Let Your Imagination Soar with the AMAThere are two things you should know about the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA): first, it’s the largest model aviation museum in the world. Second, it’s located in Muncie, and thanks to an upcoming pro-gram at MPL, you can get tickets to visit the museum for free.

Emily Rice, Education Specialist for the AMA, will present a kid-friendly event at Maring-Hunt, designed to excite families about the possibilities of model aircraft. The event will also inform attendees about upcoming summer activities happening at the AMA.

Families that attend will receive a day pass to the museum to further their exploration of flight!

Fly with the AMA! Maring-Hunt Library Wednesday, May 6 at 4pm

‘Tis the Season for Book ClubsTime is at a premium no matter the month or season, but it seems to be especially dear this month. The last frost date is mid-May and I for one can’t wait to visit my favorite garden stores for flats of flowers, vegetables and herbs. It’s a colorful, wonderful time of the year. Optimism sur-faces, and the doldrums of winter are behind us with warm weather and sunny skies eagerly anticipated.

It may be hard to believe, but reading and quiet contemplation continue to claim their time-honored place even in this bright, busy season. Book groups flourish throughout the community. The Library has three book groups that meet monthly and there are also other groups in the community that meet in homes, churches, and eateries. Reading something you may not have considered reading and then talking about the ideas, events, or characters with others is wonderfully engaging.

It’s a great time of the year to join a book group so look around and see if there is one you’d like to join. You never know what will blossom. Enjoy,Ginny

Library ConnectionsM u n c i e P u b l i c L i b r a r y | M a y 2 0 1 5

Every donation, big or small, can make a difference. Your donation will allow Muncie Public Library to promote literacy, encourage learning, and inspire curiosity. Donations may be made online or by check. Checks can be made payable to Muncie Public Library with the word “Donation” on the memo line. Mail to:

Muncie Public Library , 2005 S. High Street, Muncie, IN 47302

Thank you so much for your support!

At MPL, we’re always working to improve library space for our patrons, including digital space--we work hard to make sure the information presented on our webpage is relevant, useful, and well-designed.

Recently, our Donation page underwent a huge face lift. We’ve updated the web page’s text, our donation logo, and cleaned up the page’s layout to ensure a better online experience.

We encourage you to check it out for yourself at www.munciepubliclibrary.org/donate. And don’t miss the new video that has lots of footage from all MPL locations. It will help donors understand how all donations positively impact the library and you might even see yourself or someone you know!

Revamped Donation Website

Eat Cheap! Frugal Shopping & Cooking Expert Visits Kennedy It’s no secret that food prices are climbing: if you’ve peered into your grocery cart lately, you may have noticed you’re paying a lot more money for an in-creasingly sparse return.

Don’t despair! On May 21, Kennedy Library will host Trista Hill, author of Eat Cheap! for its “Cover to Cover: Authors On Site” series. Hill feeds her family of five for $300 a month, and she’ll discuss ways anyone can cut their food budget but still fill their dinner plates with healthy, sumptuous meals.

Cover to Cover: Authors on SiteEat Cheap! with Trista HillKennedy LibraryThursday, May 21, 2015 at 6:30pm

Make A Difference At Your Library

Pinkies up! If you have a little princess (or prince) at home, make sure to doll them up in their fanciest garb and head to Kennedy during the month of May--we’re hosting not one, but TWO tea parties specifically for kids.

The first, on May 9, is a princess-themed tea party and will fea-ture princess crafts, a royal fashion parade, and a fun lesson on the proper way to drink tea. Even if your kids aren’t pink-pearl-wearing types, Youth Services Manager Sadie Oldenkamp thinks they can still get something out of it: “To me, being a princess is showing off what makes you so special,” Sadie says. “Some princesses like to be pink and lacy while others prefer to go the Queen Elsa route with amazing superpowers! Every princess is special in her own way.” Space for this program is limited, so make sure to call (765) 741-7333 to register.

A second tea party, held on May 17, is better suited for older children (aged 8+) and focuses on the ruffle-filled Victorian era. Like the princess tea party, this program will teach kids about tea time, but they’ll also learn about Victorian fashion and culture.

Victorian Tea Time (ages 8+)Kennedy LibrarySunday, May 17 at 2pm

Princess Tea Party (ages 2+) Kennedy Library Saturday, May 9 at 2pm

It’s Tea Time at the Library

You know the library as the best spot in town to load up on facts, figures, and stories from all over the world, but did you know it’s also a great resource to learn about other community organizations?

