by Nancy M. Henkel

from Ready-Made Book Displays. Libraries Unlimited, 2011.

If you were ever tempted to break the lock on your older sister’s diary and read it, here’s the booklist for you. All of these books are done in diary format, and it seems to be perennially popular with patrons. My all-time favorite (so far) is Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, but I also loved The Adrian Mole Diaries by Sue Townsend when I first read it as a teenager. To find these in your catalog you may want to try search terms such as “diary,” “journal,” and “epistolary.”

Besides fiction titles written as diaries, there is an incredibly large number of published journals written by famous individuals such as Samuel Johnson, Samuel Pepys, and William Clark and Meriwether Lewis. And don’t forget the most famous journal of all, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.

Prop Ideas

Ornate pens or pencils
Blank sheets of writing paper
Diary pages (written on or blank)

Related Dewey Subject List

Journal writing (808.066)
Journal/bookmaking (686)

Booklist

Douglas Carlton Abrams. The Lost Diary of Don Juan. Atria Books, 2007.
At the urging of his benefactor (and to refute the lies), Juan Tenorio pens a diary and reveals his adventures and his mastery of the art of passion.

Sherman Alexie. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Little, Brown, 2007.
Alexie’s National Book Award–winning story about Junior, who leaves the Spokane Indian reservation to attend a neighboring school and finds that the mascot is the only other Indian.

Sandra Dallas. The Diary of Mattie Spenser. St. Martin’s Griffin, 1997.
A diary found in an attic brings forth the story of a young woman who endures life on the Colorado frontier.

Louise Erdrich. Shadow Tag. Harper, 2010.
A troubled marriage. A man who reads his wife’s diary. A woman who writes a pseudo-diary for her husband to find as well as a real one for herself. Two children caught in the middle.

Jim Fergus. One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd. St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
After being unfairly committed to an insane asylum by her snobbish family, May agrees to participate in a secret government program designed to “civilize” Native American warriors by marrying them to white women.

Laurie Graham. Gone with the Windsors. HarperCollins, 2006.
A diary written by Wallis Simpson’s wealthy and completely clueless best friend, Maybell, chronicling the divorcee’s pursuit of her prince.

Syrie James. Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë. Avon, 2009.
Here’s the diary of the author of Jane Eyre as she herself might have written it: her secluded, bookish sisters, her drug-addicted brother, and her secret love.

Allen C. Kupfer. The Journal of Professor Abraham Van Helsing. Forge, 2004.
An English professor discovers diary fragments purportedly belonging to Bram Stoker’s fictional vampire hunter from Dracula, Abraham Van Helsing.

Nancy E. Turner. These Is my Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881–1901. HarperCollins, 1998.
Twenty years in the life of an adventurous woman living in the Arizona Territory. Based on the author’s family memoirs.

Kate Westbrook. The Moneypenny Diaries. Thomas Dunne Books, 2008.
After years of keeping some of Britain’s and James Bond’s most secret secrets, Miss Moneypenny speaks at last.

Bookmark to:

by Nancy M. Henkel

from Ready-Made Book Displays. Libraries Unlimited, 2011.

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, humor is in the funny bone of the reader. Or something like that.

In no other area of readers’ advisory do librarians have so much trouble matching books to readers, simply because what is hilarious to one person may be incomprehensible to someone else. For example, one reader may think Christopher Moore’s books are a scream, and another reader might find them irreverent. One reader might chuckle at Carl Hiaasen’s stories, while another might think they are offensive.

When you gather your inventory for this display, remember to include all kinds of humor in it, from the gentle down-home humor of writers like Fannie Flagg to the in-your-face absurdity of authors such as Tim Dorsey. You might also include some books by humor essayists such as Dave Barry, David Sedaris, and Sarah Vowell. Put this display up in April to coincide with National Humor Month.

Prop Ideas

Funny nose glasses
Rubber chicken
Whoopie cushion

Related Dewey Subject List

Joke books (398.6)
Humorous essays (814.54)
Circus clowns (791.33)
Stand-up comedy (792.7)

Booklist

Meg Cabot. Queen of Babble. William Morrow, 2006.
An American girl in London meets up with her unfaithful boyfriend at a wedding she is supposed to be bartending and, as usual, can’t keep her mouth shut. First in a series.

