BROOKLYN PROSPECT HS LIBRARY - BROOKLYN MAGPIE

Happy Public Domain Month 2026!!

1/6/2026

Here are 15 things I thought were worth sharing:

If it’s January, it’s Public Domain Month!! Read more about what came into the public domain from the folks at the Public Domain Review, from the folks at NPR, and read some free e-books that are now in the public domain!
“On WikiFlix, a Netflix-inspired archive of public domain films, you can watch movies like “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Nosferatu” for free. You don’t even have to make an account! Crazy, right?”
New Year = new opportunity to plug the free resources you get with your Brooklyn Public Library card!
New Year = perfect time to celebrate yourself and read something from our borough’s unofficial poet laureate!
How reading changes the way your brain works
An updated list of the most-banned books in America.
How the reliance on computers in classrooms impacts students.
The best audiobooks of 2025.
“52 Things I Learned in 2025” from Kent Hendricks and Nancy Friedman.
"Between 1939 and 1941, the Works Progress Administration collaborated with the New York City Tax Department to collect photographs of most buildings in the five boroughs of New York City. In 2018, the NYC Municipal Archives completed the digitization and tagging of these photos. This website places them on a map. Zoom in! Every dot is a photo."
Want to know where all the billionaires are?
Play around with the news!
Ten people who helped shape science in 2025
It’s always the right time to incorporate six-word memoirs into your lesson plans!
Click on a neighborhood, listen to a recording & get some history of the area!

Reading is a radical act...

12/3/2025

Here are 5 things I thought were worth sharing:

1. Want to know where certain human ideas originated?
2. Watch the world operate in real time!
3. My periodic reminder to check out Reasons to Be Cheerful. You will thank me, especially after the year we’ve all had…
4. Sarah Jessica Parker’s Year of Judging the Booker Prize.
5. Here are some end-of-year reading lists for you:
100 Notable Books of 2025 (New York Times)
Best Books for Adults 2025 (New York Public Library)
Best Books for Teens 2025 (New York Public Library)
50 listens that define the 21st century (so far) (Audible)
The best books of 2025 (according to the Amazon Editors)
Let Us Help You Find Your Next Book (New York Times)

Take a look, it's in a book!

9/30/2025

Here are 14 things I thought were worth sharing:

So happy that the people at McSweeney’s created these author trading cards! Why not create some trading cards about something special to you?!
Reading Rainbow is back, with a great new host! I was lucky enough to meet Mychal at a conference in June, and I can’t wait to see the new episodes!
There’s still time to catch the beautiful fall foliage all around us!
Speaking of Fall, it’s almost Banned Books Week! The folks at Little Free Library created this Banned Books Map so we can see which areas have the highest number of bans or restrictions, and where the Little Free Libraries are in those areas. Share this with your friends across the country!
Do you have any Little Free Libraries around you? Check and see! If they have some room for more books, take a bunch from my giveaway box and make total strangers happy!
The ALA compiles banned books stats each year. Here are the stats from 2024. Sobering.
Here is a link to Publishers Weekly’s 2025 Freedom to Read issue. Keep up with what’s
Is it true that all of our lives overlap?
Are you a podcast person and do you also love the Brooklyn Public Library? Then check this out!
Want to see the front pages from newspapers all over the world and how they differ?
Some helpful advice about how to read more.
For our science teachers: check out all of these everyday scientific mysteries collected by the Library of Congress!
The folks at Common Sense Media have created a free AI training course for educators.
A plug for my profession and how libraries help us all!

Libraries are more than just books!

8/25/2025

Here are 15 things I thought were worth sharing:

How is your Goodreads Reading Challenge going? If you need help adding books to your list, check out what tops the lists of other readers!
Speaking of book challenges, check out the 3,599 books that Dan Pelzer read in his lifetime!
BookCon is coming back!! See you there!
Love words & NYC?
Don’t throw away your printed books!
The Brooklyn Book Festival is one of the best things that happens here each fall!
Are you a movie person who loves to get interesting recs from interesting people?
Are you a movie person AND a History teacher? Check this out!
Are you a podcast person? Then check out this list from Time Magazine!
A tasty way to look at history!
I don’t often recommend TV shows, but I have to put in a plug for PBS’s Human Footprint! Rarely have I watched an informational series that seems able to pull together seemingly disparate threads and keep me on the edge of my seat in the process! My favorite episodes are the supermarket (S2.1), the history of cotton (S1.6), and global fashion (S2.3). Let me know what you think!
Take advantage of the beautiful and world-famous cemetery we are lucky enough to work so close to!
My annual plug for this eclectic and uplifting news aggregate source, created by a rock music icon!
It’s almost time for you to dig into lesson planning and grading, so here are some chill music resources for you.
Do you have creative students who want to help celebrate our country’s 250th Birthday and maybe win some money in the process?

“The book is the greatest invention of man. It’s a shame that people read so little.”

