Thursday, December 1, 2016
Toddler Storytime – 10:15-10:50am
Songs, active rhymes and stories especially for ages 18 months to 3 years, followed by playtime! Make new friends and play with toys.
Baby Bounce – 11:30-11:50am
Play, sing and rhyme one on one with your baby from birth to 18 months, followed by playtime! Make new friends and play with toys.
It’s a quiet week this week, as the library will be closed Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! To get in the holiday spirit, check out this list of picture books about being thankful we put together a couple years back.
Thursday, November 24, 2016
CLOSED – Thanksgiving
Friday, November 25, 2016
CLOSED – Thanksgiving
Posted in Events | Tags: Events, holidays, hours, thanksgiving
The Montclair Library was built in 1930, a gift from philanthropist Chauncey Gibson to the community. Over the years, many people have admired the library’s charming Storybook style architecture.
At some point, the library’s original schoolhouse-style lights (seen in this photo of people unpacking books onto the shelves in the brand-new library in 1930) were replaced with banks of fluorescent lights, which at the time were the most efficient option.
On December 8, we’re kicking off a campaign to raise funds to replace the fluorescents with new energy-efficient, warm lighting LEDs made in a style that closely matches the library’s original lighting, and which provide a nicer light for reading and working – see the mock-up below.
Help us restore the branch to its original splendor with a donation toward the new lighting! The Friends of Montclair Library have made a $4000 grant towards the project, and we’re looking for community donations to meet the other $4000 required to make the lighting upgrade happen.
If you have happy memories of time spent in the Montclair Library, please consider donating towards our campaign. Checks of any amount can be made out to the Friends of Oakland Public Library (FOPL) and are tax deductible.
Thank you for helping restore your community library!
Posted in News | Tags: community, Fundraising, history
On Thursday, December 8, 2016, the library will stay open until 8pm to host a very special event!
First, renowned Bay Area architect Julia Morgan will visit, in the person of Betty Marvin, a local historian and preservationist. “Miss Morgan” will reminisce about her struggle to become an architect in a male-dominate profession, her colorful clients and her lifelong involvement with women’s philanthropic organizations. She’ll also dispel the rumors that she designed the library or the old Montclair firehouse, although she did design about a dozen buildings in Oakland and Piedmont.
At the same event, we’ll unveil binders of Montclair history photos and information, collected and assembled by Friends of Montclair Library volunteers under the direction of Lynne Cutler. The binders, which will be available on an ongoing basis for the public to peruse at the library, are a one-of-a-kind treasure trove of interesting information and history about the Montclair area.
And, we’re asking the community to bring in their Montclair photos and memories, which we may scan and include in the binders. Do you have a photo of your class from Montclair, Thornhill or Joaquin Millar Elementary? A ticket stub from a local show? Photos or memorabilia from shops that used to be in the Village? Bring them to the library, where we’ll scan them and return them to you.
Lastly, this event kicks off our fundraising campaign to replace the banks of fluorescent lights in the library with new energy-efficient, warm lighting LEDs that match the building’s original style – look for more details on the campaign in tomorrow’s post.
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Toddler Storytime – 10:15-10:50am
Songs, active rhymes and stories especially for ages 18 months to 3 years, followed by playtime! Make new friends and play with toys.
Baby Bounce – 11:30-11:50am
Play, sing and rhyme one on one with your baby from birth to 18 months, followed by playtime! Make new friends and play with toys.
Saturday, November 19, 2016
International Games Day – 10:00am-5:30pm
Celebrate International Games Day at the Montclair branch! Choose a board game and start playing! Play with your family or friends, or make new friends! A selection of board games will be available in the children’s section all day. All games will be family friendly, with some for readers and some for pre-readers.
Photo: Hannah via Flickr / Creative Commons
On Tuesday, December 6, author Anthony Marra will visit the Montclair Library from 6:30pm-8:00pm to talk about his latest book, The Tsar of Love and Techno, a collection of stories which the New York Times Book Review has called “a 21st century War and Peace.”
