Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

As of last night, our Summer Reading counts: 44     Babies 113   K-6 43     Teen 116   Adult This is Prairie Dawn's 1st Summer Reading Program ever, so I wondered how things would work, but I never should have given it a thought--she brings great energy, a willingness to be silly, and an infectious warmth and happiness to the programs. The kids love her. The parents love her. And even the teens love her--this is a rare gift indeed! I always tell people that our library is, "small but MIGHTY!" and I really believe that. I am a HUGE proponent of FREE programs, because getting people in can result in 1. new library cards/patrons 2. increased circulation and 3. most importantly, I think, is showing people that this is not their parents/grandparents library. Often when you get someone who hasn't been in a library in years you'll here, "I didn't know you had ______." "I didn't know I could ________!" And that is when you giv...

Kids LOVE Mo Willems books. I LOVE Mo Willems books! We just love Mo Willems around here, whether it's his Piggie & Elephant series; Knufflebunny trio; or his popular Don't Let the Pigeon. .. series. Willems just gets it. He gets how to write to kids and really make them laugh. And his books make you, the reader, feel clever, like you're in on the joke too. This week, tired from Dr. Seuss overload, I switched to Mo Willems, doing: Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct Knufflebunny Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus with my storytime groups here at the library and during my Headstart visit. My Headstart kids and I turned our hand prints into Pigeon. Simple art project: Print a template of a bus (I literally googled, "Bus Template") Ask the kids to draw some people in the bus windows Ask them to draw the head and neck of the Pigeon peeking out the front (bus driver seat) window. I gave each table c...

This week at our storytimes we read wintry stories: The Snowy Day , Ezra Jack Keats (one of my all time favorite books from MY childhood) A Hat for Minerva Louise , Janet Morgan Stoeke We danced to Hap Palmer's "Rock and Roll Freeze," with our egg shakers, then we decorated winter mittens with stickers and crayons, then laced them up (this took a little bit more effort on the parents' part for the Toddlers); perfect activity for my 4 and 5 year olds. (The easy directions ; you can google mitten template if you are as art-challenged as I am!) Our cute results! Our cute results!