Not Just a Library

June 30th "Be Creative with Magic!"

Glen Gerard

Join Magician Glen Gerard as he not only performs dazzling magic tricks, but also teaches YOU how to perform magic of your own with items found around the home! You will learn sleight of hand, misdirection, and showmanship.

Our Theatrical Thursday series continues!

On Thursday, July 9th at 6:00 pm, we will be screening Kung Fu Panda.

The movie is free and open to the public.

Snacks will be for sale.

Bring a blanket, a friend, and join us for the fun! 

July 9th: Kung Fu Panda
Rated PG for sequences of martial arts action
92 minutes

Friends of the Brown Deer Library are holding their first-ever Used Book Sale on Saturday, July 18th from 10am to 2pm at the Brown Deer Library Community Room, 5600 W. Bradley Road. Admission is free.

The sale will include adult and children's fiction and non-fiction, movies on DVD and VHS, CDs and audio books. All genres will be featured at bargain prices.

Do you have books or media you'd like to donate to the book sale? Clean out those overflowing bookshelves (to make room for more) and drop off your donations at the front desk of the library by July 16th.

A Members Preview Sale will be held Friday, July 17th from 5pm to 6pm.
$5 admission will be charged on Friday for non-members or reduced-rate 2009 Friends memberships will be available for $6.

A Silent Auction of 2 numbered and professionally-framed Owen Gromme prints will be held both days. Each print will have a minimum bid.

Our summer Theatrical Thursdays begin next week! On Thursday, June 11st at 6:00 pm, we will be screening Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.

The movie is free and open to the public.

Snacks will be for sale.

Bring a blanket, a friend, and join us for the fun!

Using the “Be Creative @ the Library” statewide theme, this summer the Brown Deer Public Library will be introducing its first Summer Reading Program for Adults.

 Men and women, 18 years old and older, will have the opportunity to participate by reading titles of their choice, making their own selections or selecting from suggestions and resources provided by the library staff.  Adults need only to pick up the program bookmarks when they check out their books or audio books.  While they are reading they may use the bookmark to mark their page. When they finish reading the title, they simply fill out the bookmark and use it as an entry form to drop in one of several “incentive to read boxes” in the library. Participants may read whatever books interest them: fiction, non-fiction or listen to unabridged audio books.

The Friends of the Brown Deer Library are sponsoring the program by providing money for the “incentives.” Among the incentives are a $50 gift card for groceries, $25 movie cards, a DVD player, a cordless drill, a portable paper shredder, a beverage gift basket and Friends Book Bags.  Adults may fill out a bookmark/entry for each title they listen to or read. The more books one completes, the more chances he or she will have to earn the incentive of their choice. 

Reading may be done between June 1st and August 31st. The drawing for the incentives will be done in mid-September and winners be notified.  

The Brown Deer Library's summer reading program will soon be here! And this year, it's not just for kids! There will also be a young adult summer reading program AND an adult reading program! Now everyone can get in on the fun!

 Information on these programs will be available in the library in the next week. So be sure to stop in!

Want to make your own fun READ poster? Just go to this link!

http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/graphics/READ_Mini_Posters.cfm

You can upload any picture you want, and choose from 4 fun borders. And, within seconds, you will have your very own READ poster!

Dr. Siddhartha (Sid) Syam will be at the Brown Deer Library on Tuesday, June 16th from 7:00-8:30 pm to discuss his book "Yoga of the Microcosm: Spiritual Unity with Nature in the 21st Century". There will be a book signing event following his discussion.

The book is an interfaith and non-dogmatic book that promotes a peaceful, non-materialistic outlook centered on 'religare': spiritual connectivity with nature and the cosmos.

It rejects the unbridled pursuit of status, power, and wealth that characterizes society today. Finally, it reflects the wisdom of many faiths including Christianity, Taoism, Zen, and Hinduism.

Some signed copies will be available for sale ($11 per book - cash/check only).

 http://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Microcosm-Sid-Syam/dp/0741450674/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241550525&sr=8-1

Rainbow Soup is back, and bigger than ever! Beginning today, you can come on into the library and view artwork made by students from Dean School. The Community Room is full from top to bottom of beautiful artwork, and it is open to the public.

 Beginning next week, artwork from the Middle School will be on display, which will be followed by the High School the following week.

Hope to see you here!

Our first-time homebuyer tax credit program for next Monday, April 20th, has been cancelled. We hope to reschedule it for the near future.

Mark your calendars! The deadline for the 12th annual Friends of the Brown Deer Library plant sale will soon be here!

There are geraniums, impatiens, petunias, daisies, daylilies, and so much more! You can order 10 inch hanging baskets, planters, pots, and small flats.

The order deadline is April 25, 2009 and order pickup is Saturday May 16, 2009. Plants will be ready for pickup in the Brown Deer Library parking lot.

All plants are provided by Shady Lane Greenhouses, Menomonee Falls.

Stop in today to see what's available for purchase, and to pick up your order form today!

Sick of reading fiction? Try one of our new biographies! There are dozens upon dozens of interesting biographies that have just come out for readers of all ages.

As mentioned in an article by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (the article can be found online at (http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/arts/42353342.html), there are two biographies written for children that are beginning to create quite a stir.

