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.

Best Reads of 2011 - As Voted by Teens

During Teen Read Week we had a passive program taking place in the Young Adult area. We set up a raffle for teens to enter during this week. Two winners would be selected and would win a book of their choice off of my prize cart. All they had to do was tell me what the best book that they read this year was and why it was so good.

I had a secret ulterior motive with this program - I just wanted to get an idea of what my teens were reading! It was also nice to offer at least one program that brought the focus of Teen Read Week back to reading.

My teens really impressed me with some very thoughtful responses to the "why did you like this book" question. Here are just a few of the books mentioned in this year's raffle entries:

Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
Flygirl by Sherrie L. Smith
13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Pies and Prejudice by Heather Vogel Frederick

For the purposes of this raffle I did not require that the book be published in 2011, though I did ask that teens list a book that they read for the first time during this year.

Minute to Win It

Teen Read Week took place October 16-22, and to celebrate we had quite a bit going on at the library. One of my favorite programs from this week was the Minute to Win it event.

Have you ever seen this show? The idea is to challenge people to complete a series of seemingly simple tasks in less than 60 seconds. But it's a lot harder than it sounds! Even though it might seem easy to keep three balloons in the air at once or move a cookie from your forehead to your mouth without using your hands, these tasks all proved to be much more difficult than they first appeared.

Planning this program was surprisingly easy. I talked to a few librarian friends who had dome similar programs before to get ideas, which helped a lot. The official Minute to Win It website has a list of the challenges featured on the show, complete with rules, a list of what supplies would be needed, and video of the task. Then it was simply a matter of selecting eight games to try! There are lots of good choices, but in the end we selected:

A Bit Dicey
Bobblehead
Defying Gravity
Egg Tower
Face the Cookie
Hang Over
Spin Doctor
Stack Attack

Attendance was kind of low (we're still working on building a solid teen base group at my library) so I was able to run the entire program on my own. But with more than four teens I would definitely suggest having another staff person or volunteer help out so that the teens can split into groups, allowing more teens can play at once. I kept the time for each challenge with a stop watch while the teens tried each task - sometimes more than once. We tracked who was able to successfully able to complete each task, and awarded the two most successful teens small prizes.

There were actually several games that the teens were not able to complete at all, but they still had a lot of fun trying and laughing at each other's attempts. Since we had a fairly small, casual group we tried each challenge multiple times and found that some of the games - like Stack Attack, shown below - were a bit easier with a little team work.


All in all I think I spent about 8 dollars on this program, including snacks. We had quite a few of the supplies needed for each game already on hand at the library, and the Dollar Store provided what we didn't have.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

Sam isn't anything terribly special. Just your average 19-year-old college dropout stuck in the fast food business. But one night Douglas Montgomery walks into Plumpy's and develops a keen interest in Sam. Douglas recognizes Sam for what he really is: a necromancer with the latent, untapped power to control the dead. The whole situation is a bit of a shock to Sam, but seen he begins seeing the supernatural all around his hometown of Seattle. But Douglas, an incredibly powerful and sinister necromancer himself, isn't content to just let Sam be. He insists that Sam join forces with him, threatening to harm his friends and family if he does not comply. Soon Sam finds himself in way over his head. How the heck is he going to get out of this one alive?

There's a lot to like about Lish McBride's debut novel, Hold Me Closer, Necromancer. Perhaps most intriguing to me is the age of the main character. Off the top of my head I can't think of a lot of books about young adults between the ages of 18-24, and it was nice to see a book focused on this seldom-featured age group. To make things better, this book was really compelling. This is a book that doesn't take itself too seriously as the narration is laced with all kinds of snarky comments. The lightness of the book makes the pages turn quickly, but at the same time there are plenty of moments that are very intense. Who knew that humor and gore could work so well together? This book has a little something for everyone and will appeal to those looking for humor, scary stories, or the supernatural.

There is also a sequel in the works, expected to be out sometime in 2012. Personally, I can't wait.

Overall Grade: A

Check out the book trailer! I think it pretty well sums up the tone of this book.

Sheboygan Children's Book Festival - M.T. Anderson

This past weekend I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Sheboygan Children's Book Festival. This wonderful festival is in its second year, and I was quite happy with this year's programs. A number of authors and illustrators are invited to attend the event where they give a series of special presentations to anyone interested in hearing about these authors' books, lives, and influences. Younger children are also invited to interact with illustrators, creating world of art in studio workshops. Best of all, these wonderful authors all took the time to meet individually with those attending the festival to sign autographs.

There were a number of really wonderful moments that I was able to experience this weekend. But one of my favorite moments came from a presentation by M.T. Anderson, author of such books as Whales on Stilts, Feed, and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing.

First of all, you have to understand that M.T. Anderson is really, really funny. Admittedly not all of Anderson's books are funny. But now I can see exactly where a book like Whales on Stilts gets its absurd humor. The presentation I attended was all about how Anderson once wanted to write books about exotic locations, having been influenced by such books as a child. In particular he referenced the old comic Conan the Barbarian as one of his influences.


Andersen then proceeded to describe how he had mentioned this at a previous presentation and someone in the audience had misheard him, instead hearing "Conan the Librarian." He thought that was a great image - the butt-kicking librarian. And you all know how I feel about that idea.


