Jane’s walks take place on the first weekend of May. They are free neighbourhood walking tours that help put people in touch with their environment and with each other. The first walks took place in 2007 and since then they have grown in numbers each year and now take place around the globe. This year over 30 walks will be taking place in Calgary. You can find out the complete listing of walks on the Calgary Foundation website.

The walks are a way to celebrate the legacy of Jane Jacobs (1916 – 2006), an urban writer and activist who championed new, community-based approaches to planning for over 40 years. Her 1961 treatise, The Death and Life of Great American Cities became perhaps the most influential American text about the inner workings and failings of cities, inspiring generations of urban planners and activists.

The walk in the community of Brentwood will start at the front of the Nose Hill Library at approximately 10:0 a.m. on Saturday May 5^th and will last about 1 ½ hours. The walk is called The Library as Neighbour: Past, Present and Future. Calgary Public Library is celebrating 100 years of service in this city so the walk will feature some stories from the past. Libraries and their wonderful treasurers play an important role in the community. We hope you will join us to share your stories and to visit our newest “Little Free Library” in Brentwood. The walk will end at the library and you will be welcome to join in some refreshments and a time to visit.

Remember when your class would read aloud in school? Chances are you counted the number of people ahead of you and the number of paragraphs, to be read to find out what paragraph would be your turn. While everyone else was reading, you practiced reading and rereading your section. Hopefully nobody had to go to the washroom or all your practice was wasted. When it was your turn, was your throat dry? Perhaps your heart was pounding and your palms were moist with sweat of anxiety.

Educators repeatedly ask children to commit an act – reading a text aloud – that many adults would do almost anything to avoid. Not surprisingly many children feel increased anxiety when asked to read. They don’t want to make any mistakes in front of their peers or with family member that they love.

If you had been attending Story Pals with us on Tuesday evenings since February 14^th, this would not be the picture that you would have found. Children have been relaxed and happily reading aloud to their extremely attentive audience. Their audience may look a little strange for a library, and they certainly create quite a stir when they arrive – four legs and furry?! In Story Pals children between the ages of six and nine, read to highly socialized dogs and their handlers, who are volunteers with the Pet Access League Society, a non-profit organization in Calgary "dedicated to enhancing the life of individuals through pet therapy".

Story Pals provides a relaxed and “dog-friendly” atmosphere, which allows students to practice their reading skills. By sitting down next to a dog and reading, all threats of being judged are put aside. The child relaxes, pats the attentive dog, and focuses on reading. One young boy can often be seen holding his book open with one hand, as he pets his beagle pal with the other hand. Reading skills develop because the child is practicing the skill, while building self-esteem and associating reading with something pleasant.

Improving the child’s reading is a major benefit of Story Pals but other benefits can be seen as well. A library customer was overheard saying that the program “builds excitement about reading”. Many children talk about going home and reading to their own dog, or other pet. There is no better way to improve a skill than to practice it!

Another benefit is the joy the children and really all library visitors experience during the program. An older couple that regularly uses the library was thrilled to see the dogs in the library. They had recently lost their family pet, and told a staff member that “...being around other animals was therapeutic”. We have seen them every Tuesday night since!

Story Pals has been a hit at Nose Hill library. But the dogs will be leaving soon so if you have a chance - come by and see the furry, friendly faces. And hurry - because the program ends on March 20^th and the dogs will be leaving us for now - wagging their little tails behind them!!!!

On Saturday February 25, Nose Hill Library hosted its first ever LEGO contest. There were close to 30 contestants competing in different age categories. The event was a huge success – the library was packed with kids and adults craning to get a look at the entries throughout the afternoon. As one of the parent's commented, it was a great "community building" event, and the kids all had a great time chatting to one another about their building strategies and ideas.

The judges truly had a difficult job in deciding the winner for each age category. Some of the kids reported working with their Lego for up to two months prior to the contest!

The Lego entries were a great display of how skilled and creative the young minds of these kids are. Watch out world – the builders of tomorrow have arrived!

Do you believe in Ghosts?

It’s a question people have pondered throughout history. Some people strongly believe in the “other side,” and others just as strongly do not.

The popularity of local tours like Calgary Ghost Tours demonstrates that there is a part of our population that is fascinated by ghost stories even if they’re not complete believers in the subject. But come on, let’s face it, we all love a good scary story. Remember being curled up in your jammies at a sleepover, or sitting around a fire as someone told you a story that had you shivering and laughing at the same time?

Nose Hill Library hosted Mischief, Mayhem, and Murders of Calgary on February 5, 2012, and were treated to some historical spine-tingling tales by Johanna Lane of Calgary Ghost Tours. During the presentation she proved to be a talented and lively speaker, sharing her unique knowledge of Calgary's haunted stores, homes, and pubs. Guests were also invited to share their own ghostly encounters with the group and ask any questions they have throughout the presentation.

Even skeptics of ghosts and the paranormal, learned a lot of the more interesting history behind some of the buildings they may have frequented in the past, and some they'll never even know existed. However, for those looking to get spooked, Lane has some pretty bone-chilling material to work with as well.

If you missed this wonderful trek through Calgary’s past, you'll be happy to know she will be out touring again come May. Take a tour, if only to learn just a little bit more about our city's often neglected ghostly history.

So are you still on the fence –Are ghosts more than just a flick of lights – Truth or coincidence? Who knows for sure?

Calgary certainly has an interesting, colorful past – I think we can all agree on that.

