Celebrating the Onset of Spring With Children

March 19, 2015February 24, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

March 20th is the official first day of Spring, and many of us are more than ready to enjoy the season. It might be a little to early to get out and seriously garden but it is not too early to talk about the season with our kids, grandchildren, students, and so on. So, here are some wonderful easy nonfiction and picture books to share with our younger readers about the wonders of Spring.

Spring by Ron Hirschi

And Then it’s Spring by Julie Fogliano

Spring is Here! by Will Hillenbrand

How Robin Saved Spring by Debbie Ouellet

Sun Above and Blooms Below: a Springtime of Opposites by Felicia Sanzari Chernesky

Hooray for Spring! by Kazuo Iwamura

Everything Spring by Jill Esbaum

Spring Things by Bob Raczka

Let’s Look at Spring by Sarah L. Schuette

The Spring Equinox: Celebrating the Greening of the Earth by Ellen Jackson

What Happens in Spring? by Sara L. Latta

Spring Goes Squish!: a Vibrant Volume of Vociferous Vernal Verse by Marty Kelley

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For even more spring seasonal selections you might want to check out; Spring: an Alphabet Acrostic by Steven Schnur, The Twelve Days of Springtime: a School Counting Book by Deborah Lee Rose, My Spring Robin by Anne Rockwell, Crafts to Make in the Spring by Kathy Ross, How Do You Know it’s Spring? by Allan Fowler, The Busy Spring by Carl Emerson, It’s Spring! by Samantha Berger and Pamela Chanko, When Spring Comes by Robert Maass, What Blossoms in Spring? by Jenna Lee, A to Z of Spring by Tracy Nelson Maurer, A New Beginning: Celebrating the Spring Equinox by Wendy Pfeffer.

My New Hobby – Flower Arranging

March 17, 2015March 3, 2015 / Linda / 1 Comment

I love flowers and would have a house full of flowering houseplants if I didn’t have a black thumb. Unfortunately, nothing stays alive for very long. Recently, I decided to try my hand on buying cut flowers and making decorative arrangements. Turns out, my black thumb doesn’t affect this at all and the arrangements have lasted long enough to satisfy my love of having flowers in my home. I have a limited number of vessels to use, so I’m keeping things pretty simple right now. But just in case I want to take my hobby to the next level, I took a look at what the library has in the way of books to help me learn more about flower arranging. The library has a very nice selection of books. If you are looking for a new hobby, or already dabble in flower arranging, here are some books that might inspire you.

Flower Arranging The American Way: A World Association of Flower Arrangers Book – A book with more than 250 color illustrations showcases more than 250 flower arrangements by some of the most gifted amateur arrangers.

Keiko’s Ikebana – Keiko Kubo – An introduction to this international art form that is both practical and contemporary. Keiko’s unique approach combines traditional techniques with modern tastes, incorporating influences ranging from sculpture to today’s Western styles. The result is a one-of-a-kind look that is authentic, easy to create and attractive.

Flower by Flower: a practical and inspirational guide to the art of flower arranging – Tadhg Ryan and Anna Selby – Offers inspirational and practical information on creating fifty fresh-flower arrangements, providing projects for every mood and season that are affordable and easy to create.

The Book of Fresh Flowers: a complete guide to selecting and arranging – Malcolm Hillier – A comprehensive guide to creating flower arrangements, with suggestions on how to grow and buy the best flowers, as well as the techniques of the professionals

The Art of Arranging Flowers – Lynn Branard – After 20 years as an intuitive florist who has helped her friends, neighbors and customers with their romances, celebrations and sympathy gestures, Ruby Jewell looks to the power of that community to heal her floundering spirit after her sister’s death.

For more titles, take a look on the lower level of the library in section 745.92.

Super Pi Day!

March 14, 2015March 11, 2015 / Susan O. / Leave a comment

Super Pi day is coming!
Whether or not you’re a math aficionado, you may remember pi to be the ratio of a circle’s circumference (the length all the way around) to its diameter (the width across the circle). This number is symbolized by the Greek letter ∏. Pi is a unique number in that despite computers dividing it out to millions of places, no number sequence has been found to repeat itself – a number stretching as far to infinity as we can imagine it.

