Missoula Public Library

Missoula Public Library is hosting its first ever fun run and we’re calling it Book’n It For the Library! 8k and 3k races will start at 10 AM on Saturday, July 28th. Runners will start from the library parking lot, 301 E. Main, and follow the River Front Trail along the beautiful Clark Fork River. All runners, walkers, and strollers welcome.

Prizes will be given for top finishers, and a random prize drawing will be held after the race. Come dressed as your favorite book character—prizes will be awarded for best dressed. Music and refreshments will be supplied for all.

Register here or at the library.

For more information, visit our official website

Have you picked up your summer reading program yet? People are already returning completed programs for prizes to DQ, Good Food Store, and Del’s Place. You can read or listen to audiobooks to participate, so stop by your local branch, choose a good book (as always, we’re here to help you find the perfect summer read), and get crackin’!

Yesterday, four members of the Missoula Women for Peace (MWP),  an organization dedicated to peace and social justice in Missoula since 1970, visited Missoula Public Library to present books that received the Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards. Karen Gonzales, Children’s Librarian, accepted the books from MWP on behalf of the library, as she has done for several years. The Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards are given to books that promote peace, social justice, world community, and the equality of the sexes and races, while also meeting standards for excellence.

They presented six books: Emma’s Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty by Lina Glaser, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Alexander Ramsey, Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney, Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes, and Birmingham Sunday by Larry Dane Brimner. These books will all be available for checkout soon. A big thanks to these wonderful women for their kind donation!

Congratulations to the winners of the Missoula Public Library 4^th Annual Writing Contest! We held our reception for the writing contest winners on Sunday, May 6, and were pleased to have a large enthusiastic turnout. In addition to receiving a cash prize, each first, second, and third place winner also received a certificate. To enter the writing contest, each participant in the four age categories submitted an original work of writing no longer than 2,000 words, either fiction or nonfiction. The entries were judged by professional writers, editors, and educators. Sponsors of the Missoula Public Library Writing Contest included a generous anonymous donor, Altrusa International, Inc. of Missoula, Boomswagger, and Shakespeare and Co. Booksellers. All entries will be bound in a copy available for check-out at the library. Here are the winners of the 2012 Missoula Public Library Writing Contest:

Fiction 8-10

            1^st        Matilda Beltz, Wind-borne – Missoula, MT

            2^nd       Alexis Deden, Nashville – Missoula, MT

            3^rd        Carlie O’Keefe, Only a Dream – Owens Cross Roads, AL

Nonfiction 8-10

            1^{st (tie)}    Matilda Beltz, Nantucket: A Memoir of Summers with My Family in a Special Place – Missoula, MT and Zoe Wilson, The Blessings of Blizzard – Missoula, MT

            3^rd        Hanna Huang, My First Visit to the Eye Doctor – Missoula, MT

Fiction 11-14

            1^st        Danielle Dodge, No Greater Love – Missoula, MT

            2^nd       Anastasia Halfpap, The Angel of Mercy – Missoula, MT

            3^rd        Tessa Huston, The Monster in Me – Missoula, MT

Nonfiction 11-14

            1^st        Vanessa Kent, Overcoming Obstacles – St. Ignatius, MT

            2^nd       Anastasia Halfpap, Kiss Me – Missoula, MT

            3^rd        Danielle Dodge, Hope Uncompromised – Missoula, MT

Fiction 15-18

            1^st        Laura Vonessen, Damsel in Distress – Missoula, MT

            2^nd       Stephanie Uhlenbruck, The Ceremony – Missoula, MT

            3^rd        Katherine Hood, The Watcher, of the Good and the Bad – Condon, MT

Nonfiction 15-18

            1^st        Iris Olson, Suicide Daycare – Missoula, MT

            2^nd       Giacomo Ranieri, Towel Excursion – Missoula, MT

Fiction 19+

            1^st       Christy McDougall, Verzhin the Miserable – Missoula, MT

            2^nd       Luke Johnson, Leaping Lambies and Horse Feculence – Missoula, MT

            3^rd        Ismael Pallares, Jr., Blind – Missoula, MT

Nonfiction 19+

            1^st        Cathy Anderson, Becoming – Huson, MT

            2^nd       Emma Crowe, Drive, She Said; Drive, He Said  - Missoula, MT

            3^rd        Jack Shifflett, The Human Hunger – Missoula, MT