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"Important Life Lessons We Learned From Children's Books"
When people ask what I do for a living, many people respond with, “Have you read _________?” And that’s where I say, “If it’s an adult book, probably not. I read mostly children’s books.” And unless the person I’m conversing with is a teacher or works with children, they often…
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Sensory Friendly Story Times
I think I’ve finally got my toddler story time plans finished and my yoga plans as well, now it’s on to planning for the sensory friendly storytimes, both here at the library as well as the outreach classrooms. As part of grant for the county, we offered 6 sensory friendly…
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Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
Jordan Sonnenblick doesn’t skirt around the difficult issues in this book – coming to terms with denial, anger, and bargaining among the everyday and all-consuming world that middle school can be. Thirteen year old, Steven does not only have to focus on getting good grades, but also practicing for the All-Star…
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National Book Festival
I wish they hadn’t changed the dates for the National Book Festival! It used to be mid-September which gave me enough time to start breathing after our summer reading program finished and to enjoy a long weekend away from work. I won’t be making my trek down to Washington D.C.…
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First Day of School
I love new pencils and crayons, folders and notebooks, but the first day of school can be a struggle for a lot of children. Here are some of my favorite books about going to school, separation anxiety, and standing up for yourself!
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Ronald McDonald Summer Library Tour
I am excited to announce that my library was one of four selected in the Greater Philadelphia Region Ronald McDonald Summer Library Tour! In an effort to encourage reading, McDonald’s donated $1,000 to our Children’s Department and we had the privilege of hosting Ronald McDonald last night with his laugh-out-loud, entertaining…
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Summer Theatre
We had an amazing group of 8th graders that graduated out of our Junior Friends program this spring and offered to direct, produce, and run practices for a summer play. I love empowering tweens and teens that have the initiative to create new programs for kids. We’ve had a Chinese New…
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Storytime University
If you’re a children’s librarian looking for some new ways to focus on professional development, look no further than Storytime University, brought to you by the fine librarians of Storytime Underground, a group focused on supporting, promoting, and training each other (as in storytime librarians). Storytime is often not realized…
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Book Review – "Chengdu Could Not, Would Not Fall Asleep"
Chengdu Could Not, Would Not Fall Asleep written and illustrated by Barney Saltzberg is about a small panda who should be asleep and wants to be asleep, but can’t fall asleep. And as he tosses, turns, and twitches the book has fold out pages to show just how hard Chengdu…
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Evaluating Picture Books
The Story Time Secrets: Resources for Sharing Books with Kids blog has a great post today about “10 Tips for Evaluating Picture Books.” I feel as though I’ve read a lot of middle grade novels and know (at least for myself) what works and doesn’t work – character development, setting,…