Thursday, June 14 | 6:00-7:30 PM | Traverwood Branch | Program Room

Kick off the summer with our first science program! Make a simple periscope and learn how it works.

Check out this list of Periscope related materials:

Fun with Periscopes

This event is for grades K - 5.

MINECRAFT is the biggest thing to hit cubes since ice! AADL is proud to launch MINECRAFT ANN ARBOR, a Minecraft server for Ann Arbor, by Ann Arbor, and of Ann Arbor! We'll be working together in creative mode not just to make crazy Minecraft stuff, but also to make models of Ann Arbor as of now, 1950, 1900, and 1850, plus who knows what else!

You can reach MINECRAFT ANN ARBOR by pointing your home copy of Minecraft at minecraft.aadl.org ; you can also point your browser to http://minecraft.aadl.org to reach this blog, where we'll organize building projects, talk about server changes, and keep the community going!

Stay tuned for updates, discussion, and big projects.... and for Summer Game players, there will surely be some Summer Game badges and challenges you can only complete inside MINECRAFT ANN ARBOR!

Also, we are working on installing Minecraft on computers at the library, so if you don't have Minecraft, you can come play it at AADL locations without a Minecraft login. So stay tuned for that too!

Thanks for your interest in a blockier side of town, and THANKS FOR PLAYING!

Rick Riordan, who has been called "the god of mythology-minded tween literature," is hard at work finishing the third installment in his five-book Heroes of Olympus series. It will be called The Mark of Athena, and is due out on October 2. You can read the book’s first chapter at the Heroes of Olympus website.

This week, Disney-Hyperion will launch a new Web site, Greeks vs Romans, with the tagline: “Whose camp are you in?” As of Monday morning, the site has an image of a T-shirt, half purple and half orange, with the message "Camp Visits Starting Soon," so check back often, to see what will be revealed.

In the meantime, if you haven't already read or listened to the first 2 books in the series, here's your chance.

Book One: The Lost Hero. We have the book and the BOCD

Book Two: The Son of Neptune. Here's the book, and the BOCD

And if you want to read more about what Rick Riordan is doing these days, click here.

Come to the Pittsfield Branch Library on Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. to make
a card for your mom, grandma and favorite aunt. You can also make a giant tissue paper flower to present with your card. This program is for preschoolers through fifth graders but all ages are welcome. Supplies will be provided.

For materials about mom's special day, click here.

Celebrate Children's Book Week by watching the Magic Carpet Theatre bring some classic children's stories to life. They will be performing at the Downtown Library, in the downstairs multi-purpose room on Thursday, May 10 at 7:00 p.m. Featured stories include Dr. Seuss's The Sneetches and Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.

This is for children in grades K - 5 and their grown-ups.

Whether you're highly ranked or a beginner, you're invited to join us this Sunday, April 15, from 1:00-4:00pm at the Traverwood branch. Chess boards are provided. All ages welcome.
Newly added to the collection is Chess for the Gifted and Busy, or you can check out loads of other books about Chess here.
Two magazine titles with loads of tips and strategies are, Chess Life the World's Most Widely Read Chess Magazine and Chess Life for Kids
Hope to see you Sunday.

It seems everywhere you turn these days you hear or see something about the Titanic. For kids and teens, there are several new books available that look at the legendary disaster in many different ways.

Explore Titanic:Breathtaking New Pictures, Recreated with Digital Technology by Peter Chrisp showcases approximately 125 photos and illustrations in color and black and white, including 12 3D-rendered graphics, to tell the Titanic's story, from its 1911 launching at the Belfast shipyard to its tragic destruction on April 15, 1912 during its maiden Atlantic crossing. There are faithful reproductions of both exterior and interior ship's details, from the Boiler Room and Engine Room far below decks to the luxury passengers' cabins and the ship's grand ballroom.

Titanic Sinks! by Barry Denenberg is a unique combination of fiction and nonfiction. A fictional framework presents the true story of the building and launching of the Titanic. Lavishly designed with authentic period photographs and illustrations throughout, this book immerses you in the era of the Titanic and reminds you why it's still a cultural touchstone a hundred years after its tragic demise.

While unpacking a special collection of Titanic artifacts at the local museum, best friends Tucker and Maya touch a canceled ticket and find themselves transported back to Queenstown, Ireland, where the Titanic is boarding--can they figure out how to save a new friend, and still get back to their own time? Time Voyage is the first book of a four part series, Return to Titanic, by Steve Brezenoff.

The Watch that Ends the Night : Voices from the Titanic by Allan Wolf, for Teens and Adults, is a richly textured novel in verse that recreates the Titanic's ill-fated journey, through the voices of her passengers, crew, ship's rats, and even the iceberg itself. "A masterpiece. Wolf leaves no emotion unplumbed, no area of research uninvestigated, and his voices are so authentic they hurt. Everyone should read it." (Booklist).

Imagine if wearing a vintage dress could whisk you away to the time and place it was last worn. In The Time-Traveling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky, twelve-year-old Louise tries on an evening gown at a vintage sale and finds herself in 1912 aboard the Titanic as the gown's original owner, silent film star Alice Baxter.

Find 37 books about the Titanic for kids here. See 4 Titanic related Teen titles here.

Check out the amazing miniature display in the Youth Department. Thanks to the Ann Arbor Little Gems Miniature Club, you will see tiny treasures, from Snow White’s cottage to a classic bakery with petite goodies. On May 12th at 1 pm, at our Malletts Creek Branch, fourth graders and up are invited to create a magical Woodland Hide-A-Way, with experts from the Miniature Club. There are so many talented miniature artists around! Stop by the glass case Downtown to see the hide-a-way made of bark and stones and moss, that you can make too. It's the one with the elfin figure in the acorn cap! So many possiblities!

Chocolate swamp, lollipop forest, the gumdrop guy . . . do you remember all those places and characters?

Come to the Pittsfield Branch on Tuesday, April 3 sometime between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m and take your turn along the multi-colored path of the Candyland game. You will be the moving game piece. There will be a reward when you make it all the way through.

This is for grades K - 5. Younger children will need their adults with them at all times. There will be excellent photo opportunities!

We will have all kinds of board games here at the Library for you to play as you await your turn through Candyland.

Start Spring Break with a Magic Show!

Let's hope the nice weather holds out through this week when the Ann Arbor Public Schools have Spring Break.
Regardless of the weather, we'll have lots of fun things for kids to do.
We'll start out with a magic show. Ann Arbor's own Jeff Wawrzaszek will bring his new magic show to the Malletts Creek Branch on Monday April 2, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. This is for all ages. Who doesn't love a good magic show?
And Jeff is the best!

Here are some materials to help you try some tricks of your own.