Passionate Reading

Today I visited the 6th grade classrooms at our local school to talk about the Summer Reading Program.  After giving my spiel, a boy raised his with a question which resulted in the following dialogue:

"So I can read any book that I want this summer and it counts?"
"Yup, you can read absolutely anything you want."
"So if I want I can read medical textbooks?"
"Yes, you can read anything you want."
"YES!  I can read medical books!"

No sarcasm.  This kid apparently actually has a passionate interest in the medical.

This brings up a great point to remember about summer reading:  Part of the beauty of summer break is that kids no longer have teachers breathing down their necks to do specific kinds of work.  Summer is a great chance for kids to take a break from scheduled learning and instead focus on whatever it is that they are passionate about.  They can reread their favorite books for the hundredth time.  They can learn to juggle.  They can read about zombies or LEGOs.  They can learn even more about something cool they learned in school, or they can learn about something cool that their teacher doesn't have the time or ability to teach them.  Summer is a time when kids can become experts about whatever it is they like with no questions asked.

How cool is that?

So parents, it's okay to let your kid relax a bit this summer.  Let them dictate how their reading time is spent.  As long as they do at least some reading, they'll be the better off for being able to take some ownership of the effort.

A Big Number

This month in the children's department we are doing a Valentine's Day passive program.  We have a big jar of conversation hears on display, and we've challenged everyone to guess how many are in the jar.  It's all quite charming, and that big jar of candy has been a real attention-grabber.

Today a group of our regulars (two kids, age 5, and their nanny) came in and noticed the jar.  The nanny tried to get her kids to take a guess.  This activity is naturally a bit of a challenging for younger kids who do not yet possess refined estimation skills.  The nanny knew this, and really just tried to get the kids to guess a really big number.  The first child's guess?  One million.

The conversation with the second child is what really cracked me up:

"How many hearts do you think are in the jar?  Think of a really big number."

"Infinity!"

This lead to a brief, but very nice conversation about how infinity is never ending and there was definitely not a never-ending number of conversation hearts in the jar.  The kids seemed to accept this restriction on their guesses and the conversation continued.

"So let's guess again.  Think of a really big number that isn't infinity."

"Ten!"

From one extreme to the other.  Well done, kid.

What letter is this?

I don't know exactly why this cracked me up so much, but it did:

Mom and her daughter (4-5 years old) were reading an alphabet book together.  Mom pointed to the big letter S on the page and asked her daughter, "What letter is that?"  Daughter's response:  "Two!"

I guess I can see how the letter S and the number 2 look pretty similar.  But numbers and letters are not the same thing...

Silly Questions: 1, Logic: 0

Today a pair of kids, a boy and a girl, both roughly ages 7-9, came into the children's area desperately looking for books about their favorite music personalities:  Justin Bieber and One Direction.  I'm trying to help the girl search for books (desperately repressing snide comments about Bieber's recent arrest) while the boy decides to take matters into his own hands.  Cleverly, he goes over to one of the OPACs and begins searching on his own.  Awesome!  After awhile he catches up to me with a scrap of paper in his hand and asks:

"Excuse me, where are the children's books?"

It was really hard not to crack up at this point.  After all, we're in the children's room.  All of the books are children's books!  These kids are also fairly regular library users - I'm pretty sure that he knows that we're in the children's part of the library.  Alas, sometimes such logic is lost on the young.

I stifle a giggle and tell him that all of the books in this whole room are children's books.  His eyes get big, as if this is somehow new information.  I then proceed to help him figure out how to find the book that he found in the catalog on the shelf and it evolved into - I think - a pretty good lesson on how to use the catalog and interpret what it tells us.

All's well that ends well.

Mom

Today as the toddlers were leaving storytime I said goodbye to one of the boys, calling him by name.  He replied with a smile and a wave and said, "Bye, Mom!"

The boy's actually mother and I both cracked up.

Actually, I'm amazed that it's taken this long for a kid at the library to call me "Mom."  I've been working in libraries for almost seven years now, and this is the first time (at least that I can remember) that it's happened.



This story makes me think of another announcement that I should probably make on this blog, though I'm sure that most of my regular readers have already heard the news.  This librarian is having a baby!  She should be arriving sometime at the end of May.  I'm blaming pregnancy on at least part of the reason why my reading has slowed down and blog posts have been a bit slower to come out.  Excitement abounds.

Do Five-Year-Olds Cry?

Today the kids were off of school, so we held another Lego and Keva Open Play at the library.  At one point during the program I overheard the following conversation between two young boys who, given the conversation, I estimate to be ages five and six.


"What would you do if somebody knocked that tower over?"

"I would be really mad and I would cry."

"You wouldn't cry!  Five-year-olds don't cry."

"Six-year-olds do."

"No they don't."

"They do when they bleed."

