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Hit a Home Run at the Library!
This month we’re celebrating all things baseball at the Richard Burges library! Summer is the time for baseball, and we’re all excited about the baseball news in El Paso. Take a look at our display case for our own celebration of baseball, and then take a look at these great books and movies about America’s national pasttime:
The Sandlot
Nine boys bond over baseball while enjoying the perfect summer in the early 1960s. This coming-of-age movie is a new classic, and is sure to please both children and adults.
The Natural, Bernard Malamud
The classic 1952 novel is loosely based on the true story of Philadelphia Phillies player Eddie Waitkus. In the novel, Roy Hobbs, a baseball prodigy, must try to return to baseball after a mysterious attack. Check out the film version with Robert Redford!
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, Michael Lewis
This non-fiction book examines how the smaller Oakland A’s team reevaluated statistics to field a team that can compete with much larger, richer teams. Lewis encourages the use of sabermetrics, which is an objective evaluation of baseball, rather than the older, subjective statistics based methods that other teams use. The book was made into a movie starring Brad Pitt in 2011!
Casey at the Bat, Ernest Thayer
First published in 1888, this classic poem narrates the fall of the legendary baseball star Mighty Casey, who is destroyed by his own pride. This version is beautifully illustrated by Christopher Bing, who won a Caldecott Honor award for his work.
Home, Sweet, Home
Our children’s story time hours this week were all about houses. We learned that houses come in lots of shapes and sizes. A home can be made out of a ice, trees, bricks, and even shoes! We read The House that Jack Built by Simms Taback, If the Shoe Fits by Alison Jackson, Bunny Bungalow by Cynthia Rylant, El pandita viene a mi casa by Liu Qian, and Mi Casa by Richard Scarry. You can find more books about homes at the Library. After our stories, we made a house using a paperbag.
There really is no place like home….
Celebrate Banned Book Week
This week many libraries celebrate “Banned Books Week.” This week is remind all of us to exercise our freedom to choose and read what we want to read–not what others want us to read.
From the American Library Association’s (ALA) website:
Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.
The Richard Burges Library is showcasing many books that have been banned in other states and cities. We have a display near the check out desk with these books. Some of the banned titles might surprise you!
For more information, go to the ALA website!
Authors talk about love of books, libraries
You can see many of your favorite authors talk about their love of libraries online! The American Library Association (ALA) website, Our Authors, Our Advocates, features many writers of all kinds of books. Favorite authors such as Judy Blume, Kathy Reichs, David Baldacci and more discuss why libraries remain so important to everyone in America. Check out what your favorite authors think about our libraries!
Booktalk with Susan: Breathers A Zombie’s Lament
Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament by S.G. Browne
In about a week, the Unofficial El Paso Comic Con Day is taking place at 6 of our area libraries. (Read more about that here!) At the Richard Burges Library, we are having actors from the popular zombie TV series, The Walking Dead, appearing at the library. Because of the zombie theme, I’ll be reviewing zombie books this week!
My first pick is Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament. Browne’s zombie book is a lot of fun to read. I first read this book last year, and there are parts that still make me chuckle. In Breathers, the world has changed because zombies walk among us… and they have support groups. For some reason, some people just wake up as zombies. This happens to Andy, and now he lives in his parent’s basement, taking formaldehyde baths and drinking alcohol (for the preservative factor.)
In this society, zombies are reviled and have no rights, but they still have to be cared for by their families. So when Andy and the members of his group meet a surprisingly healthy-looking group of rogue zombies who cook and eat “deer” meat, they are drawn to their interesting and fun life-style. It turns out of course, in the manner of all zombie books, that the “deer” meat is actually… people!
This is very much a dark comedy. It has a lot of funny parts and you actually find yourself rooting for Andy and the other zombies.
Ready to Read
This Tuesday, we started our first Ready to Read program at the Richard Burges Library. For Ready to Read, we sang songs, read stories and watched a fun flannel story-board. We also made a craft. Here’s some more details:
Today during storytime, we read books that contain the number three. As preschoolers explore the world around them, it is important to talk to them about numbers.
We opened with our opening song, The More We Get Together.
The More We Get Together
The more we get together
together, together,
The more we get together,
The happier we’ll be!
‘Cause your friends
Are my friends
And my friends
Are your friends
The more we get together
The happier we’ll be!
We then sang “Three Monkeys,” “Baby Fish” and did the “Freeze Dance.”
We read Rubia and the Three Ososby Susan Elya. This story was a nice twist on the original Goldilocks and the Three Bears! Everyone learned a few Spanish words and Rubia was a sweet girl who helped fix the Bears’ chair and made them a new dinner to make up for the one she ate!
Then we did The Three Silly Girls Grubb by John and Ann Hassett. In this twist on the Three Billy Goats Gruff, three girls get the better of a very mean bully! In the end, he reforms his ways, transformed by a kiss!
Other recommended books are:
Math Man by Terri Daniels
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
The Three Little Dinosaurs by Jim Harris.
We ended storytime with the “Peanut Butter Song” and then made a great puppet craft! See you at the next storytime!
Don’t forget, Bilingual storytime is tomorrow at 11 am!
Author Interview: Richard Denney
Tomorrow, Saturday September 3 at 2pm, author Richard Denney is visiting the Richard Burges library. His books appear in our Young Adult (YA) collection and are also available as eBooks for checkout. He’ll be talking about his recent book Hillserpent Academy, upcoming books and more. This will be his second appearance at our library. I talked with Denney about writing, his work and more. Here’s the interview!
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Susan: When did you first decide you wanted to be a writer?
Richard: I never decided that I was going to be a writer, a story just came to me and begged me to write it. I began writing when I was thirteen. Over a summer I was staying with my grandparents in California & my grandma & I went to the store, and it was there that I found a 300 paged composition book that seemed to be calling my name. That summer I began writing and ever since then I have always written.
