Tag Archives: Birthdays

Happy Birthday Amelia Bedelia!

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Amelia Bedelia

It has been 50 years since Amelia Bedelia has showed us her unique ways of dusting the furniture, dressing a chicken, drawing the drapes, and changing the towels.  Amelia does EXACTLY what she is told to do and things just don’t seem to turn out right.

Harper Collins is celebrating Amelia Bedelia Day on January 29, 2013.  Visit the website for more information about the day and for fun games and activities: http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/kids/gamesandcontests/features/amelia

Check out the library’s collection of books about Amelia Bedelia and about the authors Peggy and Herman Parish.

Happy 50th Birthday Amelia Bedelia !!!

1967 Music and Library Memories

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In 1967, the Bethel Library, founded in 1929 by the Bethel Women’s Club and housed in the Grant Memorial Building, officially became a Branch of the Clermont County Public Library system.

What music were you listening to in 1967?  Do you remember these Grammy Award winners?

And how about these top hits and artists?

Come share your music and library memories from 1967 to the present on Saturday, August 11, 2012 when the Bethel Branch Library will officially celebrate its 45th Anniversary.  Bring the family for fun activities from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  Kids can see dog tricks performed by Oliver the Bassett hound, make a craft and have their face painted.  All ages are welcome to listen to music by the Daniel Patrick Family Singers, meet Browser the library’s mascot, check out library and local history displays, enter contests to win prizes, mingle with local and library dignitaries and enjoy refreshments.

Take a “Step Back in Time with Stories of Bethel Library’s Past” on Tuesday, August 7, 6:30-7:45 p.m. and share your library memories with our panel of guest speakers including former and current Bethel library staff, “Worldwalker” author Steven Newman, Walter Carter from the Bethel Historical Museum and Bethel library volunteers and patrons.

What music were you listening to in 1967 in Bethel, Ohio?  We want to know!

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle!

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Though far and away most famous for his Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (May 22, 1859-July 7, 1930) wrote numerous books in a variety of genres including historical, supernatural, and speculative fiction, in addition to nonfiction.   Delve into the Holmes universe with one of these many spin-offs.

Donald Thomas has a five book series of Holmes stories.  Start with The Secret Cases of Sherlock Holmes.  The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr, authorized by Doyle’s estate, finds Holmes on the trail of a murderer whose connections may run all the way up the social ladder to the royal family.  Laurie R. King has a series featuring Mary Russell, a young woman who becomes the protégé of a retired Sherlock Holmes.  Start with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice.  Try something really different with Steve Hockensmith’s books.  In the first, Holmes on the Range, two 1893 cowboys, Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer, inspired by their hero, master sleuth Sherlock Holmes, put their detecting skills to use  uncovering the truth about the murder of a ranch hand.

Young mystery fans should try Nancy Springer’s Enola Holmes series, following the exploits of Sherlock’s much younger sister.  The first is The Case of the Missing Marquess.  The Sherlock Files by Tracy Barrett are another option.  The first of this series is The 100-Year-Old Secret, in which Xena and Xander Holmes, an American brother and sister living in London for a year, discover that Sherlock Holmes was their great-great-great grandfather.  Upon receiving his unsolved casebook, they attempt to solve the case of a famous missing painting.

How about a movie?  Who’s your favorite Holmes?  Basil Rathbone, Peter Cushing, or Robert Downey Jr.?  New to the library is Sherlock, a recent BBC series and a contemporary take on Doyle’s stories.  Staring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley, Without a Clue, is a comedy in which Dr. John Watson is the true genius behind drunken Sherlock Holmes.  Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes is a film about a young Doyle and his real-life mentor, the noted forensic scientist, Dr. Joseph Bell, as they unite to solve murders in Victorian Scotland.

And if you really want to be thorough, how about Sherlock Holmes in space?  Check out the second and sixth seasons of Star Trek, The Next Generation, and watch the “Elementary, Dear Data” and “Ship in a Bottle” episodes to see Moriarty wreak havoc against Data as Holmes and La Forge as Watson.

 

Happy Birthday, Harry Houdini

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March 24, 1874.

