"Take a Child Outside" is a whole week (September 24-30) devoted to enjoying all things outdoors with children.  So show nature to your children and get them moving, whether by taking a hike, just visiting a local park to look for all the kinds of trees we live among, or collecting pictures of the bugs that live in your own back yard.  When you visit the library, check out our display for more inspirational ideas.

Apocalypse Now.  Most all of us have had someone blithely say "Well, it's not the end of the world" when we've shared a personal woe.  But, what if it were the end of the world?  What if something so drastic occured that the world as we know it no longer existed?  What would life be like then?  This display of dystopian novels is sure to catch your attention and get you wondering.

Hurricane Katrina was the cataclysmic force that did destroy the world of New Orleans and its citizens in 2005.  Out of the maelstrom, Dave Eggers penned Zeitoun, the heartrending book at the center of this year's One Book One Community programs and activities in East Lansing and at MSU.  After reading this powerful telling of how one family endured the consequences of Katrina, learn even more about Katrina by visiting this display of other available materials.

Try your hand at some new games, plus old favorites.  Andy Morrow from 21st Century Games will show us the latest. 
Board games, too.  Plus snacks.

Help plan & present an international fair for children, along with the high school's Cultural Awareness Club.

Paperback swap.  Trade your old but still in good condition paperbacks for some new reads.  After the swap, we'll make shrinky dinks.

ELPL has lots of wonderful, FREE resources to help make sure your student is successful.  Many are available 24/7!  Who should attend?  Parents, teachers, and students of all ages.

As the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches and our community prepares to engage in One Book, One Community events, I would like to recommend a middle-grade fiction novel,Ninth Ward, by Jewell Parker Rhodes.  Ninth Ward is the first middle grade novel written by Rhodes, an award winning author of adult fiction. It is also the first middle grade novel written about Hurricane Katrina.

12-year-old orphan Lanesha lives in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans with 82-year-old Mama Ya-Ya, her caretaker. The story begins on Lanesha's birthday, a few days before Hurrican Katrina hits in 2005.  Lanesha is teased by her peers at school because she talks to ghosts, but she is a strong and independent character and so the teasing doesn't bother her. Mama Ya-Ya has the feeling something bad is going to happen soon, but she doesn't know what it is until she and Lanesha hear the news announced on the TV. What happens next is a tale of  a struggle for survival in what was to be the tragic aftermath of catastrophic flooding in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans after Hurrican Katrina passed through.

This amazing tale has already received a Parents' Choice Gold Award and is the latest pick for Al Roker's Book Club.

The 2010 One Book, One Community selection is Zeitoun by Dave Eggers.

                                                                                          

I must admit it - I'm addicted to the Fox television show, "So You Think You Can Dance."  Every week I sit in my comfortable stuffed chair and snack on junk food while beautiful, athletic, and talented young dancers perform.  I've never been interested in dance before, so I think producer/judge Nigel Lythgoe must be doing a good job.  Recently, he announced National Dance Day, a time for everyone to "get up and move."  Always thinking, if not moving, the lightbulb went off!  Our library has dance movies and books.  I can celebrate Dance Day by doing my favorite thing - reading or watching a movie.  It's not what Nigel had in mind, but it works for me!  You might also enjoy the following DVD's or books:

Saturday Night Fever
Hairspray
Michael Jackson's This Is It
Dirty Dancing
Mad Hot Ballroom

• Broadway, The Golden Years
• The Dancer Within: intimate conversations with great dancers
• Master's of Movement: portraits of America's great choreographers

Some people just seem inherently cool.  Stacy Peralta is one of  those people.  He was an original surfing/skateboarding Z-Boy in the ‘70s and helped paved the way for skateboarding superstar Tony Hawk. 

Today Peralta is busy making noteworthy documentaries.  His current film, Crips and Bloods: Made in America, presents interviews with current and former Los Angeles gang members and draws a connection between modern problems and social injustices of the past.

And, if you have even the slightest interest in surfing you should definitely check out the visually awesome Riding Giants about big wave surfing and Dogtown and Z-Boys which documents the rise of skateboarding and its impact on youth culture.  Peralta also wrote the screenplay for the popular Heath Ledger film Lords of Dogtown.  

The International Book Club is on hiatus for the summer, but you can get a head start on what we'll be reading this fall.  On Thursday October 21 at 7:00 pm, we are excited to welcome local author  Twesigye Jackson Kaguri as he talks about his new book The Price of Stones.  This story of Kaguri's experiences building a school in his home village in Uganda has been compared to Three Cups of Tea.  We have copies of the title on audiotape and in book form. There will also be a copy available later this summer as a downloadable e-book.  The author has been interviewed in local and national media, including Time.  You can also see a video about the book here. 

In November, date to be announced, we will be discussing the book
Beyond the Sky and the Earth : A Journey into Bhutan by Jamie Zeppa. Come learn about this beautiful country and its people through the author's eyes.  We are working on getting some special guests to help us discuss and understand the book.

Travel around the world this summer with a good book!

There are three important things you need to know about Justin Cronin's new epic novel, The Passage.

First: You'll want to cancel any appointments, meetings, and commitments you had planned for this week.  Trust me, they are no longer important.  Once you start reading this book you won't be able to put it down.  Cronin does a masterful job of quickly building tension and then maintaining it over the entire span of the novel.  Reading The Passage feels like reading Stephen King at the height of his game (fellow lovers of The Stand, this book is for you!), which is probably why King wrote a rave review for the dust jacket.  Just like with King’s novels I was afraid to keep reading, lest one of my favorite characters get killed or infected with the terrifying virus that plagues Cronin’s tale.  But the story was so compelling that I was afraid to stop reading!  I had to know what happened next so I kept reading, and reading, long into the night.  Which brings us to the important question of sleep.  Sleep no longer matters. 

Domino ceasing publication was a sad day for many shelter magazine lovers everywhere.  Sure, we can still look at the book and there are plenty of great home design magazines and blogs out there but something was missing... until now.  Enter Michelle Adams. A former Domino employee, fabric designer, and Michigan State University graduate, Adams is Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the online magazine Lonny.  

Lonny's fifth issue is now online.  I suggest you take some time to explore it and the other four issues.  While not available in print, Lonny provides readers with the cool option of direct links to the stores and merchandise it features.  

 

 

Make a Splash - Read! Starts June 14.

It may be cold or hot, rainy or sunny, muggy or not - summer reading @ ELPL is here! So plan to get started today, tomorrow, this week or next - you can do it on your own schedule, read your own books or library books, pick up your activity sheet at the library or download it from our website. We try to make it as easy as possible to keep reading all summer long!

Beginning on June 15, from 10:30 am - 12 noon, ELPL will be offering FREE tutoring every Tuesday for grades K-6. Children can drop in anytime between 10:30-12, or stay for the entire time. Tutoring will be provided by local high school and college volunteers. A great way to keep skills sharp over the summer.

Questions? Call the library at 351-2420 and ask for Phyllis Thode. Or email pthode@cityofeastlansing.com.