Spotlight On: Geronimo Stilton

 

 

Here at Braswell Memorial Library, we’re big fans of Geronimo Stilton, the mild-mannered journalist and editor of The Rodent’s Gazette. Our Youth Services collection includes tons of exciting and cheesy adventures featuring the fan-favorite mouse and his friends. From the prehistoric age to the space age to Geronimo’s modern day adventures in New Mouse City kids are sure to fall in love with the engaging, exciting stories of Geronimo Stilton. Below is a brief selection of what we have available, though there are many more to choose from!

 

Spotlight On: Superheroes

Did you know that Braswell has a fantastic collection of graphic novels? There are many different kinds of graphic novels, but superheroes are especially popular. Here are some recent additions, featuring superheroes and villains of all kinds:

Teen Tech Week: Libraries Are for Making!

Teen Tech Week is when libraries make the time to showcase all of the great digital resources, technology, and services that are available to help teens succeed in school and prepare for college and 21st century careers.

Celebrate with the “Libraries are for Making…” theme during YALSA’s Teen Tech Week March 8-14, 2015. Explore what your library gives to the community by offering teens a space to extend learning beyond the classroom where they can explore, create and share content.

Our programs for Teen Tech Week include:

Simple Circuit Light Box

Design and build your own LED Light Box.

Wednesday, March 11^th in the Wiley Room from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.

 

Teen Tech Week Movie Presentation

Mix Tapes, Space Ships, and Small Mammals.

Show Time: March 12th in the Warner Room from 5:00-7:00pm.

 

Teen Tech Trivia

Pick up the questions at our Teen Tech book display upstairs and answer them to win a prize.

Spotlight On: New Books

We’re always adding new books at Braswell Memorial Library. Here are some fantastic recent additions to look out for:

 

Staff Book Review: The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak

 

Available in Youth Services.

A book with no pictures?

What could be fun about that?

After all, if a book has no pictures, there’s nothing to look at but the words on the page.

Words that might make you say silly sounds… In ridiculous voices…

Hey, what kind of book is this, anyway?

At once disarmingly simple and ingeniously imaginative, The Book With No Pictures inspires laughter every time it is opened, creating a warm and joyous experience to share–and introducing young children to the powerful idea that the written word can be an unending source of mischief and delight.

This is a children’s book, but not really for them to read. It is best enjoyed by children ages 3 or so to 8 or 9 when read aloud by a fun loving adult.  Don’t worry, it is not very long and there are only a few words per page. Although you will end up reading it more than once!

As stated it has no pictures. Just words. Marvelous, witty, vibrant, wonderfully, arranged words! Some are made up and others are everyday words arranged in silly ways. This book is a magic wand. It provides the focus and structure and the reader provides the force behind the magic. This book pokes a bit of fun at the reader (adults) so if you take yourself very seriously this is not a book for you. However, if you delight in the joy and laughter of your young child then as a parent or other caregiver you owe it to the children, and to yourself, to read this to them.

Ok – now for the confession: I haven’t read this book.  But I did have it read to me. My youngest daughter Kimberly (who is an adult and a mother) bought a copy at Christmas for one of our grandkids. Kimberly read the book at the family Christmas gathering to the assembled kids and adults. Everyone, adults and children, were delighted by this book! So much so that the grandkids ignored their other gifts and demanded a second reading! If that’s not an endorsement I don’t know what is.  So read this book to a child, or get someone to read it to you and some kids. Either way it will unleash the joy in your heart.

Review by Phillip B. Whitford, Associate Director for Support Services

Friends Event: It’s Not Your Grandmother’s Library

Friends of Braswell Memorial Library will sponsor a fun, free family event at the library on Thursday, Feb. 5 from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

Today’s Braswell Library is “Not your Grandmother’s Library” and Friends and staff at Braswell hope to introduce or re-introduce everyone to all the library has to offer. Staff will be available to talk about the library’s free Wi-fi, how to borrow a laptop, how to check out ebooks, the growing digital collection, study rooms, computer classes, teen clubs, children’s computer services, upcoming programs and events and more.

For children (up through grade 5), join us in the Children’s Section where there will be storytelling, crafts, prizes, short tours through the books so you’ll know where to find your favorite books, a demonstration of how to borrow an ebook and more!

Tweens and teens are invited to join staff and Friends upstairs in the young adult section and the Footeprint Homework Center at 5 p.m. for games and information on how take a “Shelfie” and win a tablet, giftcards, iTunes cards and other cool prizes.

