Straight But Not Narrow.

straight ally: n.  a heterosexual person who supports the civil rights, gender equality, and social movements of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) identified people.

Straight But Not Narrow is a campaign aimed at empowering straight allies (particularly straight guys) to be stronger advocates for their friends, family, and community members who are LGBTQ. So it’s kinda like It Gets Better for awesome affirming straight folks.

Josh Hutcherson AKA Peeta Mellark of Hunger Games fame recently recorded his Straight But Not Narrow video.

After checking out SBNN on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook it’s time to take action.

-Be a straight ally by improving your attitude and actions towards the LGBT people in your life! PLFAG has a handy guide that might answer any questions you might have about being a straight ally.

-At CLP Main – Teen there is now a Gay Straight Alliance that meets bi-monthly. The next meeting is Wednesday, June 6th from 5:00-6:00 PM. There might be one at your school too. If not… START ONE!

-Check out Pittsburgh Pride – June 1st to 10th! The Pride March is Sunday, June 10th at Noon and is immediately followed by the completely free Pridefest on Liberty Ave in Downtown Pittsburgh. My favorite thing about Pridefest are the short films at the Harris Theatre!

-Lastly, don’t overthink it. Being an ally can be as simple as watching your language. Like Wanda Sykes says, “Think Before You Speak.”

-Michael (CLP Hazelwood)

Part of Your World: Mermaids in YA Fiction

You know what else is current?  Mermaids in YA fiction.

Here are just a few in our collection here at Main-Teen.

      

And here are a few forthcoming novels about Mermaids that we’ll be getting soon.  Get excited!

    

I will admit, to a real curiosity about how they stack up compared to your average vampire supernatural romance, or your werewolf soap, or your dragon love triangle.  And I think a good mermaid book would make for a fun, summertime read.

I was always a fan of Disney’s The Little Mermaid and I certainly do enjoy a good fantasy story, plus romance, but I haven’t yet found the time to pick up one of these books.

Does anybody have a favorite to recommend?

Morgan, Main-Teen

Remembering Memorial Day

Like most Americans I’m counting the hours until the beginning of a glorious three day weekend.  I’ve got plenty of grilling, sun and relaxation planned but there’s more to the holiday than early summer sun burns and  free time.  So, for a reminder of what the holiday is really about, keep these facts in mind as you enjoy your weekend.

1.  Memorial day began during the Civil War as a way for those at home to honor the many soldiers who had given their life for either the North or the South.  Many communities claim the first Memorial day celebration as their own but it probably began more or less simultaneously in many areas of the country.

2.  Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, was popularized by General John Logan the leader of a veterans organization after the Civil War. Decoration day was meant to honor soldiers on both sides of the Civil War but by the time WWI was in full swing, Decoration Day was extended to include those who died in any U.S. war.

3.  By now the soldiers of the 3rd Infantry will have begun decorating each grave in Arlington National Cemetery, most will have a small flag placed in front of the tombstone. But the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier will receive a wreath during the Memorial Day ceremony. Many communities throughout the country will hold parades and ceremonies to honor local soldiers.

Memorial day has come to mean many things, it’s a chance to get together and enjoy the return of warm weather with family and friends.  But to remember the original reason we celebrate Memorial Day join people all around the country in a moment of silence at 3:00 PM local time to honor the men and women who have given their lives in service to our county.

-Brooke CLP

Are you Affected by Dyscalculia?

For me, math is hard.  That’s part of the reason why I’m a librarian (very little math on the job).  It’s not a subject I’ve ever enjoyed, and my mind shuts down when it hears “what percentage of….?”.  However, after reading this article about dyscalculia, as much as I’d like to blame my math deficiencies on a math disorder, I don’t think I can.

Dyscalculia describes severe learning disabilities in math, affecting up to 7 percent of all students.  This disorder, which has often been overlooked in public schools, has been drawing more attention lately, as experts become more concerned about our country’s international ranking in math (which is getting worse).  Dyscalculia functions similarly to dyslexia, except that dyscalculia makes it difficult for people to understand cardinal numbers, math symbols, and basic arithmetic.  Dyscalculia is also harder to detect.

So, if you are one of us who struggles with math but does not suffer from dyscalculia, check out these math-related books.  These books might help you get through that algebra class… and you’ll find a few novels in there about math, for good measure.

Math doesn’t suck : how to survive middle school math without losing your mind or breaking a nail by Danica McKellar

The title says it all—how to survive middle school math without losing your mind or breaking a nail.