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Generally, Pi is abbreviated to 3.14 to make it manageable, and every March 14 social media will be inundated with Pi(e) memes and many pies will be baked in the number’s honor (I admit, I’m guilty of this one, too, even though I avoid higher math at all costs). This year, however, is a Super Pi day – at 9:26:54 a.m., the time will match Pi to ten digits – 3.14159265358, a phenomena that rarely happens.

The first known celebration of Pi day was by Larry Shaw, a physicist at the San Francisco Exploratorium, in 1988. Staff and public alike marched around a circular space and enjoyed eating fruit pies.

Celebrate Pi day by enjoying circles, even if you don’t feel like doing the math. Spin your wheels, have a donut with your coffee, or perhaps just spin your desk chair to enjoy the centrifugal force. Or, go all the way and enjoy some Pi(e), such as this simple blueberry pie (which can be made sugar-free with an artificial sweetener):

Blueberry Pie (because blueberries are circular, too!) :

4 cups blue berries
1 9” baked pie crust
¾ cup of sugar
¼ cup of water
3 Tbsp of cornstarch
¼ tsp salt
1 Tbsp Gran Marnier liqueur
1 tsp butter
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

Bake your pie crust, let it cool.
Spread 2 cups of the berries in the pie crust. Refrigerate until chillled.
Simmer remaining 2 cups of berries, sugar, water, cornstarch, and salt in a heavy-bottomed saucepan until thickened, stirring frequently (@ 7 minutes). Remove from heat.
Mix in Gran Marnier and butter. Cool completely.
Pour blueberry sauce over berries in piecrust. Refrigerate until welll chilled.
Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

Enjoy!

United States of Pie by Adrienne Kane

Another Literary Loss; Saying Goodbye to Terry Pratchett

March 13, 2015March 14, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

Fantasy writer Terry Pratchett, creator of the Discworld series and author of more than 70 books, died on March 12 2015. He was 66 and suffered from a rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Pratchett was best known for Discworld, a series of more than 40 comic novels set in a teeming fantasy world. He has sold more than 65 million books worldwide, and his novels have pratchettcolorof been translated into several dozen languages. Pratchett was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours.

Lets remember this wonderful author by reading (or rereading) some of our favorite books from Terry Pratchett. Here is a list of some of my favorite titles to get your started.

The Color of Magic: the First Discworld Novel
A slightly disorganized and somewhat naive interplanetary tourist named Twosome joins up with a bumbling wizard and embarks on a chaotic voyage through a world filled withmonsters and dragons, heroes and knaves.

Dodger
In an alternative version of Victorian London, a seventeen-year-old Dodger, a street urchin, rises in life when he saves a mysterious girl, meets Charles Dickens, and unintentionally puts a stop to the murders of Sweeny Todd.

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
The world is going to end next Saturday, but there are a few problems–the Antichrist has been misplaced, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride motorcycles, and the representatives from heaven and hell decide that they like the human race.

Snuff: a Novel of Discworld
Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch attempts to take a vacation, but, as usual, nothing goes as planned.

Nation
After a tsunami destroys all that they have ever known, Mau, an island boy, and Daphne, an aristocratic English girl, together with a small band of refugees, set about rebuilding their community and the things that matter to them.

The Science of Discworld by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen
The wizards of Discworld accidentally create a new universe, the one which houses Earth, and proceed to explain the science of this place, interweaving fantasy chapters with those that explain actual scientific principles.

More great books include: I Shall Wear Midnight, Only You Can save Mankind, The Carpet People, The long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, Thud!: a Novel of Discworld, The Wee Free Men, Wintersmith, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Thief of Time: a Novel of Discworld, The Carpet People, A Hat Full of Sky, The Fifth Elephant, and Going Postal: a Novel of Discworld.