10 Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2010

As much as I am loathe to bring up anything related to the upcoming holiday season I am going to do it--if this offends you please stop reading now and accept my apologies.

OK, for all others who have little ones to buy for, and are not completely done with your shopping (my own sister falls into this category--can you believe it?!? Most annoying.) the New York Times has announced their 2010 Holiday Gift Guide--The 10 Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2010. Here is the line up:

1. Big Red Lollipop by Rukhsana Khan illustrated by Sophie Blackall.
2. Bink & Gollie by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee.
3. Busing Brewster by Richard Michelson and illustrated by R.G. Roth
4. Children Make Terrible Pets written and illustrated by Peter Brown.
5. Henry in Love written and illustrated Peter McCarty.
6. Here Comes the Garbage Barge! by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Red Nose Studio.
7. Seasons written and illustrated by Blexbolex.
8. Shadow by Suzy Lee.
9. Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by Erin E. Stead.
10. Subway written and illustrated by Christoph Niemann.

The Library Will Be Closed for Veterans Day

The Library will be closed tomorrow, Thursday, November 11, in honor of Veterans Day.

Free Saturday Matinees are Back

Saturday Matinees are back after a brief hiatus due to our Book Sale! We have some great family movies on tap for November:

• Sat., Nov. 13--Toy Story, rated G.
• Sat., Nov. 20--Oceans, rated G.
• Sat., Nov. 27--Tinker Bell & the Great Fairy Rescue, rated G.

As always movies are FREE and open to the public. Follow this link to see a full listing of upcoming movies along with descriptions.

Don't Look for Nora Ephron on Twitter!

Nora Ephron was on NPR's Morning Edition today plugging her new book, I Remember Nothing: and Other Relfections, which is a collection of essays. This was a great way to start my day because she is really such a hoot. In the interview Ms. Ephron talks about how as she gets older she doesn't feel the need to be up on the latest trends hence the title of my blog post. Here is Ms. Ephron's list of things she refuses to know anything about:
"The former Soviet Republics, the Kardashians, Twitter, all Housewives, Survivors, American Idols, and Bachelors. Karzai's brother, soccer, monkfish, Jay-Z, every drink invented since the Cosmopolitan, especially the drink made with crushed mint leaves. You know the one." I don't feel so bad now that I know very little about anything on that list, however when the mint is plentiful in the garden I do like an occasional Mojito.

Mystery Author Rosemary Herbert here Nov. 15!

We're pleased to host a visit from award-winning mystery editor and new mystery novelist Rosemary Herbert on Monday evening, November 15 at 7pm in the Library’s Lecture Hall.
Herbert is an Edgar-nominated editor-in-chief of “The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing”, co-editor with the late Tony Hillerman of “A New Omnibus of Crime”, and also worked for ten years as the book reviewer for the Boston Herald. But from the age of nine, when she read Nancy Drew novels under the covers with a flashlight, Rosemary wanted to become a mystery writer. With the publication of “Front Page Teaser: A Liz Higgins Mystery” (Down East Books, 2010), she has finally made her dream come true.
Her experience in the newsroom as well as her career in academic and public libraries were used to great advantage to create Liz Higgins, a gutsy reporter for Boston’s scrappy tabloid newspaper, the Beantown Banner. Liz rails at being assigned only light and community news stories that, at best, receive front-page teasers leading to articles buried deep in the newspaper. When a devoted mom goes missing from Liz’s community news beat, the reporter vows to discover the truth about the disappearance and nail front-page news in the process.
In a reading and booktalk leavened with humor and entitled “From Nancy Drew to Dream-Come-True”, Rosemary will tell readers why her first novel is a love song to the news-reporting life, as well as a tribute to librarians. She will also reveal how Boston’s lively Irish music scene was useful to her as a mystery writer, and discuss the roles of romance and the holidays in mystery fiction. Rosemary is currently hard at work on the 2nd Liz Higgins Mystery.
Mystery readers will surely enjoy this “behind-the-scenes” explanation of how a mystery novel is researched, and how story lines are developed and connected. This program is free and all are welcome. For more information, call us at 516-6050.