Toni McGee Causey. Bobbie Faye’s (Kinda, Sorta, Not Exactly) Family Jewels. St. Martins Griffin, 2008.
Spunky Bobbie Faye seems to attract disaster. When cousin Francesca needs help finding her dad’s diamonds (stolen by her mother), Bobbie goes on the run and head-to-head with a sexy undercover agent.

Claire Cook. Seven Year Switch. Voice, 2010.
Jill’s husband, Seth, returns after departing suddenly for a seven-year stint in the Peace Corps. What’s a girl to do? Go on vacation in Costa Rica, of course…

Lisa Lutz. The Spellman Files. Simon and Schuster, 2007.
The first is a series of books about a hilariously dysfunctional family that owns a privative investigation firm.

Evan Mandery. First Contact, or, It’s Later than You Think. HarperCollins, 2010.
A Douglas Adams–style satire about aliens from the planet Rigel-Rigel who arrive on Earth and urge us to shape up or be destroyed. But on the bright side, they really like our Bundt cakes.

Alexander McCall Smith. The Unbearable Lightness of Scones. Anchor Books, 2010.
The inhabitants of 44 Scotland Street, an apartment house in Edinburgh, are back with their beloved foibles intact.

Rick Moody. The Four Fingers of Death. Little, Brown and Company, 2010.
In 2025, a down-and-out author writes the novelization of a movie about a Martian-infected astronaut arm that attacks Earth, with one of its fingers missing.

Misa Ramirez. Hasta la Vista, Lola! Minataur Books, 2010.
Lola Cruz is a kung-fu-fighting, salsa-dancing private detective whose identity was stolen by a woman who promptly got killed. This follow up to Living la Vida Lola is a funny, sexy romp.

Robert Rankin. Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse. Gollancz, 2003.
Someone is murdering nursery rhyme characters! When Jack comes to Toy City to make his fortune, he teams up with a teddy bear detective named Eddie to solve the crimes.

Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia Meets Her Match. Viking, 2004.
An irrepressible and proper southern widow, Miss Julia must make an important decision when her longtime beau finally proposes. One in a series.

Ready-Made Book Displays by Nancy Henkel. Copyright © 2011 by Nancy Henkel. Reproduced with permission from ABC-CLIO, LLC.

Bookmark to:

by Nancy M. Henkel

from Ready-Made Book Displays. Libraries Unlimited, 2011.

Since the early days of television, medical dramas have captivated audiences. Shows like Marcus Welby MD, Emergency!, St. Elsewhere, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs, House, and even General Hospital have all enjoyed substantial audiences. Undoubtedly, it is the life-and-death decisions being made, the smart and hunky actors heroically saving lives, and of course, the dramatic and romantic exploits of the characters.

Medical fiction has the same allure. In the hands of a talented writer, the reader can almost feel the pulse of the patient and hear the beep of the life-support system. Authors such as Robin Cook, Tess Gerritsen, and Michael Palmer are all staples in this category. You could also add some of the great nonfiction books published by and about doctors, hospitals, and illness, including My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, The House of Hope and Fear: Life in a Big City Hospital by Audrey Young, and Paradise General: Riding the Surge in a Combat Hospital in Iraq by Dave Hnida.

Prop Ideas

Stethoscope
Medical bag
Scrubs
Photos of famous fictional physicians (Dr. Killdare, Dr. Quinn, Dr. McDreamy, etc. from Google images)

Related Dewey Subject List

Medical history (610.9)
Anatomy (611)
Hospitals (362.1109)

Booklist

Lauren Belfer. A Fierce Radiance. Harper, 2010.
Part historical thriller, part romance, part pharmaceutical espionage. Claire Shipley is a reporter for Life in 1941 who is sent to cover a story about an experimental drug breakthrough: penicillin.

Ben Bova. The Immortality Factor. Tor, 2009.
Stem cell research is a polarizing topic, and never more so than when it suddenly presents the opportunity for immortality and it puts two physician brothers on opposite sides of the argument.

Geraldine Brooks. Year of Wonders. Viking, 2001.
In 1666, an English mountain village called Eyam, dubbed the “Plague Village” decides to quarantine itself to stop the spread of the disease. This is a test of faith and endurance that many villagers fail.

