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A.K. Smiley Public Library has a plethora of databases available for library patrons. Allow me to introduce you to the selection we have for children and teens. With your library card, you can access each of these databases from our webpage: https://akspl.org. Once you have opened up the webpage, hover over the “eLibrary” tab on the top black bar and you can choose which type of database you would like to peruse. The choices are: eBooks, eAudiobooks, and eMagazines; Streaming Services; eDatabases; Workforce Development.  If you choose to click on the ‘eLibrary” tab, it will direct you to the entire page of selections.

https://www.akspl.org/elibrary/

Some of the databases and e-book sites will require your library card number and your PIN. The PIN number is the last four digits of the phone number you registered when you applied for you library card.

One of the children and teen pages you may be interested in is National Geographic for Kids. This site offers magazines, books, videos, and pictures for your young explorer to discover. This site will keep your youngsters busy for a long time as they learn facts about places, animals, and people. You may be developing a nature photographer after they’ve explored this site!

The next database for you to discover is the AR Bookfinder. Accelerated Reader Bookfinder is a quick resource for kids and parents to locate a book on the list to see if their student can read it to earn points at school. Many of the schools in our district use the AR system to test children on their understanding of the books they’re reading, as well as their level of comprehension. The reader then takes a quiz at the school and earns points during the school year. This database is also available at the library on our OPACs (online public access catalog).

Another fabulous site to explore is the Teaching Books database. This database brings you over 361,215 resources about children’s and young adult books. I can imagine you will fall prey to the wide variety of information available on this site and spend quite a bit of time exploring. This site is great not only for kids and teens, but also parents, teachers, educators, and anyone interested in children’s literature.

An educational, fun site for you to share with your kids is Lote4Kids. A digital selection of picture books (eBooks and audiobooks) in a diverse range of world languages. I am astounded at the variety of languages that are available. This e-book database will certainly keep you and your kids busy as you discover new languages to listen to, and maybe even learn!

One final suggestion is geared towards teens. Rosen Teen Health and Wellness offers ‘real life, real answers’ for our teen community. Full of a variety of timely subjects pertaining to teen topics, this database presents material in an updated fresh, new look and feel. This “critically acclaimed, award-winning resource provides middle and high school students with non-judgmental, straightforward, curricular and self-help support, aligned to state, national, and provincial standards.”

There are quite a few more resources for you to peruse, and I could go on and on about all of these fantastic offerings, but space is limited here for this article! Please log-on and find your new favorite site to explore and let us know what you’ve discovered!

~ Pamela Martinez, Senior Librarian, Youth Services

Here at Smiley Library, we have lots of new cookbooks with many more on the way. Since there is a delicious abundance, too many to mention in detail, please enjoy this buffet listing of recent cookbooks.

MEMOIR

CLASSIC/COMFORT

INTERNATIONAL

PLANT FORWARD

BAKING/DESSERT

Since the world continues to spin on its axis, poetry month has arrived once more and once more do we explore new works of poetry. Poetry gives us a way to look at the world and the culture we find ourselves in. By reading poetry, we get a chance to hear things, not only new perspectives, but help to gain insights into ourselves that we might not have had the language to get to ourselves.

Doggerel is the latest work by the acclaimed Reginald Dwayne Betts. Betts, a formerly incarcerated person seeking to improve an unfair system, continues his work in this stellar volume. Betts is able to give us insight into the necessary attributes to survive in the prison system as a teenager. It is juxtaposed against the childhood his own children are going through, and how having an attendant father is a much different experience. Dogs feature heavily throughout, as they are the personification of companionship without judgement. Loyal and fierce, dogs show us how to love without ego. Betts’ work is another great example of how much we can learn by just listening to those we often render voiceless.

Tiana Clark’s Scorched Earth is about what comes after the end. After her divorce, Clark must face new realities and old wounds. On this journey of understanding, Clark explores not only herself but the idea of Black joy throughout history. Looking at how black bodies were abused in the past, Clark seeks to understand her own current situation and how self-acceptance is a form of rebellion. She also attempts to rectify her own Christian upbringing with her queerness and disconnection from a higher power. An exploration of black joy and sorrow, the work is an example of how healing can be a radical act.

Esther Lin’s Cold Thief Place is about a woman growing up undocumented in America after being born in Brazil to parents who immigrated from China. Esther’s parents found solace and a sense of community through Christianity but this in turn created an abusive dynamic for their children. Esther herself is pushed into a marriage for a green card mirroring her own parents’ relationship. The work also shows the sympathy of a child for their parents, not just seeing them as caretakers but the humans they are and the circumstances they faced on their own journeys. It is a brilliant work that strives to teach us that a status does not erase the person it is attached to.

