Local Writers to Share Expertise at Teen Writers’ Conference
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The Scarsdale Public Library, will hold its second annual Teen Writers’ Conference on Friday, May 11th from 5:00 to 7:30 pm at Scarsdale High School. The event is open to students in 6th through 12th grade. Each attendee will be able to attend two workshops, divided by grade (6th through 8th and 9th through 12th) in a variety of genres, led by local authors with expertise in their given field. There is no charge to attend.
Workshop choices include:
- Think Like A Script Writer/Novelist, led by Todd Strasser
- Finding Your Voice, led by Marilyn Johnson
- The First Page, led by Sheela Charli
- People Make the Best Stories, led by Carrie Gilpin
- Writing From Police Records, led by Carrie Gilpin
- Taste Test, led by Barbara Josselsohn
- The Art and Business of Short Story Writing, led by Jacob Appel
- Secrets to Writing for TV and Film, led by Bruce David Klein
- Get Writing!, led by Nancy Zachary
- Friday the 13th, led by Alice Scovell Coleman
A reception featuring dinner and baked goods will follow the workshops.
Registration for the conference is required by Wednesday, May 2nd. The form is available here and can be filled out and emailed to scarsdalelibraryteens@gmail.com or submitted at the front desk of the Scarsdale Public Library, Scarsdale High School Library, or Scarsdale Middle School Library.
The Teen Writers’ Conference is organized by the Teen Advisory Board of the Scarsdale Public Library – a group of high school students dedicated to promoting the library throughout the Scarsdale community. To learn more or join, reach them at scarsdalelibraryteens@gmail.com.
The Scarsdale Public Library is located at 54 Olmsted Road, Scarsdale, NY, 10583. Contact them at (914) 722-1300 or visit www.scarsdalelibrary.org
Author of Frank The Voice to Discuss Sinatra at Scarsdale Library
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James Kaplan, author of Frank: The Voice, will discuss his book about Frank Sinatra, possibly the best-known entertainer of the 20th century at the Scarsdale Public Library on Tuesday April 10th at 8 pm. Despite his mammoth fame, Sinatra remained an enigma. James Kaplan brings deeper insight to the star’s complex psyche and turbulent life from his humble beginnings in Hoboken to his fall from grace and Oscar-winning return in From Here to Eternity.
Kaplan is a novelist and nonfiction writer whose essays, reviews and profiles have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Esquire and New York Magazine. He coauthored John McEnroe’s autobiography, You Cannot Be Serious, a number-one NY Times bestseller and coauthored the bestselling Dean & Me with Jerry Lewis.
Learn more about the book and the author here:
James Kaplan
Author of Frank: The Voice
Scarsdale Public Library Scott Room
Tuesday April 10th at 8 pm
Lattes and More at the Scarsdale Library
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Since its strategic plan was launched in January, the library has been making changes to better meet the needs of the community. Whether they come for work, study or for pleasure, the Scarsdale Public Library wants its patrons to feel welcome and at home when they visit. A warm cup of coffee or tea goes hand in hand with reading, studying or chatting with friends.
With that in mind, the library has installed a Keurig Brewing System coffee station. The coffee brews in under a minute, there is no mess and it’s at the touch of a button. Patrons will be able to purchase a regular, decaf or tea K-Cup for $1.00 at the circulation desk. Cups will be provided or one can bring their own. Milk and sweeteners will be available at the coffee station.
Scarsdale Public Library Director Elizabeth Bermel says “We truly want the library to be a welcoming, friendly place. For many people, having coffee or tea available when they are visiting the library makes it more comfortable. Based on the feedback we received after we installed the café tables and chairs outside on the plaza last summer, the coffee machine is the next logical step.”
“This is just the beginning,” says Bermel. “We look forward to improving the patron experience, and making the library more of a home away 
from home.”
The coffee station is located near the front entrance near the circulation desk and positioned in such a way to avoid any accidents with other people.
Above is a picture of Ronald J. Brown, a teacher/lecturer for the Scarsdale Adult School, enjoying the new Keurig coffee maker.
Other Library News:
E-book night at the Scarsdale Library: On February 27, the library ran an e-book Open House where librarians helped patrons learn how to use Overdrive, the library's free online book collection. To learn more about how to access the free e-books, go to scarsdalelibrary.org and click on the Overdrive icon to download books. If you need help, stop by the reference desk or call them at 914-722-1300 ext 2 to set up an appointment with a librarian to get help.
Author Tom Greenwald, who wrote Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading, will visit the library on Wednesday March 7 at 7pm.
Loved The Hunger Games? Other Great YA Books that Adults Should Be Reading
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Confession: I read children’s books. For fun. Like, all the time. Did you get hooked on Harry Potter? Torn apart by Twilight? Did you Hunger for more of The Hunger Games? Did you think, well, I’ll only do it this one time, because they’re making the series into movies and everybody’s reading them? Well, that’s nothing.
When I‘m on a YA (young adult books) bender – and, hello world, I’m on one now! -- I read at least one teen title a week.
For me, reading YA is like having a candy bar in the middle of my lifelong diet. Filled with nougaty goodness, it’s easy to digest and damned satisfying. And, when I’m done, I don’t have to discuss it with my book club.
Reading YA is like temporarily leaving your grown-up, responsible day job to cut class and hang out in the food court at the mall with your new BFF.
It’s, like, totally ahmayzing.
So, without further ado, here are some of my top picks for grown-ups who sometimes wish they could recapture their teen years or who just like reading about adolescence. Maybe you have an adolescent in your house and you can share titles. Maybe you don’t. It doesn’t matter to me either way. I’m a book pusher and this is just good stuff.