The Math Dude’s Quick and Dirty Guide to Algebra by Jason Marshall

Quick and dirty tips on how to excel at algebra.

The Humongous Book of Algebra Problems: Translated for People who Don’t Speak Math!! by W. Michael Kelley

According to the cover, this book includes “1,000 algebra problems with comprehensive solutions for all the major topics of Algebra I and II”.

The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Annoyed with his math teacher who assigns word problems and won’t let him use a calculator, twelve-year-old Robert finds help from the number devil in his dreams.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Having been recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, recent high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin sets off on a road trip with his best friend to try to find some new direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to explain his relationships.

Teens 4 Change: Making a Difference in Pittsburgh

Last Tuesday, I was happy to attend a celebration held right in my library for a group of teens who have been working on quite the extracurricular activity for the past 7 months.  The 10 teens make up the committee of Teens 4 Change.  Teens 4 Change is a program put on by the Three Rivers Community Foundation. It gives the participants $7,000 to award to youth-led projects or projects aimed specifically for youth, through a grant process. Their motto is “Change, not Charity”. According to the TRCF, this program means to “increase youth participation in philanthropy… support youth involvement in community change, and promote youth service and giving.” (from their Spring 2012 newsletter).

At the presentation, the teens (Tahmina, Teje, Lynae, Mary, Sam, Lexy, Jordan, Oliver, Maddigan, and Molly) took turns explaining the selection criteria for their grants and their decision-making process. The projects they were looking for had to be

- youth-led, promoting youth activism

-somehow addressing divisions in society based on race, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, class, religion, disability, or ancestry

- from grassroots organizations with budgets under $200,000 and acted as nonprofits

-focused on cutting-edge issues

-coming from workplaces that were ADA accessible

You can see that T4C had a lot to consider when they were making their decisions!

Starting in the fall, Teens 4 Change met every other week at CLP-East Liberty to learn about grantmaking, philanthropy, and social justice. Their requests for proposals had a deadline in March, and in May they had decided to award their money to 5 local organizations:

- Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Pittsburgh

for CampOUT, an alternative summer camp for children of alternative families ages 6-14

-Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, Pittsburgh Chapter

for the Peer Advocates for Safe Schools (PASS) program, a 10 hour youth leadership and empowerment training program for high schoolers.

-M-Powerment

for the Clothesline Project, to bring awareness of domestic violence at high schools (originating at Shaler High School)

-Prime Stage Theatre

for funds to tour their play “Everything is Fine” to schools and community organizations with limited budgets. The play was written, designed, produced, and presented by PST’s Teen Board.

-Tree Pittsburgh

for a project in Homewood that taught community teenagers to become Tree Tenders

Do you think that Teens 4 Change sounds like a cool program?  It will be happening again next year. Or consider becoming part of the Three Rivers Community Foundation’s Youth Ambassador program, which runs over the summer.  The deadline to apply is June 1st. More information is found under the link.

Want to learn more about grants, advocacy and philanthropy?  The library has a special section at the Oakland location called the Foundation Center. It’s set up to help grant-seekers find funders to match their needs, and to learn about writing grants.  Want to become a Teen Advocate for the library?  You can do that, too! Ask the teen services person at your location how.

Or check out these books about youth activism:

Citizen you : doing your part to change the world / Jonathan M. Tisch with Karl Weber ; foreword by Cory A. Booker.

How to be an everyday philanthropist: 330 ways to make a difference in your home, community, and world–at no cost / by Nicole Bouchard Boles

Yes you can!: your guide to becoming an activist / by Jane Drake & Ann Love

 

Do Something!: A Handbook for young activists / by Nancy Lublin

 

- Tessa, CLP-East Liberty

I’ve Come to Wish You a Happy Birthday, Morrissey!

Photograph: Jake Walters

My apologies for the title, I couldn’t resist.  Moz turns 53 years young today!

Never heard of Morrissey?  I’d put money on some of your favorite bands/artists listing him, and his former band The Smiths, among their influences.  For a solid three decades Morrissey has provided an intelligent, dark humored soundtrack to unrequited love, regret, loneliness, and the confusion of “growing up” for all those perpetually sixteen, clumsy, and shy (yours truly included).

The man, himself, was born Steven Patrick Morrissey in Manchester, England in 1959 (FUN FACT #1:  When he was a teen, Morrissey’s mom worked in his local public library!).  As the legend goes, sometime in 1982, a teenage guitarist named Johnny Marr (Modest Mouse, The Cribs) knocked on Morrissey’s door (pretty much out of the blue) and insisted that they start writing songs together.  Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce soon joined on bass and drums, and The Smiths were born.  Over the next five years the band would release four albums, countless singles, and a handful of compilations (all of which are incredible).  The group split up in 1987.  Today, The Smiths are generally regarded as one of the greatest bands of all time.

