New and Featured Books for Kids/Juvenile Readers for 02/23/2012:

Come and check out these and some of the other new books and materials (or at least new to us) for younger and juvenile readers added to our library collection…

EASY READING:

My Uncle Martin’s Words For America: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Niece Tells How He Made A Difference by Angela Farris Watkins and illustrated by Eric Velasquez

A wonderful memoir in pictures of MLK’s life, as told by his niece, who shares her uncle’s positive message about how there’s a place for everyone in this world, living life side by side. This is a great book for younger readers, and is very informative, and the pictures in it are very realistic and warm. Highly recommended.

Caves And Caverns by Gail Gibbons

Dinosailors by Deb Lund and illustrated by Howard Fine

Press Here by Hervé Tullet

There’s a button and they’re just daring you to touch it. How can you resist that?

Emma’s Poem: The Voice Of The Statue Of Liberty by Linda Glaser and illustrated by Claire A. Nivola

A very nice book about the life of Emma Lazarus and her famous sonnet, “The New Colossus,” which is engraved in bronze on the Statue of Liberty. You may not realize you know it, but it’s the poem that includes the words: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” This is a good read for younger readers, and especially ideal for helping them to understand what the American Dream is about.

What Color Is My World?: The Lost History Of African-American Inventors by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Raymond Obstfeld and illustrated by Ben Boos and A. G. Ford

The Astonishing Secret Of Awesome Man by Michael Chabon and illustrated by Jake Parker

Peeny Butter Fudge by Toni Morrison and Slade Morrison and illustrated by Joe Cepeda

When The Shadbush Blooms by Carla Messinger with Susan Katz and illustrated by David Kanietakeron Fadden

We March by Shane W. Evans

FICTION:

How Not To Run For President by Catherine Clark

Sarah, Plain And Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

The Case Of The Deadly Desperadoes by Caroline Lawrence

How To Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier

A very entertaining and funny novel about a word full of fairies, who are there to hinder humans doing the most mundane of tasks, and one girl’s attempt to do as the title suggests, and ditch her own personal fairy. Check out an excerpt. The paperback version’s cover, seen below, is also pretty funny, and fitting to the story.

NON-FICTION:

Black Pioneers: An Untold Story by William Loren Katz

Isaac Newton: The Scientist Who Changed Everything by Philip Steele

Twist It Up: More Than 60 Delicious Recipes From An Inspiring Young Chef by Jack Witherspoon and Lisa Witherspoon, with photographs by Sheri Giblin

This 11 year old chef has spent half his life battling leukemia, and now has his own cookbook. His story is an incredibly inspiring one, and the recipes are all extremely good and kid-friendly. You can catch a preview below as young chef Jack Witherspoon makes baked ziti:

Stokely Carmichael: The Story Of Black Power by Jacqueline Johnson

The Best Of Times: Math Strategies That Multiply by Greg Tang and illustrated by Harry Briggs

My People by Langston Hughes and illustrated by Charles R. Smith, jr.

African American Military Heroes by Jim Haskins

Tsunami! by Kimiko Kajikawa and illustrated by Ed Young

Tornadoes! by Gail Gibbons

Heart And Soul: The Story Of America And African Americans by Kadir Nelson

The Civil Rights Movement: An Interactive History Adventure by Heather Adamson

Citizen Scientists: Be A Part Of Scientific Discovery From Your Own Backyard by Loree Griffin Burns, with photographs by Ellen Harasimowicz

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Please note that books could be checked out between the time they end up on the blog and when you come to check them out. If you don’t see the items you’re looking for then please come up to the front desk and we’ll put your name on the reserve list for when the item returns.

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Previous New/Featured books for Adults:

02/14/11.

02/02/12.

01/27/12.

12/27/11.

12/23/11.

And for Young Adults:

02/21/12.

02/09/12.

01/31/12.

And for Kids/Juvenile Readers:

02/16/12.

01/28/12.

February is Black History Month.

In February of 1926, historian Carter G. Woodson, the son of former slaves and the founder of the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History established Negro History Week to honor and recognize African American achievements to American history.  In 1976 the week was expanded into a month by the United States, thereby designating February to be Black History Month.  The month of February was chosen because it is the birth month of both the abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) and President Abraham Lincoln. Woodson also founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which is now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

It’s important to remember that African American history isn’t about just one month, nor is it about dates and a few facts and figures. It’s a celebration, and it’s about acknowledgment and understanding of the contributions made, and about respecting that people matter. And it’s about remembering that Black History is American History, and that this is a nation of many stories, many angles and beliefs, and many colors.

Resources from the internet:

Black History Month at History.com.

African American History Month at the Library Of Congress, National Endowment For The Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institute, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has a nice collection of resources and lesson plans for Black History Month.

Historic places in the Civil Rights movement.

The origin of Black History Month.

The history of Jim Crow.

Black History Month internet resources for kids.

Articles on Black History and Heritage Month from the Smithsonian.

Black History Month resource center from BlackState.com

A Harlem Renaiisance timeline from the Schomburg Center.

