World Crafts

Ms. Eileen designed several global crafts as part of her "Lunch Bunch" storytimes in June. If you missed the storytimes, you can still make the crafts. The supplies and instructions for the various crafts are set up in the storytime room. As the summer progresses, we'll be adding new craft projects as well. Drop-in anytime and have fun. You'll find some beautiful and interesting things to make. Just the thing for a day when you need to spend some time in the air conditioned splendor of the library!

Where Has the Time Gone?!?!?

I can't believe it's July and I never posted in June. What happened, Ms. Patty!? Well, it was a busy month with our fantastic summer reading program kicking off and my son graduating from high school. But now we're ready for a great summer of library fun and I'm back on the job, blog-wise.

Ms. Eileen has out-done herself this year with our fantastic summer reading program featuring a passport to adventure. Each week "visit" another continent and earn your passport stamps and a prize. You can read a book, listen to music, learn about a country and its traditions and history, you could make a recipe or draw a picture of a native animal or famous landmark...it's up to you. Just be sure to cover all the six major continents throughout the summer and come see us each week.

There are also many fun activities this summer. We had our first event, "Safari Kids", which was a great success. In our safari adventure we read some fun books, made a unique craft, and traversed the library on the hunt (with our own binoculars) for African animals. What fun.

Look for more updates soon, but for now, hello again.
Ms. Patty

The Magic's In Me and You

We had a wonderful Friday the 13th at RML. Even with the internet down all day (!), somehow Ms. Eileen and I were able to go over her plans for this year's summer reading program. Wow, does she have a lot of fun things planned for us as we take our reading passports and head out around the world. Fun! Plus we put the finishing touches on our Not-Too-Old-For-Storytime session next week.

But the best part of the day, of course, was our visit from Christina the Magician! Wasn't she great?! Were you as amazed as I was by her tricks? Were they tricks, or was it real magic?! Even after the show, Christina stuck around a bit, visited with the children, and continued to amaze us. By the way, Christina will be back at RML this summer to give a magic workshop, as well as a balloon animal workshop to older kids (8 and up), so keep that in mind. I certainly feel the magic in me after her show, and hope you do too.

(BTW, that's the wonderful Lucille Ball in the photo doing her impression of Ms. Patty at Magic Show.)

Bedtime Stories and Mom's Club

Back-to-back storytimes this week as we held Bedtime Stories Wednesday night, and hosted a Mom's Club storytime this morning. Our Bedtimes Stories featured "Wow! Said the Owl", by Tim Hopgood about a young owl who stays up to experience daytime and is delighted by the beautiful colors. In "Aunt Nina, Good Night", by Franz Brandenberg with illustrations by Aliki, a patient aunt helps her nieces and nephews fall asleep and ultimately has a great bonding moment.

This morning we held Mom's Club storytime outside under the trees while the chimes rang (for a full half hour!). We shared books about friends who hold different ideas about fun, including "Mac and Cheese", an easy reader by Sarah Weeks, illustrated by Jane Manning, and "Hello, My Name is Bob", by Linas Alsenas.

Both events featured a flannel board game with rocketships! Thanks to all who came.

Loud!

I can't help it, I'm loud. I grew up in a family with 5 siblings, all very close in age and we had to talk over each other to be heard. We talked loudly and made music loudly and played loudly. Recently I was reminded that I do work in a library and probably should try to not be so loud. So it made me laugh when I saw a new book by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Renata Liwska, collaborators of "The Quiet Book", called "The Loud Book".

Just like their previous book, "The Loud Book" is beautifully illustrated with a cast of friendly animals done in gentle pencil and brush strokes. There is humor and charm as the animals make and experience loud noises, like alarm clocks ringing, things dropping, and even whistling. (You know how I love to whistle!) As the book states, "Just like there are lots of quiets, there are also lots of louds." I look forward to having this book in the library and sharing it at storytime.

