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

No Snow, Snow Day

It's December, which can be a tricky time for those of us working in public service. You don't want to ignore Christmas, but at the same time want to be inclusive of all the other cultural holidays that take place around this time of year. Usually, I solve this problem by sticking with a theme of "winter" instead of focusing on any one holiday. The No Snow, Snow Day program was something we did last December with fantastic participant numbers, so we decided to have it again this year.

This program was structured as drop-in stations, something I've learned our community prefers to an instructional program where you have to stay the whole time. We had three stations: sensory snow, shape penguins, and coffee filter snowflakes.

Sensory Snow
Supplies: baking soda, white shaving cream, large bin.
Mixing equal-ish parts baking soda and shaving cream creates a chemical reaction that makes the substance cold like snow! I did learn that if we do this program again next year, we'll need A LOT more baking soda since it sort of dissolves when hit with the shaving cream. The kids loved playing with the "snow," but I would have liked for the bin to be more full.

The mess afterward... But it vacuums up easily and smells great!

Coffee Filter Snowflakes
Supplies: white coffee filters, safety scissors
Surprisingly, this was the most difficult project for the kids to grasp. I found myself sticking close to the snowflake table in order to explain how to fold and cut the filters so that when you unfold them, you have your own originally designed snowflake. After they got the hang of it, our 4-6-year-olds especially seemed to enjoy this activity.

Being silly with snowflakes

Shape Penguins
Supplies: black and white paper cut into shapes, orange triangles, glue sticks, googly eyes (we used self-adhesive ones and they worked great)
I like this activity because all ages of kids can tailor it to their personal skills. The younger ones can work on matching rectangles with rectangles or circles with circles, while the older ones can combine the shapes to make a more advanced penguin. It's also nice because if you don't have much time to prep, you can let the kids cut out their own shapes. If you have more time to prepare for the program you can do what I did and cut out the shapes ahead of time so participants can focus on matching shapes and creatin

The four examples: rectangle, square, circle, and oval.

Storytime regular with her circle penguin!

Penguin and snowflake

Advanced penguins--they even added a background!

Working hard on shape penguins

If there's one thing I've learned while working with this community, it's that drop-in themed programs like this are always a slam dunk. We had over 80 people at this program, and everyone found something they liked. I love watching caregivers encourage their kids to make things and be creative!

Celebrate Self-Improvement Month

This program came to me on a whim while I was browsing the internet looking for local or national holidays to base programs on. Turns out, September is National Self-Improvement Month. Who knew? It ended up being a drop-in program with three stations: mind, body, and creativity.

Mind
This station had wooden puzzles from our Children's Room, brain teasers, Sudoku sheets, color-by-numbers, and word searches. I also made up a set of two-sided riddle cards for people to challenge themselves and their friends to answer. My goal was to have something at this station for all ages, and I think I succeeded in that.

Working on brain teasers

Mom and son trying to figure out riddles

Creativity
At this station, I set out a bunch of random art supplies and encouraged people to make whatever they felt like! A lot of the kids had fun with a non-guided art activity, and went to town with the foam stickers. There were also coloring sheets for those who didn't quite feel ready to create without boundaries.

Burgeoning artists at work

The time the foam shapes exploded

Finished art

Finished art

Body
The final station, which took up half the room, was an exercise obstacle course designed by a couple of teen volunteers. They did an amazing job using what we already had in the library to create something challenging and fun for all ages!

Teen volunteers being silly in the obstacle course

When I started planning this program I wasn't sure what it was going to be, but I'm happy with the direction it took. We had several large families attend the program, and it seemed like each family member from toddlers to adults found something to do. I noticed tweens challenging their parents with the riddle cards, and kiddos under 5 repeatedly going through the obstacle course. Overall, it was a successful program that I'd repeat next year.

Kids Decorate the Library

I wasn't sure what I was getting into with this program, but by the end it turned out to be one of my favorites! The concept was simple: Set out a bunch of random craft supplies and large pieces of butcher paper, and let the kids make whatever they wanted with the intention of beautifying our library.

I had some pre-cut paper pieces in the shape of butterfly wings, rectangles, circles, flower stems (the rectangles and circles can be strategically placed to look like a flower), and triangles. I was delighted to find the kids took these and ran with them! Some copied my sample flowers and butterflies, and others went off the map completely, turning the circles into caterpillars and other incredibly creative things I would never have thought of. This is proof of what I have been saying since last October's Mad Science: children are more creative than I could ever hope to be. That's why I've started structuring my programs a lot less, and just letting them run with the supplies I put out to see what they'll come up with.

I also printed a large banner in 11x17 pieces and set it out on the table for anyone to color. After the program I put the banner together and laminated it to hang up with some of the art. Here are the creative and colorful results:

Some of our first attendees starting their projects

Busy artists at work

Batman made a caterpillar!

A teen volunteer coloring the banner

Finished decorations!

Finished decorations!

Finished decorations!

Finished decorations!

Banner after I attached and laminated it