GRAND OPENING!!

Our Grand Opening is this Saturday, May 24, 2008 beginning at 10 am. We will have guided tours, face painting, StoryTimes, a moonwalk, good food, balloons, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Amelia Bedelia, a fire truck, and doorprizes. Did I mention that all of this is free? The event will culminate at 1:00 pm with a speech given by our keynote speaker, Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle.

We can't wait to see you there!

Author Spotlight: Mary Pope Osborne

Mary Pope Osborne is the author of the beloved Magic Tree House series. The series follows Jack and Annie, a time-traveling brother and sister team from Frog Creek, Pennsylvania as they help Merlin the Magician. Jack and Annie complete missions that save the world and keep history on track!

Ms. Osborne's series now boasts 38 titles but now she can add another feather to her cap - Magic Tree House: The Musical! That's right, there's a show and it is visiting Georgia in April of 2009. We hope you will stop by and check out some MTH books and enjoy Jack and Annie's adventures as much as we have!

Happy Birthday!

Today we celebrate the birthday of Mr. L. Frank Baum. He is best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as well as thirteen sequels. Baum was born in New York in 1856 and eventually married Maud Gage, later dying in 1919. We enjoy The Wizard of Oz in all forms of media, from books, to movies, to theatre, to music. Happy Birthday Mr. Baum!

Click on the photo to be taken to our catalog.

This Day in Georgia History

In 1879, Atlanta's first telephone exchange opened in the Kimball House with a total of ten telephones connected to the hotel switchboard.

Children's Book Week

In honor of Children's Book Week, I have consulted with the very best in children's literature: the Spout Springs Youth Services librarians. Here are some recommended reads sure to tantalize your child's (or youth's) reading interests.

Children's Picks

Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes.

Any child who has yearned for anything will understand how much Kitten wants that elusive bowl of milk. Readers will giggle as she tries to lick the faraway moon and gets a bug on her tongue, or leaps to catch it and falls down the stairs. In an effective refrain, the narrator repeats, "Still, there was the little bowl of milk, just waiting." The winning combination here is the simplicity and humor of the story, paired with gorgeous black-and-white illustrations with thick black lines (mirrored by the thick bold sans-serif font) and shades of grey that are as luminous as a moonlit night should be. Full-moon circles and ovals appear throughout the design: white circle full moons on the endpapers, elliptical flowers by the porch, white circles of firefly light, oval pads on Kitten's paws, and her big round eyes (especially when surprised and soaking wet). Children will love Kitten's quest and ensuing comedy of errors, but what they will love even more is that there's an actual bowl of milk waiting on the porch for Kitten. (courtesy Amazon.com)

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

Where the Wild Things Are is one of those truly rare books that can be enjoyed equally by a child and a grown-up. If you disagree, then it's been too long since you've attended a wild rumpus. Max dons his wolf suit in pursuit of some mischief and gets sent to bed without supper. Fortuitously, a forest grows in his room, allowing his wild rampage to continue unimpaired. Sendak's color illustrations (perhaps his finest) are beautiful, and each turn of the page brings the discovery of a new wonder.
The wild things--with their mismatched parts and giant eyes--manage somehow to be scary-looking without ever really being scary; at times they're downright hilarious. Sendak's defiantly run-on sentences--one of his trademarks--lend the perfect touch of stream of consciousness to the tale, which floats between the land of dreams and a child's imagination.
This Sendak classic is more fun than you've ever had in a wolf suit, and it manages to reaffirm the notion that there's no place like home. (courtesy Amazon.com)

Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg

In this engaging, interactive book for the very young, familiar nursery-rhyme characters such as Mother Hubbard and Baby Bunting sneak their way into the gentle drawings. Even young children who might not know all the fairy-tale stars can find them lurking in the cupboard, on the stairs, or deep in the woods. In the happy finale, the whole cast meets up for plum pie in the sun, where the little one on your lap will gleefully find everyone. An American Library Association Notable Book.

Juvenile Picks

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.

Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo's undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo's dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney.

