New Movies in the Kids' Collection!

Don't miss these brand new DVD's ... !!!

Pictures from our Fairy Houses Event: Saturday, September 13, 2008, in the Upton State Forest!

Thank you, Friends of the Upton Town Library, for funding this amazing event! Thank you to Tracy & Barry Kane for bringing the magic of Fairy Houses to Upton!

Comment about this week's StoryTime ...

Hello Library Friends,
I am posting parts of an email I just rec'd here, to ask for your input ...
As most of you know, I love my job as the Children's/Young Adult Librarian here in Upton, and put a lot of effort into planning programs and activities. I thoroughly appreciate all feedback ... so I'm opening this up, sincerely asking for comments ...

• Did others feel this way about storytime this week?
• Are there other issues/concerns about themes or book selections?

It was certainly NOT my intent to offend anyone, and in the afternoon session I opted to read another Fairy book, as opposed to the one mentioned here, simply because this one (one of my personal favorites, I will happily admit!) is a bit long and didn't seem to hold the younger children's attention in the morning session -- they just wanted to get right to the part with the scissors and glue!

Here's an excerpt:

"... As you know, I love our local library, and visit it nearly every week with my kids. We've attended Story Time off and on . . . and always enjoy the songs and stories. I want to express my concern, however, at the particular selection of books presented last Thursday for the preschool age group.

Fairy Houses, by Tracy Kane, seemed innocuous enough -and who doesn't love nature?- but in conjunction with The Care and Feeding of Sprites, by the Spiderwick creators, and alongside Child of Faerie, Child of Earth, Story Time took on spiritual, if not religious, overtones.

As both a woman of faith and an avid reader, I try to foster my kids' imagination while also safeguarding them from darker spiritual elements found in books by the likes of Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi. I realize that discerning where healthy fantasy ends and wicca begins is tricky, but in the future I hope to see our public library choose texts more carefully when reading to a diverse group of small children.

I hope that you won't be offended by my input, but I'm quite sure I'm not the only local mom who would prefer a traditional, wholesome curriculum for our little ones."

(The books that I read, mentioned in this email, are all pictured here, posted on this blog, on September 4th)
Now for your thoughts .... !?
Please feel free to post comments, or email me privately at UptonStoryTime@yahoo.com
thanks!

We haven't had a good discussion like this since December Holidays Dilemma?! back in Dec 2006!

Thank you!
~Lisa
:)

I met Jane Yolen!!!

As if my surprise birthday celebration at Thursday's storytime wasn't enough excitement for one week, on Friday I had the great pleasure of meeting JANE YOLEN!!! Jane was the keynote speaker at a Massachusetts Library Association conference for youth-services librarians from all across the state, at Tower Hill in Boylston.

Jane Yolen is the author of approximately a gazillion books for readers of all ages and has won LOTS of awards.


She has often been referred to as America's Hans Christian Andersen ...
you can read an interview of her discussing one of her books which honors that beloved author here.

An incredible writer,

she is also a wonderful speaker and it was truly an honor to be in her presence and listen to all she had to say about children's literature.