Dia de los Muertos at the library

Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a time for families and friends to gather and remember loved ones who have died. Three FCPL branches are hosting special celebrations of this holiday for patrons.

For Grades 6 to 12

The Hampton Park Library will host a Day of the Dead celebration Thursday, October 30 at 6:30 p.m. Make ofrendas for remembering special loved ones, decorate sugar skulls and calavera masks, make papel picado (intricately cut paper banners), and eat special treats. Registration is requested.

The Post Road Library will host its own Day of the Dead celebration on Sunday, November 2 at 2:15 p.m. We will make papel picado, giant paper marigolds, and sugar skull Sharpie mugs! Mexican treats and snacks will be served. Please register to attend.

For the Family

Bring the kids and join us for Day of the Dead celebration at the Cumming Library on Sunday, November 2 at 2:00 p.m. We will honor loved ones that have passed on with a special storytime, and then have snacks and craft activities. No registration is required.

For more information, please click here or check the Events Calendar at www.forsythpl.org.

Staff Picks

So Creepy and So Good!

The spooky photographs included in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children made me a little hesitant to read it but I’m glad I worked up the nerve.   The peculiar children in this wonderfully creepy novel aren’t the villains they may appear to be but the victims of something much nastier.  Family secrets, Nazis and more traditional monsters fill the pages of this engaging fantasy.    

Alicia Cavitt
Information Specialist

Staff Picks

Life, Animated by Ron Suskind

Temple Grandin by Thinking in Pictures

Born on Blue Day by Daniel Tammet

Look Me In The Eye by John Elder Robinson

I Am Intelligent by Peyton Goddard

We hear so much about autism and the spectrum, but what is it, exactly?  Is it just excessive geekiness?  Consider that what makes us so successful as a species is our ability to communicate, and not just through words but with complex social cues.  It’s instinctive; babies seek out faces, adults can decipher expressions and body language at a glance.  Except when they can’t.  For people on the spectrum, parts of the brain are wired differently.  They have to learn social interactions as if it were a foreign language.  Temple Grandin likened it to being an anthropologist on Mars.

You can follow these anthropological journeys in Life, Animated by Pulitzer prizewinning journalist and father of an autistic child Ron Suskind, Thinking in Pictures by autism pioneer Temple Grandin, Born on Blue Day by autistic savant Daniel Tammet, and Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robison, the autistic brother of Augusten Burroughs, who has problems of his own (Running With Scissors.)

For a darker look at the dangers a girl with autism can face, seek out Donna Williams Nobody Nowhere and Somebody Somewhere or Dawn Prince-Hughes Songs of the Gorilla Nation.  Or see what it’s like to advocate for a for a special needs child whose behavior is unacceptably violent with I Am Intelligent by Peyton Goddard. (Ask us how to get these books via Interlibrary Loan.)

Then see why your brain screams at you to avoid people who act differently by reading The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker.  We’re all of us different, but some are more different than others.

Mary Kretsch
Information Specialist