dive into a great book

So you know how I said I made two library displays I wasn't super proud of?

Well folks, I have redeemed myself.

We just changed our 'snowballs' theme to an 'ocean' theme.  I used a variety of found materials plus some pintrest inspiration and had a pretty good time making it.  

Stinky Pie Ella

After we crossed off everything on our chores list, Robert, Rachel, Ella, and I took a peaceful and delightfully muddy hike.

I was a bit disappointed to discover my favorite trail was closed.  We decided to walk along the creek bed instead, which worked out better for Ella. She had many opportunities to flop and take breaks anytime her humans needed to cross the creek. Each time we lined up rocks and planned our crossing she would ease herself into the cold water, perk her ears, and settle in for the entertainment. Her expressions always conveyed how humorous she thought we were with our rocks and leaping.

"Why the heck don't you just wade through the water?" her eyes seemed to be asking.

I found a tree I could crawl through.  Perfect fort material. 

The creek ended in a gloriously gross mud pit, which made Ella very happy.  I'm sure you've already guessed Ms. Stinky Ella Pie got a bath after the hike.  She also got some drive-thru ice cream. 

It was a beautiful afternoon.  I'm glad we were able to get out and soak up the sunshine.

this is what happy looks like

There are three youth librarians where I work - myself, our lead youth librarian, and a part time librarian who is a school librarian during the day.

Lead Youth Librarian Lady (that's a long title) suggested we tape a large piece of paper to our little table in the play area and put out a basket of crayons to go with it.  So we did!

Part Time Librarian lady took one look at the latest drawing and suggested we hang it up.  So we did!

Look how pretty and happy this is!

a few curse words fluttered across my mind

​

Due to the threat of impending ice, my storytime was cancelled the night before.  In fact, all morning programs at my library system were cancelled and a notice was posted on our website.  Naturally I was a little mopey about it, but then decided it was for the best.  Due to a very wacky cold I had last weekend, I am still a bit snuffly and hoarse.  

The morning of my cancelled storytime I wasn't surprised to see two of my storytime regulars pop in.  I told them good morning and gave them the sad news.  A few minutes later I heard more children approaching and decided to head to the front of the library to investigate.  I was surprised to see another gaggle of toddlers and their adults heading toward our meeting room, which is where we give our storytimes.  Oh boy, I thought.  I have to tell all of these lovely people who battled the cold and ice and wrestled their children into winter gear and car seats, that there isn't a storytime.  Yikes!

A coworker who was manning the front desk, suggested I do a popup storytime in our play area in the youth side of the library.  That way I could also keep an eye on the desk.  What a clever idea!

I didn't have my handy dandy slide show so I couldn't do my planned storytime.  Instead, I would have to wing it.  I grabbed two books from the pile of books I'm currently reviewing and quickly jotted down the titles of a handful of fingerplays and songs.  I also grabbed the tin of shaker eggs and a stamp and pad.  Meanwhile everyone was making themselves comfortable in the play area, and thankfully it was just the right amount of people so there was still plenty of space for dancing.

I brought everything out, sat down on my knees, and started singing our hello song.  Though I had the hello and goodbye songs and one of the finger plays memorized, I learned that I most certainly did not have anything else memorized.  Everyone was good-humored about it though and helped me out when I forgot lines.  

I had a terrifying moment when I passed out the shaker eggs and  realized I had no idea what we were going to do with them.  Thankfully I had a 'Scott' moment.  In addition to an exhausting list of skills, my brother Scott, has the ability to think on his feet.  Occasionally I can do this too, but because he has a habit of doing it, I think of the moments when I think on my feet as 'Scott' moments.  

As the toddlers picked out their shaker eggs, a few curse words fluttered across my mind (but didn't escape). Thankfully my brain started playing Old MacDonald (brains are so fantastically weird), and we had something to shake our eggs to.

