From the gregarious Glee kids to the harmonious horde of High School Musical, kids these days love their theater! And it’s not just on TV or in music. Check out one of these great books and read about awful auditions, big solos that bring the house down, backstage drama and pursuing your dreams! There’s no business like show business!

Better Nate Than Ever – Unbeknownst to his parents, Nate skips school and runs off to the Big Apple to audition for a fabulous role in E.T. The Musical. Will Nate be the next big Broadway star, or will his parents catch him and drag him back to his mundane small town life?

Starring Jules (as herself) – Jules can’t wait to be on TV! She has an audition for a mouthwash commercial, but everything keeps going wrong! Can Jules land the part, and also befriend the new girl?

Drama – Callie is the stage manager for this year’s big musical, and she is committed to making it the best one the school has ever produced. Enter, the twins, stage right. Justin and Jesse both have amazing voices, as well as a knack for getting Callie into confusing romantic entanglements. What’s a young theater professional to do?!?

James Beard was a renowned American chef who introduced French cuisine and gourmet cooking to America. Called the "Dean of American cookery” by the New York Times in 1954, his foundation's awards are likened to the 'Oscars' of the culinary world. Just some of the award categories include best cookbooks (in various subcategories), chefs, & tv and radio cooking shows. The awards are voted on by culinary professionals & the full list can be found here. Below are some of the highlights:

Cookbook of the Year: Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America- delicious food from the many countries that comprise Latin America

Baking and dessert: Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza- From acclaimed Portland baker, Ken Forkish, comes this popular book about how to make the perfect bread

Focus on health: The New Way to Cook Light: Fresh Food & Bold Flavors for Today’s Home Cook- More than 400 recipes for healthy eating

General cooking: Canal House Cooks Every Day- Recipes inspired by the authors' blog, Canal House Cooks Lunch, by home cooks for home cooks

International: Jerusalem: A Cookbook- 120 recipes that highlight the flavors of Jerusalem

Vegetable focused & Vegetarian- Roots: The definitive compendium with more than 225 recipes- one more reason to love your veggies!

If you are a fan of the Starz original series Da Vinci's Demons you might be interested in Paul Strahorn's book The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior.

It tells the compelling tale of the events of 1502 when Italy, torn apart by warring factions, was on the brink of political convulsion. Cesare Borgia and his army threatened to take the city of Florence and Machiavelli thought of a way to stop him. He seems to have offered up Da Vinci to become Borgia's military engineer--something that Borgia wanted dearly and Da Vinci had already declined.

It is a story about genius and events that changed world history. These three men, each epitomizing a distinct aspect of humanity, spent time together in 1502 and Strathern masterfully describes the events.

What a rare opportunity for anyone who has small children in the family or teachers and caregivers who work with small children. Jim Gill is coming to Ann Arbor to give a workshop and a family concert.
The workshop will be at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 16, 2013 at the Downtown Library. The concert will follow at 7:00 p.m. At the workshop he will talk about how music plays such an important part in children's development. You will learn a lot but you'll also be entertained.
A Jim Gill family concert is fun for the whole family.
Don't miss these great events that are a part of our Children's Book Week celebration.

Have you ever planned for a vacation or a birthday party only to have nothing go as you expected? Well Scaredy Squirrel knows just how you feel.

Scaredy Squirrel has many fears. Just to name a few, he is afraid of germs, walruses, bunnies, beavers, Godzilla, pirates, sea monsters, falling coconuts, and biters (anything that may bite him). In order to do what he wants Scaredy Squirrel develops elaborate plans that will help him avoid all of his fears. But when things don't go according to his plans, Scaredy Squirrel is forced to face his fears and realize that there was not anything to be scared of in the first place.

If you enjoy Scaredy Squirrel, you might also want to check out Mélanie Watt’s other books, like Chester.

Chester is a cat who loves to be the center of attention and the best way he can do this is to insert himself into stories that Mélanie writes. With his trusty red marker, he quickly hijacks the stories and becomes the main character in Chester, Chester’s Back, and Chester’s Masterpiece. The plots turn increasingly frantic and comical as both Mélanie and Chester fight for the power to write the story.

