Children's Room eNewsletter

Here is the January Dover Public Library Children's Room Newsletter.  Lots of free events happening in January so take a look!

2012 Librarians’ Choice

We are proud to present the 2012 Librarians’ Choice; our favorite books of the year. We hope you enjoy them!

Dare Me by Megan Abbott

Death in the Floating City by Tasha Alexander

The Darlings by Cristina Alger

A Rural Affair by Catherine Alliott

Spring Fever by Mary Kay Andrews

Pure by Julianna Baggott

Dead Scared by S.J. Bolton

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

The Other Guy’s Bride by Connie Brockway

Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Finding Emilie by Laurel Corona

Walking Back to Happiness by Lucy Dillon

Gods of Gotham by Lyndsaye Faye

Another Piece of My Heart by Jane Green

Kingmaker’s Daughter by Philippa Gregory

Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville

The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton

Peaches for Father Francis by Joanne Harris

Country Plot by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Polar Wives by Kari Herbert

Mrs. Kennedy and Me by Clint Hill

Miss Dreamsville & the Collier County Women’s Literary Society by Amy Hill Hearth

A Place of Secrets by Rachel Hore

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Grown Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson

Lucky Dog Matchmaking Service by Beth Kendrick

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

Defending Jacob by William Landay

The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey

The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay

Drift: the unmooring of American Military Power by Rachel Maddow

Crossing the Borders of Time by Leslie Maitland

Year of the Gadfly by Jennifer Miller

Sutton by J.R. Moeringer

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

Expats by Chris Pavone

Property of a Lady by Sarah Rayne

Girl on the Cliff by Lucinda Riley

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

Elsewhere by Richard Russo

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead

Nocturnal by Scott Sigler

Talking with my Mouth Full by Gail Simmons

Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman

An American Spy by Olen Steinhauer

Le Road Trip: a traveler’s journal of love and France by Vivian Swift

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

Heads in Beds by Jacob Tomsky

The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

The Summer House by Marcia Willett

Bedbugs by Ben Winters

The Bluebird Effect by Julie Zickefoose

Jolabokaflod

What country publishes more books per capita than any other country in the world?  If you said Iceland you would be correct!  Most of these books are sold between September and November because "The culture of giving books as presents is very deeply rooted in how families perceive Christmas as a holiday."  It is so ingrained it actually has a name Jolabokaflod, or the "Christmas Book Flood."  I have always wanted to visit Iceland because it looks so beautiful, and now I want to even more.  Read more about Iceland's "Book Flood" as well as their attitudes towards libraries at NPR.

Happy Holidays

Holiday hours for the Library will be:

Closed Monday & Tuesday, December 24 & 25

Monday, December 31 open 9 to 4

Closed Tuesday, January 1

Escape

I read a pretty funny/sad article on the NPR web site titled "Don't Hide Your Harlequins--In Defense of Romance." The author talks about how she fell in love with romances at age 12, and has loved them ever since. The adults in her life w

ere unimpressed: "My mom, a teacher, thought romances were beneath me. My school librarian gave me her disapproving look when I checked out more romances from the bookmobile. And my best friend's mother told me I should be ashamed for reading such trash." Come on in and get an armload of romances we won't give you a disapproving look--escapism at its best!

The Return of the Gothic Novel

When I was a teenager there were tons of Gothic novels to be devoured, loaded with atmosphere and suspense. The trend seemed to die out and I moved on to historical fiction and science fiction. In the past few years Gothic novels seem to be making a resurgence. The Lantern, The Ghost Orchid, The Butterfly Cabinet, and The Thirteenth Tale all have elements of a Gothic novel. They are spooky and mysterious and extremely hard to put down. I went to bed two hours early last night because I needed some extra sleep. My best laid plans were foiled by a terrific new Gothic novel by Lucinda Riley. It starts off on a rugged cliff in Ireland, where a small girl in a long white gown stares sightlessly out to sea listening to her dead mother calling her. Grania Ryan, who recently fled NYC after a heartbreaking loss, sees Aurora and rescues her, the start of their relationship. Grania's mother is very wary because the two families have a long tragic history together from the Edwardian era on. Through flashbacks and letters the tangled story is slowly revealed. I ended up going to sleep an hour later than usual and I wouldn't have quit then if my eyes hadn't stubbornly insisted on closing while I was trying to read. Damn you The Girl on a Cliff!

