Press Release
For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Wendy Kahn, Fairbrother & Company
wendy@fairbrother.com
(518) 392-7700
Families Explore New York at Their Local Libraries This Summer
Kids Enrich Their Experience of New York’s Quadricentennial Celebration with Summer Reading
Albany, N.Y., June 17, 2009 –This summer, as New York State celebrates its 400th anniversary, the New York State Library invites families to explore New York State through the 2009 New York Statewide Summer Reading Program at more than 1,100 public libraries and branch libraries. Families with kids of all ages are encouraged to “read all about it” before—and after—visiting the many events, historic sites and celebrations going on throughout the state this summer.
2009 marks the dual 400th anniversaries of the voyage of English Captain Henry Hudson, who led the first European expedition to sail up the river that now bears his name, and Frenchman Samuel de Champlain, the first European to gaze upon the waters of the namesake lake. To celebrate these simultaneous quadricentennials—as well as the 200th anniversary of Robert Fulton’s maiden journey up the Hudson River on the first successful steamboat—New York State and its many communities have planned a yearlong series of events, which can be found at www.exploreny400.com.
To commemorate the New York State Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentenial, the New York State Library, in partnership with the New York Library Association’s Youth Services Section and School Library Media Section, has created four selected reading lists that celebrate the history, culture, and diversity of New York State.
Librarians who work with children and teens in both public libraries and school libraries across the State collaborated to select age-appropriate titles for recreational reading. The lists are designed to provide a flavor of New York State and to spark an interest in the diversity and history of the state. Books on the lists are related directly to the events celebrated, but also reflect a wide and diverse variety of New York experiences.
Each of the four lists covers one reader age group: Picture Books; Elementary; Tween; and Teen and up. Selected titles from the four lists appears below.
“Families looking for engaging, fun and educational experiences this summer—either in their local areas or across New York State—can put together a fun family trip with the resources available here,” said Karen Balsen, coordinator of the New York State Library’s Statewide Summer Reading Program. “The ‘Explore New York’ program and the Library’s reading list enrich a family outing or vacation, while reinforcing summer reading for kids of all ages.”
In addition to the extensive age-appropriate summer reading lists, there are many resources and activities available for librarians, parents, educators, children and teens at the program’s web site, www.summerreadingnys.org.
New York State partners with 46 other states as part of the national Collaborative Summer Library Program to share best practices and ideas for program goals, activities and themes. The New York Statewide Summer Reading Program is a program of the New York State Library in the Office of Cultural Education in the New York State Education Department and is funded through the Federal Library Services and Technology Act, with funds awarded to the New York State Library by the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services.
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Complete NYS Summer Readings and more at: www.summerreadingnys.org/media
Attached: Selected Summer Reading Suggestions for “Explore New York” at Your Local Library
Picture Books
River of Dreams: The Story of the Hudson River, by illustrator Hudson Talbott.
In watercolors, colored pencil and ink, lushly detailed paintings that tell a story both literally and symbolically.
Maiden of the Mist: A Legend of Niagara Falls, by Veronika Charles.
Retelling of a Seneca legend wherein a girl takes destiny into her own hands by going over Niagara Falls.
Abbie in Stitches, by Cynthia Cotton.
Growing up in western New York State in the early 1800s, Abbie would much rather read than embroider a sampler, but she works hard after thinking of just the right picture.
The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal, by Cheryl Harness.
At first folks didn't really believe the Erie Canal would ever be built--but when it was completed in 1825, people proclaimed it, “Amazing!”
Rip Van Winkle’s Return, by Eric A. Kimmel.
A man, who sleeps for twenty years in the Catskill Mountains, wakes to a much-changed world, in this illustrated adaptation of Washington Irving’s classic tale.
Elementary
Drums at Saratoga, by Lisa Banim.
Lured by the glamour and excitement of a soldier's life, eleven-year-old Nathaniel follows the British army down the Hudson Valley during the American Revolution.
