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A Magical Movie Night for Library Lovers

by Public Service Associate Juliana

Matilda is a movie for library lovers. The little protagonist LOVES books. She LOVES to read. She LOVES her public library! The film came out in 1996, and I remember watching it for the first time and absolutely longing to be able to walk to the library like she does. To fill a little red wagon full of books and pull it home is the stuff of dreams — and maybe part of why I ended up working at a library. Wish fulfillment.

So, I was thrilled when my five-year-old niece picked Matilda for our summer movie night. Age five is a magically fun age to be obsessed with Matilda because Matilda is around five years old in the film. And there are plenty of other reasons why it’s an excellent movie night choice:

  • Page-to-screen! You can read Roald Dahl’s children’s novel of the same name. The film is praised for being faithful to the novel.
  • Roald Dahl’s bio is very interesting! According to Good Reads, “Roald Dahl was a spy, ace fighter-pilot, chocolate historian, and medical inventor. He was also the author of Charlie and the Chocolate FactoryMatildaThe BFG, and many more brilliant stories. He remains the World’s No. 1 Storyteller.” Wow! So cool!
  • Matilda’s red headband is iconic! Kick your movie night up a notch and have everybody wear one on watch night!
  • The film features so many fun food options! She has tea and cookies with Miss Honey, Miss Trunchbull has a box of fine chocolates, she feeds herself Cheerios with her brain powers and flips that baby carrot back at her brother. Oh, and she makes pancakes for herself when she’s four.

Movie Night Menu Ideas:

  • Matilda’s pancakes
  • Wormwood TV dinners
  • Baby carrots + veggie dip
  • Miss Honey’s iced tea
  • gummy (book)worms
  • Chocolate cake (obviously)

Additional Fun Resources:

Be sure to keep a time slot open the next day. You will be so eager to go to the library.

May Matilda continue to inspire us with all her bookish ways 🙂

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Recommendations

The Great Outdoors

by Content Coordinator Hannah

What began as just a week back in 1998 has grown into Great Outdoors Month, officially recognized by the U.S. Senate on June 5, 2019. It’s a national celebration meant to encourage people (you’re invited!) to explore and appreciate nature—for all its benefits: mental well-being, stronger communities, economic value, and of course, physical health.

Let me ask you something: What’s your favorite outdoor experience?
Maybe it was a once-in-a-lifetime adventure—or just a small, peaceful moment under the trees. Here are a few of my own, paired with books that stir up something similar.

Walking the shoreline of Lake Michigan just after a rain shower—chilly sand between my toes and a remarkably calm feeling in the air. It was a moment of peace, even though all my senses were activated. 📚 Book pairing: Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr | A mystery set in the wilderness, this first Anna Pigeon novel weaves suspense with the rugged beauty of the outdoors—a fitting match for stormy skies and shifting sands. I’ve yet to physically visit the western U.S., but this book made me feel like I already have been baked in the sun.

Following the meandering boardwalk at my favorite nature preserve, no agenda, just the simple joy of seeing how the seasons shape this place. It’s a gentle kind of magic.
📚 Book pairing: Campfire stories. Volume II: Tales from America’s National Parks and Trails | A collection of essays, stories, and poems sharing unique perspectives on our national parks and trails. Revel in each park’s distinct landscape and allow yourself to be transported to the warm edge of the campfire ring.

Many a late summer evening in my parents’ backyard, and now also in my own, taking silly “artistic” photos of the plants and whispering to them how lovely they are.
📚 Book pairing: Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation by Tiya Miles | An inspiring, thoughtful exploration of how nature shaped the lives and minds of groundbreaking women. Quiet, curious moments count, too.

If you’re looking for something to take with you into your own time outdoors, check out Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. It’s part science, part story, and part reminder that the land has always had something to say—we just need to slow down and listen.

But this month isn’t just about appreciating the outdoors—it’s also a time to reflect on access: who gets to enjoy outdoor spaces, who feels welcome, and how we can do better.
📚 For a deeper, more critical look: Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal and the Making of the National Parks by Mark David Spence. | This important work explores how Indigenous peoples were displaced during the creation of national parks—an essential reminder that our natural spaces carry complex histories.

