Awards, awards!

Yesterday was my all-time favorite day of the year in the world of books.  The American Library Association (ALA) announced the winners of their Youth Media Awards.  The Newbery Award went to Moon Over Manifest, by debut author Clare Vanderpool.  The Caldecott was awarded to A Sick Day For Amos McGee written and illustrated by Philip and Erin Stead.  Debut authors for both awards!  Amazing!

Check out this link for a full list of the winners!

http://www.atyourlibrary.org/2011-youth-media-awards-have-been-announced

Got Flickr?

We have a new Flickr account for Moon Township Public Library Children's Department!  You should see a Flickr box with images on the side of this blog.  Follow that link to see pictures from various programs, events and story times!  This is a great way to share with dads, grandparents and friends, and anyone else who missed out on all the fun.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/21324006@N07/5306611213/

Happy New Year!

My New Year's Resolution is to revamp our blog!  We have tons of new things happening at the library.  January brings our new ABC Open Play group.  Kids birth and up with an adult caregiver can stop by the library anytime between 10:30-11:30 on Fridays to play and socialize.  We have lots of great new toys and educational materials for you to have fun with.  I can tell you that I had alot of fun shopping for them!  We also have our new Kid's Advisory Board.  All students in grades 3-5 can join this club to meet once a month and brainstorm ideas to make our library an even cooler place!  We'll also be hosting  Three Rivers Greyhound Rescue as they bring some dogs for a meet and greet on 1/29 at 1:00pm.  Stop in and find out what else we have going on for the new year!

First Day Jitters

Here we are at the end of August and many of you have watched your little ones go off on the school bus today. I sent my oldest off to his first year of middle school, and my youngest to first grade. Talk about a rough morning! It's very hard to watch them grow up so quickly, but the flip side is that I get to enjoy all of the little ones that come to library programs during the day! I've been working hard over the summer to get things ready for fall events, and I'm hoping that you and your children will enjoy them as much as I do! I wanted to share with you a book that we recently bought for the library, and that my first grader and I have been laughing over for the past few days. It's called "Interrupting Chicken" by the wonderful David Ezra Stein. This tale has Grandpa Chicken trying desperately to calm his young grand-chicken with a bedtime story. Each time he starts a new book, such as Hansel and Gretel or Chicken Little, the youngster shouts the ending. This is one of the best read-alouds that I've come across in awhile, and my son asked for it to be repeated over and over. I can't wait to share it in storytime, and I hope that you'll stop in and check it out for yourself!

Where has the summer gone??

Hello all! I have been away from the blog for far too long, but Summer Reading was consuming all free time and then some! We had a fantastic summer this year, with over 400 kids registered and involved with the program and various activities. The library had it's first family bingo, which was wildly successful, and I'm planning another for Halloween. It was really cool to see families meeting up with each other and hanging out for an evening of fun. All of our elementary programs were a blast from our Spongebob Party to our Life-Sized Candyland, the kids were ecstatic, as was I! One of my favorite programs this summer was, surprisingly enough, one that took little effort on my part. We had a Water Art day, in which the kids were free to use their imagination and use different art tools from water colors to tempera paints and sand. I can honestly tell you that it was the most quiet our library had been all summer long. The kids were absolutely enthralled with what they were doing, and it was super fantastic to see what they came up with. We strung the finished products up on clothesline in the craft room for all to see. Our End of Summer Reading Party was a blast. We had Magic Man TJ Hill perform, the kids picked their free books, and we pulled the winners for all of the different raffle prizes. We had over 1oo people come out and celebrate, and I'm so thankful for all of the support!

So, with the end of Summer Reading, now comes a bit of a rest for me here at the library, but I'm busy planning all of our Fall activites. We are going to continue with some new programs and bring back some old favorites. Little Listeners, Book Buddies and Stories and Songs will all pick up again beginning the week of September 13th. We will be adding the Kid Aerobics for the fall, as well as a Family Storytime in the evenings. I'd like to have Bingo each month at the library, and we are also offering the wildly popular Abrakadoodle classes again. You can check the website for details. I'm most excited for Halloween this year, my absolute favorite. This year, our teen librarian, Heather Panella and I are putting together a Haunted Library. We plan on going all out for this one, so be sure and keep October 30th free in your date books! Also, on September 18th we will be having Mark Hayward, a top-knotch yo-yo expert come to the library for a fun-filled family program.

In the meantime, this month we're having a Movie Night with Diary of a Wimpy Kid, our 3rd Annual Stuffed Animal Sleepover, Get Ready for Kindergarten program and Science in the Summer.

As you can see, busy, busy!! And be sure to stop in and say hello...it's awfully quiet around here without Story Time!

Summer Fun

Well, the time has finally arrived for our Summer Reading Club, and our kick-off party on June 12th was a complete success. We had over 250 children sign up for summer reading, and countless others for the weekly programs. I'd like to thank all of you that helped make it so much fun, and I hope that you all enjoyed yourselves, as well! You can check out tons of pictures from the event, and other programs by going to http://www.missmeganisreading.pbworks.com/ and requesting access to the wiki! We have started this summer off with some super-cool programs, including a Spongebob Squarepants party which found elementary students crafting their own Spongebob's, as well as having a sponge race out on the back patio. Our first Stories & Songs program with the 2's and 3's went very well, with lots of songs and fun for Father's Day. We still have room for some of our Family Programs, as well as spots open, as of right now, for the Lego Clubs. And, as always, you can stop in and sign up for the Summer REading Club and get entered for lots of prizes and fun!

If you haven't had a chance to come in lately, please do! Thanks to numerous staff and volunteers, we've transformed our Children's Department into a Water Wonderland!

Net Surfin' Newbies

In the land of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and countless other social networking sites, we've noticed an increase in the concern over privacy issues. This concern will no doubt deepen if your children are eager to have a page of their own. Most sites require a minimum age, but with the way kids are with computers these days, it's likely they will find a way around that. There is a new social site called "Togetherville," which offers your kids the opportunity to have their own network page and communicate with friends in a safe and monitored environment. This website features privacy controls which allow the adult to be in complete control (as a parent, I like that!). It combines some of the same features we see on Facebook, such as games, videos and connecting with others. The site is actually able to be linked to your Facebook page, yet all of the friends the child has are pre-approved by the parent, and the child can only friend friends of the parent or children of the parents' friends. Oh, and your kid cannot access your FB page from their Togetherville account. The site is not affiliated with Facebook, and was actually created by a dad of three.

I think kids would love this, and it's definately worth checking out. Let me know what you think!