Polar Express Movie Party and Meet Santa

Today was so exhausting. I can't even begin to describe how drained I am right now.

We technically billed this day as two separate programs; Polar Express Movie Party first at 10:00 am, and then Meet Santa beginning at 12:30. However, I am blogging them together in one big lump of Christmas cheer.

The whole thing about the Polar Express party started a little over a month ago. The idea for the program was pitched to our youth services team, but we decided not to do it in favor of Snow Day. Snow Day was insanely popular, and had a much more inclusive "winter" theme than just the "Christmas" theme that a Polar Express party would have. So, the deadline for the December newsletter came and went without a mention of Polar Express at our branch (another branch did plan a Polar Express party that did not include a showing of the movie).

Long after the deadline, the party was brought up in a meeting and my manager's manager asked our team to plan it even though it did not appear in the newsletter. In that meeting we brainstormed a lot of ideas for the day, including showing the movie and having Santa visit the library. December 23rd was chosen for that day, mostly because it was the only available Saturday in December, but also to accommodate families who might not be able to afford pictures with Santa, or have a chance to visit Santa earlier in the month. And so, a movie license was purchased, a Santa was found on Craigslist (background checked and registered as a vendor with the city to get paid), and the program room was blocked off for us.

We made a sign! The train drawing at the bottom
shows the extent of my artistic ability.

The movie party went well, but attendance was much, much lower than hoped or expected. We bought juice and made popcorn for over 100 people, and only 25 came to watch the movie.

Millions of juice pouches

Nicole making popcorn

Kids watching the movie.

After the movie, we made the announcement that Santa would be coming at 12:30 for DIY pictures with kids and families. Because there were so many snacks and juice pouches left over, I left the program room open and stayed in there for about 45 minutes. We had a couple of families stay there as well, enjoying popcorn and juice, as well as the holiday music I put on the speakers. Before long, it was time for Santa to arrive!

I have to give a shout out to Anna (of Homeschool Corner fame) and her amazing dad, Ken. They are both very talented artists with the Sonoran Arts League in Cave Creek, AZ. Anna paints and makes jewelry, and Ken is an amazing sculptor who uses wood and metal in his work. He was willing to drive this fantastic, hand-made wooden throne to Mesa from his house in North Phoenix (about a 50 minute drive in good traffic) so that we had a fancy place for Santa to sit that wasn't a regular plastic chair. He brought Anna and the grandkids with him, so they all got a chance to hang out at the library and chill with Santa Claus.

Ken's beautiful hand-made wooden throne.

After Santa got settled, we had a lot of families line up to meet him and take pictures. I took some as well, and got permission from guardians to post the following adorable pics:

Ken, Madi, and Anna with Santa

Me, Anna, Ken, Madi, and baby Micah with Santa

After about an hour, we moved Santa and his throne into the children's area in the main part of the library for more exposure to our patrons.

Before he left, the three librarians on duty got a picture with Santa, too.

The librarians with Santa!

The biggest programming lesson I learned from this event was not to leave things to the last minute. Even though we got a lot of exposure online thanks to our marketing team, I know a lot of our patrons get their info about our programs directly from the printed newsletter. Even though attendance wasn't what we hoped for, the Polar Express movie party and Santa day were a lot of (very exhausting) fun. Now pardon me while I nap forever. Happy holidays!

Learn & Grow with Rhythm & Flow 12-22-17: Special Guest and Hanukkah Presentation

In the last two weeks of December, my library system traditionally does not hold storytimes because of low attendance. A lot of people are out of town, or have family in town and don't want to leave them to come to the library. However, I accidentally scheduled Learn and Grow with Rhythm and Flow for today, where it would have been on a normal month. Instead of going through the very difficult cancellation process, I just left it on the calendar. It's lucky that I did, too, because this was the only time our special guest was available to do her Hanukkah presentation for our patrons!

We have a retired volunteer named Natalie who is always an absolute joy when she helps out with programs. She loves being around kids, and is always full of great ideas for how we can expand our program participant base and partnerships with community businesses. Natalie was in the library a few weeks ago just browsing for something to read, and mentioned to me that she had a Hanukkah presentations she has been taking around to local retirement homes. My first question when I talk to anyone now is "Can you do the same thing, but at a preschool level?" She said yes, so we scheduled her and her presentation partner Nancy as special guests for December 22nd.

