Reading Goals

Do you have reading goals for the next year?  Do you talk about reading goals at your library?

I have personal ones, but I never talk about them with teens or even co-workers. But I wonder if they have them too. There are several teens who take home piles of books from the library. I've never asked if they keep track of the books that they read, but I think I might start a conversation about it this year.

I use to try a notebook, but I found I wasn't good at writing down all my books. 
I now use the Goodreads Challenge tool to keep track of my books.
Are there other tools?

If you've talked about this in your library - leave some tips in the comments

Christmas Books That Delight

Since it's December 24th, I couldn't help but give some holiday love to my favorite Christmas books.

Here's a short list of some of my favorites:

Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney

Oh that little lovable llama...while Llama Llama Red Pajama will always be my favorite, this is a wonderful book to share during the holiday season with little ones. All sorts of holiday preparations to finish before Christmas actually arrives, but little llama is having a hard time waiting.

The Polar Express by Chis Van Allsburg

 Oh, the magic of this story. What an amazing train ride that would be! To this day, I have to check all jingle bells to make sure I can still hear them ring.

Pete the Cat Saves Christmas by Eric Litwin

How fun the Pete the Cat stories are (especially the ones written by Eric Litwin). When Santa gets the sniffles, thankfully Pete is there to save Christmas. Another fun Pete the Cat read-aloud with a nice message.

-

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry

Originally printed in 1963, this was one of my favorites as a child. When I rediscovered this book just a few years ago (it was reprinted in 2000), I read each page with a mix of anticipation and familiarity that only an old favorite can bring. This enchanting story all begins with Mr Willowby's too big Christmas tree...

The Night Before Christmas (A Hallmark Pop Up Book)

This is a 1980 pop-up version of Twas The Night Before Christmas and was an annual tradition with my siblings. We would pour over this book and all of it's movable parts year after year. Then when we received a reading of this classic poem on cassette tape, we knew all the words and would listen to it on Christmas Eve as we tried to fall asleep before Santa arrived.

Little Santa by Jon Agee

 A silly Christmas story about Santa as a little boy? It's a great new edition to the holiday books we have to choose from. Just promise one thing, don't take this book too seriously.

Santa Duck by David Milgrim

I recently discovered this book as a fun read-aloud for a holiday storytime. Who can resist Santa Duck's catchy "jingle quack, jingle quack"? What would some of the animals ask for if they got the chance, you must read to find out!

Don't see yours? Please share your favorite (when you are all settled with your Christmas festivities)!

Books for Fans of Frozen

Tale of Two Sisters

Who's that Knocking on Christmas Eve

The Reader

Great Reindeer Rebellion

Snow Princesses

Wolf Princess

Winter's Child

Singer in the Snow

Winterling

Two Princesses of Bamarre

Any others you can think of?

Books for Hobbit Fans

I'm wicked excited about seeing the Hobbit - are you? I can't wait to see the dragon!

Here are 10 books that will interest you/your readers that deal with quests or have similar creatures in the Hobbit. 

Cry of the Icemark

 

Keeper of the Grail

 

Singer of All Songs

 

Seer and the Sword

 

Ranger's Apprentice

 

Eon

 

Wings

 

 

Knife

 

Giants, Ogres, and Trolls

 

World Without Heroes

 

As usual, I couldn't stop at 10. Here's two more:

 

Firelight

 

Scorched

What else would you recommend?

Bookish Gifts

I love giving books out for the holidays (not to mention getting them in return). The books I give each year always changes, depending on my favorite reads and the people getting them.

I won't mention the ones that I'm giving out, but I have about ten that I'm gifting - not all YA. I've also asked for three books for myself.

Do you gift books? Do you have a book you regularly gift?  Or is there a certain book you're hoping someone will gift to you?

Willy Wonka Interactive Movie

It's been a few months since we tried our first interactive family movie, but I thought I would take a few minutes now to share. In September, we created a huge Roald Dahl book display and as an extension program we hosted an interactive showing of the "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (the 1971 edition, thank you very much). Thanks to all the great collaborative sharing on the ALSC blog, I was able to gather up some beginning ideas (and courage) that we modified to our community. Now that holiday and winter breaks are fast approaching, I hope to try this type of fun family interactive event again soon.
(Need a movie license? We use: Movie Licensing USA )

Here is what our interactive movie event looked like:

We wore costumes, welcomed our participants, and explained what our interactive program would look like. We decided to guide our participants through the movie by passing out props as the scenes came up (rather than give a bag of stuff out in the beginning). We had hoped to have a big pretend contract for everyone to sign in the beginning while people are getting settled, but we ran out of time.

