Seasons Readings

When I read the wonderful book Savvy by Ingrid Law, a book about a family with extraordinary powers they call savvies, I started imagining what my savvy would be, if I could choose. While it would be awesome to have a savvy that would give me some kind of superpowers, I thought I'd love to have the savvy of being able to pick up the exact right book for each moment in my life. Is there much more satisfying than finishing a book that was the exact perfect book for you to read at that time in your life?

When I look back on my reading memories, I can remember some books that were just perfect for the time I was reading them.

I remember listening to the audiobook of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo as I drove home from Chicago for the first time in late spring. I had the windows down and the smell of freshly turned fields in northern Indiana wafting through the car as I listened to this poignant adventure story.

I remember reading A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly when I had moved home after college and was still figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. Reading about a strong young woman figuring out her own life, despite all the hardships she faced, was just what I needed. And I was just beginning to discover the amazing world of children's and YA literature as I pondered over my first career steps and decided to apply to library school.

Last year, I was listening to the audiobook Ghost by Jason Reynolds as I was walking miles around my neighborhood in the heat of late summer, the perfect time to be reading a book about track (and so much more!).

Besides the events going on in your life, the seasons can also have a lot to do with creating those perfect reading moments. Do you have certain genres that you gravitate towards more in certain seasons? For me, I always get a craving for historical fiction in November as a chill sets in and the nights get long. And after Thanksgiving, as snow maybe starts to fall (iffy here in Southern Indiana!), I start picking up fantasy books. Once the new year begins, I'm more likely to branch out, to think about reading challenges and expanding my own horizons, to try something new or pick up that book that everyone's talking about that didn't seem like something I'd normally like.

As we head into these next few seasons, here are a few that I'm looking forward to picking up (or finishing!):

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (Grand Central, February 2017). This multigenerational family epic about a Korean family starting in the 1920s and spanning decades is right up my alley. I'm in the middle of it and really enjoying it. If you like character-centered books, historical fiction, and/or multigenerational stories, this is a great one.

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray, April 2018). This alternate historical fiction about a zombie uprising during the Civil War is inspired by retelling like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but asks hard questions about whose lives really matter in this country. I've started the very beginning of it and I'm hooked, y'all.

Ahimsa by Supriya Kelkar (Lee & Low, October 2017). From publisher summary: "In 1942, when Mahatma Gandhi asks Indians to give one family member to the freedom movement, ten-year-old Anjali is devastated to think of her father risking his life for the freedom struggle. But it turns out he isn't the one joining. Anjali's mother is... When Anjali's mother is jailed, Anjali must step out of her comfort zone to take over her mother's work, ensuring that her little part of the independence movement is completed."

La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust #1) by Philip Pullman (Knopf, October 2017). I have this book waiting on my shelves and as a huge fan of the His Dark Materials trilogy, I am eagerly looking forward to diving in!

Do you like to read certain genres during certain seasons? And what books do you associate strongly with certain moments in your life?

Preschool Storytime: Sharks

We had the Shark Cart from the Newport Aquarium visit earlier this month, so to get the kids excited about it, I did a shark storytime the week before. This is one of those storytimes that I thought would be difficult to plan, but it turns out that LOTS of librarians have done shark storytimes and there was plenty of fun material to be had.

Here's what I did:

Opening Song: My Hands Say Hello

Book: Great White Shark by Deborah Nuzzolo (Pebble Books, 2008). I used this book because I wanted to use one with real photos and the Pebble Plus books are great for having large full-color photographs. We talked about lots of great vocabulary words in this book - predator and prey, nostril, and more. I was worried about real pictures being too scary, but it turns out kids are brave. I did warn them before the last spread of the shark jumping out with its toothy mouth open wide. ;)

Felt Rhyme: Two Little Sharks
(A variation on Two Little Dickey Birds)

Two little sharks in the deep blue sea
One named Leonard and one named Lee
Swim away, Leonard! Swim away, Lee!
Come back, Leonard! Come back, Lee!

Source: Sunflower Storytime

This is a traditional rhyme that helps children practice motor skills and following directions.

Action Song: Bubble, Bubble Pop




I adjusted the lyrics slightly:

One little blue shark
Swimming in the water
Swimming in the water
Swimming in the water
One little blue shark
Swimming in the water
Bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble
POP!

We repeated with different colors until the kids were ready to move on.

Book: How to Spy on a Shark by Lori Haskins Houran (Albert Whitman, 2015). This nonfiction book uses gentle rhyming text to describe one way that scientists study sharks: by tagging them and having robots follow and record what they are doing. I chose this one because it's a very simple introduction to some of the work scientists do.

Action Song: The Sharks in the Sea
(Tune: The Wheels on the Bus)

The sharks in the sea go chomp, chomp, chomp
Chomp, chomp, chomp
Chomp, chomp, chomp
The sharks in the sea go chomp, chomp, chomp
All day long

Repeat with different sea animals. We did fish/swim, lobster/click clack and then I turned it over to the kids and they suggested sea turtle/glide, octopus/wiggle, and dolphin/flap tail.

Source: Adventures in Storytime

Felt Rhyme: Sharks in the Bathtub

One little shark in the bathtub
Going for a swim
Knock, knock (clap twice)
Splash, splash (pat knees twice)
Come on in!

Repeat with two, three, four, and five. At the very end "They all fell in!" and knock the felt pieces off the board.

Source: The Storytime Station

Book: Shark in the Park by Nick Sharrat (Corgi, 2000). This is one of our department's very favorite storytime books. It's cute and has actions the kids can do along with it (looking along with their telescope). This is a great one for practicing directions (look up, look down, look left, look right) and it has a fun surprise ending that kids love.

