June Task

As most of you know, 2019 is the 200^th anniversary for the state of Alabama. We are promoting this fact for adults through programming such as the Adult Reading Challenge and the DPL Summer Series, and for children through the Summer Reading Program. We are also using our social media to highlight events in the community and fun places to visit in our state.  Don’t forget when you are in the Library to go by the Youth Services desk and vote in the Alabama Madness contest on the bulletin board to the right as you enter the Youth Services department.

We also have a display about Alabama Trails in the display case on the Cherry Street side of the Main area. We started the display to promote the Alabama Literary Trail, books and authors being near and dear to our hearts, but found there are a lot of types of trails in Alabama. When we started looking at the Literary Map of Alabama, we found some of our favorite Alabama authors were not represented. You will find some local favorites were added.  So check out the display and see if you think we should add anyone else.

There is also an Alabama Literary Quiz you can take. The questions are posted on top of the display case, as well as the answer sheets and the box in which to drop them. If you get all 16 questions correct you will be entered in a drawing to win a DPL swag bag with a $5.00 gift card for the Friends Used Book Sale Room!  Here’s a hint: all of the answers for the questions can be found in the display.

The June task for the Adult Reading Challenge it is to read one of the authors who was here for the Readers and Writers Jubilee on June 8^th. The list of eligible authors:  Linda Howard, Linda Winstead Jones, Bambi Lynn, Betty Bolte, Bonnie Gardner, Carolyn Price, John Davis, TJ Penn, Carla Swafford, Kay Cagle, Greg Richter, Nancee Cain, Gayle Young, Laura Hunter, Marilyn Baxter, Peggy Towns, Wheeler Pounds, MJ Bosher, Cindy Shaneyfelt, Alicia Hunter Pace, and Leslie Scott.

Happy Reading!

May Task

While most people think of the summer as a great time to take a break and schedule a vacation, at the Library we are gearing up for our busiest time. We jam as much fun and reading into June and July as we possibly can to help your children avoid the summer slide. So don’t forget when you make plans to keep your school-age kids busy, we have FREE programs that will keep them engaged. We have 18 events ranging from wildlife, frontier skills, story times, characters from favorite movies, hands on building fun, book clubs, movie extravaganzas, fossils and much more. And that is just in the month of June. Kids who sign up for summer reading and turn in reading logs can qualify for incentive parties and prizes.

We will also have programs and activities for teens and adults. From the Readers and Writers Jubilee on June 8^th and a program on Indian henna, to the history of Morgan County courthouses, and the life of Ms. Daisy Nolan, our summer programs will cover all kinds of topics and interests.

If you want more solitary entertainment, try out our new electronic resource hoopla. Now you can download eBooks, eAudioBooks, comics, music, movies and television shows with your DPL card.

If you are taking the Adult Reading Challenge this year, the task for May is an island. Read a book that uses an island for the setting. If you get a chance to go to the Gulf this summer, check out all of the cool things to do on Dauphin Island, the barrier island that is part of the state of Alabama.

Happy Reading!

April Task

In April, DPL has a few book based activities for your enjoyment.

If you enjoy eBooks try the Big Library Read (going on April 1^st-15^th), through Overdrive. Read Homes: A Refugee Story by Abu Bakr al Rabeeah and Winnie Yeung. As part of the Big Library Read, you can join an online discussion of the book, listen to author interviews and enter for a chance to win a Kobu Aura H2O from Overdrive. Over 19,000 libraries around the world are participating in this digital book club. And yes, the book does count for the immigrant/refugee task for the Adult Reading Challenge.

If you are in the mood to be crafty with books, mark your calendar for April 11^th and 18^th, when our resident artist Librarian Heather will be teaching a book folding craft class. In the April 11^th class you will create a decorative vase shape by folding pages in a book. In the April 18^th class you will use pages from recycled books to make flowers and leaves to adorn the vase you created the week earlier. Free and open to all patrons aged 12 and up, you must take the part one to participate in part two.

On April 26^th author Daniel Wallace will receive the 2019 Harper Lee Award given by the Alabama Writers Symposium.  The award is given to “a living, nationally recognized Alabama writer who has made a significant contribution to Alabama letters.” Wallace has written 6 novels, with Big Fish being his best known. Join us at DPL on the 26^th to watch the movie of his best known novel at 6pm. Free movie night is for patrons 16+ and the doors open at 5:30 pm.

While we are talking about Alabama paying homage to great writing, did you know the state is home to one of the largest Shakespeare Festivals in the world? The Alabama Shakespeare Festival is in Montgomery and typically does three plays by Shakespeare; the other works usually focus on the Southern experience. To celebrate Shakespeare’s 455^th birthday on April 23^rd, the task for April is to read a play or book of sonnets by William Shakespeare.

