Book Sale Money Helps Us Buy New Stuff!

The library is having its semi-annual Big Book Sale. We always have a small book sale up but from now until May 5th we will have extra tables with books, movies and some Great Courses audio books. We have books for all ages, toddler to adult and both fiction and non-fiction. Every time you purchase books from our book sale you are helping us to buy new books and movies for the library. We work on a really tight budget, so every penny helps!

This time of year is a big time for new releases in both books and movies. Most of the Academy Award nominated movies are being released on DVD and and book publishers are gearing up for the summer reading season.

We’ve recently cataloged several new books and movies we think you’ll enjoy. For adult fiction books we have Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts, The Guardian by Beverly Lewis, Touch and Go by Lisa Gardner, Chance by Karen Kingsbury, Starting Now by Debbie Macomber and we should be getting in David Baldacci’s Day of Doom very soon.

We have started a couple new series in the junior collection – The Wide-Awake Princess series by E.D. Baker and the Dear Dumb Diary series by Jim Benton. We got in a fantastic book for older kids/junior high age: “How They Croaked – The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous”. This is a 2012 Notable Children’s Book award winner and give great history lessons while detailing the ends of notable figures through history such as Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Christopher Columbus, and Marie Antoinette. This is actually a really fun book for all ages, not just kids.

For new movies we just got in Lincoln, Life of Pi, Argo, The Hobbit, and Rise of the Guardians. We’ve added about two dozen ‘new to us’ donated movies and six more Disney movies that we didn’t have, including: Up, G-Force, The Secret of the Wings, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

The Homer Library Celebrates National Library Week with Fine Amnesty

The Homer Community Library is joining other libraries nationwide in celebrating National Library Week, a time to highlight the value of libraries and the services they offer to a community.

Service to the community has always been the focus of the library. While this idea hasn’t changed over the years, how we serve our public has changed a great deal. Libraries today are more than repositories for books. While the library is still a great place to read quietly, do homework, or use our computers, it is also a great place for people to gather to reconnect and engage with each other and will their community.

The Homer Community Library serves the Village of Homer, South Homer Township and the Heritage School District by providing books for all ages (with elementary and junior high level books marked with their Accelerated Reader levels), audio books, movies, public computers, printing/copy/fax services, and programs for all ages throughout the year. Every month we offer a Movie Matinee for our retired patrons and a Third Friday Movie Night for our families with kids.

Every year the Homer Community Library celebrates National Library Week by holding a fine amnesty period. This year our amnesty will go from April 8-20th. You know that library book you just realized you’ve had out for months and is WAY overdue? Or that video that you now have a $10 fine for? Now is the time to return these items and we will forgive your fines! We really just would like the items returned. If you are too embarrassed to bring it in and face the librarian (although very few of us actually bite) you can drop off items in the outside drop boxes. Just please return DVDs to the DVD box and not the book drop! We really dislike losing a patron over some overdue items so take advantage of fine amnesty so we can go back to serving your library needs.

April is Poetry Month!

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? Started by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when schools, publishers, libraries, bookstores, and poets throughout the United States band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of organizations, including the Homer Library, will participate through readings, book displays, workshops, and other events.

The Homer Library will have books on poetry for all ages on display as well as copies of some of our favorite poems. Are you a poet? We'd love to display some works by local poets and are hoping to be able to display some of the poems done by Heritage students like we've done in the past. Are you a poet and just don't know it? Visit our poem activity table and have fun with poetry related mazes, word games, and drawing activities. And, of course, we will be encouraging patrons to check-out poetry books by offering a reading incentive prize drawing at the end of the month - every time you check out a poetry related book you can enter to win!

Arts 4 All!

Did you know that March 11-17th is Illinois Arts Education Week? It is a great time to appreciate all of the fine arts – dance, drama, music, and the visual arts! The library is a great place to discover the arts through books, movies, and cds.

There is a lot of information on the arts in the library for all ages and not just in the non-fiction collection. There are many Easy picture books that introduce young children to colors and textures and many books for children on how to do arts and crafts.

We also have some wonderful junior fiction books that incorporate the arts. One of my favorite is “Chasing Vermeer” by Blue Balliett. In this book, kids are able to explore a whole new world of adventure and art when a precious Vermeer painting disappears and eleven-year-olds Petra and Calder need to combine their talents to solve an international art scandal. You can even find the arts in the 39 Clues adventure series. In the book, “One False Note”, Amy and Dan Cahill are in the lead to find thirty-nine clues that safeguard a great power, and are in possession of a coded sheet of Mozart's music that will help them find the next clue while their relatives follow in close pursuit. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get every kid who reads this book to also check out one of our Mozart music cd’s?

We, of course, have a large collection of art and art history books in our non-fiction collection but we also have dozens of Great Courses lecture series in either non-fiction audiobooks or dvds. These include lectures on different musicians and musical genres, artists and art history, drama, and even courses on how to listen to and understand great music. We also have several award-winning musicals on dvd and a great collection of classical music on cd.

The arts don’t have to be intimidating – don’t forget that current movies are also part of the arts. This week we have both of our movie events. On Wednesday, March 13th we are showing The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel at 1pm and on Friday, March 15th we are showing Wreck It Ralph for our Free Family Movie. Come on out and enjoy some art at the library!

Knitting is coming to the library!

The library is partnering with some ‘crafty’ Homer area residents to offer knitting lessons. Starting in March, the Homer Craft Club with meet on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of each month at 6pm. The Club will offer a quiet place to meet and work on your crafts (all crafts - scrapbooking, jewelry making, knitting, crocheting, quilting, etc.), get new ideas, and maybe even get the motivation to start something new. AND, a couple of the members are willing to teach knitting as part of the library’s programming. The class will be open to all ages but we will have to limit the number of kids to make sure we have enough teachers. If we have anyone under 13 interested, just please call the library and sign up ahead of time.