Photograph: Stephen Wright

After the group’s demise, Morrissey became a successful solo artist.  To date, he’s released nine studio albums and has toured the world over (FUN FACT #2: He played Pittsburgh in 2009.  I was there.  It was nuts.)  Aside from music, Morrissey is an adamant supporter of animal rights and vegetarianism.




There’s more to life than books, you know – but not much more… So check out these books about Morrissey and The Smiths!

               

Jon : CLP Carrick

Call Me Maybe Covers Going Crazy

I am not a big fan of cute cat or adorable puppy videos, but I am a sucker for group dance videos.  The biggest craze lately is making Call Me Maybe videos, especially on vans and buses.  Sport teams seem to be the main group making these videos.  The Harvard Men’s Baseball Team and the SMU Women’s Rowing Team each made very popular videos and they were invited to appear on the Today Show last week.

Call Me Maybe is a song by Carly Rae Jepsen, a young singer from Canada.  After Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez tweeted about the song, it just blew up!  Read an interview with Carly Rae Jepsen in College Gloss.

Well, back to the Call Me Maybe videos.  There are tons of them on You Tube.  Here are a few of my favorities:

 

Now, I just have to get the song out of my head!

~Marian

CLP–Mt. Washington

Book Nostalgia: Where the Wild Things Are

nos·tal·gia

noun

1. a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one’s life, to one’s home or homeland, or to one’s family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time: a nostalgia for his childhood.

“But the wild things cried, “Oh please don’t go—

We’ll eat you up—we love you so!”

-Where the Wild Things Are

Do you remember Where the Wild Things Are? Maybe a teacher or librarian shared it with your class back in first grade, or maybe you had a copy at your house and read it all the time. Remember Max, the wild little guy who dresses up in a wolf costume & causes mayhem around the house? He gets sent to bed without supper and sails away to a magical place where the wild things are. The wild things are scary, but they love Max and they make him their king, until he decides to return home. Generations of children have grown up loving this story since it first appeared in the 1960’s. Last week, Maurice Sendak, who wrote and illustrated the book, died at the age of 83.

Books from childhood can be powerful things. Nothing influences us as deeply as the stories we hear when we are small. Maybe you remember dozens of picture books that you loved as a child, and thinking about them now can transport you back to childhood. Maybe you have a perfectly clear memory of a certain illustration from a certain page of a certain book. Where the Wild Things Are is a particularly powerful story, and it stirs strong feelings of nostalgia for countless people around the world who were once little wild things themselves.

At the time Maurice Sendak began creating books, most entertainment for children was sunny and happy and simple. People thought children needed books that were safe and comforting.  Maurice Sendak never agreed. His books were often criticized for being too scary or too dark. But Sendak believed that children deserved stories that reflected the real emotions and realities they lived with, which were sometimes very dark and scary. This is what he said in his acceptance speech when the book won the Caldecott medal in 1964:

“Certainly we want to protect our children from new and painful experiences that are beyond their emotional comprehension and that intensify anxiety; and to a point we can prevent premature exposure to such experiences.

That is obvious. But what is just as obvious – and what is too often overlooked – is the fact that from their earliest years children live on familiar terms with disrupting emotions, that fear and anxiety are an intrinsic part of their everyday lives, that they continually cope with frustration as best they can. And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things.”

When was the last time you picked up a book from your childhood? One of the awesomely magical things about the library is that it’s kind of like a time machine—you can wander into the Children’s Section and explore the past by revisiting old favorites. If you grew up with books, many of them will fill you with nostalgia and take you back to a long-ago time in your life. Sometimes books help us measure ourselves. When we reread them, they show us how much we have grown and changed. And sometimes books just remind us who we are and who we have been.

In honor of Maurice Sendak, grab a copy of Where the Wild Things Are and see if you remember it. You might also want to check out the 2009 movie version of the story, or one of Maurice Sendak’s other awesome books. Or maybe you’d like to walk into the library time machine and track down some other story that you loved when you were little so you can remember what it felt like to be so small and wild.

Interview with Stephen, Teen Advocate

Stephen is a freshman at Pittsburgh Sci-Tech. He has volunteered at the South Side and Main locations since 2009 and has been recently active in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s advocacy efforts.

