If you recall, the last time I did this program we had some major tech issues and my beloved tiny blue iPod kicked the bucket. Luckily, I used the break from storytime to order a new-to-me iPod that I will keep at work and use for all my storytimes. Say hello to ADMIN'S IPO! (I haven't picked out a name for him yet, this is just what shows up when I plug him into the computer.)
After our regular introduction, we did the "Heckity Peckity" chant and counted the syllables in our names. I use a little bumblebee finger puppet when we do this, like she uses in the second video below. Before we start, I tell the kids my friend Bumble Bee really wants to meet each of them, but he's really shy, and he will only ask their names if we all say this rhyme together. Then, after we all say the first two lines, he buzzes up to children and asks them what their name is.
Heckity peckity bumblebee,
Won't you say your name for me?
Bzzzzz (Bee buzzes up to a child and asks their name. Let's say it's Harold.)
Everyone say Harold. (Group says name)
Can we whisper it? (whisper the name)
Can we do it on our legs? (Repeat name and pat thighs with each syllable)
Can we clap it? (Repeat name and clap with each syllable)
Now let's turn off our voice (Do a clicking motion with hand on throat and make clicking sound)
And let's just clap it (Group claps the syllables without speaking)
How many claps was that? (Group answers)
Harold's name is two claps! Who is next?
Our movement song today was "It's Time to Stand Up" by Susan Salidor. It might be my imagination, but I think today's group of kids had an extra amount of silly fun with this song.
Because this song is so exciting, I found it necessary to do a chant to calm down. I used my favorite "Hippo on the Bus," because it is really fun and hilarious, but you can do it as many times as necessary to get the kids back to listening status.
A hip, a hip, a hippotomous
Got on, got on, got on the city bus
And all, and all, and all the people fussed...
STOP SQUISHING US!
(On that last line, squish your cheeks in from both sides so your mouth looks funny and speech is distorted, as if you were being squished by a hippo)
While passing out rhythm sticks, I made sure the kids knew that I would only be handing a pair to children who were sitting calmly on the floor, and those who loudly repeated my one and only rhythm stick rule: "Don't Hit Your Friends!" Kids and parents alike find this rule giggle-worthy, but it's also very seriously my only rhythm stick rule.
I gave them a minute to hit them on their own, then lead the group in hitting out sticks slowly, quickly, loudly, quietly, and rubbing them together to create a new sound. Then we did two songs with the sticks: "Tapping On My Sticks" and "Lummi Stick Tap." For that one, I always teach the word "lummi," what they call rhythm sticks in the UK, so the kids aren't confused when they hear that word in the song.
Finally, it was time to give the sticks back and say goodbye to all our friends!
First Baby Lapsit of the new year, and the first time in a while that we've had this program on a Friday. There were several new faces today, so before we got started I had everyone go around and introduce themselves, their baby, and tell us how old their baby is. I like to do this with smaller groups, especially with younger kids, because a lot of them are first-time parents without a lot of parent friends. Also, a lot of the caregivers who attend my Baby Lapsit classes are stay-at-home moms, so it's a great opportunity to break the ice and be social with other parents.
As always, first we sang hello to all our friends. Then, our first book of the day was Roar: A Big Mouth Book of Sounds from the My Little World series. This book is fun because it has a short rhyming verse on each page, each talking about a different animal. Before the holidays, I asked our Lapsit families to fill out surveys about what they would like to see from the program, and an overwhelming number said they wanted to learn more sign language for their babies. So in the new year, I am going to try and teach three or four signs each time. During this book, we learned the signs for lion, goat, puppy, and kitten, as well as scared. I encouraged the grownups to do the signs with me, and help their baby do them as well.
Lion
Goat
Puppy (dog)
Kitten (cat)
Scared
Next it was time for our lap bounce journey and it began, as always, with "Bumpy Road." I have a few regulars who have come to Baby Lapsit continuously since their babies were only a couple months old, and they know this chant by heart now. 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)
Because I haven't done this program in a while, I hauled out my classic "Noble Duke of York" for our musical lap bouce. Since it is one of the longer songs and I needed to leave plenty of time for community play time, we only did one lap bounce song today.
