Reading Lists
Enjoy learning about the people and places that have made Kansas City what it is today? KCHistory.org, the online home of the Library’s Missouri Valley Special Collections, hosts a treasure trove of digitized photos, maps, postcards, and other historical materials that tell the stories of our city’s growth and development over time. For 816 Day on August 16, we’ve selected a handful of historic images and made them available as background wallpapers for your mobile phone. Free to download and use on your device, these snapshots and postcard images can give your modern tech a bit of old-school style by showing off our community’s past.
Have a delightfully spirited Halloween season with a monstrously good mashup of scary story recommendations, frightfully fun films, and other creepily cool Library resources.
Books make great holiday gifts, but choosing the right one can be daunting. The Library can toss you a gift-giving lifeline with our Gift Shelf Help reading recommendation service. Tell us a bit about the special reader in your life (or yourself!), and our experts will prepare a customized list of taste-tailored titles.
It’s medals season! Of course we’re talking more about literature than luge, and our preferred sport is curling up with good books. No matter if you’re a speed reader or more of a freestyle fan, we’ve put together collections of recent award winners and nominees in our catalog for you to enjoy.
When U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy recently announced his retirement, a national conversation kicked into gear regarding the process of nominating and confirming a new justice to our nation’s highest court. To help make sense of the SCOTUS – its history, its role in our society, the personalities in its ranks – the Library has gathered a collection of resources to help you explore how its decisions have influenced the country and the lives of its people.
What makes a good book, one worth checking out? Many of you count on our librarians for guidance. Rest assured. They know, firsthand. During a recent intra-Library reading challenge highlighting children’s and young-adult titles, staff read nearly a quarter of a million pages – 242,218 – in January and February. Find out what books we spent time checking out!
For too long, and in particular since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have witnessed acts of senseless, shameless violence against our nation’s Asian and Asian American community. The Library calls on everyone in our city, state, and country to join us in saying: Enough! And to act in ways large and small to turn back this deadly rise in discrimination and hostility – against Asian Americans, against all who are its victims.
The Library celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15) with a collection of book recommendations, film offerings, and other resources that explore a rich array of the experiences and perspectives of Latino Americans.
Throughout March, the Library commemorates Women's History Month by lifting up stories, achievements, and experiences past and present. Explore book recommendations, watch online events, and discover how local women helped shape Kansas City’s history.
Throughout March, the Library commemorates Women's History Month by lifting up stories, achievements, and experiences past and present. Explore book recommendations, watch online events, and discover how local women helped shape Kansas City’s history.
Throughout March, the Library commemorates Women's History Month by lifting up stories, achievements, and experiences past and present. Explore book recommendations, watch online events, and discover how local women helped shape Kansas City’s history.
Congress established Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month in 1992, corresponding its timing in May to two historical milestones: the arrival of the nation’s first Japanese immigrants in May 1843 and the completion of the transcontinental railroad, in which Chinese workers played a pivotal role, in May 1869. A presidential proclamation in 2021 expanded the observance to include Native Hawaiians. The Library pays tribute by offering a collection of books, events and activities, resources, and more that highlight AAPI voices and experiences.
The Library has added an extra dash of discovery to young-adult reading. Our Youth & Family Engagement team recently began a trial run of its Read Outside the Box program. Teens and tweens can check out new reading and activity boxes that hold two or three specially themed books, the titles varying by box and revealed upon opening. With that come with some other goodies: at-home activity kits and a handful of snacks.
Celebrate the power of creativity, ideas, and expression with the Kansas City Public Library’s 2022 Summer Reading Program: Art Starts at Your Library. Read any five books between June 1 and August 15, log them, and earn a prize!
Dig into this year's Summer Reading Program with a bounty of HOMEGROWN STORIES that celebrate regional roots and cultivate the seeds of learning. We're commemorating Missouri’s Bicentennial with a crop of book picks that highlight Show-Me State storytelling in many forms, for readers of all ages. Read any five books, log them, and earn a prize!
Throughout November, discover the rich history, ceremonies, and storytelling traditions of the Indigenous peoples of North America as part of Native American Heritage Month. Explore Library reading recommendations, films, resources, and more.
Throughout November, discover the rich history, ceremonies, and storytelling traditions of the Indigenous peoples of North America as part of Native American Heritage Month. Explore Library reading recommendations, films, resources, and more.
Throughout November, discover the rich history, ceremonies, and storytelling traditions of the Indigenous peoples of North America as part of Native American Heritage Month. Explore Library reading recommendations, films, resources, and more.
What books were winners with Library staff in 2017? From pop culture potboilers to heavy-hitting history reads, check out the favorites that lined our staff's personal shelves this past year.
What books were winners with Library staff in 2018? From pop culture potboilers to heavy-hitting history reads, check out the favorites that lined our staff's personal shelves this past year.