Blog Post
Once Upon An Alphabet
by manz
If words make up stories, and letters make up words, then stories are made of letters.
In this menagerie we have stories, made of words, made FOR all the letters.
Once Upon An Alphabet: Short Stories For All the Letters is written and illustrated by the amazing Oliver Jeffers. The picture book has a (cute or charming or funny or silly or weird or dark) short story for each letter of the alphabet, accompanied by quirky and beautiful illustrations. The stories feature some great vocabulary that dances off the page. This book is a real treat for both adults and children who aren't afraid of dark humor. (All the letters have great stories, but I recommend W. Since W is for Whiraffe!)
Blog Post
New at the Art Table!
by manz
The next time you visit the youth area at the downtown branch, check out the CUBEBOTS! That’s right, CUBEBOTS are ready to be manipulated and played with. We also have out bright colored CUBES that can also be twisted into different shapes. CUBE CRAZY!
The CUBEBOT was designed by David Weeks and inspired by the Japanese Shinto Kumi-ki puzzles, these wooden sculptures are a non-traditional take on the toy robot by joining ancient Japanese traditions with modern toys. CUBEBOT can achieve many poses and folds again into a perfect cube. And as for the colorful CUBES - there’s no puzzle to solve. Move the CUBE pieces in many directions to form a colorful structure that you would enjoy playing with. It's playable art!
Blog Post
AADL World Languages Audiobook Collection
by BugsAndSlugs
Did you know the AADL has audiobooks in many languages? If you're learning a new language (or already know a few!), check out some of these titles:
Award Winning Audiobooks:
The Pulitzer Prize winning story, Enrique's Journey (Spanish) by Sonia Nazario
The Harry Potter series in German and French.
Classic Literature:
Of Mice and Men (French) by John Steinbeck
Old Man and the Sea (Chinese) by Ernest Hemingway
For Kids:
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Spanish) by C.S. Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Italian) by Lewis Carroll
For more fiction and nonfiction audiobooks in Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish, browse our World Languages Collection!
Blog Post
Delicious Imagination!
by StoryLaura
It’s time for gingerbread play at the Youth Department Tot Table this month. We’ve got the cookie sheets, spatulas and felt cookies in every shape and size. If it makes you long for true gingerbread deliciousness, check out this recipe inspired by Zingerman's “ginger jump up” cookies. Then burn calories and “run, run, catch me if you can” at the annual Turkey Trot!
Blog Post
Fall fun!
by manz
This week at storytime Ms Amanda featured fall themed picture books and stories! Not Halloween, but FALL! We saw some animals swapping items in The Scarecrow’s Hat, we shook our heads at Anansi the spider as he played tricks on the animals in Anansi and the Talking Melon (I turned it into a talking PUMPKIN for this story!). We also had fun checking out GIANT pumpkins in How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow. And for the cuteness factor we met up with Penguin and Pumpkin on a fall adventure.
The library has all sorts of fun and beautiful fall picture books to suit your fancy. They sure are fun to share with little ones this time of year!
Blog Post
New Youth CDs @ the Library
by annevm
The library has lots of new youth CDs, including the soundtrack of Disney Maleficent. Composed by James Newton Howard, the CD also credits Lana Del Rey. Other new youth CDs at the library include the soundtrack to Muppets Most Wanted and Kidz Bop: Party Pop!. Check them out!
Blog Post
Audiobook for Kids: The Fourteenth Goldfish
by skcramer
The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm offers a fresh, funny, and surprisingly thoughtful take on a classic science fiction premise: a potion to make you young again.
Sixth-grader Ellie’s life with her colorful drama-teacher mom is turned upside-down when her old-fashioned, opinionated grandfather moves in with them. The twist? Her grandfather is a scientist who has uncovered the secret to anti-aging and is now a thirteen-year-old boy! While trying to help her grandfather recover the anti-aging potion from his lab, Ellie finds new friends, develops a growing love for science and a greater understanding of her unconventional family.
I found the audiobook to be a particular treat, with a narrator who not only sounds like a middle-school girl but also delivers lines with such perfect comic timing that I found myself laughing out loud again and again.
Fans of The Water Castle or other science-centered books for girls will definitely want to check it out.
Blog Post
Mustache Madness!
by PattySmith
In the month of November you might notice more men walking around sporting mustaches. No, there isn’t going to be a shortage of razors and shaving cream! Many of these men are taking part in a campaign called Movember. Movember started over 10 years ago in Australia as a way to raise awareness about men’s health. In the past few years the mustache movement has made its way across the world and has become an international campain that has raised $559 million and funded over 800 programs in 21 countries.
But hey, grown men aren’t the only ones allowed to have fun with Movember! Children can participate too by checking out these great books centered around, you got it, MUSTACHES!
Mo’s Mustache by Ben Clanton
Monster Mo's big, beautiful mustache inspires all of his friends to copy his style by growing fabulous mustaches of their own, leaving Mo to wonder how he will continue to distinguish himself.
Mustache Baby by Bridget Heos
When Baby Billy is born with a mustache, his family takes it in stride. They are reassured when he nobly saves the day in imaginary-play sessions as a cowboy or cop and his mustache looks good-guy great. But as time passes, their worst fears are confirmed when little Billy's mustache starts to curl up at the ends in a suspiciously villainous fashion. Sure enough, "Billy's disreputable mustache led him into a life of dreadful crime."
Mustache by Mac Barnett
When extremely good-looking King Duncan builds more and more tributes to his handsome face, neglecting kingdom projects and repairs, his loyal subjects find a mustachioed solution.
Big Bushy Mustache by Gary Soto
In order to look more like his father, Ricky borrows a mustache from a school costume, but when he loses it on the way home his father comes up with a replacement.
Blog Post
At the Art Table: Poppies for Vets!
by manz
For the next few weeks the art table will feature a chance to make Veterans Day cards featuring pretty poppies! We have all the supplies on hand. We have a spot to collect the cards you make and they’ll be delivered to the VA Hospital in Ann Arbor. Feel tree to make yourself a poppy to also take home and put on the fridge!
Why poppies for Veterans Day? This symbol of remembrance was inspired by the poem In Flander’s Fields by John McCrae. The poppy emblem was chosen because of the poppies that bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in WWI.
Want to learn more about Veterans Day? Here are a couple book to look at.
Blog Post
Chillers Author Johnathan Rand to visit AADL!
by manz
Join us Sunday, October 26 from 2-3pm downtown for a visit from local author Johnathan Rand! Rand is the author of the popular children’s chapter book series Michigan Chillers and American Chillers, with titles such as Poltergeists Of Petoskey, Dinosaurs Destroy Detroit and Great Lakes Ghost Ship.
He will talk about how he became a writer and how reading and writing are necessary in life. Books will be will for sale and he’ll be signing books after the event! Come give him a high five and ask him why he writes the books he does.
If you head up north, I recommend a visit to Chillermania! in Indian River. It’s the world headquarters for Rand’s books and a spookyish book store chock full of Rand’s books! It’s a feast for the eyes. I walked in this past spring and had a ton of fun.