Calendar

Join us for the 32nd Annual Northern California Book Awards. celebrating books published in 2013 by Northern California authors.

Sunday, May 19, 2013
1:00-2:30 pm: Awards Ceremony: readings and remarks by this year's award-winning authors
2:30-4:00 pm: Book signing and Reception follows in the Latino/Hispanic Meeting Room

FRED CODY AWARD FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN COMMUNITY AND LITERATURE
Kay Ryan, poet, educator, U.S. Poet Laureate 2008-2010

NCBR RECOGNITION AWARD
Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here: Poets and Writers Respond to the March 5, 2007, Bombing of Baghdad's "Street of the Booksellers," edited by Beau Beausoleil and Deema Shehabi, PM Press and the Al-Mutanabbi Street Project

FICTION
A River Closely Watched, Jon Boilard, MacAdam/Cage
Telegraph Avenue, Michael Chabon, Harper
A Partial History of Lost Causes, Jennifer DuBois, Dial Press
A Hologram for the King, Dave Eggers, McSweeney's
The Orphan Master's Son, Adam Johnson, Random House

CREATIVE NONFICTION
Married at Fourteen: A True Story, Lucille Lang Day, Heyday
A Simple Revolution: The Making of an Activist Poet, Judy Grahn, Aunt Lute Books
What Light Can Do: Essays on Art, Imagination, and the Natural World, Robert Hass, Ecco
Soul Calling: A Photographic Journey through the Hmong Diaspora, Joel Pickford, Heyday
God's Hotel:  A Doctor, A Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine, Victoria Sweet, Riverhead Books
 
GENERAL NONFICTION
Games Without Rules: The Often Interrupted History of Afghanistan, Tamim Ansary, PublicAffairs
1616: The World in Motion, Thomas Christensen, Counterpoint
Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals and Reagan's Rise to Power, Seth Rosenfeld, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies, David Thomson, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism, Ozzie Zehner, University of Nebraska Press

POETRY
City of Rivers, Zubair Ahmed, McSweeney's
A Penance, CJ Evans, New Issues Press/Western Michigan University
The Book of a Thousand Eyes, Lyn Hejinian, Omnidawn
Plunge, Alice Jones, Apogee
Useless Landscape: A Guide for Boys, D.A. Powell, Graywolf Press
Citizen, Aaron Shurin, City Lights

TRANSLATION
Fiction
The Neruda Case: A Novel, Robert Ampuero, translated from the Spanish by Carolina de Robertis, Riverhead
Blindly, Claudio Magris, translated from the French by Anne Milano Appel, Yale University Press
Almost Never: A Novel, Daniel Sada, translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver, Graywolf Press
Poetry
The Little Auto, Apollinaire, translated from the French by Beverley Bie Brahic, CB Editions
A Woman With Several Lives, Jean Daive, translated from the French by Norma Cole, La Presse
Opera Omnia, Luxorius, translated from the Latin by Art Beck, Otis Books/Seismicity Editions

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Younger Readers
Noah Webster & His Words, Jeri Chase Ferris, illustrations by Vincent X. Kirsch, Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
First Mothers, Beverly Gherman, illustrations by Julie Dowling, Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Baby Bear Sees Blue, Ashley Wolff, Beach Lane Books

Middle Grades/Young Adult
Border Town: Crossing the Line, Malín Alegría, Scholastic (age 12 and up)
The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook, Joanne Rocklin, Amulet Books (Middle Grades)

"Who Could That Be at This Hour": All the Wrong Questions, Lemony Snicket, illustrations by Seth, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (age 8 and up, Grades 4-7)

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The Northern California Book Awards are presented and sponsored by Northern California Book Reviewers, Poetry Flash, Center for the Art of Translation, Red Room (redroom.com), PEN West, Mechanics' Institute, San Francisco Public Library, Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, and Readers Bookstore at the Main.

Winners will be announced at the Awards. Free admission; open to the public.

For more information: Poetryflash.org, 510.525.5476, NCBR@poetryflash.org.

A book sale by Readers Books follows the event.