Winter of Worship is the newest collection by Kayleb Rae Candrilli. Candrilli looks back at his life, reconciling his current identity with the identity he once held. Having experienced the loss of his father and multiple friends over the years, Candrilli holds their memories close and laments their continued absence. The author describes their recent journeys through the pandemic and the ever-increasing destruction caused by climate change and social upheaval. Candrilli seeks to enjoy the nostalgia of the past while remaining true to the events as they occurred.

Poetry month continues on so please enjoy these books and many more at A.K. Smiley Public Library.

Have you been keeping up with the Big Bear eagles and their eaglets? They are currently being live-streamed by the Circulation Desk at A.K. Smiley Public Library. The non-profit Friends of Big Bear Valley provides the internet live-feed. Come in soon to see how they are growing and interacting. There is an accompanying display about birds, birdwatching, and related books that are available for check out.

Some new books are also waiting for you to expand your ornithological curiosity. “Field Guide to the Birds of the United States and Canada West,” and “Field Guide to the Birds of the United States and Canada East,” are both authored by Ted Floyd, editor of Birding magazine and published by National Geographic. These are both good resources to identify and learn more about our avian friends.

“The Owl Handbook: Investigating the Lives, Habits, and Importance of these Enigmatic Birds,” is also another selection if you would like to learn about different species of owls. Author and bird enthusiast John Shewey shares all kinds of interesting information and his impressive photographs vividly capture the uniqueness and beauty of these birds of prey.

“Close to Home: The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door,” by conservation biologist Thor Hanson highlights nature right where we live. His book is in three sections: “Seeing,” “Exploring,” and “Restoring.” There is so much interesting information on not only birds, but many other creatures and plants from down in the soil to up to the treetops that you don’t need a livestream camera to discover.

Come satisfy your “natural” curiosity at A.K. Smiley Public Library and learn about the birds, the bees, and so much more!

Teens, it’s easy to think the things that happen in our lifetimes have never happened before…that the events we experience personally or collectively are ours alone, totally unique to our time, and hazardously unmapped. While it’s true that names, dates, and details change, several Young Adult nonfiction books I’ve read lately have convinced me of another weird truth: so many current events are iterations of things from the past. When you peek behind the 21st century costumes, you sometimes find a lot that looks uncannily familiar.

Before we jump into this week’s titles, I encourage you to talk to your parents about the books you read to decide what may be a good fit for you. I understand and honor that not every book is for every reader, and recognize how important it is for you and your family to make informed decisions about all the media you consume, including library books. With that, let’s get into it!

“America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History” by Ariel Aberg-Riger is nothing like your history textbook. To tell you the truth, it’s unlike any book I’ve seen before. It approaches major topics in American history from a non-linear standpoint, one that explores the idea that time is cyclical, “a continual, ever-evolving relationship, not a series of isolated, fixed points on a line.”

What starts as a mind-bending premise (but one that is rooted in Native American, African, Chinese, Indian, Celtic, and Mayan philosophies), reveals that there are dots to be connected in American history. Aberg-Riger does this through visual storytelling; she uses a series of riveting collaged illustrations—that include historical photos, documents, maps, and hand-lettered text—to dunk you into an unblinking look at American history, suggesting connections you may not have previously considered.

This can’t be sugar-coated…many of the events the author explores are emotionally difficult to process. But looking at them through the author’s eyes did not leave me in despair. They actually gave me hope, illustrating the ways we have collectively clawed through challenging and divisive times before, the ways we are resilient, and ultimately, the truth that power resides in the people.

Candace Fleming’s “The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh” is another title that exposes echoes between our past and present. I went into this book knowing just the basics about Charles Lindbergh…he was a celebrity American aviator whose baby got kidnapped. Fleming fills in all of Lindbergh’s messy details: a person who accomplished incredible mechanical feats for his time, while simultaneously allowing his obsession with eugenics to push him into racist beliefs that would lead to his public downfall. The book opens with a rowdy scene from one of the “America First” rallies Lindbergh headlined in the first half of the 20th century, and it was easy to imagine a similar scene unfolding today, close to one-hundred years later.

Teens, will you allow me a moment to get philosophical? I hope you said yes. These books got me thinking about a phrase from the preamble of our Constitution (you know how it is when you can’t get the preamble of the Constitution out of your head…I’m sure this is a very common phenomenon).

“…in order to form a more perfect Union…”

The delegates included the phrase “more perfect,” acknowledging in our most significant foundational document, that the Union was not, nor may ever be, perfect. How inspired and non-defensive it is to say “more perfect,” allowing room for self-reflection and flaws and evolution. It feels very patriotic to me to look critically at the past to discern a “more perfect” path forward. These books, that shine lights on some troubling times and complicated individuals from our past, remind me to feel deeply grateful you have the right to disagree.