Have you heard about Casti Library Action Packs (CLAPs)?? Borrow all the materials you’ll need to complete one of three fun activities: cloudspotting, pompom making, and sashiko mending. The upcoming February break is the perfect time to check one out!

The Cloudspotting CLAP comes with cloud and light effects identifiers, an inflatable pillow, and watercolors. Get outside and see what kinds of clouds you can spot using The Cloud Collector’s Handbook. Lay back on the inflatable pillow and draw inspiration from the sky to create a small watercolor painting!

The Pompom Making CLAP comes with four sizes of pompom makers, yarn, scissors, and a cat brush to make super fluffy pompoms. Try out some of the projects in Pompomania, like garlands, cacti, emojis, and more!

The brand new Sashiko Mending CLAP comes with embroidery thread, needles, and hoop, scissors, and fabric so that you can make an embroidered patch. Make + Mend has sashiko stitching patterns, plus project ideas for your completed patch!

La Cuesta Rancho Santa Barbara County : 1892, from the “Hispanics on the Central Coast – 300 Years of History” Collection by the Black and Gold Cooperative Library System. Public Domain.

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, you might be interested in checking out contemporary and historical digital archives covering art, literature, politics, and much, much more! 

Here are some examples to explore, and advice for finding even more, but feel free to post other favorites in Comments:

UCSB Library, Department of Special Research Collections (on Calisphere) includes an extremely rich range of LatinX visual art archives and artists’ papers, as well as oral histories, sound recordings, and more. (Also see New York’s MoMA for a list of Archives of LatinX art).

Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape (Library of Congress) Listen to recordings of readings, interviews, and older biographies of and by “writers from thirty-two countries are represented in this collection which includes readings in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, French, Náhuatl, Zapotec, Aymara, English and Dutch.” Recordings cover 1873-present. More about the collection.

Veteranas and Rucas (on Instagram) Historical “Photo Archive/self representation archive by/for self identified Women of So.Cal” by Guadalupe Rosales.

LLILAS Benson Digital Collections (University of Texas) Rich set of archives including everything from the Guatemalan National Police Historical Archive to Archive of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas to books printed in Mexico before 1601 to speeches and documents from a wide variety of countries’ political leaders, not to mention oral histories of Latinos and Latinas of the WWII, Korean War and Vietnam War generations.

Hispanic/Latino Heritage (National Archives) Arts, Entertainment, and Culture; Education and Civil Rights, Government and Politics; Diplomacy; Veterans; and more.

San Diego Lowrider Archival Project (University of San Diego) “The San Diego Lowrider Archival Project documents the history of lowriding in San Diego and the surrounding borderlands, from the 1950s through today. The project includes photographs, car club documents and memorabilia, official records, meeting minutes, dance posters and lowrider art. These materials reflect important qualities of the lowrider movement: creativity, independence, cultural pride, resistance, activism, community service, collectivism, tradition and ritual, and cultural continuity.”

Don’t forget to search Calisphere, California’s central digital archive of primary sources covering the history of our state. For example, you can find sources on the Zoot Suit Riots or the Mexican American Political Association there.

You can also look at other state archives, such as New York, that have been working on documenting LatinX history of the US.

If you want to dive further into the hundreds of digitized and physical archives available, or search for a specific topic, location, or heritage of interest to you, here are some open web searches to get you started:

[ hispanic OR latino OR latina OR chicano OR chicana OR latinx archives ]

[ “mexican OR cuban OR salvadoran OR rican OR peruvian american” archives ]

Are you excited for Leigh Bardugo’s next Grishaverse book? Counting the days for the sequel to Children of Blood and Bone? Maybe you just learned there’s a third book in Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series. But if you’re anything like us, there is just one problem: you cannot quite remember where the last book left off. What had the main character just discovered about her magic? Who was left dead; who had just arisen from the dead? Who was dating whom?

