Posts by Miranda J. McDermott

Bunheads by Sophie Flack, 2011

19-year-old Hannah is a dancer with the Manhattan Ballet company. Jacob is her musician boyfriend who goes to NYU, and Otto is the one who hands out promotions and demotions to the dancers in the company. He's the one to impress. Like all of the other dancers, Hannah jockeys for a prominent position in the dances. Glimpse in this world the injuries of the uninitiated, the stress fractures and the illness-producing dieting.

All the Right Stuff by Walter Dean Myers, 2012

Paul DuPree figures that working in a soup kitchen over the summer isn't a bad gig, especially since he gets to mentor a kid on Friday mornings. Little did he know that there's more to just throwing some ingredients together because someone has got to eat it, and the kid he's mentoring, 17-year-old Keisha, has a toddler girl of her own, and she wants to improve her hoops, not her grades. Paul meets Elijah in the Soup Emporium, who educates him about the social contract, a philosophical construction of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. People who are in jail, Elijah tells him, "wipe their feet on the social 

While I was in the neighborhood (visiting the library of the American Museum of Natural History - AMNH), I serendipitously noticed that the New-York Historical Society (NYHS) was next door. After visiting the AMNH, I decided to check out the library of the historical society.

Jermaine Browne: We were lucky enough to have a dance talk at the Mulberry Street Library on Wednesday, May 23, 2012. I love dance, so I was very excited to meet an international choreographer, dancer, and teacher, Jermaine Browne. Respect My Step is an online community where teens and people of all ages can post their one-minute YouTube dance videos. No comments are published so that negative comments are not made about the dance videos. Chris Shoemaker, Young Adult Programming Specialist at NYPL, introduced the speaker. Shoemaker asked the audience, "Are you ready to move? Are you ready to shake?"

Booktalking The Black Stallion and the Lost City by Steven Farley, 2011

The waiting... waiting... and more waiting. That's the central theme of this Black Stallion novel set in the middle of a movie production... Alec aboard the temperamental Black, of course — Alec being the only person who can ride the Black. Alec plays Alexander the Great, and the Black is Bucephalus, Alexander the Great's horse. The Black, of course, does not want to wear his race costume, and some of the other animals do not always do what their trainers want either. Lots of different animals inhabit the tents on the set when they are not being used for scenes.

To Ride the Gods' Own Stallion by Diane Lee Wilson, 2000

In 640 BC, in an ancient Assyrian kingdom, 13-year-old Soulai created horses and other animals out of clay and decorative harnesses. Soulai's father said that he should never have been born, and continues in that vein when he sells Soulai to a king in order to repay a debt. His father's apology does little to mollify Soulai's shock and pain as he is wrenched away from his family. It is every boy's worst nightmare, sold into slavery at age 13 and freed at 18. Five years of bondage to repay a father's debt. Beaten and bloodied, Soulai nurses his wounds. Five years of looming incarceration weigh on 

Booktalking Duchess by Ellen Miles, 2011

In the wonderful Kitty Corner series by Ellen Miles, Mia and Michael and their family foster cats and kittens who need a temporary home, much like people foster children. Mia met Duchess through her friend Logan, who alerted her to the fact that Duchess's owner Abby was moving to Iceland, and she did not want to subject the gorgeous white Persian to weeks and weeks of kenneling. Mia and Michael's parents let them foster cats to determine if they are ready and willing to accept the responsibility of caring for a permanent cat.

Alice-Miranda on Vacation by Jacqueline Harvey, 2010

Seven-and-a-half year old Alice-Miranda is home from boarding school, and she is making a splash. She brings her friend Jacinta with her to a wonderful mansion that is their playground during the school break. She has no qualms about letting anyone know what she thinks, but in a matter-of-fact, somewhat super-humanly polite way. She seems oblivious to intended or unintended slights from others, and she is completely adorable. Alice-Miranda has an uncanny ability to never take anything personally.

