#Flannel Friday - Fifteen Animals

I have been loving the #Flannel Friday roundups that Mel's been posting and I finally got my act together to post one of my own. I have to confess, I did NOT make this flannel set. My wonderful employee Miss T is gifted with craftiness and she makes many of our flannel stories. When I saw the book Fifteen Animals by Sandra Boynton, I knew it would be great for storytime, but the small board book format wasn't the best for a group. So I took it to Miss T and she created these flannel pieces to go with it:

I won't print the entire text here (seriously, go get the book! I love it!), but the gist is:

I have a cat named Bob and a dog named Bob
And two fish named Bob and Bob...

And so on, until you get to...

There's Bob the mouse and Bob the bird 
And my turtle...
Simon James Alexander Ragdale the Third. 

I love the silly, surprise ending. This is a simple story that would work with a storytime on animals, pets, or counting.

Now, head on over to Mel's Desk for this week's #Flannel Friday roundup!

A Look Back at Spring Storytime

For the past couple of months, I have been posting our weekly preschool storytimes. Last week was our last week of spring storytime (summer ahoy! OMG...), so today I wanted to take a look back over our storytime series and share a little bit about what we do, what we like, and what we might change for next time. 

Our story room!

Traditionally, my library has offered registered preschool storytimes in the fall and in the spring. When I first started, we began offering a drop-in storytime, but it just never took off and our attendance was very low. Spring and fall storytime has been a tradition here for over 30 years and I think it's what people are used to, so at the beginning of 2011 we dropped the drop-in and went back to only having the registered storytimes. (We do offer weekly drop-in baby and toddler programs.)

Our Spring Storytime Series ran from the week of February 21 through the week of April 18, taking a week off for Spring Break when many of our families go out of town. To compensate for eliminating the drop-in storytime, we offered an 8-week session (up from a 6-week session in the fall) and we offered five different time slots (up from 4 in the fall). Honestly, I don't think that this made a big difference and I think we'll go back to 6 weeks in the fall. Or possibly 8 weeks in the fall and 6 weeks in the spring to give us a little more Summer Reading Club prep time.

We offered the following time slots and families were asked to sign up for one class time and attend every week (as they are able):

• Mondays at 11:00am
• Tuesdays at 7:00pm
• Wednesdays at 1:00pm
• Thursdays at 11:00am
• Thursdays at 2:00pm. 

 The Thursday afternoon was a departure and it was not well attended. We won't have it again in the fall. The rest of the sessions were well-attended, with the exception of Tuesday evenings. Evening programs in general do not draw big crowds for us, so this evening storytime was on par with other evening programs in the past. It's important to me that we always offer an evening class time for working parents, so we will continue doing that. We might try Tuesdays or Thursdays at 1:00 or a later afternoon (like 4:00) for kids with siblings in school.

We make a nametag for each child and they pick it up at the Children's Desk before their storytime. Nametags consist of a die-cut shape with a little metal fastener and we use the same shape for all of them, but a different color for each class time. My class time was Mondays at 11:00 and we had red nametags. Children pick out a sticker to put on their nametag for each week that they attend. (Bonus: little siblings may have a sticker if they want one, and sometimes that eases the sting of not getting their own nametag!) Children may take their nametag home after the last session of the series.

We limit sign-up to 25 children per class and usually one or two class times fill up. We almost never have all 25 children show up at the same time, though, so we always welcome guests. We are very flexible about letting in siblings and letting in other children as long as we have the space for it. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to come in, but they may send their child in alone as long as he/she is comfortable with that. Most of our parents come in.

There are five of us in my department that do programming, so we each took one time slot. We planned the themes out in advance and divided up the planning with each of us planning one or two weeks. The person in charge of planning a week picks out books and materials for storytime, trying to choose a variety of materials since every group will be different and every storyteller's style will be different. That person also chooses and preps a take-home craft.

