So why are our public libraries important? Let us count some of the ways. Is it because they promote and support literacy, the foundation of a free and participatory democracy? Or because they provide free access to books and materials
So why are our public libraries important?
Let us count some of the ways.
Is it because they promote and support literacy, the foundation of a free and participatory democracy?
Or because they provide free access to books and materials that inform and entertain readers from all walks of life and at every stage in their lives?
Perhaps it is because they have huge collections of books of all kinds from many points of view or because they help preserve local history.
Are our libraries important because they provide Internet access at the library and are a portal for public access to online government services?
Maybe because they serve every demographic and are a community meeting place for people from all segments of the population?
Or because libraries are an important tool for life-long learning, or because they provide such rich healthy enjoyment for readers, listeners, and viewers?
The Hawai‘i State Public Library System provides downloadable e-books and access to many powerful databases for remote users — is that why our public libraries are important?
Whichever reasons you choose, libraries are important in our communities for what they stand for (our democratic freedom of information, our freedom to read), for what they preserve (records of our past, evidence of our lives, successes, failures and wisdom), for what they provide public access to (both new and old informational and recreational material) and for all the many services they provide for all ages.
Along with agencies throughout the state government, libraries are suffering during these difficult financial times. Make some noise for public libraries this week. Express your support for the goals and activities of libraries in our neighborhoods and the continuing role of libraries in our democratic nation and in the lives of our children. This week’s Book Buzz list features books about libraries.
Happy reading.
For children
The Library Lion
By Michelle Knudsen
Easy Picture Book Kn
One day, a lion came to the library. Scowling circulation assistant Mr. McBee seems intent on having the enormous cat ejected, but his boss, Miss Merriweather the head librarian, declares that as long as he breaks no rules, he is welcome. Lion makes himself useful and enjoys story hour. Everyone appreciates him-except Mr. McBee.
When Lion lets out a tremendous RAAAHHHRRR! the man bursts into Miss Merriweather’s office to snitch-and there he finds her in distress, having fallen from a stool and broken her arm. A satisfying ending and lively detailed illustrations will endear this book to readers of all ages. Also try Our Librarian Won’t Tell Us Anything! by Toni Buzzeo.
The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians
By Carla Morris
Illustrated by Brad Sneed
Easy Picture Book Mo
Little Melvin loves his library, and his librarians — Marge, Leeola, and Betty-are his very favorite people. As he grows up, they help him learn about his world and explore all kinds of things. In a heartwarming ending, another little boy comes to the library with questions, and Melvin is the new librarian, ready to help. Also check out Help! I’m a Prisoner in the Library by Eth Clifford.
For teens
The Book Thief
By Markus Zuzack
YA Fiction Z
Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood. The child arrives having just stolen her first book-although she has not yet learned how to read. Stolen books form the spine of the story. Death first meets the book thief, when he comes to take her little brother, and she becomes an enduring force in his life, despite his efforts to resist her.
Death, like Liesel, has a way with words. And he recognizes them not only for the good they can do, but for the evil as well. What would Hitler have been, after all, without words? As this book reminds us, what would any of us be?
Here Lies the
Librarian
By Richard Peck
YA Fiction Peck
Peewee idolizes Jake, a big brother whose dreams of auto mechanic glory are fueled by the hard road coming to link their Indiana town and futures with the twentieth century. Then motoring down the road comes Irene Ridpath, a young librarian with plans to astonish them all. She will turn Peewee’s life upside down. Offbeat, deliciously wicked comedy that is also unexpectedly moving.
Fly By Night
By Frances Hardinge
YA Fiction Hardinge
Twelve-year-old Mosca Mye hasn’t got much in this imaginary world in which all books have been banned. Her cruel uncle keeps her locked up in his mill, and her only friend is her pet goose who’ll bite anything that crosses his path. But Mosca does have one small, rare thing: the ability to read. She doesn’t know it yet, but in a world where books are dangerous things this gift will change her life.
For adults
The Book That Changed My Life:
71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them
Edited by Roxanne J. Coady
028.8 Bo
A collection of essays that celebrates books and testifies to the transformative power of reading. Authors, journalists, doctors, professors, religious leaders, poets, politicians, historians, chefs, and CEOs each share the story of a book that changed the way they see themselves and the world around them.
Through reading we can live lives that are completely different from our own, experience foreign worlds that we would otherwise know nothing about, and learn to understand others and develop compassion for their situations and what they endure.
The Eyre Affair
By Jasper Forde
373.236 Bu
Imagine this. Great Britain in 1985 is close to being a police state. The only recognizable thing about this England is her citizens’ enduring love of literature.
And in this world where high lit matters Special Operative Thursday Next (literary detective) seeks to retrieve the stolen manuscript of Dickens’s Martin Chuzzlewit.
The evil Acheron Hades has plans for it: after kidnapping Next’s mad-scientist uncle, Mycroft, and commandeering his invention, the Prose Portal, which enables people to cross into a literary text, he sends a minion into Chuzzlewit to seize and kill a minor character, thus forever changing the novel.
But worse is to come as Hades has set his sights on one of the plums of literature, Jane Eyre, and he must be stopped. How Thursday achieves this inside Charlotte Bronte’s masterpiece and manages to preserve one of the great books of the Western canon makes for delightfully hilarious reading.
Witty and clever, this literate romp heralds a fun new series set in a wonderfully original world.
The Guernsey
Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
By Mary Ann Shaffer
Adult Fiction Shaffer
This epistolary novel, based on the Author’s painstaking, lifelong research is an homage to booklovers and a nostalgic portrayal of an era. As her quirky, loveable characters cite the works of Shakespeare, Austen, and the Brontës, Shaffer subtly weaves those writers’ themes into her own narrative.
However, it is the tragic stories of life under Nazi occupation that animate the novel and give it its urgency; furthermore, the novel explores the darker side of human nature without becoming maudlin.
Although some criticize the novel’s lighthearted tone and characterizations, most critics agreed that, with its humor and optimism, Guernsey affirms the power of books to nourish people during hard times.
• Carolyn Larson, head librarian at Lihu‘e Public Library, brings you the buzz on new, popular and good books available at your neighborhood library. Book annotations are culled from online publishers’ descriptions and published reviews.