Dover's Black Day

Did you see the story on WMUR this morning about Dover's flood in 1896, the Calamity on the Cocheco? The DPL librarians provided a great deal of the information to the news station. We are so excited to see it air!

Book Sale Bargains!

Get a bag or a box of books for $1.00. There are still tons of books available. Why not stock up in preparation for winter storms?

A New Library!

On my way home yesterday I heard a story on Public Radio International's The World that I just had to share with you. The small nation of Bhutan, located between China and India, with a population of 684,000, has just opened its second library in the village of Ura. The library was opened by the non-profit group Read Global. Though the villagers were somewhat skeptical at first, the library has been a rousing success. The librarians have been working extra hours because the kids are begging them to stay open just a little longer. Here is a short piece from the story: "On this Saturday, after the usual half day at school, fifty kids are crammed in here, reading, helping each other, and clambering to get onto one of six computers. Even though they can’t get on the Internet yet, they’re excited to be able to play with technology they don’t have at home." You can watch a short clip of the kids in the library from the PRI link above.

Isn't it nice to hear happy news once in awhile?

Reduced Prices at our Book Sale!

The Dover Public Library's Annual Book Sale is still going on and prices have been reduced! Here are the new prices that will be in effect through Saturday, Nov. 6:

Hardcover Books $1

Large-size Paperbacks $.75

All Media $.50

Paperbacks $.10

Children's Skinny Paperbacks $.10

How Would You Like Your Stieg Larsson?

Did you know that many of the popular best sellers are available at the Library in a multitude of formats? Take Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo for example. You can read it as a hard cover book, listen to it as a CD, watch it as a DVD, download the audiobook to your MP3 player or PC, or download the eBook.

Would you prefer Bill Bryson's latest, At Home; A Short History of Private Life? You can read it as a hard cover book, a large print book, listen to it on CD, download the audiobook to your MP3 player or PC, or download the eBook.

Next time you look for a book, consider the possibilities.

Never-Ending Book

I recently read an article on the CNN web site titled "Never-ending book heralds new chapter in e-publishing." You know when you are reading a really fabulous, engrossing book and you are dreading the moment when you read the final page because you will have to try and find something equally fantastic to read next? This article is arguing that with the advent of e-publishing the book doesn't have to end. Hmm...for my own part I have certainly read books that I don't want to end, but I still think they have to. Don't you? A reader comment made at the end of the article asked the question: wouldn't this be like a Soap Opera? I am not convinced this is a good thing--what do you think?

Vote Tomorrow!

In case the non-stop political ads, phone calls from pollsters and politicos, and signs decorating every strip of roadside grass haven't clued you in, elections are being held tomorrow. 

The Dover City Clerk says the general election is Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010. Polling places in the City of Dover will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Polling places are as follows:

Ward 1, St. Mary' Church Hall, Chestnut Street (Between Third and Fourth Streets);

Ward 2, First Parish Church Hall, Central Avenue (Between Church and Angle Streets);

Ward 3, Langdon Place, Middle Road (Between Hubbard Road and Augusta Way);

Ward 4, Maple Suites, Holiday Drive (Off Back River, between Durham and Mast);

Ward 5, St. John's Methodist Church, Cataract Avenue (Between Rutland Street and Sunset Drive);

Ward 6, Riverside Rest Home, County Farm Road (At the intersection with County Farm Cross Road).

For more information on the general election or to see sample ballots, visit the election section of the Dover City web page or call the City Clerk's office at 603-516-6020.

A Tribute to a Librarian

Today my mother died after a short month-long illness. She was not only a great mom, she was my mentor as a librarian. Before her retirement in the late 1980s, she had worked in local public libraries for about 30 years and I basically grew up in a library. She always instilled in me an appreciation of books and reading and she always let me read whatever I wanted. We liked a lot of the same books but we also liked to “bicker” about the merits of various titles we’d read. In fact, my mother was reading and enjoying one of my favorite books of this year, “The Lonely Polygamist” by Brady Udall, when she passed away.