Wireless Printing

The Dover Public Library now has the capability to allow patrons using our WiFi to print from their laptops.  Yeah!  This has been on our wish list for quite some time and we are very excited that this service is up and running. Users are able to print Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and PDF documents.  The cost is $.15 per page for black/white and $.50 for color.  Follow the link for instructions on how to start printing today, and stay tuned for the next item on our wish list--fax service.

Try a Graphic Novel!

Library staff made a concerted effort this year to significantly augment our Graphic Novel Collection. The popularity of this genre (definition: a narrative work in which the story is conveyed using sequential art, usually in a comics format.) has grown exponentially and has great appeal among readers the library world now calls “New Adults” (definition:  persons in their twenties  still finding their way in building a life and figuring out what it means to be an adult. Term coined in 2009 by St. Martin’s Press!)  We’d already collected lots of anime and manga for children and teens, but our paltry collection of comic books for adults were interfiled among the regular fiction titles.

Now we have a Graphic Novel section (which also encompasses non-fiction, memoirs and short stories) at the beginning of our stacks and we’ve added nearly 100 new titles in 2012. Many popular authors of traditional print books have also embraced the format: Jonathan Kellerman, James Patterson, Anthony Bourdain, Dean Koontz, and Janet Evanovich are among those prose writers with new graphic novels co-written with illustrators.

There are also many adaptations of the bestsellers and classics now in graphic form including: The Hobbit, A Wrinkle in Time, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Odyssey, Game of Thrones, and the Wheel of Time series.  These aren’t the old “Classics Illustrated” comic books from the 1950s and 60s, but modern retellings with superb illustrations. Try “The Graphic Canon, vol. 1” for a glimpse of everything from Gilgamesh to Shakespeare in highly-stylized comic book form.

Although we have most of the “Year’s Best” graphic novels (Sailor Twain; Are You My Mother?; My Friend Dahmer; Jerusalem; Journalism; Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt; Marbles; Saga Vol. 1; The Hive; Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes; Drawn Together; Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me), the book named to every critic’s 2012 “Best” list is one which we will not buy! It is “Building Stories” by Chris Ware,  which depicts the lives of the tenants of a Chicago apartment building. The “book” is really a box, and inside the box are 14 differently sized, formatted, and bound pieces: books, pamphlets, broadsheets, scraps, and even a unfoldable board that would be at home in a Monopoly box ($50).  It sounds fascinating and I’d love to see it and explore it (I’ve heard you can read the “pieces” in any order you choose) but Ware’s “book” would not last 2 circulations in the public library before someone would lose, misplace, or tear a piece and ruin the story for others!  We have enough trouble keeping track of all the audio CDs contained within the packaging of an audiobook (at least once a day we find a disk missing and discover it’s been inadvertently left behind in someone’s device or car.)

So you can understand why we won’t purchase “Building Stories” but we do now have hundreds of graphic novels for all ages (new adults and old ones!) and we invite you to explore this burgeoning new genre at your library!

Mozart Concert Photos---Dec.1, 2012

Here's some (not very good) photos from our (amazingly excellent) Family Friendly Mozart Concert on Saturday, December 1. I only had my iPhone and it was so crowded (over 120 people in our Lecture Hall) that I could not even get inside the room until the end of the performance! Thus, the blurriness on many of the photos.

So many thanks to our wonderful performers: Naho Bessho on piano, Sally Wituszynski on violin, and soprano Melissa Manseau. Brava! Brava! Brava!We hope to arrange another classical music concert for families in the near future! Watch this spot!

 

 

Job Opening at the Library

We have a part-time job opening for a "Library Assistant I" in our Children's Room. Averages 12 hrs/week. There is a 2-week rotational schedule of hours needed:
Week 1: Tue. 5-8:30pm; Wed. 2-5:30pm; Fri. 2-5:30pm
Week 2: Mon. 5:30-8:30pm; Wed. 2:30-5:30pm; Sat. 9-5
More info:
We are looking for a person with an extensive knowledge of children’s literature, a background (academic degree or practical experience) in early childhood education, well-developed customer relations skills, artistic or graphic design ability, and familiarity with computer technology. Public library experience not required, but highly desirable.

Duties include checking library materials in and out, registering new borrowers, providing readers’ advisory services and guidance in locating library materials, and assisting patrons in the use of computer workstations and Internet access. Duties may also include creating displays & materials to promote reading, and conducting preschool story times.