Candace Calvert. Critical Care. Tyndale House Publishers, 2009.
A nurse-counselor and a hard-headed ER doctor disagree about the nurse’s role in counseling trauma personnel. But faith and compromise might bring a meeting of the minds.

David Carnoy. Knife Music. Overlook Press, 2010.
Emergency Room surgeon Ted Cogan may be in big trouble. The teenage accident victim whose life he recently saved has committed suicide, and the police think he may be involved in her death.

Dianne Day. Cut to the Heart: Clara Barton and the Darkness of Love and War. Doubleday, 2002.
This meticulously researched novel brings Red Cross founder and Civil War nurse Clara Barton to life, including the prejudice she faced and the private battles she fought.

Ken Follett. The Third Twin. Crown Publishers, 1996.
A researcher stumbles onto a Cold War experiment involving genetics and twins. When she falls in love with one of a set of twins, she begins to worry if he shares traits with his criminal twin.

Frank Huyler. Right of Thirst. Harper Perennial, 2009.
After his wife’s death, cardiologist Charles Anderson goes to an Islamic country to help with earthquake relief, in hopes of forgetting his own troubles.

C. J. Lyons. Lifelines. Berkley Publishing Group, 2008.
On her first day at Pittsburgh’s Angels of Mercy Medical Center, attending physician Lydia Fiore loses a patient under suspicious circumstances. With the help of a few other women working at the hospital, she may figure out what is going on, and she just might hook up with that cute paramedic.

Robin Oliveira. My Name Is Mary Sutter. Viking, 2010.
Young midwife Mary Sutter travels to Washington, D.C., during the Civil War to help tend the wounded. Ignoring pressure to return home, she ends up as the assistant to a well-known physician.

Bookmark to:

by Nancy M. Henkel

from Ready-Made Book Displays. Libraries Unlimited, 2011.

Vampires just don’t seem to be going away. There are novels about funny vampires, sexy vampires, literary knockoff vampires, and terrifying vampires. Many, many authors write in the vampire genre, so gathering titles is probably going to be fast and easy. Some of these writers include Mary Janice Davidson, Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, Erin McCarthy, Anne Rice, and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. And, of course, you can also include Bram Stoker. But there are also some stand-alone vampire novels and some that are written by novelists who just wanted to take their fangs on a test run. This is an easy and popular display to do, especially around Halloween, and you can resurrect it every time a new Twilight movie comes out.

Prop Ideas

Bats
Vampire cape
Plastic fangs

Related Dewey Subject List

Vampire myth and lore (398.21)
History of Romania/Transylvania (949.8)
Vampire movie history (791.4309)

Related Media

DVDs of vampire movies such as Dracula starring Gary Oldman, the classic version starring Bela Lugosi, or Interview with a Vampire starring Tom Cruise.

Booklist

Dakota Cassidy. Accidentally Dead. Berkley Sensation, 2008.
In this installment of Cassidy’s paranormal romances, dental hygienist Nina is turned into a vampire when she’s accidentally bitten on the job.

Christopher Farnsworth. Blood Oath. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2010.
Nathaniel Cade is the president’s secret weapon: a vampire who secretly defends the United States against unnatural threats.

Michael Thomas Ford. Jane Bites Back. Ballantine Books, 2010.
Elizabeth Jane Fairfax just happens to be Jane Austen incognito, just happens to own a bookshop, and just happens to be a 233-year-old vampire. She also wants to get her last manuscript published.

Seth Grahame-Smith. Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. Grand Central Publishing, 2010.
Sure, our sixteenth president freed slaves and steered the United States through one of the most traumatic periods in our history. But did you also know he was a force for good against the undead?

Matt Haig. The Radleys. Free Press, 2010.
A middle-class British couple raising their teenagers must deal with midlife crises, vegan diets, and the fact that they are vampires hiding in plain sight.

Susan Hubbard. The Society of S. Simon & Schuster, 2007.
The first in Hubbard’s Ethical Vampire series is a twist on the usual vampire story set in a world where vampires coexist with humans.

Louise Marley. Mozart’s Blood. Kensington Books, 2010.
Teresa is a soprano vampire who carries the memories of victims past—including those of Mozart. A brilliantly conceived and executed tale that spans four centuries.