Fortunately, we have discovered Recaptains, if you need “a refresher before the sequel is released, this is where you need to be.” Beyond a short synopsis and a longer, bullet-pointed step-by-step review of the plot, the “How did it end” section of each entry reviews the major plot details of the last few chapters–leaving you ready to pick the story up once more.

A lot the entries are user submitted, so beyond finding the information you need without rereading the whole series, you can also submit summaries of books that you love and hope to share with other readers. Check out their website or follow them on twitter!

TA Sophia N. ’19 spoke with Keshav Dhir, a Gunn student who founded an online literary journal for teens.

Keshav Dhir, a freshman at Gunn, is no ordinary high school student. At the age of 15, he created a free online literary journal to give middle and high school students a platform to share their writing and be inspired by the writing of other students around the country.

When he was very young, he discovered his passion for reading through J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and from then on would spend hours each day immersed in the fictional worlds of Rick Riordan, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and many more. When he got a bit older, he grew curious about how authors managed to write so descriptively and transport others to their fictional worlds. After asking himself these questions, he gave writing a shot and found that he not only loved consuming written works but also creating them with his own two hands. Inspired by his favorite authors, he currently loves to read and write fantasy and sci-fi. He has also forged his own path in journalism and has interviewed people such as Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, and Steve Rasmussen, the owner of Milk Pail Market in Mountain View.

He soon reached out to a children’s publishing company to see if his work could be published, but he never gota response as to whether they would consider publishing his work. Frustrated by his experience, Keshav made it his mission to create a platform for young writers to share their work and read short stories and poems from other talented students. He founded Scribere, an online literary journal, to promote creativity in students and give them the opportunity to submit their own work for publication and receive feedback from other student writers. Scribere is growing rapidly across the Bay Area and is now sponsored by Disney, ThinkFund, Youth Service for America, and the City of Palo Alto.

However, despite his success, Keshav is no stranger to criticism and writer’s block. When faced with writer’s block, he says, “I usually take a step back and think about what I’ve written, and see how I can improve it through description or dialogue or something else. Sometimes, I will just take a break completely and wait for something new to come to me. You can’t force the creative flow; it has to come to you.” When I asked him if he had any advice for young aspiring writers, he said “Writer’s block happens, rejection happens, criticism happens. Don’t let it get you down, just keep writing! Your writing is your own, so you decide when you’re finished or how much to add, not anyone else.”

Keshav encourages aspiring writers in the Castilleja community to submit their work to Scribere, following the guidelines outlined on their website (scribere.org). He and his editorial board, which only consists of middle and high school students, will review the submission and decide whether it should be published in their journal. If not, they’ll give the author feedback on how it can be improved and invite them to resubmit. If so, they’ll reach out to the author and let them know when their work will be published.

Pixar has teamed up with Khan Academy to offer a free course on storytelling! The Art of Storytelling will be released over the course of the year, with sections on narrative, character creation, storyboarding, and more. Material is drawn from artists and directors who worked on movies like Inside Out, Up, and Brave. The first two segments are up now. Go check it out!

The library is delighted to announce that we now have audiobooks that you can check out!

Our collection, offering a range of choices for listeners age 11-18 and beyond, is with the ebooks in Overdrive. If you want to see which of our audiobooks are recommended for someone your age, check out our Pinterest board.

If you are not an audiobook devotee already, you might be wondering what there is to get excited about. Click on a cover below to take a listen to some samples from our collection and find out:

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope (Gr. 8+) Full Cast Reading

The Night Circus (Adult for young adult) Reader: Jim Dale

The Graveyard Book (Gr 5-8) Readers: Tim Dann and Neil Gaiman

Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy (Gr. 6+) Reader: Katherine Kellgren

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Gr. 9+) Reader: Lin-Manuel Miranda

How It Went Down (Gr 9+) Full Cast Reading

Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War (Gr 7+) Reader: Ray Porter

So check out some audiobooks today, an tell us how you enjoy experiencing books in a whole new way!

Learn how to check them out on our how-to page.