For the first 45 minutes of the first 4 meetings, a member (or two) will be available to teach some basic projects. The first project will be making a hand-knitted wash cloth. These are great to use in the kitchen or give as gifts. Each participant will need to bring some yarn (a ball of Lily’s Sugar ‘n Cream cotton yarn is suggested) and a short pair of size 9 or 10 knitting needles. The supplies should not cost you more than $5-6. The library will try to have some supplies on hand for emergencies. We will also display some of our knitting books to get you motivated to try for even bigger and more complex projects! The first knitting class will take place on March 8th. We are looking forward to working with the Craft Club on other ventures. For more information on the knitting class you can contact the Homer Community Library at 896-2121 and for more information on the Homer Craft Club you can visit their FaceBook page at www.facebook.com/HomerVillageCraftClub.

Did you know the Library also has a Facebook page? Search for Homer Community Library and ‘like’ us for updates on programs, additions to our collection, and other fun library facts.

The Newberys Are Coming! (and a whole lot more!)

There's a lot happening at the library this week! The latest award-winning books for kids and teens have been announced and we have begun are annual reading incentive program to get kids and adults to check out and enjoy one of the many Caldecott, Newbery, YALSA award-winning books that we have at the library. Each time you check out one of these books you will have your name entered into a drawing for a pair of headphones. We will run this program until the end of April so come on in and pick up a Newbery! We will be getting in many of this year's winners over the next two months but have dozens of previous winners to choose from now.

This Saturday, February 9th is the second installment of our "Digging Deeper" gardening program. It is not too late to start attending if you are interested. The program will start at 10am and go for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

We have both of our monthly movies showing this week. On Wednesday, Feb. 13th at 1pm we will be showing "The Lucky One" for our Monthly Movie Matinee. Based on a Nicholas Sparks book, U.S. Marine Sergeant Logan Thibault returns from his third tour of duty in Iraq, with the one thing he credits with keeping him alive--a photograph he found of a woman he doesn't even know. Learning her name is Beth and where she lives, he shows up at her door, and ends up taking a job at her family-run local kennel. Despite her initial mistrust and the complications in her life, a romance develops between them, giving Logan hope that Beth could be much more than his good luck charm. -- (C) Warner Bros

On Friday, Feb. 15th we will have our Family Friendly Movie Night. This month, in honor of the Newbery's, instead of showing a recently released family film, we are going back to one of my childhood favorites, "The Secret of NIMH". This movie, based on the award-winning book, "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" by Robert O'Brien, follows the story of some runaway rodents with an earth shattering secret. Mrs. Brisby, a mild-mannered mother mouse will do anything to save her family from Farmer Firtzgibbon's plow. Unfortunately, Mrs. Brisby will need an engineering miracle to save her home and for that she must face a mysterious rat, fend off a ferocious cat and claim a maic amulet! But when Mrs. Brisby discovers the astounding secret of NIMH it could change her life forever. A timeless tale of love, courage and determination, this movie will transport the whole family into an enchanting world where the bravest hearts live in the meekest of mice. I hope everyone enjoys this movie as much as I did and maybe it will inspire someone to pick up the book it was based on. I remember immediately re-reading this book when I first finished it because I became so involved with the characters I couldn't bear to let them go.

January 2013 Library Event Calendar

This month’s display of books includes two different displays of picture books and junior books – one featuring Pirates! and the other featuring winter and snow.

Jan. 8 7pm Library Board Meeting

Jan. 9 1pm Movie Matinee: Moonrise Kingdom

Wes Anderson makes films about small worlds in which big things happen: love, heartbreak, calamities, death. In his latest, the wondrous storybook tale “Moonrise Kingdom,” a girl and a boy, both 12, run off to a remote inlet on an island where most of the adults seem disappointed and more than a little sad. The girl and the boy are very serious — about love, their plans, books, life itself — and often act older than their age. She wears bright blue eyeliner; he puffs on a corncob pipe. You wonder what their hurry is, given that here adulthood, with its quarrels, regrets and anguished pillow talk, can feel as dangerous as the storm that’s hurtling toward the island, ready to blow it all down. — Manohla Dargis Rated PG-13 93min

Jan. 12 12:30-2 “Digging Deeper” Garden Program

This is the first of 3 programs. With guest speaker, Laura Wetzel, from Urbana, the group will meet at the Homer Village Hall on the second Saturday of January, February, and March from 12:30 - 2pm to learn more about growing annual veggies and perennial food crops. Topics of interest for beginner to advanced gardeners will include soil preparation, composting and fertilization, raised bed gardening, and much more.

Jan. 18 7pm Free Family Movie Night: Ice Age: Continental Drift

Scrat's nutty pursuit of the cursed acorn, which he's been after since the dawn of time, has world-changing consequences - a continental cataclysm that triggers the greatest adventure of all for Manny, Diego and Sid. In the wake of these upheavals, Sid reunites with his cantankerous Granny, and the herd encounters a ragtag menagerie of seafaring pirates determined to stop them from returning home. -- (C) Official Site Rated PG 1hr 34 min

Did you know you can search our card catalog from home?
Go to http://opac.libraryworld.com

It will ask for the library name, type in Homer Library

There is no password so just click on “Login” Now you can search our card catalog to see if we have a particular item andif it is available for check out. You can also ‘Request a hold’ and we will receive an email asking us to hold that item for you!