Our second book of the day was I Am Kind by Jen Porter. The main character of this book talks a lot about her dog, so I used this opportunity to refresh the sign for "dog," as well as teach the sign for "mom."
This book is part of Porter's "I Am" series (I Am Tidy, I Am Good, I Am Brave), which are simple rhyming verse stories perfect for toddlers. They model good behavior at a level very small children can understand and will want to emulate.
In keeping with the effort to use more sign language, we did "Hush Little Baby" as one of our movement songs. Here are the signs I use when teaching this song:
And here is the version of the song I use. It's pretty short, so we usually end up doing it 2-3 times so everyone can get the hang of the sign language.
Next, we did everyone's favorite body part identifying song, "One, Two Hands" by the wonderful Laurie Berkner.
And finally, we said goodbye to all our friends by playing Peek-a-Boo, singing our goodbye song, having bubbles, and then having a 15-minute community playtime session with toys. It was a great first day back with the babies!
I had some extra time last week because the trains were in our program room, so I used it to plan a full month of Preschool Storytime themes with books, songs, and crafts all having to do with those themes. I am so excited to share them with the kids, and report on them in this blog!
First up was the theme of dogs. I got the idea for this theme from Jbrary's list of favorite 2017 storytime picture books. The book I Got a New Friend was on the list, and I found out we have it in our catalogue! So after making sure I could physically lay my hands on it, I planned a whole storytime around this book.
After saying hello (my introduction did not change with the new year because, why fix what isn't broken?), we learned the American Sign Language sign(s) and Baby Sign for "dog." I explained that the baby sign is for those who might not have very developed motor skills yet. Actually, the three signs can be broken down as baby, toddler, and preschool and up. The most beginning is just panting to imitate a dog, the intermediate is slapping your thigh as if you are calling a dog, and the advanced version is slapping your thigh and snapping. There are a lot of accepted signs for "dog."
Our first book today was Found Dogs by Erica Sirotich. This book was just published in 2017, and has a lot of very pleasing illustrations. It's fun and cartoonish to look at, which I think kept the attention of our especially wiggly group today. I also encouraged the kids to count with me as we saw one, two, three, etc. dogs of different colors and ages, all the way up to ten, and then count down again from ten to one. At the end (spoiler alert), all the dogs find their forever homes and get adopted! This book was an unexpected preschool storytime goldmine. I'm so glad I found it.
Because I wanted to provide a dynamic, educational storytime while simultaneously sticking with the theme, I decided to play the song "I Wanna Be a Dog" by Charlotte Diamond while we shook egg shakers. I figured it's music education, practicing shaking on the beat, and developing gross motor skills, while listening to a cute song about being a dog.
(On the CD recording, she does not include the introduction.)
After collecting the egg shakers, we were still pretty full of wiggles. Luckily, I expected this and planned a calm-down chant that we could say as many times as necessary. I wrote the words out on a white board so the kids and grownups could follow along. We also had a gesture to go with each line.
Call the puppy (Hands by your mouth like you are calling someone)
Give him some milk (Hold out cupped hands)
Brush his fur 'til he shines like silk (Pretend to hold and brush a small dog)
Call the puppy (Hands by your mouth like you are calling someone)
Give him a bone (Hold out cupped hands)
Then scoop him up and take him home! (Pretend to pick up and hug a small dog)
We ended up doing this rhyme four times through. I found that having the words written out where everyone can see them is really helpful. I will definitely be using this technique again.
