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Peep-a-Palooza: Revenge of the Peeps

Now, I can't take credit for this as it was already in play before I started working at my new library but this is a really great program that has been a hit for two years in a row. And it's super easy on the librarian running it.

I feature these as family events because 1. we don't have enough family events and 2. it helps to have more adults who can wield a glue gun in the room.

I called up Payless Shoes about two weeks before the program and asked them to put some boxes aside for me. I also asked the staff (and gave them about 6 months of warning).  I ended up having almost 50 shoe boxes, 99% with lids. Not too shabby!

Then, before Easter, I panicked and ran to the store to buy Peeps at about 1.07 a package. After the holiday, I saw my panic was for naught as the box store had hundreds of them left at .57 a package. You never can tell, though. I also grabbed jelly beans, Easter grass, and these marshmallow things that looked like cupcakes (and I found some Darth Vader head Easter eggs I grabbed for the Teen Lock In- see previous post).

On the big day, I filled some tables with boxes of Peeps, basic craft supplies, snacks (pretzels) and let them have at it. I had printed out some pix of Peep creations I grabbed off the web, and some from last year's event and hung them up for Peep-spi-ration. This is a super easy and fun program for all ages and I think we will be continuing the tradition for a long time to come.

To see many of the great dioramas check out my album. Dance Moms was oddly popular.

Teen Lock In-Science Fiction and Fantasy

My library(ies) recently hosted a Lock In for teens ages 12-18. I love after hours things. If they had done stuff like this when I was a kid......anyway. I thought I would break it down and share it in case anyone is thinking about hosting a lock in and wants to see one that is themed Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Note: this was our 3rd LI, the other two were also crazy successful (we did Humans V Zombies, and Hunger Games).

Also note: The age range will be returning to the 13-18 year olds. Nuff said.

One more note: I am very lucky to have a ton of adult volunteers who come in and help, and this year some of my original members of Teen Book Club are 19 (!) so I brought them in as chaperones too. 

So, the basic schedule was as such:
6pm-7pm Food, games in room, and opening remarks (with two corny icebreakers)
In the room we had a post it note Tetris Wall, similar to this. It garnered what I would call...medium amount of attention. I do food right away because they come in hungry, they bond over pizza and soda, and because there just isn't time for it later on. There was also a make up station (after seeing some of the costumes, the costume-less started feeling left out, so they slapped on make up and went with it).

Icebreakers:  a paper plate on your head drawing. Inspired by this. I just made up a story about a rocket ship landing next to a castle....the winner got a gumball machine.

Next, I made them into three groups and we did a musical icebreaker. Group one: dum dum dum, Group two: NA na na, group 3: Whooo wee woo and conducted them (as best I could) into the Doctor Who theme song. Once they caught on to what I was doing, it went smoother. We have a ton of Doctor Who fans here.

7-8 Was retro gaming (an employee owns a ton of older systems and we hooked them up) and crafting.

One of the kids can twist balloon animals, so she spent this hour twisting swords.

From 8-9 we did a scavenger hunt throughout the library. We hid the clues in books, DVDs, video games, etc and even on some permanent structures in the library.We also changed the food over to desserts here so that searchers who finished could return and have cake and brownies.

From 9-10 We did Reader's Theater. This was my first experience with this. Due to time constraints on the kids, I felt I should provide them with skits. So, thus began the hardest part of the whole damn thing for me. I actually wrote the skits, packed up bags of props, and broke them into teams making older kids "directors" and some "prop wardens" because not everyone wanted to act. Then we filmed them. The scripts were: Minecraft miners meet Snow White, Star Trek themed, and Star Wars (performance reviews on the Death Star). I found the Minecraft pix axes here.

Starting at about 10 of 10 we began filming. It took A LOT longer than expected, but was all done by 10:30 when we called everyone back in to watch all three of the skits (and past videos of lock ins). By then parents were banging on the door.

Overall, I am most pleased when the kids tell me how much fun they had and hear my favorite words: "When is the next one?"

