What's New

Hear Ye, all that will listen! Having never been ones to listen to allegedly clairvoyant groundhogs, the rabbits of spring have decided to welcome the season early here at A.K. Smiley Public Library. Our new Spring Display is up and ready for the spring bloom; the question is, are you? Drop in and make an origami rabbit to join the rabbit army slowly taking over our display. Or stop by the Seed Market, the rabbit merchants have taken up a stand as part of the display. They are offering a variety of seeds for the shockingly low price of zero silver coins.

Beyond some seeds and rabbits, why not begin the season by trying something new this spring? There’s plenty an exciting hobby to find, but if you need some inspiration look no further than the Library’s vast array of new material, fresh and ready to help you try or retry something new!

If you’re looking to get into gardening this spring, then can I start you off with two suggestions I have found helpful in my own gardening journey?

“Gardenista, the Low Impact Garden” by Kendra Wilson revels in the growing natural and sustainable garden movement, making clear their indifference for crisp clean lawns. The book invites readers to cherish nature’s imperfections–the marks left by pollinators and insect friends that tell you they made a stop at your garden, that they too treasure its beauty. It offers a framework of eight rules to work with to create your own sustainable wonderland. I found this particularly helpful with the front garden of our home where we have many native plants. Wilson prompts readers to reconsider the perspective of bugs and insects as pests, and more as visitors to our gardens, even offering advice on how to be considerate and build a garden not just for yourself but for your whole ecosystem. All the while, she showcases some of the beautiful gardens found around the world and the lessons their gardeners learned. The example gardens have given me plenty of ideas on how to accommodate my own visitors (lots of pigeons, crows, small birds, and one or two neighborhood cats). Balanced, thoughtful, and plenty graceful in what sustainability looks like, this is a highly recommended read for anyone of a gardening heart but a sustainable mind.

If you’re looking for a different style of gardening, our veggie garden has taken to some of the helpful tips in Scott Wilson’s “Gardener Scott’s Guide to Raised Bed Gardening.” Wilson makes the case for raised bed gardening; whether curious, a sceptic or a believer, he assures the reader there is something for everyone. Raised beds come in all shapes and sizes, in all economies and materials. He highlights the benefits of the raised bed, but is clear that a raised bed is not ideal for every garden out there. Wilson offers solid advice on how to plan your raised bed; consider the placements, the plants, the material, and season, and how to problem solve. There is excitement in the air as I eagerly await my radishes’ arrival. One can close this book feeling significantly more confident in their ability to plant and maintain a raised bed garden and leave with all the tools necessary!

If you’d prefer a less involved spring activity than perhaps you could consider expanding your knowledge as a way to grow along with the season. Why not try to learn all about flower language. A quick, simple but informative read with beautiful illustrations to boot, Sarah Cray’s “The Language of Flowers” offers a simple and straight forward look into what different flowers symbolize, what they say and why they say it. It’s a delightful read and aesthetically pleasing. You could also try reading, “Faeries: A History in Art, Verse, and Lore” by Nikki Van de Car. It offers a thorough look into how faeries have presented themselves in different art forms and the different categories they fall into–an interesting read for any faerie enthusiasts!

Consider checking out these and many other spring-inspired books at A.K. Smiley Library!

Still looking for something to do this spring? Why not join us for our junk journaling event on March 25?

Ruth Aguilar is a library specialist at A.K. Smiley Public Library who often finds themself at the mercy of new hobbies! This month? It’s origami!

Love is everywhere in the Young Readers’ Room!

I always feel grateful for the lovely people I have in my life, but around Valentine’s Day I try to be extra super especially grateful. Spending time with people you love and people who love you is one of the most special things in the world. It seems obvious, but it’s one of those things that’s easy to take for granted. These are a few classics you can check out from the Young Readers’ Room here at A.K. Smiley Public Library, some of my all-time favorites, that center around a common theme: love. They’ve stuck with me since my childhood, and I hope that one or two are new to you.

