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Blog Post

PreK Bits - "R" is for ROYAL

by ryanikoglu

Ms. Rachel and Banjo Betsy brought Royal Friends to Storytime this week at Malletts Creek.
First Ms. Rachel cut out the Queen of Hearts while she told the story of the Queen's heart-shaped tarts.
We performed ”The Princess, The Frog And The Little Bird” ... an oral tradition passed from AADL storyteller to storyteller. It is told using only sound effects.
We marched up and down the mountain with "The Grand Old duke of York". You can march with the same song on Youth CD WHERE IS THUMBKIN? and Youth CD STORYTIME.
The MOST WONDERFUL EGG IN The WORLD causes a dilemma for three chickens and the Queen. It is decided ... Whoever lays “The Most Wonderful Egg” will be made a Princess !

For more stories with ROYAL characters try these favorites:
KING BIDGOOD’s In The BATHTUB … and he won’t come out !
QUEEN Of The FROGS … does a crown make “a Royal”?.
The BIG PRINCESS and The TINY KING … "large" and "small" stories by Taor Miura.
DARING PRINCE DASHING … a daredevil prince story.
The DUCHESS Of WHIMSY … is known to have “esoteric tastes” …
The PAPER BAG PRINCESS … a classic by Robert Munsch.
QUEEN VICTORIA’s BATHING MACHINE … a real Queen and a True Victorian Story.
The PRINCE’S BEDTIME … a Royal Bedtime story.
For a participation and action adventure check out KLIPPITY KLOP. Prince Krispin, and his horse Dumpling, discover a Dragon ! YIKES !! You can order this title through MelCat with your AADL card. A Library that still owns a copy will send it. Then ... right up close... YOU can study the adorable small intricate line drawings by Ed Emberley ... and repeat (as many times as you like !) the walking adventure of Prince Krispin and Dumpling.

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Blog Post

Meet “It’s All Write!” 2017 Judge #6: Paula Garner!

by BugsAndSlugs

The sixth judge for this year's “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest is Paula Garner. In Paula’s debut YA novel, Phantom Limbs, readers are introduced to Otis, a 16 year old introverted swimmer dealing with loss and the pressure of competitive sport. Otis must come to terms with the tragedy in his past in order to move forward and tackle the new dreams he has for his future. Phantom Limbs is a 2017 Illinois Reads Selection for grades 9-12!

Paula Garner's next novel, scheduled for publication in Spring 2018, Relative Strangers, follows a teen who just discovered she spent part of her youth in foster care. She is determined to find the family who cared for her, but the romantic feelings she develops for her foster brother threaten her new found happiness.

Paula Garner spends most of her time writing, reading, or making good things to eat. Currently, she lives in the Chicago area with her family and a very bad cat. To learn more about Paula check out her website and stay tuned for more information about “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest 2017 Judges!

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Blog Post

Suggest a Title For Washtenaw Reads 2018

by TimG

Read a good book lately? Suggest it for Washtenaw Reads 2018!

The Washtenaw Reads screening team is meeting throughout the summer to select finalist titles for the Read and they want your ideas!

The Washtenaw Reads program is a community initiative to promote reading and civic dialogue through the shared experience of reading and discussing a common book. Participating libraries and communities include Ann Arbor, Chelsea, Dexter, Milan, Northfield Township, Saline, and Ypsilanti.

To suggest a title visit Washtenaw Reads or the Washtenaw Reads Facebook page. Washtenaw Reads 2018 will take place January - February 2018.

Thanks for your suggestions!

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Blog Post

NEW Themes !! - Stories-To-Go 2017

by ryanikoglu

NEW SETS are ready for check-out !
There are 11 new Stories To Go THEMES, 4 sets of each theme ... added in 2017.
Each Themed set includes 5-7 books, 1-2 DVDs, perhaps a CD ... especially for use with kids ages 2-7 years old.
These sets are for easy "Grab and CheckOut" by Parents, Grandparents, Child Care Providers, and Teachers.
Every SET includes an Activity Folder with songs, fingerplays and activities to extend the theme with your children.