Robin McKinley. Sunshine. Berkley Books, 2003.
As the daughter of a sorcerer, Rae Seddon, known as Sunshine, is being recruited to become part of the Special Others Forces to combat a vampire takeover. Meanwhile, she is kidnapped by a group of vampires who intend to serve her up to their boss for dinner.

Terence Taylor. Blood Pressure: A Vampire Testament. St. Martin’s Press, 2010.
Clean Slate Global plots to rid the world of vampires, except for its own army of undead. With flashbacks to the Harlem Renaissance, performance art, romance, and a battle against cancer, this complex novel lives up to its prequel, Bite Marks.

David Wellington. 99 Coffins: A Historical Vampire Tale. Three Rivers Press, 2007.
As the survivor of a vicious vampire attack, Laura Caxton has no desire to tangle with them again. However, when an archaeological dig in Gettysburg unearths ninety-nine coffins containing dead vampires and one empty coffin, she goes on a deadly quest to find the missing vampire and save the town.

Bookmark to:

by Nancy M. Henkel

from Ready-Made Book Displays. Libraries Unlimited, 2011.

My library isn’t far from a well-known horse-racing track, so a display of horse books is usually pretty popular. I often do this display to coincide with the opening of the racing season or in May for the Kentucky Derby.

As with books about cats and dogs, there are a number of authors who write horse stories, including Rita Mae Brown, Michele Scott, and, of course, Dick Francis. But there are also some great nonfiction horse books that you could add to your inventory, including The Horse Boy by Rupert Isaacson about a man whose autistic son is helped by a horse; Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton about a group of Special Forces members who went to war in Afghanistan against the Taliban on horseback; and Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand about the rise of an American race horse.

Prop Ideas

Horse-track race programs
Horse-race betting forms
Model horses
Horse tack (bridle, bits, curry comb, etc.)
Horseshoes

Related Dewey Subject List

Horses (636.1)
Horse racing (798.4)
Dressage (798.23)
Biographies of famous jockeys (Bill Shoemaker, etc.)

Booklist

Nicholas Evans. The Horse Whisperer. Delacorte Press, 1995.
A wounded horse named Pilgrim is at the center of this novel about a “horse whisperer,” a man who can charm wild horses, and possibly wounded people as well.

Molly Gloss. The Hearts of Horses. Houghton Mifflin, 2007.
Gloss weaves together historical accounts of cowgirls to create her protagonist, Martha Lessen, a shy cowgirl who gets work on a ranch in Oregon during World War I.

Will Henry. The Blue Mustang. Leisure Books, 2009.
A classic rerelease about a boy who vows revenge against his father’s murderer, accompanied only by his trusted horse.

Elmer Kelton. Other Men’s Horses. Forge, 2009.
A young Texas Ranger is charged with bringing a murdering horse trader to justice. But all is not so simple in 1880s Texas, and there is always a showdown.

Cormac McCarthy. All the Pretty Horses. Knopf, 1992.
The first novel of McCarthy’s iconic Border Trilogy, which won the National Book Award in 1992. You saw the mediocre movie; now read the book.

John McEvoy. Significant Seven. Poisoned Pen Press, 2010.
One of McEvoy’s Jack Doyle mysteries that involves murder and, of course, horse racing.

Per Petterson. Out Stealing Horses. Graywolf Press, 2005.
When Trond Sander retires to a remote cabin in Norway, a chance meeting with a neighbor brings back memories of a fateful summer when he was a reckless teen.

Jean Rabe. The Finest Creation. Tor, 2004.
The first volume in Rabe’s fantasy trilogy about horses who are gifted with telepathic powers.

Willy Vlautin. Lean on Pete. Harper Perennial, 2010.
An aging race horse bound for slaughter becomes the companion of a teen who is running away to restart his life.

Jeannette Walls. Half-Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel. Scribner, 2009.
Walls follows The Glass Castle, a memoir about her childhood, with a thrilling fictionalization about her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith.

Bookmark to:

by Sarah Statz Cords

As always, please let us know in the comments if we’ve missed some display-worthy events or celebrations!

