Current events books for middle and high school students

Thanks to a grant from the Friends of the Library, the Library is adding 50 new books from Greenhaven Press, an acclaimed publisher of quality nonfiction for middle and high school students.  Each anthology presents a wide spectrum of views on a particular political, social, or economic topic to help students understand various controversies in today's complex world.  Selections are authored by recognized experts and accompanied by useful charts, graphs and bibliographies, so they're a great resource for students conducting research or writing reports.  Some of the topics addressed by these new books are:  immigration, performance enhancing drugs, poverty and homelessness, medical ethics, censorship, civil liberties, gay marriage, and media violence.  INSPIRE, Indiana's Virtual Library (a service provided by the Indiana State Library) also maintains a current events database called TOPICsearch.  You can access INSPIRE through the Library's downloads and databases.

What to read after Gone Girl?

Now that you have read Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, are you looking for another exciting read? There are several authors who touch on similar subjects. Themes of missing persons are well done by Linwood Barclay in Never Look Away and Deb Caletti’s He’s Gone.  I read Barclay’s novel and was up till the wee hours finishing it. Talk about a strange disappearance!  This was the first book by Barclay that I had read. I plan to read them all.  In Deb Caletti’s suspense filled novel the protagonist’s husband disappears without a trace. This book asks the question: How well do we really know our spouse?

A book about family secrets, The Dinner by Herman Koch, had Gillian Flynn herself saying it was, “Chilling, nasty, smart, shocking and unputdownable.” Other books filled with family secrets are Defending Jacob by William Landay and The Drowning House by Elizabeth Black. In Landay’s book, a respected district attorney struggles to find the truth when his son is accused of murdering a fellow student. Black’s Drowning House is steeped in the local history of Galveston, Texas and portrays two families linked by tragedy and time.

For pure suspense you might try Heartbroken by Lisa Unger; Afterwards by Rosamund Lipton or Cover of Snow by Jenny Milchman.

For more ideas come to the Reference desk on the 2^nd floor and speak with one of our Librarians and/or check out the genre bookmarks just behind the reference desk.

April Is National Poetry Month

Don’t know how to celebrate National Poetry Month? Try playing Exquisite Corpse, one of 30 Ways to Celebrate suggested by The American Academy of Poets.  Not as ghoulish as it sounds, Exquisite Corpse is played like “Mad Libs,” where each player adds a string of words according to a given formula (for example noun, adjective, verb, noun) without reading what others have written. The result is “a surprising—sometimes absurd—yet often beautiful” collaborative poem.  The Academy also recommends chalking a poem on the sidewalk, packing a poem to read with lunch, or watching a poetry movie like Dead Poet’s Society (one of my all-time favorites!)  You can also celebrate by reading a poem by your favorite poet, or, if you don’t have a favorite poet, checking out The Pushcart Prize: The Best of the Small Presses.  Celebrate poetry all year long at a session of Poetry on Brick Street at Eagle Creek Coffee Company on the 1st Thursday of every month.

The Chickens Are Coming! The Chickens Are Coming!

Yes, it is THAT time of year again!
The time when your library turns into a hands-on life science laboratory!


Join us these next few weeks for the following programs and activities:

Introduction to Egg Incubation and Development
Monday, April 22nd
6:30-7:00pm
Registration required.
Families with children ages 2-12. Boone County Educator Doug Akers will answer your questions about the development, incubation and care of chickens and ducks. You will learn more about our chick hatching project at the Library (April 29 - May 5) and ways you can become involved through our website. Live chickens will display their unique plumage!

13th Annual Egg Hatching and 24/7 Webcam
Monday, April 29th through Saturday, May 4th (or until eggs hatch, whichever comes first!)
Visit in person during library hours; view the webcam all day (24/7)
Incubator and eggs supplied by Boone County Educator Doug Akers
For live webcam activity, go to www.zionsville.lib.in.us and click the banner link.
For blog posts, go to http://hmmplyouthservices.blogspot.com.
For tweets, follow us on Twitter @ZPLinfo.

Baby Chicks
Friday, May 3rd
10:00am and 1:00pm
Registration required.
Ages 3-6. Let’s talk about the chicks hatching at the Library! Read stories about chicks and other baby animals, make a craft, and have fun imagining what it would be like to hatch out of an egg. You might get to hold a baby chick!

What’s in Your Bucket?

Marie Albertson, mother, grandmother, former librarian, and adventure-seeking senior citizen, retired at age seventy with a "rose-colored bucket list" of adventures to pursue. From sky-diving to learning the flying trapeze, competing in a triathlon and learning kayaking, visiting the Great Wall of China and the pyramids of Egypt, she achieved over fifty of her dreams. Her book, “Old Librarians Never Die, They Jump Out of Airplanes,” chronicles her journeys and offers plenty of advice to start your own, whether in far-off lands or here in the Hoosier state. A popular motivational speaker, Marie will be at the Library for “Adventuring Through Your Senior Years,” on Thursday, April 25th at 2PM. Book signing follows the presentation.

Check out just a few of Marie’s tips:

• You are never too old to seek and find adventure in every day. 
• Do something different each day, even if it’s something as simple as brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand.
• Realize there are adventuring opportunities within almost every budget. Do some research to discover affordable activities in your area.
• Live in the present tense; it’s much more interesting than beginning your sentences with, “I remember when…”

While you wait until April 25th to meet Marie, if you’re in the mood for a comedy that finds Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman making their way through a life-enriching to-do list, the Library has “The Bucket List” on DVD for you to borrow. Afterward, get out there and start your own adventures!

Introducing….Donna!

A little lady with a lot of heart!

