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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 07/25/2012:

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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 New Sandbox by Donna Jakob and illustrated by Julia Gorton

Ready For Anything! by Keiko Kasza

Adiós, Tricycle by Susan Middleton Elya and illustrated by Elisabeth Schlossberg

Baseball From A To Z by Michael P. Spradlin and illustratedy by Macky Pamintuan

“I Have A Little Problem,” Said The Bear by Heinz Janisch and illustrted by Silke Leffler

Five Little Firefighters by Tom Graham

The Buffalo Are Back by Jean Craighead George with paintings by Wendell Minor

1, 2, 3, Go! by Huy Voun Lee

FICTION:

Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard and illustrated by Bo Kuhn

Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes

The Home-Run King by Patricia C. McKissack and illustrated by Gordon C. James

Cam Jansen And The Summer Camp Mysteries: A Super Special by David A. Adler and illustrated by Joy Allen

Trolls On Vacation by Alan MacDonald and illustrated by Mark Beech

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

NON-FICTION:

Dance Of The Swan: A Story About Anna Pavlova by Barbara Allman and illustrated by Shelly O. Haas

Ashanti To Zulu: African Traditions by Margaret Musgrove and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon

Gold Fever: Tales From The California Gold Rush by Rosalyn Schanzer

Letters Home From The Grand Canyon by Lisa Halvorsen

I Why Why: Triceratops Had Horns And Other Questions About Dinosaurs by Rod Theodorou

Yankee Doodle by Mary Ann Hoberman and illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott

P Is For Piñata: A Mexico Alphabet by Tony Johnston and illustrated by John Parra

Volcanoes by Claire Llewellyn

Volcano: The Eruption And Healing Of Mount St. Helens by Patricia Lauber

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Please note that books mentioned here 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, OR call us, OR send us an email at robinsbaselibrary@gmail.com 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:

07/18/12.

07/03/12.

06/27/12.

06/14/12.

06/07/12.

And for Young Adults:

07/10/12.

04/12/12.

04/03/12.

03/20/12.

And for Kids/Juvenile Readers:

07/13/12.

06/26/12.

06/21/12.

06/12/12.

New and Featured Books for Kids/Juvenile Readers for 03/13/2012:

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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:

Fishing Sunday by Tony Johnston and pictures by Barry Root

My Mom Is My Show-And-Tell by Dolores Johnson

Happy Belly, Happy Smile by Rachel Isadora

Berkeley’s Barn Owl Dance by Tera Johnson and illustrated by Tanie Howells

The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers

This is the story of Henry, a young boy who enjoys books immensely, but in a different way from the rest of us. Henry enjoys eating books. And the more books Henry eats, the smarter he gets. This is a fun book, and a nice celebration of reading, and it’s great for younger readers, and a treat for the adult who enjoys reading with them. Check out a review at Inis magazine.

Grandma’s Hands by Dolores Johnson

FICTION:

Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder: Who Cut The Cheese? by Jo Nesbo and illustrated by Mike Lowery

Adam Of The Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray

The Whole Story Of Half A Girl by Veera Hiranandani

The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis

The Voyages Of Doctor Dolittle by Hugo Lofting

Color Me Dark: The Diary Of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North by Patricia C. McKissack

Eleanor, Crown Jewel Of Aquitaine by Kristiana Gregory

The Great Railroad Race: The Diary Of Libby West by Kristiana Gregory

B. Aster And The Warrior Eggs At The Earth’s Core! by William Joyce

Chanticleer And The Fox, adapted from Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and illustrated by Barbara Cooney

A nice adaptation of the story of the Chanticleer and the Fox, from “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Cooney was awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1959 for illustration for this book, and I really like her philosophy about children’s literature, as displayed in what she said when she accepted her award: “I believe that children in this country need a more robust literary diet than they are getting. …It does not hurt them to read about good and evil, love and hate, life and death. Nor do I think they should read only about things that they understand. ‘…a man’s reach should exceed his grasp.’ So should a child’s. For myself, I will never talk down to, or draw down to, children.”

NON-FICTION:

Forest Explorer: A Life-Size Field Guide by Nic Bishop

City Alphabet by Joanne Schwartz and illustrated by Matt Beam

This is an absolutely beautifully designed book, and a nice introduction to younger readers to pleasure of exploring the immediate world around them, to see the words and language that surround them. Check out this great interview with the author and illustrator.

