The holidays can be busy times for everyone. Shopping, making long trips to visit family, making your home ready to receive visiting family, planning, cooking, baking for holiday parties at school and work… This time of year can seem more like a marathon than anything else.
It’s good to take a few pauses during the season and refresh ourselves with a bit of comfort and self-care. This is where the library has you covered. Not only do we have calming activities to give you a chance to catch your breath and be creative without pressure or worry, but we have quiet places in the library to hole up for a bit with a magazine or book. Our magazine lounge is always freshly stocked with the latest issues of dozens of magazines, has a wonderful view of the outside park, and plenty of greenery to soothe the soul and provide extra oxygen.
We have large tables to lay out your holiday tasks as you organize or complete them, plenty of craft and cooking books for ideas to make things a little extra special, and a computer lab for printing those special recipes from the web, or writing holiday letters to catch up with the family, which you can print in full color. ($1.00 color; .20 black and white)
Maybe you need some audio books for the long drive, or you need some DVDs to hole up in the house for a few days? We have that too.
What about all that soothing community stuff I talked about earlier? We have that happening too. On Wednesday the 2nd, we’ll be making wreaths with all age groups! Noon for adults, 4pm for kids, and 6pm for teens. If that’s too stressful, Leslie Bissel will be on hand Wednesday evening at 6:30 pm to talk about stress management.
Monday the 7th we have Recipe Swap, where you can pick up some new favorite recipes and try them out too, and Friday the 11th at noon, join us for some stress relieving Adult Coloring.
Check our schedule for all of our December events, including two weeks of activities for kids and teens over the winter break, each day with a theme, including Teddy Bear and Pajama day, and our Noon Year’s Eve party of the 31st.
We hope to see you at the library!
 The Library will be closed Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday, but there will still be plenty going on the rest of the week.
Afternoons at the library
Our afterschool program, Afternoons at the library, will be held Monday through Wednesday from 4 pm to 6 pm. During the month of November we will be playing games with words in honor of National Novel Writing Month, making up tall tales, and creating poetry with pictures!
Girl Scouts
Girl Scout troop 60559 will meet at the Library at their usual time on Monday at 5:15 pm in the Learning Center.
Movie Night
Movie Night for Adults Tuesday at 6 pm – Join us to see the new movie adaption of a 1960’s classic. This movie features actor Henry Cavill (who recently starred as Superman) as a CIA agent who teams up with a KGB operative in the cold war era 1960’s to stop a private criminal organization from building their own nuclear bomb.
Story Time
And finally, there will be a holiday themed story time on Tuesday at 11:15 am and again at 6 pm for children of all ages featuring stories, crafts, and songs.
Holiday Meal Planning
It’s still not too late to check-out a few cookbooks from the library’s cookbook display to help with your Thanksgiving dinner planning.
 A Bird in the Hand: Chicken Recipes for Every Day and Every Mood
by Diana Henry
From the Book Description
Chicken is one of the most popular foods we love to cook and eat: comforting, quick, celebratory and casual. Plundering the globe, there is no shortage of brilliant ways to cook it, whether you need a quick supper on the table after work, something for a lazy summer barbecue or a feast to nourish family and friends…In A Bird in the Hand, Diana Henry offers a host of new, easy and not-so-very-well-known dishes, starring the bird we all love.
 Better homes and gardens
Biggest Book of Casseroles
From the Book Description
Nearly a year’s worth of clever and comforting casserole recipes are snuggled inside the Biggest Book of Casseroles.
• More than 380 delectable recipes for any time of the day – and any occasion
• Discover the real beauty of casseroles – make-ahead cooking, reheating, and freeze
• Secrets revealed! How to stock your pantry to solve those need-it-not dinner dilemmas
 Mom’s best desserts: 100 classic treats that taste as good now as they did then
by Andrea Chesman & Fran Raboff.
From the Book Description
In Mom’s Best Desserts, you’ll find 100 foolproof recipes for the desserts you’ve loved all your life. Devil’s Food Cake. Creamy Rice Pudding. Fresh Berry Cobbler. And scattered among the recipes are practical tips on everything from how to make the best frosting to what to do when you don’t have the right size cake pan.
 Apple pie perfect: 100 delicious and decidedly different recipes for America’s favorite pie
by Ken Haedrich.
