Children's Book Columns

    Last Tuesday, our librarians discussed ten books we found worthy of the Coretta Scott King author and illustrator awards.  The actual winners will be announced next Monday, January 18, at the American Library Association conference in Boston.  Click here on Monday morning at 7:45 for a live webcast of the announcements.

    The Coretta Scott King Awards are given to African American authors and illustrators for outstanding inspirational and educational contributions.  Among our nominations for the Illustrator Award is “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” a poem by Langston Hughes illustrated by E. B. Lewis. 

          Poetry books are well represented on library shelves and eagerly checked out by readers raised on Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss. Fans of their humor and wordplay will love Adam Rex’s two monstrous poetry collections, “Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich” and the brand-new ”Frankenstein Takes the Cake.” Each book features poems about famous monsters – Dracula, the Phantom of the Opera, Bigfoot – and their trials and tribulations. 

 Check the back seat of the car and under the bed – it’s Food for Fines Week, and that means you can return your overdue library books and do a good deed at the same time. Through next Sunday, for every canned good or non-perishable item that you bring to any branch of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library, we'll deduct a dollar from your overdue fines, up to a maximum amount of $10.00. All contributions go to local food banks.

          While you’re at the library, be sure to take a look at the exhibits. This month at the Headquarters Library, matchbox cars from the collection of Jeremy Harrison fill the second floor exhibit case. Dozens of brightly painted metal cars are set up in and around a garage, complete with service bays, ramps and even a heliport. 

          After your children have had their fill of the exhibit, be sure to check out a few books for young auto enthusiasts.

Well-behaved women seldom make history, as historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich famously said. Julie Cummins’ new book, “Women Daredevils, Thrills, Chills, and Frills,” introduces ten somewhat ill-behaved but admirable women to young readers.