For Educators
We love to support our local schools and preschools. See below for an overview of our resources and programs that can supplement the educational experience for students and teachers. Please reach out if you have any questions/additional needs.
View and complete the form here. Use this form to let us know about upcoming class projects. Please give us at least one week's notice. The earlier you alert us, the more we can do to help.
Out-of-town students receive a 1-year library card which gives them access to the collection and eBooks. Come to the Library or sign up online here. Already have a library card from another CT library? Register your out-of-town library card at New Canaan Library.
Contact us to arrange librarian visits to your school and/or class visits to the Library. We love working with students of any age, from preschool through high school, and we can tailor visits to meet your curricular needs.
Our librarians can pull books on any topic your class is studying. Contact us at [email protected] or (203) 594-5002. Running short on time? Books can be checked out to you for fast and easy pickup. Have a little more time? We can pull books for you to browse at your own pace.
Our Family Services librarians can provide an in-depth overview of our services at the Library. Demo MakerLab tools like our Cricut machine, listen to themed book talks to supplement your lesson plans, or sign up for an educator library card. Email Rebecca Fox or Dajana Martinez to schedule your visit.
- Our SEL storytimes incorporate skills such as compassion, kindness, empathy, cooperation, diversity, and respect in exciting and engaging ways. We can present these storytimes at your school or you can request to borrow a box for classroom use.
- Our Kindness Storytime provides concrete examples of what kindness can look like, what it means to be kind, and respect for friends.
- Our Feelings Storytime provides an opportunity for children to identify their emotions, find constructive and respectful ways to interact with one another, and practice mindfulness to regulate emotions.
- The SEL Storytime Boxes include songs, QR codes to tunes, rhymes, felts, and books.
- Reach out to Dajana Martinez to schedule our visit to your preschool or to borrow a box.
Recommended Reads
-
Books That Drive Kids CRAZY!: This Book Is Red
This clever companion to This Is a Ball and Did You Take the B from My _ook? is the perfect read-aloud for the giggling masses who love Hervé Tullet's Press Here, Lane Smith's It's a Book!, and BJ Novak's The Book With No Pictures.
The Books That Drive Kids CRAZY! series offers parents, teachers, and storytellers a hilarious script for fun reading time with children. In book 3, This Book Is Red, something is clearly bonkers when the narrator insists that frogs and penguins are obviously the same color as lobsters--and the claims get more outrageous from there. What is up with this nonsense? Kids will demand to know--and all readers will be howling with laughter all along the way. With strikingly simple text and art, Books That Drive Kids CRAZY! are ideal picks for emergent readers. -
Madame Fromage's Adventures in Cheese
"Cheese expert and writer Tenaya Darlington (aka Madame Fromage) offers a complete-and completely fun-illustrated education in all things cheese: how it's made, how to serve and pair it, how to talk cheese like a pro, the 25 must-try cheeses for your bucket list, and much more. In Madame Fromage's Adventures in Cheese, cheese expert and writer Tenaya Darlington (aka Madame Fromage) guides us through the fascinating and often confusing world of cheeses in a compulsively readable, comprehensive illustrated primer-one that has a sense of humor, and that knows its stuff but feels not at all stuffy. Voice-y, approachable, and fun, the book offers an engaging, lighthearted education in all things cheese. Part 1 (Discover) covers the basics, from "Madame Fromage's Template for a Great Cheese Board" to "All About Milk." Part 2 (Explore) is packed with cheese board "itineraries" that focus on a particular style or family, emphasizing taste and texture rather than provenance (think "stinky" or "fresh" cheeses rather than "from the Loire Valley"). Madame Fromage offers an overview of the style family and how it's made, seasonal information, buying tips, maker profiles, surprising pairing suggestions, and much more. Part 3 (Entertain) has shopping, sharing, and serving tips for the eager gatherer and dinner-party thrower, as well as how to taste cheese like a pro (that is, using the "Yoga Breath of Cheese" technique). Finally, in Part 4 (Keep Learning), we're given an atlas of all things lactic: festivals, reading lists, classes, knives and tools, and even "Twenty Wild Cheeses to Explore Around the World." Rounded out with a Dairy Dossier--an at-a-glance reference to the hundreds of cheeses mentioned throughout--this opinionated and beautifully illustrated book will be the perfect gift for every cheese lover"--
-
Asian Vegetables
While bok choy is now a staple on Western grocery store shelves, other Asian vegetables remain unknown--even though they're delicious, nutritious, and easy to grow in northern climates.
Caroline, Stéphanie, and Patricia Wang, three sisters of Cantonese descent, have made it their mission to introduce gardeners, cooks, and vegetable lovers of all flavours to wider sources of sustenance.