From the Book Description
Whether you’re a veteran pie maker or a slightly nervous beginner, and whether you’re an apple pie purist or you’re looking to try something new and different, apple pie baker extraordinaire Ken Haedrich has the apple for you—and then some:
• Classics that stand the test of time
• Festive holiday pies
• Summery pies
• Creative approaches to traditional combinations
• Sit-by-the-fire-with-a-good-book pies
• Easy pies for those with pastry crust-phobia
 November is Kansas Reads to Preschoolers month, and this week libraries across the state will celebrate the event with storytimes and activities. According to the State Library of Kansas, “The State Library’s 10th annual one-book/one-state reading initiative, Kansas Reads to Preschoolers, highlights the importance of reading to children with a goal that every Kansas child from birth to age five is read to during the week of November 15-21.” This is an opportunity for libraries, preschools, daycare providers, parents, and guardians around Kansas to all share the same book with the young children they care for and/or work with.
This year’s book is Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino. Guarino’s classic picture book features a young llama asking his woodland animal friends if their (respective) “mamas” are llamas. The book gives clues as to what type of animal each friend’s mama really is, leading to a fun guessing game for young listeners. School Library Journal said of the book, “Young readers will delight in the playful rhythm of the text, and each riddle is sure to result in a resounding chorus of response.”
At Liberal Memorial Library, we have a storytime with a special guest reader every day of the week! Many thanks to all of them for agreeing to participate. Bring your child under five (or over five, all are welcome) and join us for one or more storytimes with these fine community members:
Monday at 6:00 pm: Clarissa Carrillo Martinez from Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland
Tuesday at 11:15 am: Pat McClurg from the Liberal Police Department
Wednesday at 3:00 pm: Liberal Mayor Joe Denoyer
Thursday at 11:15 am: Liberal Storyteller Bonnie Raff
Friday at 3:30 pm: Firefighters from the Liberal Fire Department
Saturday at 11:00 am: Darth Vader (Christopher Trujillo) from the 501st Legion
Also, we will be having a special Bilingual (Spanish & English) Storytime on Thursday night at 6 pm.
As always, there will be craft time to go along with the story/stories each session. Plus, attendees at each storytime will have a chance to win a copy of the book Is Your Mama a Llama? (or the Spanish-language translation, ¿Tu Mama es Una Llama?). And of course, the library has copies of the book (including a board book version and the Spanish-language translation) available for checkout, if you decide you’d like to read it again.
In addition, I will be traveling to the local preschools and daycare centers to present storytimes to the children there. I look forward to connecting the kids with such a fun book and getting the chance to reach out to kids who might not often come to the library. Parents, caregivers, childcare workers, and teachers can also find ideas for learning and just-for-fun activities at the State Library’s website for Kansas Reads to Preschoolers, https://kslib.info/prek. I know I am getting a lot of ideas from this site & the linked Pinboard for supplemental activities and potential crafts.
If you have or know a preschooler (or younger child), I hope you and they will join us for a llama storytime sometime this week! See you there!
 Are you ready for it? I’ve sort of warmed up to the idea.
The previous film, The Man of Steel, left a lot of people shaking their heads. It had many great moments. Lois figuring out who Superman was before he ever joined the Daily Planet was a fantastic change from the comics, and was a huge step forward for the character of Lois Lane. I really liked a lot of the flashback scenes. But then there was the sheer level of devastation in the movie. It didn’t line up with over seven decades of Superman comics, and who we knew Superman to be as a person. Sure superheroes knock things over in movies, but the entire city of Metropolis had to have been destroyed in this film. What is left to protect when your city is a smoldering hole in the ground?
And why did he wait until after it was a hole in the ground to stop General Zod by killing him? An entire city and countless lives being destroyed difficult to swallow. Superman not stopping Zod by any means necessary until he’s about to kill a single innocent family? That may be even more difficult. Though, Superman does kill Zod in the comics to stop him from continuing his death and destruction, there’s something about this presentation that doesn’t ring true.
Superman has always been the light to Batman’s dark and gritty nature. All of DC Comics’ other characters fell in between. Hal Jordan the Green Lantern is an intergalactic policeman, the Flash fights a bunch of guys with gimmicks who, deep down, aren’t bad at heart.