So, whether you’re headed for a big adventure or just stepping outside for a few minutes of quiet, take a moment to appreciate the outdoors in whatever way works for you. And maybe let me know what your favorite outdoor moment has been. I’d love to hear it.

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Recommendations

Walks with Mondo: A Book Lover’s Guide to Exercise

by Public Service Associate Juliana

Mondo among the violets

I wish I loved exercise as much as I love reading. Maybe even half as much as I love reading. I have no problem showing up for the current chapter I’m on. But lately I can’t get myself to exercise. For a while, I showed up for yoga, but now my mat gathers dust. When I started watching Scandinavian murder mysteries while on the stationary bike, I thought I’d solved my exercise problem once and for all. That felt like something I would and could do a couple times a week.

But here I am again, no mystery interesting enough to keep my feet on the pedals, inconsistent with everything I try. That is, everything except for walking. 

I can get myself to walk because going on walks is something I do for my dog. For some reason, I get too up in my head when it comes to taking the time to do any kind of exercise for myself, but for him – it helps that he’s bossy about it and stands at the door with a demanding look on his face – I don’t think twice. He waits (almost) patiently while I grab shoes, sunglasses, and his leash, and off we go. 

While I absolutely reap the benefits of these walks, I know I would talk myself out of it every time if I was to walk solo, for myself only rather than for Mondo. Any excuse will do. Most of the time my excuses to not exercise have to do with time and to-do lists. I’m sure that sounds familiar.

It’s ironic that exercise gives me anxiety because exercise happens to be great for combatting anxiety. So, therefore I’m grateful for Mondo’s help. Recently, upon our return from the park, I unhooked his leash and whispered, “Thank you.” 

I said it out loud and have since made it part of our walks, like saying Namaste at the end of a yoga class. It gives closure to our walk and feels like an opportunity to honor both of our minds, bodies, and spirits, Mondo’s and mine. I thank him for getting me outside and on the move. I tell him, “Thank you for helping me get fresh air and vitamin D and for helping me notice the violets and the honey suckle. Thank you for helping me clear my head. Thank you for getting me the exercise I can’t seem to give myself.”

I don’t ruin all this gratitude by following it up with an apology, but sometimes I want to tell him I’m sorry I rely on him so much. But right now, this is what I need – his help, this help from a friend. And let’s be honest, he doesn’t mind. If he could respond he’d probably say, “Put your sorries in a sack. If this is what you need, let’s go on more walks!”

Mondo posing by Blacklick Creek

He thinks I’m walking him. But he’s the one pulling me out the door, down the sidewalk, along the creek, all the way to the park and back.

Occasionally I listen to a podcast or an audiobook or music. A lot of times I call my mom. Sometimes I pay attention to nature, to the wildflowers and the birds. Sometimes I simply pay attention to him, to how the sun highlights the blonde in his brindle pattern, to how adorable his pointy-eared shadow is, to the musical sound his dog tags make. I inevitably end up singing Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” in my head. “In the jingle jangle mornin’ I’ll come followin’ you” plays right in tune with the jingle jangle of Mondo’s tags as I follow him down the path.

It might be the best advice I’ve ever received or could ever give: Go take a walk. If that also means, go get a dog to take you on walks, if you’re at a place to take on that responsibility, I recommend that as well. In my experience, dogs are good for us, especially when it comes to consistency and accountability. Mondo helps me keep showing up.

Walking Inspiration for Book Lovers

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Online Resources Recommendations

Celebrate World Collage Day with Help from Your Library!

By Public Service Associate Juliana

image by Juliana Farrington

Over the weekend, Saturday May 10, 2025, I honored World Collage Day by spending time at the table with various papers, scissors and a glue stick. Creativebug, the app available for free with your library card, recently released a new series of videos called “Collage Homage: 15 Women Artists to Know,” and I’ve been working through the tutorials with great joy.

Each episode features an introduction to a woman artist and their particular collage style and follows with a tutorial to imitate that style. I have found the videos both engaging and inspiring and have stretched my artistic boundaries in directions I would not have gone in otherwise.

image by Juliana Farrington

When it comes to art making, I am a person who works well with prompts. I like just enough good orderly direction to get me started. A prompt gives my brain a place to go, to find a focus, to take that first step with some sense of where I’m going. Often the hardest part with creative endeavors is getting started. I like to use Creativebug to help me begin, to set myself up for the desired goal of entering a flow state, where I’m just in it, absorbed enough to lose track of time.

