Welcome to Aurora Public Library’s blog. A place where our library staff share their thoughts, insider knowledge and overall love of all things book and community.
Feel free to comment on posts, re-blog and enjoy. To ensure a civil and focused discussion, comments will be held for a brief period before being published.
HELLO stands for Hand-on Early Literacy for Little Ones. In this program children will sing songs, work on fine and gross motor skills, learn about letters, numbers and science and develop early literacy skills. Ages 0-6.
Family Book Club
"Song For a Whale" by Lynne Kelly is our Family Book Club pick for October! Aurora Public Library and Jefferson County Public Library will be hosting a LIVE Book Talk with the author! Register here and get your hands on a copy (available in hardback and as an audiobook).
Call the Tallyn's Reach Library at 303.627.3050 to put a copy on hold today!
(Jefferson County Public Library patrons, find copies of "Song for a Whale" in print, as a book on CD, and as an e-audiobook and eBook via Axis360.)
Song For a Whale Suggested Reading Schedule
Monday, Sept. 28 - Sunday, Oct. 4: Chapters 1-12
Monday, Oct. 5 - Sunday, Oct. 11: Chapters 13-25
Monday, Oct. 12 - Sunday, Oct. 18: Chapters 26-38
Monday, Oct. 19 - Sunday, Oct. 25: Chapters 39-48
Monday, Oct. 26 - Book Talk With Award-Winning Author Lynne Kelly!
Chapters 1-12 (Leave your thoughts in the comments below)
- Have you ever had a teacher that was prejudiced toward you or someone in your class for being different?
- Why do you think Iris reacted so strongly when she learned about Blue 55?
- Has anything ever meant so much to you that you thought about it all the time?
- Do you like to build or fix things? What do you like to build or fix?
- Iris is passionate about fixing radios. She worked hard to become good at it. What is something you are passionate about?
Read It! Review of "The Kitchen House" by Kathleen Grissom
by Nicole
Hello! Thanks to my awesome friends in Wisconsin I have been reading more and more books this year and books I normally wouldn’t read outside my scope of fantasy, and suspenseful thriller. This is why I love book clubs, I get to experience other genres outside my comfort zones, and get to know my friends more by the books they choose and through our discussions of what they enjoyed and didn’t. Our next book club pick was “The Kitchen House” by Kathleen Grissom.
“The Kitchen House” by Kathleen Grissom is not only a New York Times Bestseller, but it has also been deemed a “Book Club Favorite”, and was nominated as both the Goodreads Choice Awards Best Historical Fiction and Goodreads Choice Awards Best Debut Goodreads Author. This book was first published in 2010 and is categorized as a Historical Fiction novel.
The story starts with Lavinia, a young white girl orphaned during her passage from Ireland, who finds herself as an indentured servant on a thriving plantation in Virginia. She is cared for by Belle, the master’s illegitimate slave daughter, where Lavinia learns to cook, clean and serve food in the kitchen house. Growing up, Lavinia sees Belle and the rest of her family as her one true family where she belongs. But as she starts to get accepted into the big house with the master’s opium addicted wife and their dangerous yet protective son, she begins to learn that because of her skin color she is not like Belle and the other slaves. The narrative follows both Lavinia and Belle as we see the differences that unfold in class, race and family secrets.
This book was highly regarded among the group in our discussion. In similar fashion to the book “The Help”, we saw how differently people viewed color and status in the eyes of both Lavinia and Belle. Lavinia grew up thinking she was just like any of the other slaves, but because of her white skin she was given advantages as she grew up. Belle, on the other hand, was forced to keep the dark secret of her true identity and thus was treated just as unfair as the other slaves by the master’s family. There were some characters that treated the slaves like people, and then there were other’s whose hatred blinded their actions and made it sometimes hard to keep reading. We all agreed that it was eye-opening and an incredibly powerful story. We also noticed how different characters influenced others which affected them later in life when it came to how they treated slaves.
If you read this book and enjoyed it so much, Kathleen Grissom wrote a sequel to this story called “Glory Over Everything: Beyond The Kitchen House” in 2016.
Other books to read if you enjoyed “The Kitchen House” would be “The Healing” by Jonathan Odell, “The House Girl” by Tara Conklin and “The Invention of Wings” by Sue Monk Kidd.
Check back for my book review of our next book club pick which was “The Little Shop of Found Things” by Paula Brackston.
Made in a Mug: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
by Nicole
Need a sweet treat? A savory mouthful? Join us for "APL Made in a Mug" for your next bite-sized recipe!
October's recipe is Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.
Recipe from The Bitter Side of Sweet. Thank you to Nancy for letting us share this recipe!
Check out the full recipe here!
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