Posts from Morrisania Library

We were fortunate enough to have Mark Siegel at the Bronx Library Center on Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at a TeenLIVE at the NYPL event. Siegel works for First Second. He wrote Moving House, Seadogs: An Epic Ocean Operetta, and illustrated To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel.

We were lucky to have Tyra Banks at a TeenLIVE from the NYPL event on September 25, 2011.

I guess I actually have to admit that I had not heard of Banks before this event, or it had not quite clicked, that she was a supermodel and host of a TV show, America's Next Top Model. And, no, I have not been living under a rock. I did some preliminary research prior to attending this event, and I looked at her web page. The reaction she got from the teens at the "library with the lions" left no doubt about the fact that they knew exactly who she was.

On Saturday, December 3, 2011, Phyllis Newman, the Tony-award winning actress and illustrator of What's New at the Zoo? by Betty Comden, came to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building's South Court Auditorium to read from the book. Kids from PS 212 sang the book, which is actually the lyrics to the song in a Broadway Show, Do Re Mi.

Yes, it is one of my blog posts about a Walter Dean Myers book... again. I have a thing about Walter Dean Myers after hearing him speak a couple of times, and he seems very interesting. We also have a shared interest in teenagers and the criminal justice system. Anyhow, here is another one.

Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers, 2010

I had the good fortune to experience a tour of the Kristine Mann Library (devoted to Carl Jung) at 28 East 39th Street with The New York Public Library staff, but the library is open to the public free for research. However, if people want to take books home, they have to become members. The library is located within the C. G. Jung Institute of New York, and it consists of two rooms and a balcony. It has books, papers, and journals related to analytic psychology and Carl Jung. The library has an online catalog and a card catalog for use in case of a computer crash. The librarian has created a unique collection, and it is the largest Jungian library in the world. There are about 

By now, everyone probably knows how much I love Walter Dean Myers as an author. So, here's another booktalk of a very highly decorated book in terms of awards:

Monster by Walter Dean Myers, 1999.

Game by Walter Dean Myers, 2008.

Drew's mom sees inner city kids shot dead outside and wants him to stay out of the street. He does, but he also goes to legal hearings about other kids in trouble. Other guys without the smarts, or guys that get into trouble with drugs or the law — they don't make it. Maybe they don't have support from someone like Drew's mother.

Riot A protest of the Civil War draft by Walter Dean Myers

My First Booktalk Riot by Walter Dean Myers was my very first real booktalk. I presented it first to kids in a local middle school who seemed to enjoy it. There are powerful voices in the stories, issues of racism and wartime, and best of all, it is written as a screenplay.

Booktalks I’ve Seen I have seen many talented librarians give booktalks in during trainings I have attended. One was about Clementine by Sara Pennypacker, which I was inspired to read since the booktalk was so dazzling. During my teen services librarian training, booktalking was stressed as one of the most important tools librarians can use to get teens interested in books.

On Halloween, Morrisania Library was lucky enough to host storyteller extraordinaire LuAnn Adams. I had seen Adams at Edenwald library in August 2008 for a Summer Reading celebration, and I really became enamored with her work. I also saw her Dr.

I was very happy that the Children's Literary Salon returned to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building after about a 4-month hiatus. The salon feels like a conference on children's literature, and it is always informative and fun. On Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 2pm, we had the following program. The Children's Literary Salon is organized by the Children's Center at 42nd Street.

Children's Literary Salon - Storytelling! Its Past, Its Present, Its Future

The Children's Literary Salon, previously known as the Children's Literary Cafe, began in 2007. In November 2008, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building ("the library with the lions") celebrated the opening of the Children's Center at 42nd Street. You can view "Women in Comics: Female Graphic Novelists Writing with Kids and Teens in Mind," a Children's Literary Salon program held at the Children's Center on April 3, 2010, by visiting the Library's website.

I served on the grand jury of the Bronx County Court House from mid-September to mid-October this year. I have always wanted to serve on the jury, so I was thrilled to do so. I was questioned for possible juror services for a trial jury in Albany, NY in 2002, but I was in library school at the time, so I was glad that I was not selected. And I was called for grand jury service in August of 2010, but I was between libraries (I was transferring), so I was glad that I was not selected. The summertime is very busy for the Library, since the kids are not in school, so autumn is the perfect time.

Some people take the Library for granted. Not Festus Udeugwu, a Nigerian immigrant from the Bronx.