The NEW 2017 themes are as follows:
ALPHABET ABC-XYZ ... Reading Readiness.
COUNTING ... especially beyond 10. Math Readiness.
NIGHT TIME ... what's going on while I am in bed? Early Science.
UNDER your FEET ... what's going on underground? Early Science.
SEQUENCING & PATTERNS ... Math Readiness.
SHAPES & COLORS ... School Readiness.
GOOD MANNERS ... Early Social Skills.
HEALTHY HABITS ... food, activity, teeth, hygiene. Early Science.
BUGS ... small living things. Early Science.
MOVING DAY ... when you are moving to a different place it is a Big Change. Social Skills.
RECYCLING/ GARBAGE ... Reduce ... ReUse ... Recycle. Early Social, Science and Ecology.

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Blog Post

New Cookbooks

by ballybeg

A quick perusal of the new bookshelf always yields a variety of unique and tempting cookbooks. Here is a random selection from this morning which caught my eye, with amazing pictures, tantalizing recipes, and explorations of food cultures.

Cook’s Illustrated All-Time Best Appetizers by the editors at America’s Test Kitchen. The chapter headings give you a very good idea of the variety: “wrapped & stuffed”, “sliced & stacked”, “spread & dipped”, “passed & plattered”, “in a bowl”. It all starts with a chapter called “getting started” (hey), which offers great information about cheese, crudites, beer, wine, assembling a menu. Recipes to try for sure: baked brie with honeyed apricots; carmelized onion, pear and bacon tarts; cocktail crab cakes with chipotle mayonnaise. Very fun and trendy.

Dinner at the Long Table by Tarlow & Dunn. A very creative, very hard to describe, and super classy collection from a group of restaurants in Brooklyn. The pictures are colorful, friendly, and artsy, and display the food and gatherings to supreme appeal. A sample of chapter headings reveals the unusual assortment and classification of recipes: “Afternoon around the fire”, “The night before a new year” “Under the harvest moon.” I am defintiely making the cassoulet recipe, a dish I have long wished to attempt, and a simply, lovely-looking salad called, “beets roasted until the end of time”, with oranges, yogurt, dates and pistachios. Combining great flavors is one of the secrets to great cooking.

What Good Cooks Know: 20 Years of Test Kitchen Expertise in one Essential Handbook also by America’s Test Kitchen. Everything about cooking here: “Outfitting your kitchen”, “Stocking your fridge and pantry”, “In the kitchen & at the stove”, “Putting it all together”. This is encyclopedic in scope and, since they have already tested everything down to the measuring spoons, they don’t shy away from making very specific recommendations for which brand of everything to buy and use. A complete cooking course, and an amazing resource, in 400 pages.

Far Afield: Rare Food Encounters From Around the World by Mitchell and Fisher. A far-flung tour of 10 food cultures, from Iceland to Kenya, Peru to Japan, with stories, recipes, and the most amazing pictures of people and their food. As much a travel documentary and anthropology treatise as cookbook. Take away: there are still lots of cultures living close to their food supply, and very traditional and amazing food-ways being practiced all over the globe, with local, organic ingredients, which celebrate food and community! This book is a feast for the eye.

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Blog Post

Fabulous Fiction Firsts #633

by muffy

An April 2017 LibraryReads, Kate Eberlen's engaging debut Miss You * brings to mind One Day by David Nicholls, where two souls that are meant to be, crisscross each other for years without connecting, after a chance meeting as 18 year-olds.

Tess and (An)Gus first met in a dim church in Florence and bumped into each other on the Ponte Vecchio while on holiday, before heading off to university in London.

Gus would read medicine, fulfilling the family wish. Tess never made it to university. Her mother's untimely death and the brute of a father meant she would stay home and raise her special-need younger sister, Hope.