What do you love most about the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh?
Can it be more than one thing? It’s history, it’s branches, it’s staff, and it’s users. I haven’t been to any other major city’s library systems, but I feel that ours has a very unique history, and that it’s one that people appreciate. It seems special to me because I’ve been going to the library since I was a kid, and now I’ve moved onto the Teen department. I feel like I’ve grown up in the library, and that seems special. The staff is just amazing–really supportive. And every time I come in, I hear something different. During our advocacy day, I talked to families and PhD candidates. Just seeing and talking to the wide range of people who use the library is really astounding.

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the library in the year 2012?
That’s tough, because I’m a person who looks at the glass half full, but I would have to say it would have to be funding–especially state funding–because the current governor has cut lots of funding to institutions like the library.

What do you think can be done to overcome that challenge?
I think users can step up and contribute what they can, either time or money. Also, we can advocate and raise awareness in our own neighborhoods about the library and its situation.

What does the library of the future look like to you?
When I think about the kind of library I want to use in the future, I think about still having brick and mortar libraries that people can walk into and have the same service that they do today, but also be able to have access to the same kind of services–and service–online, through the library.

What would you tell someone who doesn’t currently use the library to get them interested in what the library system can do for them and their community?
I would tell them about the variety of programs that the library has to offer, and also the availability of great books, DVDs, and CDs that you can get at any of the branches or at Main. It also has a lot of services that you can’t find anywhere else, all in one place, without having to go anywhere else.

In what ways can people get involved with the library in the future?
People can go up to any librarian, whether at a branch or Main, and ask them how they can get involved with what they’re interested in, whether knowledge-wise, time-wise, or money-wise. People can volunteer, teens can join teen advisory councils (a great way to know what’s going to be happening in the libraries), adults can join their local “Friends” groups, and everyone can get involved in the library’s strategic planning process at different community workshops throughout the city.

~Joseph
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Main

Revenge…sweet or sour?

Like Corey, I just saw The Avengers, and it’s got me thinking about what it means to avenge or revenge. Not just the literal differences; on a more basic level, revenge seems to be the more complicated of the two. More than avenging past discretion or administering justice, revenge can turn even “good guys” into “bad guys.” It often leads to a lot of murky gray area as far as good and evil are concerned.

Maybe that’s why I’m so intrigued.

Unfortunately (wait, no…fortunately!), we can’t all turn into the Hulk and smash whatever makes us mad, but we sure as heck can read about people who do–metaphorically or otherwise. Here are a few books I’m excited to read for a little vicarious revengeance.

What do you think…is revenge sweet or sour?

Love, Inc. by Yvonne Collins
Zahra’s getting a lot out of group therapy, although not quite what she expected. After her parents separated, Zahra was forced into going — and tangentially, into becoming friends with Kali and Syd, whose parents are splitting, too. The three girls share more than that. They soon realize that they’re all dating the same charming, but cheating guy. They serve up such successful payback that when they start a business to help other girls get back at their boyfriends, there’s enough revenge to go around.

Paper Towns by John Green
Q has loved Margo since what feels like the beginning of time, but they haven’t spoken since a traumatic incident as kids when they discovered a body of a local suicide. That was before Margo got cool.
When Margo breaks the silence to invite Q on an all-night binge of pranking and trash-talking, he doesn’t need to think twice. They settle score after score as masked avengers, but when Margo disappears in the morning, Q is left with a mystery about Margo, friendship, and love.

  Assassin’s Apprentice by S.R. Vaught

Aron’s family lives an ordinary life as farmers on the fringe of their dynast. Then Aron is chosen–or kidnapped–to become an assassin with the noble Stone Brothers. While he wrestles with danger, tragedy, and with other cruel apprentices during training, he must also wrestle with what his growing magical powers might mean, and how to say goodbye to all he’s ever known.


  Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood by Eileen Cook

As eighth grade came to a close, Lauren Wood framed her best friend Helen as the tattletale who outed the Senior Prank. In doing so, Lauren is catapulted into the ranks of the social elite and Helen’s world is so seriously wrecked that she leaves town. By Senior year, Lauren is captain of the cheerleading squad, the quarterback’s girlfriend, and the It Girl that her eighth-grade-self could only have dreamed about.

Helen, on the other hand, has had three years to obsess about the hell Lauren created for her. She’s coming back to town with a new name, a new look, and a plan to destroy everything Lauren loves.

-whitney, CLP – Main

p.s. These books are fun, but dealing with real anger, stress or revenge is more serious.

Don’t have time to visit your library branch or visit our e-resources? Check out our collection of web resources on violence and bullying and relationships.

*At least, they are in the movie. I still have to read the comics…no spoilers, please!