Superman sees the best in others. He doesn’t do for people what they can do for themselves, or make decisions for them. He believes in their human dignity, and the sanctity of life. While he has the powers of a god, and we are lucky that he is a god on our side (unlike Zod, or Marvel’s Loki), he doesn’t flaunt it. He tries to do the right thing. He isn’t enured or corrupted by the ugliness he has faced, and he shows people a better way, just by being himself and doing good in the world. That’s the Superman I grew up with. A guy from Kansas, just trying to do the right thing. And he can leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Don’t believe me? Here’s the shameless promotion of library materials. Among all the other graphic novels you can check out featuring Superman, give the Superman Archive Editions a shot, and see Superman’s grand history at work. Or take a look at Superman For All Seasons, both a classic, and a modern retelling of Superman’s coming of age and decision to become the person comic readers know him as. Type “Superman” into the search block on our catalog page. Dozens of stories will pop up.
So in this new movie, long-retired Bruce Wayne sees the destruction done by two alien gods fighting it out over a city. In fact, he appears to be in the midst of the destruction. What is a guy to do?
Batman is the dark to Superman’s light. He was hardened early in life. He is suspicious, cautious and prepared for anything, no matter how bad or dire the situation. In my understanding of the new movie, it’s entirely reasonable that Batman has decided that these gods are a threat, and that he’s going to solve the Superman problem once and for all.
In every retelling of the Superman and Batman meeting, they see the goodness in each other fairly quickly. Check out our Batman Archive Editions, or the Superman/Batman graphic novels (and animated films). In the Superman/Batman stories, we see the obvious dichotomy between the two characters, represented by their inner monologues on each challenge they face. Clark, as always, has the more positive outlook. Bruce, as always, is waiting for the turn. For the part where Supergirl is not who she says she is (Superman’s cousin) and tries to destroy all of mankind.
It’s hard to not be suspicious when you’re usually right. I think, deep down, Batman is always hoping he’ll be wrong. But just as Superman has a deep sense for humanity’s goodness, Batman always sees their capacity for harm.
Which would be fine, if Batman were only suspicious and always looking for the worst. But Batman always has a plan. He has a plan should his batcave be invaded by his enemies. He has a plan to deal with all the bad guys in Gotham at once (see Batman: War Games). He even has plans to take out the entire Justice League, his allies and friends, should any or all of them go rogue (JLA: Tower of Babel) which can put a bit of a strain on friendships.
That is who Batman is. He isn’t afraid to be the ‘bad guy’ in a sea of good guys. And he is not afraid to come out of retirement to deal with this unknown threat to humanity. Heck, I even accept Ben Affleck as old, fat Batman. I’m ready to see Batman deal with an alien he thinks is going to destroy not just his city, but his world (it’s time for Batman to branch out, anyway).
I’m not fond of the level of destruction in The Man of Steel, but I understand why it was there. And it’s not without precedent. Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern’s home, Coast City was leveled in a hotly debated comic event (Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight). Even Batman had to deal with the destruction of his city in Batman: No Man’s Land. Long dramatic arcs ensued. Can we get the same level of pathos from Superman, when Metropolis really wasn’t ‘his’ city yet? I don’t know. Batman was born for pathos, so I think he’s good to go.
And as for Wonder Woman? We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime we have plenty of Wonder Woman graphic novels to tide you over. Batman has two full shelves of graphic novels, Superman does too. Check them out, or Green Lantern, the Justice League, novels, including Kevin J. Anderson’s Batman/Superman-oriented Enemies and Allies, or any of our DC live-action or animated movies to get you ready for March 25th, 2016 when Superman Vs. Batman premiers.
Upcoming events this week
How to Crochet 101
Our first “How to Crochet 101” class will be held tomorrow. The class will be led by Leslie Bissell, who will show us how to do four basic stitches and how to read a pattern. The classes will continue on November 2nd, 9th, and 16th at 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Unfortunately the class is already full, so we can’t take any last minute sign-ups.
Movie Night (Adults)
This Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. will be the Movie Night for Adults. Have a night out with other adults, enjoy a movie and discuss it afterward.
Family Halloween Party
The library will have a Halloween party this Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. It will be a chance for the kids to show off their costumes, collect some candy, play great games, and win prizes. We’ll have snacks and a chance to build your own monster!
Spooky New Books
Speaking of Halloween, here are a few spooky new fiction books for you to enjoy.
