Do you have no plan to do with your kids during the holidays?

Go to the museum with our free tickets from Discover & Go.

San Jose Public Library Collections

• Art
• Museum

Art in San Jose Public Library

• RECOLECCIONES: Public Art Collection 
• Local Artists’ Exhibition

Additional Information

• Silicon Valley Events for Arts
• San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art
• San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles
• San Jose Art and Entertainment

Written by two teachers, Jennie Withers and Phyllis Hendrickson, M. Ed., Hey, Back Off! sheds lights on the topics of Teen Harassment and Bullying At School.  It helps both parents and teens understand more about the Harassment Law , the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (outlawing harassment),  the Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (prohibiting discrimination based on disability).

This book helps readers realize different types of bullying: cyberbullying (sending mean text messages), sexual harassment, verbal teasing, and hitting or punching.  It explores different cases and different personalities:  passive teens (who have passive parents) becoming victims, and bullies being bullies because they have aggressive parents, and it shows how a person can become assertive from being passive or aggressive.  It portrays true life experiences of agressive people and how they become that way.  After reading the chapters on these cases of Passive Personalities and Aggressive Personalities, I realized that the authors have helped people on both sides of the spectrum:  victims of bullying and the bullies.

October was the Bullying Prevention Awareness Month.  www.nctsn.org is an important web site to check out.  Go to "Resources, "Public Awareness", click on "Bullying Prevention Awareness Month" to learn about "Facts and Tips for Teens" to stay safe from cyberbullying.  This site also provides us with links regarding other types of abuse/bullying:  "Finding Help for Sexually Abused Children", "National Homeless Youth Awareness Month", and "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month".  Under "Get Help Now", there are links to crisis hotlines, victim assistance programs, how to deal with school crises, how to help abused or neglected children, and more.

Written by two conselors and moms, Gina Scarano-Osika and KimDever-Johnson, this book You Grow Girl:  A Self-Empowering Workbook for Tweens and Teens is definitely a book to be shared with your friends and you parents/teachers/conselors.  It helps you build self-esteem and body confidence, understand and maintain healthy eating attitudes, learning about stress management and how to cope with stress, how to nourish positive thinking and eliminate negative feelings.  It depicts female role models from various backgrounds and ethnicities.  It encourages teens to become beautiful inside and out by giving teens different scenarios and thought-provoking exercises.  Issues such as culture and peer pressures, deceptive media images, food/weight, mindfulness, etc. are also explored. 

Gracefully prepared by two conselors, this book offers a lot of wisdom to girls ages 9 to 16.  Strongly recommended to not just girls, but to Moms and Dads alike.

After hitting the book market in 2011, this book Inside Out and Back Again quickly became a best-seller.  The month of October was the Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, and this book once again was actively sought after.  Every year thousands of high school students are being bullied due to differences in religion and culture or norm, or the way they portray themselves, dress, talk, or socialize.   Among these student victims of bullying, many came from Vietnam.  This book is a series of heartfelt poems telling stories of how Ha`, the protagonist, went through years of being bullied by her classmates, and how she coped with bullying. 

Her story is symbolic of the high school life of many other Vietnamese students and students of other ethnic backgrounds who came here to America when they were in the ages of 9 to 18.  In the end of the book,  Ha` delivered a powerful message to the world:  she stood up, "gave her bullies a lesson" by becoming an excellent student whom both her family members and the school officials were so proud of.

This book won many awards such as Newbery Honor, National Book Award, and was placed on the New York Times Bestsellers list.  You can access the Newbery Medal home page through SJPL (San Jose Public Library) home page, www.sjpl.org, under "Homework, research, articles", then go to "Research Guides", "Books and Literature", "Book Awards", "Newbery Medal".

June was the month to recognize the refugees' plight.  Again, check out the web site www.nctsn.org to understand the refugees and the circumstances they have to live through.  Go to "Resources", "Public Awareness, click on "World Refugee Awareness Month". 

Hopefully you will see the image of yourself and your friends' through these books and the web sites recommended here, and will do your part to foster a better learning environment for your school.

Ha` was one of hundreds of thousands of political refugees who left Vietnam in 1975 when she was 10 years old.  She and her family settled in Alabama.  Her pen-name is Thanhha Lai.  Her first name is Ha`, Thanhha`, or Thanhha.

Starting on Thursday, November 8th, storytimes at the Joyce Ellington Branch Library will start on a new schedule!

• Family Storytime (English) with Stay & Play - Wednesdays - 5:30pm - 6:30pm
• Bilingual (English/Spanish) Preschool Storytime with Stay & Play - Thursdays - 11am - 12pm
• Inclusive Storytime with Stay & Play - Last Thursday of the month - 11am-12pm

Please note that there will be no storytime at the Joyce Ellington Library scheduled on Wednesday, November 21st because the library closes at 6pm and will be closed on Thursday, November 22nd in observance of the Thanksgiving Holiday.

¡A partir del jueves, 8 de noviembre, el nuevo horario de cuentos en la Biblioteca Joyce Ellington empiezara con:

• Hora de Cuentos Para Familias con Quédate a Jugar va ser los miércoles de 5:30pm hasta 6:30pm.

• Hora de Cuentos Bilingüe y Preescolar con Quédate a Jugar va ser los jueves de 11am hasta 12pm (mediodía)

• Hora de Cuentos Inclusive con Quédate a Jugar tomará lugar el último jueves de cada mes de 11am hasta 12pm (mediodía)

Por favor tome nota que no habrá hora de cuentos en la Biblioteca Joyce Ellington  porque la biblioteca cerrará el miércoles, 21 de noviembre a las 6pm y todo el día, jueves, 22 de noviembre por el Día de Acción de Gracias (día feriado)