We explained that each time:

• you hear the word "scrumpdiddlyumptious”, you eat some candy
• The Oompa Loompas come out, you stand up and dance and hit your rhythm sticks to the beat.
• the bad guy comes on, you scream!
• a song comes up, we will project the words on the wall so that you can sing along if you choose

Here is a list of what we did :

• In the beginning when the kids are running from school, we all stomped and ran in place. This helped to get everyone excited for all the upcoming fun!
• "Candy Man" song – we sang along and passed out Wonka candy 
• Science experiment scene – we walked around with talcum powder to make the bang come to life (this was a huge cleanup and we will skip this next time for sure!)
• Every time a golden ticket is found, we held up a huge sign with the corresponding number on it and yelled out "1!" (or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5!)
• Blue/yellow/orange crepe paper for “Cheer up Charlie”. This is a very slow song so we gave crepe paper out to shake so everyone could sing and try to cheer up Charlie. (Passed out during song.)
• Charlie’s golden ticket – everyone cheers and hoots and claps
• Grandpa dancing song – we all got up and danced  (we passed out rhythm sticks during the dance)
• Clock strikes 10 – Rhythm sticks beats with ticks. Celebrate with crepe paper and cheering when the crowd celebrates.
• Imagination song – we sang along and passed out beach balls to hit around during this slow song
• Chocolate river scene– we handed out hot chocolate 
• Oompa loompa song – sing along and use rhythm sticks
• Scary boat scene – We had planned to use a disco light during this scene, but it was actually really scary to lots of kiddos so we handed out glow in the dark bugs. This helped distract a bit from the actual scene. 
• Oompa loompa room – We pedaled our pretend bicycles while Wonka is peddling. (We passed out blue balloons for next scene)
• When Violet starts eating and describing the food the candy tastes like, start blowing the blue balloon.  Let them go when she gets rolled away.
• Oompa loompa song - sing along and use rhythm sticks
• Fizzy lifting drink scene- we used a bubble machine and passed out bubbles to blow 
• Golden eggs – We handed out plastic eggs filled with a gold coin and a little note that says good egg or bad egg. It was fun to see if you got a good or bad egg.   
• Oompa loompa song -  sing along and use rhythm sticks
• Car wash – we used silly string 
• TV scene – we passed out 3D glasses to wear during the scene. 
• When Willy Wonka hugs Charlie for the good deed, hug a friend/grown up/yourself
• When they get in the elevator, kids bend down and rise up with the elevator and fly around with the crepe paper

Overall, this was a super fun day! We turned on the sing along feature to play all songs while we cleaned up. We also created a golden ticket hunt in the children's department by hiding 5 golden tickets throughout.

We hope to try this again soon!

 

Catching Fire (the movie)

I saw the movie yesterday and LOVED it! I talked about it a little on my other blog.

 

Also I love this picture of Suzanne Collins at a premier! 

Catching Fire Day!

Happy Catching Fire Day! 

I'm headed to see it tomorrow. I'm really excited. I've been hearing all sorts of good things on Twitter about it. Some people say that it's better than the Hunger Games. Some have no words for it. Some cried 3 or 5 times during the movie.

While I don't want to cry, I can't wait to see it. Have you seen it yet?

I love that they're making more movies out of YA books!

Has there been a surge in Dystopian novels in your library? What do you notice teens/adults checking out after the Hunger Games?

There are all kinds of infographics on what to read next - including mine.

Glitter Rings

This week, I made Glitter Rings at the library. It was easy and tons of fun. Plus if you have glitter on hand, it's not expensive. I bought flat rings at a craft store for less than $10. I found the craft on Pinterest and modified it.

Here's how we did it:
1. We used a paper plate for the glitter.
2. Painted a layer of Modge Podge on the ring.
3. Then dipped the ring in the glitter (most the rings were a color combination).
4. After that layer dried, we added another layer of Modge Podge over it to seal in the glitter.
5. Then it dried and it's done.

Between steps 4 and 5 takes awhile. I gave them bowls to carry out the rings and let them settle overnight.

The results:

Theirs:

My favorite one I created:

Warning: These are addicting!

Idea: A perfect program to host around Prom season or homecoming to create rings to match dresses. 

What to do with all that left over Halloween Candy?

Did you buy candy for the library and not use it all? I did. I might need to help getting rid of it - and not just handing it out for the next month to every teen to comes into the library.

Here are a few program ideas from Pinterest.

Candy Dogs: (They chose Reindeer, but I think without the nose and antlers, it would be just fine)

Halloween People: Or you could make headless horsemen if you didn't have the lollipop.

Leftover M&Ms or Skittles: Create art 

 Robots or Spaceships: Have them use their imagination to create something from space.

Candy Kabobs: If you have soft candy, make it into a meal (of sorts).

M is for Monster

"M is for Monster" Book Display

As you may already know, this year is the 50th Anniversary of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. A wonderful local art museum in our area is celebrating 50 years of works by Sendak with an exhibit and lots of great programs beginning in early November, so we decided to join the fun with our own wild rumpus at the library.

