Blog Post
Halloween Fun with Batman, Mickey Mouse & Monster High!
by manz
It's that time of year for Halloween tricks or treats in video form! The library has many children's videos with Halloween, spooky and monster themes, beyond your basic Scooby Doo! Be sure to have a peek and see what looks good to you and your little ones! Here are some of the NEW movies and TV shows headed to our collection:
Thomas & Friends: Thomas' Halloween Adventures & Thomas Gets Tricked
Are there really ghosts in the fog and mist on the Island of Sodor? Thomas,Toby and Henry believe there are! But things are not always as they appear. Gordon and Percy encounter other mysteries on the Island. Can Thomas help explain them? Join all of your Island of Sodor friends as they solve Halloween mysteries that are exciting all year round!
WordWorld: Halloween Fun
Sheep and Bear are lost in the jungle and must hunt for letters to create a map. Next, Duck breaks a lamp, a lever and Frog's log. Will their friendship be broken too? Then, Fly and Duck dream of becoming firefighters and go in search of smoke in WordWorld, but can they discover what's really smoke to find the fire? And, when PIG gets a pot stuck on his face, Sheep takes over his cooking show?
Peg + Cat: A Totally Awesome Halloween
It's Halloween and Peg and Cat have a big problem! Someone has left the park full of trash and the costume parade might be canceled. Don't freak out, Peg and Cat save the day by sorting and recycling. Then, they discover they've been trick-or-treating with a real, live tiger!
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey's Monster Musical
Put on your favorite Halloween costume and get set for a spooktacular full-length adventure! Visit the creaky castle of kindly "Count Mickula" and help your Clubhouse pals solve a puzzling riddle: Who, or what, is making a curious clanging, banging noise? With the right Monster Mouseketools and help from YOU, this mystery will soon be history!
Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem
It's Halloween in Gotham. To celebrate, the city's spookiest villains have all joined forces and gone on a crime spree. Batman swings into action to stop them, joined by Green Arrow, Cyborg, Nightwing and Red Robin. But it seems that the fiends are working for the clown prince of crime himself: The Joker, who has a surprise of his own. A computer virus that makes all technology laugh and obey his every command! Can the heroes stop the virus before it turns all of Gotham into Jokertown?
Monster High: Boo York, Boo York
Its fright lights, big city when the Monster High ghouls head to Boo York. Cleo de Nile is invited to attend a fancy gala celebrating the return of a magical comet and, of course, she brings along her beast friends. But their trip isn't all fun and frightseeing because Nefera, Cleo's sister, uses the comets powers for her own spooktacularly sneaky plans. Can the monsters unwrap the mystery of the comet in time to stop Nefera?
Monster High: Scaris, City of Frights
When Clawdeen Wolf gets the chance to apprentice for the legendary fashion designer Madame Ghostier, she and her best ghoul friends immediately pack their bags and hop on a plane to beautiful Scaris, France. As Clawdeen competes against two worthy opponents, Skelita Calaveras and Jinafire Long, her pals Frankie Stein and Rochelle Goyle uncover clues to a spooktacular secret hidden deep beneath the cobblestone street.
Blog Post
Halloween Costume Swap!
by evelyn
Join us for a new sustainability program this year! From now until October 2nd, drop off your gently used, clean Halloween costumes to any library branch. Costumes for all ages and sizes are appreciated, as well as accessories!
Then, on October 3rd, come to the Downtown branch from 2:30-4:30 to pick out a new costume for this year! This is a wonderful chance to save money, clear your closet, and pick out something snazzy for this year. We'll also be doing a kids' craft!
Get in the spooky mood by checking out our great collection of Halloween items!
