Star Wars Origami Tutorial

Susie and Alice show you how to make a cute little origami Baby Yoda (easy) or an impressive X-Wing (intermediate)! Origami paper is available in the Star Wars activity pack for younger children or as a separate Take & Make at the library during Star Wars Week while supplies last.

2021-04-02T10:43:14-05:00April 5th, 2021|

Star Wars Writing Contest

Welcome to our first-ever Star Wars Writing Contest!

Get creative and show us how much you love Star Wars with your writing skills. Choose one Star Wars prompt (below) and craft a response of 250 words. Send your completed response as a Word document or PDF file to susie@fondulaclibrary.org by 5 p.m. on April 10th. Please include your name, phone number, and age in the message of the email. We will choose winners from two age groups: teens (13+) and adults (18+). The selected winners will each receive a prize and their writing response will be shared on our website and social media. All participants will receive an additional entry in the prize drawing for an extra chance to win the Star Wars Week prize drawing! May the Force be with you!

Writing Prompts:

  1. If you had to live on one of the Star Wars locations, what one would you choose? Why?
  2. You were chosen to write an episode of The Mandalorian. Write a little about what the plot would be.
  3. Which Star Wars movie trilogy is the best? Why?
  4. Choose a character that will go undercover as a storm trooper on the Death Star as a spy. What does this character experience as a storm trooper? What secrets do they learn about the Empire?

– Susie, Reference Specialist

2021-04-15T14:10:14-05:00April 5th, 2021|

Kylo STILL in Quarantine…

Happy Star Wars Week!

Poor Kylo is STILL in quarantine, but we have lots of fun, COVID-safe activities planned for you this week! Register for our virtual programs here, stop by the library for activities, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok for more fun surprises! May the Force be with you!

2021-04-01T11:45:39-05:00April 4th, 2021|

FDL Reads: Mob Psycho 100

Mob Psycho 100 by One

Reviewed by: Atlas Agunod, Circulation Assistant

Genre: Comedy, Action, Graphic Novel

Suggested age: Teens and Adults

What is this book about? Kageyama Shigeo, also known as Mob, is an average middle school boy who tends to fall into the background. He’s quiet, plain, and polite. There isn’t anything interesting about him, except for the fact that he’s an intensely powerful esper. His psychic powers flare up with his emotions, so he does his best to keep them in check, or in his words, to keep himself from going 100. Mob learns that taming your emotions can be hard, especially in your adolescence, and especially when other espers are trying to fight you!

My Review: I love this series so much! I’m patiently awaiting the next volume, so I thought I would reread what’s been published so far. At first, the story sounds like your typical “learning to control your powers” trope, but it’s more than that. The funny cast of characters makes this an entertaining story. The reader can really feel for Mob and his struggles as he wants to express himself and release all of his bottled up feelings, but he also has a responsibility to uphold. The fight scenes are also really fun because of all the psychic powers everybody has! I’d recommend this manga to anybody who likes superhero stories.

Rating: 5/5

Three words that describe this book: funny, coming-of-age, exciting

Give this a try if you like: One Punch Man, My Hero Academia, Soul Eater

Find it at the library!

About FDL Reads

FDL Reads is a series of weekly book reviews from Fondulac District Library.

FDL Reads
2021-04-02T15:33:27-05:00April 2nd, 2021|

FDL Reads: The Pioneers

The Pioneers by David McCullough

Reviewed by:  Becky Houghton, Reference Assistant

Genre: Non-Fiction

Age Group: Adults

What is This Book About?  David McCullough, one of the country’s best-known historians, has written the story of the heroic settlers who first came to homestead in the Northwest Territory during the late 1700’s.  These pioneers brought with them the puritan ideals of New England and were strongly opposed to slavery and advocates for freedom of religion and free universal education.  McCullough relates the historical details by telling the story through the lives of five major characters, Manasseh Cutler, Rufus Putnam, Cutler’s son Ephraim, Joseph Barker, a carpenter turned architect, and Samuel Hildreth, a physician.  These men and their families played a key role in the establishment of Marietta in what is now Ohio.  The impact these men had, however, spread throughout the region and has had long-term implications for the area.  The time period of the book is from 1787 to 1863. Although this book is history and is well-documented, it reads almost like a novel.

