Posts from Kingsbridge Library

Bullying is a horrible thing.  It sticks with you forever.  It poisons you.  But only if you let it.

These lines, from Heather Brewer's story "The Secret," touch on the prevailing themes of a new book called Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories.  Since October is National Bullying Prevention Month, it seemed especially appropriate to share this book right now.

Dear Bully is a collection containing stories by many authors who have written books for 

Do you love Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games trilogy? Are you REALLY hoping that the new Hunger Games movie is going to do justice to the book? Do you want to read more books in which the world as we know it has ended... and a dark and dangerous world has taken its place? Where a dark and dangerous guy (or, for that matter, a blonde and dangerous guy) will look deeply into your eyes and inspire you to fight against the society you've known your entire life? 

I followed a link the other day to the First Second Books website, one of my favorite publishers of graphic novels. I'm already a huge fan of Vampire Loves, the Color of Earth trilogy, Robot Dreams, American Born Chinese, Brain Camp, and

As the school year ends and the members of our Teen Advisory Group plan to ride off into the sunset (or at least take a vacation or go to summer camp), I thought I would share some more of their favorite books, CDs, and DVDs that they enjoyed this year.

BOOKS:

Mistwood by Leah Cypess

This book is about a shape-shifter named Isabel who doesn't remember anything from the past.  She only knows that she exists to protect the handsome king.  Mystery and magic fans 

For some reason, I’ve been feeling a lot of '90s nostalgia lately. The music, the movies, the fashion ... for me it was the decade of youthful freedom, so it is no wonder I would look back with longing. Luckily for me I have NYPL’s catalog at my disposal, which provides a huge amount of '90s books, movies, music, and resources to help me relive my glory years.

For the sake of this post, I’ve chosen the year 1991, exactly 20 years ago and a particularly fond year in my memory. The following list that I have compiled is by no 

He is instantly recognizable, even to people who have never read any of the novels and stories written about him.  He uses his powers of deductive reasoning better than almost anyone.  He never actually said, "Elementary, my dear Watson" except in the movies.  And even though he's one of the most famous detectives the world has ever known, he never really existed.

Sherlock Holmes was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote many short stories and novels about this character who soon became more famous and popular than his creator (and 

The Kingsbridge Library will soon be moving to a new building and as we start to plan for our move, I can't help but reflect on the long and rich history the Kingsbridge Branch has had through the years.

The Kingsbridge Library lends its beginnings to the Kingsbridge Free Library, established in 1894 and housed above Hecht's drugstore on what is now 230th St. between Kingsbridge Ave and Corlear Ave. It quickly became clear that the small space was not adequate and it grew even more imperative that the library needed a new and more 

Lynda Barry, most renowned for her comic strips and graphic novels featuring the character of Marlys, has written and illustrated two different books that incorporate cartoon characters into an unusual and inspiring exploration of the creative process.  One focuses more on writing and the other focuses more on artwork, but the graphic novel format means that fans of words and pictures alike will be able to appreciate both books.

What It Is

In 2008, Lynda Barry published a book that asked the 

I first learned about the animated film Sita Sings the Blues when it was featured in the New York International Children's Film Festival (Since I know you're wondering, I'll tell you that I got on their mailing list originally because of my deep and abiding love for the short films of Wallace and Gromit).  Anyway, since I'm a fan of animated films, especially films that I can enjoy and also recommend to my teen patrons, I 

Here are some of the latest and greatest graphic novels around, as recommended by the American Library Association's 2011 Great Graphic Novels for Teens list.  See if you agree with my favorites from this list, and feel free to recommend some of your own!

Brain Camp by Susan Kim

Camp Fielding is a special, invitation-only educational summer camp for kids whose parents wish that they 

After discussing 2010's music CD releases with the members of the Kingsbridge Library's Teen Advisory Group, I learned a few things about popular music. I learned that just because a performer was popular with teens all over the country didn't mean that this performer was popular with MY teens (like Taylor Swift, for example). I learned how to pronounce Ke$ha's name correctly (excuse me for not knowing how to pronounce something with a DOLLAR SIGN in it!)  I learned that many teens are of the opinion that "only old people buy music from 

The dust has finally settled over New York City, there are no more time outs left to use, the clock has unfortunately hit zero, and the final score was 24-19. The season is over and with it the dream of a city is placed on hold for yet another season. The National Football League's New York Jets nearly pulled off what they as an organization have not been able to do since the 1969-1969 season with Broadway Joe Namath. They came close to 

There are many novels about death in the young adult section of most libraries.  Some of them deal with the death of the teen narrator, or with the death of a parent or another family member.  But today I'm going to focus on stories where death and friendship are intertwined.  Many of these stories are especially poignant because (let's face it) we choose our friends, not our families, so often our friends are closer to us than family members could ever be. 

When we read realistic fiction we're looking for a real-life experience, with all of 

BOGO (AKA BOGOF) - an acronym for Buy One Get One Free

Recently, I rediscovered the wonders of coupons.  Never have I saved so much with just a tiny piece of paper that I cut out by following the dotted lines. Go figure, that the Sunday papers were filled with what at the time I considered to be a total waste of paper and instead it allowed me to be lost in frugality. 

The past decade has 

To jumpstart our brainstorming session of DVDs that were released in 2010, I printed out a list from amazon.com of their top-selling DVDs and brought it to my last Teen Advisory Group meeting.  My kids agreed with some of titles on that list, violently disagreed with others, and used the titles on that list as starting points to remember even more of their favorite films and TV shows that were released this year.  Their favorite DVDs of the year were filled with plenty of action, special effects, humor, and horror.

Do you constantly find yourself humming the tune of "The Little Drummer Boy" during the holiday season as if it were a new and infectious single by the Black Eyed Peas? For some reason, the holiday season makes me long for something a little more festive playing through my mp3 player’s headphones as I walk to the Kingsbridge Branch on a blustery New York winter morning.

In 1980,

Lucia is a fan of Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm.  In this story, an 11-year-old girl named Turtle is sent to Key West, Florida to live with her aunt and cousins.  And while she's there, she finds a long-lost treasure map.  This is a funny and dramatic story that takes place during the mid 1930s.

Solen recommends Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney.  Greg Heffley has always been in a rush to 

Finbar Frame has a lot of things going against him.  He's not a popular star athlete like his brother, he's allergic to the sun, and... oh yes, his name is Finbar.  When a girl on the train sees Finbar's pale skin and bandaged arms, she has a suspicion about what he really is.  When she asks what happened to his arms and Finbar answers, "Too much sun," she's not repulsed or confused as most people would be.  Instead, she's delighted. 

That's because she thinks that this strange boy must be a vampire like the one in the