Birmingham Public Library Blog

It's already May, temperatures are climbing and Summer is just around the corner. The kids will be out of school soon and they want something to do. I know a lot of them will keep busy with cell phones, computers, video games, etc. However, for parents who want their children to "unplug" but still have fun, these books may give you some ideas on ways to do that. As the title suggests, this guide offers a variety of games, arts & crafts, and other activities for the whole family. Many of the crafts can be created using inexpensive materials around the house. This guide provides a series of activities that are both fun and educational. It includes genealogy activities, brain games, holiday projects, "serious stuff" like charitable giving and emergency preparedness, and outdoor family activities. Remember the time before video games? What did people do to occupy their time and have fun? This book provides the rules for a variety of board games, card games, dice...

Return your overdue library materials on Fine Free Friday and save your cash! On Friday, May 21, 2010, the Birmingham Public Library and the public libraries of Adamsville , Bessemer , Botanical Gardens , Gardendale , Homewood , Hueytown , Irondale , Leeds , Pleasant Grove , Trussville , Vestavia Hills , & Warrior will forgive fines under the following conditions: Items must be returned in hand to the circulation desk at a participating library. Fines are only forgiven for the items in good condition presented on Free Fine Friday. Not valid on past accumulated fines. Free Fine Friday , May 21, 2010, is your opportunity to return overdue materials without a late charge and help the library recover overdue items making more items available for public circulation.

Larry Lester — Negro League scholar and co-founder of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri—will discuss the Pride and Passion exhibit and the cultural significance and legacy of the Birmingham Black Barons on the African American community in a deeply segregated society. Wednesday, May 5, noon. Feed your body and mind at BPL's Brown Bag Lunch programs . You bring the lunch and we'll bring the drinks. Wednesdays at noon in the Arrington Auditorium located on the 4th floor of the Linn-Henley Research Library, 2100 Park Place.

The Birmingham Public Library (BPL) is excited to once again host its “Score Big” with “Make Waves @ Your Library” and the Cotchery Foundation as part of its summer reading initiative. Jerricho Cotchery of the New York Jets, one of Birmingham’s native sons, has teamed himself and his foundation with the Library for this exciting reading challenge. Cotchery founded The Cotchery Foundation in January 2007. He was moved to start the foundation as a result of his own personal memories and experiences growing up. He and his foundation have set out to “show that anyone can do extraordinary things if they have the desire and passion.” Simply stated, Cotchery has made it his mission to show that any individual can make a significant difference in the lives of others. For the past three years, The Cotchery Foundation has hosted a Skills and Drills Football Clinic with Jerricho Cotchery. In 2009, The Foundation asked the Birmingham Public Library to join them to enrich the experience. In order ...

To celebrate The Big Read: Alabama Reads "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", Mr Mac and Chuck King perform music from Mark Twain's time at the Birmingham Museum of Art . Hundreds of school children listen and sing along. At the end, all the children read the last page of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."

Are your kids a tad materialistic? Do they want every toy they see? Do they just assume anything they break will be replaced by you? Call me a sucker, but I drove to two stores last night looking for a Lego Indiana Jones set so that my son could take one of the 2" tall figures to school and play with a classmate. Go ahead, call me a sucker; my husband did. Thinking on last night reminded me of Joseph Had a Little Overcoat , a 2000 Caldecott Medal winner by Simms Taback that teaches the virtues of thrift and being happy with what you have. Or as Simms sums it up: "You can always make something out of nothing." He adapted the story from a Yiddish folk song he sang as a child. In what appears to be a turn-of-the-century Jewish village, Joseph is wearing a worn overcoat with patches holding it together. Did he throw it in the trash bin and head to town to buy a new one? No! He made a jacket out of it and went to the fair, where he had a blast. Before long "Joseph ...

Not as successfully satirical as Christopher Moore nor as gross as Chuck Palahniuk , Breathers by S.G. Browne manages to elicit some chuckles about the how the undead try to make it in the world of the living. Andy reanimated in his coffin at his funeral, and his parents felt obligated to sponsor him by taking him into their home. Andy left his young daughter an orphan when he slammed his car into a tree after drinking too much, killing himself temporarily and his wife permanently. No one knows why some corpses reanimate, and it's tough deciding what to do with them. They can't hold jobs because who's buying anything a smelly, decomposing zombie is selling? They have no rights because they're technically not alive. People are free to hurl obscenities at them, throw perfectly good food at them from their cars, and attack and kill them (again) without any legal ramifications. Andy attends Undead Anonymous just to get out of his parents' wine cellar every week, but h...

The Birmingham Public Library is excited to once again host “Score Big” with “Make Waves @ Your Library” and the Cotchery Foundation . Jerricho Cotchery of the New York Jets , one of Birmingham’s native sons, has teamed himself and his foundation with the Library. "Score Big" began April 23 and will run until June 9th. Everyone who completes "Score Big" will be eligible to attend the Cotchery Foundation's Skill and Drills Clinic on June 26th as well as the Teen Tailgate Party at the Central Library on June 25th. Stop by any Birmingham Public Library branch to register today.