Posts from Kingsbridge Library

Here at the Kingsbridge Library we offer two meditation classes a week, which are among the most popular programs we offer. I recently caught up with Alan, who with his wife, Lioudmila, is one of our class leaders.

The cold weather gave our Teen Advisory Group the opportunity to bundle up indoors and catch up with lots of books over the last few months. Now it’s time to finally celebrate springtime, and for you to see if you agree with their reviews!

I have to admit that I’m a tough audience when it comes to romance novels. Whenever I see a book that promises readers a heart-pounding romance, often featuring someone looking dramatically windswept on the cover, my first instinct is to look at it and laugh.

Recently, our library received a donation of several audiobooks for teens, and that gave me an idea for another Teen Advisory Group project.

During the course of several conversations I’ve had with the kids in my Teen Advisory Group over the last year, they told me that they use Tumblr more often than they use Twitter or Facebook. More importantly, they told me that Tumblr was one of their favorite ways to get book recommendations. And that’s what set the wheels in motion.

Many authors have used fairy tales as starting points for new ideas, and some of their books explore questions based on the original tales. For example, if you're rewarded for your kindness by having gold dust fall from your hair or diamonds fall out of your mouth… isn't that reward REALLY more trouble than it's worth?

Perhaps you thought that everything that can be said about the zombies-vs.-survivors story The Walking Dead has been said already. You've already read the graphic novels, watched the TV show, and talked about each episode after you watched it. Ah … but have you played the board game?

Earlier this year I received a copy of The Walking Dead board game that is based on the TV show (there's another board game based on the graphic novels), and I figured that my Teen Advisory Group would be up to the challenge of playing it. I also figured that Friday the 

The teens in our Teen Advisory Group have been doing a lot of reading this fall. See if you agree with their reviews!

Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer by Katie Alender For as long as she can remember, Colette Iselin has been waiting to go to Paris in order to learn more about her heritage. However, upon her arrival she soon learns that there has been a series of peculiar murders. Each victim is an heir of an upper-class family, and their heads are always chopped off! What's even 

The concept of vampires has grown and expanded over the last few centuries. Sometimes they suffer from a disease, or sometimes they just evolve this way. Sometimes they prey upon humans, or sometimes they live among humans in peace. Sometimes they even sparkle in the sunlight.

Here are fifteen novels that you can find in our young adult collections that embrace many different aspects of vampires: the dangerous, the romantic, the bloodthirsty, and the beautiful.

In the Forests of 

As your summer vacation ends and the new school year begins, it's time to consider: Who are you? Who are you now, who do you want to be, and will you/can you/SHOULD you try to reinvent yourself?

Here's a list of twenty fiction books for teens that deal with the topic of identity, from realistic fiction to fantastic fiction and beyond.

Being Henry David by Cal Armistead A boy wakes up in Penn Station. He has no memory of how he got there, how he got his head injury, or even his 

If you enjoy weird mysteries and separating truth from fiction, then you'll definitely enjoy Dead Strange: The Bizarre Truths Behind 50 World-Famous Mysteries by Matt Lamy.

This book covers different topics from alchemy to zombies, and the author discusses the difference between the myth and the reality of each topic. Along the way you'll learn about mysteries like Area 51, Easter Island, ESP, the Loch Ness Monster, Men in Black, and poltergeists. And hey, if you learn how to prepare for 

Making the transition from homeschool to high school is tough, and Maggie is going through a lot of culture shock. Being able to see ghosts isn't making things any easier.

In Friends With Boys by Faith Erin Hicks, Maggie is surrounded by more people than ever before, and yet she still feels all alone. Her older brothers are busy with their own friends, her mother is gone, and her father is busy with his new job. But little by little, Maggie starts finding her way around her new 

Sloane lives in a world where teens have to hide their true emotions. If a friend, teacher, or even a family member sees her having an emotional outburst, they could report her and have her taken by force into The Program. That's why she can't risk crying where anyone else can see her. Because while the treatment she would get in The Program would remove her depression, it would also remove her memories. In other words, she might as well be dead.

Suzanne Young's novel The Program opens 

As yet another school year draws to a close, here is our next batch of recommendations to tide you over until the fall!

Books

Peanut by Ayun Halliday & Paul Hoppe [A book so popular that we've got TWO reviews!]

Sadie moves to a new town, starting her sophomore year in a new school. Fearing that she'll be boring, she fakes a peanut allergy, which is a bigger responsibility than it seems to be … even I didn't know it was THAT big of a deal! This book teaches 

We will soon be wrapping up Writing Through Memory: Memoir and Storytelling, a ten week workshop we have been hosting at the Kingsbridge Branch, brought to us through the Creative Aging program from Lifetime Arts. After a recent class, I caught up with one of the students, Helen.

What brings you to the library today?

I'm here for another session of the Memoir Workshop taught 

One of the most common questions we get from our young readers is "Where are your scary books?" Unfortunately, books for children and teens that will keep readers on the edge of their seats are usually mixed in with the rest of the fiction section, so they can be a little tricky to find… until now.

Here is a list of twenty-five great crossover books (that is, for older children and younger teens) about lots of scary subjects. Sure, there will be plenty of vampires, ghosts, and even zombies. But there will also be nightmares, mysterious phone calls, 

Oliver Sacks once said in his book, Musicophilia:

"The power of music whether joyous or cathartic must steal on one unawares, come spontaneously as a blessing or a grace..."

Music has incredible power. People today listen to music all the time, walking down streets and sitting in subway cars. We can't escape music.

For many of us, certain songs have this mystical power of throwing us into the past to a certain time and place. It might be a wonderful memory or a memory we 

Harajuku? Geisha? Robots? Awesome! Japanese culture has been an obsession of mine for a while now, as well as for the teenagers at my branch, so when we recently had the opportunity to invite Lucia Brea, Fukui Friendship Ambassador, to stop by and talk to the Kingsbridge Library's Teen Advisory Group, I jumped at the opportunity. Lucia spent four years in Japan through the JET Program teaching English to students of all ages in the Fukui Prefecture, and I was able to sit down with her after her visit to ask her a few questions 

Do you have a gently-used iPod that you'd like to donate to a good cause? Because the Kingsbridge Library's Teen Advisory Group is going to be collecting used iPods on behalf of the Music & Memory program.

Music & Memory is an organization that uses iPods to create personalized playlists for the elderly and infirm, helping to improve their quality of life. You can learn more about how this program works at the Music & Memory website, where you can see videos that show how