Kokomo-Howard County Public Library
News and Upcoming Events


BREAKING NEWS: KHCPL has been awarded the 2014 Sara Laughlin Marketing Award from the Indiana Library Federation. The award is for our multi-part gnome activities last summer and includes a $1,000 prize. Thanks to all of our staff, patrons, sponsors, and local businesses who contributed to the fun and to Director of Marketing and Community Engagement Lisa Fipps for planning and coordinating it. 



BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!
2nd KHCPL Downton Kokomo Ladies' Tea

 

  • Feel free to bring a camera and arrive at 9:30 a.m. for photo-ops at the Elliott House.
  • 10 to 11:30 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 18, at the Elliott House, 1216 W. Sycamore St., next to the Seiberling, parking to the north and west of the Elliott House
  • Please let us know if anyone in your party has mobility issues: The Elliott House is accessible because of a ramp and accessible restroom. We just need to know your needs so we can better seat you. (One room is a "sunken" room with two steps to descend/ascend.) 

If you love Downton Abbey, you won't want to miss the KHCPL Downton Kokomo Ladies' Tea.  Buy your ticket starting Tuesday, Sept. 2. (Paygov.us does charge a very minimal fee to process the ticket.)

 

We invite ladies 13 and older - you and your mom, aunt, sister, grandma, daughter, friend, coworker, etc. - for tasty finger foods and your choice of some great hot teas.


 


 

 

We encourage you to get in the Downton Abbey spirit and come dressed in period costume or wear a period hat because there will be a Downton Abbey prize for best costume and one for the best hat.

 

There will be entertainment by Harpist Sarah Loisch, Downton Abbey door prizes, and more. Thanks to our sponsors: Howard County Historical Society, Elite Banquet & Conference Center, Palmer's Jewelry, and Shearer Printing.

 

Tickets are $10 each. Seating is VERY limited so we encourage you to purchase your tickets ONLINE today using the link above. Some tickets are also available for purchase in person at KHPCL Main, South, and Russiaville starting on Tuesday, Sept. 2.

 

For more information, call Director of Marketing and Community Engagement Lisa Fipps at 765.626.0807 or e-mail her at [email protected].


 

"The business of life is the acquisition of memories. In the end, that's all there is." 

~ Mr. Charles "Charlie" Carson, the Butler


 

 

HOOPLA OVER 


What's all the "Hoopla" about at the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library? Another FREE service for patrons!

 

First KHCPL provided patrons with free ebooks through Overdrive. Then KHCPL subscribed to Freegal to give each card-holder up to five free weekly music downloads they could keep. Then the library subscribed to Zinio to allow you to use any internet-enabled device to read more than 80 magazines regularly. Now with its partnership with Hoopla, your library card along with a browser, Android, or iOS gives you access to thousands of movies, TV shows, music albums, and audiobooks - FREE! 

 

"It seemed only logical to provide mobile and online access to television shows, movies, and more considering society's increasing use of technology," said Tammy Keith, Head of KHCPL's Collection Management Department. "We especially like that Hoopla is available to you wherever you go. You could watch movies on your iPad while on vacation, watch an episode of a sitcom TV show while waiting for your kids to finish practice for an upcoming game or performance, or read a book in a doctor's office or hospital waiting room - anywhere life takes you."

 

KHCPL went live with Hoopla today. Each patron may download up to six free titles each month.

 

"What we really like about Hoopla is that we can also offer patrons an extensive catalog of educational materials, children's titles, foreign films, and other hard-to-find content not offered anywhere else," said Faith Brautigam, Director of KHCPL.

 

For example if you search movies, along with categories such as "New and Notable" and "Award Winners & Nominees," you'll find "Homeschooling," which offers Cleared for Takeoff. Homeschoolers learn about flight with Captain Herb, a United Airlines pilot. He takes kids from the control tower to the maze of baggage handling, from giant jets taking off and landing to a front row seat in the cockpit of an in-flight Boeing 747 jumbo jet.

 

During a music search, you'll find collections that provide 100 songs or more that only count as one borrowed item: 100 Great Symphonies, The Hot 100-Country Classics, and 100 Toddler Favorites.

 

Audiobook categories you'll find when searching include "Business & Career." And under television among other things, you'll be able to watch documentaries, and British and classic TV shows.

