Aurora Public Library Blog

Welcome to Aurora Public Library’s blog. A place where our library staff share their thoughts, insider knowledge and overall love of all things book and community.

Feel free to comment on posts, re-blog and enjoy. To ensure a civil and focused discussion, comments will be held for a brief period before being published.



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August 2020 - Posts
Read It!

Family Book Club
with Tess 

August's Book: "One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia

One Crazy Summer

Chapters 18- 25: "China Who" to "San Francisco Treat"


- Why do you think the girls liked to count the words that African American performers said in movies and TV shows? I think it could be because they didn't see may people who looked like them on TV, which made it very special when they did see Black actors and artists. 
- Why do you think Pa did not tell Big Ma about the police encounter?
- Rally for Bobby was a difficult chapter. How did you feel after reading it?
- How would you feel about the Black Panthers and the rally - more like Delphine or more like Vonetta and Fern?
- Cecile is starting to change, at least toward Delphine. What are some things she has done to show she is changing?

Join us next Monday, August 31 at 5 p.m. for our Family Book Club meeting on Zoom! We'll discuss "One Crazy Summer" live!
REGISTER HERE
Posted by [email protected]  On Aug 24, 2020 at 12:24 PM 1 Comment
  
It's MakeItMonday! Bring a little piece of beach life to Colorado and keep summer vibes going all year long with this fun shell plaque! 
  
Posted by [email protected]  On Aug 24, 2020 at 12:24 PM
  
Read It!

Review of "Ink and Bone" by Rachel Caine
by Nicole S.

Hello! I was very excited to share this book club pick with you because I enjoyed it so much I had to get my hands on the rest of the series! I had suggested the book “Ink and Bone” by Rachel Caine to my friends for the virtual book club because it was one I had been wanting to read and had many fellow librarians highly recommend the book.  

The premise for this book was incredibly interesting to me because it revolved around the idea that the Great Library of Alexandria never burned down and now the Great Library holds all the power in society. What a concept! The Great Library is found in every city and they govern the knowledge and power. Through alchemy, the library shares knowledge and great works of history to the public however the personal ownership of books is considered forbidden. The story follows Jess Brightwell, who still believes in the value of the library despite his family’s business in the black market selling illegal books. Jess has been accepted to train at the library, which excites him, but his father wants to use it as an advantage to spy on the Great Library. Jess will have to decide where his loyalties lie – and even more so when its discovered that his friend has invented something that could change the world and the Great Library’s hold on knowledge.  

I enjoyed this book from cover to cover. Having understood the library’s value at a young age, it was such an interesting idea to have the Great Library be the one to hold all of the knowledge of the world and the power as well. What was a little hard to grasp was the setting and description of the world in this story. We start out in London in the year 2030 however the technology and buildings are described as it is still only the start of 19th century. That sparked a long discussion in our book club about why they had a hard time picturing this book as in the future. Since knowledge isn’t equally distributed to the masses that means even the earliest inventions we were accustomed to learning about didn’t exist. Instead of these inventions there is the discovery of alchemy, which is used throughout the Great Libraries as a way to transmit messages, items and even people back and forth.  

I also could find myself relating to the main protagonist, Jess Brightwell. He views books not as commodity or black market value but for the content and knowledge held within the books. He highly respects the values of the Great Library, or at least the values the Great Library used to hold, in high regards. As time progresses we learn that the Great Library isn’t what we initially view it to be and how it has evolved into something. Better or worse? I will let you decide if you end up reading this book! If you end up enjoying this book as much as I did you are in luck because it is the start of a series! There are 5 books in total to “The Great Library” series.  

If you like having the library as a big setting in the story check out other books like “The Invisible Library” series by Genevieve Cogman and “Sorcery of Thorns” by Margaret Rogerson

Look for my next post as I review our next book club pick “Nothing to See Here” by Kevin Wilson.   
Posted by [email protected]  On Aug 21, 2020 at 1:13 PM
  
Draw It!

Grab a pencil and paper - it's time to Draw It! 📝 Our librarian Kristin shows how to draw a sea turtle!

Show us your sea turtle in the comments below and tell us what you'd like to draw next!



Posted by [email protected]  On Aug 20, 2020 at 3:41 PM
  
Read It!

Family Book Club
with Tess 

August's Book: "One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia

One Crazy Summer


Chapters 9 - 17: "Inseperable - Big Red S"

1. Have you owned anything that was very precious to you, like Fern's doll?
2. Who are the Black Panthers? What do you think their goal is?
3. Do you think Cecile was right to change her name to be a new person? Or do you agree with Delphine about the importance of a name?
4. Would you be offended if you were named after an animal? For me, it would depend on the animal! I think dolphins are beautiful and amazing and Delphine is a cool name.
5. Do you have brothers and/or sisters? Do you fight or do you stand up for each other? Are you the oldest? Do you look out for your younger siblings?

Share your thoughts on the book so far in the comments below!

Join us in discussing "One Crazy Summer" live on Zoom! We'll be meeting at 5 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 31. Sign up for the Zoom program here. 
Posted by [email protected]  On Aug 17, 2020 at 11:39 AM 1 Comment
  
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