Are You Up to a Challenge?

2014: new year, new challenges. And we here at the library are always up for a literary challenge.  That’s why this year a few of us have decided to travel the good ol’ USA in 50 books.

The idea of this challenge is to find and read a book (preferably one you haven’t read before) that takes place in each state. But, be aware, there are some rules to this. You cannot count one book for several different states. For example, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods hops all over the place from Minnesota to Tennessee. It could not be counted for both states (or all the ones mentioned in between). Books need the majority of their story to take place in the state you’re counting. If a protagonist spends most of the book talking about his/her childhood in Connecticut and then at the end moves to New York, that’s fine. Count it for Connecticut!

The library staff has decided to participate using only books that are located in each state, but there are other versions of this challenge that allow people to pick authors from each state, too. This challenge can be fine-tuned to whatever you wish to make it. We have one person here who is limiting her selections to only murder mysteries!

So far we’ve traveled to New Hampshire, Tennessee and Louisiana. We realize it might be a challenge figuring out which books to choose from each state so we’ll keep you updated on Pinterest with where we’ve gone and the books we’ve read. There is also this handy INFOGRAPHIC showing the most famous books set in each state that may give you some ideas.

We invite anyone who wants to participate to join and share with us their finds! Print out this MAP to color in and help keep track of where you’ve been.

Happy traveling!

Game Day

“Game Day” at
Dover Public Library
January 27

     Join the fun at the Dover Public Library on Monday, January 27 from 4:30—6:30pm for our very first “Game Day”, sponsored by Myriad Games Dover. It’s free and many different kinds of board games will be provided for your enjoyment. Don’t worry if you’re a novice: knowledgeable staff will be on hand to provide instruction. Participants may play old favorites, or learn something new! Invited are beginners, board game pros, adults, teenagers, kids 11+, families, and single players.

     Games will include: “Settlers of Catan”, a strategy game where players strive to develop a newly- found continent: building roads, settlements and cities while trading resources;  “Ticket to Ride”, a cross-country train adventure game in which players collect train cards claiming railway routes throughout North America with the goal being to see the most cities; “Carcassonne”, a clever tile-laying game set in a French medieval city where players attempt to take control of new lands, roads, cities, and farms to gain points; and “Pandemic”, a cooperative, not competitive game, in which four world-wide diseases have broken out, each threatening to wipe out a region. All players strive together to discover all four cures before certain conditions are reached. We will also have the more traditional Bananagrams, Backgammon, and more!

     Each of these board games is easy to learn, and fun to play  “Game Day” is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Dover Public Library at 516-6050.

The Invention of Wings

Sue Monk Kidd's latest book, The Invention of Wings, introduces two narrators. Handful, a 10 year old slave who is a sewing prodigy and Sarah, a bright 11 year old voracious reader, and Handful's unwitting owner. The course of both their lives is changed when Handful is presented with a ribbon around her neck to Sarah as a birthday gift . Sarah is based on a real-life figure and daughter of one of Charleston’s leading families in the 1800s who along with her sister was banished from Charleston for her abolitionist activities. I was on a 5 week reading slump until I picked up this book. I read it in 2 days!

Great Stone Face "Booktalk" #9

Here is "booktalk #9" written by members of the Great Stone Face Committee to spark interest in reading all 20 titles on this year's list of nominees for the state award:

The Golden Door
by Emily Rodda

Georges (the s is silent) is a seventh grader who has just moved from a beloved Brooklyn home into an apartment building because his father has lost his job. His mother is a nurse who often works double shifts in order to support the loss of this income.  Although Georges is able to attend his same school, his best friend has joined forces with the group of the class bully, Dallas Llewellyn, who makes Georges’ daily school life miserable in a continually annoying way, e.g. calling him “Gorgeous”.  It is helpful to know, at this point, that Georges is named after Georges Seurat, the pointillism painter who is known for “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte”, his mother’s favorite painting. From his childhood, Georges has often referred to him as “Sir Ott.”
Just to add another layer to this complex novel, Georges makes the acquaintance of the children of a bit of an eccentric family, Candy and Safer, who are home schooled.  Here is where the spyglass plot comes into play.
From Bob English Who Loves To Draw, Candy (who, you guessed it, loves candy), Safer (who is the inside person, in more ways than one, of the spy team), and a mother/son Scrabble™ communication, we are led through the maze of Liar & Spy. The lens of truth of this novel and these characters will not reveal itself until the end. Who is the liar, who is the spy?  Read Liar & Spy and puzzle this out for yourself.
(Booktalk written by Kathleen Fencil, GSF Committee Bedford Middle School)

Great Stone Face Book Award "Booktalk" #8

 

Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms: Magic, Mystery, and a Very Strange Adventure
by Lissa Evans

Stuart Horten is NOT looking forward to this summer---his parents have dragged him away from his friends and familiar surroundings to move to this boring old town—just because this is where his father grew up!
Exploring the community on his bicycle he discovers a couple of things:
#1, he has a great-uncle Tony—an amazing inventor of magical contraptions, who mysteriously disappeared years ago, and
#2, he has three incredibly annoying girls living next door---they’re triplets that are nearly impossible to tell apart, and they will not leave him alone.
When Stuart discovers a handful of old coins that seem to be clues to the location of Tony’s hidden workshop, his summer takes an exciting turn---someone else wants those coins and it seems they’ll stop at nothing to discover the workshop first! Can Stuart solve the mystery of his great-uncle’s past on his own, or will he have to enlist the help of the terrible triplets?
It’s a summer full of hidden things---workshops, contraptions, sneaky opponents, and just maybe—friendship.
(Booktalk written by Sarah Hydorn-GSF Committee/ Amherst Town Library)