 Candy corn murder
by Leslie Meier
From the book description
Halloween is coming to Tinker’s Cove, Maine, and local reporter Lucy Stone is covering the town’s annual Giant Pumpkin Fest for the Pennysaver. There’s the pumpkin-boat regatta, the children’s Halloween party, the pumpkin weigh-in…even a contest where home-built catapults hurl pumpkins at an old Dodge! But not everything goes quite as planned…
Lucy’s getting very annoyed that her husband Bill and his friend Evan have been working seemingly nonstop on their potentially prize-winning pumpkin catapult. But when the day of the big contest arrives, Evan is nowhere to be found…until a catapulted pumpkin busts open the trunk of the Dodge. Amid the pumpkin gore is a very deceased Evan, bashed in the head and placed in the trunk by someone long before the contest started.
Bill is on the hook for the Halloween homicide—he was the last one to see Evan—so Lucy knows she’s got some serious sleuthing to do…
 Ghost to the Rescue
by Carolyn Hart.
From the book description
When you wish upon a star, you get…Bailey Ruth? You do if you’re a little girl whose mom needs help and you touch the soft heart of Supervisor Wiggins at Heaven’s Department of Good Intentions. Granted it’s not the usual task of an emissary, but then again Bailey Ruth is not your usual emissary. So Wiggins dispatches the spunky spirit to her old hometown of Adelaide, Oklahoma, to help a single mother and struggling writer find some creative solutions to her problems.
Deidre Davenport is just about broke, trying to support her two children, and has her hopes pinned on getting a faculty job with the Goddard College English department. Jay Knox, who is in charge of the writer’s conference she’s participating in, will decide who gets the job, but he’s more interested in her body than her body of work.
Not long after his advances are rejected, Knox turns up dead—and Deirdre’s fingerprints are found on the murder weapon. Bailey Ruth knows Deirdre is innocent. Now she must find out who really knocked off Knox…if Deirdre and her family are ever going to have a happy ending.
 The fifth house of the heart
by Ben Tripp.
From the book description
Filled with characters as menacing as they are memorable, this chilling twist on vampire fiction packs a punch in the bestselling tradition of ’Salem’s Lot by Stephen King.
Asmodeus “Sax” Saxon-Tang, a vainglorious and well-established antiques dealer, has made a fortune over many years by globetrotting for the finest lost objects in the world. Only Sax knows the true secret to his success: at certain points of his life, he’s killed vampires for their priceless hoards of treasure.
But now Sax’s past actions are quite literally coming back to haunt him, and the lives of those he holds most dear are in mortal danger. To counter this unnatural threat, and with the blessing of the Holy Roman Church, a cowardly but cunning Sax must travel across Europe in pursuit of incalculable evil—and immeasurable wealth—with a ragtag team of mercenaries and vampire killers to hunt a terrifying, ageless monster…one who is hunting Sax in turn.
The one with the comic books, and video games. The one who thinks reading fan fiction is A-OK, and the one who counts two episodes of subtitled anime as one hour of reading during summer reading time. I’m willing to do teen programming that celebrates Hawkeye as The Best Avenger Ever, and another explaining why Santa Claus is actually a vampire.
It’s perfectly plausible that I have never read a book in my life, and that I stay up late every night playing video games, and that is why I work evenings at the library. The second one is only partially true; I’m not sure if Bejeweled counts as a video game and I only play Pokemon on Sundays, when I have four to six straight hours to dedicate to my Pokemon Journey.
Somehow, I managed to get through a theater conservatory, a writing program and library school. So I assume my ability to read remains in-tact (but it’s far less thrilling without Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pizzas as a prize. Oh my 80’s youth.) I thought about doing a PhD in history, but a bunch of history professors keep trying to talk me out of it because the field is filled with drama and squabbling over dead people and wars that only they care about. Sounds like my kind of gig, actually. I want to argue with white-haired academics about whether anything at all should be named after General McClellan, since he was obviously The Worst general of the entire Civil War.
I say this because I want you to know your kids will be alright. My mom was worried for a while; I spent several years in high school only reading Batman comic books, and speaking solely in Star Wars quotes. But I think I turned out ok. There’s no shame in being interested, nay, consumed with popular culture. It is our culture, after all.
