Computer class
Yonkers Public Library's technology classes help adults develop confidence in their computer skills and grow comfortable in today's digital world. From learning the basics of how to use a computer to creating spreadsheets in Excel, there is a class for everyone. No prior knowledge of topics is required.
News & Notes
International People With Disabilities Day!
Today is International People with Disabilities Day. People with disabilities are all over the world from all cultures and backgrounds.
Podcast Review: History Extra Podcast
With the eighty-second anniversary of the attack at Pearl Harbor approaching (Thursday, December 7th), you may want to listen to the
Teen Fiction
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Homemade Holiday
Bring the magic of a handmade Christmas into your home with 40 projects for gifts, decorations, and homemade wrapping paper.
Save time and money with the festive craft projects in Homemade Holiday. Clear, step-by-step instructions guide readers to create fresh flower garlands, bake edible gift tags, make homemade bath salts, and paint authentic tree ornaments. With last-minute ideas and lots of inspiration, this book will help you wrap up gift-giving and decorating for the holiday season. -
Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8
A follow-up to its bestselling predecessor, The Reason I Jump opens an extraordinary, rare window into the mind and world of an autistic, non-verbal person--now coping with a young man's life.
Naoki Higashida wrote The Reason I Jump as a 13-year-old boy with severe autism, giving us all insight into a world never before open to us. Now he shares his thoughts and experiences as a 24-year-old. Based on his hugely succesful blogs in Japan, he gives us, in short powerful chapters, his moving, beautiful insights into life, identity, education, his family, our society, and personal growth. He allows readers to experience profound moments we take for granted, like the thought-steps necessary for him to register that it's raining outside. Introduced by award-winning author David Mitchell (co-translator with his wife KA Yoshida), this book is part memoir, part critique of a world that sees disabilities ahead of the individual, part self-portrait-in-progress of a young man who happens to have autism and wants to help us understand his world better. -
All the Light We Cannot See
"From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighborhood, every house, every manhole, so she can memorize it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure's agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall. In another world in Germany, an orphan boy, Werner, grows up with his younger sister, Jutta, both enchanted by a crude radio Werner finds. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure. Doerr's gorgeous combination of soaring imagination with observation is electric. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is his most ambitious and dazzling work"--
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El Deafo
New York Times Bestseller
A 2015 Newbery Honor Book Going to school and making new friends can be tough. But going to school and making new friends while wearing a bulky hearing aid strapped to your chest? That requires superpowers! In this funny, poignant graphic novel memoir, author/illustrator Cece Bell chronicles her hearing loss at a young age and her subsequent experiences with the Phonic Ear, a very powerful--and very awkward--hearing aid.
The Phonic Ear gives Cece the ability to hear--sometimes things she shouldn't--but also isolates her from her classmates. She really just wants to fit in and find a true friend, someone who appreciates her as she is. After some trouble, she is finally able to harness the power of the Phonic Ear and become "El Deafo, Listener for All." And more importantly, declare a place for herself in the world and find the friend she's longed for.
PRAISE FOR EL DEAFO
STARRED REVIEWS
"A standout autobiography. Someone readers will enjoy getting to know."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Worthy of a superhero."
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"This empowering autobiographical story belongs right next to Raina Telgemeier's Smile (2011) and Liz Prince's Tomboy."
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The Disability Experience
People with disabilities (PWDs) have the same aspirations for their lives as you do for yours.
The difference is that PWDs don't have the same access to education, employment, housing, transportation and healthcare in order to achieve their goals. In The Disability Experience you'll meet people with different kinds of disabilities, and you'll begin to understand the ways PWDs have been ignored, reviled and marginalized throughout history. The book also celebrates the triumphs and achievements of PWDs and shares the powerful stories of those who have fought for change.