  

Because there were only nine toddlers, I gave everyone an opportunity to pick an animal.  It was a lot of fun.  A few chose animals that were questionable farm animal choices (lions? frogs?), but nobody seemed to care.  Oddly enough, I forgot the lyrics to the song, and had lost most of my voice at that point, so I moved my lips but didn't sing.  Everyone carried on beautifully though and had a swell time. 

I read the books, which were hits, stamped hands, and we danced the hokey pokey.  It went as well as a spontaneous storytime could go.  One child even said "that was so much fun!"

It was such a valuable experience for me.  I, too, had a good time.  But more importantly, it made me realize I need to memorize a few things so I'm prepared to give a storytime anytime.  

Hopefully next week the weather cooperates!

equal parts cocky and outrageously dapper

This little birdy started out as a sketch of a ruby-throated hummingbird surrounded by a few fuzzy flowers.  I carefully picked out all the threads I needed and put a piece of denim in a hoop.  I sketched out my design and tucked it in my sewing bag to start sewing on my next lunch break.

The night before I began sewing this piece the little birdy visited me in my dreams, but he wasn't a ruby-throated hummingbird anymore.

You can imagine how frustrating this was.  At first I thought it was an entirely different illustration I was thinking up.  But nope, there were those Seuss-like flowers hanging out with the birdy.

The next day I picked out new thread and sewed his outline before he could change his colors again.

I sewed the flowers and filled them in as planned.  When I sat down to fill in the bird, he said "no thanks."

This was turning out to be an obnoxious bird, and I was beginning to lose my patience with him.

But thankfully his patterns flashed across my mind one day during some forgettable task and I was able to sew them before they flew away, one stitch at a time.

He's definitely a brand-new species of bird - equal parts cocky and outrageously dapper.  And he's ready to fly away.

namaste

It has been a very crazy week for me!  At the library I put up two displays (one that centered on a craft I did with the teens at my branch and another for St. Patrick's Day).  I'm not proud of either display so I'm not posting them.  But I did learn a lot from making them.

Unrelated to the library, I also finished an embroidery piece, which I'll post later, and completed the first layer of a collage I've been working on.  I've also got about six poems that are currently going through the grueling polishing process.

There was one day this week I realized I had been crafting, creating, cutting, writing, and pasting for 15 hours straight between work and home.  I was even working straight through meal times a couple days.  

But the most beautiful thing I helped create this week was definitely storytime.  It's the best storytime thus far.  I left with so much happiness and energy I had this cloud floating around me for a couple days.  

It wasn't my original plan to do a yoga storytime, but I had a deluge of materials flowing in thanks to my curiosity.  After the third yoga picture book I flipped through, I scrapped my original idea and threw myself into yoga.  After much deliberation, I chose From Head to Toe by Eric Carle and You are a Lion! by Taeeun Yoo.  Really, there were five amazing yoga picture books I fell in love with but I chose these two because I thought they would work best with my group.  And they did! Each book went through a series of poses that I demonstrated for the toddlers, and then they copied me.  We also made a few animal noises too. I used an adjustable book stand, the same one I use so I can read and eat at the same time, and found a short table so the books were at a good level.  The whole setup worked beautifully.  

The lion book used the word, Namaste, at the beginning and end of the book.  Initially, I wasn't sure what to do about this word.  And to be quite honest, I didn't really know what it meant.  So I looked it up, found out that it meant 'one soul acknowledging another soul,' and was even more confused.  I wasn't sure how the heck I was going to talk about this word with toddlers when my adult mind was struggling with it.  Before we read the book I told them what it meant and then added that it could mean one heart acknowledging another heart.  And that's when I did something unplanned.  I placed my hands on my chest, and then waved them towards everyone while saying namaste.  The toddlers loved this.  They loved both the word and the movement so much they repeated it several times throughout storytime.  It was such a beautiful thing, I cannot do it justice.  Imagine a three-year-old toddling up to you with his hands on his heart, and then right as he gets to you, he waves his fingers at you and says 'namaste' clear as can be.    