My Review:  I enjoyed this book.  McCullough makes history interesting and absorbing.  Manasseh Cutler was one of the drafters of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and an early pioneer in the settlement of Marietta in southeastern Ohio.  Although Manasseh did not actually live in Marietta, he did help in the initial settlement and was among the first to travel to the new territory and many years later, his son, Ephraim Cutler was a prominent resident of the community, an Ohio legislator and the leader in establishing a system of public education throughout the territory.  Ephraim also established the “Coonskin Library,” the first public library in the wilderness, where the purchase price for books was raised collecting and selling raccoon skins.  Due to the Ohio River, shipbuilding developed as an industry in Marietta as had been predicted by the early settlers.  I was fascinated by the creativity and the abilities of these early pioneers.  I do not usually read history for fun, but McCullough’s storytelling ability and his ability to develop the character of the historical figures made this book read like a novel.  I highly recommend it.

Three Words That Describe This Book: True, Engrossing, Detailed

Give This a Try if You Like: Any other books by David McCullough or are a history buff

Find it at the library!

About FDL Reads

FDL Reads is a series of weekly book reviews from Fondulac District Library.

FDL Reads
2021-03-18T19:14:54-05:00March 18th, 2021|

Take & Make Seed Balls

A seed ball is a ball of seeds that has been wrapped in materials such as clay, paper, or compost, and then dried. The seeds are protected and ‘pre-planted’ – they can be grown by burying the seed ball anywhere suitable for the specific plant. Seed balls are an easy and sustainable way to cultivate plants!

For these seed balls, all you’ll need is paper, water, and some seeds! You can use any type of paper, but we included colored paper, so you can have seed balls that are just as colorful as the flowers that will blossom from them. If you want to do this in the future, you could also use newspapers, but the ink may stain your tools.

Now, it’s time to get ready for spring! No matter the age, making homemade seed bombs can be a fun activity to signal the beginnings of spring and turn your yard into a living kaleidoscope of colors! Craft kits are available at the library and the drive-up window while supplies last.

Supplies Included in Kit:

  • 1/2 oz (about 1 tablespoon) of wildflower seeds
  • 5 sheets of colored paper

Note: In this demo, I used pepper seeds/flakes, which are very large compared to wildflower seeds. Larger seeds can have trouble staying in the seed ball. 

Additional Supplies Needed:

  • Mixing bowls
  • 3 cups of water
  • Strainer
  • Mixing spoon
  • Blender (standing or immersion blender)

.

Instructions:

  1. Tear up all your paper into small pieces, and soak them in 2 cups of  water for about 30 minutes. This will make it easier for the blender to pulverize the paper.
  2. Add the remaining cup of water and blend until the paper is a mushy pulp. Make sure you blend in small portions to avoid damaging the motor of the blender.
  3. Place a strainer over a small bowl, and dump the pulp into the strainer. Let this sit for about 5-10 minutes to allow excess water to drip off.
  4. After it sits, you can either discard the water, or save it for future seed bombs. Put the pulp into an empty mixing bowl and add all of the seeds, mixing well.
  5. Grab a small amount of the mixture and squeeze it into a small ball until it is compact. Continue this until there is no more pulp left. I was able to make 6 golf-ball sized seed bombs, but you can make 8-10 ping pong ball sized ones or smaller if you’d like.
  6. Place the seed balls onto paper towels and press down – try to get as much moisture out so the seeds don’t germinate.
  7. Allow them to dry for 24-48 hours!

-Isaac, Reference Assistant

2021-03-17T14:13:50-05:00March 17th, 2021|

#FDL: Biographies of Brave Women

 

Place a hold on one of these biographies for Women’s History Month in March!