Samuel's Choice, by Richard Berleth.
After hearing the fighting sound of the revolutionaries, Samuel, a 14-year-old slave in New York City, defies his owners and performs a heroic act that allows Washington’s troops to escape from the British after the Battle of Long Island.
Children of the Longhouse, by Joseph Bruchac.
Eleven-year-old Ohkwa’ri and his twin sister must make peace with a hostile gang of older boys in their Mohawk village during the late 1400s.
The Amazing Erie Canal and How a Big Ditch Opened Up the West, by Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin.
A brief history of canals; the geographic need for the Erie Canal; and an explanation of how its creation impacted American commerce and history.
Jacques Cartier: Exploring the St. Lawrence River Valley, by Jennifer Lackey.
What the explorer’s life was really like on the expedition to New York’s historic river valley, from what they wore to what they ate; including colorful maps and images showing the areas explored.
On the Banks of the Hudson: A View of its History and Folklore, by Beman Lord.
A narrative, non-fiction exploration of the history of the towns along the banks of the Hudson.
The Travels of Samuel de Champlain, by Joanne Mattern.
The journeys of the French explorer who joined an expedition to Canada, founded a settlement in Quebec, joined the Algonquins and Hurons against the Iroquois in an attempt to keep the land.
Henry Hudson, by Andrew Santella.
Hudson’s little-known 1607 voyage that attempted to find a passage to Japan and China by way of the North Pole as well as Hudson’s trip up the Hudson River to try and find the Northwest Passage.
Tweens
Chingo Smith of the Erie Canal, by Samuel Hopkins Adams.
Follows the fortunes of the homeless orphan, Chingo Smith, who got his first name in trade from a Seneca Indian and his second from a gypsy with whom he traveled. His fortunes rise and fall, but when he sees the partially-built Erie Canal for the first time, he knows he wants to be a part of it.
Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Sisters Isabel and Ruth are promised freedom after the death of their slave master. Instead, they become property of a New York City couple. Isabel soon catches Revolution fever. Together Isabel and Curzon strive for freedom and the freedom of New York and their country.
Journey to Nowhere, Mary Jane Auch.
In 1815, while traveling by covered wagon to settle in the wilderness of western New York, eleven-year-old Mem experiences a flood and separation from her family.
Writing from the Upper Hudson Valley and the Adirondacks by Joseph Bruchac.
Anthology of poetry, short fiction, and essays.
New York, 1609-1776, by Michael Burgan and Timothy J. Shannon.
Presents the history of New York by discussing the interaction between Native American tribes and Dutch settlers, as well as leaders including Peter Stuyvesant and Alexander Hamilton.
Sweetgrass Basket, by Marlene Carvell.
In alternating passages, two Mohawk sisters describe their lives at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, established in 1879 to educate Native Americans, as they try to assimilate into white culture.
Echohawk, by Lynda Durrant.
A twelve-year-old white boy, adopted and raised by Mohicans in the Hudson River Valley during the 1730s, is sent with his younger brother to an English settlement for schooling.
Escape Across The Wide Sea, by Katherine Kirkpatrick.
After escaping religious persecution in France in 1686, a young Huguenot boy and his parents travel on a slave ship to West Africa, then to the Caribbean, and finally to New York, where they help found the town of New Rochelle.
Trouble’s Daughter: The Story of Susanna Hutchinson, Indian Captive, by Katherine Kirkpatrick.
When her family is massacred by Lenape Indians in 1643, nine-year-old Susanna, daughter of Anne Hutchinson, is captured and raised as a Lenape.
Spitfire: A North Country Adventure, by Kate Messner.
In October of 1776, two twelve-year-olds meet on a ship on Lake Champlain and forge a fast friendship while serving together as soldiers.
The Eerie Canal, by Jack Reber.
Two ten-year-olds on a class trip to the Erie Canal find themselves transported back in time to the canal of 1829, and have adventures aboard a canal boat.
