______________ VALLEY STREAM _____________
HERALD
Your Home is Your Sanctu ary.
Don’t Let High Ta Chase You Away!xes
Big flavor returns in April
Honored as Eagle Scouts
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VOL. 37 NO. 3
JANUARY 15 - 21, 2026
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Valley Stream library’s top reads of 2025 included “Dog Man. 9, Grime and punishment,” “Dog Man. 4, Dog Man and the Cat Kid,” As Valley Stream moves into “Dog Man. 13, Big Jim begins,” 2026, borrowing patterns from and “Dog Man. 6, Brawl of the the Henry Waldinger Memorial wild,” along with Jeff Kinney’s “Diary of a wimpy kid: the Library offer a snapshot of what local readers gravitated deep end.” Children’s Librarian Jaclyn toward over the past year and Kunz said these how librarians see results reflect a reading habits trend that has evolving across age remained consisgroups. t e n t fo r s eve r a l Based on circuyears: the popularilation data from ty of graphic nov2025, the library’s els among elemenmost bor rowed tary-age readers. titles included best“I don’t think I selling fiction, can buy them fast l o n g - r u n n i n g JACLYN KUNZ enough,” Kunz said. series, and books Children’s Librarian, “The kids devour driven by film, tele- Henry Waldinger them, which is realvision and social Memorial Library ly nice.” media exposure. Hybrid books According to Library Director Mamie Eng, that combine text and illustrathe adult list closely tracked tions, such as the “Diary of a national trends, while chil- Wimpy Kid” series, also contindren’s and teen bor rowing ue to perform strongly. Kunz explained that chilshowed strong loyalty to famildren’s standalone fiction circuiar series and formats. lates less frequently than series titles, while picture books Children’s books: remain popular, especially graphic novels dominate The most borrowed chil- humorous ones. She also pointdren’s books of 2025 were over- ed to renewed interest in claswhelmingly from Dav Pilkey’s sic series reissued as graphic “Dog Man” series. The top five CoNtiNued oN page 15
By ANGELINA ZINGARIELLO
azingariello@liherald.com
W
Tim Baker/Herald
Bruce Blakeman, a Valley Stream high school graduate and a longtime Nassau County political figure, has served as county executive since 2022, and is now running for governor.
His Long Island roots shape Blakeman’s bid for governor By MOHAMMAD RAFIQ & ANGELINA ZINGARIELLO Of the Herald
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced last month that he would run for governor this year. His bid attracted more media focus when his potential Republican primary contender, U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, abruptly dropped out of the race a week before Christmas, and when President Trump endorsed Blakeman the following day. “As I travel around the state, one of the things that stands out is the fact that people are basically unhappy,” Blakeman, 70, told the Herald when asked why he was running. “They’re miserable with [Gov.] Kathy Hochul’s leadership.” (Hochul will be chal-
lenged in a Democratic primary by Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado.) “The economy is doing very badly in many portions of the state,” Blakeman added. “They need job creation, economic development. Communities are unsafe. They want more policing. They want more secure neighborhoods, and they don’t like a lot of the policies that Kathy Hochul has, especially taking away a lot of the control over the schools from parents and trying to centralize it in Albany.” Blakeman cited a number of the county’s accomplishments under his leadership. The county tax property levy has not changed during his first term. Nassau’s bond rating CoNtiNued oN page 9
e want everybody to be library people.