Saturday, March 2 | 1-2:00pm | Downtown Multi-Purpose Room | Grades K-5 with an adult

March 1 is Read Across America Day! "Now in its 16th year, this year-round program focuses on motivating children and teens to read through events, partnerships, and reading resources." It's no coincidence that this special day happens around March 2 each year... Because that day is author Dr. Seuss' birthday!

We'll be celebrating the magic of reading by making Seuss character puppets. We've got all the supplies for the kids to make Cat in the Hat and/or Thing 1 and Thing 2 puppets. As always, it's a great idea to catch silly spirit by curling up with some of your favorite Dr. Seuss stories.

Monday, February 18 | 6:30pm-8:30pm | Pittsfield branch | For Grade 6 - Adult

Join us for an evening of making decorative pins and hair clips out of felt and other embellishments. You’ll cut out your shapes, jazz them up, and sew and glue them into place. All materials will be provided, just bring your creativity!

For more fun with felt, check out this list of books.

Four new Book Clubs to Go titles will be available soon! Follow the title links below to jump on the waiting list.

In Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, the best-selling author of Blink identifies the qualities of successful people, posing theories about the cultural, family, and idiosyncratic factors that shape high achievers, in a resource that covers such topics as the secrets of software billionaires, why certain cultures are associated with better academic performance, and why the Beatles earned their fame.

We the Animals by Justin Torres is a short novel that follows three brothers who tear their way through childhood -- smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, and tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Life in this family is fierce and absorbing, full of chaos and heartbreak and the euphoria of belonging completely to one another.

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward: Enduring a hardscrabble existence as the children of alcoholic and absent parents, four siblings from a coastal Mississippi town prepare their meager stores for the arrival of Hurricane Katrina while struggling with such challenges as a teen pregnancy and a dying litter of prize pups.

The Submission by Amy Waldman: When a Muslim architect wins a blind contest to design a Ground Zero Memorial, a city of eleven million people takes notice. Waldman, a former bureau chief for the New York Times, explores a diversity of viewpoints around this fictional event, bringing in politicians, businessmen, journalists, activists, and normal people whose lives -- whether by happenstance, choice, or even due to their country of origin -- get caught up in the controversy.

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.

Monday, February 18 | 1 - 2 pm | Downtown Library Multi-Purpose Room | Preschool to Grade 3

Make a simple, but snazzy, snowman bookmark out of construction paper, beads, decorative punch out designs, and twine. Also, learn how to make a unique, 6-point, paper snowflake that you can use to create a beautiful winter scene.

The AADL has crafting books of all kinds for kids!

Thursday, February 21 | 10 - 11 am | Downtown Library Multi-Purpose Room | Preschool - Grade 5

Harpbeat's harpist, vocalist, and percussionist Donna Novack takes you on a magical world tour and explores the geography, culture, language, and music of Africa. Featured languages include Swahili and Zulu.

Travel across the "Middle Passage" to the West Indies. Take a ride on the Underground Railroad and arrive "dancin" in Motown. Learn how African musical styles -- call & response, work songs, spirituals and more, have revolutionized American music. Martin Luther King, Jr. is featured in Harpbeat's original "I Have A Dream," song, which is accompanied by simple sign language.

Harpbeat! recordings and Donna's original songs have won many national awards. The AADL has the Harpbeat! CDs Around the world from A to Z as well as Hopes & Dreams & Rainbows for checkout.

Denise Owens will lead the DANCING BABIES Program @ Malletts Creek Library on Saturday Feb 16, 2013 from 10:00- 10:40 am.
Denise leads Kindermusik Classes in the Ann Arbor area, and she will have her information available at the program.
DANCING BABIES is a music and motion program for children 0 to 5 years, with their adults.

If you want more MUSIC and MOTION with your kids ... try these:
A Family Album by Verve Pipe.
15th anniversary collection : celebrating 15 years of the best in children's music packed with worldly classics.
Jim Gill Presents Music Play For Folks Of All Stripes
It's Time To Get Up!: Music For Kids Of All Ages
Kid's Dance Party: a Salute To Highschool Musical
Dinostory: The Ultimate Dinosaur Rock Opera!
Dance Along
Exercise Party
... so push back the coffee table ... roll up the rug ... and let the dance begin!

