It's hard to keep up with anything during the Summer Reading Club!

Whew!  The past few weeks since our Summer Reading Club started on May 20 have been a blur!  Even before that we were busy because we were promoting the club at the local schools.

Friday we had a big "passive program" where for several hours there were different stations set up right in our department, and families could drop by whenever and do the activities as they pleased.  It definitely took a lot of preparation by my coworker Theresa, but she did a great job!  The whole day was a sort of controlled chaos.  There were tons of people, and the craft tables did need to be restocked regularly, but nothing got out of control.

Everything went along with our theme of Dig Into Reading, whether it was mummies or Egypt or cave drawings.  It was great to look around the department and see kids happily dressing up in costumes, throwing bean bags through holes in board, doing crafts, adding to our scratch art mural, reading, etc!  I could see so many of the early literacy practices at work: reading, writing, playing, talking - and I'm sure at least someone in there was singing!  It was a great way for families to have fun - and learn things maybe without realizing it! - for free!

These kinds of "passive programs" (I use the quotes because they're not entirely passive and do require work) are a great idea for any library.

Booktalks for Juvenile Chapter Books

I've been working on some booktalks to do for local fourth grade classes, so I thought I'd share some of my favorites that I've written.  I won't be reading these word-for-word to the kids, but I like to write a paragraph to get my thoughts in an order that sounds good.

Geeks, Girls and Secret Identities

by Mike Jung

Vincent Wu is president of the Captain Stupendous Fan Club. It may not be the Official fan club - in fact, it may be the smallest fan club in history - but NOBODY knows more about the world's active superheroes and supervillains than Vincent, George, and Max. Like every kid in Copperplate City they show up every time they get a Stupendous Alert on their phones, hoping to see Stupendous take down a hostile space alien or giant radioactive spider. But Captain Stupendous has been acting strange lately, ever since he rescued Polly Winnicott-Lee (whom Vincent totally does NOT have a crush on, maybe) and failed to take down the giant robot creation of a brand new supervillian named Professor Mayhem. Can Vincent and his friends help Stupendous get his mojo back? And what does Polly have to do with all this? Find out in this high-powered adventure of friendship and kicking butt.

Dorko the Magnificent

by Andrea Beaty

Fifth grader Robbie Darko wants nothing more than to be a world-class magician.  Unfortunately, most of his previous tricks have either started a fire or sent an amphibian flying at the school principal’s face.  On top of these career setbacks, Robbie is being forced to share a room with the little brother he calls Ape Boy so that a crazy old lady he’s somehow related to can move in.  Grandma Melvyn never smiles, yells at the TV during Wheel of Fortune, calls everyone Trixie, and seems determined to make Robbie’s life miserable.  But Grandma Melvyn also has a secret, one that could change Robbie’s magic act – and his life – forever.

A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story

by Linda Sue Park

Nya, an eleven-year-old girl living in southern Sudan in 2008, walks for hours each day to get water for her family to drink. Even then, the water they drink can be dirty and make them sick. But strangers have come to Nya's village with tools and trucks and a huge drill, ready to build something that will provide fresh, clean water right in the center of the village. Back in 1985, eleven-year-old Salva has fled from his school, also in southern Sudan. The war between the Sudanese government and the southern rebels has come to Salva's neighborhood, and people are scattering all over the country. Salva does not know what lies ahead of him - seemingly endless walking, near starvation, animal attacks, personal tragedy, packed refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, a foster family in the United States - he can only move forward one step at a time. Eventually, Nya and Salva will meet in a future that is brighter for the people of southern Sudan.

Here Where the Sunbeams Are Green

by Helen Phillips

Sisters Mad (Madeline) and Roo (Ruby) haven't heard from their dad - a famous ornithologist called the "Bird Guy" - in months. He's been in Central America, searching for an almost-extinct species of bird called the Lava-Throated Volcano trogon at the famous La Lava Resort and Spa. Mad is worried because their dad's last letter was strange, a part of a series of strange happenings that she calls The Weirdness. The mystery only deepens when the sisters arrive at La Lava and discover that everyone, from the workers at the spa to their own dad, seems to be hiding something. Their only hope is the teenage Spanish tutor and jungle guide, Kyle, and his family's ancient story about a volcano goddess and the magnificent bird that was once her true love...

Girls vs. Boys and "Teaching Time"

I recently read this article on NPR and found it extremely interesting.