July is:

Cell Phone Courtesy Month
International Zine Month
National Black Family Month
National Grilling Month
National Ice Cream Month
National Recreation and Parks Month
Tour de France: July 2-24

Holidays in July Include:

July 1: Canada Day (Canada)
July 4: Independence Day
July 11: World Population Day
July 14: Bastille Day (France)
July 23: National Day of the Cowboy
July 24: Parents’ Day

July Famous Author Birthdays

George Sand (novelist): July 1, 1804
M.F.K. Fisher: July 3, 1908
Dave Barry: July 3, 1947
Nathaniel Hawthorne: July 4, 1804
E.B. White: July 11, 1899
Henry David Thoreau: July 12, 1817
Richard Russo: July 15, 1949
Hunter S. Thompson: July 18, 1939
Ernest Hemingway: July 21, 1899
Cormac McCarthy: July 20, 1933
Raymond Chandler: July 23, 1888
Beatrix Potter: July 28, 1866
Emily Bronte: July 30, 1818
J.K. Rowling: July 31, 1965

July Famous Birthdays

Diana, Princess of Wales: July 1, 1961
Calvin Coolidge (30th president of the U.S.): July 4, 1872
P.T. Barnum: July 5, 1810
George W. Bush (43rd president of the U.W.): July 6, 1946
Frida Kahlo: July 6, 1907
Satchel Paige: July 7, 1906
John Quincy Adams (6th president of the U.S.): July 11, 1767
Gerald Ford (38th president of the U.S.): July 14, 1913
Rembrandt: July 15, 1606
Nelson Mandela: July 18, 1918
Edgar Degas: July 19, 1834
Amelia Earhart: July 24, 1897

July Historical Events:

July 2, 1881: President James Garfield shot
July 2, 1937: Amelia Earhart disappears
July 2, 1964: Civil Rights Act signed into law
July 4, 1776: Declaration of Independence approved and signed
July 7, 2005: London terrorist bombings
July 9, 1893: First open-heart surgery performed
July 20, 1969: First moon landing
July 28, 1914: World War I begins
July 30, 1935: Paperback books introduced by Penguin in the U.K.

Sources include: Chase’s 2011 Calendar of Events; Holiday Insights

Bookmark to:

by Sarah Statz Cords

June is:
Audiobook Appreciation Month
Caribbean-American Heritage Month
Children’s Awareness Month
Dairy Month
Great Outdoors Month
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month
National Bathroom Reading Month
National GLBT Book Month
National Safety Month
Perennial Gardening Month
Skyscraper Month

Holidays in June Include:
June 5: World Environment Day
June 14: Flag Day
June 15: Native American Citizenship Day
June 16: Bloomsday (anniversary of events in Dublin recorded in James Joyce’s Ulysses)
June 19: Father’s Day
June 21: Summer Solstice (Midsummer)

June Famous Author Birthdays
Allen Ginsberg: June 3, 1926
Larry McMurtry: June 3, 1936
Margaret Drabble: June 5, 1939
Ken Follett: June 5, 1949
Richard Scarry: June 5, 1919
Louise Erdrich: June 7, 1954
Orhan Pamuk: June 7, 1952
Sara Paretsky: June 8, 1947
Patricia Cornwell: June 9, 1956
Saul Bellow: June 10, 1915
Maurice Sendak: June 10, 1928
William Styron: June 11, 1925
Anne Frank: June 12, 1929
William Butler Yeats: June 13, 1865
Harriet Beecher Stowe: June 14, 1811
Joyce Carol Oates: June 16, 1938
Richard Powers: June 18, 1957
Salman Rushdie: June 19, 1947
Octavia Butler: June 22, 1947
Dan Brown: June 22, 1964
George Orwell: June 25, 1903
Charlotte Zolotow: June 26, 1915

June Famous Birthdays:
Marilyn Monroe: June 1, 1926
Jefferson Davis: June 3, 1808 (President of the Confederacy)
Frank Lloyd Wright: June 8, 1867
Judy Garland: June 10, 1922
Jacques Cousteau: June 11, 1910 (100th birth anniversary)
Vince Lombardi: June 11, 1913
George H. W. Bush: June 12, 1924 (41st president of the U.S.)
Garfield the Cat: June 19, 1978
Lou Gehrig: June 19, 1903
Helen Keller: June 27, 1880

June Historical Events:
Zoot Suit riots in L.A.: June 3-8, 1943
Tiananmen Square Massacre: June 4, 1989
Robert F. Kennedy assassinated: June 5, 1968
D-Day (World War II): June 6, 1944
Magna Carta is signed: June 15, 1215
War of 1812 begins: June 18, 1812
Battle of Little Bighorn: June 25, 1876
Korean War began: June 25, 1950
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone published in the UK: June 26, 1997
Britain ceded Hong Kong to China: June 30, 1997

Sources include: The American Book of Days (Stephen G. Christianson); 2010 Chase’s Calendar of Events; Brownielocks June Calendar; ZanyHolidays.com.

