Virtual Activities from Our Local Museums

Even though the museums have closed again due to COVID, you can still explore their collections from the comfort of your home! All of the institutions for which we offer museum passes have a variety of activities and tours for patrons of all ages. Here are a hand selected list of some of our favorites. We will be highlighting them in the coming weeks!

Woodmere Art Museum

• the Violet Oakley Experience
• The Diving Board podcast-library

Academy of Natural Sciences

• Paleo Palooza!
• Learn how to take care of the environment with this reading-list

Penn Museum

• The Daily Dig
• Anthropology Crafts 

National Constitution Center

• Interactive Constitution 

Museum of the American Revolution 

• Virtual Tour with Author of I Survived Series
• Virutal Tour with Actor Michael Douglas 
• Revolutionary Crafts

Mütter Museum 

• Memento Mori interactive exhibit 
• On the Curator's Desk with Mike Rowe

1,000 Books Before Kindergarten

What a great way to get your child ready for Kindergarten, and for a lifetime of enjoying books!  If you read just one book a day with your child, that's 365 books in a year.  Before you and your child know it, you'll have 1,000 books read.  

Conshohocken Free Library and MCNPL have a program designed to help for families with kids up to age 5 (or Kindergarten age) keep track of their reading.  Register for the challenge at http://mcnpl.beanstack.org, and then log your books.  This is the same platform we used for the Summer Reading Program online this year, and it's really easy to use.  You can log your reading on a computer or through the app on a mobile device. And YES, repeat reads count!  

Your child will reach milestones when you read 1 book, 25 books, 100 books, 250 books, 500 books, and 1,000 books.  Once you reach each milestone, come visit us at the Conshohocken Free Library for a special reward.  Conshy Kids who read the most books will have their names featured on a Wall of Fame at the library!  

We already have a few names for our wall--will the next one be YOURS?

Join the challenge at http://mcnpl.beanstack.org!

What We're Reading: Italian Short Stories

 

What We’re Reading: a series where we, your librarians, share what we're reading this week. A post from Harry.

This week I've been perusing The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories edited by the author Jhumpa Lahiri. These 40 stories traverse the Italian "raconti" tradition from the past 100 years or so ranging from the surrealists of the 1920s to contemporary works that reference 9/11.

In addition to the delightful collection of stories, the book includes an insightful and interesting forward by Lahiri about the process of translation and how she "discovered" some of the lesser known authors and their works.

Some of my favorites from the collection include "The Siren", "Melancholy", and "The Lady". One of the great things about reading an anthology is the range of writing styles— if I didn't enjoy a story after a few pages, I didn't feel bad about skipping to the next one. I enjoyed some authors so much that I've already requested some of their other works here at the library!

I would definitely recommend this collection to anyone that was looking to shake up their reading habits. You will certainly come across at least a few authors whose stories you enjoy from this excellent anthology of 40 short stories.