Northeast Regional Library Blog

7 Must-Read Children’s Halloween Books

7 Must-Read Children’s Halloween Books These picture books about Halloween will delight your kids without frightening them. Halloween is a huge deal at my house. My kids love dressing up year-round, and the combination of dressing up and free candy is almost too much for them to handle. I like Halloween too, but I like how much my kids crave reading about it even more. I use their excitement about Halloween to make reading that Read more

When is Your Kid Ready for Harry Potter? A Guide for Getting Started

When is Your Kid Ready for Harry Potter? A Guide for Getting Started “You’re a wizard, Harry.” As a bibliophile and a parent, you’re so eager for the day your kid is ready to read those words and enter the wizarding world of Harry Potter. But along with fanciful components like letter-delivering owls, chocolate frogs, a hidden train platform, and an enchanted Sorting Hat, come darker elements, like an orphaned and neglected child, beloved characters’ Read more

The Hilarious History of ‘OK’

The English Language’s Most Successful Export Is A Joke Here’s a quiz: let’s say you’re setting off to see the world and aside from please and thank you in a smattering of languages you pretty much only know English. What is the one word that most of the people you encounter will also know? That’s right. It’s OK. Yep. It’s very probably the most widely recognized word in the world. And its origin story is literally a joke. The definitive Read more

August’s Best New Fiction

August’s Best New Fiction This month’s best new work includes the second book of the Half-Drowned King Viking fantasy trilogy, a portrait of a Midwest town in decline, a debut roman à clef by an Iraq veteran currently imprisoned for bank robbery, and a historical about the Black Plague. And for lighter, contemporary reads, enjoy a sorority-set drama, a romance in Paris gone wrong, and an octogenarian-led cozy mystery.  The Masterpiece, by Fiona Davis In 1928, Clara Read more

Recommended ‘Shark Week’ Reading

Recommended ‘Shark Week’ Reading What danger lies beneath the ocean waves? Luckily for us readers, this question has consumed both novelists and nonfiction writers alike for ages. So, just in time for the annual Shark Week (the Discovery Channel’s eight days of all things shark-related), we’ve rounded up some great books on the creatures of the sea.  Nonfiction Peeks at Creatures of the Deep Fictional Fears That Keep You On Shore Some Chum for the Kids Discovery Read more

Why Public Libraries Are Amazing

WHY PUBLIC LIBRARIES ARE AMAZING They may not exactly be socialism, but they’re a model of good publicly-run institutions. by NATHAN J. ROBINSON f you wanted a single article to demonstrate why millennials object to the prevailing “neoliberal” economic ideology, it would be this piece in Forbes: “Amazon Should Replace Local Libraries to Save Taxpayers Money.” In it, economics professor Panos Mourdoukoutas argues that libraries have outlived their usefulness, and that their function should be privatized. Technology, he says Read more