She’s Been Working On The Railroad by Nancy Smiler Levinson, with photos collected and taken by Shirley Burman

Lena Horne by Leslie Palmer

Women Of The U.S. Congress by Isobel V. Morin

The Story Of Noah’s Ark, retold by Margrit Haubensak-Tellenbach and illustratedy by Erna Emhardt

100 People Who Made History: Meet The People Who Shaped The Modern World by Ben Gilliland

A good starter book for learning about a variety of historical figures, and told with some very vibrant images. Here’s a nice review from Juno magazine.

Sharks! Strange And Wonderful by Laurence Pringle and illustrated by Meryl Henderson

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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:

03/01/12.

02/02/11.

01/27/12.

12/27/11.

And for Young Adults:

03/06/12.

02/21/12.

02/09/12.

01/31/12.

And for Kids/Juvenile Readers:

02/28/12.

02/23/12.

02/16/12.

01/28/12.

New and Featured Books for Kids/Juvenile Readers for 02/28/2012:

Posted on

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:

Max And Ruby’s First Greek Myth: Pandora’s Box by Rosemary Wells

Suppose You Meet A Dinosaur: A First Book Of Manners by Judy Sierra and illustrated by Tim Bowers

It’s probably always a good idea to be polite to a dinosaur when you meet them because, well, the consequences probably aren’t too pleasant. This is a nice book for younger readers about the necessity of manners. You can find reviews from The Busy Mom Cafe and the Youth Services Book Review.

Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King Jr. by Jean Marzollo and illustrated by J. Brian Pinkney

Freedom Song: The Story Of Henry “Box” Brown by Sally M. Walker and illustrated by Sean Qualls

Too Princessy! by Jean Reidy and illustrated by Geneviève Leloup

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, and illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon

This is the fascinating story of William Kamkwamba, a Malawian author and inventor, who had to drop out of high school due to his family being unable to pay his tuition (a mere $80), and he began educating himself by checking out books from his village’s library. Then, in 2002, after checking out an American textbook on energy resources, he decided to build a windmill to help power the electrical devices in his home by using any spare parts or objects he could find. He then went on to build other things for his village, like a water pump to provide fresh drinking water, and solar power panels for neighboring homes. Since then he has been a recipient of the 2010 GO Ingenuity Award, which is designed to recognize inventors and artists who use innovation to help marginalized youth in developing nations. His story has appeared in many publications, including The Wall Street Journal, and he has become an internationally renowned speaker at many prestigious conferences, including TED Talks and the 2011 Google Science Fair. You can read an interview with illustrator Elizabeth Zunon on Kamkwamba’s blog.

FICTION:

After The Rain by Norma Fox Mazer

The Mermaid Summer by Mollie Hunter

Snowboard Duel by Jake Maddox

The Hero And The Crown by Robin McKinley

NON-FICTION:

Counting Coup: Becoming A Crow Chief On The Reservation And Beyond by Joseph Medicine Crow

Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince And His Orchestra by Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrated by Brian Pinkney.

Langston Hughes: American Poet by Alice Walker and illustrated by Catherine Deeter

Ocean Hide And Seek by Jennifer Evans and illustrated by Gary R. Phillips

A Nation’s Hope: The Story Of Boxing Legend Joe Louis by Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Kadir Nelson

The Boy Who Invented TV: The Story Of Philo Farnsworth by Kathleen Krull and illustrated by Greg Couch

This is a beautifully illustrated introduction to the little known Philo Farnsworth, who created the television when he was only 13 years old. This is a great and inspiring book for younger readers who are perhaps in inventions themselves.

Jazz Age Josephine: Danger, Singer – Who’s That, Who? Why, That’s MISS Josephine Baker To You! by Jonah Winter and illustrated by Marjorie Priceman

This is a very nice biography of the complicated and fascinating life of Josephine Baker, and doesn’t shy away from any aspects of her career, or even her decision to leave America. You can find some very nice reviews for the book at the School Library Journal and The Chicago Tribune.

Stand Up, Speak Out: A Book About Children’s Rights, written by and for the young people of the world

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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:

02/14/11.

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:

02/23/12.

02/16/12.

01/28/12.