Saturday, December 30, 2006

BedTime Stories

At this past week's preschool story time, we talked about
getting new PJs as holiday presents, and
read bedtime stories.
A new favorite of mine is Llama, Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
Check it out when you get a chance ... the illustrations are adorable!!

and at our Friday morning TinyTots lapsit storytime, we ended our session w/another favorite bedtime story of mine, Time for Bed by Mem Fox & Jane Dyer


What are YOUR favorite bedtime stories??

Friday, December 22, 2006

Happy Holidays to All!

Just a quick reminder: The Library will be CLOSED on Tuesday, December 26, but will be open regular hours the rest of the week. There will be NO MUSIC & MOVEMENT on Wednesday the 27th, but the StoryTimes schedule remains the same, on both Thursday & Friday of school vacation week.

As we discussed at this week's storytime sessions, lots of different people celebrate this season in lots of different ways, but the common themes we discovered were Lights/candles, Food and spending time w/Family & Friends! So however you are spending this Winter Solstice and the surrounding weeks, may you find much comfort & joy surrounded by loved ones!

Wishing you all much Light and Warmth!
~Miss Lisa
:)

Thursday, December 14, 2006

New Book!

I just wanted to let you know about this very-cool new book I just ordered for the Library! It is in the kids' cookbook section (j641.5) and includes several classic fairytales, and yummy recipes to accompany them, such as Snow White's baked apples and the Runaway Pancakes, along with a recipe for Stone Soup! If you love good stories, and enjoy cooking, this book is definitely for you! Check it out!!


read more info/reviews here:
Amazon.com

BookLinks
From prehistoric times, stories and food have been “close companions,” according to Yolen and her daughter, Stemple, who created this creative and beautifully illustrated book that features Yolen’s retellings of well-known fairy tales accompanied by Stemple’s kid-friendly recipes.

The Green Man Review

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

How to Raise a Reader!

For some wonderful resources and information about Early Literacy, check out this site from the American Library Association:

Sunday, December 10, 2006

December Holidays dilemma?!

I am struggling with my storytime ideas for the next couple of weeks, trying to determine if I want to incorporate Christmas and Hanukkah stories into the themes, or stick w/a more generic WINTER theme, and then realized that if I DO go with the Holidays idea, there are more than just those 2 December Holidays (including Kwanzaa, Yule and Pancha Ganapati, a Hindu holiday which I had never heard of before) to consider. As much as I want everyone to feel included, I'm also worried about 'overstepping' bounds by incorporating religious beliefs . . . what do you think?? Personally, I feel that exposing children to all different beliefs/celebrations can be very educational, but I'm open to any suggestions and would love to hear how you all feel about this!!
Thanks!
~Lisa
:)
ps: click here to check out my previous post about new Holiday Books!

Thursday, December 7, 2006

Today's StoryTime: All About Books!

Today's PreSchool StoryTime was all about BOOKS! I read Book! Book! Book! by Deborah Bruss, The Best Place to Read by Debbie Bertram (with fabulous illustrations by Michael Garland!), and Read to Your Bunny by Rosemary Wells, a very short book (basically a poem), directed more towards parents, to reinforce the importance of reading to your child every day! After the stories, the kids made their own books to take home.

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Grolier Website Presentation

*Gwen will be returning to present this info again, on April 1, 2008. Please plan to attend!*

At yesterday's Homeschoolers meeting, Gwen Paquette, a sales rep for Grolier Publishing (Scholastic's library division) was here at the library and gave a presentation on using the company's wonderful online resources. As members of CMRLS, we have FREE access to this incredible site (along with 24 other reference databases!).



If you were unable to attend this workshop, but would like to learn more about this, please contact me at the Library, by calling 529-6272, or emailing me at UptonStoryTime@yahoo.com.

To log-into the databases, using your library card, click here, then scroll down to "Search Online Databases"

Monday, December 4, 2006

Children's Programs: Weekly Schedule

Pre-School StoryTime:
Thursdays 10:30 am & 1:30 pm, for ages 3-6yrs. Two or 3 picture books, read aloud, followed by a theme-related arts&crafts activity. Space is limited, so please call the library at 508-529-6272, or email Lisa: UptonStoryTime@yahoo.com to sign up for the month.
PLEASE NOTE: in July & August, there will be no afternoon storytime.


TinyTots LapSit StoryTime:
Fridays 10:30am, for ages 0-3, with a parent or caregiver.
Twenty-30 minutes of developmentally-appropriate songs, rhymes and fingerplays, along with a few short stories, board-book exploration and time for meeting new friends! A great way for the little ones to grow accustomed to the library!

Sunday, December 3, 2006

Holiday Books


Click here to read an article from ALA (American Library Association) entitled:

Children's Librarians Recommend Books for the Holidays


It includes the following list of books ABOUT Holidays, and also a list of ideas for holiday gift-giving, for different age groups.


