February 2012 Events

For Youth and Families

Storytime with Miss Kris: 

• Tiny Tots, for children from birth to 3 years old, meets Tuesdays at 10 a.m. 
• Preschool Storytime, for children age 3 to kindergarten, meets Fridays at 10 a.m. 

Storytime with Miss Kris is an awesome opportunity for children and caregivers to spend quality time together.  Each session includes stories, games, music and movement, plus early literacy and social skill building activities.  This month, both groups will be learning about skating and sledding, birds of Wisconsin, Valentine’s Day celebrations, and trains. 

Exploration Art Studio (preschool to 3^rd grade) – Tuesday, February 7 from 4 to 5p.m.

Come to our Art Studio this month to experiment with different ways to paint.  Paint with your fingers, feathers, string and other things that aren’t paint brushes.  We’ll have lots of ideas to stretch your imagination and bring out your creativity.  All supplies are provided.  Dress to get messy. 

Rockin’ Robots (all ages) – Saturday, February 18 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

It’s a family robot party!  Join us for a variety of robot-related activities, including games, crafts and snacks.  Children under 9 must be accompanied by a caregiver age 12 or older.

For Tweens (age 9-12) 

Tween Build-a-Bot Craft  – Wednesday, February 15 from 4 to 5 p.m.

Bottles, cans, boxes, tape, bits and pieces of hardware. . . what will your pile of scraps become?  All materials provided.  Just bring your imagination!

For Teens (age 12+) 

Teen Book Club  – Thursday, February 9 from 4 to 5 p.m.

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .  Set during World War II in Germany, The Book Thief is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.  This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

 For Adults 

Clutter-free Living with Kids – Saturday, February 4 from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Are you overwhelmed with raising children and everything that goes along with it?  Do you fantasize about having an orderly home and life?  Learn how to decide what to keep and what to get rid of and how to manage what's left, from school work and sports gear to toys, books, and clothes.  Your kids can help create and maintain order and Clutter Coach Kathi Miller will show you how!  Please register. 

Anime in the Morning – Saturday, February 11 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Yozakura Quartet (Episodes 1-5)     Not Rated

Summary:   In a town where humans and demons co-exist, it takes more than a normal police force to maintain the peace. Enter the Hiizumi Life Counseling Office, a fantastic foursome of unique teenagers, each gifted with an amazing super power.  They may not look as impressive as some other superhero teams, and they certainly don't have the most dynamic name ever, but come hell hounds or high water, but they will defend their city!

Be My Valentine! (age 12 to adult) - Saturday, February 11 from 1 to 2:30 p.m.

Super-stamper Laura Zaraza brings us a trio of Valentine crafts.  Learn to make a lovely Valentine card and two gift containers to load with sweets for your sweetheart.  All materials are provided. Please register. 

Adult Book Club – Thursday, February 16 at 7 p.m.

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is the poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as well as an unforgettable portrait of the artist—and of art itself. 

Book-to-Movie Film Series – Saturday, February 25 from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.

The Lincoln Lawyer (R) 

Michael “Mick” Haller, a slick, charismatic Los Angeles criminal defense attorney, operates out of the back of his Lincoln Continental sedan. Having spent most of his career defending petty, gutter- variety criminals, Mick unexpectedly lands the case of a lifetime: defending a rich Beverly Hills playboy who is accused of attempted murder. However, what initially appears to be a straightforward case with a big money pay-off swiftly develops into a deadly match between two masters of manipulation and a crisis of conscience for Haller.  Bring a lunch; we’ll provide dessert and a beverage. 

English Conversation Group – Tuesdays at 11:30 a.m.

For students learning English as a second language, this is a chance for you to practice everyday conversation skills.  This program is sponsored by the Walworth County Literacy Council. 

The library will be closed Friday, February 17.

2012 Book Discussion Selections

The Aram Book Discussion group meets the 3rd Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. during the school year. June, July and August we meet on the 3rd Wednesday at 7 p.m.  Books and discussion guides are available at the library.  Anyone who has read the book is welcome to attend.

JANUARY - The Soloist by Steven Lopez
Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless African American man, was standing on a corner coaxing memorable music from a two-stringed violin. It turns out, 30 years earlier, Ayers had been at Juilliard studying classical bass when he experienced the first in a series of schizophrenic episodes that turned his musical dreams into a nightmare. Now, worlds away from the concert halls he imagined gracing, Ayers spends his days on Los Angeles' Skid Row, fighting off rats and drug-frenzied fellow homeless and serenading passersby. The spot where Ayers has chosen to play is no accident; it's near the city's statue of Beethoven and just down the hill from Walt Disney Concert Hall. Lopez quickly becomes an integral part of Ayers' life, bringing him new instruments and even facilitating arrangements at a homeless shelter. But as he navigates the complex world of mental illness, Lopez discovers that good intentions (and good connections) are often powerless in the face of schizophrenia, a potent, prickly, unpredictable disease. .