In August, my friends, and we are already working on the theme.

I know I said no reviews....

Hi! I know I said I was going to lay off the reviews for a bit (I still review, just on Goodreads) but I issued myself a little challenge this week and the result left me with a bunch of great reads I just want to share!

So, I have a new branch to explore in addition to the library branch I already work in. I am making an effort to really inspect the shelves and get to know the new collection. As a result, I found myself with a pile of Middle Grade reads that just look like goodies.
Hence the Middle Grade Book Week Challenge.

I read only mg books for a week and tried to get as many done as I could. The result? I found some really great reads.

Here was my list (links go to Goodreads):

Edgar and Ellen The Tourist Trap by Charles Odgen

The Witch's Guide to Cooking With Children by Keith McGowan

See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles

The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann


Summer of the Gypsy Moths by Sara Pennypacker

The Amulet graphic novel series




I managed to get them all done except The Peculiar which I am almost finished.

The Amulet series is really great and it is perfect for kids who are ready for graphic novels but not yet ready to jump into Naruto or something heavier. Sometimes I have a kid who loves to read but has darker tastes. After they read the Series of Unfortunate Events I kind have a hole in my mental bibliography to steer these kids to. Now, I am going to throw them these terrible twins. Edgar and Ellen are mean little buggers (mad scientists in training). Apparently they are a cartoon series too, but I had never heard of them before. I thought the books were funny, smart, and a little Tim Burton-esque. Perfect.

I loved and hated See You At Harry's. When I picked it up, I thought it was going to be a sweet romance. Yeah. No. I was not prepared for what happened. And I have to say that although the book ripped my heart out, it put it back together in a good way. A truly great read. If it does not win awards- I'll be shocked.
Ditto Summer of the Gypsy Moths. In this one, two young ladies are being fostered by an older woman who cleans summer cottages. The woman dies, and the girls decide to fake that she is still alive to avoid being thrown into the foster care system. This is a great read. Not only does it explore what it means to create a new family when the one you have is maybe incomplete or broken, but it also explores what it means to be independent (the good and the bad). Another perfect read.

The Witch's Guide to Cooking With Children is meh. I loved the art, but the story is incomplete and comes across as an English translation that is missing parts. Some of the storylines don't add up, some are hinted at but unexplored and some just made no sense. It is a very short book that hits the right notes, but may leave the reader unsatisfied. The illustrations, however, are beautiful. In an unplanned connection, Sara Pennypacker wrote a book called The Sparrow Girl that Yoko Tanaka illustrated. Sara wrote Summer of the Gypsy Moths and Yoko illustrated The Witch's Guide.

One final thing. The reason I grabbed the Amulet series off the shelf was because I picked up a poster from the series at BEA. So, again, proof swag works. Not only am I now aware of the series, I highly recommend it and I can give that cool ass poster to a kid who may also come to love the series. Pay it forward!

Also, in case you were wondering, this week's mini challenge is to read three galleys I own. This is an attempt to get my giant BEA stack down (maybe it will stop swaying when I walk by and I will not die a horrible crushing death).

Lights Out Craft (ages 5 to 10)

 

New directions, my friends! Here is the what: I have had a transitional period in which I was promoted (officially a librarian, yay!) and have been given a new branch to cover-in addition to the programs I am already doing at my original branch. Hoo-Ah!

As of now, this blog will be less about book reviews and more about programming (which was always really the point around here anyway, just look through the archives for anything tagged crafts or programs).

The new reality? The budget that  was always kind of thin is now crazy skinny so the focus will be on entertaining up to 30 kids for very little money. The goal: to make kids love the library more than they did before!

I present to you my "Lights Out Craft"! Of course, I forgot to grab an SD Card on my way out the door, so I have very few photos, but here goes.

I had a big group: about 24 showed with an average age of 9. Some little bros and sis's from the crowd rounded out the group.
I gave each child a flashlight (my brother bought these for me from Home Depot last fall: 30 mini flashlights for ten bucks and they came WITH batteries). I have used them for lock ins etc. I just take the batteries out each time and it has been fine.

