Looking for new books? Try Dear Reader

Massillon Public Library offers this really cool feature on their website that I've been using for awhile and thought you might also like called "Dear Reader." Once you subscribe it will deliver an email with descriptions of new children's books in the library. Once a month, you'll get an email with a list of several good children's books to try, a picture of that book, and a little blurb describing the story. Then if it sounds good to you, there is a link right next to the picture that you can click to see if this book is available in our catalog. That makes it really easy to request that book and pick it up in our library the next time you stop in!

You can check this out by clicking here for all children's books (including chapter books, easy readers, etc.): http://www.massillonlibrary.org/node/472
or here for Picture books for chlildren: http://www.massillonlibrary.org/PictureBooks. From the library's home page, you can also click on the heading "Kid Stuff" and then select "Picture Books" or "Books for Kids" from the drop-down menu. Signing up is as easy as providing your email address!

If you like this feature, you can also subscribe to other categories too. The "Dear Reader" link off the home page allows you to choose book selections from best sellers, romance, mysteries, and many more categories. Try this link: http://www.massillonlibrary.org/booknews.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! I hope all our library families have a wonderful, turkey-filled holiday! While you're preparing that turkey, I leave you with this song. It's a great one to sing to kids while dancing around the kitchen---as long as you don't mind being silly. Happy Thanksgiving!

Fat Turkey's Song (tune: "Did You Ever See a Lassie?")

Oh, gobble, gobble, gobble,
Fat turkeys, fat turkeys.
Oh gobble, gobble, gobble,
Fat turkeys are we.
We walk very proudly and gobble so loudly,
Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble.

And if you're looking for a story before dinner, I highly recommend Alison Jackson's "I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie."

Yummy in my Tummy

Now here's a story time that you can sink your teeth into! Starting the week of November 1st, when the trick or treat bags are (hopefully) still full of candy, we'll be talking about FOOD and BAKING and getting ready for Thanksgiving in our preschool storytime sessions. With a theme called, "Yummy in my Tummy" our programmers will present stories and songs about the five senses, children cooking in the kitchen with their favorite adults, and nervous turkeys trying to run away and hide from Thanksgiving cooks.

In Yum Yum! What Fun!, Katie and James are having too much fun cooking up something delicious to notice all the strange guests who stop by. What if one of those "guests" decides to snack on them instead?
Poor little Pea is not allowed any vegetable treats for dessert until he eats all of his sweets in Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Kids who refuse to eat their veggies will relate to Little Pea in this fun twist on this age-old dinnertime problem. We'll also see what would happen if gorillas left the zoo in search of a good lunch in Gladys Goes Out to Lunch by Derek Anderson.

And just in time for Thanksgiving meals, storytime goers will watch the flannel board story of I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Allison Jackson. First she downs a jug of cider to moisten the pie (which really was too dry), then an entire squash, followed by a bowl of salad--and the whole darn turkey! Oh me, oh my!  (Although I have to admit I'm glad to hear "Oh me oh my!" used in this flannelboard story instead of the original "Perhaps she'll die" in the book. I've always been superstitious about saying that out loud when reading to the kids!)

There will be plenty of gobble, gobbles from our little preschool turkeys in songs and stories. Hope to see you at story time!

Operation Record a Story

This sounds like a great idea! Operation Record a Story lets kids hear their deployed military parent read a bedtime story to them. Publications International is donating 5,000 books to the USO and United Through Reading, who will then help military members record themselves reading the book for their children. Recording sites are located on Navy ships and at overseas bases, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan, and at select USOs worldwide. Their kids will receive in the mail both the book and a dvd of their parent reading that book out loud to them. Then they suggest that the other parent or caregiver record the child enjoying the dvd and send it back to the military parent so they can see how much it was appreciated.

Isn't that nice? The simple act of reading a bedtime story to your children, one of the most important things you can do with your child in terms of reading readiness (and just good bonding time!), can be so difficult when that parent is deployed for a long time. This makes it easier to maintain that important bedtime ritual. I imagine everyone in the family would enjoy seeing that dvd, don't you?

The titles include ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, Sesame Street: Together at Heart, Dora the Explorer and Guess How Much I Miss You. There is a fact sheet (pdf) at http://portal.pubint.com/pubint/RAS_Video_panel/Op_RAS_Fact_Sheet.pdf.

Who's Afraid of a Scarecrow?

Right now in the beautiful fall season, with all the leaves turning bright colors and the corn fields turning into seas of brown stalks, he might be hard to find. But soon, after the corn stalks are cut down from the harvest, you'll see him out there again, guarding the fields from birds and animals who wish to eat the crops. It's the scarecrow! And this week in our new storytime sessions, we pay honor to the lonely scarecrow who protects his fields no matter the weather.

Who could be afraid of a scarecrow when we listen to adorable stories such as The Little Scarecrow Boy, written by the beloved author Margaret Wise Brown? In the middle of a field stood a scarecrow who hoped that the animals and birds would be his friends, and guess what? He got his wish in the story of Lonely Scarecrow by Tim Preston. The verses written in many books can actually become a song or action verse, as we discover in the board book, I'm a Dingle-Dangle Scarecrow. The non-fiction selection, Scarecrows, by Calvin Harris, uses beautiful illustrations to help us understand how helpful scarecrows can be to our farmers everywhere!

The theme "Scarecrows" also gives the children a chance to learn their body parts through songs and rhymes about our floppy scarecrow friends and through creative movement and music as we pretend to walk and stand like a scarecrow: straight one moment, floppy the next!

This week's storytimes begin Monday, October 18. You can still sign up your children for one of our storytimes by calling the Children's Department at 330-832-5037. Hope to see you there!

What's a bookmark again?

Once or twice a week I get the chance the work at one of our branch libraries, Belloni Memorial Library, which is in the Fairless Elementary school. It's a busy place, serving as both a public library for the Fairless area and a school library to over 900 elementary students who come into the library with their class once a week. For a few years we've been putting bookmarks out on the counter and offering one to the students after they check out a book. It kind of struck me this week that most children don't have a clue what bookmarks are to be used for. However, as soon as I set that container of bookmarks on the counter, they come running to the desk.

"What's this thing again, Mrs. Brant?" one the students said. Not waiting for my answer (which I've explained over and over again), he turns to his class and shouts "They're free! You can have one!" I think that's more the appeal to them at this age anyway!

So it occurs to me to explain bookmarks to them in their language. Since most children seem to be having more "screen time" on tvs, computers, and videogames instead of books, you need to speak that language. So I held up one of our bookmarks and explained that if you were reading and your mom said to stop, you would need to "pause" the book just like you "pause" your game or dvd. Then when you come back to the book, you can "hit refresh" by opening the book back up where you left off. They nodded like they understood.

Think I got through to them this time??

Jumpstart’s Read for the Record Day

Want to help put a new book in a child's hands just by reading to your own child?

This Thursday, October 7, read Ezra Keats' The Snowy Day and help set a record for the most people reading the same book on the same day. For every copy of The Snowy Day read, the Jumpstart organization (makers of learning games) and We Give Books will donate a book to a child in need. This campaign also kicks off Jumpstart’s yearlong program, preparing preschool children in low-income neighborhoods for success in school and life. You can read more about that at jstart.org.

If you don't have a copy of this book, you can check for it at the library or read it for free online at wegivebooks.org. Make sure to register at that site to get counted for the reading record.

For teachers and homeschoolers, that website also offers different vocabulary and art activities you can do in addition to reading the story to your class.

Show your support for early literacy and read a good book with the rest of us this Thursday! How many can we get to join in from the Massillon area??