February 2022

  • A Peek at Peak Picks for March 2022

    We’re adding nine new Peak Picks for March! For nonfiction, Maud Newton reckons with her family history and America’s obsession with genealogy in Ancestor Trouble. Warsan Shire, the British Somali poet whose work featured prominently on Beyoncé’s Lemonade, releases her first full-length collection Bless the Daughter Raised By a Voice in Her Head. Meghan O’Rourke… Continue reading

  • Black History Month 2022: Black Teens in Love

    Black History month meets Valentine’s Day, and they make a sweet couple! Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender follows seventeen-year-old Felix, who feels he is one marginalization more than people can handle: Black, queer, trans. When someone posts his deadname and pre-transition pictures, Felix seeks revenge, but his search for his tormentor reveals some surprises… Continue reading

  • Black History, Black Presence, Black Futures

    This February at the Central Library’s fiction department we’ve added to our traditional Black History display with sections dedicated to Black Presence and Black Futures. Can’t make it to the library? Here’s a taste of what we’ve featured here, all titles from our list of favorite Black fiction books from 2021. Black History: Gone Missing… Continue reading

  • 2022 Finalists for Best Audiobooks

    This year’s Audie Awards gala – yep, still virtual – is scheduled for March 4: here’s a list of the nominees. (Well, the nominees that we’re able to get in libraries; some productions are unavailable for library distribution; find the full list here. So who’s in the running? Everybody who’s anybody, including such seasoned narrators… Continue reading

  • Soul Pole Stories: Conservation and Restoration

    Soul Pole Stories: Conservation and Restoration

    As mentioned in our “first Soul Pole story,” the historic sculpture at the Library’s Douglass-Truth Branch in the Central District was deinstalled in 2021 so that it could undergo conservation work. The goal was to preserve the piece so that it could be reinstalled at its original location at the corner of 23rd Avenue and… Continue reading

  • Black History Month 2022: Picture Book Nonfiction for Kids

    This Black History Month, celebrate Black lives, history, art, and accomplishments with these recent outstanding illustrated nonfiction books for kids! Jump at the Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston by Alicia Williams illustrated by Jacqueline Alcantara Luminous illustrations and a lively, conversational writing style tell the life story of writer… Continue reading

  • Watch the Public Forums with the Candidates For Seattle’s Next Chief Librarian

    On Wednesday, Feb. 9, and Thursday, Feb. 10, patrons and community members were invited to attend virtual public forums featuring Tom Fay and Chad Helton, the finalists in the Library Board of Trustees’ national search for the next Executive Director and Chief Librarian of The Seattle Public Library. During the forums, Mr. Fay and Mr.… Continue reading

  • Recent Books Celebrate Magnolia Branch Architect

    The life and work of architect Paul Hayden Kirk, designer of The Seattle Public Library’s Magnolia Branch, is commanding renewed interest due to the publication of two new books: Paul Hayden Kirk and the Rise of the Northwest Modern by Seattle author and filmmaker Dale Kutzera, and Paul Hayden Kirk and the Puget Sound School… Continue reading

  • Tinkering Toddlers: Activities for At Home Play

    A wicked cold, snow, and a closed daycare was making me a stir-crazed mama. I needed ideas to keep my kiddo’s brain learning and his body moving. I found a wonderful collection of books from the Library that gave me the boost and inspiration I needed to be the fun mom!  Continue reading

  • New Fiction Roundup – February 2022

    What will you read this month? 2/1: Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson Estranged siblings must come together when their mother dies and leaves them an unexpected inheritance: the recipe for a traditional Caribbean black cake, a family recipe with a long, tangled history, and an exhortation to “share the black cake when the time is… Continue reading

  • Meet the Candidates for The Seattle Public Library’s Chief Librarian

    As announced last week, two candidates have advanced to the final round of the selection process in the Library Board of Trustees’ national search for the next Executive Director and Chief Librarian of The Seattle Public Library. The candidates are Tom Fay, the Library’s current interim Chief Librarian; and Chad Helton, current Library Director of… Continue reading

  • Soul Pole Stories: Q & A With Stephanie Johnson-Toliver of the Black Heritage Society of Washington State

      If you’ve been to the Library’s Douglass-Truth Branch lately, located in the heart of Seattle’s Central District at 23rd Ave. and E. Yesler Way, you might have done a double take. The Soul Pole, the totem-pole-like wooden sculpture that has stood on the lawn of the branch since 1973, is gone. The 21-foot sculpture,… Continue reading