“On the Day the Horse Got Out” page detail courtesy www.audreyhelenweber.com.
One of my favorite aspects of picture books as a subset of children’s literature is their attention to the wonder that shimmers on top of or just beneath or within the serious business and repetitive routines of everyday life. What is “known” or “understandable” to us grown-ups becomes new, strange and/or changed by a special magic, a shift in perspective that is more open to possibility and its expansive processes — the whimsy, delight and awe that the kiddos in our lives are already often fully immersed in. Audrey Helen Weber’s work is a magnificent example of and call toward this shift in perspective, and their books are filled to the brim with equal parts nonsense, astonishment, dreamy logic and playful honesty.
So…you’ve got a curious, intelligent, creative, wonderful kiddo who doesn’t seem particularly interested in reading. It can be frustrating to handle this as a caregiver, especially when you yourself are a literature lover. While we can recognize that many people, including children, genuinely aren’t interested in reading, we can also understand that it’s still a crucial skill that needs to be practiced. It helps us build our language skills and explore worlds and circumstances we never would otherwise. I am of the opinion that there’s a book out there for everyone and that once it’s found, the floodgates open. But how on earth can we encourage literary exploration with kiddos who simply aren’t interested?
It’s a lot more fun than it might seem — we encourage their language development, we set a good example, and we have fun with it. Like anything else in caregiving, we find out where their needs are so that we can meet them where they’re at. In this blog, I’d like to focus on small-action, big-impact choices we can make to better our children’s and students’ relationship with reading.
We’re off to a great start of new books this year! If you haven’t signed up for Winter Reading yet and you need some inspiration, I’ve got some wonderful options for you. We’ve got characters who learn about community and connection, as well as detectives who solve cases both high profile and low. Enjoy!
Hare loves his turnips and has no intention of sharing them with anyone. When rabbits move in next door, the other animals are eager to help them get settled in and bring food to share. The rabbits generously cook a big stew for everyone, which baffles Hare. Why would they share when they have so little? Later, when he’s tending his garden, Hare has a run in with a fierce boar who steals his turnips and is heading for the rabbits’ carrots next. Hare turns his selfishness into selflessness, and realizes the joy that can be found in community. Continue reading “Brianna’s Books: February Favorites 2025”
❤️ “All you need is love. But a little chocolate cake now and then doesn’t hurt.” ❤️ – Charles M. Schulz
Folks worldwide enjoy chocolate (and chocolate cake!) thanks to beans inside the fruit of cacao trees that grow in tropical climates of places like the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, Mexico and Hawai’i. Sacred to many cultures, cacao was first consumed widely by the ancient Mayans and Aztecs (in modern-day Central America and Mexico) as a spiced, often bitter beverage. According to Aztec myth, the god Quetzalcoatl planted cacao seeds he took from the Garden of Life as a gift to humans. The scientific name for chocolate, Theobroma, translates to “food of the gods.”If you’re chocolate-obsessed like me, that seems entirely appropriate.
My favorite spot in my home is located right in my living room. I love having my blanket and cuddling up on the couch. My youngest and I ‘cheer’ (me with my coffee cup, his with his sippy) and we will dive in with our cozy reads.
As brutal as winter can be, it reminds us it’s a good time to rest. Between being newly back to school and then in the thick of the fall season, we have collectively had to be somewhere in the last few months. Now is a great time to just be still. At least as still as we can with little ones, right?
Here are a few recommendations for some cozy reads to share with your family. My hope for your family is to enjoy some much-needed cozy time in this winter season.
For the family who likes to browse the library on a wintery Saturday: This bookshop is drawing to a close one evening and the owner is wishing her shop goodnight. There are plenty of hidden details throughout the pages — see if you can spot the hidden glasses and the forgotten hat. With such rich detail, it is fun to look over the pages to see what you can find. Continue reading “Cozy Reading”
Posted on Wednesday, January 15, 2025 by DBRL Kids
Every year in the fall, the library’s Outreach Department sponsors a contest for first through sixth graders in our outlying communities, challenging them to design new covers for their favorite books. Thanks to all who participated! Here are this year’s winning entries.