We started offering take-home crafts last fall and we LOOOOVE THEM. Traditionally, we would all do a craft with the group after the stories. Depending on the size of the group, this was more or less manageable. The main inconvenience was the tables. For every storytime, we'd have to drag out our small hexagonal tables and then we'd have to put them away again when others needed to use the room. One of my staff members suggested take-home crafts and we tried them out last fall. Not only is it 100 times easier for us, but parents love them! They love having something to take home to do with dad or brothers and sisters. We allow them to take extra packets to share with siblings at home. And it helps parents extend what the kids have learned in storytime by having a related activity to bring the learning home.

In each craft packet, we include all the supplies to do the craft (minus staples like glue, scissors, crayons, etc.), instructions, and a sheet with a topical book list on one side and ideas for at-home activities on the other side. After we determine the themes for each week, I put together the handouts and it really doesn't take too long to bang them out.

I used the same opening and closing songs each week, which worked well. For opening, I used Raffi's "Shake Your Sillies Out", which was fine but the range is a little too low for me to sing easily, so I'm in the market for a different song for next time. For the closing song, I used "Do You Know What Time It Is?" I like using that one because we use it in our Mother Goose on the Loose and Toddler Time programs, so that provides some continuity. Here's the song:

Do You Know What Time It Is?
(Sung to the tune of "Do You Know the Muffin Man?")

Do you know what time it is?  [tap wrist]
What time it is? What time it is? 
Do you know what time it is? 
Storytime is over!

Now's the time to wave goodbye... [wave hands]

Now's the time to stand up tall...  [stand up]


But come back to see us soon  [clap on beat]
See us soon, see us soon
But come back to see us soon
When the fun will start again!

I used the Memory Box every week, which went very well, although I don't think any of the kids actually learned the memory box rhyme that I said with them every week. And I don't think we planned it this way, but I believe that every week we had some variation on an activity asking kids to bring felt pieces to the board or have pieces to come up and put in a box. I like the continuity that this gives (and also it's something familiar because we do it with our Toddler Time programs, too).

Next time, I'd like to incorporate more music and possibly bring out the bells each week. I'd like to make a more conscious effort to have a felt board or item/box activity and come up with a rhyme or song for it each week. And I'd like to put more thought into my own storytime themes, so I am open to your favorite storytime themes!!

So, here are my questions for you librarians:

• What are your favorite storytime themes or readalouds? 
• What have you tried with your storytime that's really worked well? 
• What (if any) activities do you repeat weekly? 
• What's your favorite opening song?

Bumped

Bumped by Megan McCafferty. Grades 9+. HarperTeen, April 2011. 336 pages. Reviewed from ARC scooped up at ALA Midwinter.

What if only teenagers could get pregnant? The Virus has now infected about 75% of the population, rendering people sterile at around age 18-20. People who want a baby after this age will pay top dollar for a teen's baby or to hire a girl to pregg for them. Melody's one such professional, landing a six-figure contract based on her good looks, athleticism, and intelligence. But when her long-lost identical twin Harmony shows up, determined to convert Melody to the Church and save her soul, a case of mistaken identity will change both twins forever.

With tongue firmly in cheek, Megan McCafferty makes her official YA debut with this hilarious satire of the dystopian phenomenon.

Honestly, I had heard some negative feedback before picking up this book, so I lowered my expectations and then was unexpectedly delighted to find myself laughing out loud. But this isn't just a funny book - it's a biting commentary on teen sexuality and pregnancy within our culture.

I love how Ms. McCafferty plays with language, creating a completely new set of slang based on the reproductivity-obsessed world portrayed in her book. In fact, the language and slang reminded me of Feed by MT Anderson (a book I loved), although the tone is definitely different. People in this world are connected through the MiNet, an implanted Facebook-ish feed on which they can check the status of their friends and share media. Um, guys, it really seems eerily possible.

Although many teen girls feel empowered by their sudden importance to the country, Melody's been raised by her adoptive parents to be the perfect reproducer. The pressure is on for her to get good grades, excel at sports, and develop herself to be appealing to potential clients who will want her egg. Melody's never given a choice in the matter, a fact that becomes evident as we get further into the book.

