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Category: Washington Reads

Songs of Willow Frost. By Jaime Ford

Songs of Willow Frost. By Jaime Ford

Songs of Willow Frost. By Jamie Ford. (New York: Ballantine Books, 2013.) Recommendation submitted by:Will Stuivenga, Cooperative Projects Manager, Washington State Library, Tumwater, WA. Our protagonist is William Eng, a 12-year-old living at the Sacred Heart Orphanage in 1930’s Seattle. He’s been there since he was seven; no one is interested in adopting a Chinese boy. Only, he remembers his beloved mother, a singer and a dancer, and he remembers finding her slumped in the bathtub, and how she was carried off…

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Truth Like the Sun By Jim Lynch

Truth Like the Sun By Jim Lynch

Truth Like the Sun. By Jim Lynch. (New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2012.) Recommendation submitted by:Will Stuivenga, Cooperative Projects Manager, Washington State Library, Tumwater, WA. Jim Lynch’s third novel, Truth Like the Sun, set in Seattle, bounces back and forth between 1962 and 2001, telling us a story that revolves around the Seattle World’s Fair and its fictional chief mover and shaker, one Robert Morgan, a.k.a. Mr. Seattle, a high-flying, entrepreneurial city booster, who maybe loves wine, women and gambling a…

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A Sudden Light by Garth Stein

A Sudden Light by Garth Stein

Washington Reads – A Sudden Light by Garth Stein (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014. 416 pp.) Recommendation by Mary Paynton Schaff, Reference Librarian, Washington State Library Fall means ghosts, creepy old houses, and stories about families scarred by tragedy. So now’s the perfect opportunity to gather up your afghan, sit by the fire with a cup of hot cider, and dive into Garth Stein’s newest book, “A Sudden Light.” Fourteen-year-old narrator Trevor is brought to crumbling Riddell House in…

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50 years of preserving and exploring in the North Cascades of Washington.

50 years of preserving and exploring in the North Cascades of Washington.

From the desk of Sean Lanksbury, PNW & Special Collections Librarian A small selection of resources tracing 50 years of preserving and exploring in the North Cascades of Washington. On September 3, 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the wilderness act as a result of pressure from national and state level citizens and organizations who shared similar concerns about the protection of the United States uninhabited environments amidst increasing industrialization and population growth.  Four years following that act, the North Cascades National…

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Dia! Diversity in Action

Dia! Diversity in Action

From the desk of Kathryn Devine April 30 marks Día, the culmination of El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day). Dia is an initiative started by the American Library Association to “emphasize the importance of literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds.” For more information about Día, check out the ALA website. In the spirit of Día, we hope you enjoy these titles and others at the Washington State Library.   Storm Boy….

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Washington’s State Flower

Washington’s State Flower

In 1892, there was a hotly contested election in Washington State…for a flower.   The 1893 World’s Fair was fast approaching, and the state flower would be part of the exhibit for Washington State. It came down to Clover vs. Rhododendron, and it was decided that the women of the state would vote…and only the women. They didn’t have the right to vote in any other election until 1910, but this time it was the men who were not allowed to…

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Celebrate Teen Literature Day!

Celebrate Teen Literature Day!

From the desk of Kathryn Devine Every year, the Thursday of National Library Week, April 17th  this year, is set aside as Teen Literature Day. Check out these teen books at the Washington State Library.     Meet Hannah West—smart, resilient, slightly sarcastic, and sometimes too nosy for her own good. She’s a young Seattleite whose favorite pastimes include watching the Crime Network, Law & Order, Monk, Columbo, or any mystery show really. All of which provide a solid education when she…

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Have you read a poem lately?

Have you read a poem lately?

If you haven’t read poetry in a while, now is the perfect time to start again – April is National Poetry Month. In his National Poetry Month proclamation, Governor Inslee called on “…all the people of Washington to observe National Poetry Month in a more meaningful, personal way…as a means to offer comfort and solace to those who are suffering as a result of the Oso mudslide.” One way to do so is to submit a poem yourself to the Art…

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Double Trouble in Walla Walla

Double Trouble in Walla Walla

Double Trouble in Walla Walla. The Adventure on Klickitat Island What do these titles have in common? Well, they contain two of Washington State’s very unique place names.  Walla Walla and Klickitat are just fun to say. They are also part of our collection of children’s books here at the Washington State Library. We don’t just have history books and microfilm here at the State Library.  We collect any book written about, or set in, Washington State.  That includes picture…

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