Reviewers: Tween Book Club

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

4.75 out of 5 stars

Other review sources: Good Reads [4.16 out of 5 stars]

Based on a true story, this book follows a young boy in Sudan in 1985 named Salva, who is in search of his family after violence and was in his village forced him to flee. In parallel, the reader is introduced to Nya, a young girl in Sudan in 2008, who must walk eight hours every day to fetch water for her village.

Some of the comments:

• Best book I ever read. Actually - the only book I ever read. I would recommend this book for every age.
• It was a really good book. I think it displayed the life of a person across the world.
• I really liked the book. I found it very interesting and moving on how some people would have to live.
• I really liked the book and I thought it gave a good lesson how that Salva survived through so much.
• This is the first book I actually loved reading. I recommend other people to read this book. It touched my heart.
• This book was great - I could also turn the book into a movie in my head. But I think the readers might not know that the author of this book is a Korean!

Reviewers: Parent-Child Book Club

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

4.5 out of 5 stars

Other review sources: Good Reads [4.04 out of 5] and Amazon [4.5 out of 5]

A Newberry Medal winner in 1979, this story is a murder mystery which retains its popularity more than 30 years later.The story follows sixteen people who are invited to the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. They have the chance to become millionaires-as long as they play the Westing game right.

Some of the comments:

• I thought the book was a page-turner, very exciting and well written. The characters were well-developed and the plot was clever. I highly recommend this book.
• Ellen Raskin made a very easy to follow storyline that a person could really attach to. She displays an amazing image of haunting clues that you need to concentrate on. In the end, you have no favorite characters - you like them all.
• Its a book with lots of surprises.
• A good, complex mystery book, but the ending is not as good as the other parts. A little unrealistic - too perfect.
• A good novel. It is mystery in the beginning, but got a little confusing and complicated to understand by children.
• I like the book because it has a surprise ending.

The latest read for the Tween Book Club was Happenstance Found, the first book in the Books of Umber series . Happenstance, a young boy, wakes up in a dark cave to unfamiliar sounds and sensations, confused with no memory of who he is. He soon encounters Lord Umber, who is most fascinated by the boy's bright green eyes, and seems very comfortable with the fantastic world that surrounds them. He gives the boy a name, Happenstance, or Hap for short. Umber and his companions take Hap under their wing, and together they discover that the boy has some very interesting and unusual powers. But what are they for? And why did he end up in the world he did? Who is the supernatural assassin that is following them? And why does he want Hap?

This is the first in the Books of Umber series, from P.W. Catanese. Dragon Games and The End of Time round out the series.

Again, the group had many different opinions. Over half of the group did not finish reading the book - some of them ran out of steam, although they said the book was okay. Others found it boring and difficult to understand. The ones who did finish the book loved it - and there was some agreement that the storyline picked up in the second half.

Here are some of their own words:

• Has some boring parts, but kind of funny too.
• A very interesting installment - a very engaging story.
• Very intriguing and funny - I loved how in the end Umber showed Hap a computer. It sort of collaborated Now and the Past.
• I don't know what the book is talking about. It might be interesting after chapter 10, but this kind of beginning will not really hook the reader.
• I liked this book because I could manage to make a movie of it in my head.
• I didn't finish the book because I don't really like this genre of books, and I can't really keep up with the book.
• If you like books where you don't know what's going on half the time, this is for you!
• It was boring because the start was slow. I got confused. I don't like this book. Next time I would prefer Hunger Games or Catching Fire.
• I thought the book was really boring at the beginning but then if you read alot you find it was very, very good!

The average rating from the Tween Book Club: 3.8 [out of 5]

Other review sources:

Good Reads: 4 [out of 5]

Amazon: 5 [out of 5]

The Tween Book Club met last week to discuss When You Reach Me. The book follows Miranda, a twelve-year old girl as she begins finding anonymous notes hidden in her belongings asking her to do unusual things. The author of the notes seems to know everything about Miranda - and even something important about her future. Other characters in the book include Miranda's mom, who is practicing relentlessly for her spot on the gameshow The $20,000 Pyramid, her friends Colin and AnneMarie who work at the sandwich shop with Miranda over lunch hours, and the "laughing man" who lives on the corner of Miranda's street and sleeps with his head underneath the mailbox. The story unfolds as Miranda determines to uncover who is sending the mysterious notes and why.

There was some fairly different opinions on this book. Some found it confusing, some found it amusing. There were quite a few "a-ha" moments right at Book Club, which explains the different reactions to the story. Several of the tweens were confused by the "twist" at the end of the story - while others saw what happened right away.

Overall, the members thought the book was an interesting blend between realistic "coming of age" fiction and fantasy. When You Reach Me won the Newberry Medal in 2010. It also made several notable lists including The New York Times, Publisher's Weekly, and Booklist.

The tweens rated the book: 3.8 [out of 5]

Other review sources:

Good Reads: 4 [out of 5]

Amazon: 4.5 [out of 5]

Welcome to the Nose Hill Library blog!

We are excited to be able to share the latest news from our branch with you....

This past week, Nose Hill library staff had the opportunity to participate in a Calgary Reads Together Event at Cambrian Heights elementary school. Calgary Public Library brought a pile of books for an afternoon of reading with corporate and community volunteers. The volunteers sat on mats on the gym floor with eager grade one students and had tons of fun reading and discussing various books. There was lots of cheering when the kids were informed that we had brought them each their very own library card!

The afternoon ended with a fun reading by CBC's Angela Knight of The Interrupting Chicken written by David Ezra Stein.

It was great to be out in the community, seeing and sharing a passion for books with others. Thanks to our partners, Calgary Reads and Cambrian Heights, at this very successful event! We are looking forward to seeing some of the grade ones in our library soon! Come visit with your new library card!