Bookworm List: Happy Pig Day!! Oink! Oink!

Today is National Pig Day. Oink, Oink! This day was started in 1972 by Texas art teacher Ellen Stanley as a way of recognizing the pig as a smart, domesticated animal.

Did you know...

• Pigs are very clean and they tend to keep their bedding dry and clean.
   
• Pigs make funny sounds like grunts and squeals.
   
• Domesticated pigs eat ground up corn, soybeans, wheat, and grain sorghum.
   
• The skin on pigs is pink, but the hair can be different colors. 

For more pig facts, see
http://www.kidsarus.org/kids_go4it/growit/raiseit/swine.htm 

Want to read about pigs today? Here are some recommended titles:

• Happy Pig Day!-Mo Williems
• Olivia-Ian Falconer
• Porky and Bess- Ellen Weiss
• Little Pink Pup-Johanna Kerby

Oink, Oink. Happy Pig Day and keep reading!!

Upcoming Programs in March

Here are some programs that will happening next month in the Children's Dept at the Central Library. Please visit Library Events for information and register.


Story Time for 2 and 3 yr olds- Monday, March 5 and 19 at 10 am- Audience: 2 and 3 year olds and caregivers.

Mother Goose on the Loose-Tuesday, March 6 and 20 at 10 am-Audience: Infants Birth to
23 months and caregiver (s).

Story Time for 4 and 5 yr olds- Tuesday,March  13 and 27  at 10 am - Audience: 4 and 5 year olds.

Gaming Night- Wednesday, March 14 at 6 pm- Audience: 12 to 17 years old.

Spring Arts Celebration-Thursday, March 22 at 4 pm-Audience: K-5 and families

Lego Club-Monday, March 26 at 4 pm-Audience: Grades 2-6


See You Soon!

Bookworm List: Leap for Leap Day

Next Wednesday is Leap Day. We're celebrating a little early Thursday with a program all about animals that leap ( kangaroos, frogs, and rabbits). It's at 4pm for school age-children, grades K-5. Please sign up at our websites, Library Events .

Now why do we have an extra day in February every four years? Well, a leap year is needed every four years to keep our calender in line with the solar year ( or length needed for the earth to obit the sun , which is 365 1/4 days.) How do we determine what year is a leap year? Well, obviously the year has to be divisible by 4 ( except in years divisible by 100. But century years divisible by 400, like 2000 and 2400, there will be leap years). So this year and 2016 will be leap years.  As those born on the 29th ( known as leaplings), most will choose to celebrate on March 1st or February 28 when it is not a leap year ( or they can also wait four years, making them younger than they really are. So a person born  Feb 29th, 2008 can say they are 4 ( actual age) or 1 ( leap age).

Looking for ways to celebrate Leap Day? Well, my suggestion is animals that leap. So here are some recommended books featuring  leaping animals.

• Boing-Nick Bruel 
• I Love When You Smile-Sam McBratney
•  Beware of the Frog- William Bee
• Froggy's First Kiss-Johnathan London
• Finklehopper Frog Cheers-Irene Livingston
• The Runaway Bunny- Margret Brown
• You're Finally Here-Melanie Watt
• Norma Jean, Jumping Bean-Joanna Cole

Happy Leap Day and keep reading!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day


glitter-graphics.com

Review-Snowball Fight-Jimmy Fallon

 

School is  closed due to a snow day, and somewhere outside, a snowball fight is waiting to happen. Young Jimmy quickly grabs his long johns and hand-me-down snowsuits and heads outside for a Snowball, Snowball, Snowball Fight!!

To borrow a little of something from "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon":
Thank you Jimmy Fallon for turning your song , "Snowball" into this cute, energetic book of winter, and thank you Adam Stower for providing the  colorful illustrations. I use this book a lot for story times and the kids love it ( and yes, it helps to have a little excitement and energy as you read the words).

For those curious about the actual song, it is available on Jimmy Fallon's  2002 album,  "Bathroom Wall" , and  the TRL (Total Request Live) 2001 Christmas album ( or Google the song for a Youtube clip).

Snowball Fight by Jimmy Fallon
Ages: All Ages
***** ( 5 stars)

Bookworm List: Elmo's birthday

Glitterfy.com - Elmo Glitter Graphics

Tomorrow is Elmo's birthday ( also yours truly).  Furry red, energetic, and always speaking in the third person ( "Elmo loves you"), Elmo the perpetual three-year-old was first an  unknown  Muppet in the 70s that the puppeteers once and while  would try to give life to, but nothing worked. It wasn't 1984 that a puppeteer named Kevin Clash picked up the furry red Muppet, and Elmo was born ( for more info, see  visit the Wikipedia page on Elmo).