Love it!

Honestly, the rest of M.T. Anderson's presentation was just as awesome, with stories about his hilariously failed attempts as speaking French and eating foreign food. This failure at world travel inspired Anderson to instead write stories about exotic places in the United States. Places like Delaware. Don't think that this petite state is really exotic? Check out Anderson's Tourist's Guide to Delaware to get the real story about this exciting state. Even better, check out his book Jasper Dash and the Flame Pits of Delaware (part of the Pals in Peril series).

Marty McGuire

Marty was told that the third grade would be amazing. It was promised that in third grade you would get to read longer books and be in the school play. What Marty didn't anticipate, though, was loosing her best friend Annie to the princess-loving Veronica Grace. Now Marty, who just doesn't like all of this girly dress-up play, doesn't have anyone to hunt for frogs or pretend to be Jane Goodall with. Things get even stranger when Marty is cast as the princess her her class' performance of The Frog Prince. Marty is sure that there has been a huge mistake. But as practice for the play gets underway, she learns a little something about improvisation and develops an idea to make the play a little more interesting.

There are an awful lot of books out there that focus on princesses. And while it's true that many of these books feature strong, smart princesses, it was kind of nice to see a different kind of character in Kate Messner's Marty McGuire: the precocious tomboy. Marty really just doesn't like being prissy and girly. She doesn't go on to discover her "inner princess" or anything like that as the story progresses. Instead, what Marty learns is that it's good to try new things even if they make her a bit uncomfortable at first. What's especially interesting about this book's take on the issue is that there's not really a strong pro- or anti-princess message. Even though she is reluctant, Marty gives the role of princess a try. There are other characters like Annie who manage to straddle the two sides, and in the end even prissy Veronica Grace is set up to be Marty's friend as they go off to play Jane Goodall while wearing tiaras.

To be honest, the plot of this book was a tad predictable to me. I've been around the easy chapter book block a few times and could pretty much see where this book was headed from the beginning. But for the average kid reading this book (or even the average adult), the predictability will not be a problem. The writing is solid and the characters extremely likable. Illustrations by Brian Floca add the perfect level of detail. This book is great fun.

Overall Grade: A

Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy

On this blog I make it a point to talk specifically about books and library issues to kids, teens, and the parents of said young people. But a friend of mine recently shared something so awesome that I have to blog about it here, even if it is slightly off-topic.

In August NPR released a list of the top 100 science fiction and fantasy titles, as voted on by the general public. How cool is that?

But it gets better. SF Signal, a blog about all things sci-fi related, decided to take NPR's list and turn it into something visual. The flowchart is also a little less daunting than a long, long list of books - it was easy and just plain fun to explore. It's also a decent way to try to decide what to read next if you're a fan of this genre.

The NPR list specifically includes only adult reading material, so you won't see Harry Potter, Narnia, or The Hunger Games anywhere on the list. But these are genres with such high appeal that I'm sure teens will be able to find something great to read off of this list.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Last week I did a storytime for my preschoolers all about ABCs and 123s. One of the books that we read was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert. I used this story as the inspiration for a new bulletin board.

Using construction paper, I constructed a large coconut tree. Letters were also cut out of colored paper. As a craft for storytime, each child was given one or two letters to decorate. A few kids drew shapes, some just scribbled, and one kid just wanted to write his name - each letter was decorated differently. Once storytime finished for the week and all of the letters were decorated, I hung the letters on the bulletin board to create a scene in the spirit of the story.

The bulletin board was completed with a quote from the book and the first names of each child who helped with the letters.

I liked how creating this bulletin board really got the kids involved. It was a good way to tie this book into something happening at the library, as well as a good way to link this lesson in letters with art. This project was a win-win all around!

Baseball Storytime

Here in Wisconsin we are all very excited about our Milwaukee Brewers. Last Friday the team managed to clinch a playoff berth as the NL Central Division champions for the first time since 1982. Huzzah! To celebrate I decided that my preschoolers should hear a few baseball tales in storytime this week.

Roasted Peanuts by Tim Egan
Sam and Jackson dream of becoming baseball legends together. Unfortunately, Jackson just isn't very good. When Sam makes the team and Jackson doesn't the two friends initially struggle with the situation...until Jackson gets a job selling peanuts at the stadium.

This was a longer story - the kids loved it, but make sure you have a group of good listeners when you read this one.

Curious George Plays Baseball by H.A. Rey
Everyone's favorite curious monkey is on his way to a baseball game to watch his friend Jimmy play. But George is curious and he wants to play too. What sort of mischief will George get into?

Dino-Baseball by Lisa Wheeler
Dinosaurs gather to play baseball. Enough said.

Hit the Ball Duck by Jez Alborough
Duck and his friends go to play baseball, but Duck hits the ball into a tree. How will they get their ball back so that they can keep playing?

Before we read our first story I pulled out some baseball gear (bat, ball, glove, cap) and we talked about what happens at a baseball game. We also sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and did this action song:

This Is The Way You Hit The Ball

This is the way you hit the ball,
Hit the ball, hit the ball,
This is the way you hit the ball,
When you play baseball.

This is the way you throw the ball...
This is the way you catch the ball...
This is the way you run the bases...