STEAM grant awarded

Building STEAM with El Dia de Leer

 The American Library Association (ALA) has awarded Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Library  a mini-grant to celebrate El Dia de Leer (Reading Day).  The grant will promote the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) concept.       

       Martinsburg is one of twenty libraries nationwide to receive this award. It is funded by ALA,  The Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC), and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.

  What will this grant bring to our community?

· Author visits.

· Science education provided through a partnership with NASA.

· Community Cultural Fair.

· Museum Program.

· Free Books for                          participants.

All of these activities will incorporate English as a Second Language (ESL) students to become active members of our library community as well as encouraging every child to excel in academic and artistic pursuits.

As part of this grant, Youth Services Director Jane Levitan will travel to ALA’s Midwinter Conference to attend a Forum on Diversity.  For more information, contact the Children’s Department at 304 267 8288.

Hedgesville Public Library's Dog

      

 Laurel is a Sheltie, so she’s not very big, but she IS a retired agility champion,  a certified therapy dog, and she wants you to read her a story! Call the library for details--304 754 3949

December Page to Screen

Neil Patrick Harris--book review

In Neil Patrick Harris' _Choose Your Own Autobiography_, you are the star.

YOU are Neil Patrick Harris, and you decide how your life will go. Will you, NPH, host the Tonys four times? Will you spend your life serving sandwiches at Schlotsky's?  Will you star in Cabaret, Company, and How I Met Your Mother? The choice is yours!

As a preface, Harris notes that he was always enamored of Choose Your Own Adventure books, so he chose the format for his autobiography. I cannot claim to share his love of the format; as a child, I tended to steer clear of Choose Your Own Adventure because I worried I was missing something.

Being a fan of Neil Patrick Harris, though, I wanted to read this despite the page-flipping. I played along with the CYOA format for awhile, until I reached "The End" about three times, then went back and read sequentially.

Nothing is lost in either approach. Readers who want to just read it straight through should have no trouble; it's pretty easy to tell when you're on a chapter that didn't really happen (spoiler alert: Neil Patrick Harris has not actually died yet).

As I've mentioned before on our blog, I love celebrity autobiographies, and this one was no exception. I enjoy watching Neil Patrick Harris--I particularly love him as a Tonys host, and I was glad How I Met Your Mother didn't overshadow his stage career in this book--but I didn't know much about his life. This autobiography is candid but not graphic, and, in a refreshing change from many celebrity memoirs, free of angst; instead, Harris is plainly grateful for the many privileges and pleasures life has brought his way. Whatever pages you flip once you get it open, reading this book is definitely an adventure worth choosing.

--

Hannah Wilkes

Musselman-South Berkeley Community Library

Holiday Closings

Recipe Party

Window Art at Martinsburg Public Library

Once again , thank you to staff member and in- house artist, Wayne Hilliard.  In his eightth year of painting panels, Wayne’s collection continues to delight the public. These panels are hung in the Queen Street  windows of the Martinsburg Public Library.                              

The uniqueness of Hilliard’s paintings are two-fold. First, they can be enjoyed by patrons and staff in the library and by people on the street or in cars. Depending on the time of day and the light source, the character of his works change. Stop by to see his creations this holiday season.

Holiday Reception

Join us for a Holiday Reception hosted

by the Martinsburg Public Library on

Thursday, December 18th from 6 - 8 PM

 

 

Experience the Library as it is decorated for Christmas...
Enjoy the treats prepared by our library staff