Live at the Amphitheater!
Leave a CommentWe have 4 FREE Library Events for kids at the newly renovated Ruby Amphitheater at Hazel Ruby McQuain Park!
- Kid’s Yoga (Tuesdays, August 3 & 17 | 6:00pm)
Come do yoga with Sarah Schaefer! She will bring you stories, movement, and mindfulness in this meditative evening for children ages 2-8. Please bring your own yoga mat if you have one. For those without mats, we will have extras available. - Tony Music (Saturday, August 21 | 11:00am)
An unforgettable musical afternoon starring Tony Music (https://www.tonymmusic.com/). This event is most appropriate for children ages 1-8! Come ready to play, sing, and dance! - Sun Safety Demonstration (Tuesday, August 10 | 6:00pm)
West Virginia University’s 4-H Extension Service presents a sun safety evening with a story time and activity focused on UV rays and their effects for kids ages 5-11.
Parking: Parking is available by the amphitheater with overflow parking at the Wharf District Garage
Registration is not required.
This program is made possible by our partners.
Borrow a Board Game!
Leave a CommentTeen Summer Reading Program
Leave a CommentSign Up for the Reading Challenge
Beanstack is easy to use and available both online and as a mobile app. Get started by visiting our Morgantown Public Library Beanstack website at mympls.beanstack.org to create your account. You can also register through the app (find out below under “Get the App”).
Beanstack Instructions: https://www.mympls.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Beanstack-Instructions.pdf
Attend an Event (Virtual and In-Person)
Registration is required for each event.
Summer Clean Out Book Box Club
All Month of June
Go home with a box of curated books, craft kits, and bookish surprises!
Register: https://forms.gle/p9FhPAbfvjt2q5JB6
Intro to Podcasts Series (Zoom)
June 9, 16, 23 at 4:30 PM
Join Dr. Nathan Wuertenberg to learn the building blocks of creating and publishing your very own podcast!
Register: https://forms.gle/GZwedL3fXRgfAWW66
Anime Club (Zoom)
June 15
We’ll talk about our favorite anime and manga summer episodes and will prepare a seashell painting craft for you to take home.
Register: https://forms.gle/6diuCvzQk6pgXaW19
Writing Club (Zoom)
June 28
Share your ideas for a story, what you’re currently writing, and gather feedback from other writers!
Register: https://forms.gle/JFrFnufhVRnZ4qTt5
Dystopian Book Club
Entire Month of July
Read Warcross by Marie Lu, receive weekly postcards with activities and projects, then join other teens for an online book discussion!
Register: https://forms.gle/G4LCbEqdcvByYkNAA
Creating Cryptids Series
July 10, 17, 24 | Outside the Aull Center
Cryptid lore with a historian, create your own cryptid tale in a workshop, and draw/paint your own cryptids. Masks and social distancing will be required.
- July 10th: Cryptid lore with historian Dr. Nathan Wuetenberg
- July 17: Create your own cryptid tale: A writing workshop with John Fox
- July 24: Draw/paint your own cryptid
Register: https://forms.gle/4DZv5EPu7mhRWzHr8
Anime Club – Pokemon Terrariums
July 20 | Outside the Aull Center
Meet with other anime fans in an outdoor gathering to chat about pokemon terrariums! Masks and social distancing will be required.
Register: https://forms.gle/6diuCvzQk6pgXaW19
Writing Club (Zoom)
July 26
Share your ideas for a story, what you’re currently writing, and gather feedback from other writers!
Register: https://forms.gle/JFrFnufhVRnZ4qTt5
Play the Bingo Reading Challenge
Turn in and complete the Bingo worksheet beginning August 1st to receive a part
icipation prize: a library banded water bottle and a custom sticker by Liz Pavlovic.
Any horizontal, vertical, or diagonal bingo orientation will be accepted.
Questions? Please direct all questions to Amanda at amanda.young@mympls.org
Adult Reading Challenge
Leave a CommentRegister for our 2021 Summer Adult Reading Challenge (June 14th – July 31st). Register at mympls.beanstack.com.
The Rules:
- This challenge is open to individuals ages 18 and up.
- Participants must be a Morgantown Public Library System cardholder.
