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Homework Help: Art, Music, and Literature.

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Need a little help finding what you’re looking for? The Robins AFB Library would like to provide you with a few resources suitable for students of all ages to help you get started.

Here are some links, resources, and interesting sites pertaining to the Arts…

The U. S. Copyright Office – The rules, forms, and instructions for how to file for a copyright. And a database you can search for registered copyrights.

The Copyright Primer – An interactive tutorial that serves as a nice introduction to the issues and laws concerning copyright ownership and the uses of information.

When Works Pass Into The Public Domain – A handy cheat sheet provided by the University of North Carolina to help determine if a work has passed into the public domain.

Copyright Terms and the Public Domain – Just as it says, an extremely comprehensive chart for understanding when a work will pass into the public domain, including a timeline and terminology.

Art:

Artcyclopedia – Users can search database by artist, artwork, movement, medium, or nationality to find information about that work of art as well biography and news about the artist.

ArtLex Art Dictionary – Featuring over 3,600 terms and their definitions used in discussing/reviewing art/visual culture, as well as thousands of supporting images, pronunciation notes, quotations, and references.

The Artist’s Toolkit – Providing the basic concepts of art appreciation and creating art.

The Smithsonian Institute – The Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum and research complex, consisting of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park, and nine research facilities.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Established in 1870, the Met has over 2 million works of art from all over the globe, from ancient times to modern, in its permanent collection, and almost 7,000 of them can be viewed online.

The Museum of Modern Art – MoMA offers an unparalleled overview of modern and contemporary art, including works of architecture and design, as well as drawings, paintings, photography, sculpture, film, electronic media, as well as papers and files on individual artists.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts – The website for the only museum in the world exclusively dedicated to recognizing the contributions of female artists.

Arts Edge – A free digital resource to help teaching and learning about the arts, as well as offering materials that help to creatively use technology as a way to integrate the arts into other academic fields. Provided by the Kennedy Center.

Film & Television:

The Internet Movie Database – The IMDB is one of the greatest resources available online. You can search for movies and TV shows by title, cast/crew and character information. A great spot for determining all the above information plus runtime, genre, cast overview, year of release, plot overview. Also provides links to user and professional critic reviews, among many other cool features.

Rotten Tomatoes – A top resource for keeping track of information about movie and DVD releases, and finding dependable critical reviews from the nation’s top print and online film critics.

Teen Movie Critic – Reviews of films for teens written by teens.

Backstage – a great online resource for actors, providing insides, advice, and casting news.

The Oscars – The homepage for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Motion picture/film lessons and resources – A very comprehensive set of links, provided by the Media Literacy Clearinghouse.

TV.com – Providing recaps, episode guides, cast bios, and schedule listings for your favorite shows.

The Movie Spoiler – Called “the most fun you can have at the movies without being there.” Provides detailed synopsizes of films.

Television Without Pity – Extremely humorous and snarky recaps, spoilers, and message boards centered around your favorite shows.

Hulu – Speaking of your favorite shows, never miss an episode and watch in streaming video. Some content free, with time limits, and partially subscription-based.

Memory Alpha – An extremely detailed and comprehensive wiki for all things Star Trek.

The Movie Cliches List – A humorous list of stereotypes and flaws in logic constantly recurring in movies.

Performing Arts:

Performing Arts Encyclopedia – A guide to the music, theater, and dance resources, collections, and exhibitions available through the Library Of Congress.

The Monologue Archive – A nice collection of monologues from many famous playwrights, as well as a very hand set of theatrical and dramatic links.

The Costume Page – Extensive online resources dealing with the art and history of costuming for live dramatic theater, dance performances, opera, sports, as well as film and television.

NPR’s Performing Arts page – A nice collection of links to stories and interviews dealing with actors, dramatists, and the theater, as well as audio archives for stories about the performing arts on National Public Radio.

The Internet Broadway Database – Similar to the IMDB, but an archive of Broadway theater information, providing interesting facts and statistics about different productions.

