Press enter after choosing selection
Graphic for events post

Blog Post

December is Write a Friend Month

by yugure

In the age of texting, Twitter, and email, letter-writing has become a lost art. Rediscover it by writing a heartfelt-note to distant family and friends on Letter Writing Day on December 7, during Write a Friend Month!

Learn how to compose a well-crafted letter with The Right Letter!: How to Communicate Effectively in a Busy World, or spruce up your grammar with It was the Best of Sentences, It was the Worst of Sentences. For teaching children the art of writing, try How to Write a Letter or How to Write Letters and Email.

If you want to get real fancy, how about trying your hand at calligraphy?

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

Red Planet Day - November 28th

by yugure

Did you know that November 28th is Red Planet Day? Spacecraft Mariner 4 launched on November 28, 1964, and during its eight-month voyage it collected the first ever up-close images of Mars!

Exciting developments from the Mars rover "Curiosity" mission are to be announced in December, so now is a great time to read up on the fourth planet from the sun. From our catalog, check out The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must for adults, Mars for children, or the documentary Can We Make It To Mars?, part of the PBS Nova scienceNOW series. Just for fun, try the Edgar Rice Burroughs' science fiction series John Carter of Mars.

Find out more about Mars by visiting NASA's Mars Exploration Program website.

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

It was the Night Before Thanksgiving

by iralax

It was the day before Thanksgiving, and I was intent on a search, for a free Thanksgiving Dinner at the Ypsilanti Free Methodist Church. The flyer tacked to the telephone pole did assert "Come enjoy turkey and the the fixings, including pie for dessert! At 1800 Packard Rd., 4:30-6:30 pm, across from Ypsilanti High athletic fields, the feast will commence. So if you are planning to join us Nov. 21 on Wednesday, call 734-482-2055 to reserve a seat for the number attending. Happy Holidays!

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

Make Your Own Cast Fossil

by Caser

Wednesday, October 17 -- 7-8pm -- Pittsfield -- Grades K-5

National Fossil Day is October 17! 'Rock' out with us and make your own cast fossil out of clay and plaster of paris while exploring a process that has created fossils in sedimentary rock for billions of years. We will also have fossils found in Michigan on display.

Fossils in the earth can be formed out of plants, or invertebrates like mollusks and arthropods, or vertebrates like dinosaurs and woolly mammoths. Fossils are found in different forms too. Sometimes they are turned to stone or preserved in amber, and other times they leave an imprint in the earth that is filled in by different minerals, forming a cast. We will replicate the process of creating cast fossils.

You're welcome to bring a small, hard item that can fit in the palm of your hand -- for example, a dinosaur toy or a sea shell -- or you can use the objects the library provides. Looking for more information on fossils? Check out these great books and videos from the AADL collection.

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

I Got A Rock

by Professor Plum

It's the most wonderful time of the year: Halloween season!

There is something fun for everyone to do in the next four weeks leading up to The Big Day, whether you're headed to a haunted attraction, watching the leaves change color, or seeing a spooky movie or two. But no matter what, be sure to fit in a viewing of It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown before the month is up! The library carries it on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

Make Valentine's Day Brighter!

by evelyn

This Valentine's Day, you can send a card to patients at the Veterans Hospital and C.S. Mott Children's Hospital! Make or buy a Valentine's Day card, fill it out, and drop it off at any AADL location from February 5 - 11. You can specify which hospital or let AADL staff decide. We will make sure it arrives safely!

Please avoid glitter and leave the envelope unsealed. Because many of the patients at these hospitals are long term, please do not include any messages about getting well or feeling better.

Thank you for making this Valentine's Day a little better for children and veterans!

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

Comfort & Joy

by muffy

British journalist India Knight's semi-biographical novel Comfort and Joy (2011) is "clearly warm-hearted holiday fun".