While I love classical music and took bel canto voice lessons for fifteen years, I actually have more in common with The Faceless Old Woman Who Lives In Your House, from Welcome to Night Vale, than I do Puccini. At least The Faceless Old Woman and I like the same TV shows. Puccini is a dead white guy from a musical dynasty in late 19th century Italy. My Italian knowledge begins and ends with the words on the menu at Ruffino’s.
Star Wars and comic books were my mythology growing up. I didn’t have an oral history of tales remembered in the stars, nor did my grandmother fill me with fairy tales meant to scare children straight while teaching them the hard lessons of the world. My mythology, and in some ways, heritage, is owned entirely by large corporations. That’s why fan fiction exists. It’s a way for people to take charge of their mythology, and to own it and evolve it. Pop culture has begat still more pop culture, in that sense. And that’s OK.
Master Chief from the Halo franchise is apparently going mercenary, and Iron Man and Captain America are about to go head to head on the big screen over the issue of superhero registration (the complete Civil War graphic novel set will soon be released, and available for your reading pleasure at a library near you–namely, ours). Mr Holmes, a sleeper Indy hit starring Ian McKellen focuses on the later years of the great pop culture icon Sherlock Holmes, and is based on the novel A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin (also available for checkout at Your Friendly Neighborhood Library), reminds us that our cultural heroes do get old. Memory fades and friends die, even for The Great Detective.
Right now I’m enjoying Batman: Arkham Knight, a game that came with our new PS4. The art and graphics get better and better with each new game in the series, and the story line is growing increasingly complex. Batman begins to hallucinate his dead arch-nemesis, the Joker, at one point. Which is a clever story-telling way to make the hero, and the player confront our own complicated relationships with the nature of evil. And I love watching the afternoon kids play Madden 2016, which has evolved into a game requiring teamwork, strategy planning, and quicker hand-eye coordination than I can manage.
I think those kids are turning out alright, too. They problem-solve levels of games together, they create strategies, and they share. They actually pass the controller over when their turn is over. Which isn’t too bad for boys and girls who are learning all kinds of creative and technical skills through video games.
I’m glad I get to share that time with them, and my love for popular culture. And if I can sneak in some history or science, I will do that too. Did you know that O Mio Babbino Caro, a standard of the classical music genre, is about an overly emotional teenage girl threatening to throw herself into River Arno if her dad doesn’t let her marry her boyfriend, and also she wants dad to pay for the ring? And let’s talk about Batman villains and the Epic of Gilgamesh. There’s always a little something for everybody at the library.
Until next time–see you at our Friday Movie Day on Friday, Anime and Doctor Who clubs on Saturday, and our Family Halloween Party on the 31st! I expect to see you all in plenty of pop culture-oriented costumes!
 October is a great time for kids here at the library, as we have all sorts of fun stuff planned just for them this month! We will have a Family Halloween Party on Saturday, October 31 starting at 10 a.m. in The Learning Center. Kids can show off their Halloween costumes, play games, win prizes, make Halloween-themed crafts, and eat a snack. The kids we have at our afterschool program really enjoy Bingo, so we’ll be playing a Halloween-themed Bingo for prizes. Don’t worry, we’ll also have goodies to take home at the end of the party. Feel free to come & go as you please, the party goes until the library closes at 1.
This week, kids can get their faces painted with a Halloween design on Thursday night at 6 pm or Saturday morning at 11 am. Local artist Judy Yates will be sharing her face painting talents. According to her website, Judy uses paints that are “hypoallergenic and especially designed for children’s skin.” Her website is at http://faceartbyjudy.com/ for those wanting to preview what her wonderful face paintings look like.
Also this week, school is out on Friday the 16th, so we will be showing a Family Movie and doing an easy craft at 2 pm. There may be a family-friendly Halloween movie to enjoy with our friends. Pass the snacks and lemonade!
And on Tuesdays throughout October at our afterschool club (4 pm – 6 pm in The Learning Center), kids can learn about Halloween costumes and makeup. They’ll learn to make simple costume accessories and do their own Halloween-themed makeup. Get some cool ideas and handmade costume items just in time to plan your Halloween costume! And of course we always have other art projects, board games, and other activities at Afterschool, if you’d like a break from all the Halloween stuff.
