PCPL is excited about the new focus of this year’s program: reading for pleasure, instilling a love of reading for all ages and encouraging people to participate in activities that they get to choose. Adults can explore and experiment with native plants, learn about being a better photographer, or paint a desert landscape. Teens can create their own anime superhero when they’re not busy getting fit with Cardio Kung Fu. Families and children can discover the art of juggling, enjoy storytimes and learn how to build and launch a rocket.

Starting May 24, here’s how you can participate:

• Visit any Pima County Public Library to sign up and receive your Summer Reading Passport, Arizona Adventure Pass and summer events calendar newspaper.
• Decide what your personal reading goal will be, and write it in your passport.
• Take a look at our list of 100 activities inside the summer events calendar or at www.library.pima.gov. Choose any six activities from the list.
• Log the completed activities in your passport all summer long.
• Get your passport stamped at your library as you complete your reading goal and activities.

Summer Program Special Events

Teens Unite & Write – Teens ages 13-18 are invited to collaborate in writing an online story that will be posted on the library’s website as it unfolds. A local author writes the first part; teen writers create what happens next!

Summer Reading Night – Saturday, June 23, 6–10 p.m., Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Free for readers 2 -14 with their Adventure Pass and one paid adult admission. Come hear the tales of coyotes, cats, beavers, bats, owls, tarantulas and other nocturnal creatures!

Harry and the Potters – Thursday, July 19, 5 p.m., Hotel Congress. Free for all ages. Wizard rockers Harry and the Potters return for a night of magic and book-ish hard rock!

Summer Reading Finale Celebration – Saturday, July 21, 8–11 a.m., Reid Park Zoo. Free for readers ages 2-14 who complete their six activities. Say “hi” to the animals, make crafts and celebrate reading!

Rock ‘n’ Roll Concert – Saturday, July 21, 8–10 p.m., Joel D. Valdez Main Library. Free for all ages. Join us for a truly rockin’ concert featuring three local teen bands!

Pima County Public Library partnered with Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records to ask Arizona librarians and specialists in Arizona history and culture to nominate books and authors for Reading Arizona: The Literary Landscape.

There’s fact and fiction for all ages.

Mouse around the map and click on a book icon to open a window for the title, author, and publication date, along with a quote telling you where the action takes place.  Yuma?  Patagonia?  Flagstaff?  They’re all on the map, as are landmarks like Hoover Dam, the Lost Dutchman Mine, and the Tucson Rodeo.

If you want to know more, just click on the book title in the window to link to the World Cat library catalog and see which libraries offer your book of choice.  One hundred books too many to take in all at once?  Click on Filter By Category to narrow your search to fiction, nonfiction, or youth titles.

Click on Book List to see a list of the mapped books as well as many that didn’t make it onto the map.  You can arrange the list for easier searching by clicking on Book Title, Author, Pub Date, Category or Location.

If you don’t find your favorite book about or set in Arizona, click on Suggest A Book to send us the title for the book list.  We’ll add it.

Reading Arizona: The Literary Landscape was created by Jen Maney and Helene Woodhams, librarians at Pima County Public Library, with the help of children’s literature specialist and retired school librarian Mary Wong.  The brilliantly illustrated map was designed by Dennis Fesenmyer of Fezlab, and the project was launched into cyberspace by J. Matt Peterson of 235nuclear.

The project was funded by a grant from the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records Agency under the Library Services and Technology Act, which is administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Have a good trip!

For more information about the Pima County Public Library, including branch locations, schedules, news and events, please visit www.library.pima.gov or call 791-4010.

Celebrate the Arizona Centennial with a living history presentation about Teresa Urrea, a 19th century curandera (healer) and reluctant revolutionary figure who lived in the Clifton-Morenci area before her death in 1906.

Chautauqua Scholar Elena Díaz Björkquist will bring Urrea to life on Wednesday, Feb. 8, from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Mission Branch Library, 3770 S. Mission Road.  The event is free and the public is invited.

For the first half of the presentation Díaz Björkquist will be in full character and dress as the historical figure Teresa Urrea and will answer audience questions as Teresa.  For the later part of the presentation the author will focus on her extensive historical research on the fascinating historical figure, known as the Saint of Cabora.

Urrea was born in 1873 in Sinaloa, the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy rancher and an Indian girl.  She learned about healing with herbs and other plants from the head of the ranch’s domestic staff and a Yaqui medicine man.  After a near-death experience in 1989, her healing powers attracted Indians, Mexicans and Americans, and her fame spread.

She advocated for – and was seen as a symbol of – Indian liberation and was subsequently deported to the United States.  She and her father eventually settled in the Clifton-Morenci area, where she continued to practice healing until her death at age 33.

