by Dan Gill Why does Mr. Gill keep an empty chair in the front of his classroom? Find out in this poignant picture book based on a true story that celebrates a beloved teacher and his commitment to making sure all kids feel welcome. From art to science, history to math, there are so many things to learn at school! But Mr. Gill's students are most interested in learning about the empty chair that sits in the front of their classroom. He tells them a story from his childhood about his Black … [Read more...] about No More Chairs
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Percy Shelley’s “Prometheus Unbound”
This month we kick off the 2026 Winter Read, which is Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). There will be several book discussions, a foyer-themed book display, and a lineup of engaging programming here at The Community Library. Featured in our foyer is an item from our Special Collections: Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound: With Adonais, The Cloud, Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, and an Exhortation(1888). This related work was originally published in 1820 … [Read more...] about Percy Shelley’s “Prometheus Unbound”
Mary Shelley
Starring Elle Fanning The real-life story of Mary Shelley, and the creation of her immortal monster, is nearly as fantastical as her fiction. Raised by a renowned philosopher father in eighteenth-century London, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is a teenage dreamer determined to make her mark on the world, when she meets the dashing and brilliant poet Percy Shelley. So begins a torrid, bohemian love affair marked by both passion and personal tragedy that will transform Mary and fuel the … [Read more...] about Mary Shelley
Young Frankenstein
Starring Gene Wilder, Cloris Leachman, Teri Garr, Marty Feldman, and Peter Boyle Lending his burlesque touch to 1970s genre revision, Mel Brooks followed his hit "western" Blazing Saddles with this parody of 1930s Universal horror movies. Determined to live down his family's reputation, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (co-screenwriter Gene Wilder) insists on pronouncing his name "Fronckensteen" and denies interest in replicating his grandfather's experiments. But when he is lured by Frau … [Read more...] about Young Frankenstein
She Made a Monster
How Mary Shelley created Frankenstein By Lynn Fulton On a stormy night two hundred years ago, a young woman sat in a dark house and dreamed of her life as a writer. She longed to follow the path her own mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, had started down, but young Mary Shelley had yet to be inspired.As the night wore on, Mary grew more anxious. The next day was the deadline that her friend, the poet Lord Byron, had set for writing the best ghost story. After much talk of science and the secrets … [Read more...] about She Made a Monster
Monstrous Progeny:
A History of the Frankenstein Narratives by Lester D. Friedman Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein is its own type of monster mythos that will not die, a corpus whose parts keep getting harvested to animate new artistic creations. What makes this tale so adaptable and so resilient that, nearly 200 years later, it remains vitally relevant in a culture radically different from the one that spawned its birth? Monstrous Progeny takes readers on a fascinating exploration of the … [Read more...] about Monstrous Progeny:
