Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

I love Halloween. It is absolutely my favorite holiday; no pressure to bring a date to the family meal, no feeling alone and unkissable at midnight. Just dressing up and being whatever you want to be, showing off your costume cleverness, or inner slutty nurse, or your mad zombie make-up skills! Since it's Halloween and I haven't already posted something, thought I'd share a few fun Halloween-worthy books...you still have time for these! For the young crowd: Frankensquare , Kelly Asbury Super cute board book!   And Happy Halloween, Curious George For the Pre-school/Kindergareten crowd: Go Away, Big Green Monster! Ed Emberly A fun story about not being afraid. The kids love that the monster grows and disappears before their eyes--we had a really great flannel board for this at my old library, need to get one for Sticks! For the Younger Elementary crowd:   Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat , Stan & Jan Berenstain This came out

For all of its' flaws, Facebook is great on your birthday. I woke up to a way-too-early-alarm-clock and the pinging of Facebook updates. Through blurry eyes and whiskers--Hemmy decided to wake me up by laying on my neck--I read the first of many birthday messages. Instant gratification. I felt loved. Aside from the fact that I had to go to work today, and couldn't stay in my pajamas all day, it was a good day: the ladies were sweet as pie and bought me lunch; I managed to get all my annual work evaluations done (DREAD OVER! WOO HOO!); I responded to the 80+ emails that had accumulated over my long weekend; I got caught up on paperwork, and by golly, my desk is cleared off! A good day, indeed! Now I'm home and getting ready for a birthday dinner with Grumpy and Prairie Dawn. Grumpy is a townie who I've recently begun hanging with; he's one of those slightly-chip-on-his-shoulder-grouchy-heart-of-gold-guys, like Luke on Gilmore Girls, or Nick on New Girl, or Grump

I had another 4 day weekend--so glad I'm spreading out my vacation days this way--and split the time between my brother A3's family in the Cleveland area, and in Michigan. My Friday night/Saturday night/Sunday morning meant talking about Baby #2, who's due in February; chasing my niece S (now 1.5 years old!) around the house, and listening to her as she spoke REAL words! And some weird Ewok-esque language. She has learned the nickname that half my nieces and nephews call me, and now calls me by name, loves to sit with me, and begs for me to hold her. And I, ever the doting auntie, can't soak up enough of this. I laughed with her, smiled when she shouted things like "RUN!" at me (during a game of chase), and marveled at this wonder who is already counting to 3. Suffice to say, it was hard to leave Sunday morning. Next I was off to my favorite aunties for a visit with Dad's family, and particularly, with my Godmother who lives in Florida. It was a nice v

Cockroaches and eyeballs! Our table cloth Spiders and bugs hanging in webs! Best thing on the table: WITCHES FINGERS: pretzels covered in chocolate (dyed green), with almond finger nails. Zombie signage Zombie signage We recently hosted a teen Zombie Prom at the Library; Prairie Dawn had a great time doing "The Creep," with the kids, enjoying snacks, and other gross-out games. Thought I'd share some photos!

..." Once upon a time a farmer planted a little seed. in his garden, and after a while it sprouted and became a vine and bore many squashes. One day in October, when they were ripe, he picked one and took it to market. A grocerman bought and put it in his shop. That same morning, a little girl in a brown hat and blue dress, with a round face and snub nose, went and bought it for her mother. She lugged it home, cut it up, and boiled it in the big pot, mashed some of it salt and butter, for dinner. And to the rest she added a pint of milk, two eggs, four spoons of sugar, nutmeg, and some crackers, put it in a deep dish, and baked it till it was brown and nice, and next day it was eaten by a family named March..." -- Little Women , Louisa May Alcott Well, my tale's a little different: Once upon a time a librarian planted a seed in the ear of a farmer nearby--"Let the library storytime children come for a hayride and pumpkin picking, please?" Her

Do yourself a favor and make this bad boy: Roasted Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burritos. Wash and cube a sweet potato Toss the sweet potato cubes in olive oil, salt, dash of chili powder, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. cumin Roast sweet potato for an hour at 350F, until the sweet potatoes are soft 10 minutes before the sweet potatoes are done, mix in drained and rinsed black beans Warm tortillas for 5 minutes Fill your tortilla shell with beans and sweet potatoes, top with cheddar cheese, salsa, and green onions (and whatever other toppings you like) Enjoy! Maybe I'm going to be having this for breakfast... All this burrito love deserves a theme song .

