January is National Be Kind to Food Servers Month! To celebrate, you can read my new favorite series – Lunch Lady by Jarrett Krosoczka. The heroine is a mild-mannered cookie-serving lunch lady by day and a super secret agent by night. Cleverly disguised to blend into their cafeteria surroundings, Lunch Lady and her sidekick Betty use gadgets like the lunch tray laptop, taco-vision night goggles (you can see at night and everything looks like a taco) and hairnet-nets to keep the school safe from bullies and sinister cyborgs. Lunch Lady serves up laughs and justice while she fights off mutant mathletes, crazed authors and – worst of all – a league of evil librarians! She’s someone you want around if it’s lunchtime or crunch time! Continue reading “National Be Kind to Food Servers Month”
Each year the American Library Association honors books, videos, and other outstanding materials for children and teens. Selected by committees composed of librarians and other literature and media experts, the awards encourage original and creative work in the field of children’s and young adult literature and media. The following titles and contributers are some of the 2016 YMA winners.
Caldecott Winner
”Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear,” illustrated by Sophie Blackall and written by Lindsay Mattick.
A woman tells her young son the true story of how his great-great-grandfather, Captain Harry Colebourn, rescued and learned to love a bear cub in 1914 as he was on his way to take care of soldiers’ horses during World War I, and the bear became the inspiration for A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh. Continue reading “2016 Youth Media Award Winners”
Here’s a craft that allows you to combine three wonderful things:
1) Young children
2) Fine motor skill development
3) Minimal mess
Don’t believe it is possible to do all three at once? Read on, and find out how you and your child can make a simple bird feeder! Continue reading “Make Your Own Bird Feeder”
“The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art” by Barb Rosenstock is about the artist Vasily Kandinsky, or Vasya as he is known in the book. When young Vasya is given a box of paints by his aunt, the paints began to hiss and sing when mixed together! Vasya’s reserved family never knew what his paintings were supposed to look like (was it a house or a flower?), but to Vasya it wasn’t representation, it was about the music that the combinations and arrangements of different colors made. Vasya eventually uses his talents and creativity to paint the first completely abstract painting. It is thought that Kandinsky had synesthesia, a rare condition where the senses are blended, which is why he could hear the colors. Kandinsky turned this possible challenge into a gift which gave him unique perspective on his art. Continue reading “Books We Love: The Noisy Paint Box”
New Year’s tends to bring a refreshing feeling and a thirst for change. What better way to start off the new year than by making a New Year’s resolution? The new year presents us with an opportunity to make a change; whether it’s to become healthier, lose a habit or do something just for fun! With limitless possibilities, it can be daunting to pick a resolution and stick with it. But the library is a great resource to find ideas and information to help kids get started on making a change for the better! Here are some ideas for New Year’s resolutions and some books to complement them: Continue reading “New Year, New You!”
As 2015 comes to an end, the children’s staff at DBRL has been reminiscing about the fabulous new books that arrived on our shelves this year. While it’s hard to pick a favorite, there were some books that stood apart from the rest. Here are our top 11 favorite picture books and chapter books published in 2015.
“All My Stripes” by Shaina Rudolph
I really liked how this book talks about differences in a way children
understand, while still telling a story children will want to read. The
illustrations are also really well done. ~Katie L
“Bunnies!!!” is the perfect picture book to pull out for an impromptu story time! It’s an entertaining combination of a misunderstood monster, multicolored bunnies and a noisy, fast-paced game of hide-and-seek. ~Kristy
Continue reading “Best Children’s Books of 2015”
This past fall, the Columbia Public Library hosted its fourth season of the Heavy Medal Mock Newbery program. Youth in grades 4-8 were invited to join us twice per month to discuss possible Newbery Award contenders for 2015. The John Newbery Medal is an award given annually for the most distinguished contribution to American Literature for children. At these interactive sessions, we discussed six Newbery contender books, and kids were able to defend the book they felt deserved the Heavy Medal Mock Newbery Award.
This year we read the following books:
Continue reading “2015 Mock Newbery Winners”
Looking for a cheap and easy way to create keepsakes with your children? Try making a hand imprint ornament! You can do this activity with babies and decorate it yourself, or you can work together with older children, allowing them to add personal touches. Even your pets can get involved if you want to make paw imprint ornaments! Regardless of the subject, you will create a cherished memento that will last for years.
Want to give this hand-y gift a try?
Continue reading “Hand-y Ornament”
A few months ago, I was shelving new books and came across a picture book that I couldn’t put down. The book is called “The Night World,” and is written and illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein. The story starts when a cat named Sylvie wakes her boy. Sylvie says she needs to go out even though everyone else is asleep. Soon she is insisting that “It’s coming…hurry,” and the boy must come outside with her.
Continue reading “Books We Love: The Night World”
What could be better than a book with a digger? A book with bigger and BIGGER diggers!
The last of our featured Missouri Building Block nominees, William Bee’s “Digger Dog,” fits that bill. Youngsters love the repetitive phrases and will be “reading” along as Digger Dog strives to unearth the world’s biggest bone with his fleet of diggers. The book’s surprise ending will have them asking you to read it again and again. Continue reading “2015 Missouri Building Block: Digger Dog”