This past Saturday we hosted our "Monster Madness" event. Since we were making monster cupcakes and decorating monster pumpkins and gourds, we asked families to register. We had over 35 kiddos of all ages from under 1 to 12 (plus their grown-ups). Here is a quick rundown of the plan:

Of course we started with a reading of the special occasion book, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

We used our imaginations to go on a monster hunt (rather than the usual bear hunt). I love this version that Michael Rosen performed, so I used this as my inspiration.

We read Frankenstein by Ludoworst Bemonster next. This story is a Madeline parody and tickles the funny bone of those that can follow along, but we had a large crowd and it was a bit long for our audience. I probably wouldn't use this story again in a storytime setting like this.

After the story, our group was ready to move. I love If You're a Monster and You Know It by Rebecca Emberley and Ed Emberley. Our copy was checked out though, so I downloaded the free musical version from the Scholastic page and we danced and snarled and roared like monsters. (The song is sung by Adrian Emberley.)

We passed out some musical instruments and listened and played along to the musical version of There Was An Old Monster sung by Adrian Emberley. I had a copy of the story so I turned the pages as the band played on. We especially loved the fact that monster kept on dancing because he had ants in his pants, scritchy-scratch.

After we bid farewell to our instruments, we read the story Frank Was A Monster Who Wanted to Dance by Keith Graves. This funny book is rather participatory and was a great fit towards the end of our program. Plus it had the yuck factor you need at a monster event, since Frank's head unzips and his eye rolls out the door. After our reading, we did one last dancing song, The Monster Mash. 

We had lots of other monster books at the ready, including Go Away Big Green Monster, The Monsters' Monster, and Monster Mash, but our monsters were ready to create. (We had also created a "M is for Monster" book display early in the month to showcase all of those monster books we have!)

We sent the monsters on their way to make their own Big Green Monster cupcakes, painted monster pumpkins (or squash), and wild thing masks. We have so many wonderful businesses in our town and local area, that we were able to get 50 vanilla cupcakes (unfrosted) and 40 pumpkins and squash donated. We purchased the frosting, some candies, and bottled water. This entire program cost under $20.

Many families stayed for over an hour and half, so we thought it was monster mashing success!  

Young Writers

Do you have young writers in your library? Here's a few writing ideas they might like to try:

I saw this on Pinterest and thought it looked cool.
Kids in K-8 grades:

 The pin brings you to this blog: http://www.buildingalibrary.com/picture-books/scholastics-kids-are-authors-contest-great-books-written-by-great-kids/978
which talks about past winners, the contest details, and how cool it is! The deadline for this year in March 15, 2014.

November is National Write a Novel Month (NaNoWriMo)

There's no set age limit for this impressive goal, but there is a Young Writer's Program for those 17 and under. It's a way to set individual limits (not the adult limit of 50,000). Complete with pep talks, forums, and friends - this site has a way of keep your patrons motivated.

At Otis Library, we host an annual write-in for teens and adults. There's usually two or three teens that attend and it's a fun way to get your creative juices flowing - we even provide cookies for incentives to finish your daily word count.

Fall Fun

Fall is the most glorious time of year, in my opinion. It's a true feast for the senses; the vibrant colors, the warm smells of seasonal favorites, the feel of the crisp air, and the sounds of crunching leaves under your feet. Luckily, my coworkers feel the same way about amazing autumn. We couldn't handle it any longer, we just had to turn one of our unused columns into a tree [display]. It's been a great way to showcase some of the underappreciated books that feature forests and woodland animals.  

In the spirit of all things autumn, here are a few of my more recent favorites for this time of year.

A is for Autumn by Robert Maass
I love this ABC book all about the joys of autumn for kiddos ages 2 and 3. I was drawn in by the cover and photos on each page, so I can forgive some of the not necessarily fall fiting pairs (i is for ice cream, n is for neighborhood...). Understanding that books with photos can become dated quickly, I will keep going to this nonfiction book for as long as I can for my fall storytimes.

Bear Has A Story to Tell by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by Erin E. Stead
We meet lovable Bear, who has a story to tell, but all of his friends are too busy preparing for winter.  A sweet story that discusses migration and hibernation in an enchanting way. And who doesn't love the Philip and Erin Stead team?

Flora's Very Windy Day by Jeanne Birdsall and illustrated by Matt Phelan

I absolutely adore the illustrations in this charming picture book. The watercolor images of leaves and siblings floating through the air are the most lovely part of this whimsical story of an older sister and her younger brother who struggle against a "very windy" autumn day.

Awesome Autumn: Fall Facts and Fun by Bruce Goldstone

A wonderful book full of photos, facts, and activities all about fall changes (migration, hibernation, why leaves change color, fall holidays, etc). An important resource for teachers and students in the prek-2 classroom. Due to the nature of the format it is a little tricky as a straight read aloud, but the bright colors, engaging photos and informational text make this one a keeper for sure.