Borrow our museum passes for FREE or discounted admission!

Youth Services has a growing collection of museum passes for you to borrow-- loan time is one week, and our passes get you either free or discounted admission to many popular places!

• FREE family admission and parking at ALL Connecticut State Parks and Forests with our State Parks and Forests Day Pass! More than 800 miles of hiking trails, 2,000 miles of rivers and streams, 1,300 campsites in 14 parks, 9 historic sites, and 237 lakes and ponds-- all without leaving Connecticut! View a list of all of CT's State Parks
• FREE admission for a family of four to Earthplace, The Nature Discovery Center, in Westport. Offers trails, an animal hall, and a natural history museum
• FREE family admission to the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, NY. The museums' collection comprises more than 7,000 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculptures, installations, and videos, and embraces 20th-century American and European art, traditional and contemporary African art.
• FREE admission for 2 adults and 2 children to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford. The Wadsworth Atheneum's permanent collection features a wealth of treasures sure to keep you coming back. The Wadsworth is also America's oldest public art museum!
• DISCOUNTED admission to the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk. Watch sharks, jellies, sea turtles, and more than 1,000 other marine animals-- and enjoy a film in the IMAX movie theater. Our pass entitles you to $2 off a combination Aquarium/IMAX ticket for up to 6 people.
• DISCOUNTED admission to the Mystic Aquarium and Center for Marine Exploration in Mystic. Reach in and touch a ray, go beak-to-nose with a penguin and feel the splash of a beluga whale. Watch the California sea lions during a live show, and meet a variety of animals, from African penguins and Steller sea lions to sharks and blue-tongued skinks. Dig into the new interactive exhibit Prehistoric Creatures of the Sea, where kids can uncover the fossils of sea creatures from 600 million years ago! Our pass entitles you to $4 off adult and $3 off child admission, good for up to 2 adults and 2 children.

You may borrow our museum passes from the Youth Services Desk, and also browse more information about any of these locations.

More passes coming soon--- watch our blog for more updates!

Memorial Day Closing Reminder

Don't forget. . .

The libraries will be closed for Memorial Day Weekend: Saturday, May 23rd, Sunday, May 24th, and Monday, May 25th, 2009.

Have a great weekend!

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, and More Great Reads

HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET, BY JAMIE FORD

[Fiction] Alternating between the 1940’s and the 1980’s, Henry Lee goes to the Panama Hotel and sees a crowd gathering at the uncovering of possessions that were left behind when the Japanese were sent to the evacuation camps. He had forged a friendship with a young Japanese girl, Keiko, when he was the only Chinese boy at school. Their initial bond was one of being excluded from the other students. He sees a parasol that he is sure belonged to Keiko and this serves as the gateway to all that happened forty years prior. A love story and a family story of different times and differing cultures, this is truly a bittersweet tale.

For more great books, take a look at the new Great Reads from the Reference Librarians list for May 2009.

2009 Greenwich Music Festival

The 2009 Greenwich Music Festival will run from June 9th to 14th. This year's festival features music written by prisoners in the Terezin concentration camp during the Second World War. Composers Viktor Ullmann, Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas and Hans Krasa, whose works will be performed throughout the week, were all active members of the vibrant Terezin musical community. All four were sent to Auschwitz on October 16, 1944; they died in the camp. They left, though, a rich legacy of opera, chamber music, choral music and much more. Join us for an amazing week of performances featuring rising young artists from around the world.

More information at: http://www.greenwichmusicfestival.org/

Y2C2's Favorite Book of 2008-2009 Is...

Perrot's Young Young Critics' Club (Y2C2) has declared that its favorite book of 2008/2009 is....

I, LORELEI

by Yeardley Smith

When her favorite cat, Mud, dies, Lorelei starts a journal to him, chronicling her daily life as a sixth grader so that he can continue to follow her rise to fame and fortune as a beloved actress, celebrated chef, and/or bestselling author. She figures it's also a good way to make sure her future biographers don't get anything wrong about her. But when her parents' marriage starts to unravel, Lorelei's lighthearted daily log becomes a poignant and defiantly humorous account of a family in distress, as Lorelei grapples with the ground shifting under her feet.