100 Famous African American men and women from the 20th century, a database of African American inventors, a timeline of black political history, and puzzles for all ages from About.com.

from here.

We would like to take this month to highlight, suggest, and remind you of the many print and electronic resources here at the library that may be of interest to anyone researching, learning, or just reacquainting themselves with African-American culture and history.

Author quotes: The needs of a society.

When you decide to do a regular feature on your blog where you share interesting quotes from authors, well… it’s nice to work in a library when that’s the assignment you’ve set out for yourself. Because in a library there’s never a shortage of amazing stories and personalities in the library, no fear of ever running out of funny anecdotes, inspiring tales, or brilliant nuggets of wisdom.

And then when you do single out a particular author that you’d like to share the words of, it can be hard because part of the reason you picked them in the first place is that they’ve said so many wonderful things. But then again, it’s nice to be cursed with options, isn’t it?

Today’s author that I’d like to share the words of with you is Dr. Maya Angelou, the poet, memoirist, actress, director, raconteur, and civil rights activist. And rather than just a single quote, I’m going to indulge myself and treat you, and share a few…

One of my favorites:

“If a human being dreams a great dream, dares to love somebody; if a human being dares to be Martin King, or Mahatma Gandhi, or Mother Theresa, or Malcolm X; if a human being dares to be bigger than the condition into which she or he was born—it means so can you. And so you can try to stretch, stretch, stretch yourself so you can internalize, ‘Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto. I am a human being, nothing human can be alien to me.’ That’s one thing I’m learning.”

from Oprah Presents Master Class, featuring Dr. Maya Angelou, which aired 01/16/2011.

from here.

One of her most famous quotes:

“The needs of a society determine its ethics.”

from her first autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, 1969. It’s often misquoted as “The needs of society determine its ethics,” which makes a little bit of a difference, but the quote in all of its context is: “The needs of a society determine its ethics, and in the Black American ghettos the hero is that man who is offered only the crumbs from his country’s table but by ingenuity and courage is able to take for himself a Lucullan feast.”

The title of Angelou’s book comes Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, “Sympathy.”

from here.

And this is a quote I think most people need to hear:

“People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”

from Worth Repeating: More Than 5,000 Classic And Contemporary Quotes, edited by Bob Kelly, 2003.

Elsewhere on the internet:

Maya Angelou’s official website.

Maya Angelou’s twitter.

An oral history of Maya Angelou, via the National Visionary Leadership Project.

Angelou was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on this day last year.

An interview with Angelou in The Paris Review.

Maya Angelou’s Black History Month special.

A video of Maya Angelou reading her poem “On The Pulse Of Morning” at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton in 1993.

A conversation with Maya Angelou at age 75.

The Schomburg Center in Harlem has acquired the Maya Angelou archives.

“Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou.

Maya Angelou at the Academy of American Poets.

At the library we have quite a few books both by Angelou and about her life and work, including classics like I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and The Heart Of A Woman, and I’ll hope you’ll come and check them out. We also have her poetry collection, And Still I Rise, and I’m going to leave you with a stanza from the title poem from that collection…

You may write me down in history

with your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Upcoming library programs.

Just a reminder…

We’ll be hosting a Beginning Genealogy discussion on Thursday, Feb. 16. The discussion will be from 6:30 to 7:30 PM in the library itself and you will need to register beforehand.

If you would like to register then please send us an email at robinsbaselibrary@gmail.com and put “Beginning Genealogy” in the subject line. Please register by Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 4 PM.

For more information please check out our previous post about our Beginning Genealogy session or send us an email.

Please don’t ever forget that February is Black History Month! We would like to take this month to highlight, suggest, and remind you of the many print and electronic resources here at the library that may be of interest to anyone researching, learning, or just reacquainting themselves with African-American culture and history.

We’re hoping to do several different programs during this month but we’d like to especially invite our younger patrons to come to our usual Story Time, which is every Monday at 10 AM. During every Story Time in February we’ll be learning about different African American achievements and contributions to American history.

We’d like to encourage local teens to tune in as the library celebrates the annual Teen Tech Week from March 4 to 10, 2012. We’ll be joining thousands of other libraries and schools across the country who are celebrating this year’s theme, “Geek Out @ your library.”

Teen Tech Week is a national initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) aimed at teens, their parents, educators, and other concerned adults. The purpose of the initiative is quite simply to ensure that young adults are competent and ethical users of technology, especially the types offered through libraries. Teen Tech Week encourages teens to take advantage of the technology at libraries for education and recreation, and to recognize how important it is to achieve a greater digital literacy.

More details to come but we are looking to do several activities for any young adults interested in participating, plus we’re always open to suggestions or interested in anyone willing to volunteer their time.

For more information on the national initiative, check out ALA/YALSA’s website for Teen Tech Week.

Oh, and let’s not forget to mention…

Our puzzle’s coming along pretty nicely. It looks like The Starry Night is finding a few more of its stars, as it were, but we can always use more help.

Stop on by and help us out with it, when you get a chance. And keep checking back here for more information on Teen Tech Week and Beginning Genealogy and other upcoming library programs.