Number one on the list of Amazon Best Sellers in Teen Books is Beautiful Creatures, followed lower on the list by #3 Beautiful Darkness, #8 Beautiful Chaos, and #11 Beautiful Redemption, the final book in the Gothic romance series by Kami Garcia. These books in the Caster Chronicles series seem to be appealing to young people including fans of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight books.

Julia Strachey's slim novella Cheerful Weather for the Wedding (with a new preface by Frances Partridge) has recently been adopted into a feature film, starring no less than Elizabeth McGovern of Downton Abbey fame, for which the period drama has inevitably been compared.

With sharp eye and playful language, Strachey's slim novella, first published in 1932 depicts the upstairs-downstairs activities on Dolly Thatcham's wedding day as her oblivious mother bustles about getting her ready to marry the wrong man. Waylaid by the sulking admirer who lost his chance with her and her own sinking dread, the bride-to-be struggles to reach the altar.

A brilliant, bittersweet comedy which Virginia Woolf observed as being "an eccentric mixture of Katherine Mansfield and E.M. Forster".

Julia Strachey (1901-1979) was born in India to a Civil Servant. Educated in England, she later worked as a model/photographer and in publishing. Her two novels appeared in 1932 and 1951.

Readers might also enjoy other women novelists such as Elizabeth Bowen; Penelope Fitzgerald; and Alice Thomas Ellis, in particular, The Summer House: a trilogy.

Click here for the New York Times review and the official trailer of the movie.

Saturday, February 9 | 10 - 11:30 am | 1 - 2:30 pm | Malletts Creek | Grades 1 - 3

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) presents a classic story followed by a related math session with hands-on activities and a variety of materials. This event is for Grades 1 - 3 accompanied by an adult. You're welcome to come to either the morning session from 10 - 11:30 am or to the afternoon session from 1:00 - 2:30 pm. There is no registration for this event.

"The King's Commissioners," by Aileen Friedman, is a story about a king with so many commissioners, he needs to get organized and count them! Math activities include using the hundreds chart, puzzles, sequencing and counting, and skip counting.

Also, check out these books on counting at the AADL.

In Dana Bate's The Girls' Guide to Love and Supper Clubs *, 26 yr.-old Hannah Sugarman (Cornell, Economics) could hardly keep up as a research assistant in a DC think tank while secretly dreaming of opening up an underground supper club, a recent phenomenon in the foodie world.

When yet another ill-fated dinner with the patrician Prescotts (her live-in boyfriend Adam's parents) goes hopelessly sour, she is unceremoniously dumped and evicted. With mounting pressure from her academically distinguished parents to jump start her lackluster career, and eager to move on, she seizes the chance to do what she loves, and lands at the doorstep of Blake Fischer, a bachelor landlord with a basement apartment for rent.

"Journalist and debut novelist Bate deftly conjures up a witty, resilient heroine, surrounds her with delightful friends and frenemies, and sends them all on a rollicking quest for love and delicious food".

Cheeky, smart, and up-beat (with an implausibly happy ending), it is like sunshine and birdsong on a frigid February day - sure to bring a spring in your step and smile to your face.

Readalikes: Cupid and Diana (finding Mr. Right in DC); The Lost Art of Mixing - a sequel to The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister (where 8 lives mingle and intertwine at a cooking school); and Brian O'Reilly's Angelina's Bachelors : a novel, with food (young Philadelphia widow feeds the neighborhood loners and builds a village); Girl Cook by Hannah McCouch (delicious modern Cinderella story of love, sex, chefs, and the city).

* = Starred review

Roses Are Red, Valentines Are Too!

Come to the Pittsfield Branch Library on Saturday, February 9, 2013 at 11:00 a.m. to make some Valentine cards for the special people in your life.
Moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles . . . everybody likes to get Valentine's Day cards. We'll be making beautiful tissue paper flowers
to go with the cards. This is for preschool - Grade 5 but all are welcome. Supplies will be provided.

You can also make cards for patients at the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and the Veterans Hospital. We'll deliver those cards for you.
If you can't make it to the Saturday program, you can drop off Valentines cards at any AADL location from Feb. 5 - 11.
When making your card, please remember: sign it with your first name and leave it unsealed; do not use glitter, and please do not
include messages about getting well or feeling better - many of the patients are in the hospital for a long time.