 

Hoopla currently has thousands of selections available. It adds new content weekly and is working with studios and publishers to offer even more. 

 

You can check out movie and TV content for 72 hours, music for 7 days, and audiobooks for 21 days. 

 

To get started, go to www.KHCPL.org and click on the Hoopla icon. Remember to have your KHCPL card in hand to sign up.

 

TOP 15 BOOKS SELECTED
FOR 2014 HOWARD COUNTY READS
2014 BOOK TO BE ANNOUNCED SEPTEMBER 2.
CHECK OUR FACEBOOK PAGE OR
WWW.HOWARDCOUNTYREADS.ORG



 

The Howard County Reads Committee is one step away from selecting the book for 2014.

 

It has announced the top 15 books that are in the running.

 

"We started out with a list of 41 books that patrons nominated," said Trisha Shively, head of the committee. "We're excited that so many responded."

 

Howard County Reads exists to cultivate a love of reading and to promote a sense of community by encouraging everyone from high school students to senior citizens to read the same book.

 

A committee evaluates each title and narrows the list to the top 15 books that are well-written, character-driven, not too long, interesting for a wide variety of readers, and available in paperback. Then the committee chooses one title from the top 15 to be named the Howard County Reads book for the year. The committee comprises staff from the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library, Greentown Public Library, Indiana University Kokomo Library, The Symposium, and the public.

 

Here are the top 15 books, ranked alphabetically and not by popularity.

 

The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg

If the name Fannie Flagg rings a bell, it's because she's also the author of the famed Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Caf�. The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion is considered a comic mystery novel. It centers on the lives of two women -Mrs. Sookie Poole of Point Clear, Ala., and her mother, Lenore Simmons Krackenberry - who have to reimagine who they are. Sookie has just married off the last of her daughters. She wants to relax and travel with her husband, but she has to contend with her mother. Others might think Lenore's fun, but she's overbearing when it comes to Sookie. By accident, Sookie finds out something about her mother's past. She questions everything she ever thought she knew about herself, her family, and her future.

 

The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel

Television featured the images of astronauts on the moon, making the men stars and throwing their wives into the limelight. They were like American royalty, dining with Jackie Kennedy and on the cover of magazines. All the wives envied Annie Glenn, who had a picture-perfect marriage. But the other wives got plenty of attention. The wives, many of whom were neighbors, formed the Astronaut Wives Club to provide support and friendship. Being celebrities didn't protect them from tragedies like divorce and death. They rallied together through it all and have been friends for 50 years. The book tells their stories.

 

The Battle of the Crater by Newt Gingerich

The book tells the story of the largest combat deployment of African American troops in the Civil War. The 28th Indiana regiment was mostly freemen born in the North who volunteered to fight. The members were highly trained for a top-secret, special mission that Pennsylvania miners came up with: dig under a Confederate fort and blow it up from below. The story is told through the eyes of James Reilly, an illustrator for Harpers Weekly, one of the most important magazines of the time, who has an additional, secret mission when he is on the front lines of battle observing for his sketches. The book tells one of the great, untold tragedies lost in American history.

 

The Buddha in the Attic Julie Otsuka

It's the story of a group of young women brought from Japan to San Francisco as mail-order brides in the 1920s. It traces their lives from the journey across the ocean to their arrival in San Francisco, and from raising children who would later reject the Japanese culture and language to the arrival of World War II. 

 

Clay's Quilt by Silas House

After his mother is killed, Clay Sizemore, 4, ends up alone in a small Appalachian mining town called Free Creek. Its residents become his family. Even though Aunt Easter puts her faith first, she's always filled with a sense of foreboding. Uncle Paul makes beautiful quilts. And Alma's songs from the fiddler wend their way into Clay's heart. Together, the people of Free Creek help Clay fashion a quilt of a life out of the treasured pieces surrounding him.

 

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

It's wartime, and secret agent Verity is arrested by the Gestapo in enemy territory. Her options are grim, to say the least. Nazi interrogators tell her to give them details of her mission or be executed. She tells them the truth, but it's not what they expect. As she gives her confession, Verity reveals her past: how she became friends with a pilot named Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper she must write to the interrogators, Verity battles for her life. She confronts her views on courage and failure in her desperate attempt to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her?

