Boys and books - memories

We were talking on FaceBook about boys and books and it kicked off a memory:

When I spent a week doing author presentations about writing books (featuring my books) to various Chicago Libraries as part of their Summer Reading program in the early 2000s, at one library the audience was full of boys from a summer camp. Boy Scout or some other camp.

  As usual, after discussing my other books, when I got to discussing picture books I began by reading Busy Toes which was created by three of us - Mary Bowman-Kruhm, Claudine Wirths, and me under the pen name of C.W. Bowie.  (Yes, I'm the W part.)  Then I talked about how we discussed what to write next and began thinking of things we could do with our fingers. At this point in my presentation I always ask the children in the audience to think of things we could do with our fingers.

Well!  Those boys kept coming up with outrageous suggestions.  I kept my face serious and receptive (while giggling inside) and kept saying, "Ya know, we just didn't think of that one."  Meanwhile the librarian at that branch in the back of the room had turned around to face the back wall -- she was either so embarrassed, or was also giggling.  She worried I'd be offended by their suggestions.   :)

Not to worry.  I'd been a Children's Librarian too long not to be aware of the things boys can think up.

Tuesday

So much for Nonfiction Monday.
Monday was the first day of Summer Reading. We figured (okay, I figured) that, because school is still in session, the day wouldn't be as busy as a normal beginning day of the Summer Reading Program.
Ha!

In the morning we were busy registering preschoolers.

They tell me that there was a lull of a few hours in the afternoon, but all h*ll broke lose once school let out. I wasn't there. I was at the 4th grade picnic as the representative parent for the 10-year-old. My husband couldn't make it because his library system was closing a branch and moving it to a new building, which meant the computer department was in charge of unwiring and packing up the computers. (at the picnic she was embarrassed when a boy came over to tell me how much he LOVED her. She doesn't even like him! Oh my, what a catty discussion she and her friends had when he moved away. It turns out that he's not very nice -- he gropes girls. In fourth grade? Yuck.)

When I returned to the branch at 5:00, the person on the children's desk was sooooo glad to see me. A few minutes there, I could see why. Busy, busy, busy.

We have a table set up in the Children's Room with several middle schoolers registering the elementary students for the Summer Reading Program and giving them string backpacks and nice coupons. All their younger siblings get registered over at the Children's Information Desk. Me. (ooops, the desk is now called the "Ask a Librarian Desk.") These little ones are being given a yellow tote bag plus the coupons. It was fun, but exhausting.

Meanwhile, my husband had taken over Kid-duty Monday evening and was the representative parent at her first Swim Meet of the summer. Last year my husband would e-mail me after every event she was in to tell me how she did. Monday I didn't have a moment to look at my e-mail, so I had no idea what had happened. Amazingly enough, this year she was in the first heats, which meant that her second place in breaststroke counted for the team total points.

But most amazing of all, the coach put her in IM. (Individual medly -- one length each of the four strokes) It was her first time doing this and my husband says she looked practically dead when he pulled herself out of the pool. But, She managed to complete it. We're so proud of her for even attempting to do this.

Why did I tell you all this? To explain why I didn't do Nonfiction Monday on Monday. Too busy/ too tired.
-wendieO

We Were Warned

I had heard that it was going to happen.
But didn't realize it was really, truly going to happen.

We were warned that, during hard economic times, people would look toward the public library for free programming. And they certainly have done so this year.

The usual Summer Reading Program registration for my small library branch is about 400 to 500 children-- from babies through high school. (I'll check these statistics on Saturday to see if this estimate is accurate, and will change these numbers if necessary) However at this time, four days into our Summer Reading Program, we have already registered about 400 children. Wow. We usually register at least 200 more children during the summer, which means this year we'll have the most ever registered at our branch.

The largest branch in our county usually registers over 4,000 children. I can't wait to see what their final numbers.

Remember my last post that said we had registered 200 on Monday? Well, when ADM added the totals from all the branches for last Monday, it turned out that 4,600 children had registered at our 10 library branches.

Are we ready for that many people to come to our various programs? You Bet. We've invited super performers to come and expect at least 80 people or more at those events. We plan to vary those with more traditional craft and storytime programs. (Come to our Fancy Nancy party) Along with Bingo and a huge Games Day. (We collect White Elephant prizes all year long for these.)

We were warned.
Yes, we are prepared.
Having lots of (free) fun at the library this summer.
-wendie old

Summer Reading Program

Every year libraries across the nation run a Summer Reading Program.
Why?
Because teachers discovered that kids needed to keep their brains active over the summer. Kids who read (and/or do math) have a much better chance of doing well in the fall when they hit school, again.

