Mercer County Library Blog

Recently, some friends and I were sharing memories of our childhood summer camp experiences. Even after many years, we could still recall the songs we sang, the crafts we made, and other camp memories. Time at a summer camp is something that many of us share and still remember fondly. You might say that it is a quintessential part of many American childhoods. I grew up in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Beginning with 7 th grade in the 1970s, I went to a sleep-away camp at 4-H Camp Shehaqua in Hickory Run State Park . I loved it so much that by the time I was in high school, I was returning as a camp counselor. I’m delighted to learn that the camp is still there and welcoming campers! When my daughters were old enough, we offered them the chance to attend overnight summer camps. They went to YMCA Camp of the Pines in the South Jersey Pinelands, where they got to swim, canoe, make crafts, do high ropes courses, put on plays, roast marshmallows around campfires, and many other fun thing...

Hi! My name is Hannah, and I’m a college intern at the West Windsor Branch for summer 2026. As I helped in the children’s and teen areas, I was asked frequently for graphic novels, and saw different reactions to them: mostly eagerness or disdain. This observation ties into some of my coursework and the question: Are graphic novels intellectual, a gateway, or both? This past spring, I took a course titled Reading Teens: Learning from Young Adult Literature . One of the books I read was Flamer by Mike Curato.  We discussed graphic novels, why some teachers like them, and why some teachers don’t. There’s a claim of a lack of close reading, a focus on the pictures, and, overall, an idea that reading graphic novels is “less intellectual” than reading a prose novel. In reality, reading a graphic novel brings in skills that reading a prose novel does not, and can be of help to students who are otherwise struggling with traditional prose novels.  One skill that graphic novels foster ...

By: Laiba Khurshid (Hopewell) As a lifelong reader, I never read any sort of nonfiction, much less a memoir, until I was in college. Sure, there had been the occasional reading of one in class, but it was never something that I picked up myself. That changed when back-to-back I read the memoirs Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner and I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. Due to their pervasive popularity in the book world at the time, I had decided to give them a try. I found myself floored by how raw and well-written they were. There was this idea that I had that most nonfiction books, including biography and memoirs, were just a regurgitation of information with no regard to narrative, prose, or readability. But that couldn’t be further from reality. Memoirs and biographies especially are highly narrative, since they often tell a person’s life-story in the same way you might tell a fiction novel. Reading Crying in H-Mart was a gut-wrenching narrative of sickness and loss, o...

Humans don’t have quite the close relationship with reptiles that we do with dogs and cats (with a few exceptions). We don’t hear as much about conservation of reptiles as we do about the bumbling giant panda or the clever orangutan. I’m even willing to bet that the average person doesn’t think about lizards on a daily basis. But humans are connected to nature in ways we don’t often expect, in ways that we might not ever realize. Over the years, reptiles have inspired a number of scientific advancements. You may have seen Ozempic and Wegovy in the news; originally used to treat diabetes, the semaglutide series of drugs are now making record profits as a weight-loss implement. What you may not have known is that the active compound in these drugs was originally discovered in the venom of Gila monsters and then synthesized after decades of research. Studying the mechanics of reptile scales has led to breakthroughs in adhesive and gripping technology, as well as an ultra-slippery stee...

Hello from Interlibrary Loan! Interlibrary loan (ILL) is one of the many services that Mercer County Library System offers. If our library system doesn’t own a book, ILL tries to borrow the book from other libraries around the state or around the nation. We also reciprocate that relationship with other libraries when their patrons would like to read a book their own library doesn’t own. When we borrow books, we start looking for an available copy in New Jersey first. Sometimes a nearby library like Hamilton Public, Hopewell Public, or Princeton Public kindly lets us borrow a book from them. We love when this happens as it means we can fulfill the request quickly. If there’s not a copy available in a neighboring library, then we look to the rest of the nation for help. We have worked with libraries all across the country! The library we’ve worked with that’s the farthest from us is Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library, Alaska, which is more than 4,000 miles away from the Lawrenc...

Growing up, I didn’t spend a lot of time outdoors. I wasn’t a fan of heat, humidity, or sweating, and my parents understood that. I preferred my hobbies indoors with air conditioning and, with the heat of a Texas summer, they knew where I was coming from. However, there was one thing that could pull me from my precious A/C and that was our backyard garden. My mom was a horticulturist and an educator, so she was intent on making sure my sister and I understood the value of plants. Despite my reluctance to embrace the Texan weather I endured it in the face of my determined mom. I would kneel on a yellow butterfly outdoor cushion next to her as she pointed out weeds and how to pull them and not leave the roots behind. I learned to check for bugs hiding on the bottom side of leaves to make sure they didn’t eat the plant. My fingers were in the ground beside hers as I learned to test the dryness of the soil. She showed the pink worms to me, so I would know the difference between them...

The Mercer County Library System Teen Advisory Board consists of passionate young individuals who work to curate social media posts, write zines, and share book reviews - all to engender a love for reading in the community. Meet Mohisha: active TAB member, athlete, violinist, and frequently immersed in realistic fiction novels. Enjoy her latest book review! “Some infinities are bigger than other infinities”: an idea encountered in The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. This novel features struggle, humor, and friendship in a story that not only appeals to the reader, but leaves them yearning for more. Seventeen-year-old cancer victim Hazel Grace lives with the constant reminder that her demise is soon to come. As Hazel often says, she has become her cancer - it has consumed her to the point where she waits upon her own death. Having been pulled out of school for quite some time, her social life is limited to the local Support Group she attends to please her parents. There, she meets t...