Happy Reading!

March Task

March in Alabama is always an adventure weather wise. One day it may be warm, with blue skies and beautiful budding and greening all around and the next day may bring an ice storm. You never know what you might wake up to.

Here at Decatur Public Library, regardless of the weather we have lots of entertainment and fun planned for the month. If you are a fan of live music, the Vulcan Eejits will be performing Thursday, March 14^th at 6:30 pm. The concert is free and everyone is welcome to attend. If it’s not raining on the 18^th of the month we will be celebrating Spring Break at A. C. Banks Park from 10:00 am until 12:30 pm with story time, a visit with Rapunzel, free books, snacks and more.  Finally on Friday, the 22^nd of the month we will be showing an Alabama themed movie for patrons 16 and older. The movie and the popcorn is free, doors open at 5:30 pm, and the movie starts at 6 pm. We hope you can join us for one or more of these free events this month.

In 1987, March was designated as National Women’s History Month. It is meant to celebrate women and the ways they make the world a better place for all.  When we started looking at the history of women in Alabama we found many that have done just that; made the world a better place for everyone, not just other women. Helen Keller, Rosa Parks, Condoleeza Rice, Lilly Ledbetter, Coretta Scott King and many more women from Alabama serve as role models for people regardless of sex, race or religion. To learn more about these and other outstanding Alabama women try these links: https://styleblueprint.com/birmingham/everyday/remarkable-alabama-women/ or http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/s-129.

The other thing we found when researching women from Alabama history was another kind of woman. These women were not the type of person to model your behavior on. They were known as black widows. They married and killed multiple partners and even other family members. Most of them used poison and watched their victims die slow and painful deaths. Five of the most shocking can be found on this list https://www.al.com/living/2016/04/5_infamous_alabama_females_who.html

Which leads to the task this month for the Adult Reading Challenge, read a book about a female serial killer. Since this year's Reading Challenge already includes lots of upstanding women, this month's clue requires you to read about a more sinister and notorious type of woman.

Happy Reading!

Black History Month Reading List

February has gotten away from us, but we still want to post a reading list for Black History Month.  Since it will not be possible to read all of these in what remains of this month, we remind you that the contributions of Black people (African-Americans and Blacks from all over the world) to science, culture, history and math can be celebrated year-round, not just confined to a celebration month.

We’ve had a Black Fiction brochure for several years now, but we’ve stopped updating it because it has become impossible to fit all the authors in a brochure format…and that’s just the fiction writers!  With the conversion to our new catalog system, we are working on a way to do author lists within the catalog.  Currently we can only list by book title, which is how our Black History Reading List is laid out.   

Fiction is definitely included in our Black History Month Reading List because stories can capture truth, but non-fiction and biography are also important.  We’ve put together our reading list from several sources.  We started with several internet lists and added some titles of our own.   These lists contain fiction and non-fiction, scholarly and easy reads, and books for all ages.  Some of the books on these lists didn’t make ours because they are not in our collection; if you see something you’d like to read or that you think we should have, let us know!   

We hope you will find at least one book from our list that makes its way to your list.    

CLICK HERE to check out our recommendations.   

Some of the lists we consulted are linked below.  Happy reading!

http://www.pbs.org/book-view-now/great-books-black-history-month-2018/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/feb/01/black-history-month-reading-list-paul-beatty-octavia-butler

http://time.com/5157662/black-history-month-books-2018/

https://www.abebooks.com/books/features/black-history-month-books.shtml

https://www.epicreads.com/blog/black-history-month/

February Task

This year the Adult Reading Challenge is Bama: fact & fiction. While reading for the challenge we will be celebrating our state and learning about people, places and matters that make Alabama famous and notorious.

One of Alabama’s nicknames is Heart of Dixie and since this is the month to celebrate love we wanted to point out some of the things Alabama has in connection to the heart.

Did you know the first American physician to perform a successful surgical repair on a wounded heart was from the state of Alabama? Dr. Luther Leonidas Hill Jr. was from Montgomery and in 1902 he successfully operated on the heart of Henry Myrick. For more information about this visit http://alabama200.org/discover/alabama-legacy-moments/ .

Another tie to the heart for Alabama is the fact that heart disease is the single leading cause of death in the state. Data from 2013 showed that the national rate of death was 18.98%, while in Alabama the rate was 25.78%. For more information on this disease try this link https://www.alabamapublichealth.gov/cardio/index.html.

The saying “I heart you/dogs/cupcakes/etc. means you love or really like something.  Here at DPL we heart all things bookish and reading. For this month’s task read a book about something you heart.

Happy Reading!

2019 Adult Reading Challenge

Please join us Friday to discover the theme for the 2019 Adult Reading Challenge!