Sunday, January 6 | 1:00-3:00 PM | Downtown Library | 4th Floor Meeting Room

Via Skype, cartoonist Dani Jones will tell us about the joys, challenges, and tricks of juggling work as both a comics creator and as a children's book illustrator.

Dani has created and published her own comics stories, My Sister, the Freak, an ongoing webcomic, and Frosty the Gourdman, a Halloween short story comic. She recently wrote and illustrated the picture book, Monsters vs. Kittens for Stan Lee's Kids Universe and has illustrated other picture books including The Best Mariachi in the World, and Elfis, A Christmas Tale.

Join the Forum to get fresh ideas for your next comics or graphic novel creation. Drawing supplies are provided, so drop in to draw, learn, and network with other cartoonists.

Friday January 4, 2013: 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm -- Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

This Friday, January 4, we'll be making an electronic instrument out of commonly available pieces and parts.

For this Maker Music event, the Ann Arbor Hacker-Makers of All Hands Active will be teaching people how use basic circuitry to create their own musical instrument, the Atari Punk Circuit. What's that? An Atari Punk Circuit uses an assortment of basic electronics and two knobs to allow people to create basic two-tone electronic sounds, kind of like those that used to be the soundtrack to the first video games on the Atari video game console.

Do you need to know electronics to come to this event? No, that's why we're having it! Come learn a bit about electricity, circuits, and have some fun trying out making different sounds. After you're finished, take a look at our Music Tools collection, too!

This event is for adults and teens (grade 6 and up).

Wednesday, March 20 | 6:00-8:00pm | Pittsfield Branch | 6th grade- Adult

Make a mini stuffed marshmallow Peeps bunny using felt and hand-sewing techniques! We’ll have all the Peeps-colored felt necessary to make the cutest little Peeps bunnies. Guaranteed to be a fun evening of sewing and chatting. Join us!

For more projects with felt, check out these books.

Mark your calendar for Monday, Jan. 21, when the MLK 2013 Children and Youth Program at U-M will happen from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the U-M Modern Languages Building, 812 E. Washington Street. The program, which is turning 15, will celebrate and commemorate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. Over the years the program has drawn a total of more than 8,000 K-12 students from schools around southeast Michigan, offering them entertainment, fun, creativity and dialogue through storytelling, discussions, group projects, skits, rap poetry, and music. To register for this year's event, click here.

Lay the Favorite (MPAA Rating: R) , Rebecca Hall, Bruce Willis, Vince Vaughn star in this adaptation of Beth Raymer's Lay the favorite: a memoir of gambling who transforms from a stripper in Tallahassee to gambler's assistant in Las Vegas,working for Dink, one of the most successful sports gamblers in the business.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (MPAA Rating: PG-13), yet another adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit : or, There and back again. Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage star in this adventure of Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug.

Jack Reacher (MPAA Rating: PG-13) is based on Lee Child popular thriller series featuring Jack Reacher, a drifter and a former US Army Police major with authority issues. This feature film is adapted from the novel One Shot. The selection of Tom Cruise to play Reacher has been highly controversial, and you don't want to know what I think.

When a gunman takes five lives with six shots, all evidence points to the suspect in custody. On interrogation, the suspect offers up a single note: "Get Jack Reacher!" So begins an extraordinary chase for the truth, pitting Jack Reacher against an unexpected enemy, with a skill for violence and a secret to keep.

Needing no introduction is the highly anticipated release of Les Misérables (MPAA Rating: PG-13) based on Victor Hugo's novel. Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France, it tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice and redemption --- a timeless testament to the survival of the human spirit. Hugh Jackman plays ex-prisoner Jean Valjean, hunted for decades by the ruthless policeman Javert (Russell Crowe) after he breaks parole. When Valjean agrees to care for factory worker Fantine's (Anne Hathaway) young daughter, Cosette (Amanda Seyfried), their lives change forever.

Circle K Logo

Tutoring sessions will resume on Sunday afternoons and Monday and Wednesday evenings on January 13. Homework Help will continue throughout the spring. Please read on for more details about homework help at AADL.