6/20/2025

Here are 14 things I thought were worth sharing:

1. RIP to José "Pepe" Mujica, the former president of Uruguay, a big reader who once said: “The book is the greatest invention of man. It’s a shame that people read so little.”
2. Hear what Madeleine L’Engle’s granddaughter has to say about banned books. My fists are raised in support of reading freely!
3. What did Hubble see on your birthday?
4. We are so lucky that we are so close to Green-Wood! The stunning cemetery that inspired Central Park! Check out all of the programming they have to offer!
5. First, there was Radio Garden (one of my favorite apps), and then there came TV Garden! Have fun checking out live TV streams from around the world!
6. The Frick Museum recently re-opened after a five-year renovation!
7. What do libraries have to do with grocery stores?
8. Take a Brooklyn Literary Audio Walking Tour this summer!
9. Watch “Free for All: The Public Library” on PBS!
10. You know all those Hollywood movies based on true stories? Find out how accurate they are!
11. Want to search Google without getting AI results? Try going here!
12. Want to know how many people live within a circle? Try this!
13. Some great summer advice from Austin Kleon!
14. Here are some Summer Reading lists for you!
The Best Books of 2025 (So Far) (Barnes & Noble)
Publishers Weekly Summer Reads 2025
All the Nonfiction Summer Reading Lists (Book Riot)
The New York Times’s Summer Reading Bucket List
The Summer Reading Guid (The Atlantic)
The 26 Best Summer Reads of 2025 (Oprah Daily)

Expand your mind & expand your life!

3/7/2025

Here are 11 things I thought were worth sharing:

Want to expand your mind and add to your resume? Search through 250,000 continuing education opportunities (many free!) with Class Central.
Worried about Big Data? You might want to expand your toolbox by adding a non-commercial search engine like Sweden’s Marginalia Search.
Are you or your students ever curious about fundamental gaps in human knowledge? Then check out Wikenigma!
Here is a Mostly Public Domain Image Search for all of your free image needs!
Students all process information in different ways. I am a true visual learner! For those who learn like me, consider using this timeline app, which converts any Wikipedia article into a timeline!
Please use the New York Times subscription we are paying for! They have so many things to help you and your students. One of them is their “Film Club feature [which teaches] close reading and critical thinking skills via an eclectic mix of nonfiction videos.”
Fall back in love with reading by listening to Kelly Corrigan’s “Shook by a Book”! Kelly speaks with people who talk about the longterm effects certain books have on them…
The folks at the News Literacy Project have great quizzes that you can incorporate into your lesson plans or use as Do Nows! Information Literacy is no joke and the only way we can build an informed electorate and country! Here are the quizzes for grades 7-9 and those for grades 10-12.
If you haven’t already checked out Ground News, do yourself a favor and do that now! It “is a platform that makes it easy to compare news sources, read between the lines of media bias, and break free from algorithms.”
My periodic reminder to sign up for JSTOR Daily (which is actually not sent out daily) so you can feed your curiosity about tons of things!
If you are ever in the position of wanting/needing to defend a banned book, turn to these Book Résumés, which have been created for just that purpose!

Make something new out of something old!

1/8/2025

Here are 14 things I thought were worth sharing:

Happy Public Domain Month! Here is all the content that entered the public domain on January 1, 2025. Have fun figuring out how you can creatively play around with it!
Here are the most-read articles on Wikipedia and on JSTOR last year. I am fascinated by what fascinates others!
Here is some cool stuff for our math teachers!
See if you can connect two unrelated people using this new tool!
There is so much to discover about what makes some of the “great art” we all know!
77 Facts that blew the minds of science staffers at the Atlantic last year.
Many things went right in the US last year, as well as around the world!
I was lucky enough to meet librarian Amanda Jones last year at an event in Brooklyn and join the ranks of those who support her as she battles the book-banning forces at work in our country.
More recent proof that libraries are good for you!
A bird's eye view of the history of mankind!
Here are 50 of the biggest literary stories of 2024 (from LitHub) and the 20 best podcasts of 2024 (according to The Atlantic).
American History TV is always there when you want or need it. A goldmine!
An interesting newsletter for book lovers!
Zora Neale Hurston now has her very own American Experience show on PBS!

Happy Solstice & Happy Reading!

12/9/2024

Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing:

There is still time to add to your reading goal this year with this list of awesome shorter novels!
If you click on my Bitmoji Library scene above, you can click on some of the books on my own TBR list on the little bookshelf!
You should always choose to be curious! This site might help you instill that in your students, as well!
The NYPL just made many of their databases accessible to you at home! No more shuffling into Manhattan to access them!
Who wants to see the cutting-edge books that Prairie Dawn has been reading on Sesame Street?!
Get ready to participate in the Tournament of Books that will begin in the new year!
A brand new way to find your next book!
Do you have any adult or children’s/young adult books that you’d like to recycle back into the universe? You can do that here!
Here are the 52 things that Tom Whitwell learned in 2024. Lots of great things in here!
Here are all of the Best Books Lists of 2024 for you!