I spent the morning searching for preschool music having to do with Hanukkah, and found that the Kiboomers actually have a whole Hanukkah album! We used the songs "9 Little Candles," "Sweet Hannukah Gelt," and "Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel." Here is the whole album:

I also found this slightly more rock and roll version of the Dreidel Song by the Kiddie Katz, which I like more than the Kiboomers version. It's slightly easier to listen to seven times in a row. 

We started the storytime with my usual hello, because I like to provide something familiar especially when we have a guest presenter that deviates from the regular storytime formula. Then, Natalie read/paraphrased from the nonfiction book Hannukkah by Valerie Bodden. 

When she got about halfway through, I could sense the kids getting wiggly. She was at the part about menorahs, so I asked her if it was okay that we take a break and sing a song about the candles in the menorah. We sang the Kiboomers song "9 Little Candles," counting on our fingers and learning what the middle candle is called.

Then Natalie finished going through the book, alternating between historical facts and tidbits about how the holiday is celebrated in the modern world. After the book, she brought out tiny plastic dreidels and chocolate coins (gelt) for all of the kids. I allowed about ten minutes for the kids to play with the dreidels, eat their candy, and color pictures. During this time, I let the Hanukkah music play, bringing attention to "Sweet Hannukah Gelt" and "Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel." 

Source: TwistyNoodle.com

When it was about time for storytime to be over, I brought the attention back to the front of the room and we sang out goodbye song and had bubbles. I invited the families to stick around if they wanted, ask our presenters questions, and finish coloring their pictures. My biggest regret of the day was that I got no pictures of all the fun! So here is the model/librarian in a dress I want, to fill space where pictures of my program would go if I were a better multi-tasker.

Here is a list of books I had displayed today:

• Hanukkah by Valerie Bodden
• Honeyky Hanukah by Woody Guthrie (yeah, THAT Woody Guthrie. It comes with a CD)
• Chanukah Lights Everywhere by Michael L. Rosen
• I Have a Little Dreidel by Maxie Baum
• The Hanukkah Mice by Steven Kroll
• My Two Grandmothers by Effin Older
• The Hanukkah Trike by Michele Edwards
• Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah by Olga and Aleksey Ivanov
• Maccabee! The Story of Hanukkah by Tilda Balsley
• Hoppy Hanukkah! by Linda Glaser
• Hanukkah: Eight Lights Around the World by Susan Sussman
• Hanukkah Moon by Deborah da Costa
• The Best Hanukkah Ever by Barbara Diamond Goldin

YA Diversity Book Club 2017

My vision for this book club is to provide a space for all teens who enjoy reading and talking about what they've read. I put the word "diversity" in the title because we focus on books in which the characters belong to marginalized communities: racial, ethnic, disabled, LGBTQ+, homeless, mental illness, abuse, etc. I have found that reading books that explore marginalization is a great way to open up the conversation in a non-threatening way. After reading these books, kids will open up about similar experiences they have been through or witnessed their friends going through. It's part book club, part safe space, and part social; I want my teens to leave this club knowing that I am here for them, as are their new friends, if they are having a hard time for any reason.

Since I have not been keeping up with entries about my teen book club since I started it in the summer, I figured I would do a 2017 wrap up and then start monthly entries about it in 2018 as meetings happen.

Reception about this program has been varied, because the type of highly-motivated teens that a book club tends to attract are also super busy with other extracurricular activities. During the summer, a lot of our teen volunteers were very involved, but that dropped off in September when everyone went back to school. I still have exactly one very involved member, who has been doing their best to talk it up at school and their other activities. For the moment, however, I am just working on getting the word out and recruiting more teen readers.

January will be a planning meeting where I'm asking the kids what they would like to read. I am trying to lure them with pizza, so we'll see if I get any new members.......

In the meantime, here are the books we read in 2017 along with Goodreads links, why they fall into the category of diverse books, and a short review.

September: If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan

I fell in complete love with this book. Farizan does an amazing job of explaining the difference between being gay and being trans to readers that might not understand it, without breaking out of the character's voice. The ending was heartbreaking, but also exactly what I hoped would happen.