At my youth services meeting a couple weeks ago we did a storytime show and tell.  I know, show and tell for adults?!?  I was completely blown away.  Basically everyone shared their favorite and most successful storytime ideas (my favorites included shadow theater, the green monster puppet, a magic envelope with laminated pictures inside, and a weenie dog hat).  Any props shared during this time were available for checkout, which means someday I get to wear a weenie dog hat.  At the end someone mentioned a stretchy band thing they used for a yoga storytime but they forgot to bring it.  I immediately emailed this person after the meeting and asked her to send me the mysterious band as soon as she could spare it. Turns out, this stretchy band thing is called an elastaband, and it's this giant soft circle thing that's perfect for storytimes.  I found a couple yoga songs on a youth yoga cd and we used the band during the songs.  The toddlers struggled to form a circle, but a coworker suggested I tape a circle onto the floor next time.  That was really our only hiccup. After every child had their hands on the band, we had a moment where they just wanted to shake and pet it so I went ahead and embraced the moment and let them go bananas with it before starting the music.  

We sang "This Little Light of Mine" again, and just like previous times, I loved it, but I wondered to myself whether I should bring it out again next week.  After storytime a parent approached me and told me how much her daughter enjoyed the song and sign language.  She asked if I could incorporate even more sign language into future storytimes!  So it looks like I have something to think about and work on!

Also, at the end of storytime, while playing with the toddlers, a nanny approached me and told me how much her toddler loved the snowman song and sang it all the time (remember the melting snowman?).  So I asked the toddler if she wanted to sing it with me and that's exactly what we did.  She definitely did a better melting snowman than me! 

This weekend I'm going to continue with the yoga theme, particularly the corpse pose.  

The Book of Polly by Kathy Hepinstall

The Book of Polly is the hilarious and bittersweet story of Willow and her larger-than-life mom, Polly. Polly becomes pregnant with Willow in her late fifties, and Willow’s father dies during the pregnancy. Because her father dies before she is born and Polly has Willow so late in life, Willow only has Polly. Her siblings are long gone, and the bustling life that comes with having a full family is absent, so Willow clings to Polly with heartbreaking tenacity. Willow has always been consumed by the fear that Polly is going to die. Willow also tells a lot of crazy stories about Polly, stories that occasionally transcend the boundaries of truth. Polly, on the other hand, doesn't give a crap when she’s going to die, and quite frankly, is a little worn out by Willow’s persistent anxieties and lies.

Hepinstall did a fantastic job developing each of her characters, and I enjoyed both their personalities and how they interacted with each other. Though Willow is the protagonist, the title is dead on. This is Polly's book, and she is the puzzle piece that connects each of the characters. Polly colors the book with such vibrancy it’s tough to believe she isn’t a real person. She is brassy, funny, insulting, and ferocious. But she is also deeply sensitive and loving. When Willow shoots the neighbor kids with her BB gun in order to protect Polly’s garden and win her affection, Polly is appropriately upset. She tells Willow never to shoot anyone again. And then, just like any other time Polly rewards Willow for getting rid of a varmint, Polly gives Willow a dollar and says, “’Oh wait a minute, there were two of them,’ and she [goes] back to her purse to get another dollar bill.”

I thought the plot was rather outlandish and rolled my eyes many times in disbelief. But it was never easy to put this book down and return to real life. In just over 300 pages, Polly battles cancer, sets fire to a handful of things, accidentally kills someone with a squirrel zapper, fights off perverts while floating down a river on a raft with Willow, and visits a preacher who may or may not be able to cure cancer. But really, the reader shouldn't be shocked by this. I feel like the cover, displaying Polly with a falcon on her shoulder, is an attempt to prepare the reader for the book’s outrageous content. Oh yes, Polly has a falcon. Or does she?

