Open Studio - Fabric Art

Join us Saturday, September 29, at 10:30am in the Children's Program Room for a morning of  wearable creativity. The library will provide free t-shirts in a variety of sizes for you to design and paint; fabric paint, including fluorescents, puffy paint, and fabric markers; glitter and glue-ons brushes; and drying cardboard. 

Take home your newest fashion statement.

SAT Question of the Day

Courtesy of sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-question-of-the-day

Critical Reading > Sentence Completions

Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole. 

Barbara McClintock’s systematic examination of corn demonstrated the transposition of genes, a finding that overturned entrenched beliefs and proved that ------- study may produce brilliant insights and ------- change.

• (A) haphazard . . radical
• (B) inherent . . controversial
• (C) improvised . . startling
• (D) methodical . . revolutionary
• (E) derivative . . gradual

Seasonal Creativity

The north wind is blowing fall our way.

Join Ms. Becky on Tuesday, September 25 at 3:30 in the Library Program Room to assemble "wind fall mobiles".  Supplies, pizza and soda will be provided.  These beautiful mobiles will make and excellent accent to your home, inside or out!

No registration necessary.

Open Studio - get your hands dirty!

This fall, the Young Adult Department will be offering four free open studio sessions, one Saturday  from 10 – noon, in the library program room, with free supplies, for teens in grades 7 to 12. We’ll provide the art supplies, art tables, drop cloths, and a great space in which to be creative–and some refreshments too. You bring your ideas, passion, creativity!

September 29 – fabric art. The  library will provide free t-shirts in a variety of sizes for you to design and paint; fabric paint, including fluorescents, puffy paint, and fabric markers; glitter and glue-ons; brushes; and drying cardboard.
October 13 - drawing, painting, and collage. The library will provide watercolor and poster paper in various sizes; brushes; paints; and drawing pencils.
November 10 – beading. The library will provide beading supplies; wire and elastic; clasps, and templates for design ideas.
December 8  – room décor. The library will provide wooden door hangers, signs, and boxes to paint and decoupage; paints in many colors and textures; glue-ons; glitter; decoupage medium; and cut-out pictures for decoupaging.

So sign up and express yourself this fall at the library!

New Teen Sleuth Iris Anderson Takes Center Stage!

The Girl is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Iris Anderson finds herself suddenly without a mother, living with a father she barely knows, poor, and about to head off for her first day at a public school on the Lower East Side of Manhattan--a world away from the life of the Upper East Side private school girl she had so recently lived. Here's how author Kathryn Miller Haines describes Iris's first few moments at school: "From the moment I entered the doors of P. S. 110, I was dodging, ducking, and holding my breath, hoping that whatever I just saw would pass by without doing me harm. . . . Public school was exactly what I imagined trench warfare was like." Iris certainly doesn't sound like someone who has what it takes to be a fearless sleuth. But just as public school isn't exactly as she at first sees it, Iris isn't the coddled (read: spoiled) kid she appears to be.

The Girl Is Murder hits all the right notes, from great 1940s slang and an accurate 1940s view of race, class, and religion, to a compelling (but not too scary) mystery, to a realistic depiction of a teenager thrust into a world she is mostly unprepared for--until she decides that she'll just have to become prepared. This is a fun, fast read that provides plenty of food for thought too.



View all my reviews

Seasonal Creativity

Join us Tuesdays, in the library program room at 3:30pm for the first of many free fun events.  Bring willing hands, happy hearts and good friends or come meet some new people.

Tuesday, September 25– Assemble wind fall mobiles for your porch, window or yard.  Pizza and soda will be provided.
Tuesday, October 9 – Paint your own pumpkins and/or masks.  We’ll enjoy Worms in Dirt and milk to keep us fortified.

Tuesday, November 13 – Make turkey center pieces using spoons, felt and paint.  This is no kindergarten craft.  We’ll snack on cupcakes and cider.

Tuesday, December 11 – Create coffee mug cozies for yourself or to give as gifts.  Fudge and Eggnog will keep you creative.

Open Studio Art Sessions FREE at the library!

Four free fall open studio sessions, with free supplies, for teens in grades 7 to 12.   Registration Required.  We’ll provide the supplies, a great space and refreshments. You bring your ideas, passion, creativity!      