The first biography is called Eleanor, Quiet No More: The Life of Eleanor Roosevelt by Doreen Rappaport. The biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, the most socially and politically active - and controversial - First Lady America had ever seen. Ambassador, activist, and champion of civil rights, Eleanor Roosevelt changed the soul of America forever. It even includes selected quotes from Eleanor's own writings.   

The second biography is called Gertrude Is Gertrude is Gertrude, written by Jonah Winter. In a story inspired by the modern and groundbreaking writing of Gertrude Stein herself, not a lot makes sense. This book always the reader to enter the whimsical world of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.      

Now for the adults! Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World, edited by Eric Foner, is a great new biography on Lincoln. The contributors to Our Lincoln show that it is possible, even now, to shed new light on Abraham Lincoln, the most-studied figure in American history. They demonstrate that each generation finds its own Lincoln, and that two centuries after his birth, Lincoln still matters in our politics and society.

Somewhere Towards the End, by Diana Athill, is another great read for adults. As a writer, Diana Athill has made her reputation for the frankness and precisely expressed wisdom of her memoirs. Now in her ninety-first year, "entirely untamed about both old and new conventions" and freed from any of the inhibitions that even she may have once had, Athill reflects candidly, and sometimes with great humor, on the condition of being old, the losses and occasionally the gains that age brings, the wisdom and fortitude required to face death.

Want to win a free scoop of delicious Culver's custard? It's easy!

Between Wednesday April 1st and Thursday April 30th, just stop in at the reference desk and pick up a Culver's coloring sheet. All you have to do is draw a picture of your favorite book character, and then bring it back to the reference desk. Then you'll get your coupon for a free scoop of custard at Culver's!

Two lucky participants will also win a special Culver's kickball!

Open to all children aged 11 and under. Entries must be returned by April 30th. Only 1 entry per child will be accepted.

Mark your calendars! Spring is on its way! It's time for the 12th annual Friends of the Brown Deer Library plant sale!

There are geraniums, impatiens, petunias, daisies, daylilies, and so much more! You can order 10 inch hanging baskets, planters, pots, and small flats.

The order deadline is April 25, 2009 and order pickup is Saturday May 16, 2009. Plants will be ready for pickup in the Brown Deer Library parking lot.

All plants are provided by Shady Lane Greenhouses, Menomonee Falls.

Stop in today to see what's available for purchase, and to pick up your order form!

We are pleased to announce that all of our VHS videotapes are now 7 days!

You can check out any VHS videotape for 7 days, and there is now a 3 day grace period for these materials. If the videotape is kept for longer than the 3 days grace period, there is a fine of 10 cents a day for each day that the tape is kept past its due date. Starting today, there is now no limit to how many you check out.

You still need to be at least 18 years old in order to check out adult VHS tapes and DVDs. DVDs still have a 3 day check-out period and may not be renewed.

Join us for the next Teen Book Club meeting on Thursday March 19th from 4:00 to 5:00 pm. We will be reading Deadline by Chris Crutcher.

Interested in discussing this book? Just register for the Teen Book Club at the reference desk, and check out a copy of the book at the circulation desk. A number of copies of the book have been set aside just for the Teen Book Club. Then read the book by January 15th, and come ready to have a fun and lively discussion. Some refreshments will be provided.

We hope to see you here!

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, was born on March 2, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. His mother, Henrietta Seuss Geisel, often soothed her children to sleep by "chanting" rhymes remembered from her youth. Ted credited his mother with both his ability and desire to create the rhymes for which he became so well known.

Ted left Springfield as a teenager to attend Dartmouth College, where he became editor-in-chief of the Jack-O-Lantern, Dartmouth's humor magazine. Although his tenure as editor ended prematurely when Ted and his friends were caught throwing a drinking party, which was against the prohibition laws and school policy, he continued to contribute to the magazine, signing his work "Seuss." This is the first record of the "Seuss" pseudonym, which was both Ted's middle name and his mother's maiden name.

To please his father, who wanted him to be a college professor, Ted went on to Oxford University in England after graduation. However, his academic studies bored him, and he decided to tour Europe instead. Oxford did provide him the opportunity to meet a classmate, Helen Palmer, who not only became his first wife, but also a children's author and book editor.

After returning to the United States, Ted began to pursue a career as a cartoonist. The Saturday Evening Post and other publications published some of his early pieces, but the bulk of Ted's activity during his early career was devoted to creating advertising campaigns for Standard Oil, which he did for more than 15 years.

The Cat in the Hat, perhaps the defining book of Ted's career, developed as part of a unique joint venture between Houghton Mifflin (Vanguard Press) and Random House. Houghton Mifflin asked Ted to write and illustrate a children's primer using only 225 "new-reader" vocabulary words. With the release of The Cat in the Hat, Ted became the definitive children's book author and illustrator.

After Ted's first wife died in 1967, Ted married an old friend, Audrey Stone Geisel, who not only influenced his later books, but now guards his legacy as the president of Dr. Seuss Enterprises.

At the time of his death on September 24, 1991, Ted had written and illustrated 44 children's books, including such all-time favorites as Green Eggs and Ham, Oh, the Places You'll Go, Fox in Socks, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. His books had been translated into more than 15 languages. Over 200 million copies had found their way into homes and hearts around the world. His honors included two Academy awards, two Emmy awards, a Peabody award and the Pulitzer Prize.

-         http://www.catinthehat.org/history.htm

Want to pick up some of Dr Seuss's books? Stop on in! We have a display of Dr Seuss books in the children's area, as well as biographies about his life.