Posts from Morrisania Library

Inspired by a reader’s comment on our Angry Birds post, we’re thinking about books where the non-underdogs—a.k.a., those little round pigs with the helmets—wind up on top.

Four of our branches (Aguilar, Fort Washington, Inwood, and Morrisania) have been selected from hundreds of libraries in the city as finalists for the NYC Neighborhood Library Awards. The prizes, given out by a panel of judges, will be announced in June.

Hollywood has officially gone YA, and blockbusters that started as young-adult fiction abound. So, we asked our team of expert librarians for their wishlists: What’s a YA book you’d like to see turned into a movie, and whom would you cast in the leading role?

One of the unique features of the Bronx is that is has a week dedicated to showcasing and celebrating all its wonderful attributes: history, literature, culture, etc. Here is a reading list which is sure to spark your interests in all things Bronx!

The way that I have been inspired to read teen literature tends to be from meeting authors, listening to them talk about their work, and then getting curious about what they wrote. This happened to me first with Walter Dean Myers, then with David Levithan. I heard Levithan discuss his work at a Teen Week event at The New York Public Library and was inspired to read How They Met and Other Stories. Levithan seemed very interesting to me. I have read some of his other works, but I am impressed by the variety of perspectives he has on love stories in this particular work.

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 

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 

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, 

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

With names like Icy, Toon, Play, and King Kong, you might 

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 

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.

Here's the scene: Mr. Nesbitt is a bodega (convenience store) owner who keeps a gun in his store to protect himself and the store. Supposedly, a young man goes into the store prior 

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.

Luckily, 6'5" Drew excels at basketball and has no dreams 

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.

Booktalk for 

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.

What Booktalks Are For those of you who are unfamiliar with booktalks, they are essentially short commercials for the book, not summaries. They are supposed 

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. Seuss storytelling program in one of the neighborhood libraries in Manhattan, as well as her Stranger Danger Little 

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 

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 

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 

Festus Udeugwu. Photo: Beowulf SheehanSome people take the Library for granted. Not Festus Udeugwu, a Nigerian immigrant from the Bronx.

Udeugwu, 68, who has been taking free computer classes at Morrisania Library, still can’t believe the wealth of free resources at his neighborhood library.   “The Library has been such a help. I never thought I’d learn to use a computer,” said Udeugwu, a grandfather who immigrated to New York City three years ago to be near his daughter and