Blog Post
The Little Gardener is a treat!
by eapearce
Oh my goodness! What a treat of a new picture book. The Little Gardener, written and illustrated by Emily Hughes, is completely charming. An unnamed miniature boy lives and works in a giant, colorful garden with his little worm friend. The two tend to the garden and get their food and shelter from it. But such little creatures working in such a big garden get tired! The tiny boy and the worm get more and more worn out and their garden starts to wilt and die. One evening, the little boy makes a tiny wish… for just a bit of help. Then he and his worm buddy fall asleep. They are so tired that they sleep all day… all week… all month! While they are sleeping a human girl sees one of the beautiful flowers that is growing in the garden and gets inspired to tend to the garden herself. She waters and weeds and makes everything healthy again! When the tiny boy wakes up, he is rejuvenated and amazed. His garden is flourishing again! He happily goes back to work at his labor of love. The beautiful illustrations and simple, carefully worded text really make this a wonderful picture book, both for young readers... and the adults reading to them!
Blog Post
Parent’s Corner: Are we Facebook friends?
by manz
In this day and age things are different than when we were kids. Your child is ten and wants their own iPhone. After you take a photo of your four year old with your phone, the child instantly asks “are you going to put that on Facebook?” And let’s not forget the kid who walks around “air hashtagging” when he’s not even sure what Twitter is. How do you as a parent or caregiver guide children along in this screen-driven world?
The Parent Shelf is located in the downtown youth area, and here is where you’ll find a variety of parent-child related books on a multitude of topics- including everything from food and nutrition to potty training to time-outs to homework. These books are available for checkout and can be found in the catalog when searching “parent shelf.” And there are many on the topic of the digital age and children. Here are a few to get you started:
Growing up social: Raising relational kids in a screen-driven world
Talking back to Facebook: A common sense guide to raising kids in the digital age
And if you’re looking to research more on navigating cyberspace and children, there are plenty more books to choose from.
Blog Post
It's Banned Books Week! Sept. 27 - Oct. 3
by badwolf
What is Banned Books Week, you may ask? It's an event put on by the American Library Association every year to celebrate the freedom to read! The ALA does not believe in censorship, and celebrating banned or challenged books draws attention to the harm potentially caused when access is restricted. If you haven't already, come check out our Banned Books Week display in the Downtown Youth Department and take a peek at the books we've chosen to highlight - some of them may surprise you!
What does it mean if a book is challenged or banned? Well, it simply means that someone doesn't like it! It could be a parent who doesn't agree with their child's assigned reading list for school, or a teacher who doesn't believe a particular title should be allowed in his/her district's curriculum. Books are challenged with the best intentions - to protect others, most commonly children, from difficult ideas and information. However, banning a book goes far beyond simply expressing a point of view or exercising beliefs. Removing material from a school's curriculum or the public library restricts the access of others who may not hold those same beliefs.
If you've had a chance to look at the display or check out the list of titles that are in it, you're probably wondering why some great books have been challenged or banned. Well, hold onto your hats and find some pearls to clutch, because we're about to tell you!
Here’s a list of the books in our display case in the same order in which you'll see them. Underneath each title are the reasons that were listed on formal complaints filed against them and basic summaries of the content that prompted these complaints.
- - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- - promotes disobedience, too violent
- - Katniss defies President Snow's authority, and there is a lot of bloodshed in the Hunger Games.
- - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
- - promotes witchcraft and Satanism
- - Magic is a normal part of everyday life in Harry's world.
- - Drama by Raina Telgemeier
- - sexually explicit
- - There is an openly gay character, and two boys kiss in the school play when one plays a female character and the other a male character.
- - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
- - anti-family, cultural insensitivity, drugs/alcohol/smoking, gambling, offensive language, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group, violence, depictions of bullying
- - A Native American boy is sent to an all-white high school, where he faces racism and bullying.
- - Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
- - gambling, offensive language, political viewpoint, “politically, racially, and socially offensive,” “graphic depictions”
- - The main character grows up in the middle of a war and witnesses violence and death, and since the book is a graphic novel, there are illustrations of these events.
- - Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- - racism
- - Native Americans are depicted as “terrible savages.”
- - A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
- - promotes violence, disrespect, and disobedience
- - There are poems about disobeying parents, being selfish or lazy, and lying.