It's about a study by professors in two Canadian universities that analyzed survey data from Canada, the US, and the UK about the amount of time parents spend with their children on certain activities.  The most surprising finding, and the focus of the article, is the fact that parents report spending more time on "teaching" type activities with girls than with boys.  These activities include reading to the child or practicing letters or numbers.

There are a number of possible causes for this, although nothing is known for certain.  Some of the theories mentioned in the article are that girls might be naturally more inclined toward teaching activities, that parents might unconsciously respond to cultural biases saying girls read and boys engage in active play, or that it may take more effort to get a boy to sit still and pay attention to teaching activities than with a girl.

Whatever the reason, it's clear that caregivers should be making a conscious effort to spend more "teaching time" with boys.  This article cites a trend towards higher reading and math test scores for girls than for boys, once children enter school.  There is a very real possibility that this discrepancy is due to girls' greater time spent on early learning activities in the home.

The good news is that teaching activities do NOT have to be quiet, sit-down activities, if that's not what the child in question prefers.  An active boy (or girl!) may be more comfortable with books that feature a lot of action, like those I use in Wee Dance! Party programs.  They may want to act out stories more often than they sit and listen to them.  Letters and numbers can also be practiced through active play, whether it's rearranging magnetic letters or counting numbered blocks as they build a tower.  There are also plenty of great songs for children that encourage dancing and movement while practicing basic academic skills.

And anyone spending time with children should always remember the 5 early literacy practices that we children's librarians recommend:  Read!  Write!  Sing!  Talk!  Play!  If a child has an adult to do these 5 things with, he or she is off to a great start in life!

A Day in the Life of a Librarian

Sometimes I get the feeling that many people don't know what we librarians do all day.  Surprisingly enough, we don't just sit at the desk and read or walk around shelving books.  Here's an example of a typical day for me from this past spring.

8:45 AM - Come in to work; help turn on all the lights and computers.

9-10 AM - Check email; work on reordering damaged books that were waiting for me on my desk; look through some of the new picture books in my online cart to possibly order.

10-10:45 AM - Prepare for Toddler Time by reading through books and practicing flannel stories and songs.

10:45-11 AM - Set up for Toddler Time by arranging a table of information and books to check out; line up all the books and props so the storytime will run smoothly; greet parents and kids who've come for Toddler Time.

11-11:45 AM - Toddler Time and playtime with the toys afterwards.

11:45 AM-12 PM - Clean up Toddler Time; record statistics; put away nametags.

12-1 PM - Lunch.

1-3 PM - Pull books from a weeding list to decide if we still need them in the collection; continue going through possible new books to order by reading reviews and checking our current collection; work on display of book covers from popular genres; begin planning storytime for a group visit.

3-5:15 PM - Sit at the reference desk and answer questions from patrons that range from helping find a book for a school project, to directing them to the bathroom or circulation desk, or demonstrating how to print from internet computers; continue to work on book covers display to make sure there is a variety of reading levels and diverse protagonists; check request pull list and locating the materials; freshen up displays with new books and other materials when they are checked out; answer phone calls and emails; record statistics; remind young patrons of acceptable library behavior and direct them towards books or puzzles or the craft table.

And things will only get more crazy with Summer Reading Club starting soon!

Wee Dance! Party - April

I had another Wee Dance! Party this morning, and it went very well.  They were a very well-behaved group, which was good because I was trying something new that could have gotten a little crazy with a bigger or wilder group.

Today's Wee Dance! was about bears, partially because my manager Abby gave me a new book called Tiptoe Joe by Ginger Foglesong Gibson.  This book worked great for Wee Dance!  It features animals moving and making noise in different ways: an owl goes "swish swish," a donkey goes "clop clop," etc.  I also chose bears because I wanted to try the famous action song, "We're Going on a Bear Hunt."



Now, traditionally, the participants go on a bear hunt in order to "catch a big one," and when the bear is finally spotted in a cave, the participants scream and run (in place) back the way they came.  I wanted to attempt the bear hunt for its action elements and review of prepositions, but I had to tweak it for two reasons.  First, I wanted to actually move around the room instead of just doing actions in place, and second, I didn't want kids to scream and freak out and start running everywhere.  So in my version, we were looking for my friend, Benny the Bear (a black bear puppet), and we encountered a "bump in the road" (rolled up tablecloth) to go over, a "tall forest" (two stand-up signs) to go through, and a "big hill" (large table) to go under.  This worked great!  And everyone got to hug Benny when we found him.