Hourly rate is $12.09
Position is open until closed.
Starting date: mid-to-late December

Benefits include vacation, holiday and sick leave on a proportional basis.

The job vacancy announcement is available in the Children’s Room or at http://1.usa.gov/11F1q3K . A supplemental job description may be read at: http://1.usa.gov/VmNGnP.
Applications may be picked up at the City Manager’s Office at City Hall, or downloaded at http://1.usa.gov/UFYAbS . All completed applications must be returned to the City Manager’s Office or mailed to:
Employment
Office of the City Manager
City of Dover
288 Central Avenue
Dover, NH 03820
(Completed applications may not be faxed or emailed.)

The Truth about Style

I just finished the BEST fashion book. I am not usually so passionate about books on style and fashion but The Truth about Style by Stacy London is much more than that. You may already be familiar with Stacy as she is the host of TLC's What Not to Wear. If you have seen the show you know there is some psychoanalyzing that is done to figure out how to help women out of their fashion ruts. In The Truth About Style, Stacy turns that sharp analyzing eye on herself. She reveals how she was affected by a devastating case of psoriasis that started when she was only 4 years old. Imagine how it felt to be a young girl who finds herself alienated by a very visible disease at a time when children can be very cruel. Stacy also talks about being affected by anorexia, and how it feels to be a single, childless woman at her age. This book is by turns touching, humorous, illuminating, inspiring, and fascinating

Mozart in the Morning

On Saturday, December 1 the Library hosted its first Mozart Family Concert, with over 100 enthusiastic people in attendance. The concert featured Naho Bessho on piano, Melissa Manseau as the soprano, and Sally Wituszynski on violin. The crowd couldn't have been more pleased, and were raving about the performance. Stay tuned for further concerts in the series--you really don't want to miss them!

Busy Saturday Planned at the Library!

We have a lot going on this Saturday at the Library,
and remember all these events are FREE!

***10:30am Paws for Reading: Come read to Goldie the dog in the Children's Room. Call to sign up for a 15 minute time slot. (516-6052)

***11:00am: Family friendly Mozart concert at the Library.  This live classical music concert will feature Naho Bessho on piano, Sally Wituszynski on violin, and soprano Melissa Manseau.  They will play some well-known pieces from Mozart, including the “Turkish March”, a violin sonata, and arias from his operas. Designed especially for families, the concert’s length will be just 40-45 minutes so that children may attend and enjoy the music too. The performers’ goal is to encourage classical music appreciation among all ages.

 

***2pm: Free showing of the movie Paranorman--rated PG.

Holiday Book Giving

Do you have any young children to buy Christmas gifts for this year? I have quite a few on my list, and have been having a ball pouring over my recent favorite picture books to find the perfect one for each child. I usually use the latest Ladybug Picture Book list as a starting off point, and I usually fall in love with quite a few, and move on from there. Here are the ones I have purchased so far:

***Calvin Can't Fly by Jennifer Berne. Calvin is a starling who would prefer to spend his time reading books rather than learning to fly. Sounds good until it is time to fly south for the winter. Calvin's brothers, sisters, and cousins come to his rescue and he is able to return the good deed. The illustrations are wonderful--if only our library was in the hollow of a tree--sigh.

***Cloudette by Tom Lichtenheld. This is the story of Cloudette, a "pipsqueak" of a cloud, who learns that there are some advantages to being small, even if she can't take part in the spectacular storms with the big guys .

***If I Built a House (also If I Built a Car) by Chris Van Dusen. In this book, young Jack imagines what his house would look like it he were the designer. It has all the necessities like a zero gravity room, and a race track! Sure to get young minds working on their own designs.

***Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin. I love this fun loving cat and his groovy ways. There are other books in the Pete the Cat series, and these are great read aloud books. Fun, fun, fun! 

***Those Darn Squirrels Fly South by Adam Rubin. (or Those Darn Squirrels & Those Darn Squirrels and the Cat Next Door). Featuring crotchety Old Man Fookwire, his beloved birds, and their nemesis--those darn squirrels. Silly, fun, and hilarious for kids as well as adults.

November is Picture Book Month

Last year, an international literacy initiative that celebrates the print picture book was launched by author/storyteller Dianne de Las Casas.  She felt that she needed to do something in response to an article published in the New York Times that said picture books were on their way out (Let’s hope not!).  Because of this initiative, November has been chosen as Picture Book Month and is now celebrated around the Globe. Be sure to visit their website, http://picturebookmonth.com/, to read some very interesting articles by famous authors and other picture book champions on "Why Picture Books Are Important".

