• Lifestyle

    SLJ's Battle of the Books

    Each year School Library Journal created a Battle of the Books focusing on 2014 children’s and young adult literature.  The 2015 judges have been announced and each battle is judged by a different person.  What is really fun (and sometimes frusturating) about Battle of the Kids’ Books is that the…

  • Reviews

    Book Review: Seven Wild Sisters

    Seven Wild Sisters: A Modern Fairy Tale by Charles De Lint is actually a companion novel to The Cats of Tanglewood Forest (which I never realized until after I read this one) and Seven Wild Sisters can easily stand on its own.  Reminiscent of a classic fairy tale story, Sarah…

  • Activities

    3rd & 4th Grade Book Club

    We don’t have any programs this week which allows me to focus on my program planning for the next month or so. One of my programs, a third and fourth grade book discussion group will meet in the middle of February. I’ll admit, I find it difficult to find books…

  • Lists

    NYPL's 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing 2014

    I’m currently working my way through the New York Public Library’s Children’s Books 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing 2014.  I’ve read a number of the books already, but I figured it would be a great start to the new year to work towards these 100 books.  I’m almost finished…

  • Activities

    Life-Size Clue (it’s easier than you think!)

    clue

    Yesterday morning, we offered Life-Size Candyland for our younger patrons, definitely check out all the fun we had! And in the afternoon, we offered Life-Size Clue for our middle schoolers. The set-up isn’t too difficult, it just requires more than a little math. And some willingness to crawl around on the…

  • Lifestyle

    Cybils Nominations

    Nominate your favorite books published between October 16, 2013 and October 15, 2014 in the following categories: Young Adult Non-fiction Young Adult Speculative Fiction Young Adult Fiction Poetry Book Apps Middle Grade Fiction Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction Elementary/Middle Grade Non-fiction Fiction Picture Books Graphics Easy Reader/Short Chapter Books for the…

  • Lifestyle

    48 Hour Book Challenge

    Last year was the first time I heard about the 48  Hour Book Challenge and I haven’t had the chance to participate in it yet.  My goal is that next year, I’ll set aside my weekend to try this out.  The basic gist is that you said aside as much…

  • Reviews

    The Key and the Flame

    This was my first book by Claire Caterer and it was definitely a fun-filled magical adventure for middle grade readers and it’s definitely left with an open ending for a follow-up story. Eleven-year-old Holly is always being told that she needs to get her head out of the clouds and…

  • Lifestyle

    Young Adult vs. Middle Grade Books

    Summer is fast approaching and as a librarian, I have found that many parents and even some kids are confused and misunderstand the difference between young adult books and books for those students in middle grades.  Once I read past the middle grade novels in my public library in my…