Over the course of the next 16 years, as they individually fumbled through failed romances and marriage, balancing family and professional demands, the two narrowly missed one another several more times - while queuing up at Selfridge's one Christmas Eve; at a posh country wedding; at a frenzy Stones' concert where Gus, now a physician, attended to an unconscious Tess.

"Eberlen, who has written historical fiction and chick lit under the name Imogen Parker, excels in creating realistic characters whom readers will adore—including Tess’ unusual sister, Hope; Tess’ sassy best friend, Dolly; and Gus’ impulsive college pal, Nash. Eberlen also shines at keeping the story moving through 16 years of friendship, purpose, and love. Swoon-worthy." (Booklist)

Will appeal to fans of Jojo Moyes and Marian Keyes.

* = Starred review

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Blog Post

Library Space Camp!

by PizzaPuppy

Looking for something fun to do during Spring Break? We'll be hosting Library Space Camp on Thursday, April 6th from 1-3 PM, with special guest Astronaut Tony England!

Join us in making astronaut helmets, creating space-related crafts, running a science experiment, launching straw rockets, watching videos from the International Space Station, and even meeting a real astronaut! We'll have some of our Tools out on display to interact with, including our telescope and our Mars globe. We'll also have a book display filled with many different space books and movies to check out.

Can't wait until the event? In the mood for more space stuff? Take a look at the Smithsonian's Space! The Universe as You've Never Seen It Before or Space: From Earth to the Edge of the Universe for awesome space facts. Learn from Profesor Astro Cat's Frontiers of Space or see what it takes to become an astronaut with How to Be a Space Explorer. We also have great movies about space. Check out Destiny in Space, filmed in space by astronauts. Tour the International Space Station with NASA ISS: A Tour or learn about The Planets with one of America's favorite science guys, Bill Nye!

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Blog Post

PreK Bits - "A" is for AFRICAN Stories

by ryanikoglu

“We Were In Deepest Africa” and Ms. Rachel rumbled with jungle stories in Storytime.
HEAD, BODY, LEGS: A Story From Liberia by the author/illustrator team Won-Ldy Paye & Margaret Lippert ... a story of how the final body design came to be.
We found our own body parts and did the "Hokey Pokey" to "Shake it all about".
LEOPARD’S DRUM: An Ashanti Tale From West Africa is a story of jealousy, sharing and problem-solving ... in the jungle.

Keep on rumbling in the jungle with more of Ms. Rachel’s favorite tales (and music) from Africa:
Zzzng ! Zzzng ! Zzzng !: A Yoruba Tale.
The HATSELLER And The MONKEYS with wonderful illustrations by Baba Wague Diakite.
ANANSI And The TALKING MELON and more by Janet Stevens.
WHY MOSQUITOES BUZZ IN PEOPLE’S EARS in book format. Here is the same story on DVD narrated by James Earl Jones.
MUFARO’S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS in book format. Here is the same story on DVD by Reading Rainbow.
Putumayo recordings like the CD KID’S WORLD PARTY add wonderful African soundtracks to listen and dance.
The CD GIFT Of The TORTOISE offers more wonderful African music by Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

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Blog Post

Power Rangers!

by PizzaPuppy

The new Power Rangers movie hits theaters tonight! Go Go Power Rangers!!

If you have Power Rangers fever, rest assured that the library has plenty to keep you entertained.

We have the official movie novelization if you can't wait to see what happens in the new movie.

For early readers, we have books such as Mega Mission, Meet the Rangers, Rangers Unite, Samurai Strike, and Armed for Battle.

Give our Power Rangers graphic novels a try with series like Super Samurai and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

We also have a great selection of the many television series that make up the Power Rangers universe, including the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers, MegaForce, Super Megaforce, RPM, Zeo, Samurai, Super Samurai, Time Force, Jungle Fury, and Dino Charge. We even have the 1995 original movie.

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Public Event

Discuss "The Girl on the Train" Before Author Paula Hawkins Visits Ann Arbor!

Monday May 8, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Westgate Branch: West Side Room