It's diverse because: Iranian culture, LGBTQ+ themes (lesbian and trans)

October: All-American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brandon Kiely

I actually originally read this book for a class in grad school about YA literature. It's very timely because it talks a lot about a Black Lives Matter-esque movement without actually using the name of the real-life movement. Alternating between the POVs of two teen boys, one white and one black, we get to see all sides of a story dealing with police brutality.

It's diverse because: Racial issues and teaching tolerance

November: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

I have to say, I am not usually a fan of fantasy, but I loved this book! It's like the Harry Potter universe, except the kids sometimes drink, curse, and have sex. The spells are also much more modern, and it explores the idea of magic being a concrete substance that you can own, spend, and run out of. Also, Rowell does an amazing job of writing in British voices across all six or seven narrators, even though she herself is American. Halfway through reading I found out that it is actually the book from Rowell's other novel, Fangirl, and was written after Fangirl was published and popular. Now I have to read that one as well!

It's diverse because: British culture, LGBTQ+ themes (gay)

December: None of the Above by I. W. Gregorio

I read this book last year and did not have a chance to re-read it before our December meeting, but I still remembered it well enough to have a conversation about it with the one member who showed up. I like it because it is written by a doctor who specializes in Intersex patients, so all the medical facts are correct. Gregorio also does a great job of capturing all the characters' emotions, especially the main character's. What I dislike about this book is the utter cliche that is Kristin's high school life. She's a pretty, popular athlete who desperately wants to win Homecoming Queen and have sex with her boyfriend, and then it all comes crashing down when she finds out that what has been masquerading inside her as ovaries are actually testicles. The only downside to the diagnosis as far as I can tell is not being able to have biological children, if you wanted them. Otherwise, the devastation Kristin experiences and the merciless bullying her schoolmates subject her to when they find out seems incredibly dramatic and over the top. The best character is the mentor she finds through an Intersex support group, a self-assured lesbian who helps her understand her condition and develop a new outlook on life. But, it's a worthwhile read and a great example for teens of how to accept yourself no matter what curve balls life throws at you.

It's diverse because: LGBTQ+ themes (intersex)

Gingerbread Geometry

Another awesome winter program!

Also, another program that I did not technically plan, but did help out with the staffing. Sara planned this one with another staff member who got sick unexpectedly, so I jumped in to help pass out materials and answer questions. It ended up being a total blast; we took the tradition of making gingerbread houses and added a mathematical twist!

Materials:

• Graham crackers (6 per child)
• Icing (Can be store bought, or made using powdered sugar and water)
• Assortment of candy for decorating
• Plastic table covering
• Plastic knives (one per child)
• Ruler (one per child)
• Disposable trays (one per child)

Using graham crackers instead of gingerbread was key for this program, for a couple of reasons. One, easier to find and cheaper to purchase. Two, they are perfectly rectangular.

Step one: Give each child six graham crackers.
Step two: Cut one inch off of two of your graham crackers.
Step three: Using icing, form a rectangle with the graham crackers to be the walls of your house.

At this point, there was a discussion about area. The audience was slightly younger than I think Sara was anticipating. She was planning to have tweens who would understand math concepts, but we ended up with a couple of tweens and the rest under five years old. So she skipped having them write down the wall measurements and then multiplying those measurements to find the area of the house. She also briefly explained what the volume of a shape is, but skipped the written part of figuring out the volume of our houses. In case you want to do this with an older age group, here is that information (the inch measurements are not exact, just examples. As a group you can measure your crackers and figure out the exact measurements).

Area: The side of a surface
Area = width x height; A=wh

Long sides of the graham crackers are 5 inches (length). Short sides are 4 inches (width). The area of the gingerbread houses are length times width, or 5x4=20. The area of your house is 20 inches.

Volume: The measure of the amount of space inside a solid figue
Volume = length x width x height; V=lwh

Long sides of the graham crackers are 5 inches (length). Short sides are 4 inches (width). When standing up, the crackers are 2 inches tall (height). The volume of the gingerbread houses are 5x4x2=40. 

Instead of doing the math with pencils and paper, we moved on to the next part of the building.

Step four: Use your remaining two graham crackers to add a triangular or flat roof
Step five: Decorate with icing and candy!

While we had a few families attempt the triangular roof, the icing dried too slowly and most of the kids opted for the easier flat roof.

