How did YA Become YA?
“Why is it called YA anyway? And who decided what was YA and what wasn’t?”Not too long ago, during an author panel on Young Adult literature at the most recent Teen Author Festival, YA author Scott...
View ArticleErasures in Literature
Erasure is a form of literature, often poetry, created by selectively erasing words from an existing text to produce a new work. There are many ways writers choose to erase; delete, redact, white out,...
View ArticleHug Machine Comes to KidsLIVE! Author Series
Don't miss Scott Campbell in the KidsLIVE! author series. He will read from his new book Hug Machine at the Bloomingdale Library on April 28.When and where do you like to read?I like to stroll to the...
View ArticleBooktalking "Carmen Learns English" by Judy Cox
Carmen does not know English, but all of her classmates do. Carmen feels sad and alone because she does not understand the kids, and they do not understand her. Some of them make fun of her accent. She...
View ArticleRemembering (the Hardly Trivial) Sam Houston: Rare Texana at the Library
Sam Houston, daguerreotype portrait, circa 1855. Rare Book Division.This week—April 21, to be exact—marks the 179th anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto. During this fight, a motley band of...
View ArticleTen YA Retellings of Rapunzel
Rapunzel is a german fairy tale about a beautiful young maiden who has been impriosoned in a tower by an evil witch. Here are several retellings of the fairy tale that appeal to modern day...
View ArticleAcross A Crowded Room: 2015 Edition
After the wildly successful 2013 edition of Across A Crowded Room, we are about to launch a second edition that is more exciting than ever before.If you are a musical theater... ...composer longing for...
View ArticleCelebrating World Book Day with Stories of the Immigrant Experience
World Book Day is celebrated annually on April 23 to promote reading, publishing and copyright. The date was chosen to commemorate the death date of both Shakespeare and Cervantes. This year to...
View ArticleA Brief, Creative Look at Earth Day
The Antarctic land and ocean ice sheets are melting and California is experiencing its deepest drought in history. These are just some of the troubling changes we see in our climate lately. Thankfully,...
View ArticleSchomburg Center To Receive Prestigious National Medal for Museum and Library...
We are excited to announce that the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture will receive the National Medal for Museum and Library Service at a celebration in Washington, D.C., in May! The...
View ArticleVladimir Nabokov, écrivain, 1899-1977*
Butterflies. Image ID: 806456First, a word on the pronunciation. Vladimir rhymes with “redeemer” and Nabokov is stressed on the second syllable and “bok” rhymes with “oak.” I know that pointing that...
View ArticleAsk the Author: Jorie Graham
Jorie Graham comes to Books at Noon next Wednesday, April 29 to discuss her latest work, From the New World: Poems 1976-2014. We asked her six questions about what she likes to read.When and where do...
View ArticlePodcast #57: T.C. Boyle on Finding Stories and Themes
Subscribe on iTunes.T.C. Boyle has written over a dozen novels and several collections of short fiction. Recently, he was awarded the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement for writers of the...
View ArticleThe Case of the False Quixote
Title page of a curious Quixote. General Research Division.On April 23, be sure to doff your cap to passersby and wish them a happy World Book Day. This literary holiday commemorates the deaths of...
View ArticleBooktalking "Dear Wandering Wildebeest" by Irene Latham
African animals grace the pages of this thoughtfully illustrated book.Water holes sate the thirst of animals of different colors and species. Impalas leap and dance through the grass. Meerkats keep an...
View ArticleMeet Our Visible Lives Oral History Project Volunteers!
This is a guest post by Joanne Dillon, interviewer for Visible Lives: Oral Histories of the Disability Experience at Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library.Meet Our “Visible Lives”...
View ArticleApril Quotes From Your Favorite Literature
We’ve all heard the proverb “April showers bring May flowers,” but what’s more interesting is this month’s significance in literature. While Shakespeare aligned April with youth and vitality, Eliot...
View ArticleChildren's Literary Salon in Retrospect: Judaism
Synagogue. Image ID: 98999I was excited about this panel discussion since I have been a synagogue librarian. We had this session in the newly renamed Celeste Auditorium in the South Court of the...
View ArticleStanding Down: From Warrior to Civilian Book List
Were you ever in the middle of reading a book and thought to yourself, “I really hope this is fiction!” Well, that was my reaction after reading the first three pages of “In the Field,” a short story...
View ArticleRemembering Our Ancestors: Maps and Genealogy Resources for Armenian-Americans
When I began working in the Map Division of the New York Public Library in 1978, the influence of the 1977 television miniseries Roots had taken hold. Author Alex Haley traced his family history back...
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