As February nears and as store shelves overflow with hearts and pink-hued stuffed animals, we can't help but feel the love for Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. 

With 20 locations across Mecklenburg County, there's a lot to love about the Library. We asked our staff to share their favorites, and we've included a sample here.

But that can't be enough, of course. Throughout February, we'd love to see your favorite place at the Library! Share a picture on your favorite social media platform of your favorite spot at the Library, tag @cmlibrary and use #CMLFavoritePlace. Also, send us pictures of your favorite spot to [email protected].

We'll share a selection of photos on our own social media platforms to spread the love. 

So, where's your favorite place at the Library?

My favorite place in Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is the Welcome Desk at ImaginOn: The Joe and Joan Martin Center. Every day, I’m able to greet and inform customers of the magic of ImaginOn. More importantly, I get to meet families, visitors, parents and children of all ages. By far the most rewarding part of my job is when a customer comes back to say “thank you” for the warm welcome and/or tour of the building.  Several years back, I had a parent say the reason her children enjoy coming to ImaginOn is because of me. How can this not be my        favorite place in the whole world?!

-Frank Mendoza, ImaginOn                                                                                                  

My favorite place at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is near the fireplace at the Matthews Library, snuggled up reading a good mystery!

- Kim Arlia, Main Library

 My favorite place in Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is the Robinson-Spangler North Carolina Room’s archival vault because it holds all sorts of cool historical treasure. I love learning about Charlotte’s history through unique artifacts, diaries, love letters and photographs.

-Sydney Vaile, Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room

My favorite place in Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is hanging out at the Scaleybark Library during special holidays. The family programs offered are a blast and make library visits extra special. #CMLFavoritePlace

Beatriz Guevara, Scaleybark Library

My favorite place in Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is ImaginOn: The Joe and Joan Martin Center. I've loved watching my daughter fall in love with books and with theatre in a city that cares enough about children to build a palace for both, just for them.

-Melanie Baron, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation

 My favorite place in Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is performing outreach storytimes on air at Seacrest Studios inside the Levine Children’s Hospital. Young children and their families listen and watch from their hospital rooms as I read stories and sing songs. I love bringing the Library out into our community!

-Lonna Vines, Hickory Grove Library

  Our favorite place in Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is the Mecklenburg Room inside the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room at Main Library. The wood paneling is remarkable, and the access to historical information is unbeatable!

-Teleia White and Jenni Gaisbauer, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation

My favorite place in Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is definitely sitting in the storytellers chair in the Spangler Library at ImaginOn: The Joe and Joan Martin Center during family storytime! This is the place where I have a front-row seat watching stories come to life in the eyes of our youngest customers!

-Cynthia McDonald, ImaginOn

My favorite place at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is the front entrance of Main Library. I always read the quotes on the columns, even though I pass by them nearly every day, and any front entrance of a library always tempts me to enter.

-Karen Beach, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation

My favorite place in Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is my monthly armchair travel presentation with the Outreach team at Huntersville Oaks. I love “travelling” the world wth my favorite seniors for outreach!

- Darcey Mesaris, North County Regional Library

My favorite place at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is at the checkout!  I can't wait to start reading or watching my materials. 

- Ann Stawski, Main Library

My favorite place in Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is the puppet closet in the offices of Spangler Library at ImaginOn: The Joe and Joan Martin Center. It’s where we house a collection of not only our fabulous puppets but our favorite storytime books, flannel board kits, silly costumes and weird props, and it’s where we hunker down to plan every single one of our programs. Walking into this room always reminds me of how creative and magical my job is.

-Becca Worthington, ImaginOn

Full-court fever is indigenous to North Carolina, but it’s especially strong this winter as we welcome the NBA All-Star Game to our Hive Feb. 15 through Feb. 17. Charlotte Mecklenburg Library can help you prepare to cheer on Kemba Walker as he represents your hometown Hornets with books that cover everything from the history and rules of the game to today’s hottest hoopsters. Check out RBDigital for access to back issues of Slam, and the latest player news in ESPN the Magazine. And teens, join us at ImaginOn: The Joe and Joan Martin Center on Feb. 7 for our NBA Jam Tournament!

Here’s a jam-packed list of All-Star materials to get you in the game.

For adults

• Challenge your friends to find out who knows the rules and penalties the best with NBA Rules Quiz Book by Wayne Wheelwright. 
• Basketball: A Love Story by Jackie MacMullen is a new book that documents hundreds of basketball legends, including Steph Curry, Dr. J, Phil Jackson, Cheryl Miller and Lisa Leslie, talking about their passion for the game.
• Rise and Fire: The Origins, Science, and Evolution of the Jump Shot—And How It Transformed Basketball Forever by Shawn Fury is part history book, tracing the history of the game from dirt courts of the 1930s to state-of-the-art NBA floors, and part memoir, featuring interviews with some of the game’s greatest shooters, including Jerry West and Denise Long.
• Chasing Perfection: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the High-Stakes Game of Creating an NBA Champion by Andy Glockner is everything you want to know about the data analysis and theory that go into building a winning NBA team.

