Author Archives: GPL

Re-learning History

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As this insane year, which we are somehow halfway through, continues on its path of crazy, I have found myself searching for answers. Sometimes it can be hard to find the truth within the media and sometimes even within our history books. Perhaps it’s because I wasn’t paying enough attention in school, but there is so much about history that I don’t remember learning.

So lately I’ve been trying to educate myself with movies, documentaries, and of course books about the current climate we’re in and how we got here. Several digital platforms have made content available to stream free online for others like me who want to learn. Here are a few:

 

Netflix: 

13th

Strong Island

 

Criterion Collection: 

Cane River

Daughters of the Dust

Black Panthers

 

Amazon:

The Hate U Give

Marshall

Selma

Just Mercy

Ali

Harriet

 

Showtime: 

16 Shots

 

And make sure to check out Kanopy & Hoopla, free with your library card!

Kanopy & Hoopla:

I Am Not Your Negro

Toni Morrison: Pieces I Am

Who’s Streets

White Like Me

 

Most of these platforms have tons more to watch if you purchase their subscriptions, or get a free trial! And make sure to check out this list of Books on Race @ GPL for more learning opportunities!

Interactive Movie: Toy Story

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Toy Story has long been one of my favorite Pixar movies.  There’s just something about the  toys coming to life and their endearing and hilarious friendships that offers a bit of magic.  That’s why we picked it for one of our virtual programs this summer!  While it would have been even MORE fun having everyone at the library for our interactive movie experience, putting together goody bags and scripts for an at-home adventure was exciting as well.

In case you missed the program and would like to recreate it on your own, here’s the props and prompts (with some alternative suggestions) we offered to the participants.

 

ITEMS

The list of supplies seems a little odd until you’ve read the script below.  I promise it will all make sense!  The bold face items are what we supplied for the program, but I’ve also included some suggestions that you might have sitting around the house as substitutes.

Kazoos (You can hum along, play a tambourine, use a pan as a drum, or any other fun musical instrument you can imagine!)

Cotton balls (Rolled up socks or handkerchiefs would work great too!)

Hand clappers (Just wave or shake your hands!)

Bags of chips (OR another potato item of your choice!)

Balloon (Make wings with your arms and run around the room!)

Birthday party hat (OR general festive headwear! You could also roll up a colorful piece of paper into a cone shape.)

Flying frogs (Wind up toys moving toward the TV screen would work as well!)

Paper Airplane (Any paper will do!)

Mini Slinky Dink (I can’t really think of an alternative for this one except maybe folding paper accordion style)

 

THE SCRIPT

There are two types of actions in the script :

RECURRING are actions that you’ll do EVERY time they occur in the movie, while ONE-TIME actions occur only once.  To make things easy, ONE-TIME actions are prompted in order by scene.  Words in ITALICS are from the supply list so get them ready!

 ** Note: It’s TOTALLY cool to skip through the scary parts!  Fast forward, take a time out for a snack, or have the kids brush their teeth for bed before continuing on with the movie!

 

RECURRING

 Mr. Potato Head speaks—Eat some chips

 Little Bo Peep speaks—Yell, “BAAA!” and throw a cotton ball in the air

 Slinky Dog talks – Play with your mini slinky dink

 We see army men marching — Stand and march around the room

 Buzz speaks— Yell, “To infinity and beyond!” and put arm in the air.

 We see Sid—Yell, “BOOO!”

 We see Scud the dog—BARK!

 

ONE-TIME

 When “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” plays— Play along on your kazoo

 During Andy’s birthday party scene—Put on your hat and play Happy Birthday on kazoos

 When Buzz flies around the room—Blow up a balloon and let it fly around the room

 When Woody asks, “Who’s got my hat?”—Yell, “I DO!” and throw your party hat at the screen

 When rock music plays at the pizza delivery car— Stand and play air guitar

 When we see the aliens in the claw machine—Repeat “THE CLAW” and “OOOOOO”

 When Woody tells Buzz to use karate-chop action—Stand and do some karate

 When Buzz flies off the railing—Throw your paper airplanes at the screen

 When Woody says, “…give me a hand!”— Shake your hand clappers

 When Sid is setting off the rocket—Countdown with Sid “10, 9, 8…”

 When toys begin to attack Sid—Send your flying frogs toward the front of the room

 During the Christmas scene—All sing Jingle Bells

 

Have fun!

