I just read an article in Entertainment Weekly celebrating 1939 as 'film's finest year'. Here are a list of the films they list to lend credence to this claim. Have you seen them all? Do you agree with EW? Check them out and see!
Monday, October 12, 2009
1939: Film's Finest Year?
I just read an article in Entertainment Weekly celebrating 1939 as 'film's finest year'. Here are a list of the films they list to lend credence to this claim. Have you seen them all? Do you agree with EW? Check them out and see!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
World Cup 2010
For soccer fans out there, World Cup qualifying continues apace with many games today. So far, 4 new teams have qualified (Cote d'Ivoire, Denmark, Germany & Serbia). Keep checking the FIFA site for more World Cup updates! If you're interested in reading about soccer while you're waiting the 243 days left before the World Cup, check out our library catalog.
Book on the Side: Week 1
Have you had an opportunity to start reading Dreamers of the Day? Here is an article about the Semiramis Hotel, where our heroine planned to stay. Want to know more about Thomas Edward Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia? Find out more about Gertrude Bell and read a few excerpts from her letters.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Welcome to Fuzzyland (Or, an odyssey in youth library services)
They teach you plenty of things in library school. Cataloguing, bibliographic instruction, theories of information, storytelling... lots of stuff.
They forget to mention to Youth Services types that you must also have an intimate acquaintance with gluesticks, foam-board, construction paper, and of course, ninja ducks.
This month at Cherry Hills, we're holding 3rd Degree Thursdays, a creative problem-solving game based on Odyssey of the Mind. (Why? I miss OM. ;p) Today, the problem was to make a monument to something that didn't deserve a monument, using two paper bowls, some string, a bit of modeling clay, some toothpicks, cotton balls, and a couple of small leftover summer reading prizes. Participants had no idea what the question was going to be before they arrived.
May I introduce you to Fuzzyland?
Created on the fly from random materials, by a five year old (the program is kids eight to eighteen, but she came with her sisters), Fuzzyland has a whole social system, and networks of relationships among its inhabitants... which are made out of cotton balls and pom-pom critters, as well as one of our favorite ninja ducks (the unofficial mascots of the Teen Advisory Board).
Maybe you'd like a more traditional monument. Meet Ninja Duck I:
Or The Statue of Cotton Balls:
And our oldest, unsure what to create to monumentalize, went with an abstract sculpture, sure to be a hit on the modern art circuit:
All of this is part of what the library does for kids--we like to offer them oppurtunities to be creative and solve problems on their own, and to give them the materials they need to keep their minds ticking along.
In preschool, we make flags monthly for the countries we "visit" via storytime, and all summer, we have programmers for all ages.
This is one of the best parts of my job as a children's librarian. You can keep track of all of our upcoming programs--for kids and adults--at the website.
They forget to mention to Youth Services types that you must also have an intimate acquaintance with gluesticks, foam-board, construction paper, and of course, ninja ducks.
This month at Cherry Hills, we're holding 3rd Degree Thursdays, a creative problem-solving game based on Odyssey of the Mind. (Why? I miss OM. ;p) Today, the problem was to make a monument to something that didn't deserve a monument, using two paper bowls, some string, a bit of modeling clay, some toothpicks, cotton balls, and a couple of small leftover summer reading prizes. Participants had no idea what the question was going to be before they arrived.
May I introduce you to Fuzzyland?
Created on the fly from random materials, by a five year old (the program is kids eight to eighteen, but she came with her sisters), Fuzzyland has a whole social system, and networks of relationships among its inhabitants... which are made out of cotton balls and pom-pom critters, as well as one of our favorite ninja ducks (the unofficial mascots of the Teen Advisory Board).
Maybe you'd like a more traditional monument. Meet Ninja Duck I:
Or The Statue of Cotton Balls:
And our oldest, unsure what to create to monumentalize, went with an abstract sculpture, sure to be a hit on the modern art circuit:
All of this is part of what the library does for kids--we like to offer them oppurtunities to be creative and solve problems on their own, and to give them the materials they need to keep their minds ticking along.