Celebrating Carolina’s own

• The Boy Who Never Gave Up: Stephen Curry by Anthony Curcio is a picture book biography of Charlotte’s own Golden State Warrior.
• Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry by Marcus Thompson is a biography for adults, written by a Warriors reporter who focuses on Curry’s work ethic and intensity.
• In Salt in His Shoes: Michael Jordan in Pursuit of a Dream by Roslyn Jordan, Michael’s mother and sister team up to tell children the story of his hard work and dedication.
• There Is No Next: NBA Legends on the Legacy of Michael Jordan by Sam Smith is an oral history featuring interviews with the icons, including Phil Jackson, Reggie Miller and Karl Malone, who coached, competed against and played with Michael.
• Michael Jordan in His Own Words by Geoffrey Giuliano is more than just “his own words,” because the audiobook includes interviews with Scottie Pippin, President Bill Clinton, David Stern and more.
• In In the Land of Giants: My Life in Basketball, Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues tells the story of all 5 feet, 3 inches of himself making it to the NBA.
• Resilience: Faith, Focus, Triumph by Alonzo Mourning details the faith, focus and determination that have carried him through life. (Yes, he spent most of his career with the Miami Heat, but the Hornets drafted him to the NBA, so we can take a little credit for his success!)

Picture books

• H.O.R.S.E.: A Game of Basketball and Imagination by Christopher Myers is a fun look at two friends competing against each other with one crazy shot after the other.
• Dickie V’s ABCs and 1-2-3s: A Great Start for Young Superstars by Dick Vitale is nothing short of “Awesome Baby!”
• Join the crowd at “Mastadon Square Garden” for an entertaining game of Dino-Basketball by Lisa Wheeler.
• George learns kids can overcome obstacles and achieve their goals in Curious George Joins the Team by Cynthia Platt.
• Swish! by Bill Martin offers high-energy rhymes in a fast-paced story of a girls’ championship basketball game.

Fiction and nonfiction for children

• Basketball Belles: How Two Teams and One Scrappy Player Put Women’s Hoops on the Map by Sue Macy tells the story of the first-ever intercollegiate women’s basketball game, when Stanford took on the University of California at Berkeley in 1896.
• In Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball by John Coy we learn how James Naismith invented the game in 1891.
• Basketball’s Greatest Players by S.A. Kramer is for beginning readers and features 11 legends of the game.
• There’s no better way to get excited about physics than with Slam Dunk! Science Projects with Basketball by Robert Gardner.
• Elena Delle Donne, WNBA MVP, Olympic gold medalist and Global Ambassador for Special Olympics, writes the Hoops series to entertain young readers.
• Free Throw is a title from Jake Maddox’s sports series, in which young athletes find their inner strength through challenge and struggle.
• In Slam Dunk! by Sharon Robinson, the new kid in school works to raise money to start a basketball team at his Harlem middle school.
• Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time, by Lisa Yee tells the story of a basketball prodigy’s struggles with academics and parental expectations.

Young adult basketball-themed fiction

• Chuck Bell’s upset about spending the summer with his grandparents but discovers a passion for basketball in Rebound by Kwame Alexander.
• Hooper by Geoff Herboch is the story of a Polish orphan whose talent for basketball should be his ticket for success in the U.S., but social dynamics complicate his path.
• Teens in Oakland, California, learn the benefits of dedication and teamwork in L.J. Alonge’s Blacktop series.
• Two basketball players with tragic pasts, one African-American and one Irish-American, find friendship in Boy 21 by Matthew Quick.

And, finally, to answer the question that’s been gnawing at you since you began reading this blog post, yes, we do have Space Jam on DVD.

See you on the court and in the Library.

P.S. We’ve compiled all these resources into one comprehensive list so you can easily keep track of your basketball books.

Celebrate Black History Month this February with Charlotte Mecklenburg Library by reading books and attending programs that highlight and celebrate black history and culture. This tradition dates back to 1926 and is celebrated in February because Fredrick Douglass, author and abolitionist, and Abraham Lincoln, the “Great Emancipator” and president, were both born in February. The Library has a wealth of information about Black History Month, but take a look below at some of our top picks.

One great book to share with children is the multi-award-winning The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom by Bettye Stroud. In this story, a young girl named Hannah and her father use a coded quilt from her mother to find their way to freedom from slavery. One fun activity for families to do while reading this book is to encourage children to design quilt squares and attach them to a poster board to replicate a freedom quilt.

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor is the perfect book to share with second-graders and older children; this book also won the 1977 Newbery Medal. Set in the Great Depression, this book follows Cassie as she confronts racism. If you’re looking for more, this title is the sequel to Song of the Trees and is followed by two other books and a prequel.

Dear Martin by Nic Stone stars Justyce in this young adult fiction book. Justyce is a great student, on his way to an Ivy League college. After an incident involving the police, Justyce turns to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. However, after another incident with an off-duty officer, Justyce battles with himself and asks, “What would Martin do?” This is a powerful story and is a good way to start conversations with teens about race and violence.

Octavia E. Butler’s novel Kindred is the first science fiction novel written by an African-American woman. Dana is celebrating her birthday in California when she’s whisked away through time to antebellum Maryland. Through multiple time traveling trips, Dana soon learns she‘s meant to protect a young slaveholder because he’s the father of Dana’s great grandmother. This book gives the modern woman a glimpse into the horrors of the antebellum South and slavery. Kindred is great for both young adults and adults.

Along with vast amounts of fiction available to start conversations during Black History Month, the Library has numerous biographies to help readers learn more about African-American culture and history. Just search the catalog on our website. Be sure to check out our young adult and children’s booklist as well as a booklist that can inspire people of all ages.

For other options, visit Beatties Ford Road Regional Library and the LATIBAH Museum's exhibit of Door of No Return: Story of the Middle Passage. This event is free for families, but you must register online. Additionally, ImaginOn:The Joe and Joan Martin Center and West Boulevard will also offer programs for children to celebrate Black History Month.