At storytime for the rest of October, we’ll be sharing Halloween-season stories, songs, and crafts! Our storytimes are Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11:15 am, and Tuesdays at 6 pm. All ages of kids (and their parents and caregivers) are welcome. Make your own Frankenstein’s Monster, design the perfect paper Jack-o’-lantern, and more!
 This week, we’ll be reading a book by one of my favorite authors, Mo Willems. Willems used to write for Sesame Street, and his books are subtly hilarious. This week, we’ll be reading his book called Leonardo, the Terrible Monster. Along with some other great books about monsters, we’ll also be singing and enjoying monster-themed songs and making the aforementioned Frankenstein’s Monster. But don’t be scared, he’s more cute than scary.
But grownups, don’t feel left out! If you’re stressed, why not come enjoy some relaxation at our first Adult Coloring session, this Thursday at noon. If you can’t come this Thursday, don’t worry, there will be another Adult Coloring session on Oct. 22 at 6:30 pm. Take a break from work, kids, and/or real life and find some zen with quiet, soothing coloring. We will provide the coloring pages and colored pencils. Yes, there will be snacks, too.
What’s happening this week at the library
 Break out those crock pot recipes and join us tomorrow for Recipe swap. On the third Monday of every month at 6:30 p.m., we have our Recipe swap, which is a chance to show off your favorite recipes and bring in a sample of the finished product. Every month is a different theme and this month’s theme is crock pot recipes.
On Tuesday between 4 and 6 p.m., kids can come to our afterschool club and learn how to solve crimes using a forensic science kit. The Afterschool Learning Club meets Monday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. with different activities each day of the week.
Wizards, Magicians, and Sorcerers
J.K. Rowling brought wizards and magic to the world’s attention in the late 90’s, but she’s not the only bestselling author to give us stories of wizards, magicians, or sorcerers. Here are a few of the adult books on the subject that the library has showcased in this month’s book display.
 Uprooted
by Naomi Novik
From the book description
Naomi Novik, author of the New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed Temeraire novels, introduces a bold new world rooted in folk stories and legends, as elemental as a Grimm fairy tale.
“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”
Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.
Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.
 The sword of the south
by David Weber
From the book description
Know thyself. It’s always good to know who you are, but sometimes that’s a little difficult.
Kenhodan has no last name, because he has no past . . . or not one he remembers, anyway. What he does have are a lot of scars and a lot of skills some exhilarating and some terrifying and a purpose. Now if he only knew where he’d gotten them and what that purpose was . . . .
Wencit of Rm, the most powerful wizard in the world, knows the answers to Kenhodan’s questions, but he can’t or won’t share them with him. Except to inform him that he’s a critical part of Wencit’s millennium-long battle to protect Norfressa from conquest by dark sorcery.
But in the far northern port city of Belhadan, an eleven-year-old girl with a heart of harp music knows the answers to all of Kenhodan’s questions. . . and dares not share them with anyone, even the ancient wild wizard who loves her more dearly than life itself.
It’s not easy to face the future when you can’t even remember your own past, but if saving an entire world from evil sorcerers, demons, devils, and dark gods was easy, anyone could do it.
 The house of shattered wings
by Aliette de Bodard
From the book description
In the late twentieth century, the streets of Paris are lined with haunted ruins, the aftermath of a Great War between arcane powers. The Grand Magasins have been reduced to piles of debris, Notre-Dame is a burnt-out shell, and the Seine has turned black with ashes and rubble and the remnants of the spells that tore the city apart. But those that survived still retain their irrepressible appetite for novelty and distraction, and The Great Houses still vie for dominion over France’s once grand capital.
Once the most powerful and formidable, House Silverspires now lies in disarray. Its magic is ailing; its founder, Morningstar, has been missing for decades; and now something from the shadows stalks its people inside their very own walls.
Within the House, three very different people must come together: a naive but powerful Fallen angel; an alchemist with a self-destructive addiction; and a resentful young man wielding spells of unknown origin. They may be Silverspires’ salvation—or the architects of its last, irreversible fall. And if Silverspires falls, so may the city itself.
Our Afternoons @ the Library program is in full swing for school-age kids. We’ve had a lot of game play, building of things, and creativity expressed by everyone who has shown up.
