Category: Reference

Pet Pals: Animal Doctor

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pet pals animal doctorAll throughout college, my teachers told me that the best way to entice a child to learn was to make learning fun. You’d also get bonus points as a teacher if you could trick kids into learning without them even knowing it. One of the best ways that I have found to do this is to slip that learning to them in the form of a video game or even a classic novel that has been re-done as an illustrated graphic novel.

As I was searching for new titles to intrigue the kids I know, I stumbled upon Pet Pals: Animal Doctor, a game available for the Wii. It allows players to pretend they are a veterinarian and perform surgeries using the Wii remote. What I found most interesting about this game is that the level of learning is high. More than thirty medical cases, that are based on real events, are presented within this game with mini- and micro-games that allow players to play, feed, and clean the animals and to also perform some specialized procedures. Players will be able to operate and interact with a variety of animals that range from the familiar to the exotic. This game won the Editor’s Choice Award of Excellence from the Children’s Technology Review and also the Parents’ Choice Silver Award.

Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Close, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability by David Owen

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green metropolis Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability makes a compelling argument against the anti-urban rhetoric of leaving the city and moving to the country to live a more sustainable, environmentally conscious life. The author, David Owen, outlines for readers why the ideas of living smaller, living closer, and driving less will lead to a more energy efficient and a better human/lifestyle environmental footprint than escaping to the country for open space.

To help solidify his argument, Owen discusses in detail how the current thinking of crowded cities, like New York and Chicago, as nightmares from an ecological standpoint actually misses the entire point of an urban setting. Since people who live an urban lifestyle are essentially living on top of and right next to other people, they are forced to live in smaller spaces and actually consume and use far less than the people who move to the country to spread out. Their per-capita greenhouse gas emissions are overall less than a third of the average Americans. Owen argues that the greenest community in the country is Manhattan and I must admit his argument is very compelling. Urban settings encourage people to rely less heavily on automobiles and more on their own feet, bicycles, or public transportation to get from point A to point B or else they are forced to sit through horribly backed up and congested traffic. It becomes simpler to utilize the public transit system and even walk to work. Owen argues that people spreading throughout the countryside are actually having a greater impact on the environment as they are effectively using up more of the world’s resources than people who live in urban settings.

Pick up David Owen’s Green Metropolis and decide for yourself whether or not living in an urban setting vs. living in a rural setting is a more environmentally stable principle. Owen’s clearly thought out and expressively written arguments must be read in full to understand why he believes living in an asphalt jungle is a greener way to live than leaving the city and spreading your life into the countryside.

What Was I Thinking?: 58 Bad Boyfriend Stories Edited by Barbara Davilman and Liz Dubelman

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 What Was I Thinking?: 58 Bad Boyfriend Storieswhat was i thinking was edited by Barbara Davilman and Liz Dubelman as a way for people to talk about the point in their relationship where they realized that their dealings with that person were doomed and over. Sometimes the relationship may not actually end for weeks or even years later, but there is usually that one defining moment where it suddenly hits you that you don’t like that person as much as you thought you did. Out of the hundreds of submissions that Davilman and Dubelman received, they were only able to pick out 58 to put together into this collection.

As I was reading this book, I came across many themes: 1) sometimes the reasons for our break-ups may seem like nothing at all to other people(he plucked his uni-brow, I dyed my hair, he didn’t like to read), but they can be deal-breakers to the person who ultimately calls it quits, 2) that A-HA relationship-ending moment may not be so obvious to us right when it happens, but in hindsight, we definitely recognize that moment as the “start of impending doom”, 3) that blast of clarity when we know that the relationship was over was sometimes more vivid and easier to remember than the entire relationship itself, and 4) no matter how many times our friends tell us our significant other may be just a little too weird, we will not actually break-up with that person ourselves until we burst out of the happiness bubble and honeymoon phase of the new relationship and see the person for who they really are.

