Books

“The very best thing about a school library is that everything is purchased with the student in mind and every student in the school has access to it,” said Laura Tooley who serves as the librarian for David Starr Jordan Middle School. “We provide them with the books they need to complete school projects, books to help them grow and think, and books that encourage them to keep reading and learning. To do that, funds are always needed to help us continually provide up-to-date books and technology.” In an effort to provide Tooley with those much-needed funds, Jordan students, parents, teachers and supporters stepped up to the plate, or more accurately, to the foul line, of the bowling lanes at Pickwick Bowl to raise money this past week.

Her career as a CBS desk assistant and obituary writer, the estate sales of items belonging to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Princess Diana, and the 1992 presidential campaign have all served as inspirations for books written by bestselling mystery writer Mary Jane Clark. “I write about what I have experienced and what I have seen around me,” Clark told an assemblage at Burbank's Buena Vista Branch Library this past week. Appearing as a part of the library's continuing events programs that are coordinated, promoted and staged by Louise Paziak and Joan Cappocchi, Clark revealed her latest books - the Wedding Cake Mystery series - have been inspired by a book her mother had on cake decorating she loved looking through as a child.

A $15,000 donation, along with a previous $10,000 grant, will help the Central Library recover the books it lost when a pipe burst in April, officials announced. The April 9 flood ruined more than 1,000 library books in the travel, history and biography sections. Many of the books were out of print and can't be replaced, but the influx of money should cover the estimated $25,000 recovery cost, library officials said. Mickey Pierce, president of the Friends of the Burbank Public Library, presented the $15,000 check to Mayor Jess Talamantes at the Oct. 18 Burbank City Council meeting.

Gary Moskowitz MAGNOLIA PARK -- Paula Paggy, the Burbank Unified School District librarian, knows books aren't doing much good when they are collecting dust on a library shelf. In an effort to boost students' interest in reading, Paggy is implementing a "bag of books" program at four Burbank elementary schools -- Roosevelt, Bret Harte, Stevenson and Miller -- and hopes more schools will pick up on the idea. "We want critical thinkers and lifelong learners with our students," Paggy said.

Amber Willard HILLSIDE DISTRICT -- The Burbank Noon Lions Club gave more than $200 to the Burbank Central Library to replace 13 large-print books. The books were thrown away after the man who had borrowed them died and his family cleaned out his home, said Marva Murphy, who organized the Lions' donation. The books are made for people with limited vision. A dedication ceremony was held Monday afternoon at the library, at 110 N. Glenoaks Blvd., with club members handing over money for the books, which had already been purchased.

Lolita Harper NORTHWEST DISTRICT -- Barnes & Noble delivered 130 books donated by customers to kids at Bret Harte Children's Center Friday during the center's Holiday Open House. The bookstore has collected more than 250 books for the center, said Barnes & Noble community relations spokeswoman Sally Stanley. The store will wait to deliver the remainder when the promotion ends after the weekend, she said. Bret Harte Children's Center -- a state-subsidized child care facility for low-income families -- serves 130 children from age 3 to children in the fifth grade.

People send me free books. And, frankly, I feel just terrible about it. You see, the reason people send me free books is that I write this column. A few publishers of grammar and language-related books have me on their ?send her one and maybe she?ll write about it? lists. It?s not an honor. Publishers are ? well, let?s just say they can be a little promiscuous about this stuff. They print the copies on the cheap, pay a little postage and send out as many copies as possible. I?m just another notch on their media lists.

Patrons at the grand opening of Eskridge House rare and collectible book store were greeted Friday by a bust of the ancient Greek poet Homer, his head tilted forward as if poised to speak. But these days Homer does not recite his epics "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" at whim — Eskridge House co-owner Linda Allen saves him the trouble, getting the works of Homer and other writers into the hands of readers who can tackle the stories themselves. "We like the people in Burbank because they're all creative types," Allen said.

Parents at Roosevelt Elementary School gave students an early gift this holiday season in the form of a brand new books and a spiffed-up library. “I never imagined it would end up like this,” said Denise Kiselyak, Roosevelt Elementary School’s Booster Club president, while looking around in amazement at the new space. With the help of parent volunteers and more than $7,000 in donations from friends and families of the school’s students, the booster club revamped the dingy library at Roosevelt just in time for a grand opening Wednesday night.

Jackson Bell When library officials first asked Tamar Krekorian if she would spearhead a book drive to increase the library's collection of Armenian books, she jumped at the chance. The drive, launched Feb. 9, was conceived by Library Services Director Sharon Cohen as a way to increase international readership at each of the city's three libraries while offsetting past and potential budget cuts. "The books will not only add to the library collection but also help promote culture, cultural understanding and awareness in the community," said Krekorian, chairwoman of Books for Burbank Committee and wife of Burbank Unified School District board member Paul Krekorian.