In preschool, we make flags monthly for the countries we "visit" via storytime, and all summer, we have programmers for all ages.
This is one of the best parts of my job as a children's librarian. You can keep track of all of our upcoming programs--for kids and adults--at the website.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
This Day in Television History
On October 7, 1960 the television series "Route 66" aired its first episode. Each week for four years we were enthralled with the adventures of Buz and Tod as they traveled this iconic American highway in Tod's blue Chevrolet Corvette. According to JR Manning (whose blog has some interesting information on this great series), the first year the car was blue, but was changed to a tan color for the last three years. Interested in Route 66? Check out the library's Armchair Adventures blog as they virtually travel the Mother Road.
Extra credit: Who coined the term Mother Road in the first place?
Poetry Mavens Wanted!
Did you know there are now two poetry discussion groups in your library system? Today we inaugurated the Two Poets program at the Lomas Tramway Library, reading poems by Emily Dickinson & Robinson Jeffers. There is also the Cherry Hills Library Poetry Circle, which just celebrated its first anniversary this summer. Both groups meet quarterly--look for another Two Poets program in January (perhaps discussing Walt Whitman & another poet) & another Poetry Circle in February (mostly likely discussing Robert Lowell & Elizabeth Bishop).When we first started meeting to discuss poetry, I never thought we could actually fill the whole hour and a half allotted. But we consistently do spent the whole session talking, comparing & contrasting two poems by two different poets. Membership has fluctuated--seems like we meet new people each time--but the discussion has always been interesting & insightful. If you are a poetry lover, please consider joining us for one or both of these groups. All are welcome to attend!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Hilary Mantel wins the 2009 Man Booker Prize
I love the Man Booker Prize. I read my first Booker winner, The Bone People by Keri Hulme, in high school. Today one of my favorite authors won the prize, beating out returning favorites including J.M. Coetzee (two time Booker winner & Novel laureate), Sarah Waters (twice shortlisted) & A.S. Byatt (a past winner). Congratulations, Hilary Mantel!
The process for choosing a winner is thus: first, a longlist is announced, chosen by the year's judging panel (7/28/09). That's whittled down to a shortlist (9/8/09). Then, finally, a winner is chosen.
The Longlist
AS Byatt – The Children’s Book
JM Coetzee – Summertime
Adam Foulds – The Quickening Maze
Sarah Hall – How to Paint a Dead Man
Samantha Harvey – The Wilderness
James Lever – Me Cheeta
Hilary Mantel – Wolf Hall
Simon Mawer – The Glass Room
Ed O’Loughlin – Not Untrue & Not Unkind
James Scudamore – Heliopolis
Colm Toibin – Brooklyn
William Trevor – Love and Summer
Sarah Waters – The Little Stranger
The Shortlist
A. S. Byatt - The Children's Book
J. M. Coetzee - Summertime
Adam Foulds - The Quickening Maze
Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall
Simon Mawer - The Glass Room
Sarah Waters - The Little Stranger
The process for choosing a winner is thus: first, a longlist is announced, chosen by the year's judging panel (7/28/09). That's whittled down to a shortlist (9/8/09). Then, finally, a winner is chosen.
The Longlist
AS Byatt – The Children’s Book
JM Coetzee – Summertime
Adam Foulds – The Quickening Maze
Sarah Hall – How to Paint a Dead Man
Samantha Harvey – The Wilderness
James Lever – Me Cheeta
Hilary Mantel – Wolf Hall
Simon Mawer – The Glass Room
Ed O’Loughlin – Not Untrue & Not Unkind
James Scudamore – Heliopolis
Colm Toibin – Brooklyn
William Trevor – Love and Summer
Sarah Waters – The Little Stranger
The Shortlist
A. S. Byatt - The Children's Book
J. M. Coetzee - Summertime
Adam Foulds - The Quickening Maze
Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall
Simon Mawer - The Glass Room
Sarah Waters - The Little Stranger
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