The 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 (Time)
Amazon Editors’ Best Books of 2024 (So Far)
The New York Public Library Best Books of 2024
Books We Love 2024 (NPR)
100 Notable Books of 2024 (New York Times)
Best Fiction Books of the Year (Kirkus)
The Best Books of 2024 So Far (Book Riot)
The Best Books of 2024 So Far (Vogue)
The 10 Best Books of 2024 (Book Page)
The 10 Best Books of 2024 (New York Times)
The Complete List of All 108 Books in Oprah’s Book Club
The 144 Most Read Books of the 2024 Reading Challenge (Goodreads)
The Goodreads Choice Award Winners (2024)
A listing of year-end book lists!

We can always find reasons to be cheerful...

11/18/2024

Here are 20 things I thought were worth sharing:

It is always the right time to look for reasons to be cheerful. There are many!
One more reason to read books in print and not on a screen!
The Center for Brooklyn History has created many turn-key curricula for you to use with your students!
The Marginalian has been a wonderful amalgam of art, literature, and poetry for 18 years. Here is what the creator, Maria Popova, has learned over that time!
Do you ever need to compare one text to another to see exactly how they differ, or don’t differ? Try this!
What was your favorite book in high school? Let me know and we can buy it for our Library if we don’t already own it!
Non-library-related, but did you ever wonder what songs people are listening to at a particular stop light in San Francisco’s Mission District? Now you can know!
Ever wonder what the science is in library science? The categorization of the world’s knowledge! When I was in high school, I loved reading about paranormal phenomena, and always went straight to 133 in the nonfiction section. If you are fascinated by surgery, check out 617! To see how LibraryThing works its magic, click on the number in the 617 box (24,766), and then scroll down to see the thousands of books that are available in that subject area! Perfect for when you found a perfect book to use with your students, and want additional similar books to use!
Who knew that the idea for Studs Terkel’s “Working” came from picture book creator Richard Scarry?!
Here is a Syllabus for Generalists that you might find interesting!
If the current news has you down, consider traveling through time!
Fascinated by Brooklyn history like I am? Check out the Center for Brooklyn History’s blog!
Need to relax from post-election anxiety? Check out A Soft Murmur or this Spotify playlist!
A reminder of how many languages are spoken around the world and how they color how we communicate.
Reading is an empathy generator!
I participated in a panel discussion of banned books a few weeks ago. If you are interested in some background information on this hot-button topic, here is the presentation I put together to collect my thoughts before the event!
We now have access to a new-to-us database: Gale Books and Authors! Gale’s plug for this product: “For many patrons, finding a book that interests them can be time-consuming. Match their reading interests with Gale Books and Authors, a reader’s advisory database that makes finding a great read much less challenging. With fun ways to browse, an intuitive design, read-alikes, reviews, award winners and themed book lists, and more this resource answers the age-old question, ‘What do I read next?’”
If you are worried about PBS funding being cut, fear not! PBS has just made a deal with Prime Video to stream many of their programs! These will be accessible even to Amazon customers who aren’t Prime members!
A suggestion from a journalist about a better way to consume the news.
A love letter to the public libraries of Austin, Texas.

Books are envelopes for ideas...

8/27/2024

Here are 19 things I thought were worth sharing:

Want to understand & explain a lot of stuff to people?
More reasons we shouldn’t ban books…
Look back at the top songs that got airplay when you were younger!
Speaking of music, here are some great tracks (love the interface!) to listen to when you are hard at work grading!
This site looks weird, but if you scroll down, you can enter the websites of publications that normally have paywalls. Have fun with your VIP access!
Love solving games & solving murders? Then try your hand at this!
Faith Ringgold was an American treasure but we are richer for the things that she left us all…
The Book Review’s Best Books Since 2000
Did you know that you could volunteer for The Library of Congress from your couch?
Want to travel to parks all over the world with just the click of a mouse? Keep on clicking “Browse” in the lower lefthand corner, and enjoy your travels!
David Byrne’s Reasons to Be Cheerful is a treasure! His team just launched a new project, Living Paradigms, “a series about how the cultural practices of others, past and present, can teach us how to prevent or solve problems.”
Find out more about this city we live in! The NYC Population FactFinder was recently updated to include 2018-2022 data. Lots of data & lots of rabbit holes to go down!
Recently, the New York Times came with their list of The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, and then they let their readers weigh in! How many of these wonderful books have you read?
Here’s a new way to teach American history that might help you & your students.
My annual suggestion that all ELA and Humanities teachers sign up for the free JSTOR Daily (that is really only sent out once a week). Filled with fascinating stories pulled from the vast JSTOR archives!
BookRadio is “a growing directory of over 20,000 free audio books in a range of languages. Most of them are classics that are in the public domain, such as The Odyssey by Homer or Darwin’s Origin of Species.”
The Brooklyn Book Festival’s Festival Day & Literary Marketplace will happen on September 29th. Don’t miss it!
My annual reminder to sign up for the free Learning Network newsletter from the New York Times. Invaluable resources for you and your students!
Nine AI tools for back to school.