Among the remarkable characters he gives voice to are a 1930s Leningrad censor who becomes obsessed with a disgraced prima ballerina’s image, a group of women who narrate their stories as former gulag prisoners who settled in a Siberian mining camp, and young men who face violence at home and in the military.
Alex Halberstadt in his New York Times Book Review called it “Audacious…brilliant…nearly Tolstoyan…ambitious and fearless.” The book is a series of interwoven stories set in Eastern Europe touching on “themes of family, sacrifice, war and the redemptive power of art,” featuring a cast of “characters whose lives intersect in ways both life-affirming and heartbreaking” (publisher).
Marra is the author of the award-winning novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. He has won a Whiting Award, Pushcart Prize and the Narrative Prize. Tsar was a 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist in Fiction and a New York Times bestseller. Constellation won the National Book Critics Circle’s inaugural John Leonard Prize in Fiction. Marra received an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, where he now teaches. He has lived and studied in Eastern Europe and currently resides in Oakland.
Copies of Marra’s work will be available for purchase and signing courtesy of A Great Good Place for Books.
This free event is being co-sponsored by the Friends of Montclair Library.
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Oakland Ballet visits Oakland Public Libraries – 1:00pm
Ballet dancers from the Oakland Ballet Company dance into Oakland libraries during Nutcracker season this year. Join them as they share a few steps, describe their lives as dancers, and maybe tell a story, all in costume.
Lawyers in the Library – 6:00-8:00pm
Free legal advice and referrals, second Tuesday of each month. Register by phone starting one week in advance at 510-482-7810. Volunteer lawyer leaves before 7pm if no more people are present.
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Beautiful Mess – 3:00-4:00pm
What are we making? Whatever you want! And it’s going to be beautiful. And messy. This art program lets kids focus more on the process than the product using a variety of mediums. For all ages; kids 5 and under should be accompanied by a grownup. Beautiful Mess will happen every second Wednesday from 3-4 pm.
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Toddler Storytime – 10:15-10:50am
Songs, active rhymes and stories especially for ages 18 months to 3 years, followed by playtime! Make new friends and play with toys.
Baby Bounce – 11:30-11:50am
Play, sing and rhyme one on one with your baby from birth to 18 months, followed by playtime! Make new friends and play with toys.
Friday, November 11, 2016
CLOSED – Veterans Day
Photo: Thomas Hawk via Flickr / Creative Commons
This Tuesday, November 8, at 1pm, dancers from the Oakland Ballet will be at the library to share a few steps with the kids, describe their lives as dancers and maybe tell a story, all in costume.
Get warmed up for their visit with these ballet-themed children’s books from Oakland Public Library. Biographies, fairy tales, dancers overcoming adversity, depictions of ballet classes both realistic and silly, even a dinosaur who wants to dance – this list has it all. And it has the dubious distinction of being quite possibly the pinkest book list we’ve ever done.
On Your Toes: A Ballet ABC by Rachel Isadora (J 792.8 ISADORA) – Each letter of the alphabet is represented by an illustration of a ballet-related word.
Ballet Bunnies by Joan Elizabeth Goodman (J 792.8 GOODMAN) – This ballet primer demonstrates basic technique in ballet, from warm-ups to the barre to the hop, skip, twirl and wiggle fun of centerwork.
Firebird: Ballerina Misty Copeland Shows a Young Girl How to Dance Like the Firebird by Misty Copeland (J PICBK COPELAND) – American Ballet Theater soloist Misty Copeland encourages a young ballet student by telling her that she too had to learn basic steps and how to be graceful when starting out.
The Random House Book of Stories from the Ballet retold by Geraldine McCaughrean (J 792.84 McCAUGHRE) – Tells the stories of classic ballets like “Swan Lake,” “The Nutcracker” and “The Sleeping Beauty.”
Emma and Julia Love Ballet by Barbara McClintock (J PICBK McCLINTOCK) – This story follows the everyday life of two girls, one a professional ballerina, the other a student, both of whom love ballet.
Lili at Ballet by Rachel Isadora (J PICBK ISADORA) – Lili dreams of becoming a ballerina and goes to her ballet lessons four afternoons a week as she prepares to appear in “The Nutcracker.”
