Gardiner Public Library

April Fools tradition popularized

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On this day in 1700, English pranksters begin popularizing the annual tradition of April Fools’ Day by playing practical jokes on each other. Although the day, also called All Fools’ Day, has been celebrated for several centuries by different cultures, its exact origins remain a mystery. Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to …

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Oscar Oddities

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 With the Oscars this weekend, it’s fun to look back at some of the odd and interesting facts you may not have known about the big event: Tom Hank’s acceptance speech for his role in Philadelphia became the basis of the film In & Out. Oscar winners sign a contract stipulating they cannot sell their Oscar without first offering it back to the Academy for the sum of $1. One of the requirements to be nominated for an Oscar is that the movie has to be screened in an LA theater for at least 7 days. 3 people have turned …

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10 Books That Stayed With Me (That Maybe You Haven’t Read)

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Recently I noticed a social media post making the rounds in which you are supposed to list ten books that have stayed with you in some way.  The goal is not to overthink it, but simply take a few minutes and answer.  They don’t have to be great books or the “right” books, just books that have stayed with you, impacting you in some way.  So, in no particular order, here are ten books that have stayed with me: 1.     Nine Stories~ JD Salinger:  A collection of stories that is sometimes disturbing, but always full of melancholy.  My favorites are …

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YAfter School Program

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Once a week the library listens for the sound of twenty or more middle-schoolers eagerly bounding through the doors of the library and heading for pizza in the Hazzard Room.  A bus from the Gardiner Area Middle School brings them down to socialize, do homework and experience the library in new ways. While chatting with the students, I learned that they come for a variety of reasons but being able to chat with friends they don’t see during the school day is a big reason to come.  After the pizza is devoured, they roam the library and enjoy the freedom …

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Popular YA Reads

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The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Phillip Hoose

If you have a middle schooler at home, chances are it’s difficult to get them to read. Finding a book that is written at their level and also of interest to them is not an easy task. Following are a few selections recommended by some area middle schoolers: The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Phillip Hoose tells thetrue story of a group of boys who were resistance fighters after the Nazi invasion in Denmark. The Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor is about a 17 year old art student at a boarding school in Prague. Her sketchbook is …

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Christmas Movies

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What’s your favorite holiday movie?  Is it White Christmas?  Love, Actually? A Christmas Story?  There are certainly many to choose from.  My ultimate favorite holiday movie is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacationfrom 1989.  A synopsis from the library’s copy of VideoHound’s Golden Movie Retriever says, “The third vacation for the Griswold family finds them hosting repulsive relatives for Yuletide.  The sight gags, although predictable, are sometimes on the mark.  Quaid is a standout as the slovenly cousin.”  Now that doesn’t sound very promising, does it?  But no matter how many times I have seen it, I swear – every time that …

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