Shreve Memorial Library encourages young readers with new items and festival

Shreve Memorial Library is the place to dream, discover, do. The library is constantly looking at ways to encourage young readers, spark imagination, and foster curiosity through its collections and programs, and the collections and programs just keep getting better. With new items to check out and amazing events planned, like the upcoming Children’s Book Festival, what is not to love about the library?

Just recently, Shreve Memorial Library added a brand new item to inspire imagination, vocabulary development and an early love of reading for children – introducing the Toniebox. What is a Toniebox? A Toniebox is a screen-free speaker that comes to life when it is paired with a “Tonie,” a programmed figure that plays all kinds of audio, including music, stories, lessons and mindfulness content. Tonieboxes are perfect for children who have not yet learned to read or are just beginning to read as the speaker combines play with storytelling. Each Toniebox features a different set of characters (including popular storybook and cartoon characters) to encourage children to listen, learn and play. While Tonieboxes are designed for early learners, I would not be surprised if I found parents enjoying them just as much as their kids.

In addition to cool new items like the Toniebox to check out, Shreve Memorial Library is encouraging everyone to share their love of reading at the library’s annual Children’s Book Festival, coming up on Saturday, May 4. This year’s festival features Pinkalicious author, Victoria Kann, along with children’s book authors and illustrators Vanessa Brantley-Newton, Jen Calonita, Cara Mentzel, and Shreve Memorial Library’s own, Kirk Reedstrom, as well as more than 20 local authors and illustrators. The Children’s Book Festival is always a fun time, featuring lots of free activities, costumed characters, and opportunities to interact with the authors. The festival takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at LSUS, and admission is free.

If you cannot make it to the festival, no worries. Shreve Memorial Library has many, more fun activities planned throughout the summer to encourage children of all ages to read. Registration is now open for the library’s annual Summer Reading Program. This year’s theme is “Adventures Begins at Your Library,” and I could not agree more. You never know what you might dream, discover, do at the library. Be sure to check out the Shreve Memorial Library website for the latest updates and program information. Hope to see you soon at the library!

What’s New at the Library

The Dead Letter Delivery by C. J. Archer (fiction)

The discovery of long-lost mail delivers a marriage proposal, a missing person, and a magical mystery. A road trip with Gabe and her friends leads Sylvia to discover more about her mother’s veiled past yet throws up several questions, too. The stack of unopened letters addressed to her family will hopefully provide answers. As she delves into the contents, a startling revelation emerges: the letters allude to a clandestine union between two magician families, hinting at the elusive identity of Sylvia’s father. Full of hope, she embarks on a quest to find the author of the letters, only to discover an artless youth who vanished decades ago, a dead man with the wrong name, and a hospital for former soldiers that connects them. The further Sylvia and Gabe delve into these mysteries, the more lies they expose, including long-buried secrets that certain individuals will stop at nothing to protect. When danger strikes, Sylvia wonders if finding answers is worth the risk.

A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn (fiction)

Lord Rosemorran has purchased a wax figure of a beautiful reclining woman and asks Stoker to incorporate a clockwork mechanism to give the Rosemorran Collection its own Sleeping Beauty in the style of Madame Toussaud’s. But when Stoker goes to cut the mannequin open to insert the mechanism, he makes a gruesome discovery: this is no wax figure. The mannequin is the beautifully preserved body of a young woman who was once very much alive. But who would do such a dreadful thing, and why? Sleuthing out the answer to this question sets Veronica and Stoker on their wildest adventure yet. From the underground laboratories of scientists experimenting with electricity to resurrect the dead in the vein of Frankenstein to the traveling show where Stoker once toured as an attraction, the gaslit atmosphere of London in October is the perfect setting for this investigation into the unknown. Through it all, the intrepid pair is always one step behind the latest villain – a man who has killed once and will stop at nothing to recover the body of the woman he loved. Will they unmask him in time to save his next victim? Or will they become the latest figures to be immortalized in his collection of horrors?

Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts by Crystal Wilkinson (non-fiction)

Years ago, when O. Henry Prize-winning writer Crystal Wilkinson was baking a jam cake, she felt her late grandmother’s presence. She soon realized that she was not the only cook in her kitchen; there were her ancestors, too, stirring, measuring, and braising alongside her. These are her kitchen ghosts, five generations of Black women who settled in Appalachia and made a life, a legacy, and a cuisine. An expert cook, Wilkinson shares nearly forty family recipes rooted deep in the past, full of flavor – delicious favorites including Corn Pudding, Chicken and Dumplings, Granny Christine’s Jam Cake, and Praisesong Biscuits, brought to vivid life through stunning photography. Together, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts honors the mothers who came before, the land that provided for generations of her family, and the untold heritage of Black Appalachia. As the keeper of her family’s stories and treasured dishes, Wilkinson shares her inheritance in Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts. She found their stories in her apron pockets, floating inside the stream of hot mustard greens and tucked into the sweet scent of clove and cinnamon in her kitchen. Part memoir, part cookbook, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts weaves those stories together with recipes, family photos, and a lyrical imagination to present a culinary portrait of a family that has lived and worked the earth of the mountains for over a century.

About Shreve Memorial Library

Shreve Memorial Library transforms Caddo Parish lives with resources, services and support to create a better world by focusing on developing young readers, sparking imaginations, encouraging curiosity, fostering connection, and providing comfortable places. Shreve Memorial Library’s 21-branch system is maintained by a parish-wide property tax millage to support the informational, educational and recreational needs of its constituents. For more information, visit www.shreve-lib.org, and like, follow and subscribe on social media channels including Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Pinterest and YouTube. Dream, discover, do – Shreve Memorial Library and you!

This article originally appeared on Monroe News-Star: Shreve Memorial Library encourages young readers with new items and festival