For many years, each library system created their own Summer Reading Program with prizes for the children who participate. Eventually the libraries in Maryland banded together under the umbrella of one theme for the whole state. Recently Maryland has joined over 40 other states in the (almost) national summer reading program.

This year the theme is BE CREATIVE!
(yes, because it's nation-wide, the themes have to be very general.)

Monday was the first day of our library's Summer Reading program. Almost 200 kids registered and I had to get them into the database that day so that ADM could brag about statistics. Luckily the other staff members pitched in and all the children's names and information got input by the end of the day.

My own day ended at 5:00 pm, but I continued to enter children into the database until almost 6 pm. Then, I rushed home to take the 9-year-old to her swim meet where she got a first place in breast stroke (!) -- her first time ever using that stroke in a meet.

Is 200 a lot for the first day of Summer Reading?
For our library -- Yes.
However, I've found that, if a large amount of kids register early in the week, the rest of the week is slow -- keeping the total for the first week almost the same over the years. Our normal total for the whole summer is about 400 to 500 kids. (Keep in mind that we're a small community library -- the largest library in our county registers about 4,000 children during the summer. They're really swamped the first few weeks.)

(Harry Bliss is the current Summer Reading Program illustrator. Henry Cole will be the official illustrator next year. I can't wait! He's one of my favorite illustrators. He's local, too, living in Virginia.)
-wendieOld

Olympics and Summer Reading Program news

There are only three more days left for the County-wide library's Summer Reading program. Saturday is the last day kids can turn in their list of 10 books read this summer and get their prize. (a book) Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers only had to read three. And the little non-readers can turn in a list of 25 books people have read to them. (and get a book and a pre-cut bee.) And the kids have been pouring in this week.

We have lists of 'completers' from each of the local schools decorating our Children's room. Plus pictures of bugs and butterflies all over the wall. The actual, factual butterflies are still on display, flitting around their little butterfly cage.

Plus -- we have our new wide screen TV out in the library showing the Olympics.

On the writing side, I've turned in my first Vermont College picture book assignment and now am printing out the critiques. Revision is due in two weeks. (hmmm, that's also the first day of school for the 8 year old.)

Olympic fever has hit all over. The 8 year old stays up watching the Olympics every night -- until she simply falls asleep and we have to put her to bed. Even her day care/ summer camp is celebrating the Olympics this week and next. They had a parade of nations on Tuesday.

She was inspired by the olympics four years ago to begin gymnastics, which she continues taking today -- as a recreational sport. Although she was invited to try out for the junior team, because we both work full time, we just couldn't manage to get her to the 12 hours of practice a week necessary for team members. We do good getting her to her one hour a week.

She's fastinated by our Maryland swimmer, Michael Phelps. I'm hoping she watches his swimming technique so that when she swims on the swim team next summer, she'll be even faster than she was this summer.

-wendieO

When will the caterpillars become butterflies?

This past week I returned to the library to find that the Summer Reading Program was being run very smoothly by the rest of the staff. I returned just in time to get caought up in our huge Games day/ Summer Celebration on Tuesday where the teen volunteers run various stations. (put the dot on the -huge- ladybug/ temporary tattoos/ caterpillar race/ etc.) Kids got prizes at almost every station. The Baltimore Ravens football team mascot, POE, also showed up.

The only disaster that happened while I was gone (that they told me about) was when the butterfly cage arrived -- with no caterpillars. Which were quickly ordered and arrived on one of our hottest days. (over 95 degrees) The instructions said the caterpillars could not be kept in a cold place -- which means nowhere in the public areas of the library. We freeze out there. So we're keeping the caterpillars in the librarian's office (which has little to no air-conditioning) while they turn into butterflies.

We had wanted to let the families who come to the library watch the Painted Lady butterflies develop -- but not possible. They'll just have to take our word for it that butterflies are hatching back in the office. Still -- we'll go ahead with our guessing contest. 'Guess when the butterflies will hatch?' The people coming the closest will win a prize.

Do you want to enter the contest too?
Put your guess as to when you think they'll hatch into the comments section and leave your e-mail address. I'll let you know if you've won. Will it be July 31, 2008? August 16th? You have 4 chances to win, because there are four caterpillars in our caterpillar house.

-wendieO

Nonfiction Monday = Bugs for Lunch

Bugs for Lunch by Margery Facklam, illustrated by Sylvia Long, Charlesbridge - 1999.

Goodness, 1999 and still going strong? I guess it's because we librarians keep celebrating Bugs during our Summer Reading Program, like we are doing this year. We're going to Catch the Reading Bug.