See the rest of Y2C2's favorites here (click on the link on the Favorites Books of 2008-2009 link on the left), and learn more about the club while you're at it!

Golden Y Award Winners Spring 2009

CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of the Semi-Annual Y2C2 Jeopardy Tournament! They are the current holders of the coveted Wonderful Golden "Y" Award! (Yes, it looks like a lobster, but trust us, it’s also a wonderful golden ‘Y’-- stop by the Youth Services Department and see for yourself!).

The winning team: Olivia, Mary Kate, Charlotte, JC -- and Cole in front

2009 Ezra Jack Keats Award Winners

The Ezra Jack Keats Award is dedicated to fostering the talent of the new generations of children, artists, and authors who have succeeded Ezra Jack Keats. Keats was the distinguished author-illustrator of the classic Caldecott Award-winning The Snowy Day. The EJK award recognizes and encourages developing, talented authors and illustrators of children's books.

The 2009 Award Winners are....

New Writer Award Winner
Garmann's Summer
by Stian Hole
As the summer ends, six-year-old Garmann's three ancient aunts visit and they all talk about the things that scare them.

New Illustrator Award Winner
Bird
illustrated by Shadra Strickland
Bird, an artistic young boy, expresses himself through drawing as he struggles to understand his older brother's drug addiction and death, while a family friend, Uncle Son, provides guidance and understanding.

Genre Fiction Award Winners

The American Library Association's annual Genre Fiction awards were announced in the April 15th edition of Library Journal. Perrot Library is pleased to have a staff member, Mirja
Johanson, on this Reading List Council.

This year’s winners are:

Adrenaline:
Blue Heaven, by C.J. Box
A twelve-year-old girl and her younger brother go on the run in the woods of North Idaho, pursued by four men they have just watched commit murder. . . Also an Edgar Award winner.


Fantasy:
The Veil of Gold, by Kim Wilkins
When the statue of a golden bear is found walled up in a dilapidated St. Petersburg bathhouse owned by her family, Rosa Kovalenka knows in her heart that this is no trick of fate. Her uncle thinks of treasure, but Rosa fears the bear is much more.


Historical:
The Steel Wave: A Novel of World War II, by Jeff Shaara (historical)
A fictional account of D-Day and the Allied invasion of Europe chronicles the events of the World War II campaign and the personalities who took part, from the ordinary soldiers on the land and in the air, to such leaders as Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, and Omar Bradley.


Horror:
Sharp Teeth, by Toby Barlow
An ancient race of lycanthropes has survived to the present day, and its numbers are growing as the initiated convince L.A.'s down and out to join their pack. Paying no heed to moons, full or otherwise, they change from human to canine at will-- and they're bent on domination at any cost.


Mystery:
Garden of Evil: A Nic Costa Mystery, by David Hewson
In a deserted artist's studio in the heart of Rome, detectives stumble upon a scene of shocking brutality: two bodies, freshly killed. Looming over them is a painting that bears all the hallmarks of a Caravaggio: a brilliantly colored canvas depicting a violent tableau of beauty and depravity.


Romance:
Spymaster’s Lady, by Joanna Bourne (romance)
She's braved battlefields. She's stolen dispatches from under the noses of heads of state. She's played the worldly courtesan, the naive virgin, the refined British lady, even a Gypsy boy. But Annique Villiers, the elusive spy known as the Fox Cub, has finally met the one man she can't outwit.


Science Fiction:
Hunter’s Run, by George R.R. Martin
Police, fugitive aliens, and a human murderer weave a web of shifting alliances as Ramón, a luckless prospector, enters the greatest manhunt the alien world of São Paulo has ever known. If he is to survive, Ramón must overcome inscrutable aliens and deadly predators, but his greatest enemy is himself.


