I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas. I'm sure there will many new books under trees across Marlborough. I hear Santa is a big fan of reading.
We actually managed to have a (mostly) quiet storytime this morning at RML. Featuring the meditative art of coloring with crayons, quiet music, some yoga breathing, along with the some quiet books made for a lovely 1/2 hour respite in my day. We read "The Story of Ferdinand", by Munro Leaf, a classic if there every was one and one of my favorite books to read aloud. Martin Waddell's lovely (and often overlooked) "Hi, Harry" subtitled "The moving story of how one slow tortoise slowly made a friend" is a charmer. I also shared for the first time in a storytime "The Stars Will Still Shine", by the prolific genius Cynthia Rylant, with illustrations by Tiphanie Beeke; simple rhyming text with a message that is reassuring and uplifting.
We have had quite a week of Holiday Happenings at the Richmond Memorial Library this week. I hope everyone had a chance to join in the fun! We kicked off the week with our family ornament making night, had a few drop-in storytimes, danced our way through the middle of the week with the Nutcracker program and ended it on Friday with games, stories, and a craft with Ms. Eileen, me, and 3o of our storytime alumni. (I wish I could name you all, but just know that you are awesome!)
A good time was had by all last night as Ms. Eileen, and I, and 37 of our closest friends made ornaments from candy and other stuff. It was chaotic, messy, sugary, and fun. A few folks asked for information on making the ornaments so here you go:
I have been terribly neglectful of updating everyone on the wonderful Friday storytimes with Ms. Eileen. Her Friday groups are so full of fun and energy and they always create wonderful projects. This week focused on SNOW (do you get the feeling Ms. Eileen and I are eagerly awaiting winter?!) and the bulletin board in the children's area shows a snowy scene with snowmen from last year's Friday storytime groups as well as frosted trees from today's groups. The trees are a bit of construction paper origami that are pretty cool. (Get it? Cool? Frosted? Snow-covered? Hehehe) Books focused on snow and snow play including "Sally's Snow Adventure" by Stephen Huneck.
Good news, the Connecticut Library Consortium just published its annual holiday booklists.
This Week's Books:
I hope your Thanksgiving holiday was lovely. I was sick for a few days (sorry, Monday storytime-ers, I'll see you this week!) and then away for a few more days for baking, eating, shopping, and game-playing fun with my loud chaotic family. But, I'm back at RML and gearing up for a wonderful month of Holiday Happenings.
I love owls and have to include an owl-themed storytime once a year. It also gives me a chance to read my daughter's favorite childhood book "Owl Babies".
With Hanukkah just around the corner (the first week of December) and Christmas coming quickly after that, websites and publications are beginning their lists of children's' books for gift-giving.
It's that time of year again, time for special Holiday programs for families at the RML.
Week 3 and our theme this week is Hide-and-Seek. Actually, it's more complicated than that. While Monday storytime for 2s will have this theme, because the library is closed this Thursday for Veteran's Day, my Thursday storytime groups will have this theme on December 2. However, I'll also be doing Ms. Eileen's Friday storytimes (she's off to Disney, LUCKY!) and we'll do a 4/5 year-old version of this theme.
A patron came in this morning looking for holiday book suggestions for 4 grandsons ages 8-13. While helping her I was reminded of an excellent website designed specifically for finding books for boys. The website Guys Read (clickable link) is the brainchild of Jon Scieszka, author of dozens of picture books including "The Stinky Cheese Man", as well as plenty of juvenile fiction such as the Time Warp Trio series. 
Everybody wants to be a cat...or so they say. It's this week's theme:
he hour and a half we had together, including a walk from the elementary school to the library. The children were remarkably well-behaved, and just plain fun to be with. Thank you to Maria's mother for supplying all 30 kids with popcorn and to my own daughter for helping me make "Dry Bones" (meringue cookies) to share as an after-school snack.
"Art and Max" by David Wiesner has just arrived at the library. This unusual book is geared more towards older children as through its clever story and AMAZING illustrations it brings up an interesting conversation about the nature of art. We all know that kids love to create and what they create doesn't always have to be representational. "Art and Max" celebrates the exuberance and messiness of children's art. As Picasso once famously stated, "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child".
One of the most common requests we get is for picture books that address potty training. While there are the classics, like "Everybody Poops"by Taro Gomi and "Once Upon a Potty" by Alona Frankel, there are several new toilet-themed books that are fun, funny, and actually good books for anytime reading.
