Attention, all you Chicagoland-ers:
John Green's going to be in Chicago on 8/08/08! He's speaking at the Harold Washington Library Center at 2pm and then there will be Wizard Rock listening and Something Really Awesome at 8:08pm. Alas, I will be at work (and also I'm not the biggest fan of Very Crowded Things, which I suspect this event might be). But if you are available, you should totally go see him.
I was lucky enough to see John Green last year at the Schaumburg Library and it was awesome. I even won a free book!
So, yes. Go see John Green. And then get your wizard on at Terminus (the Harry Potter conference), which is also in Chicago next week.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Storytime Favorites
I've got some new storytime favorites to share today! I've used all of these books in storytimes over the past couple weeks and they made great readalouds.
Hilda Must Be Dancing by Karma Wilson. I start this one by asking what
kind of animal is on the cover. At least one kid will know that it's a hippo and I then ask if a hippo is a big animal or a small animal. Hilda is a hippo who loves to dance. And when Hilda is dancing, everyone knows it from the booms and crashes that echo across the jungle. Hilda's driving everyone crazy and they all try to find her new hobbies, to no avail. This book's got a great rhyme scheme and lots of good vocabulary and sound words (like boom, crash, splish, etc.). Great for phonological awareness. Plus, it's an entertaining story and has big, bright pictures.
Tip Tip Dig Dig by Emma Garcia. Brightly colored machinery shows just what we can do with a dirty old lot... turn it into a beautiful park! Each machine does something different and you can have the audience motion along with you as you read. The mixer mixes, the bulldozer pushes, etc. The very simple text makes this one great for a younger crowd. At the end of the book, the whole sequence of movements is repeated and I like to go through them super fast at the end!
The Scrubbly Bubbly Carwash by Irene O'Garden. The fun sounds in this book make it a real winner for storytime. When the car gets dirty, do we put it in the bathtub? The washing machine? NO! We take it to the scrubbly bubbly car wash! Going through a car wash is something a lot of kids can relate to and the funny, silly language is as much fun to say as it is to hear. This is another great book for phonological awareness. This is a great shorter book for a break between longer stories, too.
If I Were a Lion by Sarah Weeks. Mama's put her in the corner, but this little protests that she
can't possibly be wild... Wild is claws and fangs and biting and scratching! As the book continues we get plenty of hints about why her mother might call her wild. Spilled cereal and drawings on the wall are just the first of many hints at the beginning of the book. Nice rhyming text and detailed illustrations showing the girl's powerful imagination make this a great choice for older preschoolers or maybe even lower elementary students. I had success with it at storytime, but it would be great for one-on-one reading, too, because there are lots of details in the illustrations that might be missed in a group reading.
Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs by Byron Barton. What little kid doesn't like dinosaurs? The simple text of this book about dinosaurs makes it easy to add your own words and get the kids' input. For example, you can count the baby dinosaurs on the first page. When the dinosaurs are fierce you can get the kids to show you their fierce faces. When the dinosaurs are scared you can ask the kids why they might be scared. Although the text is simple, there's lots to talk about in this book and the subject is sure to hold their interest.
These have been some of my favorite recent storytime books... What are yours?
Hilda Must Be Dancing by Karma Wilson. I start this one by asking what
kind of animal is on the cover. At least one kid will know that it's a hippo and I then ask if a hippo is a big animal or a small animal. Hilda is a hippo who loves to dance. And when Hilda is dancing, everyone knows it from the booms and crashes that echo across the jungle. Hilda's driving everyone crazy and they all try to find her new hobbies, to no avail. This book's got a great rhyme scheme and lots of good vocabulary and sound words (like boom, crash, splish, etc.). Great for phonological awareness. Plus, it's an entertaining story and has big, bright pictures.
Tip Tip Dig Dig by Emma Garcia. Brightly colored machinery shows just what we can do with a dirty old lot... turn it into a beautiful park! Each machine does something different and you can have the audience motion along with you as you read. The mixer mixes, the bulldozer pushes, etc. The very simple text makes this one great for a younger crowd. At the end of the book, the whole sequence of movements is repeated and I like to go through them super fast at the end!
The Scrubbly Bubbly Carwash by Irene O'Garden. The fun sounds in this book make it a real winner for storytime. When the car gets dirty, do we put it in the bathtub? The washing machine? NO! We take it to the scrubbly bubbly car wash! Going through a car wash is something a lot of kids can relate to and the funny, silly language is as much fun to say as it is to hear. This is another great book for phonological awareness. This is a great shorter book for a break between longer stories, too.
