100+ brand-new Library card holders in Upton!!

This morning, and last Monday morning, we opened the Library for some very special guests! All of the First Graders from Memorial School visited the Library and the students got their own library cards!! Three of the classes visited last week, and 2 came this morning.

We started with a special 'big kids' storytime, when the students got to sit down and relax after walking to the library from school!

I read The Library by Sarah Stewart and then the kids each chose a book to check out with their NEW library cards to take home! A very fun experience for all!

dates to keep in mind....

Please note that The Upton Town Library will be
closed for Veterans Day: Tuesday, November 11.

Also, for Thanksgiving week, the hours will be as follows:

Tuesday, November 25: 10am - 8pm (regular hours)
Wednesday, November 26: 10am - 2pm (closing early)
Thursday, November 27: CLOSED
Friday, November 28: CLOSED
Saturday, November 29: 10am - 2pm (regular hours)

Creativity at Storytime!

Taking a break from our Fall themes last week, I read one of my all-time favorite books, Christina Katerina and the Box, about a girl and her friend who use their imagination to create all kinds of wonderful adventures for themselves using an empty cardboard box.

The last time I read this book at StoryTime (November 2006), the kids -and parents- loved it! This time, I paired it with an open-ended craft activity: lots of 'junk'---cardboard tubes, plastic caps, coffee stirrers, etc and some glue ... and said OK, make something! Here are some photos, (courtesy of Avery's mom's cell phone!) from Thursday afternoon's session of creative kids!!

Upcoming Storytime Themes:
Oct. 30: Halloween / black cats
Nov 6: Hibernation (postponed from October)
Nov.13: TBD
Nov.20: Thanksgiving / Turkeys
Nov.27: no storytime-Library Closed (Thanksgiving)

a trio of new Penguin titles....

The latest title in the Magic Tree House Series has arrived! Book #40, A Merlin Mission: Eve of the Emperor Penguin, and its non-fiction companion Research Guide, Penguins and Antarctica.

Also, just in, a brand new picture book by Karma Wilson & Jane Chapman, (the same author and illustrator of Bear Snores On) Where is Home, Little Pip?

What's new?

Here is just a small sampling of some recent acquisitions:
Early Readers: I *LOVE* this new book by Mo Willems, and will be using it at StoryTime later this month! The October StoryTime schedule will be adjusted a bit, and we'll bump the theme of Hibernation into November.

Picture Books: This is an awesome book for older elementary school kids, and includes several Haiku poems ... would be great to use in a poetry and/or art class!
Children's non-fiction:

DVDs:

Fall Fun at the Library!

Children at today's storytime were busy making Autumn trees, by tracing their hand and forearm onto brown paper, cutting out the shape (a tree trunk & bare branches) and pasting it onto light blue paper. Colorful scraps of tissue paper were added for the Autumn leaves!

Books read today:

• When Autumn Falls by Kelly Nidey (Morton Grove, Ill. : Albert Whitman & Co., 2004)
• Who Loves the Fall? by Bob Raczka; illus. by Judy Stead (Morton Grove, Ill. : Albert Whitman, 2007)
• I Know It's Autumn by Eileen Spinelli (New York : HarperCollins, 2004)
• Fall Is Not Easy by Marty Kelley (Madison, WI : Zino Press Children's Books, 1998)

October StoryTime!

and time to Fall into Reading!

Register now for our Autumn-themed story times in October!

The planned schedule includes:

• October 2: Squirrels

• October 9: Hibernation

• October 16: Leaves

• October 23: Pumpkins

• October 30: Halloween
  

To sign-up for either the morning or afternoon session, please call the library at 508-529-6272 or email Lisa, the Children's/Young Adult Librarian: UptonStoryTime@yahoo.com

(Weekly themes are subject to change without notice. Books pictured here aren't guaranteed to be the ones read. Please register in advance, for either the 10:30 or 1:30 session, for the entire month.)

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
:)

FairyHouses--rain or shine!

Yes, the Fairy Houses event is still on for this weekend!!

September StoryTime!

Time for Back-to-School, and time for Back-to-our regular StoryTime Schedule!

Today was the first day back to our 2-storytime schedule:

PreSchool StoryTime is held each Thursday, at 10:30am and again at 1:30pm.

This program is appropriate for 3-6 yr olds, and we do ask that you register on a monthly basis, for planning purposes. The sessions are held in the Children's Area at the Library, and include some picture books being read aloud, followed by an arts/crafts activity to go along with that week's theme.

The themes I have planned for this month include:

• Sept 4: A is for Apple: Alphabet Fun

• Sept 11: Get Ready to Build Fairy Houses! Faerie Stories

• Sept. 18: Apples, Apples, Everywhere!

• Sept. 25: It's Fall!

To sign-up for either the morning or afternoon session, please call the library at 508-529-6272 or email Lisa, the Children's/Young Adult Librarian: UptonStoryTime@yahoo.com

Summer Program Final Report

Wild Reads @ The Upton Town Library

The 2008 Summer Library Adventure: Final Report

This year’s registration began on Tuesday, June 10, and our Summer Program officially began on Wednesday, June 18 with a kick-off event featuring The University of NH’s traveling theatre troupe performing “The Ugly Duckling” at Nipmuc H.S., and ended with a finale event on Saturday, August 16^th, at the Library, featuring free Henna Tattoos, Make-Your-Own Sundaes and a Nintendo Wii system set up with the projection screen in the Children’s Area.

During the 10-weeks, we offered a total of 5 programs, with a total of 18 sessions and 7 events, with a grand total of 1,999 people attending! Registration was open to children ages 1-17, and a total of 601 signed up (86 MORE than last year!) Of that number, we calculated a participation total of 412 (up from 295 last year), roughly 69% (up from 57% last year). Participation was defined as redeeming clock hours as part of the Reading program, and/or attending programs or events. Participants logged 3,241 hours (compared to 3,027 hours in 2007).

Participation at specific Programs was as follows:

TeenTuesdays (ages 12-18) Total from 3 sessions = 35
MagicTreeHouse book club (ages 5-9) Total from 5 sessions = 129
"Our Growing Community" book & gardening club (ages 9-12) Total from 4 sessions = 11
Babysitter Certification Course (ages 11-15) Total from 2 sessions = 30
Spanish StoryTime Total from 4 sessions = 32

Participation and Expense of Events:

New England Aquarium $ 392 ($50 paid by CPC) attendance= 223
Curious George visit $ Free (Friends/B&N) attendance= 201
Rainforest Reptiles $ Free ($500 paid by CPC) attendance= 224
Kick-off (UNH) $ 400 attendance= 293
Lil’ Folk Farm $ Free ($450 paid by CPC) attendance= 432
“BubbleMania” $ Free ($545 paid by Men’s Club) attendance= 297
Finale (Henna Tattoos & Sundaes)$ 100 ($40 paid by FULTI) attendance= 92

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$ 892 (down from $1,000 last year)

Other expenses included:

$ 400 for Incentives (Raffle Prizes, treasure chest prizes, etc.)

$ 200 for Registration Kits (JanWay)

$ 100 for in house events

-------------------------------------------------------

$ 700 (down from $885 last year)

grand total: $1,592.00
(Down from $1,885 last year)