- - King & King by Linda deHaan
- - homosexuality, anti-family, undermines religious freedom, considered “pornography” for showing a family situation that is different from traditional marriage
- - The prince wants to marry another prince instead of a princess.
- - Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey
- - offensive language, violence, sexually explicit, implied nudity
- - Captain Underpants flies around in just his underwear and a cape.
- - Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
- - socially offensive
- - The police characters are pigs and are depicted as inept.
- - The Rabbits’ Wedding by Garth Williams
- - socially offensive
- - A black rabbit wants to marry a white rabbit.
- - Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola
- - promotes witchcraft
- - Strega Nona is the loveable town witch to whom everyone turns in their time of need.
- - And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
- - anti-family, homosexuality, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, “promotes the homosexual agenda”
- - Two male penguins are given an egg to raise together.
- - Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
- - promotes/glorifies dangerous behavior (tantrums), child abuse
- - Max throws a lot of tantrums and is “deprived” of food as punishment.
- - Nappy Hair* by Carolivia Herron
- - racially insensitive
- - A little African-American girl's hair is described as "nappy" and "knotted up" by her family.
- - Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
- - pro-homosexuality, anti-family, unsuitable for children
- - The main character has two moms instead of a mom and a dad.
*Are you looking for Nappy Hair in our catalog, but can't find it? Never fear! We only have one copy in the system, and since it's currently in the display case, it has to be marked as "unavailable." Check back in a few weeks!
Blog Post
Chuseok Dae, a Korean celebration!
by Sunny29
The University of Michigan's Nam Center for Korean Studies proudly brings you the 5th annual Chuseok Thanksgiving Celebration! This free event includes Korean food tasting, arts & crafts, a story time by AADL's own Miss Rachel, and two kimchi workshops presented by The Brinery.
Events will be held at the UM School of Social Work building, 1080 S. University.
Crafts
Felt Ball Fun!
Monday November 23, 2015: 7:00pm to
8:30pm
Pittsfield Branch: Program Room
Adults, Teens And Youth (Grade K And Up)
Crafts
Finding Dory Fishy Storytime and Craft
Saturday June 11, 2016: 11:00am to
12:00pm
Pittsfield Branch: Program Room
Preschool - Grade 2
Blog Post
PreK - "S" is for Shoes
by ryanikoglu
Storytime was all about shoes this week.
SHOE TOWN … begins with Ms. Mouse in her empty shoe ... now that the children have moved on.
Banjo Betsy played her banjo and Ms. Rachel led the action song “Walk Walk Walk" around the block … which can be found on the CD RISE And SHINE by Raffi.
We learned the shoe song from Pete The Cat who loves his new shoes ... I LOVE MY WHITE SHOES.
It’s all GOOD!
Here are more shoe stories you might like:
SHOE BABY… rhyme and fantasy for the youngest kids.
A BOY Had A MOTHER WHO BOUGHT HIM A HAT … and shoes, and boots, and skis … and he always had them with him.
TAKING A BATH WITH The DOG And OTHER THINGS
LOUISE The BIG CHEESE And The LA-DI-DA SHOES
SHOEBOX SAM … shoes and dignity.
SAM BENNETT’S NEW SHOES … a growing story …
Don't forget ... Music on CD leads SHOES to dance!
PUT ON YOUR DANCING SHOES with Joanie Bartels
I GOT SHOES with Sweet Honey In The Rock
RHYTHM IN MY SHOES with Jessica Harper
JIM GILL SINGS MOVING RHYMES FOR MODERN TIMES
TRAIN SONGS And Other TRACKS.
Now go ahead and … put on your choo-choo shoes!
Blog Post
Parent’s Corner: Brains!
by manz
The Parent Shelf is located in the downtown youth area, and here is where you’ll find a variety of parent-child related books on a multitude of topics- including everything from food and nutrition to potty training to time-outs to homework. These books are available for checkout and can be found in the catalog when searching “parent shelf.” There are many books on cognition in child development. Here are a few to take a look at:
Thirty million words: Building a child's brain: Tune in, talk more, take turns