March 2nd is Dr. Seuss’ birthday – he would be 112 this year! It can be hard to imagine what children’s books would look like today without the incredibly creative and inspiring books of Dr. Seuss. He wrote stories that are hard to put down, and he created characters that are impossible to forget. Memorable characters such as the Cat in the Hat, the Grinch, Thing 1 and Thing 2, Horton the Elephant and the Lorax are still popular after many decades. To help celebrate such an icon of literature, I have listed some little known fun facts about Dr. Seuss himself:
Continue reading “Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!”
Has your family read with TumbleBooks lately? TumbleBooks is an online collection of animated picture books. The books are created by taking existing picture books and adding animations, sound, music and narration to produce an electronic picture book. TumbleBooks offers fiction, nonfiction and graphic novel titles in English, Spanish and French. Chapter books are also available. All you need is a DBRL library card.
If you haven’t yet tried TumbleBooks, you might want to spend a few minutes exploring this excellent resource. There is a link to our TumbleBook collection on the left-hand menu of our Kid’s Blog – you’re already halfway there! Continue reading “TumbleBooks – New and Improved!”
The first Saturday in February may be my new favorite holiday — National Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. The day was founded in the 1960s by a mom who wanted to give her kiddos something to look forward to during the cold, dreary, nasty days of winter. Legend has it (at least according to Wikipedia) that Florence Rappaport and her six children were hit with a massive blizzard which buried their town of Rochester, New York under several feet of snow. To brighten their day, Mrs. Rappaport decided to serve the children ice cream for breakfast, and so the tradition was born! As the children grew older, they traveled the world and kept up the yearly tradition of eating ice cream for breakfast. Continue reading “Happy National Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day”
The children across Missouri have spoken, and the winner of the 2015 Missouri Building Block Award goes to “Naked!,” written by Michael Ian Black and illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi.
Over 20,000 preschoolers and kindergartners participated, choosing “Naked!” as their favorite. “Naked” had almost twice as many votes as the second place finisher “Digger Dog.” Continue reading “Winner of the 2015 Missouri Building Block Award – Naked!”
Many children have anxieties about going to bed, from fearing monsters in the closet to worrying about witches in the hallway. There’s a variety of ways to help children work through these fears (as many ways as there are children, I suspect). One idea that I’ve read about is “Monster Away Spray.” This is a magical potion that you can mix up at home to repel monsters (or other scary things). Below is a basic recipe for this potion. Continue reading “Spray the Monsters Away!”
In honor of Valentine’s Day (February 14) and Random Acts of Kindness Week (February 14-20), we thought it would be fun to create a list of some love and kindness themed books that the library offers for young readers. It is never too early to teach and share the value of love and kindness.
One of my favorite things to do each year is create Valentine’s Day cards with friends and hand them out at local nursing homes and hospitals. Just a simple way to spread joy. (This is double the fun if you have kids who can deliver cards with you.) Below are some of my top pick books to encourage kindness in young readers. Click on the book title to check library availability. Happy reading!
Start Early Books:
“How Kind!” by Mary Murphy
Continue reading “Kindness is Contagious”
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”
March 2nd is Dr. Seuss’ birthday – he would be 112 this year! It can be hard to imagine what children’s books would look like today without the incredibly creative and inspiring books of Dr. Seuss. He wrote stories that are hard to put down, and he created characters that are impossible to forget. Memorable characters such as the Cat in the Hat, the Grinch, Thing 1 and Thing 2, Horton the Elephant and the Lorax are still popular after many decades. To help celebrate such an icon of literature, I have listed some little known fun facts about Dr. Seuss himself: