Display: Teen-Made Bulletin Boards

This is just a very short appreciation post for the bulletin boards our teen volunteers made in 2018. We are currently working out a schedule to have teens change out the boards every other month, so there will hopefully be more posts like this to come. I just wanted these works of art to be immortalized on the internet because they've been brightening up our library for the last few months!

Eric Carle display above the board books

Board advertising movie musicals in the teen area

A celebration of diverse and inclusive books in the teen area

Movie display in the Children's Room

Movie display in the Children's Room

All the Books I Read in 2018

This year was not as productive reading-wise as 2017. Work caught up with me big time, and I had some pretty serious health issues for the better part of 2018, so I didn't get to read nearly as much as I had hoped. Even so, I read 22 books of various genres and age levels, so here they are. Perhaps I'll write reviews on some of them in the new year.

Several of these were re-reads, either of books I read several years ago as a younger adult, or as a child. Some people feel like re-reading is a waste of time when there are so many books in the world, but I love it. Every time I re-read something I loved, I notice something different and get a new emotion or life lesson out of it. I try to read my favorite books at least once every five years. It's especially interesting to revisit your past thoughts and see how much you've grown since last time if you're one of those people who underlines passages and makes margin notes (like yours truly). Reading an old favorite book is also comforting, like a visit from an old friend. When I'm not feeling great physically or mentally, I like to revisit books I loved when I was younger.

Middle Grade/Tween Fiction

• Stef Soto, Taco Queen by Jennifer Torres
• George by Alex Gino
• Kristy's Great Idea by Ann M. Martin (Babysitter's Club #1)
• Out of my Mind by Sharon M. Draper

Young Adult/Teen Fiction

• You Don't Know Me but I Know You by Rebecca Barrow
• Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
• Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
• Playing for the Commandant by Suzy Zail
• Blubber by Judy Blume
• Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon
• Lies My Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Anne Peters
• Boys Don't Knit (In Public) by T.S. Easton
• You're Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner
• Glass by Ellen Hopkins
• The You I've Never Known by Ellen Hopkins
• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
• Paperweight by Meg Haston

Adult Fiction and Nonfiction

• The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta (fiction)
• Fiend by Peter Stenson (fiction)
• Alice and Freda Forever by Alexis Coe (nonfiction)
• Prophet's Prey by Sam Bower (nonfiction)
• The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston (ethereal mix of fiction and memoir)

2018 Middle Grade/Tween Fiction:

  
  

2018 Young Adult/Teen Fiction:

                
  

2018 Adult Fiction and Nonfiction:

    

  

December 2018 Display: RM Kids Made 2018 Great

For the end of the year, I wanted to make a bulletin board that showed all the fun we had in programs in 2018. It only took about an hour to put this board together, including printing out the pictures and finding the right letters in our stash of bulletin board supplies. I haven't made a bulletin board or display lately, so it was fun to dress up our children's area with colors and pictures of program regulars.

PS. If you're wondering about the RM, my library is the Red Mountain branch.

I included programs from other children's librarians at our branch as well as my own, and tried to focus on pictures that showcased the kids participating as opposed to our staff (it was difficult not to include the cute picture of my coworker and I reading the stuffed animals a bedtime story for the Stuffed Animal Sleepover in January, but the pic of Dr. T-Rex mingling with a big group of kiddos was better representation of our programs). March was slow and I didn't find any good pictures from that month, but all the others are represented!

January: Dr. T-Rex Science
February: Bird Feeder Challenge
April: National Pet Day
May: Family Sign Language Storytime
June: Bowling for Kids
July: Theater Day Camp
August: Sensory Playtime for Babies
September: Pirate Playtime
October: Halloween Boo
November: V is for Voting
December: No Snow, Snow Day

Get Twisty!

Sometimes when I'm short on programs, I refer to those online calendars that list every single local and national holiday that's ever been celebrated. That's how I found out that National Tongue Twister Day is November 8th. I wanted to have a tongue twister program, but couldn't figure out what we would actually DO in that program until I started searching for tongue twister-related crafts and activities. Thanks to a bunch of websites I didn't keep track of, I came up with a plan.