Wednesday, February 20 | 1 - 2 pm | Downtown Library Multi-Purpose Room | Grade 3 - Adult

Washi tape is a popular, decorative, Japanese paper tape used in craft projects. We have a variety of colors and patterns of washi tape, along with various colors of card stock and other patterned paper available for you to make greeting card images and other inspired crafts.

If you have never heard of washi tape, check out this Pinterest pinboard for great project ideas. You could also bring an item from home to decorate, and feel free to bring a your own roll(s) of washi tape to use along with ours to create your greeting card, if you like!

This event is for youth (Grade 3 and up), teens, and adults.

Boy21 is a novel about basketball and so much more, encompassing male friendship, poverty, the Irish mob, grief, and love. I highly recommend this fast read by Matthew Quick, who became one of my favorite teen authors with his 2010 book Sorta Like a Rock Star.

Quick's latest novel, published in 2012, opens in ugly, tough Bellmont, Pennsylvania, where quiet, obedient Finley lives with his wheelchair-bound grandfather and widowed father. Finley -- whose childhood is a mystery until late in the book -- is flourishing as the only white kid on the high school basketball team. When the coach asks him to mentor a hot new -- and very mysterious -- player from California, Finley does, but suddenly luck and life seem to turn against him and toward the new guy. Nonetheless, Finley continues to support his friend, "Boy21," and their friendship grows, until Finley's girlfriend Erin is injured and Finley can't stand it anymore.

This book offers strong characters, action, dialogue, and -- hard to believe with all the bad luck going around -- a semi-happy, if old-fashioned ending. Particularly appealing to me were the threads of responsibility, loyalty and friendship among two extraordinary young men.

This is Not My Hat is a clever, gorgeous picture book, a 2013 Caldecott Medal book, and a must-read for anyone connected with children in preschool through first grade and beyond. Jon Klassen repeats the theme from his 2011 bestseller I Want My Hat Back and adds a smart twist. The story opens with the memorable lines "This hat is not mine. I just stole it," spoken by a brave little fish who has lifted a blue bowler hat from a big sleeping fish. Little fish swims quietly to a hiding place, not knowing -- but we know -- that the big fish is chasing him. When the two fish vanish into seaweed, the words stop, and big fish reemerges with the blue hat on his head. The story is simple and works beautifully.

A six-year-old Amazon reviewer echoes what many people, young and older, are saying about this gem of a book: "I liked the story and I liked the big fish. The bubbles create movement. The little fish was bad and the big fish was just a big fish. You don't steal from a big fish."

Kate Cross opens her Clockwork Agents series with Heart of Brass (2012), and quickly follows with Touch of Steel * (2013).

In Heart, set in 1898 London, Lady Arden Grey is an undercover agent for one of the most powerful organizations of this steam powered world - the Wardens of the Realm, a group with extraordinary abilities, dedicated to protecting England against evil.

Her husband and fellow agent Lucas Grey, Earl Huntley disappeared during a secret mission. Now, Arden is being stalked by an assassin working for their rival - The Company who is none other than Luke.

"Cross has imagined a fascinating world of science in Victorian England. Her characters are three-dimensional and sympathetic; the devices (including the first vibrator) add punch to an already rich love story. Inventive and extremely clever dialog and situations make this series debut an enthralling read".

In Touch, reeling from her brother's death, American spy Claire Brooks has vowed revenge on the member of The Company who she believes to be responsible: Stanton Howard. But when she chases the man to London, Claire is captured by the Wardens of the Realm and placed in the custody of the Earl of Wolfred, the dashing Alistair Payne.

Seeing the prospect of retribution slipping away, Claire convinces Alistair that she has defected and will help him take down The Company. As they travel via steam liner, Claire and Alistair must pretend to be engaged, neither could deny the growing attraction between them.

Kate Cross also writes as Kathryn Smith. Writing steampunk allows her to combine her love of fashion, history and science fiction.

For fans of The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook (A Novel of the Iron Seas).

*= starred review