@ Your Library
Happy May Day! Share flowers with someone! My crocus have bloomed, the grass is slowly greening and my tulips are about six inches high so I am hopeful that soon we will begin to see more color. I think I may have to add some color to my walls at home as I am craving color. The new book Colors For Your Home by House Beautiful claims to be the ultimate guide to choosing paint and I found myself intrigued and wanting lots of color.
Graphic tales intrigue and delight me as well as confuse me. Here are some new titles that are stunning, moving, funny, sad, and every emotion in between.
Stephen McCanie is the author and illustrator of the delightful Space Boy now with three volumes about Amy, a high school girl who belongs in a different time and a boy possessed by emptiness as deep as space. Gail Ruffu is an unsung American hero whose story is brought to life in Grand Theft Horse by G. Neri. The author always tells kids that everyone has a story and then she discovered this story in her own family.
Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin is a powerful story by the author behind the Artemis Fowl novels about the current plight of immigrants searching for a new beginning.
Retellings of classic stories can be a wonderful introduction to the classic tales and in some cases I believe they breathe new life into them. Manga classics has tackled The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe with art by various authors and story adaptation by Stacy King. The master of horror manga Junji Ito tackles Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Both books are gorgeous and bring to life these authors’ work.
Twenty years ago, Laurie Halse Anderson published Speak, which tells the story of high school freshman Melinda Sordino. After accidentally busting an end of summer party due to an unnamed incident, Melinda is ostracized by her peers because she will not say why she called the police. This year she published a memoir in poetry called Shout and released a graphic version of Speak with artwork by Emily Carroll. All three books are powerful and riveting reads but not for the faint of heart.
Next Wednesday evening, May 8th at 6:00 pm the library in conjunction with the Arrowhead Library System is hosting the Sutter Brothers in “Sons and Daughters of the Northern Lights.” Ross and Bart, the Sutter Brothers, will present a program of music and stories, poetry and song that explores the experience of Scandinavian immigrants, their ancestors and descendants. For more than thirty years, the Sutter Brothers have performed shows that integrate Bart’s original writing with Ross’ versions of traditional Scandinavian and American songs and tunes. Hear glimpses of early settlers, memories of a vanished village school, a lament for ghost towns, and celebrations of colorful farm folk and fishermen. This program for adults is funded by a grant from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.