Celebrity hunks are revered for their sperm and their fertility. Young girls dream of being pregnant for the money and status that the condition offers, and one can even buy "vanity bumps" at the mall. Although teen girls can now provide for themselves by signing contracts to pregg or by selling their newborns, for many it means growing up way too fast. Suddenly teens are the most important people in the world - they hold the ticket to humanity's future - and pregging opens gateways by providing funds for college and even luxuries like cars or vacations. But it's not without risks, as we learn through the book. Pregnancy still carries a risk - both physical and mental. While young girls are swept up in the status symbol that pregging provides, they're not considering all the risks.

There's tons to talk about with this book and it'll definitely be a discussion starter. The ending is satisfying enough, but it definitely leads in to the sequel.

Bumped is on shelves now!

Check out more reviews at The Reading Zone, Presenting Lenore, and Forever Young Adult.

Giveaway: A Discovery of Witches

The giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered!

Okay, I don't normally hold giveaways for books that I haven't read, but, well, I'm doing that today. A Discovery of Witches by debut author Deborah Harkness is technically published for adults, but it's got loads of YA appeal and I've been hearing some really good things about the book. It was a February 2011 Indie Next pick and it's been getting tons of great reviews all over the place.

Here's a little bit about the book from the author's website: 

When historian Diana Bishop opens a bewitched alchemical manuscript in Oxford’s Bodleian Library it represents an unwelcome intrusion of magic into her carefully ordinary life. Though descended from a long line of witches, she is determined to remain untouched by her family’s legacy. She banishes the manuscript to the stacks, but Diana finds it impossible to hold the world of magic at bay any longer.

For witches are not the only otherworldly creatures living alongside humans. There are also creative, destructive daemons and long-lived vampires who become interested in the witch’s discovery. They believe that the manuscript contains important clues about the past and the future, and want to know how Diana Bishop has been able to get her hands on the elusive volume.

Chief among the creatures who gather around Diana is vampire Matthew Clairmont, a geneticist with a passion for Darwin. Together, Diana and Matthew embark on a journey to understand the manuscript’s secrets. But the relationship that develops between the ages-old vampire and the spellbound witch threatens to unravel the fragile peace that has long existed between creatures and humans—and will certainly transform Diana’s world as well.

One lucky winner will receive a copy of A Discovery of Witches and a set of buttons: 

This giveaway is open to US residents only and I will accept entries through next Tuesday, May 3! To enter, just fill out the form below. One entry per person, please. 

The giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered!!

I'll Be There

I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan.  Grades 7+  Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, May 2011.  400 pages.  Reviewed from ARC provided by publisher.

Sam hasn't been to school since the second grade when his schizophrenic father took him and his younger brother Riddle and went on the lam.  Since then, they've moved every time his father starts getting paranoid, and Sam and Riddle are on their own for pretty much everything.  Our story starts when Sam walks into a church and hears a girl (Emily) singing a solo he's sure is meant just for him.  And everything begins to change.

The brilliant storytelling drew me into this book and didn't let me go until the last page.  There's a little something for everyone here - contemporary, adventure, thriller, romance - and it's told in a way that feels somehow classic.  Maybe it's the third-person omniscient narration?  You get the story from everyone's point of view and it turns this tale of two lost boys into the story of an entire community.  I also think this is a book that is equally appealing to boys and girls.  Yes, there's some romance, but it's nothing graphic or overdone, and there's a large element of adventure and survival.  ALSO, I think this is a GREAT crossover title and it's sure to garner adult fans as well as teen fans.

And how I loved the characters!  I was surprised by how attached I was to the characters since the narration is a bit removed from their actions.  There's not a lot of dialog.  The narrator of the story definitely has a voice, but you don't get strong voices from the characters, so my attachment to these characters really snuck up on me.  Let me just say that at one point near the end of the book, something happens that made me so happy and relieved that I literally just sat there for a few minutes with tears running down my face.  I had no idea I loved these characters that much.

Somehow, even though a lot of fairly outlandish things happen in this book, I feel like all the events in the story were real.  Holly Sloan wove me a tale and I'm buying what she's selling.