 

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Inspired by actual historical figures, this novel starts with an image of flight: Hetty "Handful," who has grown up as a slave in early 19th century Charleston, recalls the night her mother told her that her ancestors in Africa could fly over trees and clouds. That image gives her hope that she can one day be free. Meanwhile, near the slave quarters is Sarah Grimk�, the daughter of a wealthy and prominent family at the pinnacle of Charleston's social hierarchy. As a child she sees the violence of slavery and so begins her life journey to have a voice in the world as she fights for abolition and women's rights.

 

The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop and Caf� by Mary Simses

A high-powered Manhattan attorney Ellen Branford is on a mission to fulfill her dying grandmother's last wish: to find the hometown boy her grandmother once loved and give him her last letter. Ellen heads to Maine for a quick trip that's complicated by a near drowning in a chilly bay Down East. Fortunately a local carpenter rescues her, but her story makes her a local quasi-celebrity. During her stay she stumbles on something in her grandmother's past that she worked hard to keep hidden. As Ellen learns about her grandmother and herself, she realizes one day in the simple life of Beacon, Maine, might not be enough.

 

Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman

Howard County residents will recognize the author of this book. Beth Hoffman's book, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, was the HCR book for 2012. In Looking for Me, Hoffman tells Teddi Overman's tale of finding her life's passion for furniture in a broken-down chair left on the side of the road in rural Kentucky. As she learns to turn other people's castoffs into beautifully restored antiques, she opens her own shop in Charleston. There, Teddi builds a life that is as quirky as her customers. Even though she has great friends and love, she's haunted by her brother's disappearance. Signs he might still be alive take her back home to Kentucky. The journey could help her find herself and deal with her shattered family. The only thing is, she has to decide what to let go of and what to keep.

 

March 1 by John Robert Lewis

Georgia Congressman John Lewis is one of the key figures of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, D.C., and from receiving beatings from state troopers to receiving the Medal of Freedom from the first African-American president. March 1 is a graphic novel trilogy and a first-hand account of the struggle for civil and human rights. It's a vivid reflection on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Taken from the pages of history, this fiction novel focuses on the 75 years (1854 to 1929) that the so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the East Coast to the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children. They didn't know their fate as the trains chugged along. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude? Orphan Train is about an Irish immigrant orphan, Vivian Daly, who remembers the Orphan Train as she returns later in life to the East Coast. But up in her attic are trunks filled with reminders of her turbulent past. Seventeen-year-old Molly Ayer, a Penobscot Native American who has been in and out of foster homes and has been ordered to do community service, is assigned to help Vivian sort through the trunks. As the two work, Molly discovers that she and Vivian aren't all that different, being raised by strangers and having questions about the past.

 

Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

Willa Jackson of Walls of Water, N.C., learns that a classmate - socialite do-gooder Paxton Osgood - has restored her family's Blue Ridge Madam home and has plans to open an inn. But when a skeleton, found buried beneath the lone peach tree on the property, is found, Willa and Paxton must confront the betrayals that once bound their two families.

 

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

In 2044, reality is ugly with a capital U. The only time Wade Watts, a teenager, feels alive is when he's in the virtual utopia called OASIS. He's devoted to studying the puzzles in OASIS - puzzles based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past that promise power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. The problem is that when Wade stumbles on a clue, he finds players willing to kill to take the ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win - and confront the world he's desperate to escape.

 

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

In 1920, Alaska is a brutal place to homestead, but a childless couple, Jack and Mabel. Childless, do just that. In the Pulitzer Prize nominated book, as Jack struggles with the enormous amount of work to do on the farm, Mabel struggles with loneliness and despair from being childless. During a moment of levity during a snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone, but they catch a glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees: Faina. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims across snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. While Jack sees Mable's transformation and joy in having a child, he's skeptical. As the two struggle it understand Faina, they realize nothing is as it seems. What they learn about her transforms all of them.

 

Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall

Summer 1963 begins like any other for 9-year-old Starla Claudelle, who was born to teenage parents in Mississippi and raised by her strict paternal grandmother, Mamie. Her grandma fears Starla will turn out like her mother, who left her to become a country music star. Even though Starla hasn't seen her momma since she was 3, she thinks she'll keep her promise to one day take Starla to Nashville so they can be a family again. When Starla gets in trouble, she's afraid Mamie will send her to reform school. So Starla runs away, hoping to find her mom in Nashville. Eula, an African-American traveling with a white baby, offers her a ride. By talking to Eula, reconnecting with her parents, and encountering misadventures, Starla learns to let go of her long-held dreams. She realizes family is all about those who will sacrifice all for you, whether bound by blood or by the heart.