Little Ballet Star by Adèle Geras (J PICBK GERAS) – Tilly is thrilled when she gets to see her aunt perform in the ballet, “The Sleeping Beauty,” especially because she gets to go backstage and even on the stage itself.
Angelina Ballerina by Katharine Holabird (J PICBK HOLABIRD) – A little mouse wants to become a ballerina more than anything else in the world.
A Dance Like Starlight: One Ballerina’s Dream by Kristy Dempsey (J PICBK DEMPSEY) – A young girl growing up in Harlem in the 1950s, whose mother cleans and stitches costumes for a ballet company, dreams of becoming a prima ballerina one day, and is thrilled to see a performance of Janet Collins, the first prima ballerina of color.
Miss Lina’s Ballerinas by Grace Maccarone (J PICBK MACCARONE) – Ballet instructor Miss Lina has a solution when her eight students, who always dance in pairs, are distraught when a ninth girl joins the class.
Brontorina by James Howe (J PICBK HOWE) – Despite her size and not having the proper footwear, a determined dinosaur pursues her dream of becoming a ballerina.
Ballerino Nate by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (J PICBK BRADLEY) (not at Montclair) – After seeing a ballet performance, Nate decides he wants to learn ballet but he has doubts when his brother Ben tells him that only girls can be ballerinas.
If you can’t get enough books about ballet, there are lots more ballet books at the library; this is just a sample. You can also look up these book lists from No Time for Flashcards and Sugar, Spice & Glitter for more ideas.
Posted in Just for Fun | Tags: books, children, Events
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Dia de los Muertos – 4:00pm
Come to the Library to celebrate and remember loved ones who have passed by decorating skulls made from Model Magic with glitter, feathers and colored pens.
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Montclair Book Worms – 4:00-5:00pm
Do you like to read books and talk about them? Join the Montclair Library Book Worms and you’ll get to do just that! The Book Worms meet the first Wednesday of every month at 4pm. Snacks will be provided! Meetings last an hour. The books we read will be appropriate for grades 4-6. For our November meeting, the book we’ll discuss is Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai. You can pick up a copy of December’s book at this meeting. You can pick up a copy of December’s book at this meeting. Questions? Contact Sally: 510-482-7810 or sengelfried@oaklandlibrary.org
Pop-Up TeenZone – 1:30-3:00pm
Come visit the Montclair Branch for a Pop-up TeenZone with crafts. Come hang out and share suggestions for serving you better!
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Toddler Storytime – 10:15-10:50am
Songs, active rhymes and stories especially for ages 18 months to 3 years, followed by playtime! Make new friends and play with toys.
Baby Bounce – 11:30-11:50am
Play, sing and rhyme one on one with your baby from birth to 18 months, followed by playtime! Make new friends and play with toys.
Friday, November 4, 2016
Fabric Jewelry for Teens – 3:30pm
In this workshop, teens will design and create fashionable cuffs and bracelets to reflect their personal style or to be given to friends and family as gifts. In collaboration with Oakland Hand Made.
http://oaklandhandmade.blogspot.com/
Photo: Allen County (IN) Public Library via Flickr / Creative Commons
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Toddler Storytime – 10:15-10:50am
Songs, active rhymes and stories especially for ages 18 months to 3 years, followed by playtime! Make new friends and play with toys.
Baby Bounce – 11:30-11:50am
Play, sing and rhyme one on one with your baby from birth to 18 months, followed by playtime! Make new friends and play with toys.
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Workshop on Using eBooks & Other Library Apps – 3:00-5:00pm
Oakland Public Library offers a variety of e-books, audiobooks, e-magazines, digital music and streaming films for various devices, including iPads, iPods, smartphones, Kindles and more. Learn how to download a variety of digital content at any time, to a computer or mobile device. Please bring your fully charged device if you can, your current library card and all necessary passwords (library PIN number, Apple ID, Amazon password, etc.) This will be one-on-one help. Four attendees maximum per hour (from 3-4pm or 4-5pm), plus 2 on a wait list. This workshop will be offered monthly. Advance sign-up is required; please RSVP at 482-7810.
Friends of Montclair Library 