The books I can think to compare it with are middle grade and I think I'll Be There is for a slightly older audience.  As I was reading, I kept thinking about Kathi Appelt's books like The Underneath and Keeper.  The storytelling style felt kind of similar to hers or maybe it evoked the same feelings - either way, it's meant as a compliment!  As I'm writing this review, I find that I'm also thinking of Barbara O'Connor's Greetings from Nowhere.

One last thing is a note on the cover.  I read an ARC that did not have a cover image and I was very pleased to see this one when I started to write my review.  From the colors used to that endless expanse of stars and nature, I think it evokes the feel of the book perfectly.  The cover adds to its crossover appeal and I could easily see this on adult shelves as well as teen.

Holly Goldberg Sloan has written for movies previously and this is her debut novel.

I'll Be There will be on shelves May 3!

Around the Interwebs

Here's what I've been reading around the interwebs (and I haven't done one of these in quite awhile, so I'm catching up on my links folder!)...

Eeee! Save the Date! Pam of MotherReader has set the date for the 6th Annual 48-Hour Book Challenge for June 3rd-5th, the first weekend in June. (How geeky is it to admit that I tend to plan my library programs so that I can keep these dates free? Very, I know.)

Amazon announced that they will launch Kindle Lending Library later this year, a feature that will allow Kindle users to borrow books from libraries that carry them. Jill of NerdGirlBlogging is a teen librarian who purchases ebooks for her system and she gives us the inside scoop on how library ebook purchasing works and what the Kindle announcement might mean.

There's a new Dr. Seuss book hitting shelves this fall: The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories. Apparently these are cartoons that ran in magazines in the 1940s and 50s and they'll be republished in a 72-page book due out in September.

Here's my big secret about how to get along with kids: kids just want to be listened to. Seriously, start with that, with actually listening to kids and talking to them about the stuff they like, and you'll find it hard to go wrong. Amanda of Not Just Cute shares her top 10 tips for adults on being good listeners.

Renee Grassi wrote a guest post for the ALSC Blog on inclusive programming for kids with autism. This simple tips will help you provide great programs for children with autism.

Speaking of programming, Sarah of The GreenBean TeenQueen posted about her Teen Read-a-Thon program, something I am dying to try out.

Okay, this has nothing to do with books or libraries, but Alicia of The LibrariYAn shared this video and it is fabulous:



And on that note, I'm out. Have a great weekend!

Planting the Wild Garden

Welcome to my stop on the Fins, Wings, and Other Things blog tour, brought to you by Peachtree Press! Be sure to check out the complete schedule at Peachtree's Blog!

Happy Earth Day! It's my pleasure to review a great Earth Day title for you today!

Planting the Wild Garden by Kathryn O. Galbraith, illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin. Ages 4-8. Peachtree Press, April 2011. Unpaged. Review copy provided by publisher.

As the weather warms, maybe your thoughts turn to gardening. You get out your garden gloves, your trowel, your seeds, your watering can... but how are flowers and trees planted in the wild? There are lots of "gardeners" in the meadow! The wind blows seeds, birds and animals spread seeds in their droppings, rain washes seeds to new places, animals carry seeds on their coats, and even people spread seeds without knowing it!

Carefully chosen words describe how animals and forces of nature help to spread seeds and plant the wild garden. I especially love the rich vocabulary, so important in books for young children. We get words like "bobbles", "splatter", "lodge", and "tangle" in addition to the animal and plant words that already make this a vocabulary-rich book.

The delicate and detailed illustrations give kids lots to pore over. Smaller inset pictures depict the growth of plants or show different kinds of burrs or show how birds extract seeds from certain flowers. These are a neat addition, presenting additional information from what's in the text. Endpapers show tons of different kinds of seeds. I do wish that there were more notes on the illustrations. Tiny labels telling what plant each seed comes from would have added greatly to the informational value.

A bibliography is included, which gives kids a good start if they're looking for more information about seeds.

