We have just expanded our YA/Adult graphic novel collection, including a volume of The Avengers, the Scott Pilgrim series, and several popular manga titles such as Fullmetal Alchemist and One Piece!  You can find some of them on display among the new releases and the rest will be on the Lower Level in our graphic novel section!

If there are other titles that you think we should add, be they manga, comic books, or anything in-between, let us know in the comments below.

One hundred years ago, the White Star Line launched its second of three planned luxury ocean liners: the infamous Titanic.  You might be planning to commemorate the anniversary by taking a trip to the movies to cry over Jack and Rose again, now that James Cameron has re-released his popular movie in 3D.  (In which case, I’ll be right behind you!)

However, there are also lots of great books about the Titanic disaster here at the West Chester Public Library, as well as the other libraries in Chester County.  Here are just a few recommendations:

For Kids

1. Voyage on the Great Titanic (Ellen Emerson White)

This book is part of the popular Dear America series, which recreates history through the diary entries of fictional girls.  Voyage on the Great Titanic tells the story of Margaret Ann Brady, a young girl who is hired to travel as a companion to a first class passenger on the ship.  The diary entries convey the excitement and joy of the passengers on the first days of the voyage, only to descend into heartbreak after the ship hits the iceberg.  Overall, it’s a very good piece of historical fiction for older children.

2. Can You Survive the Titanic? (Allison Lassieur)

Written in the style of the Choose Your Own Adventure series, Can You Survive the Titanic? allows you to pick between three different characters aboard the Titanic, jumping right to the moment when the ship hits the berg and presenting the reader with survival choices from that point onwards.  Much like the real disaster, even the reader’s smallest decisions can have an impact on whether one “lives” or “dies,” and how many of the characters’ friends and family are saved.  Also, because the three characters are so different, this book offers many opportunities to reread and make different choices than the first time reading through it.

3. Titanic (Mary Pope Osborne)

Your children may have already read about Jack and Annie’s adventures in Tonight on the Titanic, but Mary Pope Osborne also wrote an excellent nonfiction book about the disaster as part of the companion series to her Magic Treehouse stories.  There are lots of interesting pictures, fun facts provided by Jack and Annie, and a list of additional books for children interested in doing research like Jack.

For Adults

1. Titanic’s Last Secrets (Brad Matsen)

I cannot recommend this book enough.  When I started reading it, I wasn’t sure if it would really live up to its promise to tell “something new” about a ship that sank a hundred years ago.  But I was very, very wrong.  It starts out slowly enough, with a team of deep-sea divers hoping to uncover why the huge ship sank so quickly, and gradually reveals what they discovered about the construction of Titanic.  We already know that lives could have been spared if the ship had avoided the iceberg or other ships responded to Titanic’s distress call besides the Carpathia.  But this team asks an even more unsettling question: why didn’t Titanic stay afloat long enough for Carpathia to arrive?

The History Channel also released a DVD documentary of the team that found new evidence for why Titanic sank, entitled Titanic’s Final Moments: Missing Pieces.  This is also worth checking out.

2. The Story of Titanic as Told by its Survivors (Lawrence Beesley, Col. Archibald Gracie, Commander Lightoller, Harold Bride)

Sometimes, the best way to understand a historical event is to read about it through the eyes of the people that actually experienced it.  This book provides not only one account, but four, from a second-class passenger who was lucky enough to escape the ship early with some other men and women, to the assistant radio operator, Harold Bride.  Each man has his own story to tell, some starting before the ship set sail and others starting with the day of the disaster, but they are all very interesting.

3. James Cameron’s Titanic (Ed W. Marsh)

For fans of the blockbuster movie, this is a must-read account of how James Cameron and his crew filmed Titanic.  It contains absolutely gorgeous photos of the wreck itself, the building of the set, and filming with the cast, as well as a foreword by the director about how he came to develop the idea for the movie.  Whether you’re planning to see the movie again or not, it’s fascinating to learn about just how much effort went into faithfully replicating the Titanic and re-telling the story to audiences eighty-five years after the disaster occurred.

