Did you know that listening to an audiobook can help a child build literacy skills? Students can develop reading skills such as decoding and comprehension, as well as critical thinking by listening to audiobooks. By engaging in listening skills, readers enhance their ability to process ...

Cloisonne gets its name from the metal “cloisons,” French for “partitions,” that are filled with enamel, creating the multicolor designs. Despite the French name, the technique has been used in many parts of the world. It was revolutionized in Japan in the 19th century, when artist Kaji ...

The Rookwood Pottery Company was at the forefront of the art pottery movement in the United States. It was founded in 1880 in Cincinnati, Ohio, by Maria Longworth Nichols, making it one of the earliest companies in America owned by a woman. Many of its most notable artists were women, too. ...

I started off 2026 by reading a lot of great nonfiction books, with one novel thrown in. Let library staff know if you’d like to place a request for any of these titles. Cartoonist Tom Gauld brings his erudite yet accessible wit to all things library, publishing, writing, and books in his ...

The word “grotesque” has a few different meanings in decorative arts. It can be a general descriptor, covering anything strange and macabre. It can be more specific, referring to human faces with distorted features that appear as masks or adorn furniture or pottery. But would you use it to ...

There is much buzz about Allen Levi’s debut novel “Theo of Golden.” The book format alone has 77 holds on it in our library system and there are more holds on other formats. Levi’s work is described by the publishers as “…a beautifully crafted novel about the power of creative ...