KC Public Library Blog
KC Library Exclusive: Frank White Autographed Book & Ball Giveaway
Kansas City Royals Hall of Famer Frank White launches his new memoir with a public event on Tuesday, October 23, 2012, at the Kansas City Public Library Plaza Branch, 4801 Main St.
4 Amazing Illustrated Novels for Adults
How do we learn to read? For many, picture books are the foundation of our reading skills. We look at the illustrations and follow the stories of Harry the Dirty Dog or the Very Hungry Caterpillar or Alexander and his Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. The drawings and paintings enhance the tales told in the text running along the bottom of the pages.
Jones' Reach
October 21, 1945: John Logan Jones, co-founder of The Jones Store, which by 1895 was the largest department store in Kansas City at its seven-story building at 12th and Main Streets, dies in Kansas City on a visit from California at the age of 86.
Program Notes: Election (1999)
Election is a bitterly funny satire that begins as a send-up of high school politicking but quickly becomes much, much more. It’s message may not be heartwarming, but it is diabolically entertaining.
Know Your KC History: Graduation Music, Part 4 (Graduation Day)
New on DVD: Sarah’s Key (2010)
Sarah’s Key is actually two movies, one a look at the horrors of the Holocaust and the other not-terribly-compelling detective story in the present, that dovetail to make a more-or-less complete whole.
Know Your KC History: Graduation Music, Part 3 (The Musician)
On June 12, 1925, the lives of three men came together in a way that challenged how things had always been in Kansas City. Find out how a teacher, a student, and a reporter swung a hammer at the strong wall of ethnic tradition in KC.
Know Your KC History: Graduation Music, Part 2 (The Reporter)
God's Jury by Cullen Murphy
The word inquisition is bandied about as people use it to discuss persecution of one sort or another. However, the Inquisition as a historical event still has ramifications today.
Program Notes: Loves of a Blonde (1965)
There is much about Milos Forman’s Loves of a Blonde that is comedic, yet it’s not a comedy, exactly. There’s too much genuine wistfulness, rejection, and desperation percolating through it.
Know Your KC History: Graduation Music, Part 1 (The Teacher)
On June 12, 1925, the lives of three men came together in a way that challenged the way things had always been in Kansas City. Find out how a teacher, a student, and a reporter swung a hammer at the strong wall of ethnic tradition in KC.
Program Notes: The Candidate (1972)
The Candidate is a detailed depiction of a campaign for a seat in the U.S. Senate. Here’s what’s amazing: it was made 40 years ago. And it’s like in all that time nothing has changed!!!
We Play the Pallas
October 13, 1887: President Grover Cleveland looks on as decorated floats, costumed horsemen, and an elephant march in downtown during the first Priests of Pallas parade, an event that will remain a Kansas City tradition until the 1920s.
New on DVD: The Women on the 6th Floor (2010)
The premise of The Women on the 6th Floor is so unoriginal it practically creaks. But the acting is so deftly executed that rather than grousing at its predictability you’ll find yourself sighing with pleasure.
Program Notes: Rashomon (1950)
Rashomon, the unexpected hit that introduced Western audiences to Japanese films, screens as part of the Movies That Matter series presenting essential masterpieces of world cinema.