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Having grown up in a family of six sisters (and two brothers), I understand the influences, cooperation and competition that six sisters often have for each other. The similar interests, wildly divergent ones, pet names shared, and shifting alliances.

The Mitford sisters:  Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica, and Deborah were born between 1904 and 1920, so their youth encompassed the roaring and irreverent 1920s as well as the anxious, and violent pre-war period before WW II. The last of the Mitford sisters, Deborah, died only two years ago.

They had an idyllic childhood on a country estate, and were left mainly to themselves, a nanny and a tutor. They were almost totally home-schooled. They read deeply books from their parent’s library and were fascinated by the world of ideas. All except Pamela, who loved farming and developed close connections with animals and the land. Just before dying she sighed and said she wished only for one more hunt.

Reviews, Think Library , Family, Nonfiction
December 14, 2016
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Peter Brown’s foray into middle-grade literature, The Wild Robot is a heartwarming story about a robot stranded on an island only populated by animals. Our heroine, the robot Roz, must learn how to survive on the island and how to coexist with the variety of animals who already inhabit the island. Roz is programmed to learn and adapt to her surroundings and eventually she learns how to communicate with the animals.

Kids , Adventure, Animals, Friendship
December 13, 2016
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The Journey by Francesca Sanna is the culmination of interviews the author collected at a refugee camp and is their combined story. This beautifully illustrated book tells the tale of one family as they are forced to flee their home and travel through forests, wade rivers, clamber over walls, and sail across the sea to find a safe place to live. The illustrations are surreal and mysterious, balancing the reader between both the real and the fantastic.

Kids , Picture Book
December 13, 2016
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Heartless is set before the events of Alice in Wonderland and tells the story of Cath, daughter of a Marquess who has caught the eye of the King of Hearts, but really just wants to open a bakery. Cath is an unconventional lady already, but when the new Joker catches her eye and her heart, she finds herself moving away from quirky and unconventional to all out rebel. She is determined to make her own way in the world, but her need to please her parents and her King may hold her back.

Think Library, Teens, Reviews
December 8, 2016

Two winners were chosen to go on to the VOYA (Voices of Youth Advocates) Teen Poetry Contest from MCPL. Congratulations to Melanie Muniz and Huangzewen Qian!

Happily Ever Afters and Toys

Melanie Muniz

Age 17

We have reached the time between adulthood and innocence

We are expected to trade our

Dolls for dollars

Trains and Teddy Bears for time-keeps

Sand Castles for Swords

Teens, Think Library
December 7, 2016
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Fifty per cent of all North American children experience the divorce of their parents. Talented author Ann Patchett explores her own family’s divorce in this novel, altered, of course, as all fiction is.

A chance meeting at a 1960s christening causes two families to divide and then merge in new ways.  The novel jumps around in the lives of the Cousinses and Keatings. Fix Keating is a Los Angeles cop, and Bert Cousins, an attorney who moves to Virginia. When Cousins falls hard for Keating’s wife, Beverly, at the christening, two families are forever tied though they end up living across the continent from each other.

The novel proceeds from the perfectly realized christening—where many of the guests are cops and the families of cops, and many of the partiers get drunk including some of the children, to one lakeside vacation where the blended children of the two families seek their own adventures while their parent and step-parent laze away in bed until mid-afternoon.

Reviews, Think Library , Family, Fiction
December 6, 2016

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Stop Motion is a magic filming technique that makes inanimate objects look like they are moving all by themselves. All it takes is a simple iPad app and some playdough to make a Stop Motion masterpiece.

Kids , Science
November 23, 2016
YA Graphic Novels: Younger Teens
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Graphic Novels feature some of the best storytelling you'll find anywhere! We bet you can't read just one!

Genre
November 9, 2016

Spice up your Thanksgiving with one of these intriguing thrillers or mysteries set on or near Thanksgiving. Whether you like a cozy mystery or prefer an edge of your seat thriller there's something for everyone to enjoy during the Thanksgiving holiday. 

Recommended Fiction
October 31, 2016
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Can’t say when the last time I read a book written by a seventeen-year old, but this memoir by a high school student was touching and well-written despite Nicolaia Rips' youth. Growing up in New York’s famed Chelsea Hotel gives one a head start, at least when it comes to knowing interesting characters.

The Chelsea’s fame reached its ascendency in the 60s and 70s with noteworthy residents:  Leonard Cohen, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Patsy Smith, who wrote her own memoir about it, Just Kids.

First Nicolaia describes how she came into being. Her mom was a globe-trotting artist, and her dad had zero interest in raising a child, but somehow the artist got pregnant, and the couple began a new way of life. Though not immediately.

While pregnant, her Mom traveled through Europe and along the Silk Road in Asia. Her dad, a non-practicing lawyer and writer, stayed in New York and added a psychiatrist’s office to his daily rounds of coffee shops. He also denied that he was the father, accusing a gay friend for parenting the child. However, once Nicolaia was born, he came around and warmly embraced being a dad, but still the family remained footloose, decamping for several years in Italy, and then roaming North Africa and India, before returning to NYC and the Chelsea Hotel.

Reviews, Think Library , Family, Biography & Memoir, Nonfiction
October 24, 2016
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The cool, crisp autumn air usually means one thing to us book lovers: it’s time to curl up with a spooky read. Here are some great, spine-tingling upper elementary reads to get you through the month.

 

 

The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co., Book 1) by Jonathan Stroud

 

Kids , Holidays & Cultural Celebrations
October 10, 2016
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Calling all artists! It's Inktober, which means it's time to challenge yourself to complete one ink drawing every day for the month of October. This is a great time to improve your drawing skills or to start a new habit. You never know if you might be the next Raina Telgemeier, Lucy Knisley, or Gene Luen Yang. The Ground Floor has drawing pencils, inking pens, and drawing paper.

Think Library, Teens, Reviews , Graphic Novels & Manga
October 3, 2016

Great things can happen when you combine iPads and LEGOs! Monroe County kids participated in our Radical Fun program and used these tools to create their own stop motion animation films.

Stop Motion is a magic filming technique that makes inanimate objects look like they are moving all by themselves. It's so simple, you can even make your own stop motion films at home!

What You'll Need:

Kids , Library Events
September 23, 2016
Indiana Connections

Many writers have lived in the Hoosier state, and if there is any one thing that they have in common, it's drawing inspiration from their friends and neighbors.

Special Collections
September 15, 2016

We all have them. Sometimes we praise them, sometimes we rail against a relative or two, but families have made us what we are, who we've become. These novels and nonfiction books explore domestic life in all its joys, sorrows, perplexities, and anger. For what would our lives be like without this network of people so like and unlike us, who share our memories?

“In every conceivable manner, the family is a link to our past, a bridge to our future.”  --Alex Haley

Even More Staff Picks
September 14, 2016