I was so excited when I saw that Presley and Melody would be performing at the Fort Washington Library on June 7, 2012. I have been waiting a year since they performed at the opening celebration of the Kingsbridge Library in June 2011. I started blogging last year, and this was definitely a children's program that I wanted to write about. I am somewhat a groupie fan of Presley and Melody, like I am of LuAnn Adams, a storyteller that performs in NYPL libraries.

On June 7, 2012, a fabulous sunny day, the New York Public Library (NYPL) had a kickoff celebration for summer reading at the Seward Park Library.

We were lucky enough to have a game show and discussions with teen authors about dystopias and apocalypses and whether or not we would have the strength to survive them. The event was held at the Margaret Berger Forum in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library. It was hosted by Chris Shoemaker, Young Adult Programming Specialist for NYPL. Refreshments were served afterwards, and teens signed up to participate in the games ahead of time. Music entertained the audience prior to the event. Many people showed up to try their luck at a game show and hear from the teen authors.

Introduction of Speakers

Elizabeth Bird started the Children's Literary Salon, as usual, with an introduction of the speakers: Constance Vidor, Sharon Elswit, Pnina Moed Kass, and Rebecca Linde. Linde is the director of sponsorship and marketing for the New York International Children's Film Festival. She explained that the program would be started by a presentation on the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) from Constance Vidor, who is the director of library services at the Friends Seminary.

Black Storm Comin'  by Diane Lee Wilson, 2005 

12-year-old Colton first becomes entranced by the Pony Express when travelling in the 1860 westward expansion on a wagon train. A horse and clinging boy sped past him and did not look back. Got him to wonderin' what kind of excitement it would be to taste that speed and urgency. So, he tries his luck and gets hired (even tho' the manager would have preferred if he were 14 years old). And to prove his meddle, he tames a black demon. But that demon ends up waking Colton up when he was 'bout to die of hypothermia. Horse wasn't much to look at, but Colton says the following about 

Gravity by Leanne Lieberman, 2008

Ellie, a 15-year-old Orthodox Jew, is happy to go to Bubbie's (her grandmother's) cottage this summer to learn about the flora and fawna. There, she meets Lindsay, a beautiful, provocative blond girl, whom Ellie is attracted to. Unlike boys, whom she is supposed to like, Ellie is captivated by Lindsay. They swim together in a canoe, and she visits Lindsay at her cottage.

A Taste of Perfection by Laura Langston, 2002

Erin was ecstatic about her chance to volunteer at the SPCA over the summer, only to learn that her father had been laid off and she was to spend the summer at her grandmother's kennel, with black and yellow Labrador Retrievers. On the positive side, at least she gets to see her friend Cassie, who is about everything horses, and her sister Treena, who help her embark on a major makeover for seventh grade. Like any teenager, Erin is very self-conscious, in particular about the warts on her hand, the hair on her legs, and her height. Luckily, Erin's grandmother is very understanding and convinces her mother to let her shave so 

At a Day of Dialog a couple of years ago, an employee of School Library Journal asked me if I wanted to review books for the journal. I did not quite get into it until I started blogging last year.

Background Info on the Museum & Library: Luckily for me, I was able to visit the library of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) with a staff group. I did not realize that their library is open to the public, and I was not aware of the amount of empirical research that goes on in the museum. The museum is focused on the natural sciences, the earth and animals. There are about 200 scientists that work for the museum, and the library is a METRO member. The library is a special library and academic library. There is a graduate school attached to the museum in which students study comparative biology. The museum publishes three journals.

A Horse for Mandy by Lurlene McDaniel, 1981

I love a lot of the topics for the Children's Literary Salons at The New York Public Library. They always seem to include discussions about cutting-edge topics in technology or children's literature. I was very excited to hear what the children's author/illustrator and employee of One Hundred Robots, an online apps for kids store, had to say about this topic. I don't have an iPad or an iPhone, but I am a little bit familiar with application software and its function. Luckily for me, the presentations, panel discussion, and audience questions elucidated this matter for me to a high degree. I went from having a fuzzy understanding of apps (I have discussed them