Posts by Anne Barreca

Did you know that September 6 - 14th is Hug-A-Book Week? Well, it is! Here at Battery Park City Library, we're celebrating in style by grabbing our favorite titles and giving them a squeeze. Why don't you try it, too?

Maryann Macdonald's Odette's Secrets is a fictional retelling of a young Jewish girl's life in hiding during the Nazi occupation of France. This middle-grade historical fiction novel brings little new to the genre of Holocaust fiction, but is a strong introduction to the topic in the same tradition as classics such as When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit or

The most graceful way to come to terms with the memory of tragedy and destruction is often through the act of creation. In remembrance of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, staff and volunteers at the Battery Park City Library have been folding paper cranes for the past four months for a "Peace Crane Project." The culmination is a special origami exhibition displayed in the library throughout the month of September.

Japanese legend holds that if you fold a thousand origami cranes your wish will be granted.

Do you have a "voracious appetite" for reading? Have you ever “devoured” a book? Have you ever had the depraved desire to slather your first-edition F. Scott Fitzgerald classic with whipped cream and chocolate sauce? Do you look forward to resuming that book you put down on the subway with the same hunger that you anticipate that chocolate cake at your favorite restaurant? Does a good dessert make you feel equally comfortable as a good book, like you would want to curl up in bed with either (aside from the crumbs that a dessert might shed, of course)?   If you 

Do you remember the first time in your life when you started to question things adults had taught you? Do you remember the first time you thought about why you were here or what your purpose was? Do you ever find yourself still grappling with questions like these? If so, you will identify with the protagonist of Rebecca Rupp’s most recent middle-grade novel, Octavia Boone’s Big Questions about Life, the Universe and Everything.

This story is just about as close to a Philosophy 101