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive.Instead, Malala’s miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexe” of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog

Mary Brave Bird grew up fatherless in a one-room cabin, without running water or electricity, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Rebelling against the aimless drinking, punishing missionary school, narrow strictures for women, and violence and hopeless of reservation life, she joined the new movement of tribal pride sweeping Native American communities in the sixties and seventies. Mary eventually married Leonard Crow Dog, the American Indian Movement’s chief medicine man, who revived the sacred but outlawed Ghost Dance.  Originally published in 1990, Lakota Woman was a national best seller and winner of the American Book Award. It is a unique document, unparalleled in American Indian literature, a story of death, of determination against all odds, of the cruelties perpetuated against American Indians, and of the Native American struggle for rights.

The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State by Nadia Murad

Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Nadia Murad was born and raised in Kocho, a small village of farmers and shepherds in northern Iraq. A member of the Yazidi community, she and her brothers and sisters lived a quiet life. Nadia had dreams of becoming a history teacher or opening her own beauty salon. On August 15th, 2014, when Nadia was just twenty-one years old, this life ended. Islamic State militants massacred the people of her village, executing men who refused to convert to Islam and women too old to become sex slaves. Six of Nadia’s brothers were killed, and her mother soon after, their bodies swept into mass graves. Nadia was taken to Mosul and forced, along with thousands of other Yazidi girls, into the ISIS slave trade.

*Annotations provided by each publisher

-Post by Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist

#FDL is a weekly update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.

 

2021-06-04T11:19:32-05:00March 13th, 2021|

FDL Reads: Dust Bowl Girls

Dust Bowl Girls: The Inspiring Story of the Team That Barnstormed Its Way to Basketball Glory by Lydia Reeder

Reviewed by: Melissa Friedlund, Reference Assistant

Genre: Sports History, Non-Fiction

Suggested Age: Teen, Adult

What is This Book About? The women’s basketball team from Oklahoma Presbyterian College for Girls, the Cardinals, did something amazing during the 1931-32 school year. Their winning streak was unprecedented. This book follows the story of young women who would otherwise not have been able to afford a college education during the Great Depression if not for basketball.  In a time when there was debate about whether women should participate in competitive or non-competitive sports, these ladies played to win, and win, and win.

My Review: This is a heartwarming tale of women who were able to pursue a sport they loved during a time where women who played competitive sports were often seen as too manly. These young women were plucked out of poor communities and awarded college scholarships that helped them breakaway from poverty during the Great Depression. I enjoyed learning about this not-so-well-known bit of history. Interspersed among the main storyline were detailed backstory components about people, locations, and even local politics.  Sometimes this broke up the main story a bit more than I’d like, but it was still interesting. Listening to the narrative portions of the games could have easily been mistaken for a radio broadcaster calling the shots. I listened to the audio version of this book that is available on hoopla, and it felt more like I was listening to historical fiction: an entertaining story and not just a regurgitation of facts. Considering the author is a relative of the Cardinals’ coach at the time, Sam Babb, I think she must have been able to access some little-known tidbits to fill in what might have been awkward gaps.

 Three Words That Describe This Book: Interesting, Endearing, Underdogs

Give This a Try if You LikeHidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, Fly Girls by Keith O’Brien, or the movie A League of Their Own

Rating: 4/5

Find it at the library!

About FDL Reads

FDL Reads is a series of weekly book reviews from Fondulac District Library.

FDL Reads
2021-03-11T12:03:56-06:00March 10th, 2021|

#FDL: Book Giveaway!

 

Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson

Born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia, Pheby Brown was promised her freedom on her eighteenth birthday. But when her birthday finally comes around, instead of the idyllic life she was hoping for with her true love, she finds herself thrust into the bowels of slavery at the infamous Devil’s Half-Acre, a jail where slaves are broken, tortured, and sold every day. Forced to become the mistress of the brutal man who owns the jail, Pheby faces the ultimate sacrifice to protect her heart in this powerful, thrilling story of one slave’s fight for freedom.