Bookmark to:

by Sarah Statz Cords

As always, please let us know in the comments if we’ve missed some display-worthy events or celebrations!

May is:
Arthritis Awareness Month
Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month
Family Wellness Month
Get Caught Reading Month
Haitian Heritage Month
Jewish American Heritage Month
Latino Books Month
National Family Month (May 8-June 19)
National Bike Month
National Mental Health Month
National Photo Month
National Physical Fitness and Sports Month
Older Americans Month
Personal History Month
Tennis Month

Holidays in May Include:
May Day: May 1
Law Day: May 1
Be Kind to Animals Week (May 1-7)
Teacher Appreciation Week (May 1-7)
Children’s Book Week (May 2-8)
Cinco de Mayo: May 5
National Nurses Week (May 6-12)
Free Comic Book Day: May 7
Kentucky Derby: May 7
Mother’s Day: May 8
V-E Day: May 8
Reading is Fun Week (May 8-14)
National Transportation Week (May 15-21)
Armed Forces Day: May 21
National Waitstaff Day: May 21
Memorial Day: May 30

May Famous Authors Birthdays
Bobbie Ann Mason: May 1, 1940
James Beard: May 5, 1903
Studs Terkel: May 16, 1912
Thomas Pynchon: May 8, 1937
Barbara Taylor Bradford: May 10, 1933
L. Frank Baum: May 15, 1856
Nora Ephron: May 19, 1941
Ian McEwan: May 21, 1948
Arthur Conan Doyle: May 22, 1859
Mitch Albom: May 23, 1958
Raymond Carver: May 25, 1938
Rachel Carson: May 27, 1907
Dashiell Hammett: May 27, 1894
Ian Fleming: May 28, 1908
Walt Whitman: May 31, 1819

May Famous Birthdays
James Brown: May 3, 1933
Golda Meir: May 3, 1898
Karl Marx: May 5, 1818
Sigmund Freud: May 6, 1856
Harry S. Truman: May 8, 1884 (33rd president of the U.S.)
Florence Nightingale: May 12, 1820
George Lucas: May 14, 1944 (Star Wars display time! Movies, books, soundtracks, graphic novels, etc.)
Henry Fonda: May 16, 1905
Malcolm X: May 19,1925
Mary Cassatt: May 22, 1844
Bob Dylan: May 24, 1941
John F. Kennedy: May 29, 1917 (35th president of the U.S.)

May Historical Events:
Great Britain formed: May 1, 1707 (union between England and Scotland)
Stock Market Crash of 1893: May 5, 1893
Civil Rights Act of 1960 passed: May 6, 1960
Smallpox vaccine discovered: May 14, 1796
Mount St. Helens eruption: May 18, 1980
Anne Boleyn executed: May 19,1536
Amelia Earhart crosses the Atlantic: May 20, 1932

Sources include: The American Book of Days (Stephen G. Christianson); 2011 Chase’s Calendar of Events

Bookmark to:

by Sarah Statz Cords

April is:
Autism Awareness Month
Child Abuse Prevention Month
Consumer Awareness Week (April 18-23)
Home Improvement Time (April 1-Sep. 30)
Jazz Appreciation Month
National Anxiety Month
National Card and Letter Writing Month
National Humor Month
National Library Week (April 10-16)
National Poetry Month
Physical Awareness Month
School Library Month

Holidays in April include:
April Fools’ Day: April 1
Paraprofessional Appreciation Day: April 6 (Might I suggest that library clerks and assistants almost always love chocolate?)
No Housework Day: April 7
Tax Day: April 15 (More like an anti-holiday, but always one that library staff are glad to see pass.)
Passover: April 18 (begins at sundown on this day; then April 19-26)
Earth Day: April 22
Easter Sunday: April 24
Administrative Professionals Day: April 27
Arbor Day: April 29