For Fans of The Hunger Games
Remember how, after Twilight, everyone got into vampires? No matter where we turned, books and television series were bearing their fangs in hopes of getting rich on the trend. Well, the success of The Hunger Games has sparked a boatload of other YA authors to embrace post-apocalyptic and/or utopian and/or dystopian worlds. No doubt about it: Dystopia is The New Vampire. Here are some of the best new titles from the genre:
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
In a near-distant future, love is considered a disease that makes people, well, delirious. A vaccine/cure is given to all 18 year olds so that they will not be misled by this crazy illness, and then they are to be paired off with a suitable life companion. 95 days before her scheduled cure-date, Lena Haloway meets Alex, and a romance blossoms, throwing everything Lena believed about her tightly-controlled world and its government into chaos. First in a series.
Matched by Allie Condie
If you ask me, this book over-borrowed several elements from The Giver by Lois Lowry (a classic of the genre and still my fave), but I liked it anyway. Again, we are dealing with a controlled society and a girl of the brink of adulthood who has lived a sheltered life with a limited understanding of the world beyond what her government wants her to know. She is “matched” with a boy that seems perfect for her, except that, when she sees another boy’s face on her match screen, doubts begins to form. First in a series.
Divergent by Veronica Roth
This one seems great, but I have not read it because there is only so much dystopia and post apocalypse a girl can take before wanting to read something else. But I couldn’t leave it off the list because of the major reviews on Amazon. Read it and tell me what you think.
For Fans of Realistic Fiction
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Don’t hate me when you are crying and laughing and snot is bubbling out of your nose over this book. It’s sad. But, like, good sad. And bad sad. And angry sad, and funny sad. It’s typical John Green in its sheer awesomeness and use of teen-speak (read Looking for Alaska, too, please). This is a story about a 16-year-old girl with terminal cancer who falls in love. It’s important.
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Before writing Delirium, Oliver wrote this, which is one of my new favorite books ever. It’s narrated by Samantha Kingston, a high school senior who is part of a clique that rules the school. The day is Cupid Day, when roses are handed out and popularity is reinforced. Samantha has big plans that night with her jock boyfriend – it’s no spoiler to say she is supposed to lose her virginity – but, instead, a series of seemingly random events leads to a car accident and disastrous results. Only, when Samantha wakes up after the crash, it’s Cupid Day again. Mean Girls meets Groundhog’s Day in this gripping tale of teens in a wealthy suburb. Samantha narrates from a place between life and death, making Before I Fall part of the sub-genre of Almost Dead or Already Dead Teen literature. (There’s a bunch! Read Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and If I Stay by Gayle Forman, for starters.)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
This book has a bit of a cult following and is now officially “old,” having come out in 1999, which is when I read it. But now that a movie based on the novel will be released later this year (starring Emma Watson, Logan Lerman and Paul Rudd, and written and directed by Chbosky himself), there is renewed interest in this moving tale of a boy on the fringe of all that is awful and wonderful about high school. One of my all-time faves, too; I just recommended it to my 10th grade babysitter and her friend at the nail salon.
For Fantasy and Action Lovers
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
I don’t even know how to explain this book, so I’m going to cheat and have Amazon do it for me: “Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.” It’s like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo meets Narnia or something. I loved it.
For Fans of Graphic Novels (and Grown-Up Wimpy Kids)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
This book is also not new, having won the 2007 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, but I’ve got to list it because it’s deep and moving and funny and political and life changing. I’m quoting Amazon again, because I’m lazy: the novel is “based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings that reflect the character's art, [this novel] chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he thought he was destined to live.”
Enjoy these titles, and feel free to share others below. And have fun at The Hunger Games movie, which opens with a midnight showing on Friday, March 23rd.
Columnist and blogger Julie Gerstenblatt writes with humor and candor about her life in Scarsdale, her friends and family, and the particular demands of motherhood and wifedom in modern-day suburbia. Julie is obsessed with pop culture, television shows, movies, theater, and books. She considers herself a Renaissance woman who can talk at length about highbrow BBC programming as well as the worst of American reality TV. Read more from Gerstenblatt here:
Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards
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William J. Broad, bestselling author, senior science writer at The New York Times and lifelong yoga practitioner will discuss his new book The Science of Yoga: The Risks and Rewards on Sunday, March 4, 1pm at the JCC of Mid-Westchester, 999 Wilmot Road, Scarsdale. A question and answer period and book signing will follow the discussion. This event is free and open to the public.
Broad interviewed not only yogis and yoga instructors, but also sports scientists, medical doctors, physical therapists, sex researchers, physiologists, neuroscientists and immunologists – all to find out if yoga was really doing him good. Five years in the making, the book draws on a hidden wealth of discovery and surprising fact to show for the first time what is uplifting and beneficial and what is delusional and dangerous. On balance, the book shows that the benefits far outweigh the risks, but only if yoga is done intelligently to curb the hidden dangers.
This program is one of several informational events that the JCC is hosting this year. “We are hosting these events as a way to provide easy access to the community on a variety of topics that are of interest to them. This event in particular will give insight into the practice of yoga, as well as provide the community with an opportunity to ask questions and voice their opinions about Mr. Broad’s findings”, said Michael Witkes, Interim Executive Director of the JC.
The Jewish Community Center of Mid-Westchester, a proud beneficiary of UJA-Federation of New York, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the community by providing cultural, social, educational and recreational/fitness programs, human services and Jewish identity-building opportunities to people of all ages and backgrounds. For more information about this event contact Tobe Sevush, , 472-3300, x346, sevusht@jccmw.org or visit the JCC of Mid-Westchester website at www.jccmw.org .
