Sturdy for Common Things

News: The Big Kind

Well, I don’t know how to start this…. So out with it.

This year I am one of the selected members for Library Journal’s 2013 Movers & Shakers (toss glitter confetti). LJ’s Movers & Shakers are a chosen group of outstanding professionals committed to providing excellent service to meet the needs of the people they serve. It’s an honor to be among such incredibly talented library-types changing the library world as we know it.

You can read the online edition of the article HERE and check out my personal mention HERE.

A special thanks to all my coworkers at the Lawrence Public Library. Brad Allen, our innovative library director and rock star boss man, and Susan Brown, networking and marketing goddess; thank you for both always welcoming and encouraging new ideas. For your big picture visions and big library hearts.  To the wonderful, incredible women I have the privilege to work with in the Youth Services department, most of which have been working in library’s since I was in elementary school. It is their passion for childhood literacy and libraries that fuels my own passion day-in and day-out. I am proud to have you as my mentors and friends.

To my former co-worker, Rachel Smalter Hall. You are the bomb diggity. I love what you do and find you a exemplary role model librarian. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to spread my wings.

To Erinn Batykefer and the Library as Incubator Project team, I love working with you and being a part of your library-loving-art-tastic mission.

To my readers here on Sturdy for Common Things and my fellow library and book bloggers. You are a constant source of inspiration for what I do and am so grateful to have you as readers and as friends (cyber hug).

And last, but certainly not least, my friends and family. To L, the light of my life, and to Will, my rock, my loving husband who puts up with glitter and stacks of books all over the house and who tends to get suckered into helping me prep storytime crafts, but has never, not once, complained. Quite the opposite. You have given me courage and confidence every step of the way.

To me, all these people are movers and shakers and also recipients of this acknowledgement.

image source: Pinterest

Rain and Rainbow Storytime

Sunday was St. Patrick’s Day, and a quiet day at the library with the big downtown parade going on just a block away. Even though storytime was the day of the holiday, I opted out out of a St. Patrick’s Day themed storytime this year. I just wasn’t feeling it. But since it was so gloomy and rainy outside, I decided this week’s storytime would be about rain and rainbows. Perfect for spring. I opened up storytime by talking about the myth of the leprechaun and how he hides his gold at the end of the rainbow. My St. Patty’s Day tie-in. After reading stories, we made lucky rainbow necklaces so the kids could take a little rainbow color and luck with them wherever they went.

Here’s what we read…

Rain and Rainbows Storytime Line-up:

Raindrop, Plop! by Wendy Cheyette Lewison, illustrated by Pam Paparone

 A rhyming story that introduces counting by counting the raindrops.

Listen to the Rain by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault, illustrated by James Endicott

A picture book with a beautiful poem about the stages of a rainfall. The last page features a rainbow which transitioned the storytime from rain to rainbows.

Duckie’s Rainbow by Frances Barry

Transitioning into rainbows, we read this story about Duckie and his walk through many different colored scenes which at the end take the shape of a rainbow.

Rainbow Flannel Board

We went over the colors of the rainbow and how rainbows are made using this flannel I made last year for St. Patrick’s Day Storytime.  I asked them if they could help me determine the order of a rainbow and what colors were in it. I held up a color and they would say what color it was. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. We started with red and went all the way to violet. I also talked a little bit about how a rainbow is made by the raindrops refracting the light of the sun into a rainbow of colors.

Baby Bear Sees Blue by Ashley Wolff

This is a wonderful book for pre-school age children. Baby bear experiences all the colors in his day which ends in witnessing a rainbow after a storm.

A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman

We’ve enjoyed reading this one quite a bit at home, so I decided to share it with the storytimers this week. A boy sees a rainbow from his window and runs out to catch it. When he gets to where the rainbow should be it has vanished, so he decides to pretend and have a rainbow of his own.

Lucky Rainbow Necklace Craft:

As a way for the kids to take home their very own rainbow, and to work on tuning those fine motor skills, we beaded Lucky Rainbow Necklaces for the post-storytime craft. It’s amazing how sometimes the simplest craft ends up being the most fun.

Here’s how we made our necklaces…

Materials used: plastic beads, crochet yarn, and scissors.