Check out this book to commiserate with these women about the moments when they knew their relationships were just over and it became clear that that relationship was not going to work out. Be prepared to look back out your own relationships as you read this book because the women sharing their personal stories are not afraid to dig deep into their pasts to talk about their moments of clarity, no matter how foggy those moments have been right in the midst of the happiness.

Disney Universe

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disney universeDisney Universe is a family-friendly video game that allows players to work together to solve the different puzzles and levels. There are six different worlds that you can choose to play in: Monsters, Inc., Wall-E, Aladdin, Lion King, Alice in Wonderland, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Each world has three different levels within it with the objective of each being to collect coins, solve puzzles, and defeat your enemies. One of the biggest draws of this game is the fact that players can cash in those coins to dress up as different characters, with a total of 40 different characters to choose from. Disney Universe also gives you objectives to complete within each level.

While other videogames may leave you to fend for yourself, this game instead offers pop-up hints to help you finish your objectives. The addition of hints allows younger players to play this on their own without help from older players. Each level also offers a mini-game that allows you to compete with the other players. One to four players can take a spin at this game and have the opportunity to pretend like they are their favorite Disney and Pixar characters.

Interested in playing this game, but you don’t have an XBox360? If that’s the case, the library also offers this game for the Wii and for PlayStation 3.

The Avengers!

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With the release of the new Avengers: Age of Ultron movie on May 1, requests for anything and everything superhero has gone up significantly from books to t-shirts to toys to costumes. If you’re interested in anything Avengers or superhero related at the library, let this blog be your guide.

For those unfamiliar with what superheroes are a part of Marvel’s Avengers, the big names in the movies are Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, and Hawkeye. More Avenger superheroes are listed in the comics, but as far as the movies are concerned, those six are the key characters.

avengersAvengers: Age of Ultron is the sequel to Marvel’s The Avengers, which came out in 2012. In this movie, Director Nick Fury, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, has gathered together and initiated multiple super heroes as part of the Avengers Initiative.  The Avengers are tasked with working together to stop Loki, who happens to be Thor’s brother, from harnessing the full power of the tesseract, a magical object of unimaginable and hard-to-contain power that has the ability to destroy the Earth. All of the Avengers must stop Loki and his alien forces from destroying the Earth and enslaving humanity to do his bidding.

Avengers: Age of Ultron, which is still in theaters, draws upon events from the previous Avengers movie to bring together the Avengers one more time to fight against Ultron, a robot part of Tony Stark’s new peacekeeping program, that ultimately rebels and takes his job as a peacekeeper too far, leading him to believe that the best way to keep the peace is to exterminate all of humanity.

If the Marvel Avengers movies have you curious about other Avenger or superhero books, the library has many items available for you to check out. Here are just a smattering of the Avenger materials available for checkout. Click on the covers for more information and to put them on hold!

For more superhero or Avenger comics, books, movies, or videogames, check out the library catalog and search for anything you can think of. As always, feel free to call the library and we will be happy to find whatever you are looking for.

avengers world uncanny avengersrage of ultron   avengers season one  avengers1

avengers guide

 

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

- Lynn Leave a comment

Accidental TouristIf you’re waiting for the new Anne Tyler, A Spool of Blue Thread, why not dip into the Tyler archive? Old friends like the charmingly odd Leary family are the center of The Accidental Tourist.

Macon, the travel writer who hates to leave home, moves in with his siblings when he breaks his leg. Macon, along with Rose, Charles and Porter resume their comfortable routines, including a card game so intricate only the three brothers and sister can master it.

Written in 1985, the absence of cell phones and answering machines allow Macon to leave his marital home and go off the grid. The Learys often ignore the ringing landline, so those looking for Macon are forced to show up at the door.

Air travel prior to 9/11 is also charmingly free of TSA regulations. Macon writes a series of books for the business traveler, and the chief goal is to replicate one’s home environment. His desire for order and quiet set him up for a collision with Muriel, who is a dog trainer, among other things.  She’s Macon’s equal in eccentricity – but on the other end of the spectrum. She’s outgoing and confessional, with considerably fewer boundaries than the Learys.

Though the tone is sometimes comic, there’s an undertone of sadness and complexity. In the recent past, Macon’s son was killed in a shoot-out at a fast food restaurant. Muriel has had to struggle all her adult life to patch together a life for herself and her young son.

Tyler’s gift is to create fascinating characters and then let them bounce off each other in unpredictable ways.

The Lego Movie: Videogame

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lego movie videogameThe Lego Movie Videogame lets players act out as Emmet, the main character in the Lego Movie. Emmet’s ordinary, perfectly normal, and rule-following life is completely disrupted when he is mistaken as the Special, the key, the one person who can save the world. People who have seen The Lego Movie will recognize the plot of the movie as being the plot line in the video game as well. After he is seen as the Special, he is thrust in with a group of strangers to help them stop evil Lord Business as he tries to put his evil plans into action.

The Lego Movie Videogame allows two players to play at once as they travel through 15 levels of play. You are also allowed to play as a variety of different characters, but only after that character is introduced into play. Playing as a different character lets you use that character’s specific skill set to help Emmet on his quest. In order to save the world, players build AWESOME creations to defend themselves. Everything is made of Lego bricks and players are transported into the Lego World as Emmet and his friends battle to stop evil Lord Business.

This game is also available for Nintendo 3DS, XBox 360, and WiiU.

A Peek into the Past

- Lynn Leave a comment

Glimpse into the PastDeep in the bowels of the library are the remnants of a once vast collection of old magazines. One title we still own back to 1857, is The Atlantic Monthly.

Leafing through a 1945 volume provides a glimpse of what was on the minds of Americans. These issues were published when the outcome of World War II was still uncertain. The war permeates every part of the magazine – illustrations, articles, stories and advertisements. Articles include “France Without the Gestapo,” poems by “Sergeant” John Ciardi. Almost every product or service references the war or patriotism, including ATT &T, real estate ads, and of course war bonds.

Jumping back to 1875, a volume of the Atlantic Monthly included ten “Rules and Regulations Presented to the Davenport Library Association” directed to “members and ticket holders.” Patrons could check out one book at a time and keep it for two weeks. Fines were ten cents per week or “fraction of a week when the book is so retained.”

Rule #7 states that “persons entitled to draw books must not loan them outside of their immediate family. Any violation is…sufficient to forfeit their ticket.” (Sorry, Uncle Fred, you can’t look at the new Mark Twain bestseller I just checked out!)

Rule #8 warns that “books lost, defaced or injured while out…[will be] charged to the person whose ticket they were drawn.”  (Injured?)

And, lastly, “all books must be returned to the library on or before the 20th of April of each year; books not then returned will be charged to the holder.” There are intriguing stamps every few years from 1930 to 1988 in the front of these volumes. Are they dates of an inventory?

Such artifacts are fascinating time capsules of the eras – both of the wider world that Davenport was a part of,  as well as the nuts and bolts of the workaday life of the library.

 

Barbara Gordon: Batgirl, Librarian, Congresswoman

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When I was in school, I always thought of librarians as superheroes. I would walk up to the desk, ask a question, and magically they would be able to find the answer for me in seemingly no time at all. I was amazed.

Did you know that there is actually a superhero librarian? Barbara Gordon, the second Batgirl, who replaced Betty Kane, the original Batgirl, in 1967, was also a librarian. Gordon’s civilian identity is Dr. Barbara Gordon PhD. With her doctorate in library science, Gordon serves as the head of the Gotham City Public Library. She is also as the daughter of Gotham City police commissioner James Gordon, filling her role in the library, and eventually becoming a United States Congresswoman.

Barbara Gordon’s version of Batgirl is the iconic Batgirl. If you see a comic book cover of Batgirl with red/orange hair, you’ve found Barbara Gordon!

the killing joke

As Gordon’s role as Batgirl progressed, she found the job to be less and less fulfilling until she pretty much retired from being Batgirl all together. An interaction with the Joker changed her course as Batgirl forever. In Batman: The Killing Joke, the Joker is on a course to seek revenge on Batman, the person who he blames for his disfigurement. This comic flashes back and forth between the present, where the Joker is wreaking havoc on Batman by going after his closest friends, to the Joker’s past, where readers are shown the Joker’s origin story as an ex-engineer in a chemical plant who happens to make some bad decisions and ends up disfigured and seeking revenge. Barbara Gordon is swept into the Joker’s revenge plot and is shot and paralyzed by the Joker as an attempt to turn her father, police commissioner Gordon, insane.

 

 

of like minds

Waking up paralyzed, Gordon realizes she can no longer be Batgirl and becomes the Oracle. Gordon has since become a symbol for PTSD sufferers and the disabled as she is confined to a wheelchair. As the Oracle, Gordon still relies on her library superpowers, becoming the computer superhero and information access giant for the entire DC superhero community. Examples of comics of Barbara Gordon as the Oracle are Gail Simone’s Of Like Minds, and also the books where Gordon, as the Oracle, helps the new Batgirl, Cassandra Cain, fight for justice in A Knight Alone and Death Wish. The Oracle joined forces with two others, the Huntress(daughter of Batman and Catwoman) and Dinah, a clairvoyant, to become the Birds of Prey in a DVD series aptly called Birds of Prey.

 

the darkest reflection

 

 

If you’re a fan of the new 52 comics, this back story may be confusing to you because in 2012, DC released Batgirl: Volume 1: The Darkest Reflection, in which Batgirl’s tenure as the Oracle is erased and she comes out of her paralysis slowly after she was shot by the Joker in the spine three years prior. In this first volume, Gordon reintroduces herself to life as Batgirl and and all the challenges that come with it.

 

 

 

batgirl year one

 

Another variation comic of Batgirl as librarian shows up in Batgirl: Year One. This comic happens chronologically years before Gordon becomes the Oracle and even a Bird of Prey. She is portrayed as a girl between the ages of 16-18 years old who has already graduated college and seeks to become a member of law enforcement, an idea that her father and Batman quickly decide she has no business doing. Instead she takes a job as a library researcher and decides to rebel against Batman and her father by becoming Batgirl.

 

 

If this tiny glimpse into the life of Barbara Gordon, a real librarian superhero, caught your attention, feel free to click on the links to check out those materials and visit the library catalog to search for any superhero comic that may interest you.

Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story by Mac McClelland

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irritable hearts

Let’s talk about how we come to find books to read. Sometimes we hear about certain books on television, spy a blurb written online about the newest work by a famous author, or a friend recommends a book to us that they think we may like. Most of my book recommendations come from either friends or online blurbs. Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story by Mac McClelland was my newest book recommendation from a friend, one who thought that I may relate to the main character and how she goes about finding out her truth.

In this memoir, Mac McClelland writes about her journey around the world, her life story, and a new love. Mac is an investigative journalist who is not put off by the prospect of covering the news in dangerous parts of the world. In 2010, Mac travels to Haiti to cover the aftermath of the massive earthquake that killed over 200,000 people. Here, Mac decides to team up with several locals to write stories about the devastating aftereffects and the displacement of so many people living in Haiti. She delves into many traumatic situations in order to get to the bottom of her story. While in Haiti, Mac also meets Nico, a French soldier with whom she begins a world-travelling love affair. Mac believes she has a hold on her life and that the new symptoms she is displaying after witnessing a particularly gruesome attack(one which she never actually describes in detail) are just part of being a journalist.

After leaving Haiti, Mac’s symptoms get worse. She starts crying and imagining graphic scenes of violence that lead her to call an emergency meeting with her therapist. While meeting with her, Mac realizes that she is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, which her recent trip to Haiti and her previous tension/trauma-filled life experiences have brought to light. Trying to deal with her symptoms becomes increasingly difficult and she turns to alcohol, television, and some violent therapies to help her cope. Mac also reaches out to other PTSD sufferers and begins researching and reading everything about PTSD that she can get her hands on. Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story is McClelland’s story of finding a new love with Nico, her struggle to repair herself, and how she deals with all of the changes happening around and within herself.