She is the subject of Luis Alberto Urrea’s novels, “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” and “Queen of America.”

Elena Díaz Björkquist is a writer, historian, and artist from Tucson.  Her two books of short stories, “Suffer Smoke” and “Water from the Moon,” are about the people in Morenci, Ariz., where she was born.  She has been on the Arizona Humanities Council Speakers Bureau for nine years and is one of the founders of Sowing the Seeds, a collective of Latina writers.

This program is made possible by the Arizona Humanities Council and Pima County Public Library’s Nuestras Raices: Celebrating Mexican-American Authors, Arts and Culture.

For more information about the Feb. 8 event, contact librarians Guadalupe Guerrero at 594-5325 or Marissa Alcorta at 594-5273.

For more information about Pima County Public Library, including branch locations, schedules, news and events, go to www.library.pima.gov/, call 791-4010 or email askalibrarian@pima.gov.

En exhibición:

• Artículos enviados por adolescentes del Condado Pima para una Cápsula del Tiempo de Adolescentes que se abrirá  en el año 2062.  Si usted quiere incluir un cuento o poema escrito por un adolescente, un boletín escolar, un juguete preferido (pequeño), fotos, dibujos, una página de un álbum de recortes o un artículo pequeño que hiciste, llévalo a la biblioteca más cercana a mas tardar el 15 de enero.
• Fotos de la Arizona Historical Society (Sociedad Historica de Arizona) que fueron tomadas en los barrios de Tucson antes de que los proyectos de renovación urbana entre 1965 y 1971 los cambiaran para siempre.  Las fotos en exhibición fueron elegidas por ex-residentes del centro o miembros de sus familias el pasado mes de diciembre.

Conferencia:

• A la 1 p.m., la Dra. Lydia Otero, profesora asociada de University of Arizona Department of Mexican American and Raza Studies, hablará acerca de Tucson antes y después de la reconstrucción del centro a fines de los años sesenta y principios de los años setenta.  Después de su discurso firmará su libro, “La Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban  Renewal in a Southwest City”.
• A las 3:30 p.m., Gregory McNamee examinará el origen de los nombres de diversos lugares en Arizona, desde Ali Shonak a Zephyr, compartiendo cuentos conocidos acerca de los nombres del área.  McNamee es un escritor, periodista, fotógrafo, editor del nuevo Five Corners Press y inverstigador asociado en la  Universidad de Arizona Southwest Center.  La charla de McNamee es co-patrocinada por Arizona Humanities Council.

Una recepción con refrescos abierta al público de 2:15 a 4 p.m.

La hora de cuentos familiar empieza a las 11 a.m. en el Children’s Meeting Room (sala de juntas infantil).

Para más información acerca de la Celebración de Centenario, comuníquese con la bibliotecaria Christine Dykgraaf al (520) 594-5563 o Christine.Dykgraaf@pima.gov, llame al 791-4010 o envíe un correo electrónico a askalibrarian@pima.gov.

Para más información acerca de las Bibliotecas del Condado Pima, incluyendo sus locales, horarios, noticias y eventos, visite  http://www.library.pima.gov/.

On display:

• Items submitted by Pima County teens for placement into an archival-quality Teen Time Capsule to be opened in the year 2062.  If you want an original story or poem written by a teen, a school newsletter, a favorite (small) toy, photos, drawings, a small item you’ve crafted or a scrapbook page included in the time capsule, take it to your branch library no later than January 15.
• Photos from the Arizona Historical Society that were taken in the Tucson barrios before urban renewal projects between roughly 1965 and 1971 changed them forever.  The photos on display were chosen by former downtown dwellers or members of their families in December.

Speaking:

• At 1 p.m., Dr. Lydia Otero, associate professor in the University of Arizona Department of Mexican American and Raza Studies, will talk about Tucson before and after downtown reconstruction in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  She will sign her book, “La Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwest City,” after her talk.
• At 3:30 p.m., Gregory McNamee examines the history of Arizona place names, from Ali Shonak to Zephyr, sharing little-known stories behind names on the land.  McNamee is a writer, journalist, photographer, publisher of the new Five Corners Press and a research associate at the University of Arizona Southwest Center.  McNamee’s talk is co-sponsored by the Arizona Humanities Council.

A reception with refreshments is open to the public from 2:15 to 4 p.m.

A Family Storytime begins at 11 a.m. in the Children’s Meeting Room.

For more information about the Main Library’s Centennial Celebration, contact Librarian Christine Dykgraaf at (520) 594-5563 or Christine.Dykgraaf@pima.gov, call 791-4010 or email askalibrarian@pima.gov.

For more information about Pima County Public Library, including branch locations, schedules, news and events, go to http://www.library.pima.gov/.