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Americans with Disabilities Act
Americans with Disabilities Act The history of the United States is, in large part, the history of its Landmark Legislation. In this series, the authors take the reader behind the scenes to show the drama that led to each bill's being passed and the effect each piece of legislation has had in the development of our country. Each book includes an informative "From Bill to Law" feature, which explains in easy-to-follow fashion how the process of legislation works. Americans with Disabilities Act tells the inspiring story of how people with disabilities-and their supporters-fought to win their civil rights and an equal opportunity to attain the American dream. Book jacket.
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Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Brown Sisters trilogy, comes a laugh-out-loud story about a quirky content creator and a clean-cut athlete testing their abilities to survive the great outdoors—and each other.
Bradley Graeme is pretty much perfect. He’s a star football player, manages his OCD well (enough), and comes out on top in all his classes . . . except the ones he shares with his ex-best friend, Celine.
Celine Bangura is conspiracy-theory-obsessed. Social media followers eat up her takes on everything from UFOs to holiday overconsumption—yet, she’s still not cool enough for the popular kids’ table. Which is why Brad abandoned her for the in-crowd years ago. (At least, that’s how Celine sees it.)
These days, there’s nothing between them other than petty insults and academic rivalry. So when Celine signs up for a survival course in the woods, she’s surprised to find Brad right beside her.
Forced to work as a team for the chance to win a grand prize, these two teens must trudge through not just mud and dirt but their messy past. And as this adventure brings them closer together, they begin to remember the good bits of their history. But has too much time passed . . . or just enough to spark a whole new kind of relationship? -
The Summer of Bitter and Sweet
In this complex and emotionally resonant novel about a Métis girl living on the Canadian prairies, debut author Jen Ferguson serves up a powerful story about rage, secrets, and all the spectrums that make up a person--and the sweetness that can still live alongside the bitterest truth. A William C. Morris Award Honor Book and a Stonewall Award Honor Book!
Lou has enough confusion in front of her this summer. She'll be working in her family's ice-cream shack with her newly ex-boyfriend--whose kisses never made her feel desire, only discomfort--and her former best friend, King, who is back in their Canadian prairie town after disappearing three years ago without a word.
But when she gets a letter from her biological father--a man she hoped would stay behind bars for the rest of his life--Lou immediately knows that she cannot meet him, no matter how much he insists.
While King's friendship makes Lou feel safer and warmer than she would have thought possible, when her family's business comes under threat, she soon realizes that she can't ignore her father forever.
The Heartdrum imprint centers a wide range of intertribal voices, visions, and stories while welcoming all young readers, with an emphasis on the present and future of Indian Country and on the strength of young Native heroes. In partnership with We Need Diverse Books.
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The Silence Between Us
Schneider Family Book Award, Best Teen Honor Book 2020
Contemporary fiction fans will find it hard to put down The Silence Between Us--a YA novel that doesn't shy away from real-life issues including the challenges faced by those in the Deaf culture, relationship struggles, communication problems, and complicated families.
Deaf teen Maya moves across the country and must attend a hearing school for the first time. As if that wasn't hard enough, she also has to adjust to the hearing culture, which she finds frustrating. As Maya looks past graduation and focuses on her future dreams, nothing, not even an unexpected romance, will derail her pursuits or cause her to question her own self worth.
The Silence Between Us:
- Features a Deaf protagonist and an #OwnVoices perspective on Deaf and Hard of Hearing culture
- Is a clean YA romance by Wattpad sensation Alison Gervais
- Is perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and CeCe Bell
- Includes an interview with the author and a commentary on cochlear implants by Alison
"The Silence Between Us is eminently un-put-down-able." (NPR)
"Gervais deftly renders both the nuanced, everyday realities of life with disability and Maya's fierce pride in her Deafness, delivering a vibrant story that will resonate with Deaf and hearing audiences alike." - Booklist
"A solid addition to middle/high school fiction that allows for deep discussion about stereotypes concerning disabilities." School Library Journal
"This is a great YA contemporary (clean) romance that follows Maya as she navigates a new school and plans for her future. The addition of representation by a Deaf character was really beautifully done. Highly recommend for people looking for a sweet, engaging, and educational romantic read." (YA and Kids Book Central)
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Wild and Crooked
Critically-acclaimed author Leah Thomas blends a small-town setting with the secrets of a long-ago crime, in a compelling novel about breaking free from the past.
