Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Christmas is almost here! If you want to be able to track Santa's journey Christmas Eve, then visit this site and read all about it! You can even send Santa an email and see if he received your list this year....my, isn't Santa tech-savvy now? Then on Christmas Eve, go here and track where Santa is at any given moment! Maybe you'll be able to figure out when he's coming to your house...

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

News for Harry Potter fans today from London! At an auction today at Sotheby's, Amazon.com purchased a handwritten and illustrated, leather-bound, silver-and-moonstone-decorated copy of J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard, for an astonishing GBP 1,950,000 (nearly $4 million!). This is one of only seven copies of the small book of fairy tales that appeared prominently in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and the proceeds are earmarked for The Children's Voice campaign, a charity Rowling co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe. The other six copies of the book were given to friends who were especially supportive to Rowling while she was writing Harry Potter. More details, pictures, and future reviews of the fairy tales can and will be found at Amazon.com's page on the book here.

The Holidays Are Here....

....and we've got some exciting programs you'll want to know about!

Halloween Happenings!

It's not too late to sign up for Spooktacular and Scarify Me! Monday October 29th will feature Halloween crafts and fun activities for ages 3 through 1st grade in Spooktacular--space is still available for 2PM, 3PM, and 4PM--and scary makeup tricks for grades 2-6 in Scarify Me at 3:30! Must register--call 879-0497 today!

Awesome Book News!

For all you fans of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, there is good news! Author Rick Riordan has announced the title of the fourth book in the best-selling mythological-fantasy-adventure series. It will be called The Battle of the Labyrinth, and will be released May 6, 2008. Get the whole story here. If you haven't read any of these awesome books, start with The Lightning Thief and prepare for a thrilling ride!

A Host of Holidays!

Happy Hobbit Day, everyone! Today is the birthday of both Bilbo Baggins and Frodo Baggins, of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy respectively. So use this day to catch up on your Middle-Earth lore, and read some Tolkien! We have a Tolkien display set up in the Children's Department for your browsing convenience.

















This past week has also seen two other interesting holidays: Talk Like a Pirate Day, and the birthday of one of our favorite (and smartest) literary characters, Hermione Granger! To view a list of other strange and interesting holidays, click here.

Sad News for the Literary World

We are extremely saddened to learn that author Madeleine L'Engle has passed away. In the span of her writing career, Ms. L'Engle wrote many books, but was most famous for A Wrinkle in Time, which was a Newbery Medal winner in 1963 and has remained popular since its publication. Read more here. In honor of Madeleine L'Engle, come check out some of her amazing books at the library! You can view what we have here.