It's a puzzle all right . . .

Thanks in part to a Library Services and Technology Grant we received this year, the Abbeville Library is offering a new service: puzzles and puppets you can check out and take home.

These items, which circulate for one week at a time, are sure to bring some extra joy to your little ones this summer. The puzzles are designed to reinforce basics like colors and sounds and also to help develop motor skills, like tying shoes and using keys. (But don't worry -- the kids will be having way too much fun to realize that they're also learning!!)

The Abbeville County Library System receives ALA/NEA grant

I'm so pleased to announce that the Abbeville County Library System has been awarded a We the People Bookshelf grant. This grant is awarded annually by the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This year's theme is "The Pursuit of Happiness," and the library will receive copies of classic books which underscore this theme, including:

For Kindergarten to Grade 3:

Aesop’s Fables by Aesop

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton

Mike Mulligan y Su Máquina Maravillosa by Virginia Lee Burton (translated by Yanitzia Canetti)

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

For Grades 4 to 6:

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Tuck para siempre by Natalie Babbitt (translated by Narcis Fradera)

The Great Migration by Jacob Lawrence

These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Journal of Wong Ming-Chung by Laurence Yep*

For Grades 7 to 8:

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan*

Esperanza Renace by Pam Muñoz Ryan (translated by Nuria Molinero)

For Grades 9 to 12:

Kindred by Octavia Butler

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

Pioneros by Willa Cather (translated by Gema Moral Bartolomé)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Common Sense by Thomas Paine

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Bonus CD:
Happy Land: Musical Tributes to Laura Ingalls Wilder performed by various artists

As soon as these materials are catalogued, we'll be displaying them at the Abbeville Library. So come by and check out these great titles. They're sure to add to your own 'pursuit of happiness' this summer!

Children's award winners

This year's awards for children's books have been announced, and copies of these books are available now at the Abbeville County Library System.

The Caldecott medal was awarded to David Weisner for Flotsam.

Caldecott honor books are: Gone Wild: an Endangered Alphabet by David McLimans and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford.

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom is also a Coretta Scott King award winner.

This year's Newbery Medal winner is The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron.

Newbery honor winners are: Penny from Heaven by Jennifer Holm, Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson, and Rules by Cynthia Lord.

Each of these titles is available at all three branches of the Abbeville County Libray System. Come see the best of the best in this year's books for children.

Memories of Abbeville High School

Thanks to a generous donation from Abbeville High School, the Abbeville County Library System now has a series of Abbeville High yearbooks available for patrons to see. Most of the collection covers the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. Feel like a walk down memory lane? researching relatives from this area? or just feel like a good chuckle over some of those old outfits? It's all here.

Though we do have some copies from the early 50s and some from the 70s, we still need:
most years prior to 1982
as well as 1985, 1986, 1991, and 2001. So if you've got a yearbook to donate, please do so! We'd love to have as complete a collection as possible.

Calhoun Falls and Dixie grads -- we'd love to have your yearbooks, too, to place at the Calhoun Falls and Donalds libraries. So climb into grandma's attic and see if you can't find those old treasures . . . and yes, we promise not to read what your old girlfriend wrote in it!

Booksale on Saturday!

Don't forget the booksale in the basement of the Abbeville Library: Saturday, May 5 from 10 am to 1 pm. Buy a bag of books for $5.00. See you there!!

The joys of finding just what you want . . .

These pictures say it all!
--Mary Elizabeth

Everybody wants to come to the library . . .

The Donalds Library offers books, movies, computers . . . and baby birds! Be sure to take a peak out the back door to see our latest arrivals. Now that's a mother who knows the importance of bringing your babies to the library!