Organized around fifteen Asian vegetables that are presented according to the rhythm of the seasons, this lush, full-colour book offers advice on growing and harvesting organic crops intended for both weekend and commercial gardeners, along with a host of ideas to preserve and prepare them, including over forty recipes, some of which have been developed by renowned chefs.
The Wang sisters complement the book's practical advice by offering thoughts on Asian vegetables from a cultural point of view and sharing the importance of these foods within their own family, members of whom left China to immigrate to Madagascar before settling in Canada.
Asian Vegetables is a generous and gorgeous tribute to good food, to the land, and the importance of strong roots.
-
The Last Ride of the Pony Express
USA Today Bestseller!
"Spellbinding" (Douglas Preston) and "completely fascinating" (Elizabeth Letts), cowboy and journalist Will Grant takes us on an epic and authentic horseback journey into the modern West on an adventure of a lifetime. The Last Ride of the Pony Express boldly illuminates both our mythic fascination with the Pony Express, and how its spirit continues to this day.
The Pony Express was a fast-horse frontier mail service that spanned the American West-- the high, dry, and undeniably lonesome part of North America. While in operation during the 1860s, it carried letter mail on a blistering ten-day schedule between Missouri and San Francisco, running through a vast and mostly uninhabited wilderness. It covered a massive distance--akin to running horses between Madrid and Moscow-- and to this day, the Pony Express is irrefutably the greatest display of American horsemanship to ever color the pages of a history book.
Though the Pony Express has enjoyed a lot of traction over the years, among the authors that have attempted to encapsulate it, none have ever ridden it themselves. While most scholars would look for answers inside a library, Will Grant looks for his between the ears of a horse. Inspired by the likes of Mark Twain, Sir Richard Burton, and Horace Greeley, all of whom traveled throughout the developing West, Will Grant returned to his roots: he would ride the trail himself with his two horses, Chicken Fry and Badger, from one end to the other.
Will Grant captures the spirit of the West in a way that few writers have. Along with rich encounters with the ranchers, farmers, historians, and businessmen who populate the trail, his exploits on horseback offer an intimate portrait of how the West has evolved from the rough and tumble 19th century to the present, and it's written with such intimacy that you'll feel as though you're riding right alongside of him. The result is an extraordinary portrait of the treacherous and, at times, thrilling landscape of the known and unknown American West, and the people who populate it.
The Last Ride of the Pony Express is a tale of adventure by a horseman who defies most modern conveniences, and is an unforgettable narrative that will forever change how you see the West, the Pony Express, and America as a whole.
-
Milton Friedman
One of The New York Times's 33 Nonfiction Books to Read This Fall | Named a most anticipated fall book by the Chicago Tribune and Bloomberg
The first full biography of America’s most renowned economist.
Milton Friedman was, alongside John Maynard Keynes, the most influential economist of the twentieth century. His work was instrumental in the turn toward free markets that defined the 1980s, and his full-throated defenses of capitalism and freedom resonated with audiences around the world. It’s no wonder the last decades of the twentieth century have been called “the Age of Friedman”—or that analysts have sought to hold him responsible for both the rising prosperity and the social ills of recent times.
In Milton Friedman, the first full biography to employ archival sources, the historian Jennifer Burns tells Friedman’s extraordinary story with the nuance it deserves. She provides lucid and lively context for his groundbreaking work on everything from why dentists earn less than doctors, to the vital importance of the money supply, to inflation and the limits of government planning and stimulus. She traces Friedman’s longstanding collaborations with women, including the economist Anna Schwartz, as well as his complex relationships with powerful figures such as Fed Chair Arthur Burns and Treasury Secretary George Shultz, and his direct interventions in policymaking at the highest levels. Most of all, Burns explores Friedman’s key role in creating a new economic vision and a modern American conservatism. The result is a revelatory biography of America’s first neoliberal—and perhaps its last great conservative. -
Spare
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Discover the global phenomenon that tells an unforgettable story of love, loss, and healing.
“Compellingly artful . . . [a] blockbuster memoir.”—The New Yorker (Best Books of the Year)It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on.
For Harry, this is that story at last.
Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight.
At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn’t find true love.
Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . .
For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief. -
The Sleep Fix
