By Nicole Fowles
Glad You Asked
Graduation season is upon us. Here in Delaware County, our Ohio Wesleyan University students will celebrate their commencement on Saturday, May 13; Delaware City Schools seniors will graduate on May 19; all four Olentangy high schools will celebrate commencement on May 21; Delaware Christian’s class of 2023 graduates on May 21; and Buckeye Valley seniors will graduate on May 28.
The Maker Studio at the Delaware County District Library introduced a gift to the community last year, which was a template and materials for printing banners that honor the graduating seniors in your life. The 4-by-2 banners print on a high-quality canvas and come with four grommets to make hanging or displaying a breeze.
The Maker Studio of Delaware County District Library is a do-it-yourself, one-stop shop for harnessing your creativity and fulfilling the creative promises you’ve made to yourself. The services and equipment are offered free to the community, so the only charges are for the base cost of materials. Graduation banners will be available for just $9 per banner.
For 2023, the Maker Studios at the Delaware Main Library and Liberty Branch Library locations will begin to offer exclusive graduation banner printing on Tuesdays from 4-7 p.m. beginning May 2 and running through May 30.
The large-format printers that create these banners will be blocked off beginning at 4 p.m. with appointments at 30-minute increments specifically for the printing of graduation banners. This means that each Tuesday will have six appointments available per location, for a total of 60 appointments available over the course of the month. These time blocks are best for patrons who are using the library’s pre-made templates for each school district. Any patrons who wish to create their own design or modify the library’s template are encouraged to make a reservation at another time to give proper time for the process.
To save your spot, visit www.delawarelibrary.org/makerstudio and click on the Reservations tab. Click “Make a new equipment reservation” and then select if you’d like to make your reservation at the Liberty or Delaware Maker Studio location. At Delaware, you’ll be booking the “Wide-Format Cutter/Printer,” and at Liberty you’ll look for the “Wide-Format UV Cutter/Printer.” Reservations may only be made one week in advance, so your first opportunity to book for May 2 will open on April 25.
When you arrive for your appointment, be sure to have a preferred photograph of your child for the banner easily accessible on a flash drive or via your email or the cloud. Happy graduation to the class of 2023!
In honor of our teens, here are some of the newest titles in Young Adult fiction on our shelves.
• “This Time It’s Real” by Ann Liang. Aspiring writer Eliza Lin’s essay about her devoted boyfriend gained her internet fame and a paid internship at a popular literary website. The problem – Eliza made the guy up. So she offers her classmate, famous actor Caz Song, help with college essays if he’ll pretend to be her boyfriend. And maybe he’s a little too good at pretending.
• “Chaos Theory” by Nic Stone. An emotionally raw and realistically messy story tracing the blossoming relationship between Shelbi, whose past trauma is entwined with her bipolar disorder, and Andy, who copes with grief for his deceased younger sister by drinking. When Andy texts Shelbi accidentally, the two strike up an unlikely friendship. Despite their honesty and their written friendship agreement, escalating challenges threaten to sever their bond. A read for anyone who’s wondered how to support someone in need.
• “She Is A Haunting” by Trang Thanh Tran. Meet Jade Nguyen, who’s in Vietnam helping her father restore a French colonial home in exchange for college tuition. Jade’s unsettling experiences inspire her to fake a haunting with a local named Florence, hoping it’ll scare off her family. But Florence and Jade’s budding romance is real, and Jade’s father might withhold his money if he finds out. This satisfying novel weaves true horrors from Vietnamese history into an eerie haunted house tale.
• “Stateless” by Elizabeth Wein. Stella North is the only female pilot in a 1937 air race meant to promote peace across Europe as it teeters on war. Representing Britain, Stella keeps her past as a Russian refugee secret. When Stella witnesses a plane crash after a near in-air collision, she believes it was murder. With every contestant a suspect, can she identify the murderer? Fans of author Elizabeth Wein’s “Code Name Verity” series should check out this thrilling historical mystery.
If you have a question that you would like to see answered in this column, mail it to Nicole Fowles, Delaware County District Library, 84 E. Winter St., Delaware, OH 43015, or call us at 740-362-3861. You can also email your questions by visiting the library’s web site at www.delawarelibrary.org or directly to Nicole at [email protected]. No matter how you contact us, we’re always glad you asked!