From our Biography Reference Bank database – harry houdiniHarry Houdini was born Ehrich Weiss in Appleton, Wisconsin, not long after his parents, Rabbi Mayer Samuel Weiss and Cecelia Steiner, emigrated from Budapest. Since the opportunities for work for a Jewish scholar were few in Wisconsin, young Ehrich had to work to earn money for the family at an early age. At the age of twelve, Ehrich ran away from home, and eventually reached New York, where the family later moved. After Rabbi Weiss died in 1892, Ehrich worked at a variety of odd jobs, but he was fascinated with magic and feats of dexterity, or manual skills. He changed his name to Harry Houdini, after the French magician Robert Houdin, and learned magic tricks in sideshows and circuses, and from books.


Books about Houdini

Happy Birthday, Charles Dickens

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charles dickensFebruary 7 is the 199th birthday of Charles Dickens, one of England’s most acclaimed and influential writers and an author whose works are frequently studied in high school English classes.

February is the perfect time to rediscover the man so often unappreciated by ninth-graders who stare at the length of Great Expectations with horror.

During Dickens’ era, his serialized stories were wildly popular, with clinching cliff-hangers and some of the best characterization of all time. When the weather outside is frightful, why not curl up by the fire, transport yourself to Victorian England and read some of Dickens’ trenchant social commentary?

Check out David Copperfield or A Tale of Two Cities to sample a Dickens classic–or the unforgettable story of the orphaned Pip in Great Expectations, a book that might last you until it begins to feel like Spring again.

Happy Birthday Ronald Reagan!

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Ronald Reagan, the fortieth President of the United States, would have been 100 years old on February 6.  Some of the more recent books about his life and legacy include:

My Father at 100 by Ron Reagan: The son of Ronald and Nancy Reagan presents an assessment of his father’s life that features his childhood observations of the qualities that rendered the future fortieth president a powerful leader.

Ronald Reagan: 100 Years by The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation: An official centennial publication chronicles the fortieth president’s life with memorabilia, quotes and personal anecdotes, essays by leading political writers, and more than five hundred photographs.

Reagan: The Hollywood Years by Marc Eliot: A study of Ronald Reagan’s career in Hollywood covers more than thirty years of his film and television work, his two marriages, his tenure as the president of the Screen Actors Guild, and the link between his role as leading man and president of the United States.

The Reagan Diaries by Ronald Reagan: Culled from his handwritten daily diaries, an account of the fortieth president’s eight years in the oval office offers insight into his character as well as the behind-the-scenes factors that contributed to such events as his first inauguration and the end of the Cold War.

Happy Birthday Isaac Newton!

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I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. – Isaac Newton

Let’s wish a belated happy birthday to Sir Isaac Newton, born on January 4, 1643 by the Gregorian calendar (December 25, 1642 by the Julian calendar, which was in use in England at the time).   Newton is the father of calculus, the reflecting telescope, and spectroscopy.   He authored the law of universal gravitation and the three laws of motion.  But did you know that in 1696, Newton moved to London to become the Warden of the Royal Mint?  Working for the Mint until his death, Newton oversaw the production of the nation’s coins and sought the prosecution of counterfeiters.  You can read all about it in a book I stumbled across recently, Thomas Levenson’s Newton and the Counterfeiter : The Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist. Newton became a “Sir” in 1705 when he was knighted by Queen Anne.  At his death in 1727, Sir Isaac was buried with great pageantry in Westminster Abbey.

Can’t remember what the three laws of motion are?  Look them up from home, along with a wealth of other scientific information, in the Science Online database from Facts on File.  After you read Levenson’s book, check the catalog for some others on Newton.

Happy Birthday, Sherlock

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sherlock dvdOne of literature’s most eminent sleuths, Sherlock Holmes, celebrates his 157th birthday this month.

A huge hit ever since his first appearance in A Study in Scarlet in 1887, Holmes and his loyal sidekick Watson have been thrilling mystery fans with their exploits for well over a century both in print and on film. Although Holmes’ creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, retired his great detective in 1903, many other authors have picked up the pen in order to continue his adventures.

The BBC has created an updated Sherlock based on three of the original stories but set in contemporary Great Britain. Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal captures Sherlock’s brilliant but quirky methods.

Remembering JD Salinger

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catcher in the ryeJanuary marks the anniversary of both the birth and death of one of America’s most enigmatic writers, J.D. Salinger. Born in New York City on January 1, 1919, Salinger died last January at his home in New Hampshire at the age of 91.

Few writers manage to capture the angst and ennui of the teenage years with the insight and honesty that Salinger did in his seminal work, The Catcher in the Rye. Although the novel was first published 60 years ago, its cantankerous protagonist, Holden Caulfield, continues to speak to adolescents (and adults) today.