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 CommentRegister 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.
Recommended Titles
Leave a CommentRecommended Titles Compiled by Crystal, Reference Supervisor
How Much of These Hills is Gold / C Pam Zhang (F ZHA)
Newly orphaned children of immigrants, Lucy and Sam are suddenly alone in a land that refutes their existence. Fleeing the threats of their western mining town, they set off to bury their father in the only way that will set them free from their past. Along the way, they encounter giant buffalo bones, tiger paw prints, and the specters of a ravaged landscape as well as family secrets, sibling rivalry, and glimpses of a different kind of future.
Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop / Roselle Lim (F LIM)
Ever since she can remember, Vanessa has been able to see people’s fortunes at the bottoms of their teacups. To avoid blurting out fortunes, she converts to coffee, but somehow the fortunes escape and find a way to complicate her life and the lives of those around her. To add to this plight, her romantic life is so nonexistent that her parents enlist the services of a matchmaking expert from Shanghai. After her matchmaking appointment, Vanessa sees death for the first time. She decides that she can’t truly live until she can find a way to get rid of her uncanny abilities. When her eccentric aunt Evelyn shows up with a tempting offer to whisk her away, Vanessa says au revoir to California and bonjour to Paris. There, Vanessa learns more about herself and the root of her gifts, and realizes one thing to be true: Knowing one’s destiny isn’t a curse, but being unable to change it is.
A Little Life : A Novel / Hanya Yanagihara (F YAN)
When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they’re broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.
The Committed / Viet Than Nguyen (F NGU New Books)
The astonishing sequel to The Sympathizer, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, The Committed follows the “man of two minds” as he comes to Paris as a refugee. There he and his blood brother Bon try to escape their pasts and prepare for their futures by turning their hands to capitalism in one of its purest forms: drug dealing. No longer in physical danger, but still inwardly tortured by his reeducation at the hands of his former best friend, and struggling to assimilate into a dominant culture, the Sympathizer is both charmed and disturbed by Paris. As he falls in with a group of left-wing intellectuals and politicians who frequent dinner parties given by his French Vietnamese “aunt,” he finds not just stimulation for his mind but also customers for his merchandise-but the new life he is making has dangers he has not foreseen. Both a literary thriller and brilliant novel of ideas, The Committed is a blistering portrayal of commitment and betrayal that will cement Viet Thanh Nguyen’s position in the firmament of American letters.
The Kiss Quotient / Helen Hoang (F HOA)
A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there’s not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick. Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases–a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old. It doesn’t help that Stella has Asperger’s and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice–with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can’t afford to turn down Stella’s offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan–from foreplay to more-than-missionary position… Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but crave all of the other things he’s making her feel. Their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic.
The Henna Artist / Alka Joshi (F JOS)
Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist–and confidante–to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own … Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who could ruin her reputation and her livelihood. As she pursues her dream of an independent life, she is startled one day when she is confronted by her husband, who has tracked her down these many years later with a high-spirited young girl in tow–a sister Lakshmi never knew she had. Suddenly the caution that she has carefully cultivated as protection is threatened.
Pachinko / Min Jin Lee (F LEE)
PACHINKO follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them all. Deserted by her lover, Sunja is saved when a young tubercular minister offers to marry and bring her to Japan. So begins a sweeping saga of an exceptional family in exile from its homeland and caught in the indifferent arc of history. Through desperate struggles and hard-won triumphs, its members are bound together by deep roots as they face enduring questions of faith, family, and identity.
My Year Abroad / Chang-rae Lee (F LEE New Books)
Tiller is an average American college student with a good heart but minimal aspirations. Pong Lou is a larger-than-life, wildly creative Chinese American entrepreneur who sees something intriguing in Tiller beyond his bored exterior and takes him under his wing. When Pong brings him along on a boisterous trip across Asia, Tiller is pulled into a series of ever more extreme and eye-opening experiences that transform his view of the world, of Pong, and of himself.
Whereabouts / by Jhumpa Lahiri (F LAH New Books)
Exuberance and dread, attachment and estrangement: in this novel, Jhumpa Lahiri stretches her themes to the limit. The woman at the center wavers between stasis and movement, between the need to belong and the refusal to form lasting ties. The city she calls home, an engaging backdrop to her days, acts as a confidant: the sidewalks around her house, parks, bridges, piazzas, streets, stores, coffee bars. We follow her to the pool she frequents and to the train station that sometimes leads her to her mother, mired in a desperate solitude after her father’s untimely death. In addition to colleagues at work, where she never quite feels at ease, she has girl friends, guy friends, and “him,” a shadow who both consoles and unsettles her. But in the arc of a year, as one season gives way to the next, transformation awaits. One day at the sea, both overwhelmed and replenished by the sun’s vital heat, her perspective will change.