- Book titles must be logged in on Beanstack. Choose from our suggested regional book lists or choose your own.
The Prizes
All participants that read and log 4 books and complete the road trip activity challenge on Beanstack will receive a library-branded water bottle and will be automatically put into a drawing for the $100 gift card grand prize to the Appalachian Gallery.
Sign Up for the Reading Challenge
Beanstack is easy to use and available both online and as a mobile app. Get started by visiting our Morgantown Public Library Beanstack website at mympls.beanstack.org to create your account. You can also register through the app (find out below under “Get the App”).
Note: An email address is required, if you do not have an email address you will need to create one first then come back to register for Beanstack.
Have your Library Card ready and choose how you would like to register (as an individual, registering a child, registering a family or group) and then complete all required fields (marked with *) on the online form. If you do not have a library card email us at askmympls@gmail.com with your full name, current mailing address, and phone number for a temporary library card.
Once registered, you can access your account online or in the app by signing in with your username and password.
Enjoy the fun of reading and unlock achievements!
Beanstack is a website and app that serves as an interactive home for reading challenges and events. It’s your one-stop-shop to not only register for challenges, but to also track your reading habits and unlock badges!
What You Can Do
- Register as an Individual, Family, Group, or Class
- Perfect for parents and teachers
- Track Your Reading
- Keep a Reading Log
- Set/Record Session Timers
- Keeps track of what you’ve read and how long you’ve read
- Complete Reading Challenges
- Choose from Youth or Adult Reading Challenges created by the Library
- Write Book Reviews
- Now available on desktop and mobile
- Earn Badges, Incentives, and Prizes
- Digital badges and achievements as well as prizes from your Library
- View Highlights
- Features your badges, stats, and streaks based on your reading habits
- Manage a Family Member’s Reading Log & Achievements
- (If registered as a Family) Easily switch views between member profiles without having to change log-ins
Get the App
Find the free app in your Apple App or Google Play store under the name “Beanstack Tracker” and select “Get” or “Install.”
Once downloaded, open the app and follow the simple step-by-step prompts to create an account for yourself, your child, or your family/group. If you’ve already created your account through the website, you can skip this step and just sign in to your existing account with your registered username and password.
Registering on the Website vs. Through the App: Since the app does not use our direct website link, the first prompt in creating your account is selecting “Find Your School or Library” and entering “Morgantown” in the search option. Otherwise the process is the same as registering on the website. All fields are required except for phone number.
Troubleshooting
If at any time you need help with Beanstack, please visit their Helpdesk and type in your question.
For questions related to the 15-Day Reading Challenge, please reach out to Crystal at askmympls.org@gmail.com.
Recommended Titles to Commemorate Juneteenth
Leave a CommentCrystal, reference supervisor at the Morgantown Public Library downtown branch, compiled these recommended titles to commemorate Juneteenth.
On Juneteenth/ Annette Gordon-Reed
326.8 GOR
Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing
episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed’s On Juneteenth provides a
historian’s view of the country’s long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its
origins in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have
endured in the century since, from Reconstruction through Jim Crow and
beyond.
The Long Emancipation: The Demise of Slavery in the United States / Ira Berlin
326.8 Ber
In The Long Emancipation, Ira Berlin draws upon decades of study to offer a
framework for understanding slavery’s demise in the United States. Freedom
was not achieved in a moment, and emancipation was not an occasion but a
near-century-long process–a shifting but persistent struggle that involved
thousands of men and women.
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 / edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain
973.0496 Fou
Four Hundred Souls is a unique one-volume “community” history of African
Americans. The editors, Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, have
assembled ninety brilliant writers, each of whom takes on a five-year
period of that four-hundred-year span. The writers explore their periods
through a variety of techniques: historical essays, short stories, personal
vignettes, and fiery polemics. They approach history from various
perspectives: through the eyes of towering historical icons or the untold
stories of ordinary people; through places, laws, and objects. While themes
of resistance and struggle, of hope and reinvention, course through the
book, this collection of diverse pieces from ninety different minds,
reflecting ninety different perspectives, fundamentally deconstructs the
idea that Africans in America are a monolith–instead it unlocks the
startling range of experiences and ideas that have always existed within
the community of Blackness.