"I don't cry when I bleed."


At this point mom looks over at the boy who last spoke quite pointedly.  Neither boy noticed or cared.

Book Drop Excitement

Earlier this week we had the third graders from the local elementary school visit the library.  We booktalked several great reads, and then each class was taken on a tour of the library.  During the tour we visited the adult reference desk, the circulation desk, the children's room, and finally the back area of the library where patrons don't usually get to go.  In this area the kids got to see where the magic of circulation happens - how the books are checked in, sorted, and sometimes sent to other libraries.  

For the last stop of the day, I opened up the back room where our bookdrops are located so that the kids could see the slots where they drop their books off from the other side and the bins where the books land.  Generally the book drop is the coolest thing that these kids will see all day.  They're fascinated by how cold it is in this room (the slots are open to the outside, after all), how big the bins are, and they love tilting their heads to see up the slots.  

At the end of the tour, one boy expressed his awe out loud to his friends:

"I got to touch the inside of the library!"

Glad we could make your day, kid.

"In the Grand Scheme of Things"

Today a nanny was telling me about how the 2-year-old girl she cares for, one of our regular storytime attendees, loves Mo Willems' pigeon books (Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, etc.)  She told us that the girl actually had the book Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late completely memorized!

At one point in this book, the pigeon tried to rationalize his desire to stay up a bit later by saying, "What's five more minutes in the grand scheme of things?"  The girl's nanny told me that at one point the child's mother had told the girl that she needed to wait five more minutes for something.  The girl proceeded to respond by quoting this line from the book.  Of course a 2-year-old doesn't really understand exactly what this phrase means, which makes it all the funnier for the rest of us.  So cute.

Bookmarks

A young girl, about 4 or 5 years old, saw the bookmarks that we have available for patrons to take.  She asked what they were for, and I explained that a bookmark is a way to help you keep your place when you are reading.  The dialogue continued as follows:

"Do you color it?  Do you need markers?"

"No, you don't need to color it.  It's already colored, isn't it?"

Girl nods.

"You just put the bookmark inside of the book so that you know what page you are on."

I then had to take a book and demonstrate exactly how to use a bookmark.  The girl looked at the book with a bemused expression and asked:

"Does it need glue?"

"No, it doesn't need glue."

"Oh."

She seemed disappointed.  I think she just really wanted to do an art project.

This Is a Library

This afternoon I overheard two siblings (a girl age 7 or so, and a boy age 5) as they looked at some dinosaur books.  Unfortunately the dinosaur books are on high shelves, so the kids found themselves a stool to help them reach.  Even still, the kids really had to stretch to reach the highest shelf.  As they were looking at books I heard the older sister tell her brother:

"This is a library, not a jungle gym."

I'd be willing to bet that the girl picked this phrase up from Mom or Dad.  It's much cuter, though, coming out of the mouth of a 7-year-old.

Gaming Trophies

Not long ago I hosted a Wii gaming event for kids of all ages.  We spent two hours playing Mario Kart and Wii Sports resort.  I've done this sort of event before with great success, but this time I added a new twist to the program.  In the back of our storage closet I found a box of small plastic trophies we had purchased from Oriental Trading for a long-forgotten reason. 

I set the trophies out at the gaming event.  When the kids asked about the trophies I told them that I would decide who got a trophy and when.  They might get one for winning the game they were playing, for example, but I would give trophies for other things too.  It was all up to me!  The kids were somewhat intrigued by this and constantly come running to me to brag about their accomplishments.  Many of these involved winning:  Long winning streaks (or thwarting long winning streaks!), perfect scores, etc.  But there were other achievements too, such as helping a younger child learn to play the games or organizing a rotation system so that everyone could get a turn to play.

Over the course of the afternoon I found a reason to reward every child who attended the program with a trophy.  The highlight of my afternoon came at the end of the day when one of the older kids saw that, miraculously enough, I only had one trophy left in my box.  He took the trophy, handed it to me, and told me that I could keep it because I was the best at setting up the gaming program.  Isn't that sweet?

Label added by yours truly after the fact.

But kids aren't simply sweet.  Sometimes they say the darndest things.  Over the course of the afternoon I was able to show off my own gaming skills by competing with the kids in attendance.  After schooling a couple of fifth-grade boys at Mario Kart one of them turned to me, patted me on the shoulder, and said:

"You're pretty good for an old person."

I didn't know if I should take that as a compliment or as an insult!  When I posed the question to the boy he actually thought about it for a moment before telling me that he wasn't sure either.

Horses Make...

During storytime today I read several of my favorite read-aloud stories, including David Shannon's Duck on a Bike.  On each page Duck greets a different barnyard animal while riding his bike, and each animal responds with the appropriate animal noise.  As I read this book I usually prompt my audience to supply the animal sounds.