And this is a good book to entice the new readers to explore the J nonfiction collection. I took it to the schools this past week and got the expected "Yuck" from the title and "ooo's" and "ahhhh's" once they saw the birds, spiders, toads and other beasts eating beautifully illustrated bugs. (congrats to the illustrator)

Each two page spread contains one stanza of verse about the animals and their dinner. (see sample above from the Charlesbridge webpage.) Just wait while the listening children relax and enjoy the book, then hit them with the last stanza -- Children eating Bugs! "Yuck" again. Additional information about the bug-eating animals (and plants) on the last pages.

Comes in paperback, hardback, Follettbound, and also comes in straight Spanish or Spanish/ English.

For more Nonfiction Monday blogs, click here.
-wendieO

Busy day/ busy week to come

Busy, busy, busy.
Today I gave a storytime and told several Pre-K classes about the Summer Reading Program. Tomorrow the whole school. Wednesday, another school. Thursday, I need to plan all the programs for September, October, November because I have just Thursday and Friday to get them into the database. In addition I'll begin the set-up for Summer Reading -- just two weeks until it begins.

No, there's no pressure/ stress when you're a children's librarian.
Sure.
All those fun programs we enjoy doing, need to be planned four months ahead.
December. Do you realize I just finalized the date of the Santa Brunch? Yup. And I have to set up all the preparation for it now -- because it gets advertised in the Fall program guide.

Today, I also gave two other librarians an overview of what they need to know about doing Summer Reading Program visits to schools, because these other two have never done them.

Stress --
I arrived back at work between Pre-K visits to get the message that my fabulous College age Summer Reading Program assistant was in an accident and now can't work! Yikes. Can we do this summer without her? (no) Can we get a replacement quickly? (maybe)

Went off to the next Pre-K visit. When I came back -- there was my Summer Reading Assistant. She'd heard that I was panicking (who me?) and came to assure me that she'd be able to report to work on the end of the week -- she just can't work for a few days. Whew! Stress relieved.

And that was my Monday. How was yours?
-wendieO

This week in writing

I haven't posted much this week because I was completing the application for the Vermont College Picture Book Certificate Program. This is a one semester course that can be taken separately from the whole MFA course at Vermont College of Fine Arts. (I probably will never be able to take the whole course, but this one part of it speaks to me.)

And I probably won't be reviewing a nonfiction book tomorrow because I'll be doing a "Babies Love Books" program Monday morning, then preparing for a School Visit on Tuesday. No, not as an author. This is part of my job as a Children's Librarian in a public library system. We all go to the local schools and talk up the Summer Reading Program (Bugs, Bugs, Bugs!) and also suggest great new books the kids could read to reach their summer goal of reading 10 books.

Yes, I said bugs.
(Lucky for me, spiders are NOT bugs/ insects.)
Maryland has joined the National Summer Reading Program and the theme this year is Insects -- CATCH THE READING BUG!
We're even going to have a butterfly cage where caterpillars turn into butterflies before your very eyes. I can't wait.

Just opening the boxes of Summer Reading Program supplies gives me a thrill -- it's just like Christmas.

-wendieO

Nonfiction Monday -- BUGS !

Many public librarians already know this, but the rest of you might be interested to learn that the National Summer Reading Program theme this year is BUGS!
"CATCH THE READING BUG" to be exact.

And these two books will be just perfect to hand out to young bug fans.

Giant Pop-out Bugs, a Pop-out Suprise Book -- has a laser-cut cover showing four bugs on the title page.
Inside the riddle on the left gives hints about the bug hidden on the right. To discover the bug the reader must lift the right hand page out to a double spread. Seems simple enough. Except when you do that, it's not a simple flap -- it's a giant fold out picture of the bug -- many times larger than life sized.
Great for using with groups.
I'm not so sure about its use as a lap book, because those giant sized bugs startled me. Heavens only knows what small children will think.
(Chronicle Books, 2008. Book design by Wendy Lui.)
On shelves now

Backyard Bugs, 6 Amazing Pop-up Scenes -- is a more traditional pop-up book featuring bugs. Each page has a bit of information about the bug popping off the page. For those who wish more scientific information, Each bug page has a large pocket with a pull out page of more information. This one could be useful for reports.
(DK Publishing, 2007. Still available for purchase. The cover says it is by richard Ferguson. However, the bib info says "written by Marie Greenwood. Who to believe? Our library cataloged it in the picture book section under Ferguson)

Another similar book by Richard Ferguson for your enjoyment is filed in our nonfiction section -- 591 -- and is called, On Safari, 6 Amazing Pop-up Scenes.

To read more blogs which talk about Nonfiction this Monday click here.

-wendieO