From renowned ABC News anchor/correspondent and former insomniac Diane Macedo, comes a practical, user-friendly guide to getting better sleep. The Sleep Fix flips the switch on common advice, illuminating the reporter's relentless search for how to get a good night's sleep and the surprising, scientific, and practical solutions she found along the way.
Roughly thirty percent of the population is estimated to be living with insomnia, while many more unknowingly suffer from other sleep disorders. In The Sleep Fix, Macedo aims to change that with perspective-shifting research and easy-to-implement solutions based not just on science and experts, but also her own years-long struggle.
As an early-morning reporter and overnight news anchor, Macedo learned the hard way how valuable sleep is, and how it affects everything from our heart to our brain to our immune system. The longer Macedo struggled, the more her health deteriorated. Desperate, she tried standard sleep tip after standard sleep tip, but nothing worked - instead, it made her worse.
Finally, after developing a tolerance to sleeping pills, Macedo decided to attack the problem as a journalist, interviewing sleep experts from all over the world to get to the bottom of what really keeps us from sleeping--and the various ways to fix it.
As Macedo explains, the solution to catching zzz's isn't as simple as giving up caffeine, or putting away your phone before bed. With her down-to-earth explanations and humor, she instead teaches us how to:
* Understand sleep biology
* Identify sleep obstacles
* Flag sleep myths and separate fact from fiction
* Try counterintuitive approaches
* Shift our mindset
Most importantly, Macedo -- a busy, working mom -- teaches us how to adjust and fit these solutions into our everyday lives. Offering expert wisdom, cutting-edge research, intimate sleep stories from public figures, and actionable advice, The Sleep Fix is the tell-it-like-it-is guide this sleep-deprived world has been waiting for.
-
Romney
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! A remarkably illuminating biography of one of America’s most fascinating political figures—including news-making revelations from Mitt Romney himself about dissension within today’s Republican Party—written with his full cooperation by an award-winning writer at The Atlantic.
Few figures in American politics have seen more and said less than Mitt Romney. An outspoken dissident in Donald Trump’s GOP, he has made headlines in recent years for standing alone against the forces he believes are poisoning the party he once led. Romney was the first senator in history to vote to remove from office a president of his own party. When that president’s supporters went on to storm the US Capitol, Romney delivered a thundering speech from the Senate floor accusing his fellow Republicans of stoking insurrection. Despite these moments of public courage, Romney has shared very little about what he’s witnessed behind the scenes over his three decades in politics—in GOP cloakrooms and caucus lunches, in his private meetings with Donald Trump and his family, in his dealings with John McCain, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell, Joe Manchin, and Kyrsten Sinema. Now, exclusively for this biography, Romney has provided a window to his most private thoughts.
Based on dozens of interviews with Romney, his family, and his inner circle as well as hundreds of pages of his personal journals and private emails, this in-depth portrait by award-winning journalist McKay Coppins shows a public servant authentically wrestling with the choices he has made over his career. In lively, revelatory detail, the book traces Romney’s early life and rise through the ranks of a fast-transforming Republican Party and exposes how a trail of seemingly small compromises by political leaders has led to a crisis in democracy. Ultimately, Romney: A Reckoning is a redemptive story about a flawed politician who summoned his moral courage just as fear and divisiveness were overtaking American life. -
The Woman in Me
“In Britney Spears’s memoir, she’s stronger than ever.” —The New York Times
The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.
In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.
Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last. -
Tomorrowmind
Thrive in your career with this radical, future-proofed approach to work in a world where automation, globalization, and downsizing are an urgent and threatening reality—from experts in workplace mental health, Gabriella Kellerman, CPO of BetterUp, and world-renowned psychologist Martin Seligman.
In recent years, workplace toxicity, industry volatility, and technology-driven turnover have threatened the psychological well-being of employees. When we can’t flourish at work, both personal success and corporate productivity suffer. As we sit on the cusp of some of the most turbulent economic changes in history, many of us wonder how we can not only survive but flourish in our careers.
Now, Tomorrowmind provides essential plans and actionable advice for facing the uncertain future of work. With in-depth and clear-eyed evidence, it offers key skills on everything from resilience and innovation to social connection and foresight. Cultivate a workplace that fosters connection and meaning for yourself or your employees with this timely and crucial guide that is destined to inspire generations of workers.
Digital Resources

Academic Search Premier

Biography Reference Bank

Biography Reference Center

CT State Library Resources for Elementary School

CT State Library Resources for Middle School