A Black Women’s History of the United States: Revisioning American history / Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross
305.488 BER
A Black Women’s History of the United States is a critical survey of black
women’s complicated legacy in America, as it takes into account their
exploitation and victimization as well as their undeniable and substantial
contributions to the country since its inception
She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman / Erica Armstrong Dunbar.
YA B Tubman
She Came to Slay reveals the many complexities and varied accomplishments of
one of our nation’s true heroes and offers an accessible and modern
interpretation of Tubman’s life that is both informative and engaging.
The Fire This Time/ James Baldwin
305.896 Bal
At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing
examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal
and provocative document from the iconic author. It consists of two “letters,” written
on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort
Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by
The New York Times Book Review as “sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition,
testament, and chronicle…all presented in searing, brilliant prose,” The Fire Next Time
stands as a classic of literature.
Juneteenth / Ralph Ellison; ed. by John F. Callahan
F Ell
The story of a black man who passes for white and becomes a race-baiting U.S.
senator. When he is shot on the Senate floor, the first visitor in hospital is a
black musician-turned-preacher who raised him. As the two men talk, their
respective stories come out.
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man / Emmanuel Acho
305.8 Ach
In Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, Acho takes on all the
questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are
afraid to ask–yet which all Americans need the answers to, now more than
ever. With the same open-hearted generosity that has made his video series a
phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white
privilege, cultural appropriation, and “reverse racism.” In his own words, he
provides a space of compassion and understanding in a discussion that can lack
both. Heasks only for the reader’s curiosity–but along the way, he will
galvanize all of us to join the antiracist fight.
Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul?: Essays / Jesse McCarthy
814 McC
Jesse McCarthy’s bracing essays investigate with virtuosic intensity the art,
music, literature, and political stances that have defined the twenty-first
century. Even as our world has suffered through successful upheavals,
McCarthy contends,”something was happening in the world of culture: a
surging and unprecedented visibility at every level of black art making.” Who
Will Pay Reparations on My Soul? Reckons with this resurgence, arguing for the
central role of art and intellectual culture in an age of widening inequality and
moral crisis. McCarthy reinvigorates the essay form as a space not only for
argument but for experimental writing that mixes and chops the old ways into
new ones.
Stamped from the Beginning / Ibram X. Kendi
305.8 Ken
In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the
entire story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering power over the
course of American history. He uses the life stories of five major American
intellectuals to drive this history: Puritan minister Cotton Mather, Thomas
Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, W.E.B. Du Bois, and legendary
activist Angela Davis.As Kendi shows, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance
or hatred. They were created to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched
discriminatory policies and the nation’s racial inequities.In shedding light on
this history, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose
racist thinking. In the process, he gives us reason to hope.
Register Today!
Leave a CommentAnnouncing the 2021 Summer Reading Program (Grade K-5)! Registration is officially open! Log your books, earn brag tag prizes, and join us for virtual and in-person events such as book trails, bird walks, and take-home craft kits over the next two months!
Sign up for the Summer Reading Program: https://bit.ly/3bSkruv
More Info: https://www.mympls.org/2021srp
Try Out iVOX!
Leave a CommentiVOX is a children’s book app (ages 3-8) that is part ebook, part audiobook, and part virtual pop-up. Your kids can follow along with their favorite stories while interacting with 3D characters and environments–immersed in the story like never before! With your library card you can even download the stories onto your device and watch it back without needing to connect to WIFI.
Available for both iOS and Android, iVOX is part of VOX Books that you can check out at our library. Simply download the app, select a book, and tap on the cover to bring favorite stories to life.
Explore iVOX:
- Download the iVOX app for Apple or Android.
- Open the app, enter your zip code, and click on “Morgantown Public Library.”
- Sign in with your library card number–the number that appears above the barcode.
- Pick a book from the titles that are displayed, tap on the cover, and start reading.
- Use it as a learning tool for young readers or simply to enhance the
reading experience.
Register Today!
