Not Just a Library

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.