For materials about this popular holiday, click here.

Happy Chinese (Lunar) New Year!

This Sunday, February 10 marks another Chinese New Year, a major holiday for millions of people worldwide. Following the lunar calendar, the Chinese New Year is based on solar and lunar movements. Literally translating to the “Spring Festival,” this significant holiday emphasizes good luck and fortune in the coming year. To celebrate, people often travel long distances to see their families and participate in traditional Chinese practices such as enjoying Chinese cooking, watching fireworks, handing out red envelopes with money inside, and decorating with flowers and lanterns. This year is the year of the water snake.

Since this popular holiday lasts for 15 days, you can take part by checking out our Chinese language collection or related materials, such as traditional folk music, interpretive music, Ni Hao, Kai-lan on dvd, and cookbooks in English or Chinese. AADL also has a wealth of materials on this topic in English for children!

For more information, check out this article by BBC or Wikipedia.

Picture Puzzles are lots of fun, and sometimes hard-to-find. Here is a way to find them. We have many many more than you think ....
so keep on "looking" below.....

Several authors are known to create picture puzzle books and we own many of their titles:
Lucy Micklethwait creates an I SPY series that challenges you to find things within classic art paintings.
Walter Wick takes readers on a journey through time to find things in the CAN YOU SEE WHAT I SEE series.
Martin Handford has created the ever-popular WHERE'sWALDO books.
Susannah Leigh creates USBORNE YOUNG PUZZLE books.
Jean Marzollo creates books with a rhymed text that challenges you to find objects hidden in the photographs.

Here's a public list on the Library website of "Picture Puzzles K-5" with more titles to "puzzle over".

Yay for Puzzles !!

Ms. Rachel and Ms. Rebecca performed Inuit Stories in Preschool Storytime this week. The featured stories were Kumak's Fish and "A Whale Of A Tale" from folkloric oral tradition.

Here are more title to take a look at:
Kumak's House - a fun tale that includes detailed illustrations of inuit lifestyle, and family.
Mama, Do You Love Me? - a universal rhyme of love, with lovely illustrations of an Inuit family in the Arctic tundra setting.
Immi's Gift - Immi fishes every day with her family, and each day she pulls up something colorful and different...
Over In The Arctic Where The Cold Wind Blows

... And if you like to learn about Inuit life, Arctic animals, and how Igloos are built ... take a look at these titles for children:
Look Inside An Igloo
Building An Igloo
Arctic
Best Book Of Polar Animals
Polar Lands
Snow Baby: the arctic childhood of Admiral Robert E. Peary's daring daughter

Remember! Only watch polar bears from aFAR !

Thursday, February 21, 2013
Enjoy a meal at the Quarter Bistro and the restaurant will donate 20% of your tab to Washtenaw Literacy. This offer is also available on all take out orders.

Speaking of Washtenaw Literacy, did you know about the tutoring events @ AADL?

Enjoy these library materials on the topic of literacy:
My afternoons with Margueritte
Read, rhyme, and romp : early literacy skills and activities for librarians, teachers, and parents
Teaching adult literacy : principles and practice
Get them talking! : an ESL tutoring guide

AADL has some new Book Clubs to Go kits that are now available. Book Clubs To Go (BCTG) is a service of the AADL that provides local book clubs with the convenience of complete kits for book discussions. Included in each BCTG are 10 copies of the featured book for discussion (or 10 each of two related titles), 1 copy of movie DVD if available, a resource folder containing the following: summary information and reviews of the title(s); author biography; a list of suggested discussion questions and read-alikes; tips for book groups; and evaluation forms so you can let us know what you think of the service.

Three of the new kits are:

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles is a "dramatic historical novel" that takes place in 1938 New York City following the lives of 25 year old Katy and Evelyn.

Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close "is the story of three New York City girlfriends trapped in a seemingly never-ending loop of bridal showers and weddings as nearly all their friends take the plunge."

South of Superior by Michigan author Ellen Airgood follows Madeline from Chicago to the Upper Peninsula where she learns life lessons and begins to repair her relationships.