After we got all calmed down and found our comfy story-listening spot once again, it was time for our second story. I Got a New Friend by Karl Newsom Edwards is also a 2017 book, with adorable illustrations and very few words per page, which makes it a storytime slam dunk. Before we started reading, I asked the kids to listen to the words, and then tell me at the end if they thought it was the little girl, or the puppy, telling the story. Two pages from the end I took a vote, and almost everyone raised their hand when I asked if it was the little girl. I won't spoil this one for you, because I want you to be delighted and surprised when you read I Got a New Friend and find out that it was the puppy speaking all along! (Oops.)
We did two short movement songs before saying goodbye: "Do the Dog" from Sesame Street, and the classic "Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone."
"Do the Dog" is from 1994, aka MY era of Sesame Street. I encouraged the kids to follow along with the lyrics and act like dogs, with varried success. They were willing to put up their "paws," bark, howl, scratch, and turn around 3 times, but not so enthusiastic about the idea of getting on all fours and crawling around. I'm thinking that's more of a Toddler Time activity. On the CD recording, the "This Old Man" intro is not played.
The movements for "Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone" are pretty straightforward as well. Pretend to look for your dog, then mime ears and a tale when the lyrics talk about them. The kids had fun with this one.
Since I had the time to plan a craft, we made out very own dog masks today! It was a very fun and easy craft with minimal prep. I simply printed the mask templates, pre-punched holes in the sides to make the parents' lives easier, then provided crayons, scissors, and time to create!
Here is the template I used. If you print it on a regular 8.5x11 piece of paper it's about the right size for a face.
And I wasn't able to get pictures of our littles in their masks because I was too busy having fun, but here is mine:
Here is a list of books about dogs that I displayed:
I Got a New Friend—Edwards
Found Dogs—Sirotich
Shoe Dog—McDonald
Black Dog—Pinfold
Shark Dog!—Adamson
Dog Day—Hayes
Doggy Dog—Raschka
Dog Parade—Joosse
Dog Loves Drawing—Yates
My Dog Spot—Levin
Hello Goodbye Dog—Gianferrari
The Dog Book—Clerci
A final note about the book Hello Goodbye Dog by Maria Gianferrari. I love, love, love this book about a girl in a wheelchair whose dog hates saying goodbye to her. Over the course of the book, the girl gets her dog certified as a service animal so he can stay with her all day at school, and they never have to say goodbye again. Not only is it the most adorable thing in the world, it's a great introduction for preschool age kids to service animals and wheelchair-related disabilities. Yay, diversity in children's literature!
Yes. But, this one was not written by me. It is brought to you by my smart, funny, thoughtful buddy Brittany.
Brittany reviewed Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, because we have differing opinions on the king of YA fiction. She loves him, I loved Looking for Alaska and tolerated the rest of his body of work. Apparently, though, this book is his big comeback from the land of two-dimensional male characters and manic pixie dream girl love interests. Also, this review miraculously contains NO SPOILERS so feel free to read whether you've read the book or not! She wrote it in the form of a letter to me so convince me to read the book. And it worked. So you might see a companion review in the not-too-far future.
Book info:
Title: Turtles All the Way Down
Author: John Green
Year Published: 2017
ISBN: 9780525555360
Plot Summary (from Goodreads):
Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis.
Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.
In his long-awaited return, John Green, the acclaimed, award-winning author of Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, shares Aza’s story with shattering, unflinching clarity in this brilliant novel of love, resilience, and the power of lifelong friendship.
Author John Green
Without further ado, here is Brittany's review of Turtles All the Way Down by John Green:
‘Sup, Jeselyn,
As you know, it’s been literal years since I’ve written more than a sentence of anything, let alone a review of something fictional. So this is scatterbrained and quick, but I want to tell you about Turtles All The Way Down by John Green. Look, I know you have *OPINIONS* about his stuff, and you don’t love him as much as I do, but how about this for a spoiler: this is a John Green novel where no one dies at the end! It puts him above 50/50! Hooray!
As is my usual MO with YA novels, I read this book in about 3 hours. Probably a little quick for something that’s going to be reviewed, but I didn’t know I was going to want to review it before I started.