In Samsboro, Kentucky, Kalyn Spence's name is inseparable from the brutal murder her father committed when he was a teenager. Forced to return to town, Kalyn must attend school under a pseudonym . . . or face the lingering anger of Samsboro's citizens, who refuse to forget the crime.
Gus Peake has never had the luxury of redefining himself. A Samsboro native, he's either known as the "disabled kid" because of his cerebral palsy, or as the kid whose dad was murdered. Gus just wants to be known as himself.
When Gus meets Kalyn, her frankness is refreshing, and they form a deep friendship. Until their families' pasts emerge. And when the accepted version of the truth is questioned, Kalyn and Gus are caught in the center of a national uproar. Can they break free from a legacy of inherited lies and chart their own paths forward?
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Disability Visibility (Adapted for Young Adults)
Disabled young people will be proud to see themselves reflected in this hopeful, compelling, and insightful essay collection, adapted for young adults from the critically acclaimed adult book, Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century that "sheds light on the experience of life as an individual with disabilities, as told by none other than authors with these life experiences." --Chicago Tribune, "Best books published in summer 2020" (Vintage/Knopf Doubleday edition).
The seventeen eye-opening essays in Disability Visibility, all written by disabled people, offer keen insight into the complex and rich disability experience, examining life's ableism and inequality, its challenges and losses, and celebrating its wisdom, passion, and joy.
The accounts in this collection ask readers to think about disabled people not as individuals who need to be “fixed,” but as members of a community with its own history, culture, and movements. They offer diverse perspectives that speak to past, present, and future generations. It is essential reading for all. -
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.Imprisoned for over two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism--but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her.
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The Boys in the Boat
Soon to be a major motion picture directed by George Clooney
The #1 New York Times–bestselling story about the American Olympic rowing triumph in Nazi Germany—from the author of Facing the Mountain.For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.
It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest. -
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
Over a year on the New York Times bestseller list and more than a million copies sold.
The essential universe, from our most celebrated and beloved astrophysicist.What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us? There’s no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson.
But today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in tasty chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day.
While you wait for your morning coffee to brew, for the bus, the train, or a plane to arrive, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry will reveal just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.
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Rolling Warrior
As featured in the Oscar-nominated documentary Crip Camp, and for readers of I Am Malala, one of the most influential disability rights activists in US history tells her story of fighting to belong.
“If I didn’t fight, who would?”
Judy Heumann was only 5 years old when she was first denied her right to attend school. Paralyzed from polio and raised by her Holocaust-surviving parents in New York City, Judy had a drive for equality that was instilled early in life.
In this young readers’ edition of her acclaimed memoir, Being Heumann, Judy shares her journey of battling for equal access in an unequal world—from fighting to attend grade school after being described as a “fire hazard” because of her wheelchair, to suing the New York City school system for denying her a teacher’s license because of her disability. Judy went on to lead 150 disabled people in the longest sit-in protest in US history at the San Francisco Federal Building. Cut off from the outside world, the group slept on office floors, faced down bomb threats, and risked their lives to win the world’s attention and the first civil rights legislation for disabled people.
Judy’s bravery, persistence, and signature rebellious streak will speak to every person fighting to belong and fighting for social justice.
Digital Resources
Academic Onefile (Gale)

Ancestry Library Edition

Access thousands of genealogical databases including Census and Vital Records, birth, marriage and death notices, Social Security Death Index, naturalizations, Military and Holocaust Records, City Directories, and African American and more.
Biography in Context

Biography in Context includes Encyclopedia Britannica plus Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, magazines and periodicals, and many other research tools. You must be a Yonkers Library Cardholder to access information from home.