• Activities

    Storytime Theme: Socks (2023 update)

    sock feet

    It’s another update week! This time we’re updating our Socks storytime with some really fun stories and some great songs and activities too! I love wearing socks, so I think could be a really fun program to encourage kids to wear cool socks to the program (and don’t forget your…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Robots (2023 update)

    robot

    It’s another update week! Robots is a fun STEM-themed storytime! With a wide variety of titles including fiction and nonfiction, board books, and picture books, this storytime theme can work with a large audience. You can use this as a jumping-off point for a preschool lesson plan about what robots…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Rain (2023 update)

    little girl standing in rain with yellow umbrella, coat, and boots

    Although I would typically think to do a rain-themed storytime in the Spring, it’s been raining EVERY weekend this fall and is expected to rain all day today while I finish typing this lesson plan. So, I’ll share with you my (very) old storytime lesson plan about rain and give…

  • Lists

    12 Kid Lit Titles with Fall 2023 Publication Dates

    fall header

    There are so many children’s books being published every week, how do you even keep track? It’s not the easiest, even for librarians! But, here are a few resources that you can use at home to keep up-to-date with upcoming releases. You can always search for your favorite publishers (if…

  • Lists

    18 Middle Grade Books Featuring Cats

    cat lying down

    I’m going to start with a statement that might seem a little sacrilege as a librarian – I am much more a dog person than a cat person. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy cats and will always give pets to any of my friends’ cats, but personally,…

  • Lists

    12 Books About Chess for Kids

    chess header

    We’ve been lucky enough to have an amazing volunteer willing to help us at my library by offering chess classes for our kids! Thankfully, we have a volunteer because my staff and I know a little bit about chess, but not enough to offer a series of classes for beginner…

  • Lists

    15 Books for Reluctant Readers (Grades 3-5)

    child reading

    As kids transition into longer chapter books with fewer illustrations and more emphasis put on the text, it can be difficult to encourage already reluctant readers to try something new. Below, I’ve pulled together a rather wide range of titles from early chapter books to a handful of middle grade…

  • Lists

    2023 Blogging A to Z: Kind

    K: Kind

    Kind kids are necessary in this world and these books are great suggestions to encourage kindness and empathy. In fact, studies show that people who read fiction have stronger empathy skills. These twelve titles have characters that show kindness to other kids, animals, and most importantly themselves. Make sure to…

  • Lists

    2023 Blogging A to Z: Judgmental

    J: Judgmental

    So, the letter J was a difficult letter to find an adjective for. Joyous came up a lot in my searches, but I was having trouble figuring out how to create a “happy” themed book list. Instead, I chose to go with judgmental, in the way that kids can be…

  • Lists

    2023 Blogging A to Z: Intellectual

    I: Intellectual

    For today’s adjective, I wanted to share some nonfiction titles for kids and teens who soak up information like a sponge. Fiction isn’t always the right option for kids, they may become readers because they want to learn about real-life events, animals, people, and more. Today’s list is (almost) completely…