Connecting to Kid Culture

When I was teaching second grade, all the kids liked everything I liked: our collective favorite book was Lafcadio: the Lion Who Shot Back; our collective favorite dinosaur was the parasaurolophus; our collective favorite show was Between the Lions. These are kids who had to be issued pencils before each activity because they demonstrated they would hurt each other, but I'd mention Uncle Shelby and they'd all want to hear whatever weird story about him I made up getting ready that morning. Truth is, everything my class liked was everything I had liked as a kid.

Story Action Pod: BOT edition

C/O Mr Schu Reads

So after the overwhelming fun that emanated from our last Story Action Pod (which, by the way, was a landslide victory with a write-in candidate) I was energized to create another one. After all the sharks and trains, I decided that the Story Action Pod was severely lacking in the robot department.

I went with "Boy +Bot" by Ame Dyckman and Dan Yaccarino, which I snatched greedily from the fingers of an unsuspecting child while laughing maniacally and possibly pointing before tearing off on my Harley. 

Or from the new picture books display. I promise. It's another one of those, though, that we probably should have more copies of, because it is literally never available. So after I checked it out to myself, I smacked one of these bad boys on it to prevent it from walking away:

Readability Measures and Libraries: An Unsolicited Rant

Yesterday I got an e-mail from a friend, for whom I had run long-distance reader's advisory. She was looking for a historical fiction book for her 4th grader to write a book report. Her fourth grader is an avid reader and so I knew I could have fun with it. I gave her about ten titles, from Gordon Korman's Titanic series to Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos.

She got back to me and said that based on their AR established book levels, and since he tested at a 6th grade level on his readability test, he actually is not allowed to choose any of the suggestions I gave for his book report. Including two Newbery award winning contemporary classics; one of which was Bud, Not Buddy, which should probably be read by all 4th grade boys everywhere. The aforementioned Gantos title even has a copy housed in the teen section of our library. But no matter; its book level comes in at a lowly 5.9.

Diary of a Wednesday Kid: Make a Comic Like...

The first three Wednesdays in October (the fourth being during my conference committee duties) I ran a new program. It wasn't the most well attended program ever (6-10 kids each time), nor was it the most inspired program I ever did. But:
1) It attracted 3-5 graders
2) I got good feedback from those who attended
3) It took literally 15 minutes to develop and set up every week.

SO, here's what happened:

Story Action Pod: Election Edition!

I went back and forth a lot as to whether I should put something in the Story Action Pod about the election. I've heard of other libraries doing Vote-for-Characters, such as Best Bear in a book or something; I'm sure that works for them, but I just couldn't get excited about it. And as Joyce Sidman said in her luncheon address at the Wisconsin Library Association Conference last week (more on WLA later): "Kids know when you're really into something." And I just wasn't. (On a personal note, the first election I could legally vote in ever was the 2000 presidential election. Hopefully, you can see how that would be a total bummer).


More than that, though, I have a problem with any kind of program that doesn't have a far reach. If they have to come at just a certain time, or they have to come back to get anything out of it, or if they have to read widely to even know what they're talking about... okay, so I know I sound like a jerkface, like I don't want kids to read or something, but our regular patrons are just a small scope of who we serve.

BUT: the Story Action Pod allows for a small engagement in the library no matter when you're there, who you're with, what you read.

So I decided to create a Story Action Pod based on a book that kids could use to make an informed opinion in one sitting: Shark vs Train by Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld.

Pete the Cat and his Groovy Field Trip Adventure!

I am stoked by the Pinterest-sharing success of my preschool field trip adventure to the library based on "Dog's Colorful Day" by Emma Dodd.

This year, we decided to change it up by:

Why 1000 Books Before Kindergarten?

Our library has a 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program. It's awesome.

Here are the reasons that it's awesome:
1) The kids know that they're a part of something. Something big.  Whenever they finish 100 books, they come to turn in their sheet, waving it in the air and skipping. You can tell they're really proud.
2) Parents are cognizant about their role in school readiness. Reading before school is not only a fun way to bond as family, it actually does terrific stuff to the brain. Like map it to be smart.
3) It benefits us, it benefits them. Our circulation numbers increase. The families have a successful, productive visit to the library. The kids feel good coming to the library. Snag 'em early.

Here's not a reason why it's awesome.
1)Studies show that kids should read 1,000 books before Kindergarten. Despite that the idea has been passed around a lot for the last year, no one has ever scientifically concluded that kids should read 1,000 books before Kindergarten.

The Return of the Iron Fist: Child Management Part 2

Lately I've noticed a discussion on a list-serv I follow about child management in the library. I wrote a successful post last summer that has been helpful to many, but this debate made me realize I didn't go far into the use of the negative in rule-making in the children's area.

Mainly because our problem was bribery of children to behave.

But truly, on the other end of the spectrum, there is a matter of writing rules for children and tweens that are inviting rather than negative.

The entirety of what I'm about to write will probably sound overly fluffy. You may dismiss it, as some might, assuming that by omitting the word "No" only feeds the fire of Precious Snowflake Culture.

But I assure you, this is anything but. This is years of trying and failing and trying again and failing and crying in the bathroom and then trying again because me and kids were stuck together.

Do It Yourself Day

The Monday of the public schools' Spring Break, I orchestrated a Do-It-Yourself in the children's department. The idea was inspired by this book.

I loved the idea of DIY Day for the following reasons:
1. We could get rid of a bunch of junk from the basement.
2. I am not at all crafty, and the complete lack of my involvement in the actual crafts was appealing to me.
3. We could get rid of a bunch of junk from the basement.

We planned for a come-and-go 3 hours worth of crafts, which actually turned out to be the perfect amount of time. 11am-2pm stretched right through for the before lunch/after lunch crowd. We overlapped an hour with story time, which meant we needed to utilize the homework tables by the Boredom Busters, but I was still glad to do it then. We actually got a lot of kids who might not have come, because their baby siblings were in storytime!

I had originally planned for maybe 20 kids, but ended up, at the end of three hours... with 57 TOTAL. Whoa. It was even a nice day! Go outside and grill various meats!

Connecting with Teachers

It’s very interesting, outside of the education world: people are afraid to talk to teachers. I don’t mean everyone, and I don’t mean librarians. I mean in the general sense of everything. They are seen as exclusive, defensive, and stubborn. And they are, sometimes. And I can’t blame them. Probably because I was one of them.

Two Keys to Library Field Trips: Time and Bodies

This post is about our Library Stars tour FIELD TRIP ADVENTURE, and can be considered on its own or as a continuation of this post.

Very soon—perhaps alarmingly soon—after your grant has been accepted, it’s time to plan what the tour will actually look like. The schools, with whom you’ll be collaborating, will want to know intricate details about the tour.  In the early stages of planning and school collaboration, this may feel excessive; but having your hows/whys down will help solidify teacher buy-in and satiate all worriers.

And with the worriers, you may encounter two of the most worrisome hindrances to tours on the library’s end—Time and Bodies.