Women's Fiction:
Every Last Cuckoo, by Kate Maloy
At age seventy-five, Sarah thought that her life was settled and assured: she and Charles would live out their days in the quiet comfort of their rural Vermont home. But now, with Charles gone, Sarah is unable to find peace. That is, until her home unforeseeably becomes an unruly refuge for wayward souls.

Historic Landscape Reports and Preliminary Master Plan for Greenwich's Parks

Greenwich Department of Parks & Recreation

Announces the Presentation of

Historic Landscape Reports
and
Preliminary Master Plan
for Greenwich’s Formal Parks:
Bruce Park
Binney Park
Byram Park
Montgomery Pinetum Park

Presented By
Martha Lyon, Landscape Architect, ASLA
Specializing in the preservation of Cultural and Historic Landscapes

Wednesday May 13th, 2009
7:00 pm in the Town Hall Meeting Room
101 Field Point Road
Greenwich, CT

Open to all Greenwich residents


The formal parks of Greenwich require professional planning that is considerate of the park's historic "reason for being" and their original design and intent. The report and management plan recommendations will be responsive to the ideals and philosophy of the Department of Parks & Recreation goals and will also be responsive to the expectations and needs of the Park's constituency.

Martha Lyon, a licensed landscape architect specializing in the planning, preservation and design of historic landscapes, has prepared the Historic Cultural Landscape Reports for Greenwich's four major "formal parks." This final product will be used to guide the future maintenance, restoration, and/or rehabilitation of these parks being mindful of their original intent while striving to provide up to date facilities for the use and enjoyment of the parks.

Free Blood Pressure Screenings and Info on May 27th

Did you know that up to 80% of strokes are preventable, yet it is expected that nearly 795,000 people in the United States will have a stroke this year? The majority of those who survive a stroke will need some form of rehabilitation in their recovery process. This May is National Stroke Awareness Month, a time to raise public awareness about important stroke facts to reduce the incidence and impact of stroke.

A nurse from Greenwich Community Health will be available in Perrot's Rand Room on Wednesday, May 27th, between 10 A.M. and 2 P.M., to provide educational information about strokes, and to conduct free blood pressure screenings.

Read more about stroke prevention at the National Stroke Association website.

Shakespeare Colloquy: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Anne Gilhuly will give a talk on William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Monday evening, June 1, 2009, at 7:30 p.m. in the Library. Actors Elizabeth Atkeson and Dick Leonard will read scenes from the play.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world. The play is a romantic comedy about the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors, and their interactions with the Duke and Duchess of Athens, and with the fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest.

Anne Gilhuly, a Classics teacher at Greenwich Continuing Education, leads the continuing series of Shakespeare talks at Perrot, which have included Henry V, Othello, The Tempest, As You Like It, Richard II, Richard III, Twelfth Night, and Edward III, among others. This is the eleventh year that Perrot has sponsored these programs about Shakespeare's plays.

Note also that Shakespeare on the Sound will be performing the play in Roger Sherman Baldwin Park, from July 4th-12th, 2009 (except Monday the 6th), at 7:30 p.m. A representative from the company will be at the June 1st event to tell the audience about the performances.

We invite you to attend this free event, made possible by contributions from the members of the Perrot Memorial Library. We appreciate their support. Further information about this and other programs is available by calling 637-3870.

Our Picks: Audio Favorites

Check out our brand-new Youth Services' Our Picks! list for May 2009. This month's list features the Youth Services Staff's favorite listenables-- from books on CD to book/CD kits to music CDs-- they're all worth a listen!

Good Publicity

Perrot's blog was the receipient of a 2009 Connecticut Library Association Publicity Award for Best Blog. Thanks to all of our staff contributors and our readers!

Also, Perrot's new Twitter feed was featured in an April 29th Greenwich Time article about local Twitter users: "Greenwich Catches Twitter Bug."