This book will make a great addition to units on plants, gardens, or seeds and it would be a great book to read before taking a nature hike! Planting the Wild Garden is on shelves now!

And be sure to check out today's other stops on the tour: Wendy Anderson Halperin has a guest post at Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers, a review of About Habitats: Grasslands over at There's a Book, and a review of A Place for Fish over at A Word's Worth.

Squish: Super Amoeba

Squish: Super Amoeba by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm.  (Grades 2-5.)  Random House Books for Young Readers, May 2011.  96 pages.  Reviewed from ARC provided by publisher.

Meet Squish, grade school amoeba.
He's just dealing with what all amoebas have to deal with: friends that mooch his lunch money, boring science class, detention, and a bully threatening to EAT his friends if he doesn't let him cheat off him on the next science test.  What's an amoeba to do?  As Squish imagines himself as his favorite comic book hero, he just might figure out what it'll take to save the day!

Y'all know that I'm a huge Babymouse fan and I was so excited to see that Jenni Holm and Matt Holm are starting a new series that's, well, not quite so pink. :)  I'm happy to report that Squish: Super Amoeba doesn't disappoint.

Take the stuff you love about Babymouse: humor, a relateable protagonist dealing with realistic situations, and wild flights of imaginative fancy.  Color 'em green (not pink!) and add a smattering of facts about microscopic life and you have Squish.  Seriously, the series takes successful elements from Babymouse and repackages them in an original story in a way that's appealing to boys.

It's not just the different colors that gives it guy appeal, either.  There's a definite gross-out factor when you're talking about amoebas, paramecia, and flatworms.  Matt Holm strikes a really nice balance with the artwork here.  It's gross enough to appeal to kids who like that sort of thing, but not so gross as to turn other kids off.  And for a blob, Squish is remarkably expressive.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Babymouse with her cute pink bow and her love of cupcakes, but then I'm a girl.  And I'm happy to have something similar to hand to the boys (and girls!) who turn tail at the first sight of a pink cover.

Squish: Super Amoeba will be on shelves May 24!

Cuddle Up With This Storytime

Ohhh this is our last week of spring preschool storytimes! And actually it's our last week of most programs. Since we'll be visiting all the schools (13 visits in all for our department, plus I will probably go visit the middle and high schools with our teen librarian), we offer almost no programming in May. We'll start back up with drop-in family storytimes in June (and also eleventy billion other programs...).

So, for our last week of storytime, our theme was Stuffed Animals and Toys. And here's what I did:

Opening Song: "Shake Your Sillies Out" by Raffi. I have enjoyed using this song, but Raffi's version is in a terrible range for me. It's too low, but if I take it up an octave, it's pretty darn high. I play the CD (and I need something on CD since not all of my staff are comfortable with singing alone), but the kids really respond better to my singing. I will look for another opening song for our fall session (any suggestions?).

Memory Box Item: This week's Memory Box item was a crab from the book Bear in the Air. In retrospect, it was not the best memory box item because there are crabs on LOTS of pages and the kids kept yelling out "There's a crab! There's a crab!" instead of listening to the story. Have I mentioned that my group is kind of rowdy?

Book: Bear in the Air by Susan Meyers. I shortened it a bit because it was too long for my rowdy crowd (I clipped several pages together in the middle), but this one still didn't hold their attention. It could have been because I had a guest from Toddler Time who was not quite ready to sit and listen to stories and she was distracting the other kids. Oh, well. Sometimes a story doesn't quite work. Sometimes it will work for one group and not another group. You live, you learn, and you move on to something else!

Prop: Toy Board. Our props mistress, Miss T, made this prop for a toys-themed Toddler Time and I brought it out for this group. OMG they loooved it. It's pretty simple, really. I opened up the first toy chest and it was empty - all the toys were missing! So the kids and I had to find each hidden toy. I asked them where I should check next and someone would shout out "Behind the curtains!" and we would see which toy was behind the curtains. "Under the bed!" and so on... until we found all the toys and then I opened up the last toy chest and it's filled with all the toys. (That picture at the top of this post is me peeking behind the couch.)