 

For more information, please see the website at www.howardcountyreads.org.

 


INFO ABOUT OUR SERVICES AND PROGRAMS
 
From new programs for kids to a schedule of technology classes and from book sale dates to bookmobile stops, you'll find all the upcoming KHCPL happenings in our newsletter. Download the PDF or pick up one at any KHCPL location or bookmobile.

Here is a list of a FEW of the upcoming events ...

I CAN READ 50 BOOKS
Pre-kindergarten through 5th-graders, join the KHCPL READING CHALLENGE! Read 50 books and be a part of the Readers' Wall
of Fame. Sign up at all library locations. The program continues through May 9, 2015.

PRACTICE PRESCHOOL * KHCPL South
Thursdays, Sept. 4, 11, 18, 25, and Oct. 2, 16, 23, 30 * 10:45 to 11:30 a.m.
Preschoolers will share stories, show-and-tell, craft, and snack with a librarian.

YOGA! GRADES K TO 5 * KHCPL South
Mondays, Oct. 6, 13, 20, 27 * 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.
School-age children, wear comfortable clothes and bring your own mat
to learn, be active, and have fun.

ATLAS CLUB (At The Library After School) GRADES 2 TO 5 * KHCPL Main
Taste-Testers
Thursday, Sept. 25 * 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Investigate your sense of taste and experiment with how foods change using heat or ice.
Minecraft
Thursday, Oct. 16 * 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Make a creeper and explore the library on a scavenger hunt!

SHERLOCK * KHCPL South
Sept. 19 * 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Sixth- through 12th-graders, see if you're smart enough to solve a murder in this after-hours event. Using only your powers of deduction (and your memory of the show), we'll see who is Sherlock and who is Dr. John Watson. You can also perfect your "Sherlock look" by creating a no-tie scarf for chilly London evenings.

CANNING and FREEZING BASICS * KHCPL South
Tuesday, Sept. 16 * 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
Adults, Linda Echelbarger with Howard County Purdue Extension will teach you the basics about canning and freezing food, and share a few recipes.

GENEALOGY FOR NIGHT OWLS * KHCPL Main 
Friday, Oct. 17 * 5:30 p.m. to midnight
Plan to attend our 35th lock-in research evening in the Genealogy & Local History Department. The yet-to-be-determined fee includes a buffet dinner and door prizes. Registration is required. Pay the fee in the Genealogy and Local History Department beginning Sept. 17
KHCPL WILL BE CLOSED FOR LABOR DAY ON MONDAY, SEPT. 1

Remember: Whenever our buildings are closed, you can still visit KHCPL! Just use our digital branch at www.KHCPL.org.  It's open 24/7/365. You can reserve and renew materials, download music, magazines, movies, and do much, much more - ALL FROM THE CONVENIENCE OF YOUR HOME!

 

A MESSAGE FROM 
THE DIRECTOR


 

The start of a new school year, even if you finished school decades ago, seems a natural time to buckle down and make some changes.  If you have dormant aspirations that are just waking up, pause for a moment and see how the library might help.  Could you use some information as you plan your strategy?  Check us out.  Do you need a neutral place to meet with someone who will hold you accountable once you've put it down in black and white?  Meet at the library.  We want you to succeed and we want the process to be positive.  As you set and attack new goals, stop by and see how the library can be a part of a proactive plan.  

 

SUPER COOL STUFF 
COMING UP

FUNdraiser, Author Event and More! Once the 2014 Howard County Reads book is announced on Sept. 2, check out our Facebook page and our website regularly for HCR events.

 

SAVE THE DATE: Saturday, Dec. 6 ~ KHCPL will host its first RUDOLPH FAMILY FUN RUN. The 5K run/walk includes a cool T-shirt, reindeer antlers, Rudolph nose, medal, trophies, door prizes, snacks, and an expert who can help YOU improve your time and train for a mini, marathon, or triathlon. All ages and all abilities welcome as well as pets on leashes. Check out our Facebook page and our website regularly for registration and run information.