April famous birthdays:
Hans Christian Anderson: April 2, 1805
Giovanni Giacomo Casanova: April 2, 1725
Maya Angelou: April 4, 1928
Bette Davis: April 5, 1908
Booker T. Washington: April 5, 1856
William Wordsworth: April 7, 1770
Paul Theroux: April 10, 1941
Thomas Jefferson: April 13, 1743 (There’s more than enough Jefferson bios and NF for a display about him.)
Selena: April 16, 1971
Leonardo da Vinci: April 15, 1452
Sherlock Holmes: April 17
Charlotte Bronte: April 21, 1816
John Muir: April 21, 1838
Queen Elizabeth II: April 21, 1926
James Buchanan: April 23, 1791 (15th U.S. President)
William Shakespeare: April 23, 1564 (he died on April 23, 1616)
Ella Fitzgerald: April 25, 1917
John James Audubon: April 26, 1785
Ulysses S. Grant: April 27, 1822 (18th U.S. President)
James Monroe: April 28, 1758 (5th U.S. President)

April Historical Events:
Martin Luther King Jr. assassination: April 4, 1968
U.S. Enters World War I: April 6, 1917
Discovery of the North Pole: April 6, 1909
Civil Rights Act of 1968 passed: April 11, 1968
Civil War begins: April 12, 1861
Abraham Lincoln assassination: April 14, 1865
Bay of Pigs invasion: April 17, 1961
San Francisco earthquake and fire: April 18, 1906

Sources include: The American Book of Days (Stephen G. Christianson); Chase’s Calendar of Events 2011; Library Thinkquest Bizarre April Holidays; April Famous Birthdays.

Bookmark to:

by Sarah Statz Cords

March is:
American Red Cross Month
Deaf History Month (March 13-April 15)
Humorists Are Artists Month
Iditarod Race (March 5-20)
International Ideas Month
International Listening Awareness Month
Irish-American Heritage Month
Music In Our Schools Month
National Agriculture Week (March 20-26)
National Clean Up Your IRS Act Month
National Cleaning Week (March 27-April 2)
National Craft Month
National Kite Month: March 26-May 1
National March Into Literacy Month
National Nutrition Month
National Social Work Month
National Women’s History Month
National Words Matter Week (March 6-12)
Optimism Month
Return the Borrowed Books Week (March 6-12)
Small Press Month
Spiritual Wellness Month
Teen Tech Week (March 6-12)
Youth Art Month

Holidays and Special Days in March Include:
March 2: Read Across America Day
March 4-5: National Day of Unplugging
March 8: Mardi Gras
March 9: Ash Wednesday
March 11: Johnny Appleseed Day
March 12: Genealogy Day
March 13: Daylight Saving Time begins (spring ahead! a.k.a. lose an hour of sleep)
March 15: Ides of March
March 17: St. Patrick’s Day
March 19: National Quilting Day
March 20: Spring begins
March 25: Tolkien Reading Day

March Famous Birthdays
Frederic Chopin: March 1, 1810
Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel): March 2, 1904
Alexander Graham Bell: March 3, 1847
Elizabeth Barrett Browning: March 6, 1806
Michelangelo: March 6, 1475
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk: March 12, 1881
Albert Einstein: March 14, 1879
Andrew Jackson (7th president of the US): March 15, 1767
James Madison (4th president of the US): March 16, 1751
Grover Cleveland (22nd and 24th president of the US): March 18, 1837
John Updike: March 18, 1932
B.F. Skinner: March 20, 1904
James Patterson: March 22, 1947
Robert Frost: March 26, 1874
John Tyler (10th president of the US): March 29, 1790

March Historical Events:
March 1, 1961: Peace Corps founded
March 1, 1692: Salem witch hysteria begins
March 6, 1857: Supreme Court Dred Scott decision (declared slaves property, not citizens)
March 6, 1836: Fall of the Alamo
March 10, 1876: Telephone invented
March 11, 1918: “Spanish” flu pandemic begins in US
March 19, 2003: Operation Iraqi Freedom begins
March 25, 1911: Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire (New York City)
March 26, 1979: Camp David Accord signed
March 28, 1979: Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant accident

Sources include: Chase’s Calendar of Events 2011; Family Crafts list of March Holidays

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