Blog Entries

Here is a map of the bookish spots in Scarsdale where you can find some of your summer reading titles!

Scan the QR code below to view the full map on your mobile device.

Welcome to the “Dog Days,” the time of year synonymous with the “lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.” The name conjures up images of dappled dogs dozing in the sun but have you ever wondered where the term originated and what it actually means?  The “Dog Days,” which officially begin on July 3 and end on August 11, coincide with Sirius, the Dog Star, rising and setting with the sun. Known as the Dog Star because it is part of the constellation Canis Major, Latin for “Greater Dog,” Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky.

Have you ever wondered why baseball is referred to as our national pastime?  Even the  poet Walt Whitman called it ‘‘America’s game.” Although baseball comes in a distant third to football and basketball in television ratings, the game remains our national sport because it resonates more deeply in America’s heart than any other sport, inciting fierce  loyalties that span generations.

There’s no better vacation - or staycation - companion than a good book, a real page turner that you absolutely cannot put down. The books pictured below encompass a wide variety of styles and themes; the one thing they have in common is their ability to transport.  Click on a book jacket to be taken to a catalog link.  

“One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.” Jeannette Walls

The Fourth of July, aka Independence Day, is surely the most iconic of American holidays.  The official birthday of the United States has long been celebrated with fireworks and family gatherings but the day did not officially become a paid holiday for federal employees until 1941. A bit of background: on July 2nd, 1776, the Continental Congress voted in favor of independence from Great Britain and two days later delegates from the 13 colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence, which was drafted by Thomas Jefferson and edited by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams.

Dear Scarsdale Teens,

If you are a rising 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grader and you are prepared to track your time spent reading this July and August in Beanstack (via mobile app or online at www.scarsdalelibrary.beanstack.org), please register for the Teen Services Department's summer reading challenge! The challenge itself is to read 20 hours during summer break and to log your reading in Beanstack under the Teenstack banner.

Dear Scarsdale Middle School Students/Graduates and Families,

     The purpose of this post is to let you know what SPL is doing to support you in completing your SMS + Rising 9th-grader summer reading assignments this year. 

June is National Audiobook Appreciation Month, a celebration created by the Audio Publishers Association (APA) to acknowledge the significant role of audiobooks not only in the lives of busy people needing to multitask but also as an indispensable tool for the vision impaired and to advance literacy.

While many of us think of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day as twin holidays, the two celebrations had very different historical trajectories. Mother’s Day became a national holiday only seven years after it was first celebrated on May 10, 1907, in Grafton, West Virginia.

Juneteenth - a term combining June and nineteenth - is our newest  national holiday and the first new federal holiday since the establishment of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day almost forty years ago.