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Blogs & Podcasts

Find early literacy tips and children's books on the Children's Blog. Discover your next great read on the Books Movies Music Blog. Dig into Nashville history with the Community History Blog. Listen to stories, history, and culture on NPL Podcasts. Please see this Note for Readers.

When we travelled to Italy, I really wanted to learn more of the language because Italians don’t, as a rule, speak much English. What no one tells you before hand is that Italian is hard to learn. When I came across this book, I was hoping that it would give me the added insight to get better at Italian.

What is "ephemera"? And how do you pronounce it, anyway? Ephemera (pronounced: "i-FEM-ur-uh"), refers to anything short-lived. Today we may be more familiar with the adjective, "ephemeral," used to describe fresh-cut flowers, a misty morning, or the rapidly changing colors of a fading sunset. But the noun, used in a library or archives setting, more often refers to two-dimensional objects, usually made out of paper, designed for limited use, often for just one day.

We need diverse books! I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase or seen the hashtag on twitter in the past year. Per statistics compiled by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, only 36 out of 3,500 children and young adult books published in 2014 were written by Latino authors.

Minecraft, a computer game where everything is made of blocks, is sweeping the nation. Everywhere you look you can find children playing the game, reading the books, or begging adults to buy them Minecraft merchandise at the store. There are many benefits to playing the game, and they can all be summed up in five letters – STEAM.

Podcast
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Listen to “The Terrible Head.” In this retelling of the myth of Perseus, a young man goes adventuring before fulfilling a prophesy.

This year we are blessed with children’s books by two masters of illustration, Marvin Bileck and Christopher Myers, who provide glimpses into extraordinary, imaginary worlds. Check them out!