Saturday, September 29 will focus on fabric art including: t-shirts, paint, puffy paint, markers; glitter and glue-ons; brushes; and drying cardboard.
Saturday, October 13 will focus on drawing, painting, and collage. The library will provide watercolor and poster paper in various sizes; brushes; paints; and drawing pencils.

Saturday, November 10 will focus on beading. The library will provide beading supplies and templates for design.

Saturday, December 8 will focus on creating room décor including wooden door hangers, signs, and boxes to paint and decoupage; paints in many colors and textures; glue-ons; glitter; decoupage medium.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Clary misses her bi-annual dose of mind block and suddenly discovers she is part of a whole different world. The next day, her mother disappears, she goes home only to be attacked by a thing she couldn't imagine in her worst nightmares and the only "father" she has ever known disowns her and her mother. Say what?! Join Clary on her quest for answers, her mother and possibly love.

I find the opening set up eerily parallel to the opening book of the Mortal Instruments series: one uninformed girl and a pair of parabati boys with a disdainful sister alone, for the most part, in the institute making decisions. The twists and turns of each story are different, but they seem to almost be parallel tales. I find myself looking for Tessa to appear and straining to see which characters have ties to the prequel families. I do like the addition of Simon, the mundane tag-a-long and find myself also looking for changes and similarities in the way the two groups of Nephalim (older vs more modern) function.

SAT Question of the Day

Courtesy of sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-question-of-the-day

Critical Reading > Sentence Completions

Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole. 
Although often victims of circumstance, the heroines of Shakespearean comedy tend to be ------- women, usually ready with a clever stratagem or verbal ploy for getting out of a difficult situation.

• (A) imperious
• (B) suffering
• (C) excitable
• (D) resourceful
• (E) precocious

Guitar Workshops in the Library

Libraries around the country have begun offering their patrons an opportunity to take their interest in guitar playing a step beyond Guitar Hero to the real thing. The Newport Public Library is joining the band, so to speak, by offering a series of beginning guitar workshops for teens in grades 7 to 12.  Resources for learning more will also be provided. Observers are welcome too. If you’ve ever thought of learning how to play that guitar sitting in the corner of your room, this series is for you! Guitarist and librarian Kathy Fitzgerald will lead the programs.


The only requirement is that teens bring their own acoustic guitar—with strings attached, of course!

Three 45-minute sessions will be offered Wednesdays from 6 -7pm in the library program room:

1. October 10 -  tuning the guitar, basic fingering and the three chords everyone needs to know
2. October 17 – review tuning, fingering and chords; add beginning strumming and fingerpicking techniques
3. October 24 – review previous lessons and learn to read the musical shorthand known as TAB.

Just For Fun in the YA Department

Each month, we will supply a week of “just for fun”activities in the YA department.  Show up anytime during the third week of the month to participate.  The fun begins September 17.

September – Butcher Paper Opinion Poll.  Tell us your best and worst ideas for summer vacation.  Maybe it is something you did or just something you dream about.  Staff will vote and prizes will be awarded for most creative, most educational, most fun and most “unfun”.

October – Pop Culture Trivia. Entries with at least 90% correct answers will be entered into a prize drawing.

November – Supplies will be available to create beautiful Thanksgiving banners for your home or apartment.  A sample will be hung, supplies will be out and you do the rest.

December – Make your contribution to our YA Zine “What I Want for Christmas”.  Dreams can be serious, outlandish, simple or just plain fun.  Come see what others want and add your own wish.  Contributions can be signed or anonymous.

January – Board games, crosswords and sudoku puzzles to challenge your brain and entertain your funny bone will be available on the YA work tables.

February – Guerilla positivity.  Paper “conversation hearts”, markers and decorations will be provided.  Create some positive feedback and surprise someone with it.

March – App reviews on “butcher paper”.  What are you using on your phone?  What do you like about it?  What would you change?  Would you recommend it to a friend?

April – Each day, the librarian will post in hard copy at the library and on twitter a 140 character description of a book.  Guess the book and be entered in a prize drawing at the end of the week.  Each correct answer will be awarded a raffle ticket so you have 5 potential entries.

May – Instructions and supplies for creating origami figures will be available in the YA department all week.