• Activities

    Coronavirus Boredom Busters

    boredom buster

    Our county, like many in the area, is under lockdown for the next two weeks (as of right now) which means all schools are closed and community centers, gyms, and entertainment venues should be too. Plus, as we all practice social distancing that discourages playdates, I thought I’d offer up…

  • Activities

    A Year of Meaningful Reads

    equality

    Brightly has created a year-long book club for families based on different themes each month called A Year of Meaningful Reads. What’s great about the way Brightly, a Penguin Random House initiative, is that each month there are titles for all different age groups. January’s theme was kindness, and you…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Concept Books

    storytime

    Black History Month is here! And beyond sharing the deep and rich history of African American families, I also wanted to make sure I was able to share diverse picture books about everyday life. So for today’s storytime theme, we’re looking at concept books. Concept books are basic books for…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Jazz

    piano

    Black History Month is here! And I wanted to share a way you can celebrate this special month with some of your youngest patrons, students, or family members. Today I wanted to focus solely on one specific music style – jazz! I love taking the time to introduce young children…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Black History Month

    March

    Black History Month is here! And I wanted to share a way you can celebrate this special month with some of your youngest patrons, students, or family members. Trying to make a rather complicated celebration as simple as I could, I wanted to highlight more than one individual. This storytime…

  • Activities

    25 Books To Get Your Tween Talking

    family

    If you’ve ever wanted to reach past the one-word answers in response to your questions to tweens, try books! Books are a great way to open up a discussion about interesting or difficult topics. With so many things changing in their own bodies and minds, tweens tend to not want…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Lunar New Year

    dragon

    Happy New Year! Today I’m celebrating Lunar New Year by offering a beautiful storytime to ring in the new year. What many used to call Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year is actually celebrated by many Asian countries including China, Korea, Vietnam and more. This year we celebrate the Year…

  • Activities

    Book Talking 45+ Books in 45 Minutes

    list

    How do you learn about all the amazing books being published every year? It’s not easy, even for people in the industry! I use a mixture of review journals, social media, talking with colleagues, Netgallye, and Edelweiss. How do kids keep up? Usually, it’s from coming across titles that their…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Hibernation

    bear

    With classic favorites like Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson and nonfiction titles like Why Do Bears Sleep All Winter? by Mary Englar, this storytime theme: hibernation is an easy one to create! You can incorporate as much weather-related science as you want to create a STEM storytime, or shift…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Snow

    snowflakes

    It’s kind of ironic that I’m posting my Storytime Theme: Snow today. In my neck of the woods, our high today is 66°F which means I’ll be outside walking the pup with a sweatshirt on instead of my winter coat, hat, mittens, and boots. I have a love-hate relationship with…