Last night, the Mystery Writers of America announced the winners of the 2013 Edgars, the mystery genre's most prestigious awards.

Some of the winners are:

Best Novel -- Dennis Lehane for Live by Night. Joe Coughlin, younger brother of Danny Coughlin (The Given Day, 2008) and the son of a cop, becomes a crime boss in Florida in 1926 during the Prohibition.

Best First Novel -- Chris Pavone for The Expats. Kate Moore used to be a CIA spy until she met, fell in love with, and married Dexter. Parenthood turns her off to the dangers of espionage, but her professional radar is triggered when Dexter's job moves them to Luxembourg where new friends, fellow expats, Bill and Julia, do not seem to be what they claim to be.

Best Paperback Original -- Ben H. Winters for The Last Policeman. It takes a special detective to investigate a homicide masquerading as a suicide, when an asteroid is six months away from destroying Earth. But NH investigator, Nick Palace, is no ordinary cop.

Best Fact Crime -- Paul French for Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China -- In 1937 China, the teenage daughter of a retired British consul is brutally murdered and her father refuses to rest until he finds who committed this heinous crime. French brings to edge-of-seat life, the chain of evidence in this case.

For a complete list of all the winners, please check here.

What better way to celebrate the return of warm weather than hopping on your bike and going somewhere? May is National Bike Month, so get your tires checked and peddle away!

Not sure where to go? Check out Washtenaw County Bike Rides : A Guide to Road Rides In and Around Ann Arbor for local trips. If you're a bicycle commuter, it's important to keep up with maintenance for those daily treks. Essential Bicycle Maintenance & Repair or The Urban Biking Handbook : The DIY Guide to Building, Rebuilding, Tinkering with, and Repairing Your Bicycle for City Living can help you with that. Looking for something comprehensive, covering maintenance, skill, and rules of the road? Try Effective Cycling. For the serious cyclist, take a look at Fifty Places to Bike Before You Die : Biking Experts Share the World's Greatest Destinations.

Commuters, don't forget to get involved with Ann Arbor's getDowntown program!

The American Booksellers Association (ABA) released the winning titles of the 2013 Indies Choice Book Awards and the E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards on April 17th.
Be sure to check out the other honor lists as well for these awards, located on the ABA's website.

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The Indies Choice Book Awards
From the ABA website: "The Indies Choice Book Awards reflect the spirit of independent bookstores nationwide and the IndieBound movement. Book of the Year winners and Honor Award recipients are all titles nominated by ABA member booksellers to the Indie Next Lists."

The winners of the 2013 Indies Choice Book Awards are listed below. Click on the titles to find them in the AADL's catalog, or on the authors' names to see more books they've written, and/or different formats of their award winning books!

Adult fiction: The Round House: A Novel, by Louise Erdrich

Adult non-fiction: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed

Adult debut book of the year: The Snow Child: A Novel, by Eowyn Ivey

Young adult book of the year: The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green

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E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards
"The winners of the E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards, reflecting the playful, well-paced language, the engaging themes, and the universal appeal to a wide range of ages embodied by E.B. White’s collection of beloved books."

The winners of the 2013 E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards are listed below. Click on the titles to find them in the AADL's catalog, or on the authors' names to see more books they've written, and/or different formats of their award winning books!

Middle-reader level: Wonder, by R.J. Palacio

Picture book level: Extra Yarn, by Mac Barnett, Jon Klassen (Illus.)

Nothing says " I love you, Mom!" like cards and flowers made by their children's hands.
Come to the Main Library on Saturday, May 11, 2013 at 11:00 a.m. and we'll help
you do that. We'll be making cards and giant tissue paper flowers.
This is for children preschool - Grade 5 but everyone is welcome.
All supplies will be provided.

For materials on this May holiday, click here.

Written by Candace Fleming and illustrated by Eric Rohmann, the picture book Oh, No! has the most gorgeous illustrations... and the story is sweet, too! It tells the tale of a group of jungle animals who one by one fall in a deep, dark hole and can’t get out! Then along comes tiger. Will he save them? Oh, no! -- He’s a hungry tiger! Then how will the animals ever get out? With repeating text and a fine bunch of animals, kids and adults will lap it up.