Week at a glance...

Hey there blogging buddies... its been a while. Hows things ? Here is what I have been up to lately....

I've been on a bit of a reading roll lately. I felt like a bad librarian because after going over SLJ's list of 100 greatest children's novels, I realized that were a lot of classics that I haven't read! So I've been on a reading roll and I've been tackling that list! So far I've read the Westing Game, Holes and Because of Winn Dixie and so on.

 

It hasn't all been Children's classics, I finally got around to reading Maus. Its been on my to-read list for a while. One of my history professors in college always said it was the best narrative depiction of the holocaust. I guess I was on a historic/graphic novel kick, because I also read March by John Lewis. It is about Lewis' experience growing up during segregation and the part he played in the civil rights movement. Its interesting to see such serious moments from history be retold in graphic novel form. Its a format gets scoffed at, but the mix of imagery with text can evoke such emotion that sometimes the written word can't do.

I haven't been in the craft room that much lately. Work has been crazy (more on that later). However I have been doing a few things round the house. I made these snazzy pillows as part of the last Iron Craft Challenge.

I also decided to add some greenery into the house. The last few weeks we've gotten some Spring teases but its still to cold for gardening. So I decided to bring the outside in and I made some planters. I found the planters at the Dollar store and I jazzed them up a bit. Then I raided Home Depot for some house plants. It dawned on me that we don't have any houseplants at all! So We needed something! I put them in the dinning room, because it needs some sprucing.

I know Summer is still a few months off, but not for librarians. We started to organize and plan for the summer and it is a pretty daunting task. Some exciting things are happening and I love the theme this year: Fizz, Boom: Read! We are going to do some fun science-y things and I'll be sure to tell ya all about them! 

Friday night I got to channel my inner Katniss with an archery lesson. For Christmas Tim got me a voucher good for a lesson and an hour of shooting time at the Smith Point Archery Range. It something I've wanted to do for a while and it was a lot of fun. I did archery in High School and I guess some of it stuck with me, because I did pretty good with a few bulls-eyes! The instructor was a really awesome crotchety old man who was impressed. I think I might be investing in a bow. 

Monsters Display - Library Life

Since October is upon us it was time to update my display! I was trying to think of a good idea for this one. I didn't want anything too scary or too cheesey. I didn't want to put 'Read BOOOOOks'. I like a good pun but I wanted something clever! When I came across the quote 'A Book a Day Keeps the Monsters Away'  I knew what to do!

I had my quote, now I needed some monsters! I thought I would use some literary monsters including: Leonardo (the terrible monster), Ed Emberly's Big Green Monster, Grover and Mike Wiskowski. I enlisted the help of our resident artists, Morgan and Annmarie. They constructed these guys and they came out awesome! The used some cool spooky fonts on picmonkey and cut the letters out on my silhouette machine.

April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day is quite the fun kid friendly holiday so I decided to create an April Fool's program for the library. Here is how you can do it in your classroom, library or at home.

Great read aloud for April Fool's Day

Generally with a library program you need a story to go along with the theme of the program! There aren't too many great books for April Fool's to read aloud but Guess Again by Mac Barnett does the job. Mac Barnett is quite the funny man. This book features silhouettes and a little poem about what it could be and the audience is tricked every time! (My favorite is the Viking)



I had a hard time figuring out what craft to make. After researching some April Fool's Day facts I saw a picture of a Court Jester and had an A-HA! moment and the kids decorated and made their own Jester hats. It was pretty simple to make. Just a few construction paper triangles (of varying colors) then attached it to an oak tag strip used for the head band of the hat. To jazz things up a bit I put out some markers, scrap pieces of paper (junk that we needed to get rid of) and let them decorate until their heart's content. When they were all done we stapled up the hats and they were on their way. To make it look more court jester-y I took a marker and curled up the triangle on the top.

Net galley

This one is for all of my librarian/bibliophile friends, but can also relate to my craft friends. Read on for further details!

In the library world a big part of the job is collection development. This involves painstakingly combing through review journal after review journal looking for the best upcoming titles. It's hard to blindly order something based on a 200 word review. We often order some titles based on a starred review. When title come in, they often do not live up to the hype. Another problem in the library world is recommendations or reader's advisory. No matter how much of an avid reader you are, it is impossible for librarians to read every single book in the collection. When new books come in we will get them slightly in advanced in order to process them (put labels and catalog them). It doesn't really give us enough time to suggest it to patrons right away.

Net Galley is here to help! It is a free service that allows you to browse their various titles and preview a book before its publication date. It's simple to navigate and they have a great selection of books! For my crafty friends they have craft and art books ready to be viewed!

How does it work? Log on to Net Galley and sign up for an account. Browse by keyword or by genre, then download a copy. This requires you to download Adobe Digital Editions, but don't worry that is also free. Many of the galley copies are also available for e-reader devices so you can read it on the go. After you are done reading a book you can write a review through Net Galley and it is sent to the publisher. Net Galley lets the reviewer keep the rights to any review you have written. So you can publish that review on your own. A little caveat to that, some publishers will email you and ask you to not publish you review until the book comes out.

You may also notice that titles will have an expiration date, which is usually 60 days. Its similar to Over Drive and e-book lending services, you only have the book for a certain amount of time before the file is removed. Hopefully you aren't a slow reader because 60 days is plenty of time.

I am signed up for it and currently reading two books from there. One is a crafty book called Knits for Nerds and the other is a graphic novel called the Coldest City. I think its such a neat idea and more librarians should take advantage! So if ya sign up and read something good I'd love to hear about it!

Sarina