In celebration of Canton's Acts of Culture Week, we are pleased to present photographer Rick Lieder as he shares his beautiful book, Step Gently Out. Lieder worked with award-winning poet, Helen Frost to create an amazing 'picture' of what we can find in our own backyards if we just step gently and keep our eyes and minds wide open. You will be stunned by what you see on Tuesday, May 1st at 7:00 PM. Everyone is welcome.

The 600th year celebration of the birth of Joan of Arc is being celebrated in 2012. Born in France in 1412, she is considered a national heroine and one of the country's patron saints. Nicknamed the "Maid of Orleans", she was a peasant girl who claimed divine guidance when leading the French army to several significant victories during the Hundred Year's War. Captured by the enemy, she was tried for heresy and burned at the stake when she was only 19. Twenty five years later the pope cleared her name and declared her a martyr. She was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920.

Joan of Arc: a Penguin life by Mary Gordon

Look for these films based on popular books in your local theater in the coming months:

Anna Karenina: a novel in eight parts by Leo Tolstoy — Starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law. Release date: September 2012.

Chicken with plums by Marjane Satrapi — Starring Mathieu Amalric and Eduouard Baer. Release date: August 2012.

Easy money by Jens Lapidus — Starring Joel Kinnaman and Dragomir Mrsic. Release date: July 2012.

Still have jelly beans leftover from your Easter basket? Then share them with your friends in celebration of National Jelly Bean Day on April 22. Primarily made of sugar, jelly beans are the descendant of the Middle Eastern confection, Turkish Delight. William Schrafft, a Boston confectioner began selling jelly beans in 1861 but they really took off in 1905 when an advertisement appeared in the Chicago Daily News selling jelly beans in bulk packages. Jelly beans became an Easter staple in American Easter baskets in the 1930s.
[Photo by New Media, January 1, 1980. eLibrary]

The theme for Earth Day 2012 is Mobilize the Earth. Try some of the following titles from the Library's collection to help you get started!

Attracting birds, butterflies and other backyard wildlife by David Mizejewski

Backyard wildlife: how to attract bees, butterflies, insects, birds, frogs and animals into your garden by Christine and Michael Lavelle

Bats by M. Brock Fenton

We can all observe Earth Day this year by educating ourselves about the challenges that face our environment and what we can do about it. Try some of the titles suggested below to get started:

The age of stupid [videodisc] — Pete Postlethwaite stars as an archivist living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, who spends his days looking at old footage from the years leading up to 2015 - when a cataclysmic climate change took place.

Join us in honoring the Legacy of Michigan's World War II heroes and Honor Flight Michigan who provided their trips of a lifetime. The family-friendly documentary will tug at your heart and make you swell with pride for our fathers and grandfathers, a generation of heroes. Please bring Dad or Grandpa along on Thursday, May 3 at 7:00 PM to watch this documentary, hear stories from the people who created the organization and the veterans who lived it.

Casablanca, one of the greatest American films, celebrates it's 70th anniversary this year. When it was released in 1942, it was just one of many films produced that year, and although it won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, it wasn't until years later that its reputation among both critics and viewers has consistenly placed it on lists of the greatest films of all time.

To celebrate Earth Week, we have invited Granton Brooks, the communications specialist from SEMCOG to share the many earth-friendly projects supported by SEMCOG in his Living Green in Southeast Michigan program. Did you know that they declare Ozone Action Days for our region or that they sponsor the Michigan Rideshare program or the studies of water run-off? SEMCOG impacts our community in many ways. Come see how they can help your earth-friendly everyday life on Monday, April 23 at 7:00 PM.

This post is part of our Earth Day 2012 celebration.

This program has been canceled.

Be the envy of your neighborhood. Have a beautiful lawn and be friendly to our precious earth at the same time. Mary Vangieson of the Wayne County Department of Public Services shares the need-to-know information on Composting and Healthy Lawns and gardens. Join us on Tuesday, April 24 at 7:00 PM as we continue our celebration of Earth Week.

Are you trying to be a little healthier with your eating habits? Are you trying to save the creatures that share our world with us? Well, The Fat Chef in the Little Coat has suggestions for eating delicious, healthy food at least once a week or more. He shares his recipes for vegetarian dishes we can all love in Vegetarian Eating for Everyone. Join us as we continue our Earth Week celebrations on Wednesday, April 25 at 7:00 PM.

This post is part of our Earth Day 2012 celebration.

Are you out of work or thinking about a new career? Stop thinking and start doing! Michigan Shifting Gears is a career-transition program for seasoned corporate professionals who want to pursue opportunities in business growth sectors where they can leverage their business knowledge and experience in new ways.

April 15, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the luxury liner RMS Titanic. The largest ship afloat in the world at the time — and widely believed to be "unsinkable" — the Titanic left Southampton, England on her maiden voyage to New York City on April 10. Four days later, the ship collided with an iceberg late in the evening of April 14, and sank in the Atlantic Ocean at approximately 2:20 in the morning of the 15th.

For the past few years, the Canton Public Library has held a donation drive to commemorate Memorial Day by helping service men and women. Once again we will be collecting donations, this year for the VA Hospital of Ann Arbor , but there are many other rewarding ways to observe Memorial Day, including:

• Visiting cemeteries and placing flags or flowers on the graves of our fallen heroes
• Visiting war memorials
• Flying the U.S. Flag at half-staff until noon
• Participating in a National Moment of Remembrance at 3:00 PM to pause and reflect upon the true meaning of the day
• Attending a parade
• Watching a patriotic movie or reading a patriotic book

Check out websites like [White House] Joining Forces, where you can actually send a message of thanks to a military family and get other ideas for showing appreciation. Also, be sure to visit the library's displays on Memorial Day and the history behind some of our military traditions.

Before we celebrate Memorial Day, let's commemorate. Please help CPL as we collect items to be donated to the VA Hospital of Ann Arbor for distribution to homeless veterans. Donations will be appreciatively accepted beginning Thursday, May 10 through Thursday, May 31 at the Reception Desk.
Suggested donations include:

• Rolls of Lifesavers (or other hard candy)
• Rice Krispies bars (or granola bars, etc.)
• Plastic utensils (knives, forks, spoons)
• Napkins
• Ritz snack mix (or other trail mix)
• Easy-open cans of tuna, chicken or other meats

Other general requests include $5-10 gift cards to Wendy's or McDonald's; cans of coffee (regular or decaf); prepaid telephone calling cards; new crossword puzzles and word search books.

The daily you: how the new advertising industry is defining your identity and your worth by Joseph Turow

Deadly valentines: the story of Capone's henchman "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn and Louise Rolfe, his blonde alibi by Jeffrey Gusfield

God's jury: the Inquisition and the making of the modern world by Cullen Murphy

Masterpiece Mystery returns on May 6, 2012. Kicking off the new season will be Sherlock! Season 2 starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes. David Suchet returns as Hercule Poirot. It is the final season for Agatha Christie's Hercules Poirot. Zen, Inspector Lewis, Case Histories, and Inspector Morse are all returning.

Inspector Morse [videodisc]: The dead of Jericho by A Zenith Production for Central Independent Television

Sherlock. Season one [videodisc] by BBC

The 1940 Census was released to the public this morning by the National Archives. Originally taken in April, 1940, the information is now available for the first time after a mandatory 72-year waiting period. The Federal government requires that a census is to be taken every ten years so that the apportionment of members of the House of Representatives can be accurately determined.

April is National Poetry Month, if you haven’t already, maybe it’s time your group considered reading and discussing poetry. Choose a poet and let members select 2 or 3 poems from the poet’s collected worksto read. Members can discuss their reactions to the poems or maybe to poetry as a whole.

The complete poems by Walt Whitman ; edited with an introduction and notes by Francis Murphy

How to read a poem: and fall in love with poetry by Edward Hirsch

These historical fiction books span the centuries as well as the globe. Try them for an escape to another time and place.

The book thief by Markus Zusak

Girl in hyacinth blue by Susan Vreeland

City of dreams: a novel of Nieuw Amsterdam and early Manhattan by Beverly Swerling