Love YOUR Library!

It's National Library Week (April 14-20, 2013), so I am feeling especially proud of libraries and librarianship. As a children's librarian in a public library, there aren't many days that I am not advocating the important role that public libraries play in our community. As a child, the public library was our summer go-to place! My siblings and I would gather piles of books to read, go to fun family programs consisting of magicians, stories, and movies, and play with computer and board games that we didn't have at home. We spent many a hour at our library and I remember our children's librarian, Mrs. Butterfield, as clear as day!


This past fall, I was fortunate enough to go the Broken Umbrella's play The Library Project presented at The New Haven Free Public Library. Discovering this performance was truly a wonderful accident, I had picked up a bookmark advertising the performance at a New Haven coffee shop. A special after-hours performance through the halls of the beautiful and historic New Haven Free Public Library, where participants "pay what they can"! I was sold!  (See a Yale Daily News review here.)

"The Library Project" was a true collaboration of the people of New Haven and this evening inspired me greatly. Theater-goers were treated to seven short plays throughout the library lead by a "librarian-guide" with a brightly lit umbrella. Though each performance was unique in it's own way, I was most moved by the performance "Branching Out". This play took place in the children's room where 3 young actors lead you on a walk through the children's department quoting wonderful stories and singing along the way. We were lead to a big beautiful "tree" whose leaves and branches were hundreds of card catalog cards filled with memories of public libraries. As the actors sang their song, they invited each of us to write our own memories of libraries. Questions included: Why is the Library special to you? What is your first memory of a library? What is your favorite nook in the Library? It was one of these moments that made me so proud to be a librarian! My library is an important place in our community and I trust that the families we serve our making memories too. As I stood there listening to the song and watching people happily submit their stories, I could do nothing but cry.What a wonderful job I have!
  

Though months have gone by, I still tell anyone that will listen about Broken Umbrella and "The Library Project". Have your own library story? Go to the Houghton Mifflin website to share a memory! (You might win a copy of the book "Miss Moore Thought Otherwise".) Or even better, if you have memories of my library, Otis Library in Norwich, CT, enter our You@Otis Library Contest! Like us on Facebook and share your memory via a message to us!

My Thoughts on Nonfiction: Part 1

Honestly, Nonfiction books don't circulate well in my department of the library. It's almost nonexistent. I've taken to separating out the sections. I have two bookcases: fun nonfiction and homework help. I had hoped that would improve my stats - but so far it hasn't much.

It makes me wonder if I'm reading it enough, promoting it enough, and if I'm purchasing the right books. I know that teens are gathering information online for reports and projects. They seem to come in to the library looking for something only if their teacher's required a book in the bibliography.

The one subject that generates interest is biographies. Every now and then, a school class needs to read a biography. More than a few people ask for one and that gets my attention. I've recently updated our selection. We had a number of educational biographies, but now we have some pop culture ones.  These have gone out a few times, but nothing spectacular.

We have some fun books too - along the lines of drawing books, beauty and makeup tips, vampires, ghosts, monsters, and forensic books. I wonder if I'm purchasing the right materials.

Are there must have nonfiction titles for a teen collection?

From Page to Screen: Upcoming YA Movies

Mark your calendars -it's going to be a few great years for YA books turning into movies! I love that this is happening! It shows off books to people who might not have read them, plus while they're waiting for that book to come into the library, we can sweet talk them into a similar read. Love it when YA books get noticed for being awesome!

Mortal Instruments: City of Bones - August 23rd

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters: love Nathan Fillion! (August 16th)

Ender's Game: November 1st -Trailer coming soon

Cacthing Fire (trailer to be released at the MTV movie awards - April 14th)

2014:

January 17th: The Book Thief

February 14th: Maze Runner and Blood Sisters (Vampire Academy)

March 21: Divergent

November 21st: Mockingjay part 1

November 26th: Happy Smekday (The True Meaning of Smekday)

Rock the Drop: Teen Literature Day

READERGIRLZ has created the most awesome event - Rock the Drop. It's an annual event that supports teen literature. 

Each year, authors, publisher, librarians, and bookish people leave out ARCs or books of teen interest. They  hope that teens will discover these great books. I've been participating at the library since the events starting in 2007.

Here's some history of the day from the Readergirlz site:

"In 2008 and 2009, readergirlz, Guys Lit Wire, and YALSA orchestrated publishers' donations of nearly 20,000 new young adult books to hospitalized teens across the country. 

For 2010, If I Can Read I Can Do Anything joined forces with these three organizations to drop over 10,000 new YA books, donated by publishers, into the hands of teens on Native American tribal lands. 

Each year, nationwide, librarians, hundreds of YA authors, and teens dropped YA books in their own communities to raise awareness for Operation TBD and Support Teen Literature Day.

Here are our logos and videos from former years. Enjoy!"

If you've never participated  join in this year - there's plenty of time. Lots of authors and publisher drop books all over the place. Every book dropped is part of the fun. I usually have 5 or so ARCs. I print out that year's label (this is last year's) and place it in the book. I put out the books as school's getting out so. Then I wait to see what happens and share about it via twitter.

March Madness: Basketball

March Madness is upon us, which means it's time to talk about Basketball. Personally, I'm a big fan of the Celtics and I'm not that into college hoops. But, I appreicate the excitement, the adrenaline, and rooting for your favorite teams.

Here's my dog in his puppy years - he bleeds green too!

To celebrate the start of the tournament, here's a few of my favorite teen/tween basketball books:

Travel Team by Mike Lupica
Danny gets cut from the travel basketball team because he's too short. With the help of his father, an ex-NBA star, he creates a second team. Does this underdog team stand a chance?

Front and Center by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Now that football season is over, D.J. can concentrate on her basketball season and finding the right college. The final book in a trilogy starting with Dairy Queen.

Miracle on 49th Street by Mike Lupica
Before Molly's mom died form cancer, she told Molly the identity of her father. Now Molly tracks down Celtics superstar Josh Cameron. the more she finds out about him, the more she wonders if he's dad material.

Other popular basketball books at the Otis Library:
Ball Don't Lie by Matt de la Pena
Last Show by John Feinstein
Night Hoops by Carl Deuker
Slam by Walter Dean Myers
Slam Dunk by Donna King
Rucker Pack Set Up by Paul Volponi

Or check out this month's Pinterest board of Basketball Books from the entire library.

Calling all Superheroes!

A few months back, a colleague mentioned a superhero storytime that she had recently tried and I had a feeling it would be a good program for the families at my library. Once I learned March was superhero month, I was sold! I knew I wanted to make capes and read some great adventure stories, but other than that I wasn't sure...

Here is what our superhero storytime ended up looking like. It turned out to be a great success. We had lots of interest, but we capped the program at 15 participants (ages 3-7).


Our "superheroes in training" entered super excited! We started off the fun by reading 2 really great superhero stories:
  
Timothy and the Strong Pajamas: A Superhero Adventure by Viviane Schwarz
(This was the first time I tried this book in a program and the kids loved it! Oh if only all pajamas gave you super strength at the end of a long day...)
  

Eliot Jones, Midnight Superhero by Anne Cottringer; illustrated by Alex T. Smith  
(I didn't love this one as much, but when I polled the kids we had 14 thumbs ups and 1 sideways thumb.) Eliot is a quiet kid during the day because he is using all his energy being a midnight superhero!

Once we had read 2 stories talking all about super strength, bravery, and courage; we created our own superhero masks and capes.

Masks: we found a free template online and printed them onto primary color cardstock ($4 for a pack of 50). We precut and hole punched the masks, so that our superheroes would just decorate them. Here is the full supply list: 


brightly colored cardstock
elastic cord
superhero mask template 
hole punch
scissors
glitter glue
markers
foam stickers

Capes: we cut $1 brightly colored tablecloths into 4 capes and supplied each child with various strips of duct tape that we used to decorate the capes.  Supplies:

various brightly colored duct tape
brightly colored plastic tablecloths (from our local dollar store)
scissors

Now that we had our masks and capes, we read one more superhero story! (We used lots of things we already had in-house, so I ended up spending about $20 on duct tape, cardstock, and tablecloths.)
 