Join the Bayview Branch Library and Bayview Opera House in a screening of the PBS Documentary, Prince Among Slaves, which tells the legendary true story of how a young African prince, Abdul Ibrahima Sori, falls from a life of power and privilege into enslavement in a strange land.

This special screening will take place at the Bayview Opera House Ruth Williams Memorial Theater at 4705 3rd St (at Newcomb).

Books, rhymes, music, movement and more for toddlers. 18 to 36 months and their caregivers.

Toddler Tales

Books, rhymes, music, movement and more for toddlers 18 to 36 months and their caregivers.

Books, rhymes, music, movement and more for toddlers 18 to 36 months and their caregivers. 

Poetry Group>  A WiseUp program.

Do you need math homework help?  We can help!  Math teacher - volunteer will be on site to answer math homework questions weekly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 4-6pm.

Club de lectores en la comunidad de la Misión para leer y discutir libros en español. Las reuniónes son mensuales en el tercer lunes del mes a las 7:00 p.m. ¡Todos estan invitados!

Lugar de Reuniones:                                                                                          La Salita, 2º Piso
Mission Cultural Center
2868 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

Una colaboración entre el Centro Cultural de la Misión y la Sucursal de la Misión de la Biblioteca Pública de San Francisco.

Stories, songs, fingerplays and more for children 0-5 yrs. Limited to first 42 participants, in line, day of storytime. Tickets for this storytime are handed out at the Children's Room Entrance (entering from playground) only! 

Books, rhymes, music, movement and more for toddlers 18 to 36 months and their caregivers.

Music books and more for children ages 18 to 36 months. Storytime lasts 30 minutes followed by playtime.

Stories, songs, fingerplays and more for ages 3 to 5.

Family Storytime

Join us as we read, sing and play together.  Fun for the entire family from infants to grandparents.

Titles to be Announced.

Children ages 5 and younger

Stories, songs, fingerplays and more for children, ages 3 to 5 years old.

Join in on the fun of storytime! Help your preschoolers foster early literacy skills through dynamic and entertaining books, songs, music, movement, and more. Playtime follows. Please call ahead for class visits.

Stories, songs, fingerplays and more. For children up to 5 years

Stories, songs, fingerplays and more.  For ages 3-5.

Rollicking rhymes, songs and books for infants to 18 months and their caregivers.

WritersCorps WordStorm: A Literary Carnival

Tuesday, May 21, 2013 from 3:30-6:00pm

Students from all over San Francisco have been working with authors from WritersCorps to put their stories and thoughts down on paper. Join WritersCorps for its year-end celebration of writing as students read from new publications. We'll also have hands-on workshops for teens: Use a recording booth, learn how to sew your own journal, create a mini movie, make a button, and more! It all goes down after school on May 21.

San Francisco Public Library - Main Library

Tuesday, May 21, 2013 from 3:30-6:00pm

In the Latino Hispanic Meeting Room on the Lower Level

Third Tuesday of every month (January - May 2013)

1/15, 2/19, 3/19, 4/16, and 5/21

Do you need homwork help?  Kindergarten through 8th grade students can receive assistance completing their homework, studying for tests, and strengthening language arts and math skills. This is a co-host program between the Visitacion Valley Boys and Girls Club and Visitacion Valley Branch Library

Learn to practice the basic pattern, i.e. how to make a chain and a single crochet stitch. No needle or hook needed. Limit to 5 participants, with limited supplies. For teens, ages 12 and older. For information or to register, please contact Jewel at (415)355-5626 or jewelchen@sfpl.org

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Come play PS3 games on our big screen in the Potrero meeting room!

We have a selection, but you can bring your own T or E rated games to share.

Challenge your friends to determine who is the ultimate gamer!

♦ Some snacks will be provided! Snacks!!!♦

Ages 10-18 welcome

For more info, contact Lisa Fagundes at lfagundes@sfpl.org or 415 355 3822

In the poorest neighborhoods of Calcutta, a lawyer turned social entrepreneur is empowering young girls and boys to take an active role in tranforming their own lives.  Through arts programs and hands-on activities such as mapping their communities, these young girls and boys have brought clean drinking water and improved sanitation in their slums.  A panel discussion follows the film.