I went through a lot attempting to get my first book published and when a small company decided not to take it in, I decided that I didn’t need a big publisher and found self-publishing. I don’t see a difference with self-published books & big published books, they are all the same & they are all written by authors who have taken the time out of their lives to share a story with readers. I love self-publishing, I think that as long as my books are available, it doesn’t matter what type of publishing it is.
If you are penning your first novel or outlining your first book, know that it doesn’t matter if you get picked up by a big publisher, there’s always self-publishing and there are always readers who are searching for a new story to devour. Never give up, you have a light and you should never let it go out.
Susan: What inspired the story: Hillserpent Academy?
Richard: Hillserpent Academy came to me back in 2008. I wrote the first few pages and found that there were a lot of academy type books out in the YA universe, but that didn’t stop me. I believed my book was unique and original and began the journey of writing the entire book. Even though the book is 150 pages it took me until 2011 to finally release it and what inspired the story was my imagination.
I had an idea of a homosexual teen who attends a magical school and has demons he needs to overcome. The story developed on it’s own and took me on a ride. I do have to say that J.K. Rowling’s writing inspired me writing-wise and watching her interviews and reading about the way she wrote, made me love writing even more.
Susan: What draws you to certain types of stories?
Richard: Sometimes stories come out of nowhere, I don’t get drawn or choose a story.
A quote that I’ve made up and is available in my author quotes on Goodreads is:
“Authors do not choose a story to write, the story chooses us.”
And it’s very true. A lot of times authors choose to write a dystopian novel or a high fantasy book, but there are authors like me, whose characters tap them on the shoulder with an open blank document and say “I have a story to tell.” I know that sounds very creepy and odd, but it’s an authors life. well, mine at least.
Susan: The world of self-publishing is very difficult. Can you talk about this a little bit?
Richard: Yes, the world of self-publishing is very difficult and if you have a weak heart it’s best to keep far from it. You have to be a very strong and determined person to self-publish. Because you literally have to do everything on your own. There’s no editor that’s hired for you, or a book cover artist. You have to hire the editor and you have to find a book cover.It’s a very hard business but once you’ve got your first book out, things get easier.
It’s hard but after all the hard work, you’ll be smiling and excited that you finally have your book out. There will be this feeling that I can’t describe, almost like joy but more intense. It’s a feeling that you’ll feel for the rest of your life as an author, it’s the feeling of accomplishment and hard work paid off.
Susan: What do you enjoy most about writing?
Richard: Telling stories to people that enjoy them. The fans have made me feel so happy writing and when they get excited for a new book, the feeling bounces off of them and onto me. I also love creating worlds and characters and lives. As long as there are people who are willing to read my books, I’ll will be here to write them.
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For more information about Richard Denney, visit his sites. And don’t forget that you can read two of his books online by checking out the digital titles from our library! Hillserpent Academy & A Girl’s Guide to Falling in Love with a Zombie can be checked out using your library card online. You can also request physical copies at our libraries!
Friends of the Northeast Library
As many of our readers may know, the Friends of the Library is no longer at their old location. However, the Friends are still selling gently used books only now you can buy them right at the Richard Burges Library itself!
Every Friday from 1 to 4 pm the Friends sell books inside the Richard Burges Library on 9600 Dyer Street. The prices are great and there is a huge selection of Bestsellers, children’s books and more! All profits benefit the library and its programs directly.
Coming up next weekend, on August 26 and 27, the sale is even bigger! Friday hours are the same, but the sale continues on Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm. Bring a little extra spending cash, buy some great books and help support your library!
Booktalk with Susan: Morpheus Road: The Light
Morpheus Road: The Light by D.J. MacHale
If you’re looking for a good summer read, pick up Morpheus Road: The Light by D.J. MacHale. I couldn’t put this book down. The action starts fast and never lets up. The mystery in the story is creepy, the characters are likable and the evil spirits are downright nasty.
In the beginning, we see best friends, Marshall Seaver and Coop, trying to decide how to spend their summer vacation. The two are growing apart and when Coop is forced to go with his family to their cabin on the lake, Marshall thinks he’s in for a terrible summer. But then Coop disappears and after Marshall breaks an artifact his mother had given him, strange hauntings occur.
The action never lets up and gets downright spooky at times. Marshall teams up with Coop’s snobby sister, Sydney, to find Coop. Surprisingly, the two make excellent sleuths as they follow other-worldly clues to Coop’s whereabouts. Possession, illusions and a very creepy creature known as Gravedigger seem to follow them everywhere.
I couldn’t put this book down. It’s wonderful! Check out your copy today for some awesome summer reading!
June is LGBT Pride Month
June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride month. The library is a safe place for everyone to find information about any topic. It’s also a place where you can find yourself or your own life experience in a book that is both entertaining and useful.
Here are a list of some books that you may enjoy that have LGBT themes:
Transition by Chaz Bono: The son of Cher and Sonny Bono describes being transgender and how it changed his life. Brand new book!
Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez: This fictional story for young adults treats the theme of bisexuality with candor and respect. New!
Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult: Dramatic story of love, tolerance and family. Brand new!
Boys like Us: Gay writers tell their own personal, coming-out stories. Non-fiction.
Let’s Get this Straight by Tina Fakhrid-Deen with COLAGE: This book is a great help to children and teens who have LGBT parents. Advice and help from others who have had similiar experiences. Non-fiction.
This year, the President gave a national proclomation about LGBT month that you can read here . For even more reading check out the American Library Association’s Stonewall Awards list which has awards for adults, non-fiction and children’s LGBT books. The Lambda Literary Awards also has excellent books to choose from.
