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12 Middle Grade Titles Set at Sea
Whether you love the rocking of the waves or you get seasick just thinking about it (sorry about that!) these 12 middle grade titles set at sea are sure to have you yearning for a trip to the water. When I pull together book lists about specific topics or themes,…
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Storytime Theme: Friendship
Friendship is an important and sometimes difficult part of life and little ones need to know how to behave to be good friends. I selected a lot of really fun books, but you can always add quick little asides about things that make the characters good friends. Add in a…
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12 Mindfulness Books for Parents, Caregivers, & Teachers
I think just about everyone can benefit from a little mindfulness! “Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens” (Greater Good Magazine). This is often easier said than done, but with anxiety, high levels of stress, and mental…
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Storytime Theme: Black Voices
Although Black History Month is almost over, you can use this storytime lesson plan anytime during the year! Extremely important, Black history can be a little difficult to cover in a thirty-minute storytime for toddlers and preschoolers, so rather than focusing on history or biographies (which you could also do!).…
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2023 CLEL Bell Award Winners
The CLEL Bell Awards are announced annually by the Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy (CLEL). Five books are awarded “in recognition of five high-quality picture books that provide excellent support of early literacy development in young children.” CLEL doesn’t just award books an award. They also create early literacy activity…
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Storytime Theme: Mail Time!
I’m so surprised that I’ve never done a mail-themed storytime before! Who doesn’t love getting fun mail? Honestly, my reluctance probably stems from elementary school. For a few years, we’d spend the early part of February learning about the postal service system. We took a field trip to the post…
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2022 CYBILS Award Winners
The CYBILS or Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards were presented on Valentine’s Day (or February 14th). And with a crazy week at work, I’m finally getting a chance to sit down and check out all the winners this year! The CYBILS “aims to recognize the children’s and young…
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Bedtime Books for Little Ones
What theme is more popular than bedtime books for little ones? Bedtime is a prime time to snuggle together and spend time reading aloud. There are probably hundreds, if not thousands of picture books dedicated to bedtime, but today I’m sharing just a few. This post may contain affiliate links,…
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Storytime Theme: Favorites
Today’s post – Storytime Theme: Favorites could have easily been named Storytime Theme: Oldies, but Goodies! When I was doing storytime regularly as a children’s librarian, these titles were some of my tried-and-true, must-have books. They would work every time, no matter the crowd! So today, I thought I’d pull…
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Storytime Theme: Home
This storytime theme: home was a little tricky to pull together. At first, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to find enough content, but then I realized you could really take this storytime in a lot of different directions for a lot of different age groups. I kept…