Leave a CommentRegistration for the Morgantown Public Library’s “Big Family Book Club” is closed! We’ve chosen a book everyone in the family can enjoy, “Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library” by Chris Grabenstein (recommended to elementary ages to adults). Read the book with your family, complete activities, and win prizes! You will even get a chance to meet the author, Chris Grabenstein, in a virtual gathering on June 22nd. All participants will receive a FREE copy of the book and each week you will receive a postcard in the mail with activities and discussion questions to guide you as you progress through the book.
Learn more: https://www.mympls.org/bfbc/
3 Book Trails for You to Explore!
Leave a Comment
Dates: April 26 – May 10
Location: Mylan Park Elementary
Directions: The book trail is located in the back of the school building in the outdoor learning area, adjacent to the parking lot.
Book:”Flower Garden” by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt.
Dates: May 1 – May 16 Available until June 1st (Update)
Location: Mason-Dixon Historical Park
Directions: The book trail is located on the Fairy Trail.
Book: “A Fairy Friend” by Sue Fliess and illustrated by Claire Keane
Dates: May 1 – May 31
Location: West Virginia Botanic Garden
Directions: The book trail is located on the Reservoir loop, starting by the visitor center.
Book: “Over in the Meadow” by Ezra Jack Keats
Asia/Pacific American Heritage Month Teen Reads
Leave a CommentAmanda, library teens specialist, has put together a list of Asia/Pacific American Heritage Month teen reads.The following recommendations are all on display on the second floor Teenspace and compiled in Beanstack as a recommended reading list.
The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling by Wai Chim
YA CHI
Anna Chiu has her hands full. When she’s not looking after her brother and sister or helping out at her father’s restaurant, she’s taking care of her mother, whose debilitating mental illness keeps her in bed most days. Her father’s new delivery boy, Rory, is a welcome distraction and even though she knows that things aren’t right at home, she’s starting to feel like she could be a normal teen. But when her mother finally gets out of bed, things go from bad to worse.
For fans of: family and relationships plots, and books like ‘On the Come Up’ by Angie Thomas and The ‘Library of Lost Things’ by Laura Taylor Namey
Rebel Seoul by Axie Oh
YA OH
In 2199 in the Neo State of Korea, eighteen-year-old Jaewon is partnered with supersoldier Tera, but their evolving love is threatened when Jaewon must choose among conflicting loyalties–to the totalitarian government that promises to end all war, the nationalist rebels his father followed, or the crime syndicate staging a coup.
For fans of sci-fi and dystopian fiction, ‘WarCross’ by Marie Lu and ‘The Epic Crush of Genie Lo’ by F.C. Lee
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
YA LO
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father–despite his hard-won citizenship–Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.
For fans of historical fiction, diversity and inclusion, and ‘Felix Ever After’ by Kacen Callender
The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco
YA CHU
After an ancient prophecy is betrayed, a world ruled by a long line of goddesses is split in two–one half in perpetual day, and the other in an endless night–and two young twin goddesses set out on separate and equally dangerous journeys to the Breach that divides them, hoping to save their broken world.
For fans of fantasy, ‘The Merciful Crow’ by Margaret Owen, and author Sarah J. Maas
We are Not Free by Traci Chee
YA CHE
For fourteen-year-old budding artist Minoru Ito, her two brothers, her friends, and the other members of the Japanese-American community in southern California, the three months since Pearl Harbor was attacked have become a waking nightmare: attacked, spat on, and abused with no way to retaliate–and now things are about to get worse, their lives forever changed by the mass incarcerations in the relocation camps.
For fans of historical fiction, US history, and ‘Dear Martin’ by Nic Stone
Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay
YA RIB
When seventeen-year-old Jay Reguero learns his Filipino cousin and former best friend, Jun, was murdered as part of President Duterte’s war on drugs, he flies to the Philippines to learn more.
For fans of realistic fiction, ‘The Poet X’ by Elizabeth Acevedo, and author Nic Stone
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
YA PAN
After her mother’s suicide, grief-stricken Leigh Sanders travels to Taiwan to stay with grandparents she never met, determined to find her mother who she believes turned into a bird.
