Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Read to the Rhythm - Summer Reading Begins

Don't Miss out! This year our Summer Reading Programs begin Monday June 1 and conclude Saturday August 1, 2015.  Come in any time to register. 

See below for details on the Children's, Teen, and Adult "Read to the Rhythm" programs. 


Children's Summer Reading Program
  • Earn awards for time spent reading or having books read to you this summer!
  • All children are eligible – “read to” ages through grade 6.
  • Register at the desk as you enter the Children's Library.
  • Read for two hours and earn a cowbell.
  • Read three more hours and earn a hand powered flashlight.
  • Read four more hours and earn a book.


Teen Summer Reading Program
  • Lake Forest residents entering grades 7 through 12 are eligible.
  • Register in the Children's Library or at the Adult Reference Desk.
  • Read 4 books to earn a $10 gift card to the Lake Forest Book Store and be included in the final prize drawings.
  • Fill out a raffle ticket for each book you read or listen to this summer. It’s that easy!
  • Every raffle ticket, up to a maximum of 36, will be eligible for the final prize drawings.
  • The last day to hand in raffle tickets is Saturday, August 1.
  • Grand prize is a $100 gift card to the Lake Forest Book Store.
  • 8 runners-up will receive a $20 gift card to one of the following: Einstein Bros Bagels, Ferentino’s Pizzeria, Food Stuffs, Gerhard’s Elegant European Desserts, Jolly Good Fellows, Kiddles Sports Inc., Starbucks Coffee, and Sweet’s Chocolates.


  Adult Summer Reading Program
  • Come to the Reference Desk to register and pick up a punch card. All Lake Forest residents 19 years of age and older are eligible.
  • After you read or listen to a book, get your card punched and fill out a raffle form.
  • Prizes, including gift certificates to local stores and restaurants, will be drawn each week.
  • Read/listen to four books, complete the punch card and receive a Lake Forest Library gift.
  • All who complete a punch card are eligible for the Grand Prize – a Chamber of Commerce gift card.
  • Limit – one punch card per patron.
  • The Grand Prize drawing will be held in August.

The Summer Reading Programs are funded by Friends of Lake Forest Library.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Audio Books +


These audio books for children and teens offer more than just a narration of the book.  Enhanced content, music, and  vivid voice characterization make for a memorable listening experience.  Several have been nominated for Audie Awards by Audio Publishers Association.  Check their site May 28th to see a full list of nominees and winners.

 Follow Follow by Marilyn Singer
  Follow Follow by Marilyn Singer/ill. Josée Masse, read by Singer and Joe Morton
A compilation of reverso poems featuring characters from the fairy tale kindom.  Clever verses are read once, then repeated in reverse order, often by an opposing character.  What do the Hare and the Tortoise think of their chances in the race?  Aladdin and his genie both wish for freedom from their masters.  King Midas’s view of himself is “mirrored” by a child onloooker.  A highly successful example of pairing a book with a read-along CD, as the printed poems let us  see just where the re”vers”als occur.  Josée Masse’s illustrations of bold brightly colored characters energentically illustrate the dual verses.


 Rabbit Ears: The Elephant's Child
  Rabbit Ears Storybook Classics are short tales read by noted actors and enhanced with original background music and musical characterization, also composed by famous musicians.  Story segments are typically 20+ minutes each. Hear  Robin Williams as Pecos Bill, Cher as the Ugly Duckling,  Jack Nicholson reading Rudyard Kipling’s Just So stories.  The wide selection includes fairy tales, folk tales from around the world, American tall tales, and Bible stories.



 The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
  Crossover by Kwame Alexander, narrated by Corey Allen.  The Newbery Medal  and Coretta Scott King Award winner from 2015, this novel in verse describes twin hot shot basketball brothers.  Their dad was a former pro player, their mom is assistant principal at school – no pressure there!  Told in alternating voices, Alexander captures the exhilaration and feeling of playing basketball and the brothers’ bewilderment at the changes they experience in adolescence.  Sibling rivalry, concern over their father’s health, all come pouring out in fluid phrases as sweet as their moves on the court.  The book translates great as an audio production, with the poetic form still in evidence.  As we hear from the book’s primary voice, Dirty McNasty, Muhammed Ali isn’t the only sports figure who can spout poetry.


  The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, performed by a full cast including the author (as the Poet Nehemiah Trot) and Derek Jacobi. This new recording of the multiple award winning fantasy has been nominated as Audio Book of the Year 2015 by the Audio Publishers Association.  (The originial recorded version, narrated soley by Gaiman, also won an Audie.)  The evil spirit, Sleer is truly creepily voiced, reminiscent of Harry Potter’s Dementors.  Appropriately, each chapter begins with music adapted from Le Danse Macabre.  As the primary narrator, Jacobi imbues his narration with an ominous tone.



 How to Catch a Bogle by Catherine Jinks
  How to Catch a Bogle by Catherine Jinks, narrated by Mandy Williams.  Nominated for an Audie award as best children’s book, ages 8-12.  In a magical Victorian England, we  follow the adventures of Birdie, an orphan who works for Alfred the Bogle Catcher.  She acts as the bait to entice the wispy, sooty, creatures out of the chimney or other hiding places.  While the text might be difficult to read as written phonetically, narrator Williams lucidly displays a variety of British accents in portraying the young, poor, rich of London, even prettily singing the songs Birdie sings to trap the bogles.



 Revolution by Deborah Wiles
  Countdown & Revolution   Books 1 & 2 of the Sixties Trilogy by Deborah Wiles.  Wiles and her narrators bring the 1960s, with all its turmoil, to life in books focusing on  the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. The threat of nuclear war looms just beyond the horizon. The print versions are interspersed with photos, print ads, speech transcripts by famous figures from the time.  While we miss the photos in the audio version, the text is transcribed as actual news reports, TV and radio ads, and passable imitations of JFK, Khrushchev, LBJ and Martin Luther King.  Tying this social history together is the story of a child living through these time.  Read or listen to these books with your child or grandchild.  Wiles has done an incredibly thorough job recreating a decade that still reverberates.


 Blue Lily Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
  Blue Lily Lily Blue (Raven Boys Cycle, #3) by Maggie Stiefvater, narrated by Will Patton.  Teen and adult fans who have been listening to the Raven Boys Cycle are in for a treat at the end of this installment.   Original music has been written and recorded for the verse at the beginning of the book: Queens and kings, Kings and queens … .  It plays at the end of the story.