 

FIRST FRIDAYS
AT KHCPL MAIN
Join us from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. the first Friday of every month at KHCPL Main for special programs providing something for everyone.

 

Sept. 5 ~ "Around the World"

Learn about other countries from Women of the World and those who served/are serving in the Peace Corps. Sample non-American foods made by Linda Echelbarger with Purdue Extension during her cooking demonstration. Let children decorate maracas during the Creators' Club. Purchase your ticket for the Oct. 17 Howard County Reads FUNdraiser.
 

Oct. 3 ~ "An Autumn Walk"

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! Enjoy a FREE wagon ride downtown, thanks to Breezy Lane Carriage Co. Fun for kids in CSD's Creators' Club. Check out animals available for adoption from the Kokomo Humane Society. Purchase your ticket for the Oct. 17 Howard County Reads FUNdraiser.
 

Nov. 7 ~ "Where in the Library Is Howard?

Discover clues throughout the library that will lead you to Howard the Bear - and a chance to get some free candy and enter a drawing for a prize. Children who complete the hunt for Howard can try to win a 3-foot bear and book. Teens can try to win a Doctor Who TARDIS Smart Safe. Adults can try to win a travel blanket. Purchase your ticket for the Dec. 4 Howard County Reads Author Event.
 

Dec. 5 ~ "Hometown Holiday"

Check out KHCPL Main all decked out for the holidays. Decorate and chow down on free holiday cookies while sipping hot chocolate, and much more!

 

LOOKING FOR A JOB? KHCPL JUST MIGHT BE THE RIGHT PLACE 
FOR YOU
Check our list of job openings on a regular basis for job descriptions and application information. 

KHCPL MOBILE APP
Take KHCPL with you wherever you go with our mobile app and have instant access to library services. You can get it free now.

 

BORROW AN iPAD FREE
Learn how to borrow an iPad from KHCPL by clicking here.

READ DIGITAL MAGAZINES FREE
With KHCPL's partnership with Zinio, you can read about 80 magazines by using Internet-enabled devices. Get started today.

KHCPL TO HOST
 ACA FORUMS


To help those in the community understand the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and how to enroll or make changes to current plans, the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library is teaming up with the Howard County ACA Navigator, Nemramy M. D'Agostino to offer information forums.


For the community's convenience, KHCPL and D'Agostino will offer the forums at different times, dates, and locations.

D'Agostino will answer your questions and provide information about several topics, including the following:

* State and federal health-care programs
* Renewal of health-care insurance purchased on the Marketplace
* Hardship exemptions and reportable changes
* Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) 2.0

Forum times, dates, and locations:
* 1 to 3:30 p.m., Aug. 30, Meeting Room, KHCPL Main
* 6 to 7:30 p.m., Sept. 4, Meeting Room, KHCPL Main
* 1 to 3:30 p.m., Sept. 6, Meeting Room, KHCPL Main
* 6 to 7:30 p.m., Sept. 11, Meeting Room, KHCPL Main
* 6 to 7:30 p.m., Sept. 25, Cardinal Room, KHCPL South
* 1 to 3:30 p.m., Sept. 27, Meeting Room, KHCPL Main
* 6 to 7:30 p.m., Oct. 23, Cardinal Room, KHCPL South
* 6 to 7:30 p.m., Oct. 30, Meeting Room, KHCPL Main
* 6 to 7:30 p.m., Nov. 5, Meeting Room, KHCPL Main
* 1 to 3:30 p.m., Nov. 18, Meeting Room, KHCPL Main

Affordable Care Fast Facts
* Passed in 2010
* Requires U.S. citizens to have health care insurance or face penalties.
* Mandates health care insurance providers cover a core list of health services.
* Requires each state to provide Marketplaces or Exchanges where people can choose an insurance provider and a plan that fits their needs.
* The Health Sherpa Website www.thehealthsherpa.com can help with comparing plans before purchasing through the Marketplace.
* Enrollment Web Address: www.healthcare.gov (www.cuidadodesalud.gov/es/ for those who speak Spanish).

Additionally, you can call the 24/7 Consumer Call Center / Marketplace Call Center:
* 1-800-318-2596 (English and non-English speaking)
* 1-855-889-4325 (TTY Users)

For more information, please call D'Agostino at 864.4160 or email her at [email protected], or contact KHCPL Librarian Marie Becker at 626.0815 or [email protected].