When we go to the page where Duck meets Horse, I asked the kids what sound a horse makes.  The crowd went "neigh," just as expected.  As the sound was dying down a little girl, four years old, sat up a little straighter and proudly announced:

"Horses make glue!"

All of the grown-ups in the room - myself included - had to try really hard to keep from cracking up.  

Giraffe Sounds

There is a small stuffed giraffe who lives on the Children's Reference Desk. His name is Butterscotch.

 

Today a boy, about 15 months old, came up to the desk, pointed at the giraffe and said, "mooo." Mom told me that according to her son every animal says moo. Super cute.

This brought to mind another incident that happened a few days ago with the giraffe. As they walked past the desk a mom asked her daughter, about 4 or 5 years old, what sound a giraffe makes as kind of a joke. The girl responded by sticking out her tongue. Apparently that's what giraffes do!

Librarian's Purpose

The Children's Reference Desk sits in the children's area of the library, and there is always a staff person there ready to help patrons with whatever they need. Tonight I found myself at the desk as a young boy, about 5 years old, brought over a few books that we wanted to check out. I told him that I couldn't check out his books, but he could take them to the "Big Desk" (the Circulation Desk) just outside of the children's area. The boy looked at me, squinted in confusion, and asked:

"Then what are you there for?"

Fair question, my friend. I explained to the boy that I was there to answer any questions that someone might have and that I could help people find the books they were looking for. Since neither of these situations seemed to apply to him, this kid was severely unimpressed.

I can't decide if this whole exchange was hilarious or vaguely insulting to my career.

Voice Mail

Monday mornings at the library during the summer are usually a little hectic. Registration for that week's programs begins at this time, so there's usually a rush of phone calls and people at the desk trying to sign up for these events. Admittedly, sometimes we can't answer the phone during this busy time so many patrons will leave us a message with the name, phone number, and the program that they want to register for.

This morning I listened to these voice mails and heard a message from a girl, entering 6th grade, who wanted to sign up for our school-age Stargazers & Dreamers program. Mom or Dad clearly wanted this girl to get some practice doing this sort of thing herself and had her make the phone call and leave the message. Here's what the message said:

"Umm, hello, my name is XXX and I wanted to sign up for this week's, um, Stargazers & Dreamers program on Thursday...Oh, this would be so much better if I could talk to a real person!"

At this point the girl hung up, clearly anxious about leaving a voice mail. Too bad, because she was actually doing a pretty good job!

Even though the girl didn't leave a phone number or any of the other information we needed to get her registered for the program, I did recognize the girl's name and was able to look up her phone number in our summer records. I called her back and we got her program registration all straighed out. But that voice mail sure did make me laugh!

How did she do that?

Tonight I helped a girl, 4th grade or so, track down the second Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone). She had tried to find it in the catalog but for some reason was having trouble. I showed here where all of the Harry Potter books could be found on the shelves and, lo and behold, there was the book she was looking for. Huzzah!

A few minutes later I overheard the girl and her mom talking. The girl showed her mother that she had found the book she wanted. Mom, apparently realizing that she had had some trouble, asked in surprise, "How did she find it when you couldn't?"

The girl's reply: "She's a librarian..."

As if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Score one for the librarians!

My Mom Is a Robot

This morning I overheard a little boy, about 3 1/2 years old, describe his mother to another child:

"My mom is no ordinary mom. She's actually a robot. I figured it out."

Sadly for me, the other child didn't seem terribly interested in the boy's mother's robotic tendencies and the conversation quickly shifted back to normal preschool concerns, like blocks and puzzles. But I have questions for this kid. How exactly did you discover hat your mom is a robot? Is she truly a robot, or is she actually some kind of cyborg? Are there other Mommy-Bots? What about Daddy-Bots and Baby-Bots? Has she been programmed to follow the Three Laws, or do we need to worry about an uprising?

Lots of Toys

Said by a three-year-old girl after storytime (edited to remove the adorable "umms"):

"I have lots of toys at home. When you're done at the library, you can come over and play at my house."

Aww, that's very nice of you to invite me!

Let's Do a Rhyme

Said by a 2-year-old girl, one of my regulars, during Baby and Toddler Storytime:

"Let's do a rhyme now!"

Apparently this girl has really been paying attention during storytime and has picked up on the phrases I often use to transition between activities. Mom told me afterwards that at home she pretends to be me and teaches her dolls all of the rhymes. Apparently "let's do a bouncing rhyme," and "let's sing a song" are fairly common phrases at home!

Imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery. I feel kind of like a rock star.

Be My Friend

Said to me by a six-year-old just the other day:

"Hello. Would you like to be my friend?"

Awwww... Of course I would! We shook hands and traded names, and *bam!* we were friends. I love how a simple question is all it takes for young children.