Rhyme: Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear. Anything that gets this group up and moving is a good thing. I probably could have done this five times. They loved it.

Book: Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems. This one was a hit. Put copies of the sequels on display for kids to check out and take home with them!

Felt Activity: Toys in the Toy Box. I passed out felt pieces to everyone and when I called their toy, I invited them to come to the front and put it "in the toy box" (i.e. on the felt board). When we do our registered storytime sessions again in the fall, I think I will try to come up with rhymes or songs to go along with these activities every week. I probably can do it, but usually I don't think about it in time, so I end up just saying "If you have an elephant, bring it up and put it in the toy box!"

Book: Where's My Teddy? by Jez Alborough. Love this book! Love it, love it, love it! It combines a simple rhyming text with big, bright illustrations to tell a funny story. Love this book. The kids loved it, too.

Song: Ten in the Bed. We didn't actually have time to get to this one, but I had it prepped. I used the same color bear felts that I used for the candy storytime to sing

There were ten in the bed and the little one said, "Roll over! Roll over!" 
So they all rolled over and a red one fell out!

And so on. If you have the right crowd, you could invite kids to come up to the board and take off the appropriate color.  And repeat as necessary!

Take-Home Craft: Teddy Bears. We cut out teddy bear shapes (using a die-cut would be a lot faster, but our teddy bear shape wasn't quite big enough for what we had in mind...) and provided scraps of cloth and buttons for kids to glue on to decorate their bears. The cloth came from old shirts from Goodwill that we had leftover from previous events.

Alternate Books: If you don't like or don't have any of the books mentioned above, here are some others to consider:

Corduroy by Don Freedman
How Will I Ever Sleep in This Bed? by Della Ross Ferreri
I Love My New Toy by Mo Willems
I Must Have Bobo by Eileen Rosenthal
Paisley by Maggie Smith
The Stuffed Animals Get Ready for Bed by Alison Inches

And that was IT for our spring storytime series! Stay tuned - next week I'll be posting a reflection of the series overall and what we want to keep and what we might like to change.

Bitter End

Bitter End by Jennifer Brown.  Grades 9+.  Little, Brown, May 2011.  368 pages.  Reviewed from ARC snagged at ALA.

At first, it was sunshine and roses.  Alex couldn't believe how lucky she was that a guy like Cole showed an interest in her.  She was head over heels.  And yeah, her best friends seemed jealous and they started drifting apart, but that didn't really matter because Cole loved her and that was all that mattered.  But as Cole's "playful" shoves and pinches escalated into punches and kicks, Alex had to admit to herself that it was not okay.  How could she leave him, though, when the only thing worse than being abused by him would be losing him for good?

Jennifer Brown perfectly captures that elated first-love feeling.  She also perfectly captures that trapped feeling of being caught in an unhealthy relationship and seeing no way out.  Alex felt so real to me that I found myself yelling at her and then weeping with her and wanting to scoop her up and protect her.

I have to give props for the supporting characters, too.  I felt the bonds between Alex and her two best friends Bethany and Zack.  When those bonds are strained by Alex choosing to hang out with Cole, to defend Cole even when he starts doing nasty things, their friendship starts to fall apart.  It just all feels so real.

And Georgia!!  I loved Georgia, Alex's boss at the restaurant where she works.  George is kind of like a mom to Alex since Alex's mom died when she was little.  And when Alex thinks about reaching out to Georgia and then stops herself because she doesn't want to add to Georgia's stress or she doesn't want to disappoint Georgia, that all felt real, too.

I like it when books feel real, when characters practically step off the pages to greet you.  And Bitter End was definitely a story that drew me in and didn't let go until, well, until the bitter end.

I'd hand this to teens who dig contemporary fiction, especially teens who were sucked into Jennifer Brown's debut novel Hate List or contemporary reads by Laurie Halse Anderson or Elizabeth Scott's edgy stuff, possibly even Ellen Hopkins, though Bitter End is not quite as issue-driven.

Bitter End will be on shelves May 10!