Children's librarians across Boston are getting ready for Summer Reading. The Boston Public Schools sends home lists of recommended books. Parents of school-age children work hard to prevent the summer slide. But summer reading isn't only for big kids. The Boston Public Library (BPL) has fun activities planned all summer for babies, toddlers, and preschool…
Diversity in Sci Fi: The Luminous Dead
Welcome to Diversity in Sci-Fi! Today we are reviewing The Luminous Dead, a creepy futuristic book about a caver who lies her way into a dangerous mission with the promise of enough money to make it off world.
Juneteenth
Today is Juneteenth, a symbolic day celebrating freedom for the descendants of formerly enslaved people. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Yet, many enslaved people, including 250,000 in Texas, were forced to continue their labor until 1865. On June 19th of that year, Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and announced the official…
Nobody is Perfect or Neutral — Or, Why Libraries Have so Many Mysteries Where a Librarian Solves the Case
Have you ever walked through the library’s mystery section and noticed that there seem to be a lot of books with detectives who are cats, librarians, owners of cute used bookshops, or retired librarians who now own cute bookshops and solve mysteries with their cat? What gives? Are the librarians pushing their biased pro-cat, anti-murder…
The Origins and Practices of Litha
June 21, 2019 - Litha Litha is a pagan holiday; one of their eight sabbats during the year. Litha (also known as Midsummer) occurs on the summer solstice, and celebrates the beginning of summer. The traditions of Litha appear to be borrowed from many cultures. Most ancient cultures celebrated the summer solstice in some way. The…
The Origins and Practices of Holidays: Father’s Day & Shaheedi Guru Arjan Devji
June 16, 2019 - Father's Day Sunday, June 16, 2019 is Father's Day in the United States. The annual holiday falls on the third Sunday of June. Father's Day is meant to honor fathers, fatherhood, and paternal bonds. The origins of Father's Day is unclear. Some believe it was created in response to Mother's Day…
Can You Do the Cancan?
“All the girls in Paris France Love to do the Can Can Dance.”¹ The dance and music is strongly associated with the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. He portrayed the dancers and their dance halls in many of his posters. As a result, people today may associate the cancan with Paris of the 1890s. The cancan…
Illustrated Songbooks, Part II
This post is part of the Illustrated Songbooks series. Songbooks Illustrated by Henriette Willebeek le Mair Little Songs of Long Ago, music by Alfred Moffat Our Old Nursery Rhymes, music by Alfred Moffat Old Dutch Nursery Rhymes, music by Julius Rontgen Henriette Willebeek le Mair was a Dutch illustrator born in 1889. As a teenager, she…
The Origins and Practices of Pentecost
Pentecost - June 9, 2019 Sunday, June 9, is the Christian holy day of Pentecost. The name comes from the Greek word pentekoste which means fiftieth. The holiday is celebrated on the seventh Sunday after Easter which is also fifty days after Easter, hence the name. Since its date depends on the date of Easter, Pentecost…
Mapping Summer Hotspots!
The school year is drawing to a close and at the Map Center we are dreaming about summer excursions! Traveling through our historic map collection, we have found all sorts of fun places to visit. Our itinerary starts in our hometown of Boston. In this historic tourist map from 1935 we can see all sorts of…
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