She's been called a mother, a lawyer and the "Queen of Erotic Romance. " It's an exciting time, a fertile time for new writers, and a time of opportunity for established romance writers like Burbank's Cheryl Holt. Today, romance writers, as all authors, are reinventing themselves in a new Web-publishing world that swaps print and ink for ones and zeros. This month, she begins the release of three sizzling stories, a trilogy that will play out across the summer. They are her 33rd, 34th and 35th books, and she's not stopping there.

Good morning, readers. Today is Saturday, November 10. If you feel like relaxing with a stack of comic books today, head to North Hollywood. Blastoff opens its doors today in the Arts District , reports the Daily News . Speaking of new business, two restaurants in Valley Village, a nearby neighborhood, recently opened . NoHo Patch A Burbank man allegedly tagged areas of the city, then billed the city for removing them...

Good morning, readers. Today is Monday, October 15. The space shuttle Endeavour finally completed its final mission on Sunday after a 15-hour delay. The space shuttle Endeavour reached the California Science Center in Exposition Park at around noon Sunday, after a three-day, 2 mph journey through Inglewood and South Los Angeles . The shuttle arrived 15 hours behind schedule due to trees and other obstructions. L.A. Times Police have booked a suspect who allegedly struck and killed a pedestrian in Canoga Park during a police chase . Ernesto Jacinto Lopez, 20, was booked on suspicion of second-degree murder.

Any day now, Richard Nixon and Herbert Hoover will arrive at David Peterson's doorstep. At his Burbank home they'll join the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and Thomas Jefferson - most of the presidents, really, in a collection of figurines that includes nearly every U.S. presidency since George Washington. Peterson's collection includes dolls, caricatured sculpture, and yes, even Nixon and Hoover Bobbleheads. Though his collection of 100 or so presidential replicas grows every year, there are a few still missing.

A group of seven fourth-graders are now among the elite at McKinley Elementary School for writing a book selected among thousands nationwide to be published by Scholastic Book Fairs. As third-graders, the seven students co-wrote and illustrated, “Two Dollars, One Wallet.” The authors include Marion Hunter, Noel Pennington, Julia Guglielmo, Russel Uvas, John Alajijian, Sara Cohen and Henry Keeney. The book tells the story of a dollar bill named George - “an ordinary dollar bill who lived in the wallet of a school janitor named Mr. Juan Carlos.” When George meets a dollar coin named Sacagawea, they swap their adventures and journey to the wallet.

John Barth surely ranks among the least screen-adaptable modern (or, perhaps, postmodern) American novelists. His stories are about themselves; the words, their own subject. It's not surprising that only one of his books has made it to the big screen. In fact, what's surprising is that any of them did. On the other hand, Michael Winterbottom managed to turn the least-adaptable novel of all time, Laurence Sterne's “Tristram Shandy,” into the terrific 2005 “Cock and Bull Story,” so I suppose nothing's impossible.

Burbank residents no longer need to leave home to check out library books. The city announced Monday that its ebooks will be available for the first time on Aug.1. “We're very excited to be able to add this service,” Sharon Cohen, the library services director, said in a statement. The library currently has 1,200 electronic titles available, with more on the way. Patrons can check out up to five ebooks at a time for seven to 14 days on most electronic devices, except the Nook ereader.

McKinley Elementary School families are accustomed to browsing titles penned by prominent authors at their annual book fair. Next year, there will be some familiar names in the mix. Scholastic officials made a surprise visit to the Burbank campus Thursday where they announced that a fiction work written and illustrated by seven third-grade students had been selected as the grand prize winner in the company's Kids are Authors competition. “Two Dollars, One Wallet” will be published and sold at Scholastic's 116,000 school book fairs across the country next year, said regional field sales manager Alan Gilreath.

Her career as a CBS desk assistant and obituary writer, the estate sales of items belonging to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Princess Diana, and the 1992 presidential campaign have all served as inspirations for books written by bestselling mystery writer Mary Jane Clark. “I write about what I have experienced and what I have seen around me,” Clark told an assemblage at Burbank's Buena Vista Branch Library this past week. Appearing as a part of the library's continuing events programs that are coordinated, promoted and staged by Louise Paziak and Joan Cappocchi, Clark revealed her latest books - the Wedding Cake Mystery series - have been inspired by a book her mother had on cake decorating she loved looking through as a child.

The steps leading down to the quiet storefront added to the intimidation. He remembers it not as a cellar, exactly, but it was a small, dense room underneath the street-level life pulsing away in the evening. Leo Myers, then just a teen, approached the door looking for answers. He sought to expand the hobby that began one afternoon in a converted chicken house in Eureka, Calif., where his grandmother lived. One afternoon, she pulled out a trunk containing the treasures on which Myers would spend his free time for the rest of his life.