Library Blogs

Library blogs feature book reviews, author interviews, and more.

Subscribe

Picture Book Review: Ball by Mary Sullivan

Dog just wants to play with his favorite toy: a bright, red ball. This near-wordless tale unfolds in comic-like panels, featuring expressive illustrations that charm and amuse. Readers who wonder what their pets do while they're at school will appreciate the insight in Ball.

More

Youth Science Fiction Review: The Fellowship of Alien Detection by Kevin Emerson

Author Kevin Emerson begins a new series with the story of eighth graders Haley, from Connecticut, and Dodger, from Washington State, who have been awarded the chance to do two weeks of summer field research on extraterrestrial visitors to Earth. Traveling with their parents, the two find...

More

Fiction Book Review: Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

Based on her own experiences as a struggling actress in NYC in the mid-1990s, Lauren Graham has written a fun book with a sympathetic heroine. Franny Banks lives in Brooklyn with her best friend Jane and is trying to make it in show business. She has given herself a deadline to prove that she can...

More

Family Program: Gold Medal Picture Books

Celebrate Children's Book Week with us at the Main Library at a program on Sunday, May 19 at 2:00 p.m. featuring picture books that have been awarded the Caldecott Medal for outstanding illustrations. The program will include dramatic presentations and audience participation. Every child who comes...

More

Poetry Contest: 2013 Prize Announcements

In honor of National Poetry Month this April, the Palatine Public Library District sponsored its fourth annual poetry contest. The contest wrapped up with a special ceremony to celebrate the winners and participants on Saturday, April 27th, 2013. Librarian Tracie Padal has helped plan and...

More

Poetry Review: A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver, recipent of both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, returns with a new collection of poetry that celebrates the quiet beauty of the world. Oliver, who published her first book in 1963 at the age of 28, is primarily known for poems that explore her deep connection with the...

More

Fiction Book Review: The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

“Well, you don’t know them. Nobody ever knows anyone.” Starting out with this thought, Elizabeth Strout goes on to tell an emotional tale of a New England family: Successful older brother Jim and his wife Helen and the twins Bob and Susan (Bob a Sad Sack sort and the isolative Susan). Susan’s...

More

Fiction Book Review: The Smart One by Jennifer Close

The Smart One is an insightful and funny book about family. The three adult Coffey children are all forced to move in with their parents in suburban Philadelphia. Martha suffers a nervous breakdown after she embarks on a short and ill-fated nursing career; Claire is broke after her fiancée dumps...

More

March Madness Challenge Results

Well, basketball fans, the 2013 NCAA Tournament is in the books! Regardless of your team's fortunes, it was impossible for any sports fan with half a heart to root against Louisville. When Cardinals guard Kevin Ware shattered his right leg six minutes before halftime against Duke, the nation...

More

2013 Monarch, Bluestem, Caudill, and Abraham Lincoln Award winners announced!

Votes have been tallied and the results are in: Illinois readers in grades K-12 have selected the 2013 winners of the Monarch, Bluestem, Rebecca Caudill, and Abraham Lincoln Book Awards.     The Monarch Award winners are chosen by readers in grades K-3. 1st Place...........Pete the Cat:...

More