TAG: tweens

Banning books silences stories: Reading a banned book celebrates your intellectual freedom

Posted in Explore and Discover, Parents and Teachers on September 18, 2018 at 6:00 am

by Melissa Rhoades Banned Books Week is September 23–29 this year. Did you know that at least 23 of the 100 books on PBS’s 2018 Great American Read book list have been banned or threatened with a ban in the United States? That means almost one-fourth of America’s “most loved” novels (as determined by popular […]

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How to Identify a Dragon

Posted in Explore and Discover, kids, Parents and Teachers, Teens on August 21, 2018 at 6:00 am

by Caitlin Wheeler When I was young, I loved C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. I especially loved The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a book that, in my eight-year-old estimation, had everything a book ought to: quests, nightmares, magic spells, enchanted islands, warrior mermaids, anthropomorphized stars, and of course, dragons. Eustace Claren […]

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The art of saving seeds

Posted in Explore and Discover on July 31, 2018 at 6:00 am

by Abra Cole In a remote vault located halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, nearly one million seed varieties are stored. The purpose of this immense storage facility is to ensure the genetic future of these seed varieties, should any of the gene banks located around the world suffer catastrophic disaster. One hundred […]

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Microadventure: Day trip to Stonerose for fossils

Posted in Explore and Discover, kids, Parents and Teachers on July 24, 2018 at 6:00 am

By Rachel Edmondson Even though I’ve lived in the Spokane area for over 15 years now, every once in a while I find out about something and wonder how I’ve never heard about it before. This past fall I learned about the Stonerose Interpretive Center. While it’s a bit of a drive from Spokane (about […]

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Bicentennial of a Monster’s Birth

Posted in Explore and Discover on April 17, 2018 at 6:00 am

By Melissa Rhoades On January 1, 1818, the debut novel of a 20-year-old woman was anonymously published in London. Within five years, a second edition was released and a play based on the book premiered. The novel and its spin-offs remained a hit, and in 1910, Edison Studios created the first movie based on Mary […]

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It’s Time for Research Papers & Science Fair Projects!

Posted in News on March 1, 2018 at 6:00 am

Get the knowledge and help you need online. Our digital resources help students with research, science projects, and studying for tests. We have the digital resources to help you succeed! RESEARCH PAPERS Biography in Context: Discover over 600,000 biographies of contemporary and historical figures. CultureGrams: Explore the cultures of people throu […]

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Anticipation and inspiration: Getting ready for spring gardening

Posted in Explore and Discover on February 27, 2018 at 6:00 am

by Abra Cole It’s nearly Go Time, my gardening friends! We’ve almost made it through the winter, through the snow and the ice, through the below-freezing temperatures. We have watched last summer’s plants freeze and die back, disappear under a blanket of snow, and get stomped on (along with other indecencies) by neighborhood cats. We […]

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Beat cabin fever with these creative and (mostly) free activities

Posted in kids, Parents and Teachers on February 20, 2018 at 6:00 am

By Rachel Edmondson If your family is like mine, then February is peak cabin fever season. While we still bundle up and go outside occasionally, we don’t last long when the weather is so chilly. This leaves a lot of time spent inside trying to keep ourselves entertained. While we love reading books, watching movies, […]

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’Tis the Season for Mobile Devices

Posted in Explore and Discover on December 7, 2017 at 6:00 am

by Erin Dodge Whether you have a new mobile device or you’re loving your old one, you have access to free apps and resources with your library card. You can download popular books, movies, music, and more. Because all of the apps and digital resources are free, avid and casual readers, listeners, and watchers of […]

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Big animals, big news: Connect with Washington wildlife at your local library

Posted in Explore and Discover on November 30, 2017 at 6:00 am

By Nathaniel Youmans 2017 has been quite a big year for Washington’s large wildlife. The gray wolf population in the northeast part of the state continues to rebound by an annual growth rate of nearly 30%, with the two newest established packs recognized in a Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife survey conducted late last […]

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