Ok, that’s a lie, because I texted you about 5 pages in telling you how I was sure this was going to be a good one. And it was. Like, it’s been awhile since I read The Fault In Our Stars, but it was better than that.
The thing that made this one special for me is that I could identify with a teen protagonist more than I have since I was an actual teenager. A lot of that had to do with the insular nature of the novel, how much of it is in the main character, Aza’s, head. The prose follows the thought spirals that anyone with anxiety or OCD will recognize and relate to. Aza’s particular obsession involves a lot of body horror, and thoughts about the billions of microbes that live in your body. It’s made clear very early on that Aza has something going on in her head. “By cell count, humans are approximately 50 percent microbial, meaning that about half of the cells that make you up are not yours at all. There are something like a thousand times more microbes living in my particular biome than there are human beings on earth, and it often seems like I can feel them living and breeding and dying in and on me.” (pg 3).
Being a follower of John Green’s internet presence, particularly his projects with his brother, the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel and their podcast, “Dear Hank & John,” I was expecting this. He’s talked a lot about how this book has come out of his struggle with his own mental illness, and you can tell that this book comes from a very deep place, one of those places where the thoughts stay stuck for a long time. In a scene fairly early on in the book, Aza’s therapist says: “One of the challenges with pain--Physical or psychic--is that we can really only approach it through metaphor. It can’t be represented the way a table or a body can . In some ways, pain is the opposite of language.” (pg 89). In a way, John Green has managed to put some of the psychological pain that being mentally ill causes into words, in a way that only living with it and thinking about it A LOT can do.
There are a lot of the tropes that you expect for a teen novel: the high school that everyone hates, the quirky best friend, the love interest. But this, like John Green’s other books, is where it stops being standard YA for me. Aza is a fully formed protagonist. Her best friend Daisy reminded me in some ways so much of you, Jeselyn, that she stopped being just the quirky best friend. There is tragedy and the thought spirals, and love, too. There’s the things we hold on to as we grow, and the things we have to let go even though we don’t want to. There’s being so trapped inside yourself that you forget that other people exist. There’s mental illness, and the reminder that it is something you live with every day, that you are never “cured” of, but something that can be managed.
I really want you to read this book, Jeselyn. Not just because Daisy reminded me of you, but because I know in your work as a librarian, you might be able to put this in the hands of a kid (or adult!) that might need to know that their anxieties, obsessions, and traumas are not something that they have to struggle with alone. Like, it’s not the savior of mental illness for anyone, but it’s a book I would have loved to have read when I was dealing the most with my own anxiety and depression.
This post is an incomplete profile of my best friend Brittany, who lives in Chicago and is a super cool feminist/activist/reader/writer/world traveler. You can find her on Twitter at @britreads4fun.
We have known each other since 2008 when we were freshmen in college, so there are all kinds of embarrassing pictures I could post on this page. HOWEVER, I have given my blog address to children, so we're gonna keep it clean and focused on the books.
She has the biggest wanderlust of anyone I've ever seen. She has visited about a million countries including Chila, Chile, Ireland, Scotland, Jamaica, and I'm sure that's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Like me, she was a Creative Writing and Literature major in undergrad, where she wrote some fantastic fiction pieces and really solidified her love of literature (but it started in childhood).
Brittany is a life-long book lover! She had a twenty-book-a-month library habit in the summer growing up, and won tons of prizes from the public library and her school for reading contests.
Brittany is a super duper major extreme wonderful socially conscious intersectional feminist! I could try to tell you details but she explains it way better than I do. Maybe some day she will explain it for my blog, and/or give me a list of her favorite feminist books to post.
While being a super duper major extreme wonderful socially conscious intersectional feminist, Brittany is also a heterosexual cisgender female (weirdo). (TOTALLY KIDDING all sexualities and gender identities are valid and have no bearing on whether you can be a good person and care about the plights of others please don't stone me to death).
Without further ado, here are some pictures of her and us...