Station 1: Craft
Using only markers and construction paper, you can make this awesome tongue twister craft! I took it one step further and actually cut a slit in the mouth with scissors so the tongue could literally stick through. Some of the results were terrifying (mostly mine because I can't draw faces) and others were downright adorable. This is an example from Teaching Madness. Unfortunately, I was too busy running the program to get pictures of what our patrons made.

Station 2: Twister

I ordered the actual game of Twister for this program. When I was clicking around Amazon looking for the best version, I found out that Finger Twister is a thing, too! I had to order two Finger Twisters in addition to an extra-large Twister board.

Station 3: Tongue Twisters

Of course, no tongue twister program would be complete without people actually reading them aloud. I set up the microphone and encouraged everyone to pick a tongue twister out of a hat and step up to the mic. Everyone who read one was entered into a drawing to win one of four prizes: the two Finger Twister sets, a small tongue twister coloring book, or a 3D printed Einstein with his tongue sticking out. 

This is just the 3D printer template. The finished product was much less terrifying.

This was a fun program that I might repeat in the summer or the next time National Tongue Twister Day rolls around!

Halloween Boo 2018

My library always does a special Halloween storytime on whichever Preschool Storytime day is closest to Halloween. It consists of two parts: storytime, and then a costume parade through the library as the families make their way through trick-or-treat stations. While this is always the formula, the youth services team nominates someone each year to organize and run the program since it has the second-highest attendance of the year (the first is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the SRP kickoff). This year it was my turn!

Facilitating Halloween Boo consists of planning the trick-or-treat stations and leading storytime. For the stations this year, I decided on four: stickers, candy, a take-home craft, and a book. We're lucky enough to have about 100 new Halloween books donated to each branch yearly for this event, so we give those out on a one-per-family basis to make sure there is enough for everyone. Stickers and candy are easy enough to buy in bulk. The take-home craft I chose was a bat headband that consisted of four parts: the bat, the paper headband, self-adhesive googly eyes, and an instruction sheet.

Instruction sheet (made in Canva)

Me modeling the finished product

For the storytime, I ended up alone in front of over 200 attendees because our other librarians were busy with crowd control and making sure the crowded room stayed safe. Luckily our Vice Mayor stopped by to run a trick-or-treat station, and also came up to dance with me during the intro.

Storytime went like this:

Intro: "Hello Hello" and "Open, Shut Them"

Story: Shake Dem Halloween Bones by W. Nikola-Lisa
Before starting the book I taught everyone the refrain so they could chant with me. It was a great way to get 200 people engaged in the story.

Shake, shake, shake dem bones

Shake, shake, shake dem bones

Shake, shake, shake dem bones

At the hip hop Halloween ball!

Also, since our huge program room was full to capacity, I found the Ebook version of this and projected it on the wall behind me. This was much more effective than reading a physical book in front of a crowd that large because everyone could see the pictures.

Movement Songs: "Baby Shark Halloween" and "Ten Little Monsters"
I projected the videos for these songs as we sang and danced. Still effective directed movement, but a little extra excitement for this special day.

After the second movement song, I did my best to get the group organized into a line before they left the program room for the parade. The first trick-or-treat, the sticker, came as they left the room and ventured into the rest of the library.

The Incredible Hulk came to storytime!

So did Iron Man! (This is my friend Muffin and he just keeps getting older)

Regular storytimers in their awesome homemade costumes!

Me with an airplane, a robin bird, and a fairy princess

Me with an airplane and a fairy princess

Grandparents Day Celebration

Make A Grandparents Day Card 2017

Grandparents Day is the second Sunday in September. I like to celebrate it at the library on the preceding Friday or Saturday. Last year, I made it mostly about making cards. This year I had a volunteer who is a professional card maker and brought two people to help at her card station, but I decided to open up the activities and make it a more inclusive program. I set out a book display with a cozy reading corner for families to read together (all books somehow featuring grandparents, of course), and I also set out some puzzles and activities.