So many things I want to talk about! More on that soon, but until then I did want to share some pics of my mini-vacation-long-weekend! I drove down to Mummy Dearest's in NC on the sunniest and most glorious fall day! Clouds over Tennessee! We bought fresh flounder and shrimp--caught that morning!--from Gay's Seafood. Not sure what these are called, I'm calling them trawling boats. Mummy Dearest and I woke early on our last morning and watched the sunrise over the Atlantic. We were rewarded with dolphins! Little Fish (7 yrs. old) and I built this sand castle--she's got quite the designers eye!

Hello, My Name is Ruby , is the sweetest of  sweet sweet stories, and in true Philip C. Stead's style, the text is endearing, "...sometimes I do not feel small...would you like to see?" --the next page shows a flock of small birds making an elephant shape, in line with other elephants, very Swimmy-esque. Stead's signature beautiful artwork is present, his pictures always so stunning and colorful (watch a demo of Stead CREATING !) Can we just say that I love that things as simple as squiggly lines can make up tufts of fur or feathers! So beautiful! I think kids will enjoy the themes of the books: friendship, being yourself, loneliness, feeling like a part of something, and the adventurous spirit of Ruby. I think children will love talking about the pictures, most especially all the different birds...I just LOVED it.

Living in corn country has its advantages, namely...corn. This fall has made me homesick for beautiful New England at this time of year, and the part of Michigan where I grew up--both areas rife with beautiful foliage: fierce oranges and reds, sharp yellows; colors as crisp as the fall smell in the air. I went for a walk this past week and though these are not the most beautiful fall leaves I've ever seen, I was just glad to find some colors! I took solace in the cool evening, in the rain, and in the running into a friend and being invited in for conversation. I went home decidely less homesick. As you read this, I will still probably be in South Carolina on the ocean with my dear friends; sleeping near the ocean in a tent, enjoying weather so unlike what's happening in the Midwest...it will be hard to leave later today.  I'll bring some sand back for you...

  I'm on Hunting Island, South Carolina on the OCEAN!! Since I'm not blogging while I'm here, I took the opp to have ready-posts, some pics I've taken recently. Just look at this handsome devil! I've got two of these horrendous orange--I love them!--chairs. This one is obviously Hemmy's. While I work this lazy, adorable bugger snoozes.

I work a half day today, then I'm headed out on the open road to North Carolina, to Mummy Dearest and family. Friday we're headed to South Carolina and the salty smell of the sea. SO excited. Any guesses as to where we'll be staying?? Here's a clue:

What we hope ours look like... The one thing that was always hard for me when I was a children's librarian was coming up with fun crafts. I'm not a crafty person. And I don't really enjoy doing crafts--I blame this on my bf Kim, who used to force me to make jewelery and neon bracelets during our middle school years. Prairie Dawn loves coming up with crafts and art projects and loves Pinterest and scouting out great ideas. And what great idea did she come up with for this fall? A buckeye necklace. People in Ohio (at least my part of Ohio) take football very seriously, and the college team to root for is the Ohio State Buckeye (go Maize and Blue!--what? I'm from Michigan!). I didn't know what a buckeye was until I moved here...I mean growing up and watching sports I was dumbfounded...their mascot is...what the hell? Anyway, buckeyes are nuts--poisonous to people!!--replicated by Ohioans in a dessert which is basically a chocolate covered peanut butter ball tha

Prairie Dawn has recently begun to introduce nonfiction into her storytimes--we do 3/week: Toddlers, Family, and 4s &5s--and the kids are loving it! She recently did a turtles themed storytime which aside from the "aww!" factor of some of the photos of baby turtles, was great because the kids loved loved loved talking about turtles, sharing what they know, and asking questions. Introducing nonfiction: helps kids connect with their real surroundings broadens vocabulary by introducing new and more challenging words helps build up developing brains--new information gets taken in and stored in developing minds opens a door for great discussions with your young learners According to Susan Canizares, PhD, in "Early Literacy: How to Introduce Nonfiction to Young Children: "Good nonfiction contains the essence of life--pieces of the "story" about who we are, about the animals and plants with which we share our inhabitance of the earth, and about h

For those of you trying to keep track of how libraries are being affected by this government shutdown: from the article , "The Government Shutdown and Libraries," by George M. Eberhart "Here’s a snapshot of how the library community is affected until the budget situation is resolved: The Library of Congress buildings are closed to the public, and its  website  is inaccessible, except for  THOMAS ,  Congress.gov , and Cataloger’s Desktop . However, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine still offers access to LC and other agencies before their websites went dark. The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped  is closed. All federally funded presidential libraries and all  National Archives  facilities are closed (except for the Federal Records Centers and the Federal Register). The Smithsonian and other federal museums and galleries are closed. Federal agencies are not engaging in social media, and federal workers are  barred from readi