Teen's Summer Reading Program
Read Beyond Reality
Beginning May 24, you can sign up for The Urbana Free Library Teen Summer Reading Program, Read Beyond Reality. While you read for fun, you can also win prizes and free books. This summer, we’re highlighting science fiction, fantasy, vampires, monsters, and myths – but you can include any books you choose on your summer reading log. You’re also welcome to add audiobooks, manga, graphic novels, and films from the suggested lists of titles provided by the library.
Stay tuned to library’s website for more information about Read Beyond Reality and to find suggested lists of titles. You can also stop by Adult Services at the library. This summer escape reality with a good book!
Summer Reading @ the Movies
Recommended films from The Urbana Free Library
These lists feature a variety of films – classic oldies, compelling dramas, award-winning international films, anime, and more. You may include one film on each Summer Reading log. (You can talk to your parents if you have questions about whether a film is appropriate for you. *** before the title of a film signifies that the film is rated R.)
Cool Classics: Classic Films You May Have Missed
African Queen (1951)
In Africa during WW1, a gin-swilling riverboat owner/captain is persuaded by a strait-laced missionary to use his boat to attack an enemy warship.
DVD / AFR / 4930
Citizen Kane(1941)
Considered by many the greatest film ever made, this Orson Welles classic offers a thinly veiled look at the life of William Randolph Hearst. Anyone interested in the history of film, anyone interested in the history of the newspaper, and anyone who has ever been confused by some reference to "Rosebud," should watch this film.
DVD / CIT / 697/8
Duck Soup (1933)
Have you ever seen a film with the Marx brothers? Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo team up in this comedy masterpiece in which Rufus T. Firefly (played by Groucho) is named president/dictator of bankrupt country named Freedonia.
DVD / MAR / 2446
E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Stephen Spielberg’s blockbuster film about a 10-year-old boy who befriends a creature from another planet that has been stranded on earth. Includes a memorable performance by a very young Drew Barrymore.
DVD / ET / 5217
The Gold Rush (1925)
Silent film comedian Charlie Chaplin stars as the Lone Prospector who ventures to Alaska in search of gold but finds love instead. Check out this enchanting and hilarious romantic comedy directed by Chaplin himself - one of the greatest films of the silent era.
DVD / GOL / 2310/11
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
A small town Southern sheriff finds himself in an uneasy alliance with a big-city black homicide detective as they investigate a murder. Starring Sidney Poiter.
DVD / IN / 4845
Some Like It Hot (1959)
After inadvertently witnessing the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, a notorious Chicago mob hit, two young men go incognito as members of a traveling, all-girl band (dressed in drag and unable to reveal their true identities!). This is a classic, slapstick comedy featuring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Marilyn Monroe.
DVD / SOM / 229
Stand By Me (2000)
This film about friendship and the experiences of growing up takes place in a small Oregon town as four 12-year-old boys set out on a two-day search for a missing teenager's body, a search that turns into an odyssey of danger and self-discovery.
DVD / STA / 6167
2001: A Space Odyssey(1968)
A science fiction classic, 2001 provides an eerie vision of the twenty-first century, one that features human hibernation, artifacts of alien life forms, and evil technology. Check out futuristic twenty-first century technology as it was imagined in 1968, and watch out for rogue computers!
DVD / TWO / 56 or DVD / TWO / 187