Once everyone's flashlights were on, we shut out the main lights (note, it was a sunny day and I had covered the windows with black tablecloths to get the room dark enough). It was not pitch black in there, or scary, but just right. See hideous pic above.

I have a lightning bug in a jar that I got for Christmas and I introduced him as "Fred" and I shared a story about what we do at my house when the lights go out (shadow puppets, tell stories, fire up the grill, etc). Here's a link to a much cooler bug jar (I only have one bug in mine).

Then I read:
Blackout

and
the Glow in the Dark edition.

Game: 

I had hidden objects around the room ( a playing card, a small trophy, a dollar bill, etc)
and I had the kids find the objects with the flashlights (from their seat on the floor) and turn their
light out when they found it. I had volunteers offer to point it out if the search went on for too long.
They LOVED this. See the pink dinosaur in the second pic at the top. In the dark, he was super hidden!

Then I collected the flashlights, turned on the lights, and explained the craft.
We made candle holders out of the bottoms of milk cartons and I cut the sides of the lantern out of cereal boxes to give them a nice crafting surface. I had cut a window in each side and the kids glued a tissue paper square over the window, and then they colored the outside and added sequins. After about twenty minutes, when the kids were mostly finished, I handed out little battery operated candles I picked up at the dollar store for 3-for-a-dollar and they put them into their "lanterns".
I waited a bit more and then asked them to fire up their lanterns, and join me on the floor. We turned the lights out again and admired how pretty they looked on the tables! Some moms even clapped!
Then, I announced an impromptu dance party! I fired up Call me Maybe, etc, and turned on the bubble machine.

Yes, I have a bubble machine! I got it for three dollars at a thrift store. I was missing an instruction manual, a cord, and a bubble tray. My brother sorted that out for me, and now I plan to use this machine often.
Note: I bought the glow in the dark bubbles, but the solution looked cool when I poured it in the bubbles themselves did not glow. When they popped on the kids' hands however they left little orange glowy specs so the kids LOVED them. The package said that the glow would last for twenty minutes. And, I was super careful, but two kids had bubbles pop near their eyes. No harm was done, but I felt bad.


The breakdown:
Materials: free (collected milk cartons from home and staff)
tissue paper, on hand

Flickering battery operated candles: $11 for 33 at the dstore

Glow in the Dark bubble mix: $3.99 at Walmart (probably would not buy it again)
Cookies and lemonade: $3.00 for cookies, I buy lemonade in a powdered mix and make fresh pitchers each program. I am seriously considering reusable cups and the paper goods budget is slim as well. Or eliminating drinks. Sad, I know.

Total: $18 bucks

The entire program lasted an hour and they could have danced in the bubbles for hours if I let them. Ten minutes was more than enough for me. You have not lived until you have seen a bunch of eight year old boys breakdance to One Direction.

Review: Story of a Girl

Story of a Girl
By Sara Zarr
Borrowed from my library as an ebook for the Kindle Fire.

This is a little gem of realistic fiction!
 This book took me right back to high school! We all remember the school "slut" who supposedly did whatever with whomever. Honestly, I really like Deanna and I wanted to see her pull herself out of this situation. On top of a reputation that was destroyed, she is dealing with a troubled home life, and a confusing relationship as a third partner in a best friend relationship. What really kept me reading was the voice. I thought the story moved along at a good clip and there was a balance there of some good tossed in with all of the bad (like the salad bar at the pizza place). I liked Michael and Stacy. I am not sure I understood the dad, I think he came off as a "man's man"- one who was afraid to express any emotion but anger.
Overall, I look forward to reading more by Zarr!

Bridge and Tunnel Lego League

This month's Lego League theme was "bridge and tunnel". The challenge was to build one or the other,
but the kids really rose to the challenge. Some built both!!!!
Here are some amazing shots of the cool creations!!