Friday Favorites Book Review

The Trouble with May Amelia, by Jennifer L. Holm

Life is not easy for May Amelia Jackson. She is the only girl in her family–she has seven brothers! And she is expected to help her mother with all the household chores, attend school (where she is also the only girl), and help out her brothers on the family’s farm. She and her family live by the Nasel River, in Washington State, and can’t get anywhere except by boat. Her parents don’t speak English, only Finnish. The year is 1900.
One day, a stranger comes by the farm, offering great riches to all those who invest in his company, which is planning to build a town on the Nasel River. May Amelia is thrilled when Pappa asks her to translate. And the family is thrilled when he decides to invest–they are going to be rich!
But when things don’t go as expected, Pappa blames May Amelia; he believes she is the cause of all their troubles, and she moves off the farm to live with her uncle.  May Amelia has lots of sisu (Finnish for courage), but is it enough  to bring the family back together?

submitted by Debbie

Fall leaves!

Today in our Preschool Pals storytime we had lots of fun reading stories about fall and falling leaves. Everyone agreed that jumping into a big pile of leaves was fun. After some stories everyone made their own version of Lois Ehlert’s “Leaf Man.” Here are some photos of their creations:

To see all the photos, click here.

The Snowy Day and the art of Ezra Jack Keats

Did you know that Ezra Jack Keats was born Jacob Ezra Katz? You’ll find out this fact and many more if you visit The Jewish Museum’s exhibit about Keats’ life and work. It’s called “The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats” and will be there through January 29, 2012.

Several of OPL’s Children’s Librarians were lucky enough to attend a lecture about Keats’ life and to view his beautiful original collage illustrations and many of his other works of art.

For more information about his life and the exhibit, visit The Jewish Museum’s website.

Come by the Children’s Room to see our display of his books and pick up a bookmark which gives you a $3.00 discount on museum admission.

Here are a few photos we took today:

Friday Favorites Book Review

Monkey: a Trickster Tale from India by Gerald McDermott

Readers may recognize this story which was told & illustrated by Paul Galdone (The Monkey and the Crocodile) back the ’60s. Monkey tricks crocodile into taking him across the river to get to the mango trees. Crocodile thinks he will make a snack out of monkey, but he has another think coming. This traditional Jataka tale from India has been newly told and illustrated by Gerald McDermott. As in the style of his other trickster tales, McDermott uses bright colors, collage illustration and child-friendly text.

submitted by Marci

Friday Favorites Book Review

Welcome to Friday Favorites!  Starting today we are going to be posting short reviews of some of the  books that we are currently reading and loving.  So without any further ado The Absolute Value of Mike by Kathryn Erskine.

Fourteen year old Mike, son of a genius mathematician, is sent to live with his 80-year-old great-aunt and uncle in Pennsylvania while his father teaches in Romania for the summer.  His success driven dad thinks this is the perfect opportunity for Mike to hone his engineering skills and qualify for a prestigious math and science school as he helps his great-uncle build an Artesian Screw.  But the members of the town of Do Over have another idea all together.  Mike finds himself thrust into a community wide project that has nothing to do with engineering.   Together with his legally blind, but still driving Aunt Moo, depressed Uncle Poppy, a melancholy homeless man and a tattoo covered punk rocker, Mike sets about to  raise $40,000 to adopt a boy from Romania.   With equal parts humor and poignancy Erskine tells a story about the redemptive power of love, what it means to be a family and what we can accomplish when we share a common goal.

Submitted by Trish

Preschool Pals is back!

Yesterday was our first session of Preschool Pals this fall.  A small group of 4- and 5-year-olds enjoyed listening to stories, shaking their sillies out, and making a fun craft. We read “Shape Capers” and “Perfect Square.”
  
Inspired by the art in “Perfect Square,” the children created their own pictures using color squares, scissors, and glue. Take a look at some of their creations:

If you have a 4- or 5-year-old, join us on Wednesdays at 2 pm for fun stories and crafts.

3 Year Olds Welcome Fall

The Fall season was welcomed in story, song and activities by the boys and girls attending  the “Now I’m Three” program.  Everyone added colorful leaves to the OPL tree and made leaf crowns to wear.  Fun was had by all!

Here are some photos: 

To see all the photos click here.

Submitted by Judy

Fall Program Flyer

Our fall 2011 Children’s Program Flyer is ready:  fall 2011 flyer

90 Second Newbery-The Final Cut

Here it is! Our 90 Second Newbery Video Club has finished filming and editing our condensed version of Sid Fleischman’s “The Whipping Boy.” We are so proud of these kids: Brandon, Brian, Elliot, Eric, Florencia, Giancarlo, Joshua, Lauren, Lucas, Madison, Maggie, Skyler, and Valentina. They are fantastic writers and actors! Thank you also to their parents for bringing them every week and for providing snacks, costumes & props. We also want to thank Sally for being such a supportive department head, and Judy for covering the reference desk so we could spend time with the kids on this project. And most of all, we want to thank James Kennedy for creating this fun & innovative program – and for his outstanding performance in our movie .
Marci & Debbie

A wrap-up of summer reading

School has started, and we are about to wrap up our Summer Reading Game. Tomorrow, September 9, is the last day. All the prize books will be packed up until next summer. If you are owed a prize, come on in and collect it.

We had almost 300 children sign up for the Summer Reading Game. Here is a photo of our Read-to-Me Board for pre-readers.

As you can see, some of the hot air balloons have gone home with their readers. If you still have a balloon on the board, you can come and pick it up.

Our librarians have been busy reading as well. We’ve kept our own reading logs, which are posted on the bulletin board over the photocopier in the Children’s Room. Here’s what we’ve read this summer:

Now that summer is behind us, we will be starting our Fall programs on Monday, September 12. Click here to view our calendar.