FEBRUARY - The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Harrison William Shepherd is the product of a divorced American father and a Mexican mother. After getting kicked out of his American military academy, Harrison spends his formative years in Mexico in the 1930s in the household of Diego Rivera; his wife, Frida Kahlo, and their houseguest, Leon Trotsky, who is hiding from Soviet assassins. After Trotsky is assassinated, Harrison returns to the U.S., settling down in Asheville, N.C., where he becomes an author of historical potboilers and is later investigated as a possible subversive.

MARCH - Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins
This is the inside story of how America turned from a respected republic into a feared empire. John Perkins should know, he was an economic hit man. His job was to convince countries that are strategically important to the U.S., from Indonesia to Panama, to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development and to make sure that the lucrative projects were contracted to Halliburton, Bechtel, Brown and Root, and other United States engineering and construction companies.

APRIL - Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
Stranger in a Strange Land, winner of the 1962 Hugo Award, is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Michael is raised by Martians, and he arrives on Earth as a true innocent: he has never seen a woman and has no knowledge of Earth's cultures or religions. But he brings turmoil with him, as he is the legal heir to an enormous financial empire, not to mention de facto owner of the planet Mars. With the irascible popular author Jubal Harshaw to protect him, Michael explores human morality and the meanings of love. He founds his own church, preaching free love and disseminating the psychic talents taught him by the Martians. Ultimately, he confronts the fate reserved for all messiahs.

MAY - Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared--Lt. Louis Zamperini. Captured by the Japanese and driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor.

JUNE - The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
After the death of his mother, 12-year-old David mourns her loss alone in his attic bedroom, with only his books to keep him company. As his anger at her death grows with each day, the books begin to speak to him, telling their wild tales of dragons, princes, and knights. Soon reality and fantasy collide, and David finds himself in a land unlike his own, a world where monsters, evil sorceresses, and half-human wolves dwell. With the help of friends he meets in this strange land, David goes on a search for the King, who is said to have The Book of Lost Things; this book will help David find his way home. Along the way, David encounters many challenges that transform the boy into a man.

JULY - Learning to Die in Miami by Carlos M. N. Eire
The story takes readers from the journey to American itself (Eire was one of 14,000 unaccompanied refugee children in 1962's Operation Pedro Pan) through his time in foster homes, both kind and harsh, and eventually to joining his uncle in Chicago, where everyone came from somewhere else. Desperate to be American, the teen wants to kill the Cuban in himself, and the personal details are funny, furious, and heartbreaking, as he keeps changing his name (to Charles, Chuck, Charlie, back to Carlos). Now a professor at Yale, he still believes bilingualism is crap. He remembers prejudice and ignorance not only from classmates and textbooks but also in himself. He challenges sentimental slogans: absence does not make the heart grow fonder, as his reunion with his mother shows.

AUGUST - To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal

Judith Whitman is a 44-year-old successful film editor in Los Angeles, with patient husband Malcolm, teenage daughter Camille, and a big secret -- she can't stop thinking about her first love, Willy Blunt.  Judith's life veers off course because of her obsession, and under an assumed name she hires a private detective to trace her Nebraska friend. She is shocked to find out that Willy ended up marrying her best friend; nevertheless, he returns her call and leaves a distressing message that he needs to see her immediately. Covering her trip with lies and a fabricated story about her mother being in a hospital in Mexico, Judith takes off for Nebraska for one last reunion with Willy.

SEPTEMBER - The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan
In 1967, not long after the Six Day War, three young Arabs ventured into the town of Ramla, in Jewish Israel. They were on a pilgrimage to see their separate childhood homes, from which their families had been driven out nearly twenty years before during the Israeli war for independence. Only one was welcomed: Bashir Al-Khayri was greeted at the door by a young woman named Dalia. This act of kindness in the face of years of animosity and warfare is the starting point for a remarkable true story of two families, one Arab, one Jewish; an unlikely friendship that encompasses the entire modern history of Israelis and Palestinians and that holds in its framework a hope for true peace and reconciliation for the region.

OCTOBER - The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer

At the age of twenty-three Carrie Bell has spent her entire life in Wisconsin, with the same best friend and the same dependable, easygoing, high school sweetheart. Now to her dismay she has begun to find this life suffocating and is considering leaving it-and Mike-behind. But when Mike is paralyzed in a diving accident, leaving seems unforgivable and yet more necessary than ever. How much do we owe the people we love? Is it a sign of strength or weakness to walk away from someone in need?

NOVEMBER - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks is buried in an unmarked grave. Her family did not learn of her "immortality" until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. The story of the Lacks family is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.