Saratoga Secret, by Betsy Sterman.
In 1777, as General Burgoyne and his British troops invade the Upper Hudson River Valley, sixteen-year-old Amity must carry a secret message to the Continental army to give warning of an impending attack.
Teens
Journey into Mohawk Country, by Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert.
A graphic novel illustrated by George O’Connor of the travels of a Dutch trader in early America based on Van den Bogaert’s 1634 journal, A Journey into Mohawk and Oneida Country.
Whaleboat Raid, by Peter Burchard.
A sixteen-year-old boy guides a flotilla of American whaleboats across Long Island Sound to raid British-occupied Sag Harbor.
An Inconvenient Wife, by Megan Chance.
A gripping fictional account of the horrors women faced during the late 19th century in New York when they dared to show passion of any kind or repudiate society’s norms. Lucy Carelton suffers from a common female disorder, “hysteria”: its symptoms are headaches, excitable reactions and feelings of claustrophobia. Her cold-hearted husband, William, determined to find her a cure, brings her to several specialists, who recommend everything from an ovariotomy to several months of confinement in a private asylum.
Ticonderoga 1758: Montcalms' Victory Against All Odds, by Rene Chartrand.
In July 1758, the British launched an expedition against the French Fort of Carillon (Ticonderoga). Lord Howe, a popular British leader, was killed before the main battle began; the Black Watch regiments were decimated; the British retreated in near panic and the fort remained in the hands of the French.
A Respectable Woman: The Public Roles of African American Women in 19th-Century New York, by Jane I. Dabel.
In the nineteenth century, New York’s free blacks were extremely politically active, lobbying for equal rights at home and an end to southern slavery. As their activism increased, so did discrimination against them. However, the struggle for civil rights did not extend to equal gender roles, and black male leaders encouraged women to remain in the domestic sphere, serving as caretakers, moral educators, and nurses to their families and community.
Quest, by Kathleen Benner Duble.
Relates the events of explorer Henry Hudson's final voyage from four points of view: that of his seventeen-year-old son aboard the ship, a younger son left in London, a crewmember, and a young English woman acting as a spy in Holland.
Drums Along the Mohawk, by Walter Edmonds.
The story of the forgotten pioneers of the Mohawk Valley during the Revolutionary War. Combating hardships almost too great to endure, they helped give America a legend, and fought a war without ever quite understanding it. An American classic since its original publication in 1936.
Haunted Northern New York: True, Chilling Tales of Ghosts in the North Country, by Cheri Revai.
A collection of ghostly stories and strange phenomena of Upstate New York, including haunted cemeteries, Ruby's castle in Watertown, and many more.
City of Dreams: A Novel of Nieuw Amsterdam and Early Manhattan, by Beverly Swerling.
In 1661, a brother and sister stagger off a wooden ship after eleven perilous weeks at sea to seek a new life in the Dutch settlement of Nieuw Amsterdam. Bound to each other by blood and necessity, these gifted healers become deadly enemies as betrayal and murder enter their lives. Their descendents—dedicated physicians and surgeons, pirates and whoremasters—will shape the future of medicine and the growing city.
War Out of Niagara: Walter Butler and the Tory Rangers, by Howard Swiggett.
A full account of the the American Revolution in northern New York, the Loyalist issues of the area; the role of the Mohawk Indians; the battle actions from 1778-1780; and the controversial role of Walter Butler’s Rangers in the battle at Cherry Valley.
Seeking the Northwest Passage, by Don Thompson and Carol Thompson.
An introduction to the life and discoveries of Samuel de Champlain, the French “discoverer” of Lake Champlain, with photos, maps and illustrations.
Ride with the Loomis Gang, by Fuller E. Torrey.
Chronicles the exploits of the legendary Loomis Gang, a group of more than 200 men who terrorized central New York during the mid-1800s.