I did experience a roadblock during this program, which I think are important to acknowledge so you can work around them in future programs. I was overzealous in my expectation of how many people would attend. We got about 40, which was far under my estimation of 100. I scheduled three teen volunteers in addition to the one adult volunteer card maker. I didn't realize she would also bring two people to help her. So I had six people, seven including myself, working this program. There's no reason to have a 1:5 ratio between staff members and patrons in a drop-in program. It did turn out okay, though, because the teens had a good time making cards and interacting with the kids and families who attended.

So, I learned the lesson of not counting your chickens (patrons) before they hatch (attend). The positive spin on this is the people who attended had a good time, read some books, did some puzzles, and made some gorgeous cards. I guess this program can be considered intentionally intergenerational, since my aim was for kids and grandparents to spend time together in the same space. I saw some happy faces and creative cards leaving the room, so I'd say it was a successful program even though fewer people attended than expected.

Cozy reading area

Card station in action

Teen volunteers making cards after the program

Baby Lapsit 5-18-18

Today after saying hello, our first book was Who Says That, Cat the Cat by Mo Willems. Personally, I'm delighted by every single Mo Willems book, so I was excited to find out he has board books as well. This one invites lots of interaction with animal sounds, and ends with a big hug for Bunny the Bunny.

Our lap bounce portion began, as always, with "Bumpy Road." Grownups are instructed to seat their baby facing forward on their laps and bounce along with me as I demonstrate with a roughly baby-sized teddy bear. Here is the chant:

Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap)
Smooth road, smooth road. (Move baby smoothly back and forth)
Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap)
Smooth road, smooth road. (Move baby smoothly back and forth)
Rough road, rough road! (Bounce baby higher than before)
Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap)
Rough road, rough road! (Bounce baby higher than before)
Hole! (Hold baby under armpits and let them fall between your legs)

For the musical lap bounce portion today, I went with my standby theme of "pop:" "Pop Goes the Weasel," and "Popcorn" by Raffi twice through. This morning, I encouraged the grownups to toss their baby into the air a couple of inches for the POPs, instead of just lifting them. A few did, and it sounded from the giggles like the babies had the time of their lives. 

Our second book today was I Love You Through and Through by Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak. That book happened to be an at-home favorite of one of my regular babies who attends with his grandma, so it was fun to read it with them in the room. There's nothing especially remarkable about this book as far as baby-level board books go, but it's very sweet, and I like to pick books about grownup/child love and bonding as much as possible for this storytime.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to our friends, and finish up with bubbles and toys.

Baby Lapsit 5-11-18

Today after saying hello to all our friends, we read one of my favorite books: Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn. I love the whole Lola series, because Lola and her little brother love reading, the library, and books. The board book is a shortened version of the original picture book, but just as fun for kids to see the environment they are currently in reflected back at them on the pages of a book.

Our lap bounce portion began, as always, with "Bumpy Road." Grownups are instructed to seat their baby facing forward on their laps and bounce along with me as I demonstrate with a roughly baby-sized teddy bear. Here is the chant:

Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap)
Smooth road, smooth road. (Move baby smoothly back and forth)
Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap)
Smooth road, smooth road. (Move baby smoothly back and forth)
Rough road, rough road! (Bounce baby higher than before)
Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap)
Rough road, rough road! (Bounce baby higher than before)
Hole! (Hold baby under armpits and let them fall between your legs)

Our musical lap bounce today was "Little Red Wagon" and "Milkshake." 

Usually I do "Milkshake" the way the Jbrary ladies do, but today we stood up on the last verse. It was a hit for babies and grownups; I heard lots of big belly laughs!

Our second book today was Nighty-Night by Leslie Patricelli. There are no more than four words on each page, and it demonstrates a nice bedtime routine for a baby about the age of our Baby Lapsit patrons. 

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to our friends and have bubbles and community playtime.