(And by the way, if you hear me being loud just remind me to use my "library voice". Thanks. Ms. Patty)

Children's Choice Book Awards

Last week was National Children's Book Week and the Children's Book Council announced the winners of their annual Children's Choice Book Awards. Over 500,000 children across the nation voted for their favorites in several categories. Here are the winners:

Author of the Year
Rick Riordan for The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, Book 1) (Disney-Hyperion)

Illustrator of the Year
David Wiesner for Art & Max (Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Kindergarten to Second Grade Book of the Year
Little Pink Pup by Johanna Kerby (Putnam/Penguin)

Third Grade to Fourth Grade Book of the Year
Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Knopf/Random House)

Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year
The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1) by Rick Riordan (Disney-Hyperion)


Teen Choice Book of the Year
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan (Dutton/Penguin)

We have "Art & Max" at the library and will be getting "Little Pink Pup" (it looks so cute!).

Bedtime Stories

Bedtime Stories, a drop-in storytime for children ages 2-6, has begun and continues every Wednesday in May at 6:30 p.m. We met last week on a rainy evening (it always seems to rain for Bedtime Stories!) and had a lovely time. We shared books with characters coming and going in and out of the book, including "The Character in the Book" by Kaethe Zemach, and "More Bears!" by Kenn Nesbitt. After an impromptu singing of "Twinkle, Twinkle" and a flannel board game with umbrellas, we finished up with quiet stories and low lights. Some even lay on the floor with their stuffed animals and started to doze!

Thanks to all who came and see you next week.

Kindergarteners At the Library

Ms. Eileen and I were lucky enough to host the annual kindergarten visits this week. Each year the kids walk down from the school with their teachers for some stories and a quick tour of the library. It is always a wonderful pleasure for us to see such bright, interested, well-behaved children and to share our love of books with them. Ms. Eileen and I do some things a bit differently; Ms. Eileen, for example, shared a "draw-and-tell" story and I played a quick song on the ukulele. But we both shared some of the excellent JE-ER (Easy Reader) books available at RML, as well as read stories about books and libraries including some of those shown here.

The Lovely Month of May

There is a lot going on in May to look forward to:

- Every Wednesday in May at 6:30 p.m. join me (Ms. Patty) upstairs at the library for Bedtime Stories. We'll share songs and stories to end your day. This is best for children 2-6, but parents often stick around as well. I'll be in my jammies, so feel free to come in yours too.

- Monday, May 2nd at 10:30 a.m. we have a special Wonderful Ones session in honor of Children's Book Week. For children ages 9-23 months with caregiver, Ms. Eileen and Ms. Patty will share stories and games. Please register in advance. (We have give-aways!)

- Friday, May 13th at 4 p.m., one of my favorite performers joins us at RML for a Magical Event! Christina the Magician will delight us all with sleight of hand in her charming and gentle way. This will be fun for all ages,but please register in advance so we know how many to expect. (I've been trying to get Ms. Eileen to book Christina for two years, so I'm hoping for a big turn-out!)

- Friday, May 20th, at 1:15 p.m., Not-Too-Old-For-Storytime: Spring Edition. Storytime alums and others in grades K-2 are invited to join Ms. Eileen and Ms. Patty for stories, games, a craft, and an afternoon snack. This is an early dismissal day and we will meet the kids at the school and walk them to the library. We often need a few adults to help safely collect the children and guide them to the library, so let us know if you'd like to help. You must register for this popular program, and kids who haven't come before are given first preference.

Hoping to see a lot of you all in May at RML.

(P.S. I somehow forgot to post about our last storytime sessions two weeks ago; our theme was Bunnies and we made bunny ears that were very cute.)

(P.P.S. It's necessary to end registered storytimes early because we need to use the storytime room to store collected books for the book sale. Another example of our limited space at RML, and one more reason to support the upstairs renovations.)

Snapshots!

April 13 was Snapshot Day at libraries around CT. The purpose is to capture the impact that CT libraries have on their communities in a typical day. Here is the link to check out Snapshot Day:

http://snapshotctlib.wordpress.com/

So we have busy snapping pictures around here lately - and not just for that day. So I thought we would share a few here on the blog because of course, we have pics of storytime!

Here's one of Ms. Eileen's 4&5's and their Spring Chicks!!

Here's a great crew of girls (and dolls!) at our American Girl storytime during vacation week.

Finally, Ms. Patty's 2-yr-olds with their great 'kite' windsocks. Ms. Patty made a fun new flannelboard set of kites and clouds for storytime last week.

Hope everyone is enjoying the sunny days we are having between the rain! And if you are hunting for eggs this weekend, GOOD LUCK!!!