Okay, first things first – Love You Forever by Robert Munsch makes me cry every time I read it. No joke. And I think I actually checked out this book from Smiley Library when I was a child. The story begins with a mother rocking her son and singing a special song about how she’ll love him forever. Through the stages of his life into adulthood, the song is a constant from his mother. The story concludes with roles reversed as the son sings it to his mother (now elderly and held by him) and then to his baby daughter. It’s simple, but it’s an incredible representation of unconditional familial love and the way that type of love grows and is paid forward.

Allow me to introduce you to Charlie and Lola via I Am Too Absolutely Small for School by Lauren Child. Charlie and Lola are SO charming. Younger sister Lola is (in Charlie’s words) small and very funny. She likes to be silly and make things up. Charlie is her very practical older brother. They have such a funny sibling dynamic that my younger sister (hi, Lauren!) and I have always related to via their book series and TV show. Despite Lola’s (always mischievous, occasionally annoying) shenanigans, Charlie consistently remains patient with her, and it’s clear that he finds her endearing and loves her very much. I Am Too Absolutely Small For School follows Lola’s resistance to starting school. Each time she voices a concern (counting to a hundred is not a necessary skill – she already knows how to count to ten!), Charlie counters with a very sensible response (what would happen if eleven elephants were to ask her for a treat?). At the wise age of seven, Charlie is obviously more experienced and worldly than five-year-old Lola, and always has her best interest in mind. They’re so funny, and there is so much heart at the center of these books.

Learning to love the parts of yourself that others don’t approve of can be tricky, especially when you’re a child. Chrysanthemum of Kevin Henkes’ Chrysanthemum loves her name. That is, until her first day of school, when everyone begins teasing her about it: she doesn’t have friends, she doesn’t fit in, and despite her parents’ reassurance, she begins to resent her name. Enter the beautiful and charming music teacher, Mrs. Twinkle, whose first name is also the name of a flower and is also unusually long. She’s no doubt at some point experienced the same treatment that Chrysanthemum has, but now she is confident, lovely, and proud of her name. Suddenly, everyone in Chrysanthemum’s class wants to be named after a flower! Once again, she’s able to appreciate the beauty in her name. To paraphrase the great RuPaul: If you can’t love yourself, how are you gonna love anybody else?

Who was your valentine this year? Was it your pet, your best friend, your favorite book, yourself? Check one of these books out, or come to the Young Readers’ Room to search for another book on love! We’ve got plenty to go around.

Always on our minds as we work to bring new items into the library is that every individual is entitled to see themselves reflected in a book, a magazine, a newspaper, and in everything we offer.

That is why Smiley Library is happy to report the recent addition of the print version of Black Voice News” to our collection of newspapers. Its arrival is timely as we enter our annual celebration of Black History Month in February. This year marks the centennial anniversary with the theme, “A Century of Black History Commemorations.”

The Black Voice News (BVN) may be new to the Library, but it is not new to the community. Conceived of in 1972 by students attending the University of California at Riverside, it was purchased in 1980 by Hardy and Cheryl Brown, who became its publishers (now emeritus publishers) and formed Brown Publishing Company. For more than 50 years, the weekly publication has “chronicled some of the most important stories impacting the lives of Black Californians, and given “voice” to the community while expanding its scope of civic involvement.” (Source: BVN) Based in Riverside, the newspaper covers Riverside, as well as the Inland Empire. Find it online at BlackVoiceNews.com.

This dedication to giving a voice to community members, in the format of reputable journalism, is vital for a democracy striving to reach the ideal of ensuring equality among all its diverse groups. Many Americans of color, especially Black Americans, have long reported that their stories, their accomplishments, have all too often been left out of the history books. We need to insist that each story matters, that memory matters, and that shared history requires guardians.

And so, on to more of our guardians: Listed below are newer books to the Library that share this vision, their authors aiming their points of view through the lens of journalism and publishing.

