@ Your Library
Next week is Minnesota Education weekend, so whatever your plans for the long weekend be sure and stop by the library and pick up some audiobooks. We have new options for listening to books. You can listen (or read) to books on your phone or tablet using our digital services Libby and Hoopla. Both require you to create accounts and have a library card in good standing. But if you don’t have a phone or tablet to use for listening to books then try one of these other options available.
Audiobooks are available on compact discs (CDs) which replaced cassette tapes. But new cars no longer come with CD players, and it is getting harder to find CD players. We are still purchasing a few audiobooks on CD, but we now offer Playaways and Wonderbooks (for kids only). Playaways are small devices, about the size of a deck of cards that contain an audiobook. Connect the device to headphones to listen in your ears or connect to your car stereo system using an AUX cable. No additional play is needed. Wonderbooks have an audiobook player attached to a physical copy of the book so kids can read along as someone reads the book to them. We have a wide variety of titles available, but not everything is available in this format, so we are not always able to get specific titles in Playaways.
You are also welcome to stop by and see what we have in physical books. Our graphic novel (comic) collection is sizeable with a wide range of quality titles in both stand-alone titles and series for a variety of ages from early readers to adults. For kids check out popular series like Big Nate, Dog Man or Baby Mouse. Try Catstronauts, Bug Boys, Officer Clawsome or Hilo to stand out from the crowd. Teens and adults will find Sunshine by Jarrett J. Krosoczka inspiring and uplifting. Two new series we are getting include Even Note about a high school singer and Run On Your New Legs about a high school student with prosthetic legs learning to run on them.
Graphic novels take some extra time to learn to read as you have to look at both the words and the pictures to follow the story. I enjoy them in small doses, but still find them tiring as I can’t just read, I have to focus on what the pictures are telling us too. Expand your horizons, learn a new skill this fall and explore some amazing storytelling. Don’t forget our program on October 23rd at 6:30 pm with graphic memoirist Lynn Von Sien a program funded by funds from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
I also want to remind folks that the Minnesota State Park passes loan program is available all year long. The parks have fewer visitors this time of year. If the weather is nice, stop by the library and borrow a pass before heading on the road to visit a state park.