Here we are together at the Fall Out Boy concert in Phoenix in 2017
Before I start this review, I'd like to announce that I set my Goodreads goal to 50 in 2018. Since I hit 58 in 2017 I considered making it higher, but I also want to push myself to read more adult fiction and nonfiction this year, which take longer to read. Then again, I will be running two youth book clubs this year, which is 24 middle grade and YA novels right there. So. I will probably read 60-70 children's and YA titles this year. Que sera, sera.
WARNING: SPOILERS ARE COMING. If you haven't read the book, you will learn things you shouldn't until the end of the book. Just trust me, this book is amazing; read it, then come back and read this entry. Recommend it to every teen in your library while you're at it. Yeah, it's that good.
Moving on...
Book info:
Title: You Don't Know Me But I Know You
Author: Rebecca Barrow
Year Published: 2017
ISBN: 9780062494191
Interest Level: Grades 9-12
Plot Summary (from Goodreads): Rebecca Barrow’s bright, honest debut novel about chance, choice, and unconditional love is a heartfelt testament to creating the future you truly want, one puzzle piece at a time. There’s a box in the back of Audrey’s closet that she rarely thinks about.
Inside is a letter, seventeen years old, from a mother she’s never met, handed to her by the woman she’s called Mom her whole life. Being adopted, though, is just one piece in the puzzle of Audrey’s life—the picture painstakingly put together by Audrey herself, full of all the people and pursuits that make her who she is.
But when Audrey realizes that she’s pregnant, she feels something—a tightly sealed box in the closet corners of her heart—crack open, spilling her dormant fears and unanswered questions all over the life she loves.
Almost two decades ago, a girl in Audrey’s situation made a choice, one that started Audrey’s entire story. Now Audrey is paralyzed by her own what-ifs and terrified by the distance she feels growing between her and her best friend Rose. Down every possible path is a different unfamiliar version of her life, and as she weighs the options in her mind, she starts to wonder—what does it even mean to be Audrey Spencer?
You Don't Know Me But I Know You is without a doubt the most diverse YA novel I have ever come across. I added the disclaimer about spoilers because I can't even list all the ways it shows diversity in modern teens without giving away a major plot point.
The main character, Audrey, is a mixed race teenager who lived with her single, white mom. Her mom, an ex-movie star, adopted Audrey by herself when she was single. So already we have a mixed race family, single parent family, and adoption.
There is also very realistic bisexual representation in the form of Audrey's best friend, Rose. Rose has dated guys and girls, and during the course of the book gets over her ex-girlfriend, sleeps with a guy friend at a party, and then overcomes her relationship fears and enters into a healthy and loving relationship with the new girl in school. This character is some of the best LGBTQ+ representation I've seen in recent YA literature, because this facet of her being is accepted by her friends, and mentioned without it constantly (and unrealistically) monopolizing every conversation. Rose has other things going on in her life, like her absentee parents; like in real life, her queerness does not define everything about her existence.
Sex is presented in a very positive way in this book as well. It is understood that teens have sex, birth control should be made available, and if an accidental pregnancy happens, it's something to deal with and not the end of the world. The adults in the book are very understanding when Audrey and her boyfriend slip up and get pregnant, even though they were using birth control. Once again, the fact that they are having sex does not define them.
HERE IS WHERE THE SPOILERS KICK IN so if you're still reading and haven't read the book yet, bookmark the page and go read the book first.
It is also really realistic how Audrey finally comes to the decision to end her pregnancy. She has a lot of open communication with her boyfriend (something else that doesn't usually happen in books in favor of dramatically fighting couples), and they consider all options. What it would be like to be parents, how it would feel to carry the baby to term and then give it up for adoption, and whether the best choice is abortion. Audrey's own status as an adoptee comes into play in the form of a letter from her birth mother. What ultimately convinces her that abortion is the right choice is, in fact, the letter where her birth mother tells her about her life 17 years after giving Audrey up for adoption. I love, love, love this twist. Audrey reads the letter and realizes that, like her birth mother choosing adoption because it was the best choice for her at the time, she needs to choose abortion so she can go on without disrupting all the important plans she has for her life. She takes a long time to land on abortion after a lot of careful consideration.
