New Materials

We hope you had a good Memorial Day Weekend as we honored our servicemen and women. It was a very hot weekend in this part of the country.

Our newest materials are At Risk by Patricia Cornwell and Dark Harbor by Stuart Woods. The latter was donated by a patron, for which we are thankful.

The Constitution - why should we care?

How well do we know the Constitution? How well do our young people know it? How important is that, anyway? Is it a dry and technical document? Can't we just let our elected representatives make laws without our input?

The Annenberg Foundation at Sunnylands has prepared materials to help Americans, especially young people, become more aware of how our government works. These materials are available in several formats: a large volume titled Our Constitution, a set of hip pocket books, and a website: JusticeLearning.org, an online learning resource. The hip pocket books and Our Constitution are available at the Homer Library.

Need help with telecommunications decisions?

Consumers Union has given us a handbook, Practical tips for Consumers, that deals with many types of telecommunications, local, long distance and wireless phone service, as well as cable TV and internet service. If you are confused about the options, this booklet may help you make informed decisions.

Summer Reading and What's New?

The Summer Reading Program, Voyage to Book Island, begins June 7 at 1 p.m. and continues to July 19. All programs except the last one will take place in the dining room of the village hall. Children ages 5 to 10 are encouraged to attend. What is the summer reading program? It consists of fun, crafts, games and sometimes food. And Prizes.

Our new adult fiction includes The Englisher by Beverly Lewis, Digging to American by Anne Tyler, Beach Road by James Patterson and Peter De Jonge, Second Sight by Amanda Quick, Dead Watch by John Sandford, and a paperback, Love According to Lily.

Our new DVDs are Hoodwinked, Nanny McPhee, and Blondie.

We have a set of four books dealing with adolescent mental illness: Anxiety Disorder, Eating Disorder, Depression or Bipolar Disorder, and Schizophrenia.

And lastly, some chick lit, light reading for the 20 somethings.

Online book clubs

Have you ever visited the website of the Lincoln Trail Libraries System: www.ltls.org? One of the features you will find there is the online book clubs at http://www.ltls.org/bookclubs.html Hosted by Suzanne Beecher, it offers six genre of books, of which you can read 2 or 3 chapters in a week, through daily emails. Suzanne gives you the opportunity to decide if each book is one you really want to read or not. Suzanne is an online pal. Each day she includes a newsy note about what she’s doing or thinking, and she answers emails from readers. She also offers the opportunity to enter contests and win books. And, as they say on certain TV ads, It's Free!

Which brings me to my second and final point. I won a contest, and received in the mail from Noah Lukeman (I like that name) his new book, A Dash of Style, all about our favorite topic, punctuation. It will be available soon for any Homer library patrons who wish to be better writers.

Illinois Clicks!

What on earth is Illinois Clicks!? Need information? Information that's organized, vetted, reliable? Try Illinois Clicks at www.illinoisclicks.org

Selected by Illinois librarians, reliable, timely, accessible 24/7, with ongoing updates.

RIF Day #3

Today was the third and final distribution of RIF (Reading is Fundamental) books to children in the Heritage School District grades Kindergarten through fourth. Each child got to choose two books out of a large selection. We also read to them by classes, ten total, and gave them flyers with the information about the upcoming Summer Reading Program.

This RIF program is paid for in part by the library, and by the federal government.