The Adventures of Max and Pinky: Superheroes by Maxwell Easton III

While our superheroes in training were decorating their masks and capes, we set up our obstacle training course.  We used a tunnel, small brightly colored cones to run around, a balance beam, hula hoops to jump into, and balloon bad guys to crush. (Our superheroes opted to just keep their balloon bad guys with them.) If I had thought ahead and booked another program room, I could have made the obstacle course more detailed (jumping over lego brick houses and yarn laser mazes were in my original plan!) However, it was fun to go through the training course in masks and capes!

We had 5 minutes left and I laid out all the superhero books that I had pulled. 

All in all, a successful and easy to prepare program!   

Green

In honor of all things green, here is my green storytime!

Green: Together Time (2-3 year old)
*****Together Time is a weekly 45 minute program that runs in 6 week sessions.

Opening Song: Welcome, Welcome Everyone

Opening Song: Up, Down, Turn Around
Up, down, turn around, touch the sky and touch the ground,
Wiggle fingers, wiggle toes, wiggle shoulders, say hello.

Stamps: Hand stamps are a big deal for this age group, and I have been experimenting with when best to do them. We stamped green apples this week as a way to start talking "green"! I also showed everyone the American Sign Language sign for green.

Book: Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (A beautiful book and a Caldecott Honor Award winner, this one is fun to get the discussion going about all things green! )

Fingerplay: Tiny Tim

I got a little turtle, his name is Tiny Tim,

I put him in the bathtub to see if he could swim                   (swimming movement)
He drank up all the water (move hands toward mouth)
He ate up all the soap (make a munching noise)
Then my little turtle got a bubble in his throat                    (tap under chin)

Fingerplay: There Was a Little Turtle

There was a little turtle (make a circle with your hands)                                               He lived in a box (make a box with your hands)
He swam in a puddle (swim), he climbed on the rocks (climb)
He snapped at the mosquito (clap hands), he snapped at the flea (clap hands)
He snapped at me  (clap hands), he caught the mosquito  (mimic catching bug)
He caught the flea (mimic catching bug), he caught the  minnow (mimic catching bug)
But he didn't catch me! (point to yourself)

Book: Green Food Fun by Lisa Bullard (we used the photos in this book to talk about green veggies)

Fingerplay: Five Little Peas

Five little peas in a peapod pressed;
One grew, two grew, and so did all the rest.
They grew and grew and did not stop,
Until one day the peapod popped!

Action Song: And The Green Grass Grew All Around
(We used grass on a stick props to sing a ssimplified version of this traditional song)

 

Book: Way Up High in the Tall Green Tree by Jan Peck

Then we used our grass on a stick props to go way up high

Song: Five Green and Speckled Frogs
Five green and speckled frogs sat on a speckled log
Eating the most delicious bugs- YUM YUM
One jumped into the pool where it ws nice and coll
Now there's only four green speckled frogs GLUB, GLUB (repeat until none left)
(We used Raffi's version while I acted out with frog finger puppets)

Book: Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek

Instruments: using bells, we sang a few songs together

       Ring our bells together
      Baa Baa Green Sheep 
      Marching to our bells
     Shake our sillies out
     Shake it, shake it, shake it 
     Good bye bells


Art Project: We glued a large letter g onto a piece of green construction paper. Then we used green markers, crayons, stamps, and stickers to decorate. I also put out ripped green tissue paper and construction paper to glue as well.

Other related books:

In the Tall, Tall Grass by Denise Fleming
Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley
Brown Cow, Green Grass, Yellow Mellow Sun  by Ellen Jackson and illustrated by Victoria Raymond. 

Posted by Kim