By far, my most favorite thing about The Book of Polly is how skillfully and beautifully Hepinstall writes. Very early in the book she describes a neighbor as “a reed-thin woman with a permanently conflicted expression, as though, deep inside her, someone was trying to bathe a cat.” That was the moment I knew I was going to love this book no matter how the story played out. And I do love this book. I love it much the same way everyone loves Polly. This book is a little crazy, but it's also packed with biting charm and wisdom, and I will forever applaud it as a masterpiece.

felt kitty nightmares

This week's storytime was rather small - 19 toddlers and 18 adults.  I used the felt board for the first time and told the Scat the Cat story, which is about a cat who can change colors.  It was fairly disastrous.  One toddler remained glued to the felt board, petting it and occasionally trying to run off with the felt kitties.  Nothing I said convinced parent or child that this was not cute, and after a few attempts, I chose to place myself in front of the felt board with one hand hovering just above the felt kitties.  It didn't help that I accidentally put the cats on the board backwards and forgot to change one of the colors.  So perhaps it's fair to say my first experience with the felt board was totally disastrous.  

We sang "This Little Light of Mine" again, and I certainly enjoyed it.  No mayhem ensued while the song played, parents were wholeheartedly participating, and the toddlers were attempting to participate, so I think it's safe to say that "This Little Light of Mine" is a winner.

This week we took a break from the hokey pokey and therefore, the hand stamp that helps kids know which hand is their right one.  This flummoxed one child, who appeared puzzled as he held his hand out at the end and looked at me, speechless.  So the stamp is coming back next week.  The song I played instead was well-received, but was not as big a hit as the hokey pokey.  So it's possible I'll bring that back too.  

Because my theme was colors, I also included an action rhyme that encouraged them to stand up, take a bow, and twirl whenever the color of their shirt was called.  To my dismay, most of the toddlers were wearing multi-colored shirts, which was most confusing.  Only one child stood up.  Needless to say, this action rhyme will not make a reappearance this season.  Or perhaps I will give them colorful beanbags or something instead of using their shirt color.  

On a very positive note, the two books I selected - "Mouse Paint" and "Dog's Colorful Day" were total hits.  It helped that "Dog's Colorful Day" was interactive and I brought the gigantic version of "Mouse Paint."  

After storytime I had a nice chat with one of the parents, and though she gave me some great feedback about Scat the Cat, it may be awhile before my emotional scars heal and I bring the felt board back out again.  

Next week we are doing yoga!  Maybe even yoga hokey pokey!

The lights went out without any spit hurrah!

But what about my toddler storytime?  Oh yes, I also facilitated my toddler storytime this week.  Because it's black history month I wanted my theme to tie in with that in some way.  At first I gathered a bunch of books loosely related to freedom, but I decided that was too tough a theme for toddlers to tackle.  Then I read a lot of picture books about diversity.  But I didn't really connect with any of those.  Plus diversity also seemed pretty heavy.  Finally, just a few days before storytime, I found two books that kinda worked and I picked the theme: love yourself, love others.  This storytime taught me to have a back up theme just in case my original theme doesn't work out.  For my next storytime I requested books about Valentine's Day (my preferred theme) and colors (backup theme).  No more scrambling to figure out a theme just a couple days before storytime!

I did have a wonderful time picking out my favorite version of the song, "This Little Light of Mine," and decided to go with Raffi.  I had to put a surprising amount of thought into my choice - nothing with religious overtones, not too cheesy, and the toughest part?  Finding a version that included the part where the kids get to "blow out their light," which is really the best part of the song.  Robert used to sing that song to Rose all the time (she loved it) and he would get so enthusiastic about singing it, he would sometimes spit on his audience when he blew the light out.

After picking the Raffi version of "This Little Light of Mine," I had lunch with Robert's mom, Audrey, who is a sign language interpreter.  We had a really great time and she was kind enough to help me out with incorporating sign language into the song.  After meeting with Audrey I spent every free moment learning the signs and thinking of ways to help parents learn the signs and teach them to their youngsters.  I finally decided I would talk to them about the signs before playing the song.  This went surprisingly well (although I forgot to teach them the sign for "world"), and everyone was engaged.  We had so much fun with this song I plan on playing it again next time, no matter the theme.

