Library announces grand prize winners

More than 1,500 library patrons participated in the Racine Public Library's 2008 Summer Reading Challenge. The annual reading contest challenged participants to read the selected number of books for their age group, and to visit the library ten times over the summer. School age children were also challenged to complete a family activity bingo game during the contest.

Those who completed their challenges received a small gift courtesy of the Library and coupons from Pizza Hut, State Park passes from the Wisconsin DNR, and free admission tickets from the Renaissance Faire. Participants also had their names entered in a drawing for a Wii Game System and other prizes donated by Barnes and Noble of Racine.

The 2008 Grand Prize winners were:

Amanda Van Swol – winner of the Wii
Barb Chernouski, Laura Cardenas and Miranda Fair – winners of Barnes and Noble gifts.

The 2009 reading challenge, "Be Creative @ Your Library" and "Express Yourself @ Your Library" will begin on June 15, 2009.

How do you undo nerve gas?(and other library reference desk howlers)

Who knew librarians had a sense of humor? (SHHH!)

Whatever, we're just a few days away from National Library Week (April 13-19), and our favorite librarian was chuckling over this video homage to the 7.2 million questions answered weekly by the nation's public and academic librarians.

Where can I get information on insect dating habits? No, really.

Click HERE.

Mystery at the library

City Librarian Jessica MacPhail ponders the message spray-painted in purple on the library, trying to solve its meaning ... if any.

While everyone else was taking cover from the tornadoes that swept through Wisconsin last week, somebody was busy painting "help we are being hurt with chemotherapy," and variants thereof, on the library's brick wall, cement retaining wall and sidewalk.

So far, nobody has been able to explain the message. Hopefully, it's short-lived; as soon as the Department of Public Works fixes its power washer it will be removed. In the meantime, if you know what it means ...

MacPhail does wonder whether it might be related -- somehow -- to the most important thing that ever happened on Jan. 8: In case you missed it, she points out that was Elvis' birthday.

County librarian helps pick Caldecott medal winner

It sounded like Green Bay after a Packers victory.

Instead, the cheering came from librarians, happy and surprised (Dare I say raucous? Shhh!) when the American Library Association named The Invention of Hugo Cabret as the winner of the Caldecott medal for the most distinguished American picture book of 2008. Listen to NPR's report HERE.

Brian Selznick's 544-page "novel" was an unusual choice. For one thing, it's not a traditional children's picture book. While it's mostly a series of pencil drawings artfully telling a story about a boy's efforts to restore a mechanical automaton salvaged from the ruins of a museum in Paris, it also has many pages of text. The kid in me could hardly put it down.

The award was announced Monday at the ALA's winter meeting in Philadelphia. One of the librarians present was Rhonda Puntney of the Lakeshores Library System, which serves 15 libraries in Racine and Walworth counties, including the Racine Public Library.

Rhonda, it turns out, admits to being "one of the cheering librarians mentioned on NPR." She also was a member of the committee that selected The Invention of Hugo Cabret. "And after the overwhelmingly positive response to our choice, a very pleased committee member!"


The Caldecott winner is chosen by a 15-member committee of the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, from among 700-800 books sent by publishers.

So back to Monday's announcement. Rhonda says, "The committee met at the convention center at 6:30 a.m. and called the winners of the medal and honor books. One of the highlights of being on the committee, is that we are the first to notify the winners. And they were all gracious and very pleased to win. Later we were brought into the ballroom where the announcements were held, right in the front. I have to say, I think the audience's enthusiastic response to Hugo Cabret was overwhelming! (Several of us even held hands for support during the announcements!)"

Rhonda has been the youth services and special needs consultant at Lakeshores Library System, which is headquartered in Waterford, since 2000. Before that, she was children's librarian in Burlington. (For fun, she sings bass with the Riverport Chorus, a Sweet Adelines women's barbershop chorus.)

Racine library hosts King Day event for children

RACINE – Before he was our nation’s greatest civil rights leader, Martin Luther King liked to play baseball.