There’s nothing quite like taking a trip to the movies with your friends and receiving a “Happy Hunger Games!” greeting from fans dressed up like Haymitch Abernathy and Capitol citizens.  At which point, I could only respond with, “And may the odds be ever in your favor!”  (For those unfamiliar with the trilogy, this is how the tyrannical government of Panem greets its citizens at the start of every Hunger Games.)

I’m pleasantly surprised by all the attention The Hunger Games has received.  Fans of YA literature are more accustomed to seeing their beloved books adapted into a movie, only to watch the film crash and burn, like Eragon.  Or in cases like Artemis Fowl and the Uglies trilogy, fans get excited upon hearing that a studio has bought the rights to produce the movie, but then they wait.  And wait.  And wait.  For various reasons, no movie ever appears.  We just know that the studio is interested and a movie will be released.  Soon.  Eventually.  Any day now.  Maybe.

Happily, this has not been the case with The Hunger Games.  Not only did Lionsgate actually make the film, it also earned $152.5 million in its first weekend and received mostly positive reviews from critics.  As for the book, it currently has over 200 holds on the first installment alone in our Chester County Library system!  But did the movie really capture the spirit of the books, from a fan’s perspective?  Is it possible to enjoy this adaptation on its own merits if you haven’t read the book?  (Beware if you haven’t: this review will contain a few spoilers.)

Yes and no.

If you have read the books, you know that they take place entirely from the main character’s perspective.  While the movie also tells most of the story from Katniss’ point of view, it also deviates from the novel by showing scenes through the eyes of the president and the Gamemakers who run the arena, and by explaining how the Games work through its host, Caesar Flickerman.  For me, this was a very welcome change.  The new scenes don’t contradict the spirit of Suzanne Collins’ trilogy; rather, they enhance it by giving us a more complete picture of the future world where Katniss lives.

On the other hand, the film doesn’t give the audience much of an insight into the lives and emotions of the other tributes, not even Rue, a beloved character who forms an alliance with Katniss during the Games.  Unfortunately, this means that their deaths have much less of an impact than they did in the book.  Fans of the book might still be affected because of what they remember reading, but a newcomer probably won’t feel as sad about Thresh’s fate when he only appears in a few brief scenes in the movie.

Luckily, this is my only major complaint for this adaptation of The Hunger Games.  The acting in particular is outstanding, especially from Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss), Elizabeth Banks (Effie), and Woody Harrelson (Haymitch).  Not only is the screenplay faithful to the books, but writer/director Gary Ross showed that he understands the books’ anti-violence message by focusing on the characters instead of the action.  It would have been so easy for a studio to market the movie as an exciting bloodbath, making us no different than the Capitol.  Instead, they portrayed the story properly as a dramatic tragedy, making it a very satisfying adaptation.

I will definitely get in line to see it again!

Katherine Stockett’s popular and much discussed first novel, The Help, had been sitting on my bookshelf, collecting dust, since the middle of August. It was just one of those times when I visited a bookstore and bought more than I could ever hope to read at once. I kept telling myself that I was going to pick it up and read it…eventually. And finally, when the film adaptation received several big Oscar nominations- including Best Picture- I decided that I needed to sit down and decide if the book was just as good as everyone had been saying it was.

As soon as I stared reading the book, I was surprised to find that I had trouble putting it down!  In case you still haven’t read The Help or watched the movie adaptation, here’s a brief synopsis.  The Help tells the story of three different women living in Jackson, Mississipi during the 1960’s: Aibileen, Minnie, and Skeeter.  The latter is a naïve socialite who has just graduated from college in the hopes of becoming a writer.  But when Skeeter returns home, she starts to feel uncomfortable with the way that her best friends treat their African American housekeepers, particularly when one of them announces an idea to supply all the white families in Jackson with a separate bathroom for their maids.  This discomfort inspires Skeeter to interview her friends’ maids and write a book about what it’s like for a black woman to work for a white family in Mississippi.