Authors Jason Edward Black and Charles E. Morris III edited the new collection An Archive of Hope: Harvey Milk's Speeches and Writings published by the University of California Press. Both authors will be here to discuss the legacy of Harvey Milk, and will be joined by photographer Danny Nicoletta, who worked in Harvey Milk's camera shop on Castro Street. Frank Robinson, Milk's speechwriter, political advisor and friend will also be part of this panel.

If you like great ideas, great writing and stimulating discussions, please join us. The group gives people the opportunity to discover, discuss and learn from outstanding works of writing.

Every month we read and discuss a short selection by famous authors such as Aristotle, Sigmund Freud, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Virginia Woolf.

Meets every third Tuesday of the month. For information, contact Nancy: acandnanc@yahoo.com or (415)566-1392. Co-sponsored by the non-profit Great Books Council of San Francisco and the Sunset Branch of San Francisco Public Library.

Toddler Tales

Books, rhymes, music, movement and more for toddlers 18 to 36 months and their caregivers.

Play and Grow: Toddler Fun with Reading, Rhyming and Recreation is an early literacy play group that promotes parents child interaction and kindergarten readiness. The group is intended for parents, grandparents, caregivers, and children birth-age five.

This program is a collaboration effort between Edgewood Center, Parent University, APA Family Support Services, and San Francisco Public Library.

Rolicking rhymes, songs & books for infants to 18 months and their caregivers.

Rollicking rhymes, songs & books for infants and toddlers to 18 months. Meet and greet playtime follows the program.Limited to first 42 participants, in line, day of storytime. Tickets for this storytime are handed out at the Children's Room Entrance (entering from playground) only!

Come and join us for Your Space!, a monthly pop-up teen space at Bernal Heights.

Make a mini-comic: In this workshop students will learn how to create their own mini-comic book, including creating simple story, visual storytelling, and how to assemble there work into a book to take home. Taught by artist Brian Kolm. 

For ages 8-18.  Questions?  Contact Maricela at mleonbarrera@sfpl.org

Trouble with Technology?

We can help!

*email

*laptops

*kindles

*tablets

*cell phones

*digital cameras

*electronic gadgets

Get help from a Teen Computer Corps Volunteer at Chinatown Branch!

Drop in on Wednesdays, 5/22 & 5/29, 3:30 - 5 pm

Anhvu from WritersCorps continues to lead fun and chill creative workshops. Expect arts and crafts like spray painting, bookmaking, altered t-shirts, recycled crafts, and surprise activities. For more info, contact Marla at mbergman@sfpl.org or 415-355-2868.

Volunteer helps elementary school-aged children who want to improve their reading.

Do you need math homework help?  We can help!  Math teacher - volunteer will be on site to answer math homework questions weekly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 4-6pm.

Conservation photographer Bryant Austin is the only photographer in the world producing high-resolution, life-size photography of whales. A chance encounter with a humpback calf and its mother helped Austin develop a technique to create detailed, intimate portraits of his subjects. Spending days at a time submerged with groups of whales, he remains motionless, allowing humpback, sperm, and minke whales that are sometimes forty-five feet in length and weigh as much as fifty tons to come within six feet. In this presentation, Austin will describe his fearless process and reveal images from his breathtaking new book Beautiful Whale, which was recently published in April 2013 by Abrams. Hear the story behind these images that inspire people to take the future of whales-endangered throughout the oceans-into their hearts. Book signing to follow.

This is a California Academy of Sciences and Stegner Environmental Center Program.

Reservations: This is a free event but seating is limited so please RSVP online as ticketed guests will be seated first. To reserve a place today, reserve a ticket online or over the phone at 1-877-227-1831

http://www.calacademy.org/lectures

Stuart Bronstein, an estate planning and probate lawyer in San Francisco for more than 30 years, will lead participants in creating their own wills. Everyone will be able to leave the workshop with a fully functional will. Bring a blue non-erasable pen.

Space is limited. Please stop by the Information Desk or call 415-355-2858 to register.

If you like great ideas, great writing, and stimulating discussions, come and participage in the Great Books Discussion Group.  We meet 4th Wednesday of each month from 6:30pm-8:30pm.

Read.  Think.  Discuss.  Grow.

