July-August 2002 RETURN TO HOME PAGE FEEDBACK

This month's new book list, selected and described by librarians Roberta Greifer, Joseph Liebman, Donna Trifillo, and Carol Small, features Cara Black's hot new murder mystery, Lawrence Ferlinghetti's San Francisco Poems, and a treatise on the parenting skills of dinosaurs. To find out if a book is available, call 695-5095 or visit the Noe Valley­ Sally Brunn Library at 451 Jersey Street near Castro. Besides books, the branch offers videos, DVDs, magazines, CDs, and the archives and index to the Noe Valley Voice. It also has a women's literature section and a collection of adult books in Spanish, plus subscriptions to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Barron's. Hours are Tuesdays, 10 to 9; Wednesdays, 1 to 9; Thursdays, 10 to 6; Fridays, 1 to 6; and Saturdays, 10 to 6.

Adult Fiction

- In Murder in the Sentier, the latest of Noe Valley author Cara Black's mysteries set in Paris, detective Aimée Leduc, who has always wanted to know the truth about her missing mother, goes to the city's garment district to meet a woman who claims to have known her mother in prison.

- Kate Grenville's novel The Idea of Perfection pits a native arts and crafts preservationist against a civil engineer sent to demolish a decrepit but picturesque bridge in a small Australian town.

- In Unless, Carol Shields' protagonist is forced to reevaluate her own life when her daughter becomes a Toronto street person who wears a sign around her neck that says "Goodness."

Adult Nonfiction

- Stephen Jay Gould's collection of 31 essays, I Have Landed--The End of a Beginning in Natural History, includes an analysis of Vladimir Nabokov's fascination with butterflies and a remembrance of his own maternal grandfather.

- In The Demon and the Angel: Searching for the Source of Artistic Inspiration, Edward Hirsch examines what Federico Garcia Lorca called the duende, a mysterious force that stirs artistic passions and seems to arrive at extreme moments in our lives.

- Renowned poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti describes the look and feel of his adopted city from the first time he saw it (1950), in his collection San Francisco Poems. He also writes a "Challenge to Young Poets": Think long thoughts in short sentences. Go to sea, or work near water. Invent a new language anyone can understand.

Annotations by Joseph Liebman

Librarian, Noe Valley Branch

Children's Fiction

- Vivid images from a country farm are accompanied by lyrical poems that invite children to guess which word matches the letter on each page of Quilt Alphabet by Lesa Cline-Ransome. Ages 3 to 6.

- In Abiyoyo Returns by Pete Seeger and Paul DuBois Richards, a young girl brings back the ferocious monster her father drove away in Seeger's earlier book, Abiyoyo. But this time, perhaps having a monster in town might not be such a bad idea. Ages 3 to 8.

- Jenny helps her grandma prepare for her baby brother's Chinese "first-moon" (one-month) birthday party, even though at first she doesn't think he's worth all the fuss, in Lenore Look's picture story Henry's First-Moon Birthday. Ages 4 to 7.

- Starting with deportation by la migra and ending with enrolling in college, Breaking Through is an autobiographical memoir in which Francisco Jiménez describes his high school years in California. Ages 10 and up.

- A teenager in 19th-century Philadelphia learns her lessons well at Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies' Academy, but finds she must develop a whole new set of skills to live in the wilderness, in Boston Jane by Jennifer L. Holm. Ages 10 and up.

Children's Nonfiction

- A teacher magically transports her class back in time in Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Ancient Egypt, a large-format spinoff to the Magic Schoolbus series. Ages 5 to 8.

- Muslim Child: Understanding Islam Through Stories and Poems, by Rukhsana Khan, includes stories from Muslim communities around the world. Ages 8 to 12.

- With new fossilized evidence, scientists are discovering that dinosaurs may have been good parents; Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld looks at the relationships of Dinosaur Parents, Dinosaur Young. Ages 9 to 12.

Annotations by Carol Small and Donna Trifillo
Children's Librarians, Noe Valley Branch

Jay the Juggler

- Jay the Juggler (alias Jay Gluckman) performs juggling, magic, and comedy for all ages, at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 20.

Summer Movies

- Preschoolers 3 to 5 are invited to watch films, including Harold and the Purple Crayon, The Lion and the Mouse, and Mole and the Flying Carpet, at 10 and 11 a.m. on Tuesday, July 9; other, equally amusing films will be shown on Thursday, Aug. 22.

Preschool Story Time

- Children ages 3 to 5 can hear stories read aloud at the library's preschool story time, at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays, July 2, 16, 23, and 30, and Aug. 6, 20, and 27.

July and August Lapsits

- The family lapsits offer stories, songs, and fingerplays for infants and toddlers at 10:30 a.m. on Saturdays, July 6, 13, and 20, and Aug. 24.

Unless otherwise noted, events are at the Noe Valley ­ Sally Brunn Library, 451 Jersey St. * 695-5095