Christmas is the most important holiday for Clara Dunphy (a follow-up to My Life on a Plate, 2000). She demands nothing short of "perfect" for her family and friends, never mind family these days means 2 ex-husbands, 3 children, sisters, parents, in-laws, out-laws and sundry hangers-on. So on a frantic and rainy Dec. 23, after fighting the crowds on Oxford Street, a giant cocktail in the swanky hotel bar sounds like just the reward she deserves before heading home to a houseful of guests. But then a handsome stranger asks her to stay for another drink. Oh well, all good intentions...

As we follows Clara, "a witty, blackly funny everywoman" through three successive Christmases, we witness changing roles and shifting family dynamics. Well-paced dialogue and amusing and insightful anecdotes captures the spirit of the season while giving us a glimpse into one modern family's struggle with children, marital turmoil, and materialism.

In Kristin Hannah's Comfort & Joy (2005), recently divorced and having no family of her own, Joy Candellaro is beginning to dream of a new life with widower Daniel O'Shea and his son, Bobby, until a fateful Christmas Eve forces her to make a painful choice. A modern-day fairy tale of a woman who gets a miraculous chance at happiness.

I first read Jim Grimsley's memorable and moving Comfort & Joy in 1999. It is still one my favorite to revisit at Christmas time.

Ford McKinney is a devastatingly handsome, successful doctor, raised in an old Savannah family among good breeding and money. His longtime boyfriend, Dan Crell, is a shy hospital administrator with a painful childhood past. When the holidays arrive, they decide it's time to go home together. But the depth of their commitment is tested when Ford's parents cannot reconcile themselves to their son's choices. "Grimsley triumphs in (this) novel in which two unlikely lovers must reconcile what is expected of them with what they know in their hearts is right."

Wishing you comfort and joy this holiday season...

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

Holiday Reminders You Don't Usually Think Of: When Will They Pick Up My Garbage?

by Debbie G.

There are checklists for gifts, for meals, for trips, but the one we rarely remember until the bins are full and the tree has more needles on the floor than on the branches is the exciting and much-anticipated Solid Waste Holiday Checklist from the City of Ann Arbor.

Makes you all warm and fuzzy just reading the title. And this year there is something to really knock the socks off the mantle: Single-family Ann Arbor residents can get rewards for holiday recycling by signing up with Recyclebank.

Trash and recycling will not be picked up on Monday, December 26, 2011, or Monday, January 2, 2012, due to holiday observances. Solid waste collections will be delayed one day both weeks and occur Tuesday through Saturday. Undecorated holiday trees may be dropped off—free and 24/7—in the parking lot adjacent to the Drop-Off Station at 2950 E. Ellsworth starting December 15 through January 31, 2012.

Happy Holidays and let's re-use, recycle, and re-gift all year.

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

Film: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians- One Of The Worst Movies Ever Made

by hillary dorwart

Thursday December 22, 2011: 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm -- Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

Get into the true Holiday spirit as AADL presents one of the worst films ever made - "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" - the 1964 clunker that features one of the worst actresses of all time - Pia Zadora - in her film debut as Gilmar, the Martian Girl.

The storyline involves Martians kidnapping Santa because there is no one on Mars to give their children presents. And in a plot twist, the evil Martian Voldar believes that Santa is corrupting Mars children and plots against the kidnapped Claus!

Discover how a truly terrible movie becomes a hilarious film to watch!

Graphic for events post

Blog Post

Classical Bells Concert

by hillary dorwart

Saturday December 17, 2011: 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm -- Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

Feel the holiday spirit at the AADL's presentation of Michigan's premier handbell ensemble, Classical Bells. Listen to the beautiful sounds of sixty-eight bronze and six aluminum English handbells in the hands of these accomplished musicians.

This group of seasoned professionals, led by musical director Darlene Ebersole, has performed in concerts nationwide and appeared as featured performers with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Michigan Opera Theater. In addition, they have performed in numerous events sponsored by the American Guild of English Handbell ringers.