Upcoming Events
Start Summer Reading with fun for all ages! Games, snacks, and more! Featuring a very special visit from the Bubble Bus! No registration required.
Celebrate Make Music Day with a special concert! Join award winning songwriter and performer Zev Haber for fun family music, dancing and using instruments! No registration
Science and art activities for ages 5-12! No registration.
Science and art activities for ages 5-12! No registration.
Join award winning songwriter and performer Zev Haber for fun family music, dancing and using instruments. No registration.
Science and art activities for ages 5-12! No registration.
Join award winning songwriter and performer Zev Haber for fun family music, dancing and using instruments. No registration.
Science and art activities for ages 5-12! No registration.
Science and art activities for ages 5-12! No registration.
Join award winning songwriter and performer Zev Haber for fun family music, dancing and using instruments. No registration.
Join Summer Reading now! Yonkers Public Library's invites readers of all ages to expand their knowledge over the summer by reading and learning in our Summer Reading "Adventure Begins At Your Library" Program. Participants can begin logging books on June 1 through August 15, 2024. For every book that you log, your name will be entered into a drawing for different prizes (i.e. Amazon gift card, prize baskets, and more). Each library branch will host its own drawing. Register here or below.
FAQ
Visit any Yonkers Public Library location to sign up in person or sign up online with Beanstack.
Download the Beanstack tracker app by visiting the Apple App store or the Google Play store (Android).
An individual account would be for a reader who is only signing themselves up for the program. If you are signing multiple people in your household up at the same time and would like to manage all of those accounts with one login, then you can create a family account. This is ideal for parents or caregivers who are logging reads for children, though anyone can be a member of your family.
Online using Beanstack
- First, you must create an account on Beanstack and enroll in the designated challenge for your age/grade level. Once the programs begin, you can start logging.
- You can log your reads (either minutes or books, depending on what challenge you are enrolled in) or your activities. For each book, you will earn a badge. The more you read, the more times your name will be entered into the grand prize drawing!
In-Person
- Fill out your reading log and bring it to a librarian at any Yonkers Public Library location. They will give you a new log to fill out.
By default, the system asks for everyone’s grade when they register to determine which challenge you are eligible for. If you are an adult and/or out of school, you can select the “adult” option at registration.
There are 3 types of badges:
- Logging Badges: earn these milestone badges whenever you log your reads.
- Activity Badges: these are optional, fun activities that you can complete to earn extra entries into the grand prize drawings. You get an additional entry into the drawing for each activity badge you earn.
- Review Badges: these are optional badges that you can earn by writing reviews about the books you’ve read. You get an additional entry into the drawing for each review badge you earn.
Yes!
- On your Beanstack landing page or in the app, select "Register a Class or Group.
- Choose if you want to log reading and activities for this group "All at One Time" or "Individually."**
- Next, enter the basic information for the group (name, age, grade, etc). Keep in mind that the options here will vary depending on your site's optional and required registration question preferences.
- Then, enter the group leader's own information as the account creator to use to log in and access the account.
- Once you click “Register Group,” you'll see any available challenges and then be taken directly to the group reader view.
**All at One Time: Reading and activities are logged for the group all at once, and everyone earns badges and incentives at the same time. Readers must all be the same age. This is the most common and least time-intensive selection.
Individually: Reading and activities are logged for each reader individually, and they'll earn badges and incentives at different times. Individual readers' ages can be edited after the group is created.
Summer Reading program runs from June 1 - August 15. You can log books during that time period.
Posts
Children's Book Week May 2024
For 105 years, Children’s Book Week has been a celebration of books for young people to foster learning and a love of reading.
Recommended Reads
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Felix Ever After
A Stonewall Honor Book * A Time Magazine Best YA Book of All Time
From Stonewall and Lambda Award-winning author Kacen Callender comes a revelatory YA novel about a transgender teen grappling with identity and self-discovery while falling in love for the first time.
Felix Love has never been in love--and, yes, he's painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it's like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What's worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he's one marginalization too many--Black, queer, and transgender--to ever get his own happily-ever-after.
When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages--after publicly posting Felix's deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned--Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn't count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi-love triangle....
But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship: how he feels about himself.
Felix Ever After is an honest and layered story about identity, falling in love, and recognizing the love you deserve.
"Felix is attending an ultracompetitive arts summer program to have a better shot at a full scholarship to Brown when someone posts Felix's dead name beside photos of him, pre-transition, in the school's lobby. Felix's plot to get revenge throws him onto the path of love and self-discovery." (Publishers Weekly, "An Anti-Racist Children's and YA Reading List")
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20000 Leagues Under the Sea- O/P
Go 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with Sterling's Illustrated Classics series, and see Jules Verne's fantastic water-world as never before: through more than 70 stunning steampunk images illustrated by the incredible William O'Connor. Originally published in 1870, Verne's amazing adventure is one of the earliest sci-fi novels ever written--and one of the most popular. Come on board the Nautilus and plunge below the waves with Captain Nemo on a voyage of exploration and imagination.
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Fever 1793
From Fever 1793
"Where's Polly?" I asked as I dropped the bucket down the well. "Did you pass by the blacksmith's?
"I spoke with her mother, with Mistress Logan," Mother answered softly, looking at her neat rows of carrots.
"And?" I waved a mosquito away from my face.
"It happened quickly. Polly sewed by candlelight after dinner. Her mother repeated that over and over, 'she sewed by candlelight after dinner.' And then she collapsed."
I released the handle and the bucket splashed, a distant sound.
"Matilda, Polly's dead."
August 1793. Fourteen-year-old Mattie Cook is ambitious, adventurous, and sick to death of listening to her mother. Mattie has plans of her own. She wants to turn the Cook Coffeehouse into the finest business in Philadelphia, the capital of the new United States.
But the waterfront is abuzz with reports of disease. "Fever" spreads from the docks and creeps toward Mattie's home, threatening everything she holds dear.
As the cemeteries fill with fever victims, fear turns to panic, and thousands flee the city. Then tragedy strikes the coffeehouse, and Mattie is trapped in a living nightmare. Suddenly, her struggle to build a better life must give way to something even more important -- the fight to stay alive. -
Our House Is on Fire
Learn the story of TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR Greta Thunberg, the sixteen-year-old climate activist who has sparked a worldwide student movent and is demanding action from world leaders who refuse to address climate change—from acclaimed picture book creator Jeanette Winter.
I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic…I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.
When she was fifteen years old, Greta Thunberg’s teacher explained to her class that our climate is changing—the earth is getting warmer, the polar ice caps are melting, and life on earth is threatened. Greta was devastated. What could she do? If the grown-ups weren’t doing enough to save the planet, Greta would have to demand change herself.
So she went on strike, skipping school every Friday to sit outside of the Swedish Parliament building with a sign that read “School Strike for Climate.” At first, Greta was the only one. But gradually, more and more students joined her, until her lone protest had sparked a worldwide student movement for action on climate change.
Now, a year later, Greta is speaking to audiences of world leaders at important meetings like the United Nations Climate Conference and the World Economic Forum. She is leading the conversation on climate change and sparking worldwide conversation on how to save our planet. Greta is showing everyone that even the smallest person can make a big difference, and this picture book informs and inspires young readers who are beginning to learn about the world around them. -
X: A Novel
A 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book
Cowritten by Malcolm X’s daughter, this riveting and revealing novel follows the formative years of the man whose words and actions shook the world.