The last class of Session One takes place on Thursday 10/14 and on Monday 10/18. Sign-up at your last class for Session Two which begins the week of October 25.
A patron who also happens to be a mother of three and a speech/language professional steered me to a wonderful site for literacy. The site, readingrockets.org is an initiative by several PBS stations with a grant from the U.S. Dept. of Education. Among the many wonderful resources for parents, teachers, and librarians, are numerous book lists accessible by clicking HERE. It's quite a treasure trove. Enjoy, and let us know if you discover any books you'd like us to add to our collection.
Seriously, who doesn't love it! This week's storytime theme is PIZZA!
Don't forget, Monday at 1:00 is another drop-in storytime for children ages 2-6. We'll do a simple craft (probably play with playdough that is part of this week's regular storytime craft) and read a variety books, sing songs, and play action rhymes...all without a theme, just whatever strikes us! Come join the fun.
This Friday Ms. Eileen shared stories about scarecrows and the kids made their own adorable scarecrows from scraps of cloth and popsicle sticks. Books included "Jeb Scarecrow's Pumpkin Patch", by Jana Dillon, and "The Scarecrow's Hat", by Ken Brown. She also shared this lovely, lilting seasonal poem by Arthur Guiterman called "The Harvest Home".
Our Storytime theme this week is The Country Fair.
This week our Storytime theme is DOGS!
Our older fours and fives meet with Ms. Eileen for storytime on Friday at either 10 a.m. or 1 p.m. Ms. Eileen began her Friday storytimes with stories about fairs, including Mercer Mayer's "Grandma, Grandpa, and Me", in which the "Little Critters" have a sleepover at the farm and prepare for the county fair. The "Little Critters" also show up in Mayer's "Country Fair", an easy-reader that works for storytime as well. The craft featured crayon rubbings which became country fair quilts.
Our newest display in the library is of some recent Children's Book Award Winners. Most everyone is familiar with the Newbery Award and the Caldicott Award, but do you know about the Geisel? Or the Sibert? Here's a quick run-down of some major awards.
Welcome back to Storytime! We begin our storytime sessions for Fall of 2010 with APPLES as our theme.
OH NO! Storytime starts on Monday and so far registration is extremely light. Too light. Frightening light. Where is everyone? Just picture it: Me, Ms. Patty, sitting in my rocking chair and doing action rhymes by myself and mournfully playing the ukulele (is that even possible?). So, please remember to sign-up for storytime and to call your friends and neighbors and insist that they, too, sign-up for storytime. There's nothing more pitiful than a storytime lady with no storytime kids.
It's time to go back to school, that most complicated of seasons...excitement, joy, anticipation, nervousness, dread, sadness, longing....so many feelings for all involved. Ah. 
interested in:
It's that time of year again, time to sign-up for Storytime! Here is the schedule at this point:
We put the cherry on top of a delicious sundae of summer reading events with an ice-cream social on Monday, August 23 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. It's free for everyone so stop by and share a sweet treat and tell us what you liked about our summer reading program and what we can improve upon. Did you have a favorite event? A favorite reading prize? Did our drop-in storytime days and hours work for you? What kinds of events would you like to see next summer?
We finally had the picture perfect day for Stories in the Shade on Friday. As you may know, usually these are theme-less events so I can share stories, songs, and action rhymes new and old that tickle me. However, I found myself with a theme this past Friday as we shared all beach related books, including these two. "How Will We Get to the Beach" is a charming guessing-game of a book as mom Roxanne has 5 things that must come with her to the beach but has to find a way to get them all there (btw, no sunscreen or towel or snack, go figure, but a turtle is one of the must haves!), by Brigitte Luciani and illustrated by Eve Tharlet. "Miranda's Beach Day", written and illustrated by Holly Keller, is charming in its simple tale of a girl's day on the beach with it's hot sand and waves that make her sand castle disappear. The beautiful closing words of the book sneak up on you with their emotional message.
Two new books to highlight today: "Lola Loves Stories" and "The Cow Loves Cookies". Anna McQuinn and illustrator Rosalind Beardshaw bring back Lola from "Lola at the Library". Lovable Lola details her Saturday visits to the library and how each new book inspires her imagination. Whimsical and delightful. Another favorite author, Karma Wilson, brings us a book with new illustrator Marcellus Hall. Farmer feeds all the animals what they love and the cow loves cookies. Told in rhythmic prose with sweet, humourous ink and watercolor illustrations.
