All library locations will be closed on Thursday, July 4th for Independence Day.
Posted on Thursday, December 17, 2015 by Katie
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?
Posted on Tuesday, December 8, 2015 by Kristy
We are excited to announce that DBRL has recently acquired six children’s digital magazine subscriptions through Zinio! To use Zinio, you need an active DBRL library card. Multiple readers can check out the same magazine at the same time, and you can keep issues on your computer or mobile device as long as you wish. This service is PC and Mac compatible, and an app is available for most mobile devices. If you have questions about setup, you can use our Quick Start Guide.
Here are the digital magazines for kids that we currently have to offer:
American Girl
American Girl magazine is packed with fun! The content includes party plans, crafts, real girls’ stories, quizzes and contests. Ages 8 and up. Continue reading “New Digital Magazines for Kids”
Posted on Tuesday, November 24, 2015 by Amy
This fall R.L. Stine, famed author of the beloved Goosebumps book series, held a contest with the Scholastic Reading Club called the Design-A-Monster Contest. To enter the contest, U.S. students in grades 2-6 were encouraged to draw an original monster, come up with a name for the creature and write up a short description of what makes it so spooky. The entries were judged on originality, creativity and execution. With almost 15,000 entries from across the country, the judges had the extremely difficult and terrifying task of selecting only eleven creepy creations to be recognized.Continue reading “DBRL Patron Wins Design-A-Monster Contest”
Posted on Tuesday, November 17, 2015 by Katie
America Recycles Day, celebrated on November 15th, has passed us by. Did you celebrate with your children by utilizing your local recycling center, repurposing something that you otherwise would have thrown away or by taking the Keep America Beautiful pledge? If you did, wonderful! If you missed out on celebrating America Recycles Day, that’s okay! You can celebrate recycling any day of the year.
Recycling is a great activity for children to participate in, not only because it helps the environment and reduces waste, but also because it can be a sorting project, requiring children to pay attention to details.
A great place to start your recycling journey is your local library, where you can find children’s books about recycling and examples of recycling. When we update the DBRL buildings or buy new furniture, we give preference to local products and products that have a percentage of the content made from recycled materials. Continue reading “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”
Posted on Thursday, November 5, 2015 by Amy
“Hooray for Hat!” is a fun, brightly colored picture book that follows animal friends as they go from being grumpy to being happy, all thanks to wonderful hats! The simple text and the animals’ facial expressions let us clearly know the animals’ moods throughout the book. Brian Won, both the illustrator and author, begins the book with a gray elephant waking up grumpy. What will change his mood!? Why, a stack of fun hats of course! Elephant then wants to show his friends his hats and share the joy.
As a gal who hosts lots of story times, I think this book is fantastic! It’s perfect as a read-aloud, boasting large bright illustrations, simple text and the message that it’s the little things in life that can brighten a grumpy mood. Continue reading “2015 Missouri Building Block: Hooray for Hat!”
Posted on Thursday, October 15, 2015 by Jerilyn
Have you ever taken a song and added your own words? Jane Cabrera does this with “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” As her characters row down the stream, they spot a variety of animals, each making a noise. Have your child make the noise, too. Animal noises are a fun way to practice sounds. This is an early literacy skill—something that lays a foundation for reading readiness.
Children love to move. You and your child could sit on the floor, bottoms of your feet touching the bottoms of his feet. Hold hands and gently pull back and forth as you “row” and sing the song.
Your child could act out the story by pretending that a box or a laundry basket is a boat. Does she have some stuffed animals she could set beside the “boat” and tell her own story? This activity helps with narrative skills and reading comprehension.
Continue reading “2015 Missouri Building Blocks: Row, Row, Row Your Boat by Jane Cabrera”
Posted on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 by Katie
The library is celebrating Latino history with a variety of programs, book displays, special story times and more! One way you can continue this fun at home is to create a rainstick based on those used by the Aztecs. The Aztecs believed that they could summon rain storms by using rainsticks. Originally they were made from pieces of hollow cacti that were dried in the sun. The spines from the cacti were driven into the cacti like nails, and pebbles or other small objects were placed inside. To complete the rainstick, the ends were sealed. When the rain stick was tipped, the pebbles would fall through the tube and bump against the spines. This would create a sound like fa
lling rain.
Now, I’m not going to ask you to go find a cactus for this project. There is a simple, child-friendly rainstick you and your kids can create.
Posted on Tuesday, October 6, 2015 by Kristy
October is finally here, which means that it’s the perfect time to curl up with some candy corn in one hand and a Halloween-themed book in the other. We have recently acquired several new scary and not-so-scary eBooks for children, and we invite you to browse through these spooky stories.
Here are some spook-tacular new Halloween-themed eBooks you can access through Overdrive.
“Boo” by Leslie Patricelli Continue reading “Chilling Children’s Books”
Posted on Thursday, October 1, 2015 by Jerilyn
The Missouri Building Block Award is presented annually to the author and illustrator of the picture book voted the best by preschool and kindergarten children. Over the next 10 weeks we will be featuring ways to enjoy this year’s nominees. Once you read at least five Building Block nominees, then vote for your favorite! The first book we will feature is “Naked” by Michael Ian Black.
The main character in “Naked,” a little boy bursting with enthusiasm, loves the time between bath time and bedtime. Our hero comes out of the bath full of energy, imagining what it would be like to go naked all the time (the illustrator is very discreet with her pictures). He then adds a cape, which is even better! He takes several breaks to eat his bedtime snack of cookies and then realizes he is cold. On go the dragon pajamas and he is finally “exhausted” and ready for bed.
Reading “Naked” could lead to all kinds of great discussions and activities.
Posted on Friday, September 18, 2015 by Kristy
Since all full time 5th grade students in Columbia Public Schools have been issued iPad Minis, we have been seeing many 
young folks using these new tablets. These iPads are not only good for schoolwork but also for accessing some great eBooks from DBRL. The library offers a wide array of electronic resources such as films, music, magazines and of course eBooks that can be accessed via devices such as iPads as long as you live in our service area. Our most popular eBook service is Overdrive. To use Overdrive on your iPad, you only need to follow these five quick and easy steps to download the app. Continue reading “Five Quick Steps to eBook Success (for iPads!)”