Cut a piece of yarn a little over a foot long. I did this part before storytime so the kids would focus more on beading.

The kids strung their necklaces using rainbow colored beads.

Tie a knot at the end of the strings when finished and voila!

A rainbow of your very own. A little luck wherever you go.

rainbow of my own image source: the marlowe bookshelf

Review: The Dark

The Dark

by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Jon Klassen

Find it at: Your library | Amazon | Indiebound

Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (April 2, 2013)

Recommended reading age: 3 & up

In a nutshell: Did you used to run up the basement stairs after shutting off the light? Hide under the covers when you heard creaks in the middle of the night? Do you still? For those whose nerves are tested when the sun goes down the notorious Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler’s pseudonym), and Caldecott winning illustrator Jon Klassen, have teamed up for a picture book about The Dark.

Laszlo is afraid of the dark. It hides in the closet, behind the shower curtain, and spends most of its time in the basement. But at night it is everywhere. Laszlo would go visit and talk to the dark during the day, hoping this would help it steer clear of visiting his bedroom at night. That is, until one night when his nightlight inexplicably goes out, and the dark comes to his room. And it talks back. Creepy! Well, just a wee bit creepy. The reader follows Laszlo through his house, flashlight in hand, exploring the usual dark hangouts as the dark persuades him to enter the basement. In the darkness of the basement, he finds an unexpected surprise which will reassure readers that the dark might not be so bad after all.

As someone who is still timid of the dark, I know all too well of the anxiety that comes with turning the lights off. Like most children, the fear is terrifying and plays tricks on your senses. The Dark takes into account these fears and curiosities most children (and some adults) have when it comes to the things that go bump in the night, the complete unknown, and uses that fear to shed light on what the dark really is. Dark is the house that keeps you warm. Dark is the nighttime sky looking down from above when you look up at the stars. Day and night, light and dark are elements of life. Without one the other wouldn’t exist. Laszlo is much braver than I would have ever been. The child version of me would have been riddled with fear and stayed under my covers until dawn. It is reassuring that he was more interested in the dark than afraid. It is a good lesson for readers to test their fears and not to be so distressed by the unknown.

 Now, let’s take a minute to talk about the talent that is Jon Klassen.  Jon Klassen’s warm hues during the daytime and sharp, geometric contrasting illustrations during the Laszlo’s adventure during the nighttime are mesmerizing. I couldn’t imagine a better companion to Lemony Snicket’s pitch-perfect prose.

Take a gander…

Children and adults will be won over by this eerie, spectacular book. For those who cringe at the thought of basements and dark places, they may learn that there really isn’t anything to be afraid of and might even take comfort in The Dark.

Don’t take my word for it: Review from Fuse 8 Production.

Trailer:

Extras: The official website of Lemony Snicket and the site for his new middle grade fiction book All the Wrong Questions.

Website and blog home for Jon Klassen

Helpful tips on how kids can overcome their fears of the dark.

Source of book reviewed: Galley provided by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Review: Hoop Genius

Hoop Genius: how a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball

by John Coy, illustrated by Joe Morse

Find it at: Your library | Amazon | Indiebound

Published: Carolrhoda Books (January 1, 2013)

Recommended reading age: 5 & up

In a nutshell: Today is Selection Sunday, the official kick-off of the March Madness basketball craze. It’s an exciting time of the year for all ages and also an excellent opportunity to think back on when it all began. Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball is a look inside the very early beginnings of basketball, featuring it’s inventor, James Naismith.

In 1891, James Naismith took over teaching a very rowdy gym glass that had forced previous instructors to quit. To engage the class who was bored by calisthenic activities, he tried his hand at getting them to play indoor football, soccer, and lacrosse with no success. Naismith almost gave up, but he then imagined a game he used to play when he was a boy and how it could be modified so that it was an active game off the ground with two goals. Using two peach baskets and a soccer ball, the classes’ attention was demanded. They couldn’t get enough of Naismith’s new game, and so the evolution of basketball was set into motion.

Around Lawrence, Kansas, most kids grow up learning who James Naismith was not because he is the inventor of basketball, but because he was the founder of University of Kansas basketball. So, I’m fairly confident that this book will be hit around town, but I also see it’s appeal extending beyond basketball and sports fans. James Naismith’s story is about innovation. Taking a problem that no one else wants to deal with, being determined, and brainstorming a solution – a solution that ends up fostering enthusiasm within his gym class, and today has turned into one of the most celebrated athletic games of all time. The story is fairly short with a message all young readers will enjoy, and illustrations that are sure to capture attention.