 For those of you who are frequent Library visitors (and we hope that means you!), you may have seen this friendly face shelving media on the second floor every Monday and Wednesday.  Donna is just one of our many wonderful volunteers who graciously donate their time to help out at the Library. 

Donna has been volunteering here for over 3 years!   What keeps her coming back?  She says that it is the people who work here, and the people she comes in contact with, that she enjoys the most.   Some of her other interests include listening to music - “Any, in moderation,” she says - and dancing to salsa music.  If you are lucky enough, you may be able to strike up a conversation with Donna at the Library or get her to show you a few of her salsa steps.   Donna enjoys reading and frequently checks out library books to read aloud to her friend Angie who resides in a memory care unit.  Amazingly, she also finds time to participate in the ZUMC choir.

All of our terrific volunteers will be recognized later this month at a luncheon in their honor.  Last year, Donna was given special recognition as she logged the most hours among all of our volunteers!

Feeling motivated to volunteer now?  For more information, look at our volunteer opportunities page here.  There are a wide assortment of opportunities to suit your interests and time availability.   Simply fill out the application and return it to us.  We would love to have you join our team as volunteers really do make a difference!

I don’t know about you, but when I grow up, I want to be just like Donna!

 
By Jackie J.

Grow it, Preserve it, Enjoy it

Zionsville residents are many things: they are friendly, take pride in their community, support their library, and are avid gardeners who make good use of our collection of gardening books and gardening programs. Not only do gardens make outdoor spaces beautiful, they can be rich sources for sustainable living. Growing your own fruits and vegetables is rewarding in many ways, not the least of which is enjoying the often brighter and tastier flavor of a freshly-picked strawberry or tomato. How to enjoy the fruits of your labors throughout the year? Many people learn the art of canning and preserving in order to enjoy their home-grown food well past its harvest. The Library has many books about canning and preserving, such as the “Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving: 300 Delicious and Creative Recipes for Today” and “Jam it, Pickle it, Cure It.” Also, check out the National Center for Home Food Preservation for tips on home food preservation, including curing, smoking and pickling foods.

For a beginner’s primer on home canning, come to the “Canning Your Own Produce” program taught by master food preserver Suzanne Krowiak of Indy Food Swappers on Tuesday, April 23rd at 6PM. She’ll teach the basics of water bath canning, go over important safety guidelines and discuss the best foods for water bath canning. You’ll watch her conduct a complete preserves recipe from start to finish, and she’ll answer your home canning questions. Indy Food Swappers is an Indianapolis-based, free community food swap whose collective goal is to “inspire creativity, build community and spread good cheer.” Their Frequently Asked Questions page explains the food swap process and states, “If it’s edible and you made it from scratch, grew it in your garden, or foraged it, you can bring it. You’ll see it all at food swaps: jams; jellies; bread; jars of soup; pies; fudge; spice mixes; homemade yogurt;  homebrewed soda, lemonade, or kombucha;  homegrown veggies, fruits, or herbs; salad dressing; cookies; homemade potato chips; foraged mushrooms, greens, or berries.”

Lately, there is a lot of buzz about preserved lemons, including this NPR article I stumbled upon a few days ago. Indy Food Swappers has a preserved lemons recipe, too, and you can use those lemons in “Hummus with Preserved Lemons.” Sounds delicious. Come to the Library today and learn how to make the edibles in your garden last.

Teen Volunteers Wanted!

If you are currently in grades 6-12 and are looking for something to do this summer, the Library can help.  You can be a part of Teen Volunteer Corps!  Students will volunteer only two hours a week for eight weeks, that's only 16 hours!  What will you do?  Have you ever done Summer Reading and picked up prizes?  That is what you will do, actually that is only a small portion of what you will do.  Sure you will add to someone's summer excitement by giving them prizes for reading, but you will also shelf a few books, straighten the Library, clean supplies and materials, but most important of all, you can help be the reason Summer Reading and the Public Library is an awesome place to be. 

So what do you have to do?  Start by filling out an application.  Applications are also available at the Library as well as at the school media centers.  At the end of May, students who have turned in applications will get a phone call notifying them of their shift day and time.  For example, every Tuesday from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.  You can also choose whether to work only on the first floor (Youth Summer Reading) or only on the second floor (Teen Summer Reading).  Students will get a free t-shirt to wear during their shifts and those who volunteer 16 hours or more will get an invite to a special event (no details yet, we're still planning).  Will summer vacation or summer camp cause you to miss your shift?  No problem!  Just pick up another shift any time.  Need more reason to volunteer?  If you're a parent reading this, it will get your child out of the house and give them valuable customer service and work experience.  If you're a student reading this, it will get you out of the house and away from your family for a few hours.  All kidding aside, it is a great program for students in grades 6-12 and our staff is flexible and willing to work with teens who are interested in small commitment that can make a big difference.

The Library now has Insanity & P90X!

Are you ready?  These programs are sweeping the nation as the best workouts to get you in shape.

With Insanity, the creator Shaun T has designed ten workouts to take intervals to the next level.  There is no equipment needed for any of these workouts, you are your own gym.  You will perform plyometric, resistance and cardiovascular moves.  Of course, Shaun is famous for his previous abdominal workouts, and will give you plenty of it here as well.

The intense workout standard is Tony Horton’s P90X.  It consists of 12 workouts.  You will need weights or resistance bands.  Also recommended are a yoga mat and a chin-up bar.  You will use the weights as well as your body for resistance.  Cardio, plyometrics, abdominal work, martial arts and yoga are included.

Each DVD is checked out separately.  This will allow you to customize your workout program to meet your fitness goals.   You can even create your own program by mixing DVDs from both sets.   You can locate these in our non-fiction DVD section.