Meghan's Book List: National Library Week

Things are feeling a little grim as we celebrate National Library Week. Budgets are being cut, rumors are swirling about lay-offs, and we're being asked to do more with less. Now is as good a time as any to take a look at the books in my collection that make me happy to be a librarian, a reader, and the person who puts the right book in the hand of the right reader. I still believe in Ranganathan and I still believe in the inherent value of public libraries.

 Now, on to the fun!  I know everyone has their favorites, but these are books I was able to pull from my collection in order to make a display.  Since we're writing about what we really do in our everyday professional lives, I figured I wouldn't solely list books I love.  Rather, I needed to put together books I am really using in this particular National Library Week display.

Read All About It! by Laura Bush and Jenna Bush

But Excuse Me That is My Book by Lauren Child













Maisy Goes to the Library by Lucy Cousins













Quiet! There's a Canary in the Library by Don Freeman (I love this one for class visits!)













Book! by Kristine O'Connell George













The Storyteller's Candle/La Velita de los Cuentos by Lucia Gonzalez













Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk













Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn













Richard Wright and the Library Card by William Miller













The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians by Carla Morris













Reading Grows by Ellen B. Senisi













Carlo and the Really Nice Librarian by Jessica Spanyol

Meghan Reviews: Introducing Dinosaurs: Tyrannosaurus Rex

I don’t know if this is true for the majority of public librarians who serve children, but I have students in the first and second grade asking for non-fiction book all the time.  Recently, I had a teacher at a nearby school assign the kids to read five non-fiction books in one go.  Upon further questioning, both kids and parents insisted they didn’t care what the book was about per se; they just wanted a book their kids could read, one that would fulfill the assignment. Ultimately, parents wanted age-appropriate books that were interesting and easy-to-read.  That’s not necessarily a simple order when it comes to non-fiction, especially in my library where I have a lot of children who aren't strong readers or who are still learning English as their second language.

I think I found a winner with Introducing Dinosaurs:  Tyrannosaurus Rex by Susan H. Gray.  Gray adeptly explains what a Tyrannosaurus Rex is, what it probably (see Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs! for more on that) looked like, its habits, and how scientists came to these conclusions.  Robert Squier’s illustrations are clear and colorful and Gray also intersperses actual photographs of dinosaur bones and excavations, including Sue, the most complete, reconstructed T. rex skeleton at the Field Museum.  24 pages long, the book includes a table of contents, a world map indicating where T. rex bones have been found, a brief entry on fossil hunters, a glossary, and recommended books and a website (childsworld.com/links).  The author should have included more on-line resources, as that’s where kids will inevitably look first. The Child’s World site requires the user to first input the book’s ISBN in order to go to their on-line resources.  No child is going to get over that barrier to entry, especially the target audience.  Publisher fail.

As my collection needs refreshing, especially for the younger grades, I will definitely order more in this series.  The Child’s World Introducing Dinosaurs collection features 12 titles: Allosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Apatosaurus, Compsognathus, Iguanodon, Maiasaura, Oviraptor, Spinosaurus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Velociraptor.

Meghan Reviews: All About Faces!

All About Faces! By La Zoo is an “everything but the kitchen sink” concept book about the face.  The book will appeal to parents who are already design conscious (think dooce, daddytypes or mightygirl) and are sure to like the adorable, distinctly Japanese illustrations. But from a librarian standpoint there's just too much going on to recommend it widely for libraries. 

Author Zoo uses the face as a mode of discussing shapes, facial expressions, and emotions.  Parents will want to read this one-on-one with kids since Zoo uses words like:  disdain, jubilation, and dissatisfaction. (They  might also want to have a thesaurus ready when trying to explain some of those listed emotions to little ones.)  Zoo then jumps to the anatomy of the face, with a lift-the-flap page showing bones (the general idea, not the Grey’s Anatomy version), eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.  On the next page readers get to check out some things that come out of ears (wax), eyes (tears), noses (boogers), and mouths (slobber).  This is sure to get some squeals and laughs.

And then we come to my least favorite part of this book:  the coloring page.  Zoo writes, “My mother’s face changes sometimes.  But my face doesn’t.”  What could the author be getting at here?  It turns out Zoo is talking about mothers who apply make-up and includes a page where the reader can draw "make-up" on a blank female child’s face with a crayon.  Instructions indicate that the crayon can be wiped off with a tissue from the slick surface of this particular page.  Frankly, I didn’t try because I can’t imagine crayon would be that easily wiped away.  From a librarian standpoint I really don’t want to order any book that invites readers to draw on even one page.  It’s pretty difficult to explain to kids why they can’t color on the rest…Thus, the coloring page is the single greatest reason I can't recommend it for the library.

After the coloring page, Zoo returns to facial colors (red with embarrassment); more emotions (smiling and frowning); ways to play pretend by changing your face (“Give yourself a mustache and pretend to be a grown-up.”) [Note:  I just waxed mine, but perhaps I’ll grow it out and see if the kids at the library will recognize me.]; expressions using the word “face” (A long face); the way a face changes as it ages; and, finally, a matching game (find the “twin sister” face in the crowd).  There is a lot of content and several concepts in All About Faces and some are more effective than others.  I think it would work for parents looking for a book about emotions and feelings, but young readers will want someone to read this with them to explain the big words.  It’s a terrific browsing book in terms of cool, funky illustrations and lots of bang for the buck – colors, feelings, shapes, patterns – but it just doesn’t hang all together effectively and, in my opinion, wouldn’t be a good fit on the library’s concept book shelf.  The perfect home for All About Faces! is probably with a sophisticated toddler with hipster parents and not the public library. 

If you sense some ambivalence, you're right.  I enjoyed flipping through this one and am so grateful Seven Footer was nice enough to give me a copy at ALA Midwinter, but...for many libraries this book just isn't a good fit.

Meghan Reviews: Crust and Spray

Crust and Spray: Gross Stuff in Your Eyes, Ears, Nose, and Throat by C.S. Larsen is one of a series by Lerner Publishing called “Gross Body Science”. I ordered them all for my library and most circulated immediately.  Crust and Spray is especially fun and timely during the winter months when kids are sneezing and coughing all over the place. Instead of tossing them out the window, I’m giving them this book and some hand sanitizer.

From front-to-back, Crust and Spray has a lot to recommend it. The cover features a huge eyeball and bright illustrations of bacteria.  The chapters are divided into: Boogers, Snot, and Sneezing; Cough, Hack, and Wheeze; Eye Secretions, Pinkeye, and Sties; and Earwax, Ear Germs, and Infections. Does anything more need to be said?

Well, since we’re librarians I’ll evaluate the criteria that make it worth ordering and hand-selling. Crust and Spray is full of vibrant, accurate illustrations by Michael Slack of things like pollen grains, mucus membranes, and fungi. They help present science as something exciting and creative. The book is also full of delightfully disgusting pictures of pus draining from an ear infection (not for the faint of heart), eyeballs, and uvulas.  To the delight of any young reader, Larsen has also included a recipe for fake snot. Awesomely gross.

But Larsen doesn’t do gross just for the sake of gross. Crust and Spray includes call-out boxes with “Gross Out” facts that are relevant and clearly written. The writing style is mildly chatty and funny without veering into stupidity.  The actual content of the book is quite valuable. I especially like the Glossary, Selected Bibliography, and Further Reading at the back of the book. The Glossary provides and clarifies key terms and the Bibliography and Further Reading act as a relevant gateway to other books and websites.  I’ll never have to hunt for booger information again! 

Crust and Spray is a great browsing book and provides enough in the way of scientific information to be a fine way for a kid to jump into more technical fare about the body.  

Picture Book Time: The Colors of Angst

Story times in all their many forms and names are my biggest challenge as a children's librarian. I stress out more about these than any other aspect of my job. I worry about what theme to choose, what books will work, what songs to sing, and what I should do for a craft or coloring project. It is totally friggin' ridiculous how much I worry about this!

It's also important to note my extreme aversion to felt boards and my general avoidance of puppets. I'm not saying I haven't or never will use puppets, but I generally don't bother. I'm a floating children's librarian, which means I never know if there will be puppets or what condition they'll be in, so they just haven't become a part of my planning.

And then the kids arrive and everything kicks into high gear and they have fun and I have fun and sometimes a pushy parent will tell me about a two-hour story time they enjoy attending at a different library or that another story time program provides manicures and pedicures or some other ridiculous complaint and then, suddenly, it's over and I'm putting away the glitter glue until next week.

THEME
This week I decided to do a Color-theme for my 3-5 year olds. Lately, this group has been skewing towards the five year olds, so I thought a slightly more involved craft would work. The joke was on me since I had an 18-month old, 2 two year olds, and 3 three year olds. None of my five year olds showed up at all!

BOOKS:
Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni
What can I say? Little Blue and Little Yellow is a classic and this was the perfect choice age-wise. Most already know their colors and the basic, colorful illustrations got and kept their attention. They also identify with the story of friendship between Little Blue and Little Yellow.

Sylvie by Jennifer Gordon Sattler
Sylvie is one of my favorite recent picture books. I've read it in story times before at different libraries with success. It's colorful and the title character is charming and relatable. There are also lots of opportunities for interaction while I read the story, as Sylvie changes color as she eats different items.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
Another classic that always serves me well. Except for the goldfish (It stumps them on the color. Is it yellow? Is it orange?) the kids love naming the colors and making the animal noises. When I change "Teacher" to "Librarian", hilarity ensues.

SONGS
"Hello Song"
Sung to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell"

Hello my friends, hello
Hello my friends, hello
Hello my friends, hello my friends
Hello my friends, hello

"Now It’s Time!"
Sung to the tune of "London Bridges" (300 Three Minute Games by Jackie Silberg)

Now it’s time to touch our nose
Touch our nose, touch our nose
Now it’s time to touch our nose
My fair (child’s name)

-Now it’s time to blink our eyes
-Now it’s time to touch our toes
-Now it’s time to shake our feet
-Now it’s time to stand up tall
-Now it’s time to sit back down

"Itsy-Bitsy Spider"

The itsy bitsy spider
Climbed up the waterspout
Down came the rain
And washed the spider out.
Out came the sun
And dried up all the rain
So the itsy-bitsy spider
Climbed up the spout again!

CRAFT

I did the Primary Colors Ice Cream Cone. This ended up being a bit too complicated for the younger kids. I printed black-and-white scoops, cones, and color labels. The kids colored, cut out, and glued in order to make an ice cream cone that was almost as tall as some of them! The end product was very cute, but I would either skip the color labels or color them myself in advance so the kids could color a scoop to "match" each color. The parents really had to step up and guide the kids with coloring and cutting. I am keeping this one in my arsenal for slightly older kids.