The other elements I used were the books Make a Wish, Bear (by Greg Foley) and This is My Dance: A Move-to-It Book (by Susan James - a board book), and the songs "Dance with Your Teddy Bear" (from Jumpin' and Jammin' by Greg and Steve) and "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" (from Wee Sing 25th Anniversary Collection by Pamela Beall).





One thing that really helped control the kids this time was that I made a line on the floor with blue painter's tape, and with me on one side, they had to stay on the other.  Normally, I get a crowd of kids who creep closer and closer to me as we go, and it gets harder to hold a book for them to see or demonstrate a dance move.  I will definitely be using the painter's tape again!

ILF District 6 Conference

This past Friday I was at the annual conference for District 6 of the Indiana Library Federation.  It was a great time!  The library in North Vernon, IN was really spacious and lovely.  The keynote speaker at the conference was Michael Cart, a writer and former library director in Beverly Hills, CA.  He had some great stories about celebrities and some interesting insights on the current status and future of young adult literature.  Even though it was a small event compared to the larger library conferences that I've been to in the past, there was also still a great variety of breakout sessions.

I went to one session put on by Baker & Taylor (our book vendor) where they described their new platform for ebooks and e-audio.  It seems like a really cool program, so I'll be interested to see if we decide our library should have it.  My next session was about the Common Core standards being implemented in Indiana schools.  It was mostly intended for school librarians, but they did give a lot of resources for meeting the new standards that could be useful for us.

My third breakout session, about storytimes incorporating dance and music, was probably the most useful to me.  I got a lot of ideas for Wee Dance! Parties.  I've already been thinking about doing a "Going on a Bear Hunt" activity, and one of the ideas presented was to tape out a path on the floor for a similar game.  I also can't wait to try out some adult music (like the Beatles or Motown), play "keep the beach ball in the air," use our beanbags and rhythm sticks more, try freeze dancing, do the limbo, and cut out pretend steering wheels from paper plates to use with some sort of car song.  It'll be so fun!

The final session I went to was about using an online system for a summer reading program.  Like the library the speakers were from, we will be using Evanced.  I think it will make things really streamlined to use Evanced for registering and recording patron's reading, so I'm looking forward to it.  I haven't experienced a summer reading program at this library before, though, so I'm not quite sure what to expect!

Little ones and screentime

I just finished reading this article in The Atlantic called "The Touch-Screen Generation," and it's really making me think about the relationship children today have with technology and what their caregivers and other adults should do about it.  As a children's librarian, anything about kids and media immediately has my attention and concern.  In grad school we talked a lot about the recommendation by the American Society of Pediatrics that children under age two have NO passive screentime.  And then after age two, we want them to be doing really educational things, right?

Maybe.  I love the argument that this article made for the concept of play.  I think you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't see the value of play for children, but I haven't often heard that value be ascribed to technological play as well.  And why not?  If an app that allows a toddler to build virtual towers out of virtual blocks follows the laws of physics, is that not reinforcing these physics concepts?  And if the app intentionally disregards physics and allows blocks to fly through the air, does that not stimulate imagination?  I'd never heard of some of the open-ended apps the article mentions (such as those from Toca Boca), but they sound like a great example of exploratory play.  Just learning to navigate with a tablet or other technology may also be invaluable for whatever field of study or career the child might one day begin.

Is there such a thing as too much tech time?  Of course.  I still think life is about balance, and just as kids of yesteryear were told they shouldn't read books ALL day everyday and should go outside and run around for a while, so I think it's smart for today's parents to say, "That's enough iPad time for right now; go play catch with your sister and you can come back to it later."  As the article points out, though, kids probably know this for themselves already or can learn it.  As awesome as the iPad is, eventually a kid will get sick of it just as he or she gets sick of any other toy.

The one thing about technology is that I hope it doesn't become a way for parents to spend less time with their kids than they already do.  I wouldn't want a parent to think that handing the kid an iPad with "educational" games is the equivalent of spending quality time with them.  Now, I'm not a parent, but I'm sure there are times when parents need a break and some high-quality apps can provide that for them.  But there's a difference between taking a break for a little bit and relying on technology to teach and interact with your children.

I hope that tablets and their apps become just one more aspect of children's lives, alongside and with approximately equal weight to books, music, movies, dramatic play, sports and games, nature, puzzles, conversation, and art.  Nothing more and nothing less.