Dramatist Play Service – A subscription database that lets users search and browse plays by their title and author, buy books, and purchase rights. Represents both new and established playwrights.

Warner Robins Little Theatre – Local community theater house/company who has been entertaining central Georgia for almost 50 years.

The Perry Players Community Theatre – Located in beautiful downtown Perry, this community theater house/company has been providing high quality entertainment and cultural activies for the past 30 years.

National Forensic League – The NFL promotes debate, oratory, and public speaking for high school and middle school students as a means of helping them to become effective communicators and ethical individuals and to develop strong critical thinking.

Music:

Pandora – Create an online streaming radio station based on songs, genres, eras, or artists. Completely free and also available as an app.

Last.fm – Free streaming radio and also lets you effortlessly track what you listen to from any player or device and recommends more music and artists to you based on your taste.

8 Tracks – Create your own streaming radio station or playlist, share with your friends, or listen to station and playlists from users from around the world.

Playlist.com – Listen to songs, build a playlist, and share with your friends around the world via all of your favorite social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, etc.

Art of the Mix – Devoted to the art form that is making a good mix tape or CD. Read thousands of others’ track lists and share your own.

The Public Domain Information Project – Information on and searchable database for songs and music in the public domain.

All Music Guide – A comprehensive listing of music information, and great for finding any song, artist, album, or genre.

Ultimate band list – As advertised, you can probably find information on any band or group here.

Song Facts – Search by artist, song title, or genre, and find fascinating music trivia, song meanings, behind the scenes info, and lyrics.

Song Meanings – Lyrics to your favorite songs, as well community provided stories about what they mean to others, and allowing you to share what a particular song means to you.

Lyrics World – Search for the lyrics from your favorite songs, provided in an alphabetical list.

The Archive of Misheard Lyrics – Check out common and commonly hilarious misconceptions in song lyrics.

From The Top – Offering education events as well as a showcase of America’s best young musicians. Also a show on both NPR and PBS.

All About Jazz – A very informative advocacy website for Jazz enthusiasts, dedicated to raising awareness of jazz music as well as defining it, and providing reviews and history of jazz artists.

Music Theory – An interactive website that provides less, exercises, and tools for learning musical theory.

Pollstar – A nice resource for tracking touring information and concert reviews for your favorite bands and artists.

Billboard – The online site for Billboard magazine, which provides daily music news, reviews, and chart reports, as well as much more.

Rolling Stone – The online site for Rolling Stone magazine, which offers primarily features and reviews of music, as well as covering subjects such as film, television, and politics.

Literature:

The Hub – A blog from YALSA, the Young Adult Library Services Association, a part of the American Library Association (ALA). “Your connection to Teen Reads.”

The Newbery Medal homepage – Information and a list of winners for the annual John Newbery Medal, which recognizes distinguished contributions to American literature for children and young adults.

Bartelby – The online literature project offers classic works of fiction and poetry, along with verses and references, for free.

Project Gutenberg – Providing over 38,000 classic works of literature as free ebooks, available for download for just about every device, or readable online.

Spark Notes – Providing study guides and plot summaries to classic works of fiction, as well as resources to help study for tests and prepare for college.

60 Second Recap – An educational video project providing short, interesting video summaries of classic literature titles as well as contemporary titles.

Shmoop – Offering literature learning guides and teach resources, and showing students how writing and learning and more relevant than ever in the digital age.

Free Book Notes – A search engine for literary study guides, pulling from Cliffs Notes, Spark Notes, BookRags, and Wiki summaries, and many others.

Book-A-Minute Classics – A very cool, very fun site that summarizes large works of literature into just a few sentences.

The Shakespeare Web – News and reviews of the Bard and productions of his work.

Shakespearean Insult Generator – Randomly returns insults from the Bard’s works. Fun for you, your friends, and your teachers.

The Complete Works of Shakespeare – An online catalog of all of Shakespeare’s plays and poetry, free to read online.

The Jane Austen info page – Contains a hypertext version of Pride And Prejudice, as well as excerpts from Austen’s other novels as well as literary criticism.