Boys don’t keep diaries—or do they? The launch of an exciting and innovatively illustrated new series narrated by an unforgettable kid every family can relate to. It’s a new school year, and Greg Heffley finds himself thrust into middle school, where undersized weaklings share the hallways with kids who are taller, meaner, and already shaving. The hazards of growing up before you’re ready are uniquely revealed through words and drawings as Greg records them in his diary. In book one of this debut series, Greg is happy to have Rowley, his sidekick, along for the ride. But when Rowley’s star starts to rise, Greg tries to use his best friend’s newfound popularity to his own advantage, kicking off a chain of events that will test their friendship in hilarious fashion. Author/illustrator Jeff Kinney recalls the growing pains of school life and introduces a new kind of hero who epitomizes the challenges of being a kid. As Greg says in his diary, “Just don’t expect me to be all ‘Dear Diary’ this and ‘Dear Diary’ that.” Luckily for us, what Greg Heffley says he won’t do and what he actually does are two very different things.

Black Potatoes: The Story of the Irish Famine, 1845-1850 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

In 1845, a disaster struck Ireland. Overnight, a mysterious blight attacked the potato crops, turning the potatoes black and destroying the only real food of nearly six million people. Over the next five years, the blight attacked again and again. These years are known today as the Great Irish Famine, a time when one million people died from starvation and disease and two million more fled their homeland. Black Potatoes is the compelling story of men, women, and children who defied landlords and searched empty fields for scraps of harvested vegetables and edible weeds to eat, who walked several miles each day to hard-labor jobs for meager wages and to reach soup kitchens, and who committed crimes just to be sent to jail, where they were assured of a meal. It's the story of children and adults who suffered from starvation, disease, and the loss of family and friends, as well as those who died. Illustrated with black and white engravings, it's also the story of the heroes among the Irish people and how they held on to hope.

Young Adult Picks

Gossamer by Lois Lowry

Littlest One is a tiny creature slowly learning her job of giving dreams to humans. Each night she and her teacher, Thin Elderly, visit an old woman’s home where she softly touches beloved objects, gathering happy memories, and drops of old scents and sounds. Littlest One pieces these bits together and presents them to her sleeping human in the form of pleasant dreams. But the dreaded Sinisteeds, dark fearsome creatures that plague their victims with nightmares, are always at work against the dreamgivers. When the old woman takes in John, an angry foster child with a troubled past, the Sinisteeds go after him with their horrifying nightmares. Can Littlest One, and her touch light as gossamer, protect John’s heart and soul from the nightmare of his dark past?

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king's priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. In a year's time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from among the girls of the village. The king's ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess. Miri soon finds herself confronted with a harsh academy mistress, bitter competition among the girls, and her own conflicting desires to be chosen and win the heart of her childhood best friend. But when bandits seek out the academy to kidnap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls together and use a power unique to the mountain dwellers to save herself and her classmates.

The Arrival by Shaun Tan (graphic novel)

The Arrival proves a beautiful, compelling piece of art, in both content and form. Tan has previously produced a small body of off-kilter, frequently haunting stories of children trapped in surreal industrial landscapes. Here, he has distilled his themes and aesthetic into a silent, fantastical masterpiece. A lone immigrant leaves his family and journeys to a new world, both bizarre and awesome, finding struggle and dehumanizing industry but also friendship and a new life. Tan infuses this simple, universal narrative with vibrant, resonating life through confident mastery of sequential art forms and conventions. Strong visual metaphors convey personal longing, political suppression, and totalitarian control; imaginative use of panel size and shape powerfully depicts sensations and ideas as diverse as interminable waiting, awe-inspiring majesty, and forlorn memories; delicate alterations in light and color saturate the pages with a sense of time and place. Soft brushstrokes and grand Art Deco–style architecture evoke a time long ago, but the story's immediacy and fantasy elements will appeal even to readers younger than the target audience, though they may miss many of the complexities. Filled with subtlety and grandeur, the book is a unique work that not only fulfills but also expands the potential of its form.

Why HCLS is so Cool

So I must say that I am ecstatic. I am currently in the process of purchasing a new home computer and decided to see what Consumer Reports had to say about the newest models. Alas, I do not subscribe to this particular magazine and thus cannot logon to their website. However, I did not despair for I knew that our lovely library system does subscribe to CR and that anything I needed to find, I would be able to locate in the Spout Springs Branch Reading Room. Here you will see just a portion of our offerings:

Readers may peruse these volumes at their leisure in our super-comfy chairs:

Please don't forget May 24th is our GRAND OPENING!!!