BOOKS ABOUT HOLIDAYS:

(The titles in BLUE are ones I have recently ordered for the Upton Library's collection.)

  • Cleary,Brian P."Eight Wild Nights: A Family Hanukkah Tale."Illus.by David Udovic. Rollicking rhymes describe the general chaos along with the warmth and love that occur when hordes of relatives gather to celebrate.
  • Compestine, Ying Chang. "D Is for Dragon Dance." Illus. by YongSheng Xuan. Holiday
    This brightly illustrated alphabet book introduces acrobats, calligraphy, and the title dance, among many other appealing aspects of the holiday.
  • Dickens, Charles. "A Christmas Carol." Illus. by P. J. Lynch. Candlewick
    This attractively designed edition of the holiday classic, enlivened with
    full-page, bordered illustrations, would make a good holiday read-aloud edition.
  • Krensky, Stephen. "Hanukkah at Valley Forge." Illus. by Greg Harlin. Dutton
    This fictionalized account of an actual meeting between Washington and a soldier celebrating Hanukkah juxtaposes the frigid winter setting with the warmth of the candles.
  • Lin, Grace. "The Year of the Dog: A Novel." Little, Brown
    Frustrated by he
    r lack of talent, a young Taiwanese-American girl sets out to find herself and make new friends during the Chinese Year of the Dog.
  • McCutcheon, John. "Christmas in the Trenches." Illus. by Henri Sørensen. Peachtree
    A grandfather tells about the special Christmas during the Great War when German and English soldiers sang carols together and celebrated a rare night of peace and friendship. A CD is included.
  • Martin, Ann M. "On Christmas Eve." Scholastic
    In 1958, eight-year-old Tess realizes that many children her age don't believe in Santa, but she plans to stay up all night on Christmas Eve in order to ask him to grant her special wish.
  • Recorvits, Helen. "Yoon and the Christmas Mitten." Illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska. Farrar,Straus&Giroux Newly moved to America from Korea, Yoon hears songs and stories at school about a holiday called Christmas, but her parents aren't enthusiastic at first.
  • Van Steenwyk, Elizabeth. "Prairie Christmas." Illus. by Ronald Himler. Eerdmans
    While Elizabeth's mom, a frontier doctor, struggles to help a woman with a difficult Christmas Eve delivery, Elizabeth brings comfort to the new baby's sister and brother.

HomeSchoolers Monthly Meetings

Updated 9/16/08:
Local Home-Schooling families gather at the Library on the
First Tuesday of each month, beginning at 10:30am, to meet other families and share ideas. It is an informal networking opportunity and all are welcome, but space IS limited, so we ask that you RSVP on a monthly basis, for planning purposes. For more info, please contact Lisa Olinger at lolinger@charter.net or call Lisa Stratton at the Library: 508-529-6272.

The next meeting will be held on October 7, 2008.

Click here for info about our April 2008 meeting!

Saturday, December 2, 2006

Favorite Children's Authors

There are so many fabulous children's authors, and we all have our favorites . . . . I will post a few of mine here. Click on their names to visit their websites. Please feel free to add to this list: just click on "comments" below, and I will add your responses here!

Tony Abbott
Avi
Molly Bang
Jan Brett
Margaret Wise Brown
Eric Carle
Sharon Creech
Doreen Cronin
Tomie dePaola (My daughter & I met him in 2000 at a Barnes&Noble!)
Anna Dewdney
Denise Fleming
Mem Fox
Kevin Henkes
Tracy Kane (My daughter & I met her in 2006: Can you find our picture on her website?) Click here to see her 2008 visit to UPTON!
David Kirk
Kathryn Lasky
Daisy Meadows
Laura Numeroff
Mary Pope Osborne
Patricia Polacco
(I met her in 1996 at a Children's Literature Festival at Framingham State College)
Ron Roy
Peter Sis
Chris Van Allsburg (I met him in 2005 at a Children's Literature Festival at Framingham State College)
Karma Wilson
Jane Yolen (I met her in March 2007!)

Books About Imagination!

Last week's storytime theme was 'using your imagination' and I read one of my favorite books from when I was a little girl, Christina Katerina & The Box by Patricia Lee Gauch (c.1971), and today I received an email from a parent asking for the title of this book because her daughters who had heard it at storytime liked it so much:
" . . .
the girls have been creating lots of "stuff" (palaces, pirate ships, treasure hunts) in the house since Thursday and I thank you for sparking that in them again!!"
I just LOVE hearing things like this and knowing how much the kids really do get out of storytimes! I love my job!!
BTW: the other books featured that session were:
Edward and the Pirates by David McPhail (c.1997), and Soft House by Jane Yolen (c.2005)

Do YOU have any favorite books about using your imagination? Please let me know by "commenting" and I'll post responses here! :)