I’ve heard that The Help has been criticized for presenting a sanitized version of life for African Americans in the Deep South, just as the civil rights movement was starting to take hold throughout the rest of America.  I can’t speak for the movie adaptation because it’s still on my “Must See” list, but the novel does convey a sense of dread as the three women discuss the possible consequences of publishing their book.  It’s also worth noting that Skeeter starts out with only a vague understanding of the civil rights movement and the problem with racism in Mississippi.  It isn’t until she is faced with constant rejections for interviews that she begins to realize how difficult it will be to write her book, because most people are too scared to talk to her.  While Aibileen and Minnie’s stories are about improving their lives and realizing that it is possible for them to induce change, Skeeter’s story is really about understanding how much change is needed in her society.

The Help was a bit of a change for me too because I usually prefer to read  fantasy adventures, so I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed it!  If you’re one of the few who hasn’t picked it up yet, I definitely recommend trying this book.  It keeps a steady pace as it switches back and forth between Aibileen, Minnie, and Skeeter, and while it’s mostly dramatic, there are some light, funny moments as well.  Overall, it’s a very well-told story, and I can’t wait to watch the movie next!

Nowadays, it looks like everything’s getting the LEGO treatment, even J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy trilogy, The Lord of the Rings!  It’s not hard to see why that’s the case, given the number of enthusiastic kids that come to both of the Lego Clubs at our own library.  Here’s what the heroic Fellowship of the Ring looks like in LEGO form:

Legos aren’t exactly what I have in mind whenever I’m reading Tolkien’s epic novels, but they’re pretty adorable, aren’t they?  As a fan of the books and Legos in general, I’m excited about the two combining!  You can find out more about them on LEGO’s official website.  And if you have children over five who want to come join us in making their own Lego creations, our next meetings are February 13 for ages 8+, and February 27 for ages 5-7!

. . . OR SHOULD IT BE “THE GRIEF”?

I’m holding a 100 year-old copy of Edith Wharton’s The Reef that is part of West Chester Public Library’s collection.

In a search to find out whether it was recorded in the library’s old accession books, we found the following:
The Reef, by Edith Wharton, published in 1912, was purchased early in 1913 from John Wanamaker’s store, Philadelphia, for $1.17.
(I didn’t know that Wanamaker’s sold books, but according to the accession records, WCPL purchased numerous books from them. I wish I could have seen the store in 1913!)

I’m thinking this copy must have been required reading at some point because of the commentary on the opening page. Someone wrote (thankfully in pencil) “good” in the corner. Another person followed that with “good?” and in still different writing, someone had replaced the title with “The Grief.”

Wouldn’t you like to know how
many people have picked up this
very book in the last 100 years? I,
for one, love the feeling of holding
a 100 year-old book in my hands. I
think I’ll read it.

Contributed by a Staff Member and Devoted Reader.

LG’s note – this book suffers from the 100 year curse, meaning the curse of acid paper.  The pages of this book are already very brittle; dog-ear one of the pages, and the corner will simply break off.  We’ll retire this little tome to the special collection shelves and replace it with a new copy.

Did you know that trying to hit the piñata is a Christmas tradition in Mexico?  Or that some families in Southern Italy will decorate their trees with chocolates and fruit to be eaten at the end of the Christmas season?

As December 25th draws near, it can be fun to learn about the different holiday traditions in other parts of the world, and here in the Children’s Section of the library, we have some great books that teach children about how Christmas is celebrated in other cultures!  Most focus on specific countries, such as Christmas in France and Christmas in Australia, while others talk about traditions in multiple nations.  Here are just a few of the interesting celebrations that you and your children can learn about:

Mexico- Mexicans celebrate this time of year with tradition called “Las Posadas,” which takes place on the nine days leading up to Christmas Eve.  Children travel from house to house, pretending to be Mary and Joseph, and ask for a place to stay.  Each night, a different house is picked to be the “posada” or “inn,” that welcomes everyone inside for a party!

Sweden- In addition to Christmas, Swedish Christians celebrate the feast of St. Lucia on December 13th.  Before dawn, the oldest daughter in the family dresses in white and delivers breakfast to the rest of her family, while wearing a wreath with candles on her head.  This custom originated with the story of St. Lucia, who delivered food to persecuted Christians at night, and used a wreath of candles to light her way.

Australia- Because the seasons in Australia run opposite to the United States, Australians celebrate Christmas as a summer holiday, with many people going to the beach, hosting barbecues, and even watching fireworks!