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates. A correspondent for The Atlantic, the renowned author of Between the World and Me journeys to three resonant sites of conflict to explore how the stories we tell–and the ones we don’t–shape our realities, reminding us that there is need to hear many stories, not just one. Coates suggests that storytelling of an ideological nature–even his own and his own family’s–omits too much, and that what is ultimately needed to arrive at justice is fact-based reporting.

Yet Here I Am: Lessons from a Black Man’s Search for Home by Jonathan Capehart. Pulitzer Prize winning writer, editor, and TV host, Capehart recounts powerful stories from his life about embracing identity, picking battles, seizing opportunity, and finding his voice.

No Human Involved: The Serial Murder of Black Women and Girls and the Deadly Cost of Police Indifference by Cheryl L. Neely. The author, a sociology and criminology professor, sets out to show how Black women are killed at a higher rate than any other group of women, but their victimhood is not covered by the media and their cases do not receive an adequate level of urgency.

Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship by Dana A. Williams. Drawing on extensive research and firsthand accounts, this comprehensive study discusses the legendary novelist Toni Morrison’s largely unknown early career working for Random House, emerging as one of its most important editors who transformed the broader literary landscape and deepened the cultural conversation, shaping Black literature into the mainstream.  

Black history, as is the history of any group of people in the United States, is American history—is our history. We invite you to come into the Library and find these and other excellent offerings on display in honor of that shared history.

With the new year already full-speed ahead, the Young Readers’ Room has a selection of new, non-fiction books for youngsters to peruse. Please stop by the New Books shelf for the following titles and more.

“The Pokémon Encyclopedia” by Arnold Ringstad will have kids flipping through the pages non-stop! The colored pictures on each page present fascinating for Pokémon fans. The text of the book is written in an easy-to-follow pattern on each page. The content sections consist of Pokémon Generations, Other Pokémon Games, and Media and Merchandise. Within each of these sections are multiple sub-topics. I would venture to guess that a few Pokémon fans of an older age would like to check out this book as well! You can find this under the call number of J 794.8 R474p.

This next book selection will help kids learn how to deal with money to make change and figure out money math without using their fingers! “Making Change! Working with Money” by Bela Davis will have kids churning out answers to math and money questions in no time. Each page offers a scenario of a money math problem to solve with photos of adorable kids on the pages.  The answers to these questions can be found at the end of the book along with a mini-glossary. You can find this book with the call number J 513.2 D29m.

Spring Break is just around the corner, and here to help with traveling plans is a new series, “Iconic National Parks.” With seven park titles to choose from, you’ll have a park planned visit in no time. “Zion National Park” is one of the titles, written by Angela Lim. There are colored photographs taken from inside the park that will certainly give a thrill of excitement. If you’re thinking about a future trip you will find this title of the series at J 979.2 L628z.

Speaking of Spring Break, or any time of swimming in the ocean (California can be year-round!), we have a new series of books about sharks.  “Curious About Sharks” series offers eight different shark books for kids to learn about and read over and over. “Great White Sharks” written by Monika Davies may curb your desire to dive deep into the ocean. Colored photographs of these underwater beasts may cause a chill to run down your spine as you read through the text of the book learning about their behaviors, what they do all day and night under the waves, and a couple of questions in the back about staying curious and learning more. Find this title of the series at J 597.3 D288g.

The final book up for our new book collection in January is another in the “Curious About” series. “Coding with Lego” is found with the call number, J 005.13 Sh55cL. Building with Legos has gotten much more technical since I was a kid (just a few years ago). This book provides three chapters for curious kids with getting to know Lego Education, Building with Spike, and Build Beyond. At the end of the book is a question section and a short learning more segment. Robotics and coding can be used with Legos nowadays…kids can be quite scientific and explore some amazing paths through the art of play…start with a few Legos and watch with wonder as kids transform into engineers, scientists, and so much more with the help of books!

We hope to see you in the Young Readers’ Room soon checking out some great books!

Pamela Martinez is Youth Services senior librarian.