For information about our upcoming reading: Contact Louise DiMattio at ladimat@aol.com or (415) 587-0398

To register: (415) 355-2886 or email wpomgr@sfpl.org with your name and contact information.

Songs, stories and rhymes for children from birth to 36 months and their caregivers.

Music and books and more for children

Rollicking rhymes, songs, and books for infants to 18 months and their caregivers.

Held in the first floor community room. Please park strollers by the elevator.

Stories, songs, fingerplays and more for children ages 3-5.

Held in the first floor community room. Please park strollers by the elevator.

Rollicking rhymes, songs and books for infants to 18 months and their caregivers.

May 23 - All May long, SFPL is having a Michael Moore-a-thon during Thursdays @ Noon!

Fahrenheit 911

(2004, 122 minutes)

Michael Moore's view on what happened to the US after September 11, 2001; and how the Bush Administration allegedly used the tragic event to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

FREE book!  Just swap us a review.

Here's how it works: Every Thursday, the Teen Librarian will bring out several books (new titles, old titles, and titles that have not been published yet) and allow teens the chance to browse through them for one that you'd like to keep.  You will, in turn, swap us a review of the book by the end of the month.

For ages 12-18

For more information, contact: Dorcas at dwong@sfpl.org

Join us as we read, sing and play together. Fun for the entire family from infants to grandparents.

Books, songs, rhymes, and fun for children of all ages unless noted.

Baby Rhyme Time

Rollicking rhymes, songs and books for infants to 18 months and their caregivers.

Let's string colorful beads to make adorable ornaments. Materials provided. Limited to 6 participants, ages 8 to 18 years old. For information, please contact Jewel at North Beach Branch Library, Tel: (415)355-5626 or jewelchen@sfpl.org

Video gaming for teens and tweens!  Bring a friend to challenge on our big screen.  We will have video games here, but feel free to bring your own Wii games (rated E or T only please).  For more info, call (415) 355-5660.

The SFPL Library for the Blind and Print Disabled invites you to join us for an audio-described film, followed by a discussion.   The film selection for May is the 2010 version of a Western classic film, True Grit, which was nominated for 82 Awards, including 10 Oscars.

The following film description is taken from the Internet Movie Data Base:

Following the murder of her father by hired hand Tom Chaney, 14-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross sets out to capture the killer. To aid her, she hires the toughest U.S. marshal she can find, a man with "true grit," Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn. Mattie insists on accompanying Cogburn, whose drinking, sloth, and generally reprobate character do not augment her faith in him. Against his wishes, she joins him in his trek into the Indian Nations in search of Chaney. They are joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who wants Chaney for his own purposes. The unlikely trio find danger and surprises on the journey, and each has his or her "grit" tested.

Why show Audio Described films?

A Blind or partially sighted person cannot enjoy a feature film without relying on someone to whisper the visual aspects of the movie in his or her ear.  Audio-described films allow visually impaired to enjoy movies independently because they include a second soundtrack that describes the sets, costumes and any visual cues that the director uses to establish place, create mood and foreshadow events.

Join us for a movie followed by a discussion about the film and the effectiveness of the audio-descriptions.

Sighted people are welcome.  If you find it distracting to listen to the descriptions while watching the movie, you might try closing your eyes. 

Please note that we must request noise be kept to a minimum during the film so people can hear the descriptions.

Unfortunately there currently is no option to include closed captioning for the Deaf and hard of hearing with audio description in most of these movies.

Learn how to make easy and fun wallets out of colorful and patterned duct tape!  (All materials provided) Ages 7-12. For more information, contact Nicole at (415) 355-5660 or nterminigermain@sfpl.org.

Come create crafty creations at the Mission Library.

Open to children 5 and older.

Drop-in, all materials provided.

Do you need math homework help?  We can help!  Math teacher - volunteer will be on site to answer math homework questions weekly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 4-6pm.

Volunteer helps elementary school-aged children who want to improve their reading.

HIgh School students provide free homework assistance in math and English for school age children.

Note: Homework Help may be cancelled if volunteers are unavailable.

Come see preschool-age films based on your favorite books!

Stories and songs for children and their families.