When the Apricots Bloom by Gina Wilkinson

At night, in Huda’s fragrant garden, a breeze sweeps in from the desert encircling Baghdad, rustling the leaves of her apricot trees and carrying warning of visitors at her gate. Huda, a secretary at the Australian embassy, lives in fear of the mukhabarat—the secret police who watch and listen for any scrap of information that can be used against America and its allies. They have ordered her to befriend Ally Wilson, the deputy ambassador’s wife. Huda has no wish to be an informant, but fears for her teenaged son, who may be forced to join a deadly militia. Nor does she know that Ally has dangerous secrets of her own.  Huda’s former friend, Rania, enjoyed a privileged upbringing as the daughter of a sheikh. Now her family’s wealth is gone, and Rania too is battling to keep her child safe and a roof over their heads. As the women’s lives intersect, their hidden pasts spill into the present. Facing possible betrayal at every turn, all three must trust in a fragile, newfound loyalty, even as they discover how much they are willing to sacrifice to protect their families.

A Most English Princess: A Novel of Queen Victoria’s Daughter by Clare McHugh

To the world, she was Princess Victoria, daughter of a queen, wife of an emperor, and mother of Kaiser Wilhelm. Her family just called her Vicky…smart, pretty, and self-assured, she changed the course of the world. Young Vicky imagines she’ll inherit the throne of England. Why not? She’s the eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and her little brother Bertie is sweet but lazy – she’ll make a far better heir. When her father tells her that males will always take precedence, the precocious princess sets her sights on marrying a powerful prince who will also be the love of her life.

Good Eggs by Rebecca Hardiman

When Kevin Gogarty’s irrepressible eighty-three-year-old mother, Millie, is caught shoplifting yet again, he has no choice but to hire a caretaker to keep an eye on her. Kevin, recently unemployed, is already at his wits’ end tending to a full house while his wife travels to exotic locales for work, leaving him solo with his sulky, misbehaved teenaged daughter, Aideen, whose troubles escalate when she befriends the campus rebel at her new boarding school.  Into the Gogarty fray steps Sylvia, Millie’s upbeat American home aide, who appears at first to be their saving grace—until she catapults the Gogarty clan into their greatest crisis yet.

*Annotations provided by each publisher

#FDL is a weekly update on all things Fondulac District Library and East Peoria.

 

2021-02-26T17:01:36-06:00February 26th, 2021|

FDL Reads: Waiting for Tom Hanks

Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey

Reviewed by:  Dawn Dickey

Genre:  Romance

Suggested Age:  Adults

What is This Book About?:  Freelance writer Annie makes a living writing web content while penning a romantic comedy in her spare time. Rom-coms (especially Nora Ephron tales starring Tom Hanks) are her favorite type of movie. Rom-coms are also her link with her deceased mother, who shared her own love of the film genre with Annie. One day, Annie’s friend Chloe is thrilled to read that a movie is going to be filmed nearby, starring heartthrob Drew Danforth. Chloe thinks that, with Annie’s degree in film studies, a job at this film site could be the perfect opportunity for Annie. Surprisingly, the two friends find that Annie’s guardian Uncle Don is acquainted with the film’s director. Uncle Don makes a call, and voilà! Annie lands a job on the film set as the director’s assistant. Before Annie even begins her job, an unexpected sidewalk collision with star Drew Danforth results in an embarrassed Annie and a coffee-stained coat for the star. Chloe insists that this collision is Annie’s “meet-cute,” and that this is the start of Annie’s very own romantic comedy, with Drew playing the role of Annie’s very own Tom Hanks.

My Review:  This lively tale gives you all the trials, tribulations, and joys of a true romantic comedy. The characters doubt (does he like me?), and they flirt, argue, make mistakes, and split up. Romantic comedies do take a certain distancing from reality in order to accept their would-this-actually-happen-in-real-life situations. But we all dream, we all hope that there is love and kindness and romance in the world. That’s where this book excels. You’ll want to read the book to find out if Annie and Drew really do have their happily-ever-after ending.

Three Words That Describe This Book:  quirky, romantic, funny

Give This a Try if You Like… romantic comedies (You’ve Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally), or books like Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters or Meet Cute by Helena Hunting

Rating:  5/5

Find it at the library!

About FDL Reads

FDL Reads is a series of weekly book reviews from Fondulac District Library.

FDL Reads
2021-02-19T15:52:50-06:00February 19th, 2021|
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