There were two children’s books that we’d argued about when I was in grammar school. These two books were her favorites from her own childhood: “Hitty: Her First Hundred Years” (1929) by Rachel Field about a doll’s travels over a century, and “The Secret Garden” (1911) by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the story of lonely orphans on the Yorkshire moors. Over and over, she’d recommended these books to me and each time I tried to read them I hated them. She finally gave up and “Hitty” became a running joke between us, calling any book we’d disliked “Hitty-ous”.

This past Monday, October 25, I opened a box of donated books at the library. My mother had been admitted to a hospice house three days earlier. This is absolutely a true story: the two books on top of the pile were “Hitty” and “The Secret Garden”. I know now that this was her signal: she is still nagging me to read these damn books. I promise, Mom, this time I’ll read them! Lovingly, Cathy

Musings on Candy Corn

Where do you stand on candy corn? Some of the librarians are addicted to it, you can't leave them alone with the bag of the stuff or they will demolish it. Others of us can't abide the stuff. Lets see, I could eat a luscious piece of chocolate with nuts and caramel, or a blob of sickly sweet wax. I agree with Lewis Black's assessment, from his hilarious essay, "Halloween; It's Scary for all the Wrong Reasons". 

Nothing proves just how stupid we are as a people more than candy corn. Which, by the way, is not candy at all. You can actually melt it down and run a car. I think it's tar based. Candy Corn is the only candy in the history of the country that has never been advertised. It just appears.

 Want to read the rest of the essay? Check out Nothing's Sacred by Lewis Black.

Happy Halloween from the DPL!

Literary Halloween Costumes

Do you know what you are going to be for Halloween? I've come across a few amusing literary Halloween costume ideas lately that I thought I would share with you. Why be a boring old ghost when you could be Miss Havisham, or Captain Underpants. They have some good ideas at Lit Drift. On the other hand, consider what famous literary characters would like to wear for a costume. Spark Life proposes that Holden Caulfield wouldn't dress up because it would be too phony, and Edmund from The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe would be a box of Turkish Delight. The most unexpected find were the pet costumes featured in the Critterati Contest. Waiting for Dogot cracks me up. Make sure to look at both slide shows on this page.
What literary character would you dress as?

Books, Books, & More Books!

The Dover Public Library's Annual ENORMOUS, GIGANTIC, STUPENDOUS Book Sale is almost here. The sale starts this Friday, Oct. 29 from 9am to 5:30pm, for Dover Public Library cardholders, and on Saturday, Oct. 30 from 9am to 5pm for the general public. As you can see from the picture we have a few books so don't miss it.

The Vampire in Literature and Film

Vampires have breached the gates of Harvard! A new class offered by Harvard's Extension School--The Vampire in Literature and Film--is proving to be quite popular, 183 enrolled. Professor Sue Weaver Schopf is teaching some of the classics, like The Vampyre by John Polidori, and some more modern titles by Charlaine Harris, and yes Stephenie Meyers. Professor Schopf loves the Twilight series, and scoffs at the criticism it has received. "She is just as interested in the strange, overwhelming negativity that surrounds Stephenie Meyer's chaste young-adult series as she is in its mass appeal. Why do these books provoke such a strong reaction?" FYI--there are already plans in place to teach the course again next fall. Follow the link to read the article about the class in the Boston Globe.

Forget Shakespeare, It Is the Zombies that Jane Needs to Worry About

Dear Jane Austen Loving Librarians,

Now that the dust has settled from your quibble over who is more awesome, Jane Austen or William Shakespeare, I must you ask a more important question. Could Jane Austen kick a zombie's butt? Because Dover is under threat of imminent zombie attack this Saturday at 3pm.

Perhaps we can find the answer in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith.

 It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains." So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Can she vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read.      

NBA Finalists Announced

Not that NBA the National Book Awards of course!
Here is the list of fiction finalists:

Adult Fiction
Great House by Nicole Krauss
I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita
Lord Misrule by Jaimy Gordon
Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey
So Much for That by Lionel Shriver

Young People's Literature
Dark Water by Laura McNeal
Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers
Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

To see the finalists in other categories visit the NBA web site.