Looking for help with your homework? Look no further than AADL’s Downtown Library. The University of Michigan Chapter of Circle K is once again providing tutoring for students in grades K-12. Stop by the Youth Department Story Corner Mondays and Wednesdays between 4:00 and 8:00 pm and Sundays between 3:00 and 5:00 pm to take advantage of this great service!

AADL also provides access to Brainfuse, an online tutoring service. Live tutors are available from 2:00 -11:00 pm every day!

A Land More Kind Than Home, the title drawn from Thomas Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again is set in Marshall, North Carolina where evil is allowed to disguise as faith.

Narrated alternately by Adelaide Lyle, an aged local midwife, the taciturn County Sheriff Clem Barefield, and young Jesse Hall, our 9 year-old protagonist, as they are drawn into the tragedy that involves Jesse's mute and autistic older brother.

"As lean and spare as a mountain ballad, Wiley Cash's (author website) debut novel resonates perfectly, so much so that it could easily have been expanded to epic proportions. An evocative work about love, fate and redemption". THIS TITLE HAS JUST BEEN PICKED BY LIBRARY JOURNAL AS ONE OF 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2012 !!! Worth a look if you didn't catch it the first time around...

Tom Wright sweeps us up in a tale of lost innocence in his debut What Dies in Summer *

Teenager James Beaudry "Biscuit" is taken in by his grandmother when home life becomes dangerous with his "Uncle" Jack. With his cousin LA (Lee Ann) they look forward to a bucolic Texas summer, until they come across the body of a girl brutally raped and murdered. Jim's recurring vision of the dead girl and the ensuring police investigation put the cousins in harm's way.

"Wright, a practicing psychologist, expertly weaves together a literary tapestry of self-discovery, brutal sadistic violence, custodial battles, and tender, burgeoning sexuality, leaving readers spellbound by a story that delivers on several levels."

Worthy additions to the Southern Gothic genre, and great YA crossovers, they will appeal to those who liked Stephen Wetta's If Jack's in Love, and Tom Franklin's Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter.

* = starred review

Saturday, December 8 | 2:00-4:00 PM | Traverwood Program Room | Grades 6-Adults

Writers: here's your chance to get tips on revision and submitting your work for publication. Dan Wickett, co-founder and executive director of Dzanc Books, discusses what he looks for in submissions; what things automatically put a writer in a hole; and things he's learned about revisions from books that Dzanc has published.

Author, poet, and Pioneer and EMU creative writing teacher Jeff Kass will discuss revisions and what he's learned about submitting work. In April 2011 Dzanc books published Jeff’s book Knuckleheads. There will be plenty of time for Q & A with Dan and Jeff so bring your questions -- whether you are a writer, an aspiring writer, or just curious about the writing process!

This event is held in conjunction with November's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

Brainfuse

The scope of Brainfuse Tutoring available to AADL users has grown since we began subscribing to this service. Brainfuse has on-line learning options that are sure to enhance your study experience. The HelpNow 3.0 upgrade Study Suite offers study tools for an array of Standardized Tests. The interactive Flashbulb will give students access to an extensive library of online flashcard sets in hundreds of subjects. Check out the Test Center for students to practice test themselves in core subjects. Plus there's still the Expert Help you can get from a live tutor from 2:00-11:00 EVERY day except posted holidays. Tutors are available for students from grade school to college. Please take a look at Brainfuse on our website, scroll down & get acquainted with these awesome features!

Tuesday, December 4 | 6:30-8:30pm | Pittsfield | Grades 6-Adult

In this workshop you will create a design, carve the design into a soft linoleum block with the proper tools, and then print the image onto paper or note cards. This is your chance to create something to hang on your wall, or perhaps design a holiday card to send out.

We will supply all the tools necessary, you supply the creativity! If you have something you’d like to print on, or have your own tools, feel free to bring them. Check out some of AADL’s books on block printing for a spark of ideas.

This DIY event is for Grades 6- Adult, and takes place at the Pittsfield Branch on Tuesday, December 4, from 6:30-8:30pm. See you there!