All four Muncie Public Library locations offer a community info table--a designated spot, usually near the building’s main entrance, where community organizations as diverse as Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), IU Ball Memorial Hospital, and Ivy Tech Community College leave brochures and other informational materials about their services and upcoming programs.

The info tables are a one-stop shop for all community materials, including pieces you might not expect. For example, the Muncie Chamber of Commerce’s regular magazine, The Chamber, is currently in stock at MPL’s community info tables. This magazine, which contains crucial updates from many of Muncie’s key businesses, is a must-read for consumers and business-owners alike. The best part is, like all items on MPL’s community info tables, it’s free to take home. Make sure to stop by the community info table at your favorite branch to see what’s new!

Spotlight: Community Info Tables

The Dolch Word List is a list of commonly used words originally compiled by Edward William Dolch, PhD and published in his 1948 book, Problems in Reading. Dolch compiled the list based on children’s books of the period, and selected 220 “service words” which children need to recognize to achieve reading fluency. Why are they called sight words? Many of the 220 words in the Dolch list, cannot be “sounded out”, and must be learned by sight, according to the Dolch Sight Words website.* MPL will be promoting this word list as part of our mission to help all children be pre-pared for learning and reading We will post a few words from this list each month for

you to share and review with young readers in your life. Here are this month’s words:

• Kindergarten & 1st grade: just, by, stop • 2nd grade: pull, sing, why• 3rd grade: kind, laugh, light

All library locations will be closed on Sunday, May 24 and Monday, May 25 for Memorial Day weekend. Have a safe and happy holiday!

Sight Words for Young Readers

Coming in June: Book Club Selections

Library Closing for Memorial Day

Reading Circle Book Club A Loss for Words by Lou Ann WalkerJune 8 at noon Kennedy Library

This is much more of a story than the subtitle suggests, beautifully written and deeply affecting. Born in the Midwest in 1952, Walker is one of three hearing daughters of Gale and Doris Jean Walker, both deafened by illnesses as babies. As the oldest child, the author served as her parents’ “interpreter,” dealing with outsiders.

There is humor in her recollections but nothing lighthearted in accounts of crude or condescending reactions to her father and mother from indifferent people. Walker is candid in detailing her own frustrations and the burdens of life with the deaf. Having graduated from Harvard, she eagerly went her own

way, establishing a writing career in New York, but she reunites frequently with the family in a home warm with love and shared memories. The reader says a fervent amen when the author declares, “I’d seen plenty of families where there was more communication and less love.”

Description via Publisher’s Weekly (continued)

Find the complete Dolch Word website at: http://www.dolchsightwords.org/index.php

June Book Club Selections (continued) KB Book Club We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy FowlerJune 11 at 6:30pm Kennedy Library Meet the Cooke family. Our narrator is Rosemary Cooke. As a child, she never stopped talking; as a young woman, she has wrapped herself in silence: the silence of intentional forgetting, of protective cover. Something happened, something so awful she has buried it in the recesses of her mind.

Now her adored older brother is a fugitive, wanted by the FBI for domestic terrorism. And her once lively mother is a shell of her former self, her clever and imperious father now a distant, brooding man.

And Fern, Rosemary’s beloved sister, her accomplice in all their childhood mischief? Fern’s is a fate the family, in all their innocence, could never have imagined.

Description via Goodreads.com

Books On Tap Book ClubLost Horizons by James Hilton June 30 at 6:30pm Savage’s Ale House (Must be 21 to attend) While attempting to escape a civil war, four people are kidnapped and trans-ported to the Tibetan mountains. After their plane crashes, they are found by a mysterious Chinese man. He leads them to a monastery hidden in “the valley of the blue moon” -- a land of mystery and matchless beauty where life is lived in tranquil wonder, beyond the grasp of a doomed world.

It is here, in Shangri-La, where destinies will be discovered and the meaning of paradise will be unveiled.

Description via Goodreads.com

Note: this title was originally slated to be May’s Books on Tap book club pick, but for logistical reasons, the discussion for this book has been moved to June. May’s Books On Tap pick is now The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman.

Photo of the Month

Patrons enjoyed tai chi in Maring-Hunt’s Atrium during National Library Week in April. This photo first appeared on our Instagram page.

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