For fans of a good cry, ‘They Both Die at the End’ by Adam Silvera
The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala
YA TEE
Esha lost everything in the royal coup-and as the legendary rebel known as the Viper, she’s made the guilty pay. Now she’s been tasked with her most important mission to date: taking down the ruthless General Hotha. Kunal has been a soldier since childhood. His uncle, the general, has ensured that Kunal never strays from the path-even as a part of Kunal longs to join the outside world, which has only been growing more volatile. When Esha and Kunals paths cross one fateful night, an impossible chain of events unfolds. Both the Viper and the soldier think they’re calling the shots, but they’re not the only players moving the pieces. As the bonds that hold their land in order break down and the sins of the past meet the promise of a new future, both the soldier and the rebel must decide where their loyalties lie: with the lives they’ve killed to hold on to or with the love that’s made them dream of something more.
For fans of folklore and fantasy, romance, and ‘We Set the Dark on Fire’ by Tehlor Kay Mejia
The Girl King by Mimi Yu
YA YU
When their father names a male cousin as next ruler of the Empire of the First Flame, Lu must go on the run to reclaim her birthright, leaving her younger, timid sister, Min, to discover her own hidden power.
For fans of high fantasy, ‘Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim, author Julie Kagawa
The Reader: Book One of Sea of Ink and Gold by Traci Chee
YA CHE
Set in a world where reading is unheard-of, Sefia makes use of a mysterious object to track down who kidnapped her aunt Nin and what really happened the night her father was murdered.
For fans of adventure, books about books, and author Leigh Bardugo
This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura
YA SUG
Katsuyamas never quit — but seventeen-year-old CJ doesn’t even know where to start. She’s never lived up to her mom’s type A ambition, and she’s perfectly happy just helping her aunt, Hannah, at their family’s flower shop. She doesn’t buy into Hannah’s romantic ideas about flowers and their hidden meanings, but when it comes to arranging the perfect bouquet, CJ discovers a knack she never knew she had. A skill she might even be proud of. Then her mom decides to sell the shop — to the family who swindled CJ’s grandparents when thousands of Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during WWII. Soon a rift threatens to splinter CJ’s family, friends, and their entire Northern California community; and for the first time, CJ has found something she wants to fight for.
For fans of coming of age stories, flowers, mother/daughter relationships and ‘The Upside’ by Becky Albertalli
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
YA HAN
Lara Jean writes love letters to all the boys she has loved and then hides them in a hatbox until one day those letters are accidentally sent.
For fans of first loves and romance, “Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy and ‘Everything Everything’ by Nicola Yoon
Super Fake Love Song by David Yoon
YA YOO
When new-girl Cirrus mistakes self-described nerd Sunny Dae as the lead in a rock band, Sunny rolls with it, forming a fake band with his friends, but as the lies continue he risks losing both Cirrus and his friends.
For fans of contemporary fiction, music, ‘You Should See Me in a Crown’ by Leah Johnson
Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
YA KHO
Clinically-depressed Darius Kellner, a high school sophomore, travels to Iran to meet his grandparents, but it is their next-door neighbor, Sohrab, who changes his life.
For fans of ‘Speak’ by Laurie Halse Anderson, and ‘A Very Large Expanse of the Sea’ by Tahereh Mafi
Warcross by Marie Lu
YA LU
When teenage coder Emika Chen hacks her way into the opening tournament of the Warcross Championships, she glitches herself into the game as well as a sinister plot with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.
For fans of science fiction, video games, dystopian, and ‘Ready Player One’ by Ernest Cline
Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar
YA THA
Sheetal Mistry, a rising high school junior who is half-star, half-human, must win a competition in the starry court to save her human father.
For fans of mythology, urban fantasies, author VE Schwab and ‘Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
YA FAI
In a world inspired by ancient Arabia, seventeen-year-old huntress Zafira must disguise herself as a man to seek a lost artifact that could return magic to her cursed world.
For fans of high fantasy, good and evil, author Leigh Bardugo and author Holly Black
The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman
YA BOW
Murdered on the way to her high school graduation party, eighteen-year-old Nami Miyamoto finds herself in an afterlife ruled by Ophelia, a virtual assistant planning to eradicate human existence.
For fans of science fiction and fantasy, and author Marie Lu
Amanda is Morgantown Public Library’s teen specialist.