My favorite pagespread is the last… Obviously because it is a nod to James Naismith’s heritage at KU with the basketball players in their Jayhawk crimson and blue. Nicely done, Joe Morse. Very nicely done.

Don’t take my word for it: review from 100 Scope Notes

Extras: More info about author John Coy as well as artwork by illustrator Joe Morse.

If you’re in the Lawrence area, Watkins Museum Community Museum of History has an excellent exhibit More Than A Game: Basketball and Community

You can also learn more about James Naismith from the Kansas Historical Foundation.

Interesting tidbit: To this day, James Naismith was the only KU basketball coach ever to have a losing record. (via Visit Lawrence).

Source of book reviewed: My local library!

Adventures as Annie: Pirates Past Noon

In March, our theme for Magic Tree House Adventures was Pirates Past Noon. Arr!!! Magic Tree House Adventures (you can view past programs here) is a monthly library program for kids ages 5 & up in which each session is themed around one of Mary Pope Osborne’s Magic Tree House books.  This month, we walked the plank, tried our hand at pirate slang, found buried treasure, and learned a great deal about the pirates from long ago.

And I even dressed for the occasion…

Where Are We? Who Are They?

We started with our regular game of “Where are we? Who are they?”. Here’s how it works… I flash pictures of people and places on the screen relevant to the history of pirates and the kids guess where the picture is, or who is in it, or what is going on. For example, the picture above would flash onto the screen and I would ask the kids, “Who is that dude with his beard on fire? Is he your grandpa?” and they would guess and then I would give a short explanation of who it really was (Blackbeard). The majority of the facts came from the Magic Tree House Research Guide: Pirates. The primary focus was that stories and movies about pirates are very different than how life as a pirate really was. We discussed early pirates from all over the world, the Golden Age of Pirates, types of sailing ships, what it was really like being a pirate, and what kind of treasure they were after. We also learned how to talk like a pirate. Aye!

Afterwards we broke out into groups for our pirate activities….

Treasure Hunt

Even though pirates rarely buried their treasure, I thought it might be fun to have an actual treasure hunt. Here’s what I did. I poured a 50 lb bag of sandbox sand into a large metal tub and hid a bag of dabloons (plastic gold coins), precious stones (plastic gem stones), and jewelry (plastic necklaces) in it. In pairs of 2 or 3, I would time each pair a total of 30 seconds to see how much treasure they could dig up in that time frame. This activity was the hit of the program.

Walk the Plank

There is no proof that pirates actually used “walking the plank” as punishment, but it’s apart of pirate mythology that we all know and love. So, using an old board, kids had to balance walking across while carrying a spoon with a ping-pong ball on it. And then they would have to balance holding two spoons carrying ping-pong balls. If the ball dropped or they touched the ground with their foot, it was to Davy Jone’s Locker with ’em!

Treasure Map and Parrot Craft

What is a pirate without his/her trusty parrot or map? I recycled this parrot craft from last year’s Pirate Storytime (which goes through step-by-step on how to make these parrots and a pirate eye patch) for the Magic Tree House Adventures kids to make during this program. We also made treasure maps using torn brown butcher paper and markers. I printed out symbols of objects a pirate’s map might have on it to give them a few ideas. Items such as a compass rose, an island, a mermaid, a palm tree,  an “x”, water, sea monsters, and a Jolly Roger were all on the list.

Magic Tree House Adventures Journal

In every Magic Tree House Adventures session, attendees get to take home their very own journal just like Jack uses in the Magic Tree House books. I add facts and pictures discussed in the program and also include whatever worksheets or activities available on the Magic Tree House website. The majority of the journal comes from facts in the Magic Tree House Research Guides. Along with the journals, bunches of books about the particular theme are on display for them to checkout as they leave the program. This display table of books usually gets severely raided.

Here’s a peak inside this month’s journal:

And that’s it me mateys! Hold on to yer hats, cause next month’s book selection is Twister on Tuesday!

image source: Blackbeard