing Hindu, Muslim, and Christian, and grew up with his parents and brother in a zoo in Pondicherry, India. When Pi is sixteen years old, his family decides to sell the zoo and move to Canada due to political unrest in India. A few days into the journey the family's ship sinks, and Pi finds himself the sole human survivor on a life boat with an orangutan, a zebra, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Soon, Pi is left alone in the life boat with the tiger. The two set out across the Pacific on a journey that explores faith, strength, and the line between the truth and the stories we tell ourselves in order to cope with the tragedies and triumphs of life.
The much-anticipated film version of "Life of Pi" is scheduled for release in late November. Take a look at the film's website.
Blog Post
Science Fair Expo
by Caser
Saturday, November 17 -- 12 - 2 pm -- Downtown "> Grades 6 - 12
It's Science Fair season! Students and parents are invited to hear Clague Middle School science teacher, Soon Morningstar, discuss the basics on planning and assembling a successful science fair project. Ms. Morningstar has been helping students create science projects for the Southeastern Michigan Science Fair for eleven years, and she has many helpful resources on her website.
After the presentation, try several of our hands-on science experiments, and be the first to test some of our new Science Tools including two types of microscopes!
Ask questions, get answers about Science Fair projects this Saturday at the Downtown library.
Can't make the event? Check out this list of Science Fair resources available at the AADL. Also see the Science Fair Adventure website and the Science Buddies website for great project ideas.
Blog Post
November's New Book Clubs to Go
by muffy
We have 5 new sets of Book Clubs to Go for your book clubs. Again, we tried to strike a balance between the classics, the literary, the popular, and the award winners - fiction and nonfiction.
A Death in the Family is the 1958 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel by James Agee who reconstructs through the lens of fiction the real-life car accident that claimed his father when James was not yet six years old.
Half Broke Horses, called a true-life novel (read the New York Times review) by Jeannette Walls who brings us the story of her grandmother Lily Casey Smith, a no-nonsense, resourceful, hard working woman who survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy.
Ava Bigtree has lived her entire life at Swamplandia!, a gator-wrestling theme park in the Florida Everglades. But when her mother the headliner dies, the family is plunged into chaos and it is left up to Ava to save them all. Karen Russell's Swamplandia is a seriously fun read to share.
The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua is a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs. It was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead, it's about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how you can be humbled by a thirteen-year-old.
In The Tiger's Wife, Natalia, a young doctor, is compelled to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather’s recent death. Searching for clues, she turns to his worn copy of The Jungle Book and the stories he told her of his encounters over the years with “the deathless man.” But most extraordinary of all is the story her grandfather never told her—the legend of the tiger’s wife. Winner of the 2011 Orange Prize for debut novelist Tea Obreht.
Blog Post
Found and Read
by manz
Brothers Davy and Peter Rothbart visit their hometown of Ann Arbor tomorrow night at The Last Word as part of FOUND Magazine’s epic 10th Anniversary tour, which brings them to 37 states this fall. (The Ann Arbor stop benefits 826Michigan.) The tour also celebrates the release of Davy’s new book My Heart is an Idiot. MHIAI is a collection of personal essays, many regarding his search for love in all the wrong places. See here for info on the tour, and here for FOUND books at AADL.
Blog Post
Happy Birthday Georgia O'Keeffe
by manz
November 15 is the birthday of American artist Georgia O'Keeffe. Born in Wisconsin in 1887, O'Keeffe spent a large part of her career out west where her work the focused on the landscape of the area. It is there she found inspiration for her large-format paintings of flowers, blooms, and desert imagery, which she is best known for. O'Keeffe died in 1986 at the age of 98. 2012 marks her 125th birthday and the 15th anniversary of The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The museum is dedicated to her life and and her art. Be sure to check out some of the wonderful books AADL has featuring her beautiful work.
Blog Post
2012 Teen NBA Winner Announced
by K.C.
Goblin Secrets has received the 2012 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Rownie, the youngest in Graba the witchworker's household of stray children, escapes and goes looking for his missing brother. Along the way he falls in with a troupe of theatrical goblins and learns the secret origins of masks. Now Graba's birds are hunting him in the Southside of Zombay, the Lord Mayor's guards are searching for him in Northside, and the River between them is getting angry. The city needs saving—and only the goblins know how. Don’t miss Goblin Secrets!
Author William Alexander studied theater and folklore at Oberlin College and English at the University of Vermont. He currently lives, writes, and teaches in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His short stories have been published in many magazines and anthologies, including Weird Tales, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Interfictions 2, and Fantasy: The Best of the Year 2008. Catch an interview with William on The Enchanted Inkpot.
Blog Post
2012 National Book Award winners have been announced
by sernabad
Last night, the The National Book Award winners for 2012 were announced at a gala event at the posh Cipriani on Wall Street.
The big winners were:
Louise Erdrich, 58, received the fiction award for The Round House. An adult Joe Coutts looks back in time when, as a teenager, he went in search of the man who brutalized his mother on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. This winning title is part two of a trilogy. The Coutts family was first introduced in The Plague of Doves (2008). Erdrich's win is especially poignant as, shortly after she started writing The Round House, she was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer, which she has beat.Ms. Erdrich, who is part Ojibwe, delighted last night's audience by addressing some of her remarks in her tribal tongue.
Katherine Boo, 48, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for the The New Yorker, received the nonfiction award for Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life,Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, a wrenching account of a teenage boy who lives in the slums that are hidden from view by some of India's luxury hotels.
Poet David Ferry, 88, tearfully accepted what he described as "preposterous pre-posthumous award" for his Bewilderment; New Poems and Translations. "We're all in this apart" (From FoundSingle-Line Poems). Ferry has a PhD from Harvard and is the Sophie Chantal Hart Professor Emeritus of English at Wellesley, where he taught for many years.
William Joseph Alexander, 36, is a first-time novelist who captured the Young People's Literature prize for his fantasy, Goblin Secrets. In this steampunk/witch-infested tale, Rownie escapes Graba who 'adopts' orphans to do her bidding, and sets out on a quest to find his missing older brother.
Rounding out the evening, host Faith Salie, a media star on NPR, the BBC and CBS Sunday Morning, bestowed two special awards. Detroit author, Elmore Leonard, 88, accepted the Distinguished Contribution to American Letters prize. New York Times publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., 61, was honored for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. NPR's Fresh Air host, Terry Gross, introduced Mr. Sulzberger and said the New York Times Book Review was like "...a shopping catalog...[for] authors I've overlooked."
Each winner received $10,000.
Blog Post
Vote for your favorite Michigan author
by articia
Nominate your favorite Michigan Author so the Michigan Library Association can reward them! Any author who lives in Michigan or writes about Michigan can win, regardless of the genre they write, as long as they have published at least 3 titles. See the list of authors who have won over the years and access the nomination form here. This year's winner was Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of Once Upon a River and several other Michigan based books.
Blog Post
Magic Carpet Theatre Returns to AADL
by kidlit
The Magic Carpet Theatre returns to AADL for another performance
highlighting classic children's stories.
See Dr. Seuss' popular Horton Hears a Who! and Verna Aardema's African tale Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain
and others come to life as live performances.
They will be at the Downtown Library on Sunday, November 11, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. The show will be in the multi-purpose room in the lower level.
Bring the whole family to this special event.