Project Backpack

This is the final week to bring in your donations for Project Backpack 2015!

In collaboration with the Amherst Public Schools, the Jones Library is pleased to serve as a drop-off location for Project Backpack.  This project provides backpacks and school supplies to income-eligible students to get their school year off to a good start with a new backpack full of new school supplies.  Please bring your donations of NEW supplies - and backpacks! - to the Kids Room byAugust 7th, to allow for time for assembly and distribution before school starts in September.

Below are lists of suggested items.  Thanks in advance for supporting Project Backpack!

Grades PreK - 5

New backpacks

Spiral notebooks

2-pocket folders

Glue sticks

Markers

Crayons

Pencils #2

Pens (blue/black/red)

Colored pencils

Pencil sharpeners

Pencil cases

Erasers

Bookmarks

Rulers

Grades 6 - 12

New backpacks

Notebooks

Assignment pads

Index cards

Loose leaf paper

2-pocket folders

3-ring binders

3-ring pencil cases

Highlighters
Calculators (basic, scientific, or graphing)

Post-it notes

Combination locks for lockers

Flash drives

Pens (blue/black/red)

Pencils #2

10 Books You Pretend to Have Read (And Why You Should Really Read Them)

Sometimes, even the Friends haven't read all those great books out there. Here's a quick guide of those ones maybe we should go pick up at the library...

Read it before you see it!

Paper Towns and other great books have become movies but be sure to read 'em first!

What the college kids are reading

Undoubtedly it will surprise readers to know that, despite our youthful and hip repartee, none of the Friends are, actually, in college anymore.

But we can still read like it...

Italian authors ask Venice to ban their books after gay children's stories pulled

After the mayor of Venice pulled 50 books about same-sex families from the city's public schools, in an act of solidarity, 267 other authors ask for their books to be taken off shelves.

If you can't get enough of the Tour de France...

...try reading these books about bikers, cycling, and Men In Spandex. 

Or just check out one of the Jones or North Amherst copies of the cult classic "Breaking Away."

Love cats? Love books?

Of course you do.

Celebrities reading to kids.

And? Roaring their terrible roars and gnashing their terrible teeth.

The Monuments Men

Join us for the screening of "The Monuments Men," the first film in our summer movie series, on Saturday, July 18 at 2:30 pm in the Woodbury Room of the Jones Library.  Our film series this summer alternates between films about heroes and films about baseball.  This film is based on a true story, and inspired by the book by Robert M. Edsel, which you can find in the library catalog.

Not that this list of

11 charts that accurately sum up being a book nerd resonates with the Friends at all or anything...

Short story writing: idea to publication

(click on image to enlarge.)

Friends Book Recommendation of the Month

Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen 

by Mary Norris

A sort of English grammar usage commentary and a memoir of her 30 years as a proofreader at the New Yorker, the book introduces Mary Norris as a funny, idiosyncratic and opinionated tour guide to some thorny issues of grammar and many amusing tales of life at the magazine. Her approach to grammar is never rigid -- "Follow some rules, sure, but in the end what you're after is clarity of meaning" -- and her take on writers, the magazine, and evolving American popular culture never fails to entertain.

-- Bonnie, member, Friends of the Jones Library System

Biloxi, Mississippi, you're so cool.

Maybe the Amherst Regional High School should consider 

something like this?

9 Superb Shark Books for Hungry Readers

Why be comfortable while swimming in the ocean when you could be perpetually freaked out?

Tit for tat

A fan of Arthur Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons?" 

You might want to click here.

Cool off at the Jones!

21 book lovers share their favorite African authors

Maybe some of these African authors are new-to-you? Check out one of their books from your local library!

Looking ahead to the fall...

In collaboration with the Amherst Public Schools, the Jones Library is pleased to serve as a drop-off location for Project Backpack.  This project provides backpacks and school supplies to income-eligible students to get their school year off to a good start with a new backpack full of new school supplies.  Please bring your donations of new supplies - and backpacks! - to the Kids Room by August 7th, to allow for time for assembly and distribution before school starts in September.

Below are lists of suggested items.  Thanks in advance for supporting Project Backpack!

Grades PreK - 5

New backpacks

Spiral notebooks

2-pocket folders

Glue sticks

Markers

Crayons

Pencils #2

Pens (blue/black/red)

Colored pencils

Pencil sharpeners

Pencil cases

Erasers

Bookmarks

Rulers

Grades 6 - 12

New backpacks

Notebooks

Assignment pads

Index cards

Loose leaf paper

2-pocket folders

3-ring binders

3-ring pencil cases

Highlighters
Calculators (basic, scientific, or graphing)

Post-it notes

Combination locks for lockers

Flash drives

Pens (blue/black/red)

Pencils #2

Psst. Wanna tote bag full of books?

Why let the kids have all the fun?! Make the time to enjoy some reading this summer as well, and sign up for the Jones Library's adult summer reading program. With a theme of "Every Hero Has a Story," Amherst residents are invited to set aside some time this summer to relax with a book, whether it be a the story of a real life hero, a fictional hero saving the world, or some other adventure in reading.

Want more information? Click here. And if you win that tote bag filled with books, remember to pass them on afterwards to your Friends!

FAMILY SING-ALONG WITH MISS LETICIA

You know how you like to sing in the shower? And in the car? And sometimes a little opera at the mall?  Guess what?

FAMILY SING-ALONG WITH MISS LETICIA  

Tuesdays July 14, 21, 28 at 10:30 AM in the Woodbury Room. For all ages.

Sing your socks off, Pavarotti.