While Sarasota County Libraries remain limited for in-person services, we haven’t forgotten about the summer programs that our young patrons look forward to. So, if the children can’t come to the programs, we’ll send the programs to the children! We invite families to come into the Elsie Quirk Library, or call us from our curbside pickup location, for a program-to-go. We have DIY Storytime kits, Boredom Busters, and Take Home Crafts, all bagged and ready for pick up.
As we head into July, Elsie Quirk encourages you to explore the American Revolution all month long. Come on in, pull up curbside, or navigate to our digital resources to read, watch, learn, celebrate, pontificate, or contemplate to your heart and mind’s delight. Our July display explores the remarkable tradition of revolution in America, from the Boston Tea party to Suffragettes, to Labor Rights, to Civil Rights. We have a broad selection of books to accompany the display, ready for grab-and-go borrowing.
When we think about history, we often imagine what we would do or who we would be “back then.” But we are historical figures ourselves, right now, in this historic moment! It is up to each of us to be now who we hope we would have been as we look back. It’s so exciting—like we get to crawl into a book that will be written in 50 years and decide what character to be! Or like time traveling by being a willful, deliberate, intentional part of what future generations will refer to as “in the past.” A great way to be the best historical figures you can be is to consider how we arrived at this point through a variety of lenses; expanding our thinking on both the triumphs and grave errors made by those before us, and thus being well-positioned to make informed judicious decisions.
The Elsie Quirk Library (emphasis on quirk) is here to be your time travel portal! Turn the dial to the period of the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers, by reading 1776 by David McCullough, The Counter-Revolution of 1176 by Gerald Horne, Glory, Passion and Principle: the story of eight remarkable women at the core of the American Revolution by Melissa Lukeman Bohrer, or Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Berica Armstrong Dunbar.
Prefer to time travel via fiction? Download The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation by M.T. Anderson, or The Fort by Bernard Cornwell, both available on cloudLibrary using your Sarasota County library card. If you are more of a visual time traveler, check out DVDs of two modern television series’ set during the American Revolution, Turn and The Book of Negroes.
Finally, if you prefer quirky time travel via music, place a hold on Hamilton: original Broadway cast recording and consider the Founding Fathers with a new ear. Whatever your place in history, whatever your vision for the future, we are here for you and are honored to serve you in our building, curbside, over the phone, and/or virtually!