If I Were a Lion by Sarah Weeks. Mama's put her in the corner, but this little protests that she
can't possibly be wild... Wild is claws and fangs and biting and scratching! As the book continues we get plenty of hints about why her mother might call her wild. Spilled cereal and drawings on the wall are just the first of many hints at the beginning of the book. Nice rhyming text and detailed illustrations showing the girl's powerful imagination make this a great choice for older preschoolers or maybe even lower elementary students. I had success with it at storytime, but it would be great for one-on-one reading, too, because there are lots of details in the illustrations that might be missed in a group reading.
Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs by Byron Barton. What little kid doesn't like dinosaurs? The simple text of this book about dinosaurs makes it easy to add your own words and get the kids' input. For example, you can count the baby dinosaurs on the first page. When the dinosaurs are fierce you can get the kids to show you their fierce faces. When the dinosaurs are scared you can ask the kids why they might be scared. Although the text is simple, there's lots to talk about in this book and the subject is sure to hold their interest.These have been some of my favorite recent storytime books... What are yours?
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Book Review: Starcross
Starcross: A Stirring Adventure of Spies, Time Travel, and Curious Hats by Philip Reeve. (Grades 4-8.)The crew from Larklight is back in this delightfully unusual fantasy novel.
In Larklight, we discovered a world set in the Victorian era but with space travel. Imperialism isn't limited to Earth... England and other countries have branched out into space, putting colonies on different planets with mixed success. Great ships fly through the aether and one of these ships is Larklight, home to Art and Myrtle Mumby and their parents.
In Starcross, the Mumby's have decided to go on holiday. After receiving an appealing ad for a beachside hotel called Starcross, they depart at once, but upon their arrival they discover several strange things. First of all, there is no beach (although they are assured that the sea will reappear when the tide's in). Secondly, Art finds a strange black creature floating outside his room and all it says is "Moob!" And then they discover that Jack Havock, Art's pirate friend, is staying at the hotel, but under a different name.
Strange things are happening at Starcross, that's for sure. And soon enough all the Mumby's are caught up in another adventure across space.
I think I liked this one even better than Larklight (and that's saying a lot because I thoroughly enjoyed Larklight). My coworker J pointed out that we get familiar with the world in Larklight, so when we get to Starcross, we already know how the world works and can get straight to the adventure. It certainly is a non-stop adventure and the beautiful and humorous illustrations by David Wyatt add so much!
Larklight and Starcross are great books for young fantasy fans who seem to have read everything the genre has to offer. They're unusual, funny, and action-packed. Also, keep your eyes peeled for Mothstorm, the third book in the series due out in October.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Book Bucks
There are two weeks left in our Summer Reading Club (not that I am counting down or anything...). I've previously mentioned that at my library we have Summer Reading Clubs for every age. In our Young People's department, we have a club for preschoolers (up through going-into-Kindergarten), grade schoolers (grades 1-5), and "teens" (grades 6-8).
It's the teen club that I want to talk about today. I've worked on our teen club the past two summers and it's definitely been a fun learning process. Last year we decided to introduce the "book buck". Kids earned a book buck for each book they read and they could spend them in our prize "store". We had lots of different prizes (most ordered from Oriental Trading and the like) that ranged in price from 1 to 5 book bucks. We figured that even if a kid only read one book, they'd still be able to get some small prize.
What we did not anticipate was just how much these kids would read. I'm not exaggerating when I say that some of them read over 100 books. We quickly ran out of the higher-end prizes and the kids that cashed in at the end were left buying pencils and bouncy balls. Fearing that many kids may have saved up their book bucks expecting something better at the end of the summer, we put together a silent auction at the end-of-the-summer party and let kids use their book bucks to bid on ARCs and other prizes we had around.
This summer, we kept the book buck format but tweaked the prizes. This year their book bucks can be used to buy slips in our prize drawings or they can save them up for the silent auction at the end of the summer. There's no guarantee that they'll win a drawing, but the prizes are pretty great (several are gift certificates to various places). From what I've seen so far the middle schoolers seem pretty into it. We do a weekly prize drawing for a smaller gift card and each entry costs 1 book buck. At the end of the summer, we'll draw for the grand prizes and each entry for those drawings costs 5 book bucks.
We'll also have a silent auction this year. Again, we have ARCs that we've gotten over the past year and we bought some additional books as well. I have no idea how many kids will show up for the silent auction, but I'm hoping for a big crowd. The kids can check out what books and prizes they can bid on and if they don't see anything they like they can still enter any of the drawings.
One thing that's been really successful this summer is the Teen Review Blog. This was a new thing this year. Previously, the kids in the YA (high school) Summer Reading Club have been required to post a short review of their book on a SRC blog. This is the first year we've done a blog with the teens and it's actually been a much bigger hit than I could have imagined!