To join in this celebration, the Children’s Room staff has updated their list and created a new brochure for  “Picture Books Every Child Should Know”.  Pick up your copy in the Children’s Room or download a copy click here. 

Busy Saturday at the Library

The Library will be closed on Thursday & Friday, November 22 & 23. We will reopen on Saturday, November 24, and will be showing The Amazing Spider-Man at 2:00pm in the Lecture Hall! It is also "Lego Saturday" in the Children's Room!  Use our Legos or bring your own to build and create. Meet new friends, share your building tips, get new ideas, and have fun! Legos will be available all day.

Read This Before You Go Shopping!

EbscoHost, the company that produces the beloved NoveList, also puts out a magazine and newspaper index called EbscoHost Magazine and Newspaper Search. It offers a very useful feature that allows you to search for product reviews. If you can't find a review for band saws in Consumer Reports you may find a great product review in another magazine by using this search.

Choose MasterFILE Premier from the EbscoHost Menu.
At the search screen choose Advanced Search. It's located under the search box.
On the right side of the screen is a box called Document Type. Select Product Review, then search for what ever item you want to research!

Anyone can use EbscoHost from inside the Library, and Dover Public Library cardholders can use it from home by linking to EbscoHost.

Let Me Count the Ways

Every once in awhile I am reminded of how much I love NoveList, and then I feel compelled to tell all of you.  I had a middle schooler in yesterday who had to read books above a certain lexile level.  For those of you unfamiliar with lexiles it is an educational tool used to match readers with books for their reading level.  It can be difficult to find lexile levels, but not on NoveList of course.  We were able to use the advanced search in NoveList and input the required lexile, the student's age range, and the type of book that interested her, and voila--an appropriate list of books.  NoveList is connected to our Online Card Catalog, and with a click of a button we can tell if we own the book, and if it is checked in.  Anyone can use NoveList from inside the Library, and Dover Public Library cardholders can use it from home by linking to EbscoHost.  Did I mention that I love NoveList!

Family-Friendly Mozart at the Library!

On Saturday morning, December 1 at 11am, the Dover Public Library will host a free, live classical music concert featuring three performers and some well-known pieces from Mozart, including the “Turkish March”, a violin sonata, and arias from his operas. Designed especially for families, the concert’s length will be just 40-45 minutes so that children may attend and enjoy the music too. The performers’ goal is to encourage classical music appreciation among all ages.

Performing will be: Naho Bessho on piano, Sally Wituszynski on violin, and soprano Melissa Manseau.

Naho Bessho, born in Japan, is a concert pianist in Dover. At age 19 she won the highest award at the Japan Classical Music Competition. She graduated from Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music with a Master of Music degree. In 1999, she played a piano concerto with the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra from Poland. In 2001, she won 2nd prize at the Yangtze-River-Cup International Competition in Osaka. She came to the United States in 2002, and graduated from Boston University with a Performance Diploma in 2006. Since then she has given many piano recitals in Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New Hampshire. In 2010, Naho released her first CD, "Invitation". This October, she gave a solo recital at Historical Piano Concerts, presented by the Frederic Historic Piano Collection, in Ashburnham, MA, where she played a 1840 Erard piano.

Sally Wituszynski earned a Bachelor’s degree in Viola Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. She has also completed a Master’s degree in Music Education from the University of New Hampshire. Sally is a founding member of the Artful Noise String Quartet and has played in many ensembles, including the Vermont Symphony, the Hanover Handel Society, the Granite State Symphony, and the New Hampshire Philharmonic. Sally currently teaches music at Berwick Academy and at Tri-City Christian Academy, and she is the Master Teacher for the UNH String Project.

Melissa Manseau is a Farmington, NH resident and has a Master’s in vocal performance from the University of Northern Iowa. She has a Bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of New Hampshire. Melissa was an Apprentice Artist with the Sarasota Opera in 2001. Most recently, Melissa performed with the Cape Cod Opera. In addition, she recorded three song sets with Parma Records, one of which was submitted for consideration at the Grammy awards. Last winter, she played the role of Mother in “Amahl and the Night Visitors” in Dover, NH.

Please join us at the Dover Public Library for this wonderful opportunity to enjoy, listen, and learn more about classical music! For further information, call the library at 603-516-6050.