No matter how many collages I make I turn to Creativebug again and again to help get my mind situated into art mode, to get settled in with intention. Log in with your library card and see what Creativebug might help you create. For even more inspiration, see the list of books below. Happy crafting 🙂

Contemporary Collage Inspiration

  • Collage: Contemporary Artists Hunt and Gather, Cut and Paste, Mash Up and Transform by Danielle Krysa |A showcase of cutting-edge contemporary art from across the globe features galleries of collage by 30 practitioners, from the surreal landscapes of Beth Hoeckel to Fabien Souche’s humorous appropriations of pop culture. Each artist has also created a new piece especially for this book — all using the same original image, but with results as wildly diverse as the medium of collage itself.
  • Vitamin C+: Collage in Contemporary Art | Organized in an A-Z sequence by artist, the book features both well-known collagists including Njideka Akunyili Crosby; Ellen Gallagher; Peter Kennard; Linder, Christian Marclay; Wangechi Mutu; Deborah Roberts; Martha Rosler; and Mickalene Thomas, and a plethora of lesser-known names deserving of greater attention. Vitamin C+ showcases 108 living artists who employ collage as a central part of their visual-art practice, as selected by 69 leading experts, including museum directors, curators, critics, and collectors. 

Prompts & Techniques

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Recommendations

Permission to Watch the Movie First: To the Lighthouse

by Public Service Associate Juliana

When it comes to “Page to Screen” movies, like many people, I almost always prefer to read the book before seeing the film. Occasionally I’ve done the opposite – watched the movie first and then decided to read the book it’s based on. When I’ve done this in the past, I’ve found myself bored out of my mind because I knew too much. But what I’d like to present today is an argument for when it is very much OK to watch the movie first. 

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Celebrating Women’s History Month: Reflections, Stories, and Empowerment

By Public Service Associate & Content Coordinator Hannah

I knew I wanted to write a Women’s History Month post, but I didn’t know how to go about it. After all, this month is an opportunity to celebrate the vast accomplishments of women throughout history and the ongoing contributions we make. It’s a time to acknowledge the resilience, creativity, and courage of individual women and the communities that empower them. It’s also a moment to honor and encourage women to support one another on our journeys whether on a grand scale or in quieter, more personal ways. So, with all that in mind, I turned to the library, a natural source of inspiration, and it came through.

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Make February a Month of Movie Mania: Oscar Homework with BPL

by Public Service Associate Juliana

Image from Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail

I adore this time of year. The release of Oscar nominations makes it completely appropriate to stay home cuddled on the couch night after night watching movies. The 97th Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled for March 2, so for the month of February, I consider movies my homework.

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Recommendations

Create a Reading Journal This January

by Public Service Associate Juliana

Photo by Juliana Farrington

January is a perfect time to set up new systems. Last January I decided to start a Reading Journal. I was interested in more than keeping a list. I’ve kept a reading list for years, and it didn’t feel like enough anymore. I read lots of books and spend lots of my time reading, and in 2024 I noticed that while my year end totals were admirable, I wasn’t retaining much of what I read. I couldn’t spout out plots or tell you spoilers. I rarely ever remembered the endings. I wanted to be able to have something to say about a book a month or year after I’d read it or at least have the journal to refer back to. Ultimately, I wanted the time I invested in reading to count for more. 

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Recommendations Staff Book Reviews

Leah Recommends Award-Winning Young Adult Fiction

by Associate Librarian Leah Boyden

Earlier this year I took a course on engaging teens within libraries. As a lover and reader of young adult material and former middle school teacher, this task was right up my alley. A former student of mine encouraged me to write a blog post for the library and because of their encouragement I signed up!

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Recommendations

Haunted Novels for Fall

by Public Service Associate Juliana

Many Octobers I have steeped myself in scary movies, but this year I feel driven to read something scary. There’s no better place to start than with a classic from horror queen, Shirley Jackson. When I searched the fiction stacks I found The Haunting of Hill House. Orange and black cover, inky, black-edged pages and the title in gothic font, I was immediately obsessed.