October Dial-a-Stories Are Live!
Leave a CommentWe uploaded 12 stories in our Dial-a-Story October lineup: 304-826-BOOK (2665)! This is a phone number you can call 24/7 and listen to stories, jokes, and poems. No internet required — just a phone.
Dial 1: “Goldfish Ghost” by Lemony Snicket (children’s story read by Lynda)
Dial 2: “Frankenstink!” by Ron Lightburn (children’s story read by Sarah P.)
Dial 3: “Goodnight Monster” by Helen Ketteman (children’s bedtime story read by Lynda)
Dial 4: “Bats at the Library” by Brian Lies (children’s story read by Sarah P.)
Dial 5: Joke Line for all ages (read by Sarah P.)
Dial 6: “Nature Stopped and Listened” a poem from “Getting Stronger” by Pittsburgh author Keshara Bailey
Dial 7: “Cinderella Skeleton” by Robert D. San Souci (read by Tessa)
Dial 8: “Teacher from The Black Lagoon” by Mike Thaler (read by John B.)
Dial 9: “The Frogs and Toads All Sang” by Arnold Lobel (read by Tessa)
Dial 10: “Five Little Monkeys Trick or Treat” by Eileen Christelow (read by Ruth)
Dial 11: How to Build a Haunted House by Frank Tupta (read by Lexie)
Dial 12: Halloween Hustle by Charlotte Gunnufson (read by Shelby)
At the end of each selection, you will automatically be redirected to the main menu, but if you don’t want to wait until the end, you can dial # to go to the main menu.
3-Sentence Horror Story Contest!
Leave a CommentYou have exactly 3 sentences to scare the bejeezus out of us! Online submissions are accepted through October 21st for three different age categories: kids, teens, and adults at https://bit.ly/3EFGiSM. A panel of judges will select a winner from each age category. Winners get a $25 gift card to Black Bear Burritos!
The Rules:
- Your submission must be 3 sentences long.
- Submissions must be your own work.
- Anyone under the age of 18 requires parent or guardian permission to enter.
- Participants must reside in Monongalia County.
Disclaimer: Contest submissions and author names may be shared on Morgantown Public Library System’s publications and social media. All other personal information will be kept private and will only be used for contact if you are a winner.
FREE Notary Services
Leave a CommentAll Morgantown Public Library locations are now offering FREE notary services! Participating locations include our four branches and the Aull Center for Local History.
- This new library service is completely FREE of charge.
- It’s always good to call ahead of time to make sure a notary is available (https://www.mympls.org/contact/).
- Be sure to bring your photo ID with you (not expired for more than 3 years)
- Please do not sign your document(s) before you come in.
About notaries: https://www.nationalnotary.org/…/what-is-a-notary-public
Young Adult Space Opera Recommendations
Leave a CommentWhat is a Space Opera?
According to Goodreads, “space opera is a subgenre of speculative fiction or science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing powerful (and sometimes quite fanciful) technologies and abilities. Perhaps the most significant trait of space opera is that settings, characters, battles, powers, and themes tend to be very large-scale.” (https://www.goodreads.com/genres/space-opera)
Our Recommendations
Amanda, library teens specialist, has put together a list of young adult space operas (6th grade to adults). The following recommendations are all on display on the second floor Teenspace and compiled in Beanstack as a recommended reading list.
Aetherbound by E. K. Johnston
YA JOH
After escaping her abusive family’s interstellar merchant ship, seventeen-year-old Pendt lands on a remote space station run by the Brannick twins, and together they make plans to thwart the destinies they never wanted.
Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
YA KAU
Told in separate voices, eighteen-year-old Tyler Jones, top graduate of Aurora Academy, and a group of misfits and troublemakers embark on their first mission with Auri, a stowaway from the distant past.
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
YA MEY
As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story.
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
YA KAU
The planet Kerenza is attacked, and Kady and Ezra find themselves on a space fleet fleeing the enemy, while their ship’s artificial intelligence system and a deadly plague may be the end of them all.
These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
YA KAU
Two star-crossed lovers must fight for survival when they crash land on a seemingly uninhabited plane.
Skyward by Brandon Sanderson
YA SAN
When a long-term attack against her world by the alien Krell escalates, Spensa’s dream of becoming a pilot may come true, despite her deceased father being labeled a deserter.
Across the Universe by Beth Revis
YA REV
Teenaged Amy, a cryogenically frozen passenger on the spaceship Godspeed, wakes up to discover that someone may have tried to murder her.
Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza
YA BEL
When their paths cross after a brutal attack Aly is falsely accused of making on Rhee, they are forced to work together to save their own lives and the universe.
Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray
YA GRA
Teenaged soldier Noemi and an enemy robot, Abel, who is programmed to obey her commands, set out on an interstellar quest to save her home planet, Earth colony Genesis.
Starflight by Melissa Landers
YA LAN
The outer realm may be lawless, but it’s not like the law has ever been on Solara Brooks’s side. Since off-world travel doesn’t come cheap, Solara indentures herself in exchange for passage to the outer realm. She just wishes it could have been to anyone besides Doran Spaulding, the rich pretty-boy who made her life miserable in school. When Doran is framed for conspiracy on Earth, Solara cons him into playing the role of her servant on board the Banshee, a ship manned by an eccentric crew with their own secrets.
Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth
YA ROT
Living on a violent planet where everyone develops a unique power meant to shape the future, Akos and Cyra, youths from enemy nations, resent gifts that render them vulnerable to others’ control before they become unlikely survival partners.
The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James
YA JAM
Stranded on a spaceship speeding away from Earth, Romy is euphoric when she gets word that she will soon be joined by another ship, but as the Eternity gets closer, Romy begins to suspect that the captain has a mission all of their own.
Honor Among Thieves by Rachel Caine & Ann Aquirre
YA CAI
Petty criminal Zara Cole is recruited into the Honors, an elite team of humans chosen by the Leviathan to explore the outer reaches of the universe.
Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston
YA POS
Ana, an orphan found drifting through space, joins with an Ironblood boy to find the coordinates of a lost spaceship which may hold clues to her identity, as they end up discovering dark secrets in a forgotten part of the universe.
The Disasters by M. K. England
YA ENG
Nax and a handful of other space Academy washouts are the only surviving pilots after the school is hijacked by terrorists, but in order to spread the truth about the attack, Nax and his fellow failures must execute a dangerous heist.
Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis
YA LEW
Sixteen-year-old heiress and paparazzi darling Liddi Jantzen must save her brothers in this outer-space retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Wild Swans.
Zenith : The Androma Saga by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings
YA ALS
Most know Androma Racella as the Bloody Baroness, a powerful mercenary whose reign of terror stretches across the Mirabel Galaxy. To those aboard her glass starship, Marauder, however, she’s just Andi, their friend and fearless leader.
Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan
YA RYA
Part of the first generation to be conceived in deep space, fifteen-year-old Waverly is expected to marry young and have children to populate a new planet, but a violent betrayal by the dogmatic leader of their sister ship could have devastating consequences.
Borrow a Board Game!
Leave a CommentLive 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.
Teen 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.