100th Anniversary of the Titanic

Today marks the 100-year anniversary of the day the Titanic set sail.

It left from Southampton, England on April 10, 1912 and made stops in Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, Ireland before heading westwards over the Atlantic to New York. Four days along the in the big journey, on April 14, Titanic hit an iceberg at 11:40pm. Over the next 2½ hours, the ship gradually filled with water and at 2:20am on April 15, it broke up and sank, bow-first, with over 1000 people still on board, not rescued.

Since then, we have remembered this tragedy with movies, documentaries, books, and even fictional stories. Take a look at a few from our collection:

Titanic: Voices From The Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson

SOS Titanic by Eve Bunting

Titanic Sinks! by Barry Denenberg

Explore Titanic: Breathtaking New Pictures, Recreated With Digital Technology by Peter Chrisp

Titanic by Simon Adams

Kaspar The Titanic Cat by Michael Morpurgo

Titanic: The Long Night by Diane Hoh

Titanic: April 14, 1912 by K. Duey and K.A. Bale

882½ Amazing Answers to Your Questions About the Titanic by Hugh Brewster and Laurie Coulter

Titanic Crossing by Barbara Williams

Unsinkable by Gordon Korman

National Poetry Month

So, I know that yesterday I posted about it being National Humor Month, but April is a really exciting month for librarians (and all books-lovers!) because it's also National Poetry Month!

According to Poets.org, National Poetry Month was established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets. "The concept is to widen the attention of individuals and the media—to the art of poetry, to living poets, to our complex poetic heritage, and to poetry books and journals of wide aesthetic range and concern."

Familiarize yourself with some new poetry this month. Here are a few book ideas to get you started:

Poetry Speaks: Who I Am edited by Elise Paschen

Something Permanent photographs by Walker Evans, poetry by Cynthia Rylant

The Pain Tree: And Other Teenage Angst-Ridden Poetry collected and illustrated by Esther Pearl Watson and Mark Todd

Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature's Survivors by Joyce Sidman, illustrations by Beckie Prange

Hour of Freedom: American History in Poetry compiled by Milton Meltzer, illustrations by Marc Nadel

It's a Woman's World: A Century of Women's Voices in Poetry edited by Neil Philip

My Name is Jason, Mine Too: Our Story, Our Way by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin

Humor Month!

April is National Humor Month! And who doesn't like to laugh? National Humor Month was founded in 1976 by best-selling humorist Larry Wilde, Director of The Carmel Institute of Humor. It is designed to bring awareness to the joy and therapeutic value of laughter!

So why not have yourself a good laugh? Here are some funny books you might want to try reading:

Fat Vampire: A Never Coming of Age Story by Adam Rex

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Bras & Broomsticks by Sarah Mlynowski

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Beat The Band by Don Calame

Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce

The Big Splash by Jack D. Ferraiolo

International Children's Book Day

Since 1967, International Children's Book Day (ICBD) has been celebrated on April 2nd, on Hans Christian Andersen's birthday. It's a day to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children's and teen's books.

The philosophy behind International Children's Book Day 2012 is that a story can be passed down through generations and preserved for years and years, and across multiple cultures.

"When we read, tell or listen to stories out loud, we’re also continuing an ancient ritual that has played a fundamental role in the history of civilization: creating community. Cultures, past eras and generations come together around these stories to tell us that we are all one, the Japanese, Germans, and Mexicans; those that lived in the seventeenth century and us today, reading our stories on the Internet; grandparents, parents and children. Stories fulfill all human beings in the same way because, despite our enormous differences, we are all, deep down, the stories’ protagonists."

Here are some stories, in English, that were originally told in other languages. Why not check one out, and get yourself connected to another time and place?

A Time of Miracles by Anne-Laure Bondoux

Soldier Bear by Bibi Dumon Tak

A Faraway Island by Annika Thor

The Lily Pond by Annika Thor (This is the sequel to A Faraway Island.)

Departure Time by Truus Matti

Nothing by Janne Teller

Eidi by Bodil Bredsdorff

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi

Moribito II : Guardian of the Darkness by Nahoko Uehashi (This is the sequel to Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit.)

Tiger Moon by Antonia Michaelis

For more international books, check out information on Batchelder Award Winners. The Batchelder Award is given to the most outstanding children’s book originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States, and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States. Click her for a list of winners of this award from 1968-present.

Happy Hunger Games Day!

Has anyone seen The Hunger Games yet? How did it compare to the book? Was it too scary for little kids? I'm seeing it tonight at 9:00 pm and I can't wait!

While you wait for your chance to see the much-awaited movie, why not play Hunger Games games!?

Scholastic has created two of these: The first is called "Trial By Fire," where you can find out if you're ready for the Hunger Games and test your abilities to see if you'd be able to survive the real thing. The next is called "Tribute Trials," where you can see if you can survive being in an arena like the one in the Hunger Games, then try to discover how you might improve your chances.

Click here to play!

And let me know when you've seen the movie!

Waiting for the Hunger Games...

With the Hunger Games movie coming out in just THREE days, Figment.com has created a few funny charts to keep us entertained while we wait for the big night.
Click here for the rest of the Hunger Games related charts and graphs.

It's almost here! And if you haven't seen it yet, get yourself pumped up with this trailer:


May the odds be ever in your favor!

A Wrinkle In Time's 50th Anniversary

I just found out from YALSA's The Hub that this year is the 50th anniversary of one of my favorite books, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time!

As one of the earliest books with a female heroine, A Wrinkle In Time is not only a classic story but kind of a ground breaker for women!

Meg Murry, our protagonist, is a regular girl... not too pretty, not too cool, and totally anxious, fussy, and short-tempered. But it's this collection of faults that (a) get her the popular boy in school and (b) ultimately save everyone she cares about.

A Wrinkle in Time, however, almost wasn't published! The publishers had a hard time determining just who this book was for. They felt it would be too difficult for children to read but with all children characters, it wouldn't interest adults. Many also didn't like how L'Engle dealt overtly with the idea of good and evil.

But eventually (luckily) A Wrinkle in Time was published and thank goodness it was! Even 50 years later, it's still going strong as a popular favorite!

Put a hold on A Wrinkle in Time if you've never read it before (and even if you have!) and, for more A Wrinkle in Time fun, check out a few book trailers below: