April is National Poetry Month! This is one of my favorite times of year because poetry can be so beautiful, but I don't usually reach for it. Being encouraged in the spring when the sun comes out and the flowers are blooming to take a moment and slow down to enjoy some poetry is exactly [...]
Ramadan Mubarak! I'm a little early with this greeting, as the month of Ramadan starts on April 12 this year. (Since Ramadan is part of the Islamic lunar calendar, the date on our Western calendar is different every year.) For those who don't already know, Ramadan is a holy month for Muslims that involves fasting, [...]
Do your kids love funny books? I've written before about Laugh Out Loud funny picture books for kids, but here are some suggestions for chapter books and middle grade novels that will have your readers giggling - no fooling! 24 Hours in Nowhere by Dusti Bowling (2018; 260 pages). When the terrible bullies of Nowhere, [...]
March is ending, meaning we have now survived 3 of the total 12 months in a year. To observe the passage of one-quarter of the year, I've made the following list of books on the theme of quarters, in one fashion or another. Using new and exclusive interviews Martin Power tells the full story of [...]
March is Women's History Month, and in celebration I wanted to highlight some great reads that draw attention to activist women of the past. Let's go! Lighting the Fires of Freedom by Janet Dewart Bell shines a light on the important and unsung work of Black women during the Civil Rights Movement. Despite daily contributions [...]
March is Indiana Disabilities Awareness Month! This is a great excuse (not that you need one) to pick up a book written by or about people with disabilities and the Schneider Family Book Award is a great place to find good books on this topic. Presented by the Association of Library Services to Children (the [...]
March Madness is here! Now, I'm not into sports, but I am familiar with March Madness. I know that you select teams that you think will win the tournament based on statistics (unless you're like me and always pick the Charlotte Hornets because you like their colors). You might think that the Indiana History Room [...]
We're losing an hour of reading time to Daylight Savings this weekend, so here are some very short books for all ages to get you through this trying time. For kids: Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson (161 pages, written in verse). ZJ worries about his dad, a former pro football player who is [...]
Join the Floyd County Library and Purdue Extension for a 3D design class for elementary-age students. Students will learn to use Tinkercad, a free online 3D design software to design 3D prints. The 3D design class is part of our weekly Discovery Friday events which happen every Friday at 10:30 AM and are aimed at [...]
You may have heard of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in the United States to get a medical degree, but this new release has a lot of information that was new to me, and which I'm excited to share with you. Elizabeth was the third of nine children in her family to survive infancy, and [...]
