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That's not me in the picture, but I loved it and had to share. (It's from girlslife.com) 13 in 13 Horror Challenge  I was in the mood for a truly spooky read. Blame the cold fall nights, or the crunchy leaves on the sidewalks. Blame my weird taste, or just my mood. Whatev's. It's time to get the horror on. What I wasn't really prepared for was the complete lack of horror books out there. Seriously! Where are they? Good luck finding them in Barnes and Noble. They have reshelved the little they sell into general fiction or SciFi. I kid you not. What they have on offer is all old boy's school (King, King, Hill, King).  So, I dedicate this challenge to the ladies of horror. I am also going to pound out some classics I have missed over the years. My major focus this year will be on HAUNTED HOUSES.  I used this list and this list as well as this to formulate a general pile of titles to get going on. I'm not going to list them here in case I ...

While my very first summer reading program has finally ended (with terrible, terrible numbers), my own reading agenda was pretty darn successful!!! Now I am knee deep in my fall reading. Is there anything better than books and fall weather? Well, yes.  Books + fall weather + snuggly sweater + fresh coffee YEAH! A note about running my first summer reading program. It was not hard, it just required a ton of planning and the results were...very disappointing. To give you an idea-it had nothing to do with the programming numbers. While I average 17 at a storytime during the rest of the year, I managed over 30 at most storytimes and programs and even had a storytime with 56 kids. I kid you not. My Minecraft programs were super successful.  Unfortunately, none of that counts. What seems to matter is how many hours the kids read. And they just didn't.  I'm not sure what I could have done differently (I even filled out the coupons for them!). I put...

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley Read for the July (GIANT) list of picks for the She-Geeks Book Group Overall Score (out of 5):  3 Let me start by saying- this is my kind of book and I don't know how I missed hearing about it before. I'm so glad the group picked this one for  July. Here's what rocks about The Rook. The premise is genius. A secret agency of officers with titles and jobs based on a chess board (hence, our agent, The "Rook") who hunt down and hide the existence of supernatural creatures. Many of those who work for the agency has special powers, although some mundanes work for them too. Like a gang, once someone works for the agency they are in for life. There is no putting in your two weeks. So, the idea is that  Myfanwy Thomas (one of the Rooks) is a meek accountant in the agency who also has the power to manipulate people's bodies.  She should be dangerous, but instead she is in danger.  When she wakes up, she is someone new and th...

Tonight's storytime followed the same format I use for all of my day storytimes as I have temporarily suspended my idea of doing storytime in reverse in order to get the kids sleepy. They only seem to run out into the library to pick out movies and books and the effect is lost. So here is what we did tonight. Our theme was teddy bears, but our night storytime is always wear jammies, bring a lovey, and low action. My opening song is Hello Bubbles which I learned from Read Sing Play here . BTW this woman is a storytime goddess and I have picked up many great ideas on her blog. Story the 1st: The Red Hat by Lita Judge  Why? Because I want to get across to my kids that books do not always have to have words in order for us to "read" them, and I want to give pre-readers a chance to feel proud they finished a book on their own. I plan to try to read or highlight at least one wordless read for the next couple of storytimes. Flannel Board: Ten in the Bed I used a mod...

The night time story times are driving me nuts. I had this idea in my head when I set my calendar months ago that the library NEEDS night and weekend programs (especially when I found out half the kids in town are in after school programs). So, I tried storytimes on the weekend. Fail. Older kid crafts on the weekend. Fail. I'm sure as hell not going to try a paid program on the weekend, that would just be stupid. So, weekends are out. Unless I get a whole bunch of requests from people who swear on bibles they will come, there will be no weekend programming. But the night storytimes.....sometimes I get 1 kid. Tonight I had 14. Here's the thing: they are all my day time storytime kids. So, I am not sure what to do. Should I continue to offer a night storytime for kids who already come to regular storytime? I guess I would not be doing anything else in its place. What I mean is, I would be here anyway and I would much rather have a program when I am here than just sit on ...

One may think I am crazy that  I am in not one, but TWO online book clubs. This is in addition to my 2 teen book clubs that I run at 2 different libraries and all of the other reading I do. Here are 5 great reasons to join an online book club: 1. The most obvious: I love to read and I want to share that love with others. There is something special about reading a book you know others are reading at the same time. It's so much more fun to have someone to discuss that read with when you are done. And whether you liked it, or hated it, it doesn't matter-the conversation can be amazing. 2. Finding titles you would never read otherwise. My book clubs have chosen titles I have never heard of and because of that, my reading has become more rounded. 3. No pressure. Some months it just can't be done-life gets too busy or crazy and the books don't get read. If you have a monthly meeting where you have to show up in front of a crowd, it can make you feel as though you fai...

Ah, glorious summer. Bleh. The bugs. The sunburn. The mobs at work. I think some times the only thing that gets me through it all is my summer reading list! Just three months until wonderful, glorious fall!!! Here is my challenge to myself, and yes, I have already started!!!! SUMMER 2013 Reading List: links go to Goodreads, comments are my own 1. I Am The Messenger (I should have read this by now, bad me and now T's summer reading book) 2. Dead to You (I love Lisa Mc Mann and I prefer her standalone books) 3. Revived (Cat Patrick is awesome, but this one came in when I was starting my new job and I didn't get to it. Until now.) 4. The Originals (see above, I waited too long and now look! Another one is out!!!) 5. Double Identity  (G's summer reading book) 6. Looking for Alaska (I own this and have never read it, as is almost always the case with books I own) 7. Between Shades of Gray (see above, same reason) 8. The Book Thief 9. Jasper Jones (I...