I also brought out the shaker eggs, and though we had a good time, it was tough to understand the words in the music (35 shaker eggs is pretty noisy).  When we use the shaker eggs again I am going to have two activities for them instead of just one, and I plan on having one activity that doesn't follow along to music if that makes sense.  I felt cheated out of my time spent with the beloved shaker egg and I'm an adult so I can't imagine how the kiddos felt. 

The two books I read weren't as well-received as my previous choices and I'm still a little flummoxed by this.  One was incredibly interactive, so perhaps they just weren't feeling it today.

At the end, right before we sang the goodbye song, I asked everyone to help me count all the people in the room.  This worked out splendidly!  The parents really got into it and I could almost see the gears spinning in their heads as the kiddos listened to us count.  They were mesmerized. 

Sadly the name tags are a bust.  There are just too many people (which is a great problem to have).  Next time I'm going to tell them we're forgoing the name tags but encourage them to come to the desk when they're in the library, and I will trade them a name for a sticker. 

The best part of storytime happened at the very end.  After dumping the toys out and chatting with a few people I began putting my stuff away.  While I was tidying up a toddler approached me and held out a toy truck.  When I asked her to roll it to me she plopped herself down on the floor.  So naturally I plopped myself down too.  We rolled it back and forth to each other for a moment before another toddler joined us with his toy truck.  Before I knew it, I was surrounded by toddlers and involved in half a dozen different conversations.  It was awesome. 

But it gets even better!  While I was hanging out with the crowd of toddlers a parent commented, "you're like a child whisperer or something."  I said thank you and she added, "it's so nice to just sit back and watch them interact and take a breather for a moment."

My happy heart nearly ballooned out of my chest and lifted me up.

purple popcorn pandemonium

My coworker, let's call her D, has been sick all week with the flu so I did something very crazy brave.  I volunteered to facilitate her preschool storytime.  Thankfully the day before D became sick we were chatting about our storytimes for the week.

This is how the conversation went:

"We're using the parachute," D shouted gaily.  "You should come watch us!"  

"Absolutely," I shouted happily. "I'd love to see how it works so I can use it one of my future storytimes!"

Maybe an hour after this conversation D announced she was sick and raced from the building.  

That's when the brave thing happened.  When she texted she wouldn't be in the next day, I volunteered to facilitate her storytime.  

The next day I arrived early, set up the meeting room for storytime and then practiced D's storytime from top to bottom, all the while pretending to use a parachute.  Seconds before storytime began I remembered I needed some fake popcorn for one of the activities and hurried to find some scrap paper to wad up (surprisingly no one made any comments about the purple popcorn).  

Everyone left storytime happy as can be so I'd say it was a success.  I did learn a few valuable kernels of information for my future parachute storytime.

First, when 20 kids shake a parachute there's no way anything can be heard, especially music.

So number two, all the songs that are played during the parachute activity should be mostly memorized so at least one person knows what the heck is going on.

And number three, the old saying, "the more the merrier" holds no bearings when folding up a parachute.  When twenty pairs of hands try to fold a parachute expect only chaos.  Chaos.  One preschooler didn't move in time and was nearly folded up in the parachute.  Thankfully, during one of my rare moments of agility and grace, I swooped in and lifted the child away from the fate of being rolled up like a piece of squashed, purple popcorn.

And yes, yours truly didn't even get the popcorn pieces out before folding it up.  It was chaos.  For adults, chaos equals stress.  For preschoolers, chaos is bliss.  Everyone roared with laughter when they realized a child was being folded up inside the parachute.  And as we attempted to fold the parachute - tripping, colliding, and tumbling around - the laughter was nearly as loud as the parachute when it was being shook by twenty excited kids.  

Just when I finally had the parachute folded and was stuffing it into the bag, a very Martha Stewart-like child put her hand on her hip and informed there was still popcorn inside the parachute that needed to be cleaned up.  

I bit my lip to keep from responding, but inside I was thinking, that bleepin' popcorn can rot in that parachute for all I care.