Making 2020 my “TBR Clean-up” Year

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When I was in high school and college, I didn’t have much time to read for fun, and I had different priorities during my free time. But I missed reading so much! So when I graduated, I went a little crazy: I started watching bookish videos on YouTube, made a Goodreads account, and built a TBR (to be read) list that could go on for miles (and that was just first books in series)! I got to work without much of a plan, and soon I’d started more than a dozen series without finishing them.

Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing if you can keep track of things and remember what happened in every series you’ve started. However, I am so scatterbrained that even having two or three series going at a time gets awfully confusing, and I start forgetting whether it was the warrior cat or the viking who conquered Tafjord… or was it Sarantium? (Oh, and who was that nonchalant guy doing harmless things that end up turning the narrative completely on its head?) If I let the series sit long enough, I can’t even remember that there was someone who took over somewhere! After years of having to reread books just to continue the series, I decided that THIS year I need to “clean up” the series I’ve started by doing the exact opposite of what I’ve been doing: finishing them!

 

Series 1: Promise of Blood

I’ll admit I didn’t start this journey off well. The first book I read this year was Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan, the beginning of a new series. You could say that it was unfortunate that I enjoyed the book because that means I have to read the rest of the trilogy before December 31st. Thanks be to my unpleasant, self-imposed loose end tie-up scheme.

 

Series 2: The Legion of Flame

I did, however, redeem myself with extra credit when I read the next book, The Legion of Flame by Anthony Ryan. Not only was it the second book in a series, but I shortly after decided to officially DNF (did not finish) its series, which lets me off the hook for book three. Yay!

 

Series 3: The Half-Drowned King

The next two are, however, a mixed bag of pats on the back and kicking myself. Like Ryan’s series, I had no intention of continuing Linnea Hartsuyker’s historical viking series, The Half-Drowned King. I started missing one of the main characters, though, and got the notion in my head to continue with at least the second book. Before long, I was reading the third one too, although I did manage to throw the most recent continuation of a favorite series in the middle. For anyone keeping track at home, that’s three more books ticked off my list (even if two of them were recent additions).

 

Series 4: The Warrior Moon

Then came The Warrior Moon by K. Arsenault Rivera (check out my series review in a previous blog post), a series finale bringing me to a total of four clean-ups! That’s when I needed a break and threw some stand-alone books in, which I think are kind of neutral to the cause; check out Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson and Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay for some solid fiction that doesn’t (currently) have a sequel.

 

Series 5: Warriors

Next up is kind of a doozy. I decided I would continue with a childhood favorite that I’m terribly far behind on: the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. The reason this is a snag in my plan is because the series is 39 books long so far–and that’s only the main story line books! As of the beginning of this year, I’d only read 14 of them, so I’ve got a lot of catching up to do in one year. Or do I? I have a way around this one, I promise.

Warriors is broken up into six-book sub-series with somewhat independent characters and stories, so it’s easy to just read them in those shorter chunks. Plus, each part has its own series title anyway. All that to say I’m continuing Power of Three this year. At the time of my rough draft, I was done with numbers three, four, and five, and I was halfway through the final book in this sub-series. Now I’ve finished the last one as well and moved on to The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky, another stand alone book that was highly anticipated!

 

More Series to Tackle in the 2nd Half of 2020

We’re not even halfway through the year though, so what on earth am I going to be doing in the second half of 2020? Like I mentioned, I’m obligated to finish Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage trilogy since I liked it well enough. I also started Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher last year, so that’s another outstanding series with six more entries to read. No, no, I’m not sweating, I’m exuding my passion for books! Not to mention I’ve got to finish up The Poppy War series by R.F. Kuang, which would have been an easy one-book read if not for the third and final book coming out in November.

And, of course, I’m already planning more series to start (cue the disappointed groan)! Most importantly, I want to read the Book of the Ancestor trilogy by Mark Lawrence since the first book in a spin-off series is coming out this year. Additionally, I’d like to start the Song of the Shattered Sands series by Bradley Beaulieu and the first trilogy in the First Law world by Joe Abercrombie. If those don’t manage to keep me occupied, which I highly doubt, I’ll be looking at some more stand-alones to keep me on track.

