If you visit one of 11 Seattle Public Library branches on certain days after school, you’ll witness something amazing: seemingly ordinary, mild-mannered citizens put on capes and tights and transform into superheroes.

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Today Nina from Broadview is visiting sixth, seventh, and 8th grade students at Broadview – Thomson K-8 School , so we want to send a SHOUT OUT to all the students and staff there today. Nina will be talking about the books on this list. Now that you’ve heard about them, let us know, which of these books do YOU intend to read this summer?

​I recently went to the Seattle Art Museum to see the Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London exhibition and the European Masters: The Treasures of Seattle exhibition. Most of the pieces are portraits with some landscapes and still-lifes as well.  It was a great experience to see pieces of art that are on display in America for the first time ever.  While I was walking through the galleries and looking at the years the pieces were done, it was amazing to me that most of the pieces were roughly 200 to 500 years old.  It was also interesting to see the evolution of art styles throughout the years.  For example, in some of the oldest pieces the children were painted as mini-adults, but as ideas of childhood started to be discovered the children started to look more child-like.

My favorite piece was “Two Girls Dressing a Kitten by Candlelight” which was painted by Joseph Wright of Derby in 1769.  In the piece are two girls and one is staring directly at the viewer, so is the kitten.  Most of the painting is dark except for the kitten and parts of the girls’ faces.  It was a very fascinating piece to me because it was seemingly cute and innocent but the longer I looked at it the more mysterious and somewhat creepy it became.  I highly recommend visiting the SAM to check out these galleries before May 19^th, when the exhibition closes. 

Each year librarians from visit local schools to talk about our summer reading program (coming June 3!) and a hand picked selection of fun summer reads. 

Today Nina from Broadview is visiting Christ The King Middle School, so we want to send a SHOUT OUT to all the students and staff there today.  Nina will be talking about the books on this list.  Now that you’ve heard about them, let us know, what do  YOU intend to read this summer?

A few weeks ago, we ran a post on dog stories.  There are a lot of them, it turns out.  Cats, on the other hand, had us scratching our heads (although not with our hind legs).  Cats just don’t run around in as many stories as dogs, and when they do, the stories tend towards fantasy, instead of realism.  With a little work, though, we did find these four cat novels for teens.

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Be inspired by new work!

Charcoal, ink, acrylic, graphite pencil, digital and film photography: a few of the mediums used by Ballard High School students currently on display at their local library.  The only guideline for the artists is to exhibit their best work, whether it is a pencil sketch or saturated digital photograph. 

The Ballard Branch is featuring this wide array of composition from late April to May 18, with a reception on Saturday, May 11.  In conjunction with the Ballard Art Walk, the library is open to the public from 6pm – 9pm for its seventh annual celebration of the ambitious teen artists.

The library is also screening Ballard students’ award winning short films, playing pre-recorded songs from the high school’s music department and, of course, showing off the visual art.

Greta, Ballard Teen Blogger