The kids receive one book buck for every book they read and they have an opportunity to earn an extra book buck by posting a short review on our teen review blog. In June alone we had over 200 reviews posted on the blog, which is pretty great! Although every blog post is sent to my email, we run it on the honor system when the kids check in to collect their book bucks and we haven't had any problems with it.
So far it's been a really fun summer and I love reading the kids' reviews (some of them are SO GOOD! I think these kids may be our future book bloggers!).
It's the teen club that I want to talk about today. I've worked on our teen club the past two summers and it's definitely been a fun learning process. Last year we decided to introduce the "book buck". Kids earned a book buck for each book they read and they could spend them in our prize "store". We had lots of different prizes (most ordered from Oriental Trading and the like) that ranged in price from 1 to 5 book bucks. We figured that even if a kid only read one book, they'd still be able to get some small prize.
What we did not anticipate was just how much these kids would read. I'm not exaggerating when I say that some of them read over 100 books. We quickly ran out of the higher-end prizes and the kids that cashed in at the end were left buying pencils and bouncy balls. Fearing that many kids may have saved up their book bucks expecting something better at the end of the summer, we put together a silent auction at the end-of-the-summer party and let kids use their book bucks to bid on ARCs and other prizes we had around.
This summer, we kept the book buck format but tweaked the prizes. This year their book bucks can be used to buy slips in our prize drawings or they can save them up for the silent auction at the end of the summer. There's no guarantee that they'll win a drawing, but the prizes are pretty great (several are gift certificates to various places). From what I've seen so far the middle schoolers seem pretty into it. We do a weekly prize drawing for a smaller gift card and each entry costs 1 book buck. At the end of the summer, we'll draw for the grand prizes and each entry for those drawings costs 5 book bucks.
We'll also have a silent auction this year. Again, we have ARCs that we've gotten over the past year and we bought some additional books as well. I have no idea how many kids will show up for the silent auction, but I'm hoping for a big crowd. The kids can check out what books and prizes they can bid on and if they don't see anything they like they can still enter any of the drawings.
One thing that's been really successful this summer is the Teen Review Blog. This was a new thing this year. Previously, the kids in the YA (high school) Summer Reading Club have been required to post a short review of their book on a SRC blog. This is the first year we've done a blog with the teens and it's actually been a much bigger hit than I could have imagined!
The kids receive one book buck for every book they read and they have an opportunity to earn an extra book buck by posting a short review on our teen review blog. In June alone we had over 200 reviews posted on the blog, which is pretty great! Although every blog post is sent to my email, we run it on the honor system when the kids check in to collect their book bucks and we haven't had any problems with it.
So far it's been a really fun summer and I love reading the kids' reviews (some of them are SO GOOD! I think these kids may be our future book bloggers!).
I've been nominated!
Does this mean I'm one of the cool kids? The lovely Miss Print nominated me for this blog award! Thank you, thank you! :)The rules are simple
- Put the logo on your blog.
- Add a link to the person who awarded you.
- Nominate at least seven other blogs.
- Add links to those blogs on your blog.
- Leave a message for your nominee on their blog.
Wizards Wireless - Because I love getting her bookseller's point of view and because she was instrumental in getting my blog off the ground. She made a post with tips for new bloggers that was in one of the Carnivals and the rest is history!
Jen Robinson's Book Page - Because she posts about so many different interesting topics and always features what's going on in the blogosphere. I love reading her reviews!
The YA YA YAs - Because they not only post great, interesting reviews, but they post about crafts sometimes, too! Useful crafts that I am going to try out at my library!
Friday, July 25, 2008
If You're Wearing Red Today
Okay, you've pulled books for your storytime. Maybe you've got a felt story or some puppets or fingerplays, but you need just one more thing... I want to share one of my new favorite songs. This song has been a hit every time, it's super easy, and it's a great one to know in case of momentary lulls or a gap in your program. It's called If You're Wearing Red Today.
I've heard it used with two different tunes. I usually use the tune to Mary Had a Little Lamb, but you can also use Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.
If you're wearing red today, red today, red today
If you're wearing red today, please stand up!
That's it! Easy peasy, right?! Of course you repeat and replace the color red with whatever colors you see out there in the audience. And I usually do "please stand up" two or three times and then warn them that I'm going to mix it up, so they'd better listen. And then I do other actions. Please clap your hands, please touch your ears, please stand on one leg, please rub your tummy, etc. etc.
In my experience, the kids really respond to it and they like listening for the colors and the actions. When I think we've gotten everybody to do an action at least once, I'll ask if we missed any colors (and often they'll suggest doing the color I happen to be wearing..!).