Before we started, I made 12 individual cups with some of each kind of candy: Twizzlers, Red Hots, those buttery dinner mints, individually wrapped peppermints, and gum drops. This way there was no fighting over candy because each participant had the exact same thing in their cup, and everyone had the same amount of icing (a powdered sugar/water mixture in baggies for easy piping) to decorate with. Check out their amazing creations!

The roof is a monster face eating candy!

East Valley Children's Theater Presents "The Tortoise and Mrs. Claus"

Today, the amazing East Valley Children's Theater (EVCT) visited our library with their original holiday play, "The Tortoise and Mrs. Claus." I wasn't sure how many people would show up for a straight-ahead play with no interactive aspect, but was pleasantly surprised with 48 audience members. The actors were all between the ages of ten and thirteen years old and much of the audience were their family members, but I also spotted some new library patrons and some storytime regulars in the mix.

Before the production, one of the kids (possibly the stage manager) came up and explained how EVCT writes their shows. They begin by picking a title as a group. Without any other information, this group picked "The Tortoise and Mrs. Claus" for their December show. Then, they collectively did a lot of writing exercises and improvisation activities, under the guidance of an their adult director, until the premise of the show was born. They formed their own characters, wrote their own lines, and completely created the 30 minute show we saw! The group mostly tours retirement homes and libraries, and do all their performances for free. It was a great program to add to our December calendar, and I would definitely have them back again when they are touring their next show!

All the Books I Read in 2017

My goal is to write a short review of every book I read as I read it. I read 58 books this year. While typing out this list, I realized I have something to say about almost every single one, so maybe reviews are forthcoming. But for now, since 2017 is almost over and I didn't do that this year, here are all the books I read from 1/1/2017 to 12/31/2017.

PS, I did write reviews for Thirteen Reasons Why and We All Looked Up for a fellow librarian's blog, Hello Yellow Room. Click the links to read, and check out her site while you're there!

PPS, yes, I did read all 58 of these books this year. Yes, that's more than one a week. Yes, it's possible. I read about this much every year I am not in school, maybe half as much when I am in school. I tend to read several at a time and also listen to audiobooks while I'm driving. Also, because I like to keep up with children's lit, a lot of them are intended for a younger audience. Please don't judge my choices, all literature is valid and I would happily defend any of these to you if you ask. Yes, even Fifty Shades of Grey and the memoirs written rather poorly by people who have stories to tell, but who are not writers.

PPPS, ask me why I picked up any of these books. Ask me whether I liked them. Ask me which I own and which I had to give back to the library. Ask me which I bought after reading the library's copy because I loved it so much. Ask me which were a pleasant surprise, and which were disappointing. Ask me how I felt about anything about anything I read, or ask me why I didn't read your favorite book in 2017. I love to talk to strangers about books.

Middle Grade Fiction:

• The Library Card by Jerry Spinelli
• The Witches by Roald Dahl
• Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
• Wonder by R. J. Palacio
• Smile by Raina Telgemeier
• 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass
• Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle
• Five, Six, Seven, Nate! by Tim Federle
• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

YA Fiction:

• House of Stairs by William Sleator
• Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
• Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
• Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
• We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach
• Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han
• Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles
• Burned by Ellen Hopkins
• 99 Days by Katie Cotugno
• If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan
• Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony
• Amity by Micol Ostow
• Kissing Doorknobs by Terry Spencer Hesser
• The Summer I Wasn't Me by Jessica Verdi
• History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund
• Pregnant Pause by Han Nolan
• Girl [hearts] Girl by Lucy Sutcliffe
• Lock-In by Jonathan Mary-Todd
• What You Left Behind by Jessica Verdi
• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
• Tenderness by Robert Cormier
• Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
• Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan (12 book series)

Adult Fiction:

• Still Alice by Lisa Genova
• Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
• A Game for All the Family by Sophie Hannah
• Whiskey Moth by A. M. Wegelin
• The First Bad Man by Miranda July
• Fight Club 2 by Chuck Palahniuk
• Room by Emma Donoghue
• Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James
• Triangles by Ellen Hopkins

Adult Nonfiction:

• The Doctor Will See You Now by Tamer Seckin
• Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall
• January First by Michael Schofield
• Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
• Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

2017 Middle Grade/Tween Fiction:

        

 2017 Young Adult/Teen Fiction:

                  

 

2017 Adult Fiction:

       

2017 Adult Nonfiction: