Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Cultural Kits

"Cultural Kits" will be available to NFLS libraries this summer to supplement or help your programming! They will each focus on a different country.

The kits can be delivered to your library for up to a week. Everything will fit in the red delivery bags.

Items in each kit will include:
- book or story
- country flag
-country map
- recipe
- song or game
- words or phrases in its native language
- money/artifacts/tangible objects
- photos

Kits are available for China, England, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, Morocco, Poland and Peru. They will be available on June 1st!

Contact Jamie if you are interested in reserving one!

CCBC Presentation

The 2011 edition "CCBC (Children's Collaborative Book Center) Choices" has been sent to all NFLS libraries. It has 240 book recommendations from 2010 for children and young adults. It includes full annotations, age recommendations and author/title and subject indices.

Megan Schliesman of the CCBC will be highlighting some of these "choices" on Thursday, April 21 from 1 - 3:30 pm, in the NFLS Meeting Room. You will also get a chance to book browse!


Book Reviews

After by Amy Efaw

Devon Davenport is a likable girl. Responsible, mature, straight-A student, star athlete. Granted, her mother is immature and not the best influence, but Devon is a good person in spite of this. She's the daughter every mother would want. She's the student every teacher wants in the classroom. So how does she end up throwing her new-born infant in the dumpster, and how did nobody know she was even pregnant? Who is Devon Davenport? An attempted murderer or a scared teen who was in denial during her pregnancy?

Devon is arrested and winds up in a juvenile center. If she is tried as an adult, she could face years in prison. Only her defense attorney and community members who testify on her behalf can save her. But will they want to after finding out what she has done?


Girl Stolen by April Henry

I finished this page-turner in two nights, because I wanted to know what happened to Cheyenne Wilder, a teenage girl who is kidnapped while sleeping in the back seat of her stepmom's car. I wanted to know what happened to Griffin, her kidnapper. Griffin just wanted to hijack the car after all. He didn't know there was someone in the back seat! I wanted to know what happened to Griffin's dad, the evil man behind the hijacking who decides Cheyenne might come in handy. I wanted to know what happened with Cheyenne's dad, the president of a powerful corporation. Would he give Griffin's dad the ransom money?

Cheyenne is 16 and sick with pneumonia. She is without medication (her step mom was getting that for her while the car was hijacked) and she has no way to contact anyone. She has to plot an escape, without knowing where she is, how far she is from home and without a cell phone.

And, she's blind.

-Jamie Matczak, NFLS


What's in Your Story Hour Closet?

What supplies do you keep on hand for your story hours? Do you have favorite items that you believe are necessary for your story hour programming?

Luci Bledsoe of the Johnson Creek Public Library shared this list on the March CEO for the Lakeshores Library System. The following suggestions are either very inexpensive or can be donated by your library customers and story hour parents.

Send an email to Jamie if you'd like to share what's in YOUR Story Hour Closet!

What do we have in our closet at Johnson Creek PL?

• Cotton balls (the white ones are perfect for snowmen; if you can find the colored ones, they are great for decorating paper Easter eggs or making spring pictures)
• Brown paper lunch bags (paper bag puppets)
• White paper lunch bags (perfect for Valentine bags; gift bags for making a Mother’s or Father’s Day gift)


• Advertising Magnets (cut them with scissors; put a dab of glue on the printed side and attach to the craft project for a memorable refrigerator magnet (thanks to Nancy B at West Bend for this idea!)
• Old or damaged compact discs or CD-ROMS (used to make CD-ROM fish or birds; hanging mobiles—use 2 discs for a project and glue the printed sides together)
• Empty cereal boxes (have a volunteer or staff member cut them and save the fronts and backs. We use them for patterns (for our Valentine Story Hour, we cut out half hearts and showed the children how to fold paper; trace the half heart; and cut on the traced line). Although we have our die cut machine, we still need to make or cut an original pattern for tracing. *Extra bonus—if there is a promotional item available such as a small toy, send for a free toy for a SLP prize!)


• Stickers (magazines and other companies will send stickers as a small gift—they go into our sticker box and are used for a variety of crafts)
• Paper towel tubes (we do not use toilet paper tubes for obvious reasons! We have used cut down paper towel tubes for making small turkeys; groundhogs, binoculars, etc.
• Yarn (don’t buy it, just put up a list of what you need and your customers will donate! We use scrap yarn for holiday crafts; paper dolls; gift bags, etc.)
• Ribbons (again we use donated scrap ribbon for holiday crafts; lacing paper plates together, etc.)
• Gift bows (use as a color matching activity)


• Cheap white envelopes (hold game pieces when we make paper dominoes or play Color and Shape Bingo)
• Reinforcement labels for hole-punched paper (we use both white and colored. The white ones are used to reinforce punched holes for adding a bow to a paper bunny or cat)
• Inexpensive paper punch (if you make a paper bunny, punch 2 holes on the neck; add a ribbon for a bow, and it is one classy bunny!)


• Cheap paper plates, both large and small (lace a whole plate and ½ plate together; fill with paper flowers and small candies for a Mother’s Day gift or May Day gift; we also use them for small trays if we work with glitter or paint; also can be used for masks)
• Paper cups (planting a seedling or bean or radish seeds)
• Craft sticks (ask your local doctor’s office to see if they will donate tongue depressors, use for paper plate puppets)


• Powdered detergent measuring cups (fill with dirt, add a small seedling; glue buttons on sides for wheels, and you have a small wheelbarrow for a gift)
• Scoopable kitty litter jug lids (I used to use milk bottle caps, but they are potentially dangerous due to their size. I use kitty litter bottle caps for counting; matching colors; shape recognition, graphing, etc.)
• Brass paper fasteners (allows the head/arms/or legs of a paper animal to move)

Bits from Barb

Free International Math Resources from Massachusetts

TERC, a nonprofit educational organization in Cambridge, MA, has created some wonderful activities for librarians to use as part of their "One World, Many Stories" programming. TERC would like to share their activities and resources with any library participating in One World, Many Stories programs.

Mixing in Math (MiM), a set of FREE materials in English and Spanish, is designed for integrating numeracy into story time, summer reading, and crafts for children and families. Through their Mixing in Math grant, TERC staff have assisted many MA librarians incorporate math skills into existing programs. MiM was funded by the National Science Foundation and created at TERC.

Check the MiM website at http://mixinginmath.terc.edu to learn more and to download the materials. If you'd like to reach the developers of MiM or would like to arrange for a free webinar, please contact mixinginmath@terc.edu. There are free summer reading 2011 resources at http://mixinginmath.terc.edu/Themes/Stories_World2011.cfm.
—Sarah Sogigian, Advisor Youth Services, Massachusetts Library System


YALSA Teen Spaces Webinar

Join Kim Bolan Cullin as she discusses the latest in teen space planning and implementation in YALSA's May 19 webinar, to be held at 2 p.m. EDT. Participants will learn the nuts and bolts of basic teen space design, including actively engaging teens throughout the process, incorporating their ideas and maintaining ongoing involvement. She will also discuss the latest teen space trends, including planning tools, layout, décor, digital creativity and interactivity, collaborative spaces, and more.

Registration is now open at www.ala.org/yalsa/webinars. Webinars cost $39 for individual YALSA members, $49 for all other individuals, and $195 for groups (unlimited participants).Questions can be sent to Eve Gaus, YALSA's program officer for continuing education, at egaus@ala.org or 1 (800) 545-2433, ext. 5293.


Children's Book Week May 2-8

Children's Book Week will be May 2-8. Peter Brown designed the 2011 poster and Jeff Kinney designed the bookmarks. For more information, go to www.bookweekonline.com/


Libri Grants Due April 15

The Libri Foundation is currently accepting applications for its 2011 BOOKS FOR CHILDREN grants. The Libri Foundation is a nationwide, nonprofit organization which donates new, quality, hardcover children's books to small, rural public libraries throughout the United States. In general, county libraries should serve a population under 16,000, and town libraries should serve a population under 10,000 (usually under 5,000). Libraries should be in a rural area, have a limited operating budget, and have an active children's department.

In order to encourage and reward local support of libraries, The Libri Foundation will match any amount of money raised by local sponsors from $50 to $350 on a 2-to-1 ratio. Thus, a library can receive up to $1,050 worth of new children's books. After a library receives a grant, local sponsors (such as formal or informal Friends groups, civic or social organizations, local businesses, etc.) have four months, or longer if necessary, to raise their matching funds.

The librarian of each participating library selects the books the library will receive from a booklist provided by the Foundation. The 700-plus fiction and nonfiction titles on the booklist reflect the very best of children's literature published primarily in the last three years. These titles, which are for children ages 12 and under, are award-winners or have received starred reviews in library, literary, or education journals. The booklist also includes a selection of classic children's titles.

The application deadline is April 15. Application guidelines and forms may be downloaded from the Foundation's website at www.librifoundation.org.


- Barb Huntington, DLTCL

System Youth Liaison Posting, March 2011