Blog posts by Brian

Poem in Your Pocket: 7 Poems for National Poetry Month

Brian

The Academy of American Poets launched National Poetry Month in April 1996. The goal of National Poetry Month is to remind all that in a world awash in text, poetry matters. Every April since, poetry readers and nonreaders alike can’t help but notice poetry cropping up amongst the blooms of spring—poems suddenly adorning sandwich boards and subway cars, Instagram feeds, drivetime radio and especially in local library displays. This year, Off the Shelf invited four lovers of poetry to contribute a post for a Poem in Your Pocket series to gift our readers a new poem for every day of the week.…

Celebrate Immigrant Heritage Week!

Brian; Robert

In partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, Brooklyn Public Library is celebrating Immigrant Heritage Week from April 13 to 19. The week pays homage to the legacy of April 17, 1907, the day in New York City history the largest number of immigrants (11,000!) entered the U.S. through Ellis Island. To celebrate, we’ve gathered a list of e-books centered around the immigrant experience in New York, with a special focus on Brooklyn. Panic in a Suitcase by Yelena Akhtiorskaya  A dazzling novel about a Russian immigrant family living in the Brighton Beach neighborhood…

Library Lab: Spinning Noisemakers

Brian

These spinning noisemakers are easy to make and will teach young patrons about how different sorts of vibrations can produce different sounds.
The kids had a blast making and playing with these during one of my recent Library Lab sessions. It was really cool to see the variations in sound their noisemakers could produce as they experimented with and fine tuned their designs. Some of their noisemakers were so loud!  Just make sure you’ve got plenty of space for the kids to whip their creations around, otherwise it can get a little chaotic. Check out the…