Back in August, I told you all about a few of my favorite magazines from the Juvenile (J) section of the Columbia Public Library. For those who are unfamiliar, this section lies between our J graphic novels and our J fiction. You’ll know it when you see it — there’s a rack of comics and several comfy chairs to sit in while you peruse! I started helping with this section a few months ago and was pleasantly surprised by the amount and variety of magazines we carry. We have subscriptions for horse lovers (Young Rider), sports fans (Sports Illustrated for Kids), those who want to stay caught up on world news (Faces, The Week Jr.), and nature enthusiasts (Xplor, Ranger Rick).
Why are magazines so great, though, especially for kids? I touched on this briefly during my last blog post, but the more I investigate the magazines we carry, the more I appreciate their potential benefits in home and/or school education. The activities are age-appropriate, they spark curiosity and they connect kids with our big, bright world. They’re also a great way to introduce kiddos to reading for fun — the freedom to choose a magazine that calls to them can be liberating to children. When you’re young, you don’t exactly get to decide where you go and when, but we can give children the chance to explore the world through their book and magazine choices, allowing them to investigate the wonders of our big, beautiful world from the safety of home. Continue reading “First Floor Magazines Part 2”
New year, new books, let’s goooo! There’s something immensely satisfying and exhilarating about looking ahead to a brand new year of books. Here’s what caught my eye for January, but there are so many more I didn’t have space to write about! My accidental theme this month (I love it when that happens) is families and immigrants.
Picture Books
“The Interpreter” written by Olivia Abtahi and illustrated by Monica Arnaldo
“Some kids had one job: to be a kid. Cecilia worked two.” Cecilia is constantly called on to be an interpreter for her Spanish-speaking parents. While it means she gets to go to special grown-up places like the DMV, it also means she doesn’t get much time to play with friends. Sometimes she’s so overwhelmed by switching back and forth between her two jobs that it’s hard to keep track of everything. When a sympathetic teacher asks how she’s doing at a parent-teacher conference, Cecilia finally has the opportunity to ask for help. While this could be a serious subject, it’s written and illustrated with wonderful humor. When working as an interpreter, Cecilia drinks coffee, carries a briefcase and wears an oversized green power suit that gets bigger and bigger as she gets overwhelmed. The Spanish and English dialogue is shown in different colored speech bubbles, and the characters’ facial expressions are eloquent. Bilingual kids in this situation will feel seen and valued, and kids outside this experience will gain understanding and sympathy. Continue reading “Brianna’s Books: January Favorites 2025”
Hannah Moushabeck‘s debut picture book “Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine” opens with a tenderly familiar scene: three sisters wait for their father to get home from work so he can tell them a bedtime story. In their shared childhood bedroom in Brooklyn, snug in their pjs, the three sisters listen to their father’s stories of his own childhood, back when he could visit his grandparents in the Old City of Jerusalem in Palestine. On this particular night, he tells them of the last day he saw his grandfather, Sido Abu Michel, who was the head of his neighborhood community in East Jerusalem, called al-Mukhtar, and who owned a café where “[p]oets, musicians, historians, and storytellers gathered to listen to the exchange of ideas.” After a delicious breakfast of fresh ka’ek pulled up by his grandmother, Teta Maria, through the window from a vendor below and after walking through the colorful and lively multicultural streets, past vendors selling “everything from olive oil soap with rose water and heaping bags of za’atar to gold jewelry and embroidered textiles,” Michel and his grandfather arrived at the café, but that wasn’t the end of their journey. Sido then led Michel into a vibrant garden behind the café, home to hundreds of homing pigeons, and “with the help of only a black piece of cloth tied to the end of a long stick,” Sido and the pigeons performed a marvelous spiraling routine, a great circle of birds filling up the sky. Continue reading “Debut Picture Books We Love: Homeland by Hannah Moushabeck 🕊”
So…you’ve got a curious, intelligent, creative, wonderful kiddo who doesn’t seem particularly interested in reading. It can be frustrating to handle this as a caregiver, especially when you yourself are a literature lover. While we can recognize that many people, including children, genuinely aren’t interested in reading, we can also understand that it’s still a crucial skill that needs to be practiced. It helps us build our language skills and explore worlds and circumstances we never would otherwise. I am of the opinion that there’s a book out there for everyone and that once it’s found, the floodgates open. But how on earth can we encourage literary exploration with kiddos who simply aren’t interested?