Family Storytime

Join us as we read, sing and play together. Fun for the entire family from infants to grandparents.

Join in on the fun of storytime! Help your children foster early literacy skills through dynamic and entertaining books, songs, music, movement, and more. Playtime follows.

Join us for stories, songs, fingerplays, rhymes and fun!
In English and Spanish, geared for children 5 and under.
Cuentos, juegos de dedos, rimas y más!
En inglés y español, para niños de 5 años y menores.

After storytime join us for a craft activity!
Despues del programa invitamos a los niños a hacer una manualidad.

Born in Berkeley, California, artist and photographer Ronald Hirano, a Deaf Nisei, was "adopted" by Miss Delight Rice, who founded the Philippine School for the Deaf in 1907, when his entire family was interned to relocation camps with 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II. This exhibition of his works includes photography, linoleum-engraved and designed covers of the California News (the newspaper from the California School for the Deaf), linoleum-engraved cards and pen and ink cards.

There will be a lecture by Ronald Hirano and a reception.

Rhymes, songs, and fingerplays for the very young and their caregivers.  For children under age 5.

Bilingual Storytime

Families, come join us for songs, rhymes and more in Spanish and English!

Age 6 and up

Ponyo is an animated adventure centered on a 5-year-old boy and his relationship with a goldfish princess who longs to become human.

Last Saturday of the Month Movies are for all ages.  The audience limit is 42.

The Typewriter (In The 21st Century) is a film about a machine and the people who use, love, and repair it.

The film features 30+ interviews in 10 U.S. states with Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning authors Robert Caro and David McCullough, collectors, repairmen, artists, musicians, inventors, and bloggers from The Typosphere - an online gathering place for typewriter enthusiasts.

The film was inspired by a May, 2010 article in Wired magazine called “Meet The Last Generation of Typewriter Repairman.” Director Christopher Lockett and Producer Gary Nicholson discussed the importance of the typewriter in 20th Century literature. The conclusion being that every great novel of the 20th Century was written on one, and if typewriters are in their final days, they deserved to be celebrated one last time.

It only took a few interviews to determine that the typewriter and its legion of fans is far from dead. By the time the “Last Typewriter Factory Closes Its Doors” article went viral in April of 2011, Lockett and Nicholson were not only already making the film, they were convinced they had a much bigger story on their hands. They did.

Funded largely through Kickstarter, the film eventually featured not only typewriter people – the aforementioned technicians, collectors, bloggers, users and fans – but famous typewriters as well. The film features machines once owned by Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, Tennessee Williams, John Steinbeck, Jack London, Sylvia Plath, George Bernard Shaw, John Lennon, Joe DiMaggio, Helen Keller, The Unabomber, John Updike, Ray Bradbury and Ernie Pyle.

Find out more about the film at http://typewritermovie.com/the-film/

Saturday at the Movies will take place on the 4th Saturday of the month at 3:00. This month we'll show Born Yesterday (1950) Starring Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford and William Holden  

Uncouth junkyard tycoon Harry Brock descends upon Washington D.C. to buy himself a congressman or two, bringing with him his mistress, ex-showgirl Billie Dawn. Brock hires newspaperman Paul Verrall to see if he can make her more presentable in capital society. But Harry gets more than he bargained for as Billie absorbs Verall's lessons in U.S. history.

Black and White; 103 minutes.

Join Summer Reading Teen Volunteer Training to help the Summer Reading Program at Portola Branch Library and gain community service credits.  Registration is required, schedules will be given first come first serve.   For ages 12 to 18, bring a friend.   For information, please call (415) 355-5660. 

When a small town comes under siege by zombies, who can it call? Only misunderstood local boy Norman, who is able to speak with the dead. In addition to the zombies, he’ll have to take on ghosts, witches and, worst, of all, grown-ups, to save his town from a centuries-old curse. But this young ghoul whisperer may find his paranormal activities pushed to their otherworldly limits.

Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mitz-Plasse
Focus Features; Directed by Chris Butler and Sam Fell
Rated PG; 92 minutes; 2012

HIgh school students provide free homework assistance in math and English for school age children.

Note: Homework Help may be cancelled if volunteers are unavailable.