So, keep this one in your bag of tricks and the next time you blaze through the stories you thought would take up 30 minutes, you can pull it out and have a good ol' time.
I've heard it used with two different tunes. I usually use the tune to Mary Had a Little Lamb, but you can also use Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.
If you're wearing red today, red today, red today
If you're wearing red today, please stand up!
That's it! Easy peasy, right?! Of course you repeat and replace the color red with whatever colors you see out there in the audience. And I usually do "please stand up" two or three times and then warn them that I'm going to mix it up, so they'd better listen. And then I do other actions. Please clap your hands, please touch your ears, please stand on one leg, please rub your tummy, etc. etc.
In my experience, the kids really respond to it and they like listening for the colors and the actions. When I think we've gotten everybody to do an action at least once, I'll ask if we missed any colors (and often they'll suggest doing the color I happen to be wearing..!).
So, keep this one in your bag of tricks and the next time you blaze through the stories you thought would take up 30 minutes, you can pull it out and have a good ol' time.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Book Review: Cicada Summer
Cicada Summer by Andrea Beaty. (Grades 4-7.)Lily has perfected the art of being invisible. For the past two years she hasn't spoken to anyone or looked anyone in the eyes. Everyone thinks she's brain damaged. But Lily has a secret. A secret she's never told anyone. One day a new girl, Tinny, shows up in town and discovers one of Lily's secrets: she's not brain damaged. And Lily knows right away that Tinny is trouble.
Lily has read every Nancy Drew book in her school's library and she considers herself to be a pretty good spy. Plus, since people tend to look right past her, she notices things that other people might miss. Lily decides to keep her eye on Tinny and find out what the deal is. Tinny is hiding something. Just like Lily's hiding something. And if they can find the courage to tell, they just might find forgiveness.
For me, this book had the perfect buildup of suspense. I was hooked right from the beginning when I found out that Lily was hiding something. It takes awhile to find out exactly what happened to Lily two years ago, but the climax was not disappointing. It was a little heartbreaking, actually.
I love the portrait of small-town Illinois. The quirky characters of Fern, Miss Pearl, and Miss Opal really gave the book flavor and even some comic relief. The book has a sort of timeless quality. It could be three years ago (at least that was when the cicadas swarmed southern Indiana) or it could be twenty years ago.
I guess my one quibble is that Tinny's story didn't quite sit right with me. I loved her and her trouble-making ways until we got to the end and learned what Tinny's secret was. I'm not sure why, but it didn't seem realistic. I loved Lily's story and the unfolding of her secret. And I get that Tinny's secret brings the girls together and instigates the action at the end of the book. But it just didn't ring true to me. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'm not giving specifics... Those of you who read it, what do you think?
I'm hearing Newbery buzz about this one and I think it makes a fine contender. See other reviews by Jen and Shelf Elf. It's been listed for the Anokaberry, ACPL's Mock Newbery, and one of Joanna's favorite books of 2008. Be sure and check out Andrea Beaty's website and Three Silly Chicks where she blogs about funny books for kids.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Art for Everyone
Last year, I co-wrote a grant along with a librarian from Adult Services. We were fortunate enough to win an Emerging Grant Writers' Grant from LSTA and we used the grant funds this summer for our Art for Everyone series. The idea was to hire local artists and purchase all supplies so that patrons could come in and try their hand at an art form they might not otherwise have been able to try. It fits it nicely with our Master the Art of Reading summer reading club theme. We booked three adult programs and three children's programs and I'd like to talk about the children's programs for just a bit.
At the beginning of the summer we hired a lady to do a family workshop on face painting. She brought all the paint, mirrors, brushes, etc. and families had a great time painting themselves and each other.
In June, we brought in an art teacher from our local school district to do a program about Chinese ink painting for grade-school kids. Not only does this tie in with the upcoming summer Olympics, but my library currently has on loan a pair of Chinese lion statues. With the funds from the grant we were able to purchase ink sticks, bamboo brushes, ink stones, liquid watercolor paint, and more so that the kids could create a really unique project. It was tons of fun and the kids were really creative.
In July, we brought in an art teacher from a local art school and she did a program with acrylics for preschoolers. Each child got a square of stuff canvas and used these little metal tools to put paint on their canvas and spread it around. We got some really colorful masterpieces and the kids got to try a different art form that they may never have gotten to try otherwise.
It's been a great series and I've gotten some great experience writing the grant and the subsequent reports that go along with it. One big thing that I took away from this experience is to use your local resources. The art teachers we booked for the programs were great. They had experience working with kids and brought really fun projects for them to do. It's been a great addition to our summer programming!