The abortion scene itself is very well done. The doctor and nurse are nonjudgmental, the procedure is presented as clinical and not scary, and her mental state during and afterward are curious but calm. It makes me so happy that YA literature has come far enough in its evolution that an abortion scene can be presented scientifically and without any sort of preaching. The genre has come a long way from killing off LGBTQ+ characters as a form of karms after they made out with someone of the same sex. More info about that weird recurring phenomenon in They Have Faces Too: LGBTQ Literature, Then and Now, an article I read this week by Michael Cart on the Booklist website.
I feel like this book would be an amazing pick for my Young Adult Diversity Book Club. Why is it diverse? Let me count the ways...
Mixed race main character
Single parent family
Mixed race family
Adoption
Teen pregnancy
Bisexual representation
Sex positivity
Abortion
Most books include one, maybe two subjects that make them diverse. This one has EIGHT! That's unheard of, and amazing. Did you read the book and spot more diversity that I missed? Leave me a comment!
In conclusion, I am completely in love with this book. This is Rebecca Barrow's debut novel, and I cannot wait to see what she comes out with in the next couple of years! She is definitely an author to watch, because great things will continue to come from her. Unrelated, I want to be her best friend. She just looks like she'd be a really cool buddy to eat Chinese food and watch Netflix with, doesn't she?
Just kidding, I am in no way famous. I did, however, get to be on the local news as a library representative earlier this morning.
The local organization Grand Canyon State Model Railroaders have been at our library with a giant HO Scale model train exhibit since Wednesday, and they will be here until the end of the week. The exhibit is pretty amazing. It takes up our entire program room, which has a capacity of over 300 people. All the models are handmade by members of the group, and each is based on a different town with an interesting history. The train cars themselves are one 68th to scale of a real train, meaning it would take 68 of the models to make up one life size train car. The speed they travel around the track is also to scale, which is an interesting tidbit I learned while preparing for my interview.
These are a couple pictures I got from their Facebook page. Click the link above to visit their page and see some cool videos of the trains in action!
In preparation for my interview, I worked with our marketing team to come up with some reasons we wanted to have trains at the library.
Multi-generational programming: Trains are nostalgic for a lot of people, and interesting to people of all ages. This exhibit is something all members of the family can enjoy and discuss.
STEM: Science, technology, engineering, and math.
There are quantifiable physics involved with the way trains move on the tracks.
Evolution of the technology of trains over the decades.
Math of figuring out accurate scale of models to life size trains.
History: Each handmade model is based on a real historical town.
Community engagement: Getting people into the library who wouldn't usually come, or who have never been before.
The library supports engagement hobbies such as making scale models as part of lifelong learning.
Of course, I didn't actually get to use any of these great talking points in my interviews. They just wanted the bare bones from me: We are excited to have the trains here, everything is free, and it's running all week until Saturday.
The first video does not include me, but has some great information from one of the Grand Canyon Model Railroaders about the exhibit.
Here are my two big exciting interviews, that are definitely not filmed with iPhone cameras straight off the TV (Just kidding, they are):
(1 more video to come)
Later in the day, Channel 10 also came and interviewed a different member of the group.
Overall, facilitating media visits and being interviewed for the news was a really cool experience. I didn't stumble over my words nearly as much as I thought I would, even though it was 5:00 in the morning and I had had roughly an hour to memorize my talking points. I felt really excited to be representing the library, and the city, on the TV news. Sometimes I feel like a door-to-door salesman or religious zealot trying to spread the good word of the public library, but I'm so psyched every time I get to tell more people about it! I know the news spots were really more about the train exhibits than the library, but even so, a bunch of people will probably visit the library who might have never been in before. That's what library programming is all about!
In closing, here is a selfie I took with the camera guy, Brett, and the reporter, John.
