Kent District Library (MI)'s Blog, page 112

KDL Top Ten – 7/12/2013

Take a look at this tasty booklist!  To view 10 of the hottest titles in Grilling at KDL, click on the link to the KDL Top Ten List!  And if you’re looking for more delectable cookbooks, check out our Cookbooks board on Pinterest.

 

Summer Reading on Your Own Terms

Summer Reading @ KDL is in full swing, but don’t forget to Experience Summer Online. Be entered for great prizes by completing categories such as Get Outside, Play or Go Digital. Check out the possibilities and join in by performing activities, attending library programs and reading. For inspiration, here are some fellow KDL patrons who experienced summer on their own terms!

 

“Intruder in the Dust” — A New DVD

Before “To Kill a Mockingbird” there was “Intruder in the Dust,” a story similar in theme to the former movie starring Gregory Peck,  and, in my opinion, just as good a film about the deep South in the middle of the last century. Released by MGM in 1949, and based on a William Faulkner novel of the same name, this modest picture has no major stars in it—which is just fine. It was actually shot in and around Faulkner’s hometown of Oxford, Mississippi, and this gives the film a wonderfully authentic look that lends even more credibility to its themes of courage, prejudice and routine violence.

The story centers on a black man accused of the murder of a white man in a small unnamed southern town.  Young Chick Mallison (played by Claude Jarman, who also starred in The Yearling) who is white, was treated with kindness by the accused while out hunting in the recent past,  and decides to return the favor and goes hunting for clues. Encouraged by his uncle, a lawyer, and helped along the way by an elderly lady with a stubborn streak (and going behind his father’s back, who has gone off to Memphis for business), he does his best to see that justice is done.

In addition to the aforementioned on-site background, there is something just as powerful, and more disturbing, about the film, in its portrayal of the possible violence of a lynching taking place in the town. This is treated with such matter-of-factness it becomes even more chilling—witness the almost silent way that people come in droves to the lovely town square and wait near the old jail and hope for a view of what may or may not be a horrific event.  Faulkner, of course, knew all this first hand as a son of the South, and through the script, written by Ben Maddow, we see both the good and the bad of that time and place—its communal ties, its racial divides and the way people sometimes showed grace under the pressure of a turbulent history.

 

What Every Parent Needs to Know

Summer vacation is in full swing! It’s a time for rest and relaxation, but not always a time for reading. Keep learning alive this summer in your home and encourage your children to sign up for Summer Reading @ KDL. A break from books can lead to struggles in the classroom come fall. Regardless of other activities, the best predictor of summer brain drain or brain gain is whether or not a child reads during the summer.

In her “oldie but goodie” study, Summer Learning and the Effects of Schooling (Academic Press, 1978), Barbara Heyns followed sixth- and seventh-graders in the Atlanta Public Schools through two school years and the summer between. Among the findings of her research:

The number of books read during the summer is consistently related to academic gains.
Children in every income group who read six or more books over the summer gained more in reading achievement than children who did not.
The use of the public library during the summer is more predictive of vocabulary gains than attending summer school.
More than any other public institution, including the schools, the public library contributed to the intellectual growth of children during the summer.

After learning all that, I know I’m going to really encourage my kids to read this summer and also take them to the library. How about you?

 

 

Recipes: Where Are the Pictures? I Need Pictures!

I love to find new recipes to try, but the ones that really catch my eye usually have a picture.  There are some cookbooks that have mostly pictures, but you still have to hunt to find them.  Plus, a lot of the tried-and-true websites don’t have pictures either since they are user-based.  Yes, you can find great recipes, but I need a picture!

This is where Pinterest can help out.  Say you are looking for a new vegetarian recipe.  Just type “vegetarian recipe” in the search box, and all you see are pictures!  Need a chocolate dessert?  (This one will make you drool a bit.)  Just do a quick search, and you have a ton of recipes to browse!  Creating an account is fast and easy and you can save them all to a board in Pinterest rather than printing everything and not being able to find the one you are looking for when you need it.

Happy pinning!

 

Share Your Thoughts

You may have recently received an email from us about filling out an online survey. We are conducting this survey, with the help of EMC Research, about the ways our patrons use their local library branch and their opinions about the library’s collection, services and overall performance. The data we collect will be kept confidential and will only be used to better understand the needs of our patrons.

If you have been randomly chosen to take this scientific opinion survey, we would greatly appreciate your participation. Your opinions will help us continue to offer the best service possible and be one of the most respected library systems in the country.

 

We Never Imagined Buying One of These…

Unanticipated (but humbling) expense of the year: a trophy case for our Service Center lobby, packed already with our Library Journal STAR Library awards, Michigan Quality Council recognition, Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce Excellence in Business EPIC Award and national awards for promotion of our eBook collection, the Write Michigan Short Story Contest and our Local Indie @ KDL collection.

We could not have done it without our dedicated, enthusiastic staff and our undeniably enthusiastic cardholders, who are never shy about letting us know what they would like their libraries to do for them and how we are doing meeting those expectations. Yay everyone!

KDL on WGVU Radio

Each month KDL staff join Shelley Irwin on the WGVU Morning Show to talk about what’s going on at the library. This month, listen to Communications Manager Heidi Nagel talk about Summer Reading @ KDL and all the great resources and programs for teens happening at the library, including:

Underground Music
Photography: Digging beneath the Surface
The Great Quesadilla Taste-Off
Teen Film Festival
Teen Film Workshops
Minecraft Club
Freegal Music Downloads
eBooks & eAudiobooks
Zinio Downloadable Magazines
Recommended Reading for Teens

Enjoy!

Download WGVU7-5-13.mp3

 

 

Englehardt Branch: Extended Hours Saturday

This Saturday, July 13, the Englehardt branch will be open additional hours to serve those attending the Riverwalk Festival in Lowell. Instead of closing at 1:30 PM, the branch will be open from 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM.

KDL is proud to be able to support this special community request. Stop by, cool off and enjoy all the library has to offer!

 

The Fun is Not Over Yet!

If your kids haven’t signed up for Summer Reading @ KDL yet, no worries! The program only takes thirty days to complete (if the child does a reading activity every day), so if they get signed up by Friday, they still have time to earn an amazing assortment of coupons and goodies. Teens and adults get a prize entry for every four books they read, so stop by your local branch and get registered. Summer Reading @ KDL runs through August 10, so time is ticking!

If your kids have already completed their reading log, the fun is not over yet! Check out Experience Summer Online @ KDL. Have loads of fun while earning more chances to win!