Will I finish all the series I’ve started this year? That’s a big maybe. But maybe I can at least make some methodical progress on my ever-growing, obnoxiously large TBR! Here’s to doing my best in 2020!

 

Michelle is a member of our Patron Services Department.  In addition to being an avid reader, she also is an animal lover and a fan of board games.

Carissa’s Top 5 Quarantine Reads

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These books provided a great escape during all the happenings in the world.  They either kept me sucked in wanting to read more, took me to another world, inspired me, or all of the above!

 

The Lovely War
by Julie Berry

This is one that will stick with me for a long time.  A great historical fiction/love story that goes back in time between WWI and WWII.  I loved how this story had a bit of a fantastical element in it.  The story is told by the goddess, Aphrodite, who must defend herself after being caught by her husband, Hephaestus, in a tryst with Ares.  The story she tells is of four humans who became connected during WWI.

 

The Forgotten Garden
by Kate Morton

I absolutely loved this book!  At 650 pages I read it in just three days.  I had such a hard time putting it down!  The story starts with a young girl, Nell, who was abandoned on a ship to Australia in 1913.  Nell is raised by the dock master and his wife who decide not to tell her until her 21st birthday that they are not her birth parents.  The rest of the book includes all things that make a great story and mystery:  dark fairy tales, a secret garden, an aristocratic family with many secrets, and a love denied.

 

Part of Your World
by Liz Braswell

This is the first book of The Twisted Tales series that I’ve read.  All of the covers in this series are beautiful!  As with all books in this series, there is a twist from the classic Disney tale.  The twist in this tale is “what if Ariel never defeated Ursula?”  Five years have passed since the end of The Little Mermaid, and Ariel is the voiceless queen of Atlantica while Ursula rules Prince Eric’s kingdom on land.  After discovering her father, King Triton, might still be alive Ariel returns to a world she never thought she would see again.

 

The House in the Cerulean
by Sarah Mackenzie

This is such a happy book and provided a wonderful escape from reality.  The book was heartwarming and filled with humor.  The author of the book describes the story better than I can: “The House in the Cerulean Sea is a love letter to those who should be allowed to feel small and cared for when the world seems dark. Today, March 17, is a scary time. And it might get a little worse before it gets better. But I promise you it will. This book—this funny little book—is my way of helping you see sunlight through all the dark clouds. I hope you’re ready, because you’re about to go on an adventure you won’t expect.”

 

Sunrise at Normandy series
by Sarah Sundin

This Christian historical fiction series was very inspiring.  All three books are set around the time of the Normandy invasion and focus on three brothers who have been at odds with each other for several years and how their faith brings them back together.  I loved the romance in all three books and the female characters were fantastic.  This series had a great blend of the details of being a soldier, life as a woman during the war, and the romance between the brothers and their girlfriends.

 

Reluctant Readers

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It’s summer and we really want to keep the kids reading so they don’t experience the “Summer Slide” (when academic skills decline without practice). Some children just love to read and it’s hard to keep them out of a book – but for many others, it’s like pulling teeth to motivate them. Reading is very challenging for many students so you have to be strategic in finding materials that will entice them to read. Books that we have found to be popular are: the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Captain Underpants series (and anything by Dav Pilkey), graphic novels like Smile and Baby Mouse. Nonfiction titles that draw kids in are books that contain short interesting factual information like Ripley’s Believe it or Not andGuinness World Records.  Joke books are a great immediate gratification read. Many boys like war books and we have a plethora of these in graphic novel format. Two of our hottest series are the I Survived series by Lauren Tarshis which covers exciting times throughout history and the You Wouldn’t Want to Be series which has a fun, factual, easy-to-read boxed layout.

A tip that has worked well for me: READ TOGETHER. I will read a page and the child will read the next page aloud or perhaps only the next paragraph. In this way the child is not overwhelmed by the text and by hearing the story and discussing the story together, vocabulary and comprehension are enhanced. Also, don’t count out audio books! The slogan, “Audio Books are Not Cheating” is TRUE! Children gain vocabulary, comprehension, and background information from listening to audio books! This choice is especially wonderful for family vacations! GPL has a wide selection of wonderful audio books and my most recent favorite is Restart by Gordon Korman which just won the YHBA Intermediate Award!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our GPL staff will be delighted to select appropriate fun materials for your children. Call 317-885-5035, and we will pull books that we will tailor especially for your family.