The Jack London online collection – A nice resource featuring the novels, short stories, and letters of the famous author, as well as images, bibliographies, and literary criticism.

Literary Criticism resources – Provided by the Internet Public Library, this is an extensive and wide ranging collection of links to critical and biographical websites about authors and their works

Encylopedia Mythica – A searchable database of detailed information about gods and goddesses from both ancient and some modern religions.

Poetry 180 – A poem a day (for the 180 days of a school year) for American high schools, provided by the Library of Congress.

No Flying, No Tights – A nice blog providing reviews for comic books, graphic novels, anime, and manga.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund – The CBLDF is an organization designed to protect the First Amendment rights of creators of comic books and graphic novels, as well as their publishers and retailers.

Favorite Teen Angst books – Celebrating and reviewing books about teenage angst and personal discovery.

YA books in series and sequels – A nice searchable database that helps you keep track of the books in your favorite series.

Rutgers – A vast collection of literary resources from around the internet, provided by Rutgers University.

Geek The Library – A library advocacy site presented by OCLC, the Online Computer Library Center.

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Blogs and websites by authors:

Laurie Halse Anderson.

Jay Asher.

Holly Black.

Libba Bray.

Meg Cabot.

Rachel Cohn.

Melissa De La Cruz.

Sarah Dessen.

Neil Gaiman.

John Green.

Brent Hartinger.

John Hodgman.

Maureen Johnson.

Justine Larbalestier.

David Leviathan.

Carolyn Mackler.

Jaclyn Moriarty.

Daniel Nayeri.

James Patterson.

J. K. Rowling.

Sara Shepard.

Ned Vizzini.

Scott Westerfeld.

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Are we missing something? Please let us know!

For other subjects and resources please see our main Homework Help page.

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

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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.

New and Featured Books for Young Adults for 02/09/2012:

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

FICTION:

Zombies Vs. Unicorns, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier

Can we finally settle the ages old question of which is better, zombies or unicorns? Black and Larbalestier have been debating this for years and have assembled several other YA authors into the two camps and hope to come up with a clear conclusion in this anthology of short stories. So which side are you on, Team Zombie or Team Unicorn?

The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

The Babysitter Murders by Janet Ruth Young

The Future Of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

Back When You Were Easier To Love by Emily Wing Smith

Jumping Off Swings by Jo Knowles

Mercury, written and illustrated by Hope Larson

Red Glove by Holly Black

The Poison Eaters And Other Stories by Holly Black

Another Holly Black book! She’s a favorite amongst quite a few of our younger readers (as well some of our slightly older readers) and this is her first short story collection, featuring tales of vampires, faeries, ghosts, werewolves, and all sorts of other things that go bump in the night.

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

This story about a young girl who doesn’t seem to belong or fit in anywhere and discovers magical abilities is one of the most highly rated and recommended of our newer books for YA readers. You can check out the book’s trailer below and read reviews of book from both The Los Angeles Times and The New York Public Library.

Clean by Amy Reed

The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks

NON-FICTION:

Cyber Bullying by Nick Hunter

History Of Art For Young People by H. W. Janson and Anthony F. Janson

How They Croaked: The Awful Ends Of The Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg and Kevin O’Malley

The warning at the beginning of this book gives you a pretty good idea of what you’re in store for when it says: “If you don’t have the guts for gore, do not read this book.” But if you’re interested in trivia and interesting stories about the deaths of the historically famous then I think you’ll be quite entertained by this book. It’s a lite, fun romp.

Secret Subway: The Fascinating Tale Of An Amazing Feat Of Engineering by Martin W. Sandler

Life Inside The Air Force Academy by Magdalena Alagna

The Devil On Trial: Witches, Anarchists, Atheists, Communists, And Terrorists In America’s Courtrooms by Phillip Margulies and Maxine Rosaler

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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.

* * *

Previous New/Featured books for Adults:

02/02/12.

01/27/12.

12/27/11.

12/23/11.

12/19/11.

12/17/11.

And for Young Adults:

01/31/12.

And for Kids/Juvenile Readers:

01/28/12.