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Smiley Tillmon

Kelli Staley — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 21:16:00 +0000

Click to Play

Smiley Tillmon and his band performed jazz, rhythm and blues at Lansing Public Library Feb. 4, 2011. Sponsored by Friends of Lansing Public Library

February Juvenile Book of the Month

Brandi — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 09:00:00 +0000

Horrible Harry in Room 2B by Suzy Kline

Harry likes to do horrible things. He scares girls with slithery, slimy snakes. He has perfected the knuckle noogies, specifically while playing "Seven Up." He hoards broken pencils and crayons to use in the creation of his frightening Stub People army which will eventually take over the classroom.

Despite all of Harry's horrible acts, Doug is his best friend. Sometimes, Doug even helps Harry do horrible things. Regardless of Harry's true intentions, sometimes he doesn't mean to do horrible things, they just seem to happen.

In Horrible Harry in Room 2B, Doug tells us about a normal school day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and a field trip and what happens to Harry. There are 24 other books about Horrible Harry and a handful about Song Lee, a girl from Harry's class. Horrible Harry in Room 2B was one of my favorite books when I was in elementary school and I highly recommend it to kids looking for a beginner chapter book.

New Blog

Kelli Staley — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 16:16:00 +0000

We've moved this blog to
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Please subscribe to the new feed in your favorite feed reader.

Follow us on Twitter to automatically get the headlines!
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Try the Oxford English Dictionary Online-Free through Feb 5, 2011

Kelli Staley — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:20:00 +0000

From an article in the Boston Globe:
"Through February 5, the OED Online---the world's most comprehensive collection of English word histories, with 3 million usage examples dating back more than a millennium--is celebrating its redesign with free access for all. . . . Go to www.OED.com and log on, using trynewoed as both user name and password."

Midway Ramblers perform at Lansing Public Library (clip 2)

Kelli Staley — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 12:37:00 +0000

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Midway Ramblers perform Cajun and Zydeco music at Lansing Public Library January 14, 2011. Sponsored by Friends of Lansing Library.

Midway Ramblers perform at Lansing Public Library (clip3)

Kelli Staley — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 12:32:00 +0000

Click to Play

Midway Ramblers perform Cajun and Zydeco music at Lansing Public Library January 14, 2011. Sponsored by Friends of Lansing Library.

Midway Ramblers perform at Lansing Public Library

Kelli Staley — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 12:16:00 +0000

Click to Play

Midway Ramblers perform Cajun and Zydeco music at Lansing Public Library January 14, 2011. Sponsored by Friends of Lansing Library.

Award Winners are Here!

Brandi — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 10:34:00 +0000

Once again, the best of the best were given their dues. The following award-winning books are available here. To learn more about them or to see if they are on the shelf, click the links.

Michael L. Printz Award
The Printz Award is presented to Teen book that possesses a great deal of literary merit and has the highest level of quality than the other books released that year.

Winner:
Ship Bre aker by Paolo Bacigalupi
In a futuristic world, teenaged Nailer scavenges copper wire from grounded oiler tankers for a living, but when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decided whether to strip the ship for its wealth or rescue the girl.

Honors:
Stolen by Lucy Christopher
Sixteen-year-old Gemma, a British city-dweller, is abducted while on vacation with her parents and taken to the Australian outback, where she soon realizes escape attempts are futile, and in time she learns that her captor is not as despicable as she first believed.

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King
When her best friend, who she secretly loves, betrays her and then dies under mysterious circumstances, high school senior Vera Dietz struggles with secrets that could help clear her name.

Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick
Fourteen-year-old Sig is stranded at a remote cabin in the Arctic wilderness with his father, who just died hours earlier after falling through some ice, when a terrifying man arrives, claiming Sig's father owes him a share in the horde of stolen gold and that her will kill Sig if he does get his money.

Nothing by Janne Teller
When thirteen-year-old Pierre Anthon leaves school to sit in a plum tree and train for becoming part of nothing, his seventh grade classmates set out on a desperate quest to find the meaning of life.

William C. Morris Award
The Morris Award goes to the best Teen book for a debut author.

Winner:
The Fr eak Observer by Blythe Woolston
Suffering from a crippling case of post-traumatic stress disorder, sixteen-year-old Loa Lindgren tries to use her problem-solving skills , sharpened in physics and computer programming, to cure herself.

Honors:
Hush by Eishes Chayil
After remembering the cause of her best friend Devory's suicide at age nine, Gittel is determined to raise awareness of sexual abuse in her Borough Park, NY community, despite the rules of Chassidim that require her to be silent.

Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey
Eighteen-year-old New Zealand boarding school student Ellie Spencer must use her rusty tae kwon do skills and new-found magic to try and stop a fairy-like race of creatures from Maori myth and legend that is plotting to kill millions of humans in order to regain their lost immortality.

H old Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride
Sam LaCroix, a Seattle fast food worker and college drop-out, discovers that he is a necromancer, part of a world of harbingers, werewolves, satyrs, and one particular necromancer who sees Sam as a threat to his lucrative business of raising the dead.

Crossing the Tracks by Barbara Stuber
In Missouri in 1926, fifteen-year-old Iris Baldwin discovers what family truly means when her father hires her out for the summer as a companion to a country doctor's invalid mother.

Alex Awards
The Alex Awards are a list of the best adult books for teens.

The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had to by D.C. Pierson
Fifteen-year-old Darren, a social misfit who spends his time at school trying not to be noticed while drawing characters for a planned film series and book tie-ins, befriends Eric, another outcast who reveals he never sleeps.

Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and my Journey from Homeless to Harvard by Liz Murray
The stunning memoir of a girl who at age 15 was living on the streets but survived to make it to Harvard.

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
When 11-year-old Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to Brookly squalor, she quickly begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day and Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings. Disguising the most difficult truths of her life, like her secret love to a factory boy who shares none of her talent or ambition, Kimberly learns to translate not just her language but herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles.

The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni

Sebastian Prendergast lives in a geodesic dome with his eccentric grandmother, who homeschooled him in the teachings of futurist philosopher, R. Buckminster Fuller. But when his grandmother has a stroke, Sebastian is forced to live the dome and make his own way in town. Jacob Whitcomb is a chain-smoking, sixteen-year-old heart-transplant recipient who befriends Sebastian and begins to teach him about all the things he has been missing, including grape soda, girls, and Sid Vicious.

The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton
Traumatized at the age of eight, and pushed into a life of crime by reason of his unforgivable talent - lockpicking - Michael sees his chance to escape, and with one desperate gamble, risks everything to come back home to the only person he ever loved, and unlock the secret that has kept him silent for so long.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
Being able to taste people's emotions in food may at first be horrifying. But young, unassuming Rose Edelstein grows up learning to harness her gift as she becomes aware that there are some secrets even her taste buds can't discern.

The Radleys by Matt Haig
Struggling with overwork and parenting angst, English village doctor Peter Radley endeavors to hide his family's vampire nature until their daughter's oddly satisfying act of violence reveals the truth, an event that is complicated by the arrival of a practicing vampire family member.

The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell
Zombies have infested a fallen America. A young girl named Temple is on the run. Haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, Temple is surrounded by death and danger, hoping to be set free. For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can't remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption. Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks.

Room by Emma Donoghue
Narrator Jack and his mother, who was kidnapped seven years earlier when she was a 19-year-old college student, celebrate his fifth birthday. They live in a tiny, 11-foot-square soundproofed cell in a converted shed in the kidnapper's yard. The sociopath, whom Jack has dubbed Old Nick, visits at night, grudgingly doling out food and supplies. But Ma, as Jack calls her, proves to be resilient and resourceful--and attempts a nail-biting escape.

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant

January Book of the Month

Maureen — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 15:56:00 +0000

Ashes of Roses tells the story of sixteen-year old Rose Nolan's immigration and landing in America from Ireland in 1911. Rose's family is faced with obstacles at Ellis Island and also when they get into New York City. However, Rose has a fighting spirit and eventually secures employment in what seems like a great opportunity at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. She enjoys the camaraderie of her fellow employees above all else and does not seem to notice the poor working conditions that surround her. Little does Rose know the devastation that will occur one Saturday as she sets off on the last day of her work week. Will Rose persevere after the ashes settle around her?

This book is a great historical novel for children, teens and adults. It provides an insider's perspective of life as an immigrant and also the strengthening labor movement that took place in the early 20th century. The decisions that families had to make were difficult and guided by a need for survival. Mary Jane Auch easily transports the reader through Rose's plight from the very first page.

Encyclopedia Britannica Online

Tracey — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:21:00 +0000

Encyclopedia Britannica is our featured online resource available through the Library's website. Including four complete encyclopedias tailored to different age groups, Encyclopedia Britannica is perfect for homework and research projects. Also available are full-text magazine articles, homework help, a world atlas, a thesaurus, Merriam-Webster dictionaries in both English and Spanish, and a Primary Sources section.

Lansing Public Library patrons have free access to Encyclopedia Britannica from anywhere in the Library; Library cardholders have access from home 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Lansing Public Library encourages all patrons to make use of this valuable resource; check it out today at www.lansing.lib.il.us/catalog.html#eb .