Other fun facts about Elmo ( courtesy of the fan page Elmo's Playground)
First Appearance: November 1984
Best Friends: Zoe and Grover
Favorite Song: Elmo's Song
Quote: "That tickles!", "Elmo loves you!"
Dislikes: Brussel Sprouts
Most popular Elmo item: Tickle Me Elmo ( introduced in 1996)
 


Want to read about Elmo this weekend? We have lots of books in our Sesame Street display on the red shelves. Here are some recommended titles:

• Elmo Says Achoo!! by Sarah Albee
• Monsters are Red, Monsters are Blue by Sarah Albee
• Elmo Saves Christmas by Christine Ferraro
• Surprise, Mommy by Liza Alexander

Keep reading!!

Bookworm List: Valentine's Day Hugs and Kisses

Valentine's Day is in two weeks, and what better way to say "I Love You" than with a book? Here are some recommended titles with a lot of hugs and kisses ( please see the library catalog for summary details and availability) :

• The Best Thing about Valentine's  by Eleanor Hudson
• The Valentine Bears by Eve Bunting
• Snowy Valentine by David Petersen NEW!!
• Froggy's First Kiss by Jonathan London
• The Giant Hug by Sandra Horning
• Big Hugs, Little Hugs by Felicia Bond NEW!!!
• Dear Bunny by  Michaela Morgan
• Plant a Kiss by Amy K. Rosenthal NEW!!
• Love and Kisses by Sarah Wilson
• All Kinds of Kisses by Nancy Tafuri NEW!! 

For more suggestions, here are  some suggested key words:

• Valentine's Day-Juvenile fiction
• Valentine's Day-Juvenile literature
• Hugging-Juvenile fiction
• Kissing-Juvenile fiction
• Parent and child-Juvenile fiction ( or Mother and child-Juvenile fiction or Father and child-Juvenile fiction)
• Love stories

Happy Valentine's Day and Keep Reading!!  

Upcoming programs in February

Here are some programs that will happening next month in the Children's Dept at the Central Library. Please visit Library Events for information and register.


Story Time for 2 and 3 yr olds- Monday, February 6 and 20at 10 am- Audience: 2 and 3 year olds and caregivers.

Mother Goose on the Loose-Tuesday, February  7 and 21at 10 am-Audience: Infants Birth to
23 months and caregiver (s).

Story Time for 4 and 5 yr olds- Tuesday, February 14 and 28  at 10 am - Audience: 4 and 5 year olds.

Gaming Night- Wednesday,February 15 at 6 pm- Audience: 12 to 17 years old.

Black History Month Movie-Saturday, February 4 at 2: 30 pm Audience: All ages

Leap into Leap Year!- Thursday, February 23 at 4 pm- Audience: K-5 and families

Lego Club- Monday, February 27 at 4pm- 2nd to 6th grade.

See You Soon!!

Review- House of Dolls-Francesca Lia Block

 

In a little house with lace curtains in every window and a lawn of real moss, three dolls, Wildflower, Rockstar, and Miss Selene live a warm and cozy life of fancy dresses and play-dough cakes. But their owner, a lonely rich girl named Madison Blackberry, is jealous. So one day, she takes the dresses away and send Wildflower's and Rockstar's boyfriends off to "war" ( which is a dark shoebox). What will the three dolls do? Will life ever be good again?


Filled with beautiful black and white illustrations, young girls will love this short and  magical modern-day fairy tale of dolls and friendship.

House of Dolls-Francesca Lia Block
Age Range: 8-12
Lexile: 1080
***** ( 5 stars)

Review- A Zeal of Zebras by Woop Studios

 

Hi all. Hope everyone is enjoying 2012 and our new catalog.

Anyway, we all know a group of ants is called an army and a group of crows is called a murder? But have you ever heard of an implausibility of gnus or a journey of giraffes? Well, these and 24 more animal group names can be found in A Zeal of Zebras, a A-Z book from the graphic artists of the Harry Potter films.

From an aurora of polar bears to a zeal of zebras ( yes,readers,all these group names are real),  each name is used to illustrate a letter of the alphabet and features a fact about the animal and amazing artwork. ( My fave- the galaxy of starfish, which looks like stars in the night time sky.) Actually, these prints and more (such as a raffle of turkeys and an embrace of roses) are available for purchase  as posters and greeting cards on the company's website .

A Zeal of Zebras by Woop Studios
Ages: 4-8
**** ( 4 stars)