Parents, tweens and teens are invited to hear SBI agent Kevin Roughton speak at 5:15 p.m. upstairs in the Non-fiction section, about the changing world of social media and how kids can stay safe. Parents can learn more about what kids are doing online and via their phones and kids can learn valuable information about staying safe while using social media.

For more information about the event, call Jenny White at 266-8749 or Braswell Memorial Library at 442-1951. There will be photo and interview opportunities at this event for the press.

Join us for a great time!

Staff Book Review: Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman

Located on our New Fiction shelf.

The fascinating lives of the characters in Almost Famous Women have mostly been forgotten, but their stories are burning to be told. Now Megan Mayhew Bergman, author of Birds of a Lesser Paradise, resurrects these women, lets them live in the reader’s imagination, so we can explore their difficult choices. Nearly every story in this dazzling collection is based on a woman who attained some celebrity—she raced speed boats or was a conjoined twin in show business; a reclusive painter of renown; a member of the first all-female, integrated swing band. We see Lord Byron’s illegitimate daughter, Allegra; Oscar Wilde’s troubled niece, Dolly; West With the Night author Beryl Markham; Edna St. Vincent Millay’s sister, Norma. These extraordinary stories travel the world, explore the past (and delve into the future), and portray fiercely independent women defined by their acts of bravery, creative impulses, and sometimes reckless decisions.

The world hasn’t always been kind to unusual women, but through Megan Mayhew Bergman’s alluring depictions they finally receive the attention they deserve. Almost Famous Women is a gorgeous collection from an “accomplished writer of short fiction” (Booklist).

Home-grown author Megan Mayhew Bergman has released a stellar second collection of stories to follow up her debut, Birds of a Lesser Paradise. The thirteen stories in Almost Famous Women chronicle obscure and often strange figures, real women reimagined for a new audience. The women are daredevils, artists, heiresses, and eccentrics. And our very own city of Rocky Mount makes a small cameo in one of the stories, “Hell-Diving Woman.”

These characters are sure to get under your skin, and perhaps inspire you to learn more about the times and places from which they came.

Review by Heather Morris, Technical Services Associate

Staff Book Review: Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr.

Available in our fiction section.

The stories of Alice Sheldon, who wrote as James Tiptree Jr. ( Up the Walls of the World ) until her death in 1987, have been heretofore available mostly in out-of-print collections. Thus the 18 accomplished stories here will be welcomed by new readers and old fans. ”The Screwfly Solution” describes a chilling, elegant answer to the population problem. In ”Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death,” the title tells the tale–species survival insured by imprinted drives–but the story’s force is in its exquisite, lyrical prose and its suggestion that personal uniqueness is possible even within biological imperatives. ”The Girl Who Was Plugged In” is a future boy-meets-girl story with a twist unexpected by the players. ”The Women Men Don’t See ” displays Tiptree’s keen insight and ability to depict singularity within the ordinary. In Hugo and Nebula award-winning ”Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” astronauts flying by the sun slip forward 500 years and encounter a culture that successfully questions gender roles in ours.

The work of James Tiptree Jr. (the pen name for Alice Sheldon) are must-reads for any science fiction fan. While some of the technology and ideas may seem dated, the ideas are as fresh as ever and even resonate chillingly within our own time. “The Screwfly Solution,” on one level hyperbolic horror, seems as if it could just as easily take place today. “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” is one of Tiptree’s best works, and  long overdue for a big screen treatment. There are moments of bleak horror in these stories, and moments of humor. These eighteen stories are deeply weird, deeply moving, and will resonate with you long after you read them. And if you’ve never read science fiction, you might just find something new to love.

Review by Heather Morris, Technical Services Associate

New Year, New You

Start of 2015 right with nonfiction at Braswell Memorial Library. From self-help to learning how to de-stress, from beauty and fitness to fashion, we have something for every resolution on your list. Check out these great books and others in our nonfiction department.

 

Happy Holidays from Braswell Memorial Library

We’re taking the next two Wednesdays off from the blog because of Christmas and New Year’s Eve, but look for more great reviews and posts in 2015. And don’t forget, if you are a patron of Braswell Memorial Library and submit a book review or comment, you could be entered to win a gift card! Email blog@braswell-library.org and tell us what you like about the blog, and what we could be doing better. We’d love to hear from you!

We hope everyone in the Rocky Mount area and beyond has a safe and happy holiday season. Come and visit us to get out of the cold. Browse our selection of new Christmas books and dvds to start a new family tradition, or check out an old favorite.

We will close on for Christmas on Tuesday December 23rd at 6 pm and reopen on Saturday December 27. We will close at 6 pm on New Years Eve, and remain closed for New Year’s Day.