He also liked riding his bike and doing many of the same things today’s kids enjoy.

“The kids get excited when they learn that,” said Mary Frienly, outreach manager for the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Wisconsin and founder of the annual Martin Luther King Celebration at the Racine Public Library.

In its third year, the library celebration on Jan. 21 – Martin Luther King Day - is designed for children and their families.

Organizers use hands-on activities and stories of King throughout his life to inspire kids to learn more about his message of love, peace and non-violence.

Frienly created the celebration after realizing there were no King events specifically for children. Given the Girl Scouts long-standing commitment to equality – King himself acknowledged the organization as a “force for desegregation” – Frienly decided to act.

“There were things for adults, but nothing for kids,” she said about King celebrations. “That was a big oversight.”

The theme of this year’s celebration is “Hands and Voices in Unity,” and will include learning about how spiritual and protest songs merged during he civil rights movement. Three songs chosen for this year’s program include “Blowing in the Wind,” “Had A Hammer,” and “Freedom Land.”

Children will also be able to participate in a creative project to design hands that will stretch across the library’s windows as a symbol of the peace marches for civil rights.

The program will run from 6-7:30 p.m. at the library, 75 Seventh St., in Racine. It’s free and open to the public.

Frienly said even though the celebration is aimed at children, it’s the adults who end up wanting to learn more about King.

“The last two years it’s the adults who go into the stacks and want books about King, or ask the reference librarians for recording or speeches on CDs. It’s amazing everything the library has.”
For more information about the celebration, or about Girl Scouts, contact Frienly at (262) 598-9190.

Sci-Fi movie's racism subtext to be explored at Library

Listen up, all you Sci-Fi junkies, we have news!

Remember that 1997 movie Gattaca, about a myopic guy in a genetically-enhanced future whose lifelong dream is to be an astronaut on the first manned mission to Saturn? Being near-sighted, he has no chance of being selected, of course ... until he assumes the identity of someone crippled in an accident. Someone with perfect vision and perfect genes, whose hair and skin and urine he uses to pass a myriad of gene tests, until -- spoiler alert! -- he loses one of his own eyelashes at a murder scene. And then the fun begins.

Well, this is more than a Sci-Fi thriller starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law (although that's enough). It's really a movie about racism. Who knew?

Gattaca will be shown as part of the Racine Public Library's "Coming Together Racine" series of movie screenings and discussions about racism and race relations, on Wednesday, Dec. 5, at 6 p.m. The screening at the library is free and no registration is necessary. Questions may be directed to the library at 262-636-9217.

A member of Coming Together Racine will facilitate a discussion after the screening. Participants are encouraged to bring a brown bag supper. The series is cosponsored by Coming Together Racine and the Racine Public Library and is funded by the library's Alma Boernke Endowment Fund.

Coming Together Racine is a non-profit organization working to:

-- Promote racial harmony in the community;
-- Educate community members on racism and its effects on
people and the community; and
-- Bring people together to foster awareness and appreciation
of people of all cultures.

Poetic Justice: Library offers workshops for teens

Poetry and social justice will be combined in a series of workshops for teens at the Racine Public Library.

Designed for middle and high school students, Poetic Justice is a series of workshops in which participants will analyze social justice issues through poetry, examining varied genres of poetry and discussing what they say about American culture. Targeting issues like race, politics, religion and history, each three-hour session will focus on writing, reading and critiquing poetry.

The first Poetic Justice workshop takes place Saturday, Dec. 1, from 1:30-4:30 p.m., in the meeting room of the Racine Public Library. This month's theme is "Diversity and Discrimination in Poetry," examining how the difficulties of a multicultural nation are reflected in the nation's poetry (sometimes even unintentionally).

The Poetic Justice workshops will encounter poetry exploring genocide, oppression and other mature content.

The workshops are free, but limited to 10 participants To register, call the library at (262) 636-9217 or visit the Adult Services Reference Desk. Participants are asked to bring a pen, notebook and folder.