Instead I smiled sweetly, said thank you, and grabbed the next book to read.

it's tough to measure flying hoots

I read so many amazing books in January!

The Book of Polly by Kathy Hepinstall (adult fiction)

Longer review to come!  Polly is such a badass character.  The story is outlandish.  And it's beautifully written.  My favorite quote?  When Hepinstall describes a neighbor as “a reed-thin woman with a permanently conflicted expression, as though, deep inside her, someone was trying to bathe a cat.”  

The Cow That Went Oink by Bernard Most (picture book)

This is very clever and funny. I enjoyed all the laughing animals and even got the giggles reading aloud each animal's response - neigh-ha, baa-ha, gobble-ha. I appreciated the ending and applauded the pig and cow for speaking both languages by the last page. Booya-ha to the monolingual farm animal haters.  

Don't Wake the Yeti by Claire Freedman and illustrated by Claudia Ranucci (picture book)

This book is filled with lots of fun rhyming. When I read it the first time I couldn't resist reading it aloud. This story of finding a yeti under your bed and becoming best friends with him is charming, funny, and bursting with adventure. My favorite moment is when mom says no to having a yeti, but the yeti is very clever and turns himself into a chair so he goes unnoticed. Since reading this, I've been checking under my bed often, hoping to find my own yeti, but no such luck. Thankfully I can read this book and pretend!

Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk (juvenile fiction)

I enjoyed both the writing and story immensely, but the setting completely swept me up. To live on an island, fishing and catching an assortment of sea creatures and tending to a garden sounds so magical, and I think Wolk did a fantastic job capturing the Elizabeth Islands. I thought the story was engaging enough until about halfway through. At that point, I couldn't put the book down and finished the rest in one sitting. What the heck was happening on Penikese Island? Who were Crow's blood relatives? Questions like this kept me riveted until the very end. Though Kendall was a very one-dimensional bad guy, he played an incredibly scary and effective role. And even as the story became highly improbable at times, I was still hooked. I became very invested in Crow's self discovery. When I finished Beyond the Bright Sea I was still wondering about Crow's brother, the relationship between Maggie and Osh, and what kind of person Crow became.

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (teen fiction)

Jason Reynolds is such an amazing writer, and these poems beautifully reveal the powerful story of Will's haunting elevator journey. The idea of a different ghost getting on the elevator at each floor is quite clever. Though I knew each new character was delivering the same message, I was always surprised by the unique perspective of the ghosts.  I thought the characters were well-crafted, the message so absolutely vital, and the ending chillingly appropriate. 

My favorite lines? 

"If the blood inside you is on the inside of someone else, you never want to see it on the outside of them." 

"I think she hoped her voice would somehow keep him alive, would clot the blood." 

"Shawn was zipped into a bag and rolled away, his blood added to the pavement galaxy of bubblegum stars." 

"That something that my pop said had gotten into him must be what my mom meant by the nighttime."

Undefeated by Steve Sheinkin (teen nonfiction)

Before I read this book there were three things about football I was most certain about. One, I didn't care a flying hoot about it.  Two, I knew very little about how it worked - all that running and tackling and throwing the ball stuff. And three, in regards to its history? Totally boring.  But then I read this book (for official library reasons), and my perceptions of football have radically changed. I'm still not quite sure how much I care about football (it's tough to measure flying hoots). But I know how football works now, and its history is utterly engrossing, and I'm 100% glad I read this book. I think Sheinkin did an outstanding, exhausting, overwhelming amount of research and I applaud him.  This isn't just a story about Jim Thorpe, or his coach, Pop Warner, or even the bittersweet history of The Carlisle Indian School and their football team.  This book is all of that plus a nearly complete and perfectly concise history of football.  Plus it's packed with pictures, plays, and the stories of courageous Native Americans and a smidgen of their history as well. I think this is not only an excellent book for teens who are into sports literature and football. I think it's also great for history buffs and anyone who is fiercely competitive and/or enjoys action-packed narrative nonfiction.