Felt Rhyme: Five Little Fishies

Five little fishies, swimming in the sea
Teasing Mr. Shark "You can't catch me!"
Along comes Mr. Shark, quiet as can be
And SNAPS that fish right out of the sea! (clap on "Snaps!")

Repeat: count down until there are no fish left.

Source: Never Shushed

We have a shark puppet and I love to use puppets with this rhyme.

Closing Song: Do You Know What Time It Is?

Preschool Storytime: Rain

I spotted the book Raindrops Roll by April Pulley Sayre on a display and I was inspired to create a rain-themed storytime this summer. I did it during our last week of summer storytimes and this was a really fun one to go out on because I tried a new thing and it worked (yay!).

Here's what I did:

Opening Song: My Hands Say Hello (our standard!)

Intro: Okay, I was going to bring out our rainstick to show the kids so we could hear it and I could talk about how they are made. BUT I couldn't find it on the hectic morning of our storytime, so I skipped that. If you have a rainstick, it would be a fun thing to show the kids.

Book: Raindrops Roll by April Pulley Sayre (Bean Lane Books, 2015). I was drawn to this one for its photo illustrations, which are a little unusual in children's picture books and I think they're neat. This is a great book for introducing kids to new vocabulary because Sayre uses such a rich selection of different words.

Felt: Five Little Umbrellas

This simple rhyme helps kids practice counting down and you could use it to practice colors, too. I put it in here to break up my books a little bit and give them something a little bit active (they can count on their fingers as I go through the felt pieces on the board). You can use the names of the kids in your storytime or substitute Mom, Dad, Cousin, etc. or just say "Someone".

Five umbrellas stood by the door.
Riley took the pink one, and then there were four!

Four umbrellas, pretty as can be.
Ben took the blue one, and then there were three!

Three umbrellas with nothing to do.
Ollie took the green one, and then there were two!

Two umbrellas having fun.
Lincoln took the yellow one, and then there was one!

One umbrella alone in the hall.
Ashly took the purple one and that was all!

Book: Storm Song by Nancy Viau (Amazon, 2013). We talked about what happens when a storm comes - what do we see, what do we hear? And one kiddo mentioned that it's sometimes scary, which lead right into this book. A storm comes and the power goes out and this family observes the storm and finds things to do with the lights out. It's a book that depicts something that most kids are familiar with and it has a lot of interesting rhythm and sounds in the text.

Action Song: If It's Raining Outside, Wear Your Boots

(Tune: If You're Happy and You Know It)
If it's raining outside, wear your boots.
If it's raining outside, wear your boots.
If it's raining outside, then your boots will keep you dry!
If it's raining outside, wear your boots.

Repeat: raincoat, hat, umbrella, etc.

I asked the kids to tell me what we need to wear if we go outside when it rains, so feel free to turn this over to the kids and use their suggestions in your song! Doing action songs in storytime not only helps get some wiggles out and allows kids to then sit and listen more calmly, but singing songs helps kids hear that words are made up of smaller sounds.

Book: Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car by John Burningham (HarperCollins, 1976). It's a sunny day and Mr. Gumpy is going for a drive. All of the farm animals want to come, but none of them want to help push when it rains and the car gets stuck in the mud.

 

Book with Props: Rain by Manya Stojic (Crown Books for Young Readers, 2000). I chose this book because I wanted to use some props with it (this was the new thing I tried!). As a rainstorm starts on the Savannah, animals see lightning, hear thunder, and finally the rain comes down. I divided my group up into three smaller groups based on where they were sitting. The kids on the right got yellow and orange scarves for lightning, the kids in the middle got egg shakers for rain sounds, and the kids on the left got rhythm sticks for thunder. First, we each practiced our parts. The lightning kids waved their scarves in the air up and down like lightning striking. The rain makers shook their eggs. And the thunder beat their rhythm sticks on the floor.

Then as I read the book, each group chimed in when it came to their part in the story. I didn't read the whole book - after the rain came and then the rain stopped, I skipped to the end where it gets hot again.

The kids had a lot of fun with this and even though I was nervous of chaos with so many noise-making props, it turned out to be really fun. I like finding ways to get kids involved with the story in unusual ways! And in this activity kids practiced motor skills and following directions.

Closing Song: Do You Know What Time It Is?

Here's Where I've Been

I had a little unanticipated hiatus with this blog for awhile due to some staffing changes in my job, but that doesn't mean I wasn't writing about books and libraries! I'm going to work on getting this blog back to regular posts, which may be different from what I had previously been posting about since I'm in a new role at my library. In the meantime, here are some columns I've written for various publications over the past several months:

Leadership in Librarianship 
Youth Matters column from American Libraries in September.

Tips on developing leaders in your library from the Power Up Conference from both myself and my librarian who accompanied me to the conference and is an amazing "unofficial" leader.

Five STEM-Themed Chapter Books
Chapter Book Chat column for School Library Journal's Be-Tween e-newsletter in August

Got kids who love science? Connect them with these books!

Build a Better World with Chapter Books
Chapter Book Chat column for SLJ's Be-Tween e-newsletter in June

These books were selected to go with this summer's Build a Better World SRP theme, but they're great for starting discussions and helping your world anytime!

Summer Reading Reboot
Youth Matters column for American Libraries in May.

When is it time for changes to your Summer Reading program? This column encourages you to take a look at your current Summer Reading program and decide if it might be time for some changes.

Engaging Readers with Fiction and Nonfiction
Chapter Book Chat column for SLJ's Be-Tween e-newsletter in April

Chapter Books for Change
Chapter Book Chat column for School Library Journal's Be-Tween e-newsletter in February.

Introduce students to themes of tolerance, generosity, and friendship with these diverse chapter books.