Having a weekly door-prize drawing does help, of course. From 4-6pm, Monday through Thursday, the Learning Center and the rest of the library is buzzing with children and young adults. On Thursdays, we let the young adults have a special area away from the other kids, where we can do slightly older stuff. It’s nice to hear the children playing and learning, and to talk to them. Boy do we talk. I know absolutely everything there is to know about the town’s water park, thanks to one girl, and about one young man’s frustrations with Ant Man not being part of the Avengers yet, in the movie universe. We play, we experiment, and sometimes the craft project actually comes out the way we intend. Apparently that tiny triangle piece goes on the owl’s head. It only took us two hours to figure it out, the other day.
I know the kids enjoy it; they wouldn’t keep coming back. But I enjoy it too. I get to hear their ideas, watch them have fun and discover things, and maybe have an impact on their growing and learning.
I’m getting another chance to do that, starting tomorrow, the 21st. Monday at 5pm, the library is hosting it’s first Girl Scout meeting. Troop #690559 is about to start a year of discovery for girls in grades kindergarten through third. It will be my first time as a volunteer, and not as a scout, so I have as much learning to do as the girls! It should be fun for all of us. (If your child is interested, there is still time to register either at the meeting, or online at kansasgirlscouts.org)
We’ve also discovered adult coloring books. It seems that we’re a bit on the back end of this trend; people all over the Internet are enjoying these intricate pages, meant to reduce stress while inspiring creativity. We’ve been passing around a book at the library, so everyone that works here can color a page. And next month we’ll be having two coloring play dates for adults. Thursday, October 15th at noon, and Thursday the 22nd at 6:30 pm, we’ll be hosting an adult color-in, so we can all enjoy this new hobby together.
Lastly, my major learning experience for next month is going to be all of our makeup and costuming classes. I’ll be working with the younger kids on Tuesdays, and the older kids on Thursdays, and a professional artist will be coming into the library on a Thursday night and Saturday. We’ll be making animal ears and tails, painting faces like creepy dolls, making hoods out of pillowcases, and working on the occasional obligatory zombie face. I have a theater background, but it’s sure to be an interesting time, doing so many makeup and costume programs in such short succession. I’m hoping to be a red fairy for Halloween, so I’d better get my practice in, now!
One of my favorite parts of my job is sharing stories with the kids at storytime. Storytime has been something that I’ve enjoyed since I was little. My mom will tell you how I asked her to read Green Eggs and Ham again and again when I was a preschooler – and I had the book memorized, so she couldn’t skip a page, lest I complain. There’s also a picture of me in preschool playing “teacher,” reading (or pretending to read) a story to the rest of the kids. Fast forward a couple of decades, I remember when I worked in childcare, I loved when I got the chance to read to the kids one-on-one. The kids would ask for one book again and again – Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. There’s just something about the rhythm and the part where all the letters fall off the tree that makes kids love that one, and I loved being able to read it to them.
 Now that I’m a Children’s Librarian, I get to read to kids three times a week. We have Storytimes where all ages are welcome on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 11:15 am, and Tuesday evenings at 6 pm. The kids get to experience the fun of hearing a few stories, but that’s not all! They also get to sing some songs (often with actions, for added fun) and make a craft that relates to the theme of the week.
Believe it or not, these activities have been shown to be beneficial for children’s learning. Even before they can read, children are learning that letters make up words – and we can reinforce this lesson by reading books aloud to them. Songs are a good way for younger children who are still learning to talk to learn more words. Songs also help older children gain awareness of the individual sounds (phonics) that make up words. And crafts help children remember what they have read about.
So, if you make an ice cream craft, you can later look at it and remember reading and singing about ice cream. And of course having fun at storytime helps kids learn that books are fun, and this will hopefully encourage them to read once they learn how! Even if a child can’t quite pay attention to all of the stories or even a whole story, they are still learning that books are fun. This is one of the most important things to learn about books at a young age, since a background of positive interactions with books will make kids more willing to do the hard part of sounding out words later.
Turns out that this week is “National Farm Animals Awareness Week,” so at storytime this week we’ll be reading about one of the most popular farm animals that you see in the fields of Kansas, the cow! I don’t want to give away all of my secrets, but the craft will also be cow-related. Bring your ability to “moo.” Join us at the library on Tuesday or Thursday morning at 11:15 or Tuesday night at 6 for fun with cow stories, songs, and a craft.
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