Malcolm Little’s parents have always told him that he can achieve anything, but from what he can tell, that’s a pack of lies—after all, his father’s been murdered, his mother’s been taken away, and his dreams of becoming a lawyer have gotten him laughed out of school. There’s no point in trying, he figures, and lured by the nightlife of Boston and New York, he escapes into a world of fancy suits, jazz, girls, and reefer. But Malcolm’s efforts to leave the past behind lead him into increasingly dangerous territory. Deep down, he knows that the freedom he’s found is only an illusion—and that he can’t run forever.
X follows Malcolm from his childhood to his imprisonment for theft at age twenty, when he found the faith that would lead him to forge a new path and command a voice that still resonates today. -
White Fang
Fast-moving and accessible, each story in this series is a shortened, illustrated version of the classic novel, which loses none of the strength and flavour of the original. Each book also contains biographical details of the original author, and a glossary of unusual words and activity suggestions.
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The Graveyard Book Commemorative Edition
A commemorative edition of a perennial favorite—The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, which has sold over one million copies and is the only novel to win both the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal. Special content in this edition includes the story behind The Graveyard Book from Neil Gaiman and sketches by Dave McKean.
The Graveyard Book is the winner of the Newbery Medal, the Carnegie Medal, the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Locus Award for Young Adult Book, the American Bookseller Association's "Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book," a Horn Book Honor, and Audio Book of the Year.
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Monster
This New York Times bestselling novel from acclaimed author Walter Dean Myers tells the story of Steve Harmon, a teenage boy in juvenile detention and on trial. Presented as a screenplay of Steve's own imagination, and peppered with journal entries, the book shows how one single decision can change our whole lives.
Monster is a multi-award-winning, provocative coming-of-age story that was the first-ever Michael L. Printz Award recipient, an ALA Best Book, a Coretta Scott King Honor selection, and a National Book Award finalist. In 2016, Monster was turned into a film starring Jennifer Hudson, Kelvin Harrison, Jr., and A$AP Rocky.
The late Walter Dean Myers was a National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, who was known for his commitment to realistically depicting kids from his hometown of Harlem.
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Far from the Tree
National Book Award Winner and New York Times Bestseller!
Perfect for fans of NBC's "This Is Us," Robin Benway’s beautiful interweaving story of three very different teenagers connected by blood explores the meaning of family in all its forms—how to find it, how to keep it, and how to love it.
Being the middle child has its ups and downs.
But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption, she goes looking for her biological family, including—
Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister, who has a lot to say about their newfound family ties. Having grown up the snarky brunette in a house full of chipper redheads, she’s quick to search for traces of herself among these not-quite-strangers. And when her adopted family’s long-buried problems begin to explode to the surface, Maya can’t help but wonder where exactly it is that she belongs.
And Joaquin, their stoic older bio brother, who has no interest in bonding over their shared biological mother. After seventeen years in the foster care system, he’s learned that there are no heroes, and secrets and fears are best kept close to the vest, where they can’t hurt anyone but him.
Don't miss this moving novel that addresses such important topics as adoption, teen pregnancy, and foster care.
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Pride
Pride and Prejudice gets remixed in this smart, funny, gorgeous retelling of the classic, starring all characters of color, from Ibi Zoboi, National Book Award finalist and author of American Street.
Zuri Benitez has pride. Brooklyn pride, family pride, and pride in her Afro-Latino roots. But pride might not be enough to save her rapidly gentrifying neighborhood from becoming unrecognizable.
When the wealthy Darcy family moves in across the street, Zuri wants nothing to do with their two teenage sons, even as her older sister, Janae, starts to fall for the charming Ainsley. She especially can't stand the judgmental and arrogant Darius. Yet as Zuri and Darius are forced to find common ground, their initial dislike shifts into an unexpected understanding.
But with four wild sisters pulling her in different directions, cute boy Warren vying for her attention, and college applications hovering on the horizon, Zuri fights to find her place in Bushwick's changing landscape, or lose it all.
In a timely update of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, critically acclaimed author Ibi Zoboi skillfully balances cultural identity, class, and gentrification against the heady magic of first love in her vibrant reimagining of this beloved classic.