They Called Us Enemy / George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Steven Scott (B Takei)
A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei’s childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon — and America itself — in this gripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love. George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his captivating stage presence and outspoken commitment to equal rights. But long before he braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father’s — and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future. In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten “relocation centers,” hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard. They Called Us Enemy is Takei’s firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the joys and terrors of growing up under legalized racism, his mother’s hard choices, his father’s faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future. What is American? Who gets to decide? When the world is against you, what can one person do? To answer these questions, George Takei joins co-writers Justin Eisinger & Steven Scott and artist Harmony Becker for the journey of a lifetime.
Everyday is a Gift: A Memoir / Senator Tammy Duckwort (B Duckworth)
The Iraq war veteran traces her impoverished childhood, her decision to join the Army, the months spent recovering from the RPG attack that shot down her helicopter and nearly took her life, and her subsequent mission of serving as an elected official.
Crystal is the reference supervisor at the Morgantown Public Library downtown branch.
Recommended Titles
Leave a CommentRecommended Titles Compiled by Crystal
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed / Lori Gottlieb (B Gottlieb)
With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change.
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times / Pema Chödrön (294.344 CHO)
Describes a traditional Buddhist approach to suffering and how embracing the painful situation and using communication, negative habits, and painful emotions leads to emotional growth and happiness.
Be Calm: Proven Techniques to Stop Anxiety Now / Jill P. Weber, PhD (152.46 WEB)
This book is both a handy resource for stress management and a close look into the causes of anxiety. Evidence-based strategies show you how to control a variety of symptoms in lots of different circumstances.
The Hilarious World of Depression / John Moe (616.8527 MOE)
Inspired by the immediate success of his podcast, Moe has written a remarkable investigation of the disease, part memoir of his own journey, part treasure trove of laugh-out-loud stories and insights drawn from years of interviews with some of the most brilliant minds facing similar challenges. Throughout the course of this powerful narrative, depression’s universal themes come to light, among them, struggles with identity, lack of understanding of the symptoms, the challenges of work-life, self-medicating, the fallout of the disease in the lives of our loved ones, the tragedy of suicide, and the hereditary aspects of the disease.
Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression-and the Unexpected Solutions / Johann Hari (616.8527 HARI)
Across the world, Hari found social scientists who were uncovering evidence that depression and anxiety are not caused by a chemical imbalance in our brains. In fact, they [believe they] are largely caused by key problems with the way we live today. Hari’s journey took him from a … series of experiments in Baltimore, to an Amish community in Indiana, to an uprising in Berlin. Once he had uncovered [what he argues are] nine real causes of depression and anxiety, they led him to scientists who are discovering seven very different solutions.
An Unquiet Mind / Kay Redfield Jamison (B Jamison)
From a leading international authority on manic-depressive illness–and one of only a handful of women who are full professors of medicine–comes a remarkable personal testimony: the revelation of her own struggle since childhood with manic-depression, and how it has shaped her life.
Broken (in the Best Possible Way) / Jenny Lawson, full grown mammal (B Lawson)
Jenny brings readers along on her mental and physical health journey, offering heartbreaking and hilarious anecdotes along the way.With people experiencing anxiety and depression now more than ever, Jenny humanizes what we all face in an all-too-real way, reassuring us that we’re not alone and making us laugh while doing it. From the business ideas that she wants to pitch to Shark Tank to the reason why Jenny can never go back to the post office, Broken leaves nothing to the imagination in the most satisfying way.
Crystal is the reference supervisor at the Morgantown Public Library downtown branch.
May Dial-a-Stories are Live!
Leave a CommentMay Dial-a-Stories are Live! Call 304-826-BOOK (2665).
If you haven’t heard, we now have an always available phone number where you can listen to stories, jokes, and poems. No internet required — just a phone. What you’ll hear is recorded by staff and wonderful community members.
Our menu of choices is varied so we’ve written them out below. 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 hit # to go to the main menu.
Your May story selection:
Dial 1: “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak (a children’s story read by Abigail Cyphert)
Dial 2: “No Buddy Like a Book” by Allan Wolf (a children’s story read by Sarah Palfrey)
Dial 3: “The ABCs of Yoga for Kids” Part 2 (a follow-along book read by Lynda)
Dial 4: “Eyes that Kiss in the Corners” by Joanna Ho (a children’s story read by Sarah Palfrey)
Dial 5: The Language Line– Island Greetings with Lynda
Dial 6: Joke Line (chicken-themed) with Lynda
Dial 7: Excerpt from “Stardust” by Neil Gaiman, Chapter 1 (a novel for adult readers read by Lynda) (Beltane/May Day Selection)