At the beginning of the summer we hired a lady to do a family workshop on face painting. She brought all the paint, mirrors, brushes, etc. and families had a great time painting themselves and each other.
In June, we brought in an art teacher from our local school district to do a program about Chinese ink painting for grade-school kids. Not only does this tie in with the upcoming summer Olympics, but my library currently has on loan a pair of Chinese lion statues. With the funds from the grant we were able to purchase ink sticks, bamboo brushes, ink stones, liquid watercolor paint, and more so that the kids could create a really unique project. It was tons of fun and the kids were really creative.
In July, we brought in an art teacher from a local art school and she did a program with acrylics for preschoolers. Each child got a square of stuff canvas and used these little metal tools to put paint on their canvas and spread it around. We got some really colorful masterpieces and the kids got to try a different art form that they may never have gotten to try otherwise.
It's been a great series and I've gotten some great experience writing the grant and the subsequent reports that go along with it. One big thing that I took away from this experience is to use your local resources. The art teachers we booked for the programs were great. They had experience working with kids and brought really fun projects for them to do. It's been a great addition to our summer programming!
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Thinking about YA
Liz just posted about Margo Rabb's essay in the New York Times: I'm Y.A., and I'm O.K. and it's perfect timing because YA is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. For me, YA tends to be "guilty pleasure" reading. Okay, I know, I know. Officially I don't believe in "guilty pleasure" reading. I'm a librarian. I respect everyone's right to read whatever they want to read.
But the fact of the matter is, my department serves kids up through 8th grade. So children's books and middle-grade novels can be considered helpful to my job. And when I read great adult books, I can recommend them to my mom or my aunts or my non-librarian friends*. And somehow YA gets left along the wayside, even though I love it so. I don't tend to make it a priority.
So what I've been planning is my Celebration of YA Literature, coming this fall. Since I'm taking time to read adult books this summer (due in no small part to my local library's Adult Summer Reading Club), this fall I'm taking time to read all the awesome YA books on my TBR list. I can read books for the SRC until August 31, so starting September 1 it's all about the YA.
It actually works out nicely since Teen Read Week is in October. I'm just kind of... expanding it for a month or so on each side. ;) And I'm working on a great TBR list. I've already got way, way more than I'll actually be able to read in a season and I'm so excited about digging in to all these great books!
It's funny because when I actually was a Young Adult, I definitely felt the stigma of YA lit and tended to avoid that section at the bookstore. Of course, once I started picking up some YA titles, I realized how great that "genre" is and now the YA shelves are often my first stop in the bookstore or library. It's a total shame that some adults feel like YA is beneath them and I suppose it's up to librarians, booksellers, and authors to show them how great books can be.
* And yes, I know I can and should recommend YA books to my friends... I know some of them will be more receptive than others. And I'm intrigued by Liz's idea of recommending YA books and not mentioning that they're YA... HMM.
But the fact of the matter is, my department serves kids up through 8th grade. So children's books and middle-grade novels can be considered helpful to my job. And when I read great adult books, I can recommend them to my mom or my aunts or my non-librarian friends*. And somehow YA gets left along the wayside, even though I love it so. I don't tend to make it a priority.
So what I've been planning is my Celebration of YA Literature, coming this fall. Since I'm taking time to read adult books this summer (due in no small part to my local library's Adult Summer Reading Club), this fall I'm taking time to read all the awesome YA books on my TBR list. I can read books for the SRC until August 31, so starting September 1 it's all about the YA.
It actually works out nicely since Teen Read Week is in October. I'm just kind of... expanding it for a month or so on each side. ;) And I'm working on a great TBR list. I've already got way, way more than I'll actually be able to read in a season and I'm so excited about digging in to all these great books!
It's funny because when I actually was a Young Adult, I definitely felt the stigma of YA lit and tended to avoid that section at the bookstore. Of course, once I started picking up some YA titles, I realized how great that "genre" is and now the YA shelves are often my first stop in the bookstore or library. It's a total shame that some adults feel like YA is beneath them and I suppose it's up to librarians, booksellers, and authors to show them how great books can be.
* And yes, I know I can and should recommend YA books to my friends... I know some of them will be more receptive than others. And I'm intrigued by Liz's idea of recommending YA books and not mentioning that they're YA... HMM.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Totally Off Topic
This has nothing to do with librarianship or kidlit, but I really, really think you all should go over to www.drhorrible.com and check out Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. If you like Joss Whedon, musicals, evil geniuses, or things that are awesome, you will love it. It's up for free on the web until Sunday, so don't delay!
And now back to your regularly scheduled blog reading...
And now back to your regularly scheduled blog reading...
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