It’s been a good month to be a fan of YA Literature- especially the film adaptations of YA Literature!  Along with the theatrical release for one of the final movies in The Twilight Saga and the DVD release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Lionsgate finished its first full preview of its upcoming adaptation of The Hunger Games.  So far, it looks like their promotional campaign is working because we can barely keep this trilogy on our shelves before another eager reader picks them up!

If, by chance, you don’t know anything about the books and are wondering what all of the fuss is about, The Hunger Games is a trilogy set in a dystopian future where North America is divided into twelve districts and one Capitol in a world called Panem.  Every year, the Capitol forces its districts to provide one boy and one girl “tribute.”  All twenty-four children must then battle to the death in an event called “The Hunger Games.”  The last one standing wins a lifetime of luxury.  The book’s heroine, Katniss Everdeen, comes from one of the poorest districts in Panem and chooses to enter the Games after her little sister is randomly selected to be the girl tribute.  And to make things even more complicated, the boy tribute of District 12 is a friend who saved her life when they were children.

You can watch the trailer here!

What I find especially interesting about this particular film adaptation is that the attempt to capture the spirit of Suzanne Collins’ novel shouldn’t end with the movie itself.  It’s a thrilling, suspenseful book where almost every chapter ends with a cliffhanger.  But one of the most important aspects of The Hunger Games is its commentary on our own nation’s  desensitization to violence.  At the Capitol, where nobody’s children are ever in danger of being selected to compete, the Games are treated like a weird mix between American Idol and the Super Bowl, an big event that’s fun to watch, even though what’s actually happening is horrific.  With this in mind, an important question arises: how can Lionsgate promote this exciting story without undermining the tragedy behind it?

Fortunately, the studio seems to have successfully overcome this obstacle by focusing this preview on the characters, not the Games.  Rather than show off the bloody, action-packed battles that will inevitably unfold, it shows Katniss’s terror as Prim gets chosen to compete and she volunteers to take her sister’s place.  I’m glad they gave the trailer a grim tone because they could have easily taken it in the opposite direction- and that would have made the trailer eerily similar to the Capitol’s own treatment of the Games.

Our new LEGO Club, which meets every 2nd Monday of each month, is off to a great, imaginative start!  Here are a few pictures of their creations.

The rest can be found on our Flickr account!  They will remain on display in the Children’s Section of the library, and if your children would like to make their own LEGO designs, feel free to join us at our next meeting!  Registration is not required.  For more information, please click here.

Since the advent of Banned Books Week in 1982, more than 11,000 books have been challenged–with threat of banishment from school, library, or book store shelves–for expressing views, stories, or life histories that a group or, in many cases, one person has found personally offensive.  The offensives of these books include:

racism; pervasive vulgarity; glorification of drinking, cursing, and premarital sex; extreme moral shortcomings; drugs; objectionable covers; violence; pornography; biased portrayal of capitalism; sexual content; inappropriate parenting; weapons smuggling; gang violence; derogatory language; lacking literary value; being a holy book of Islam; homosexuality; sexual assault; language; incest; being a book about a prohibited breed of dog; smoking; being 0bscene; being trashy; being offensive.

Without the 1st Amendment and the work of librarians, book store workers, teachers,  organizations, and individuals, the 11,000+ books challenged since ‘82 might be missing from our shelves.  We would have an abridged version of  human experience.  The 1st Amendment protects your rights as a citizen and as a reader/writer/curiosity-seeker.  That protection also protects and respects the rights of fellow patrons whose views may or may not agree with your own.  Banned Books Week hopes to remind readers of their right to read and the danger that comes with censorship.

To Do’s for 2011 Banned Books Week  (September 24 – October 1, 2011)

This year marks the 1st year that readers from around the world can record themselves proudly reading a 2 minute excerpt from their favorite banned/challenged book and post the video on a dedicated YouTube channel.  For more information about “Virtual Read-Out” and how you can post a video for Banned Book Week, go here.

Check out the 10 Most Challenged Books of 2010 (out of 348) and the reasons here.

Take action!  Here is some information and ideas in pdf form for this year’s Banned Books Week.  Or here for a list of orgs.

Come to WCPL and check out a banned book!  Classics list here and contemporary list here.