Wednesday, July 27, 2011

July 28th with Cinda Tilgner!

The Corvallis-Benton County Public Library
proudly presents
ABC, 123! with Cinda Tilgner
 Thursday, July 28th, at 10 am in the Main Meeting Room. 
Join us for a fun early literacy program incorporating shapes, colors, numbers, nursery rhymes, music and movement. Program geared for children ages 5 & younger.

See you there!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

World Puppet Adventures

Recently at our library we had a great time presenting puppet shows and flannelboard stories based on children's books and tales from around the world. Here's a glimpse into our program, in case you missed it:

We started with the Latin American tale of The Elegant Rooster, in which a very handsome rooster is heading to his uncle's wedding but finds himself too dirty to be fit for such a grand event. He asks a flower for help cleaning him up, but the flower refuses. New characters enter into the story and each refuses to help the rooster with his pleas. Finally, he strikes up a deal with the sun, who also needs help of its own. In exchange for helping the rooster, the rooster must sing at dawn every day to wake up the sun. This tale also incorporated several Spanish words and phrases for audience participation.

Next, we shared Head, Body, Legs based on a Liberian folktale retold in picture book format by Won-Ldy Paye & Margaret H. Lippert. This is a wonderful and silly tale to share with children. The illustrations in the book are fantastic, but the tale is also a great choice for traditional storytelling.
Head, Body, Legs: a story from Liberia by Won-Ldy Paye & Margaret H. Lippert
 To help the young children in the audience grasp the silliness of the story as the parts of the body are added and all move around until the ideal placements are determined, I created a flannelboard version of the story based on the illustrations by Julie Paschkis. There were lots of giggles!

We sang the traditional song "One Elephant Went Out to Play" and then told the story of Seven Blind Mice, based on the version retold and illustrated by Ed Young. 
Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young
This is a wonderful story of seven blind mice trying to identify an elephant is a great story to use when discussing the five senses. Each blind mouse explores the "strange something" and each comes away with a different guess as to what it is. Is it a fan? A column? A spear? A snake? A cliff? The "mouse moral" at the end of the story is: "Knowing in part may make a fine tale, but wisdom comes from seeing the whole."

The librarians also shared a puppet story based on Splash! by Flora McDonnell. 
Splash! by Flora McDonnell


Splash! is a simple story, great for sharing with toddlers, about some very hot jungle animals finding relief from the sun by following baby elephant down to the water hole to splash!

Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
Our final story we shared was a dramatic telling of the Eastern European tale of Caps for Sale: a Tale of Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business by Esphyr Slobodkina. This is one of my favorite childhood stories in which a peddler of hats takes a nap underneath a tree and awakens to find some naughty monkeys have stolen his hats!



Thursday, July 21, 2011

Friendship Books


I had the wonderful chance to visit with my best friend from 4th and 5th grade over the weekend. I hadn't seen her in at least a decade, if not longer. So when I found out she was visiting her family in town this past week, I was delighted to connect with her again. Seeing her and her lovely family caused me to reflect on childhood friendships and how special they remain in our memories. As I think back on some of our memories together, I remember how fond we were of reading books like Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh, The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett, and Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards. While those books are generally for older readers than this blog is dedicated to, there are many wonderful books about childhood friendships in the picture book collection just waiting to be shared with a child and his or her first friend. Here are a few staff favorites:
Alex and Lulu: Two of a Kind

Alex and Lulu: Two of a Kind by Lorena Siminovich
Meet best friends Alex and Lulu. Alex loves having noisy, exciting adventures, and Lulu likes painting and making things. Even though they are different, they always have fun together. Until Alex begins to worry that they might be too different, that they might actually be opposites! Discover what opposites really are in this quirky story that celebrates differences.

Bella & Bean
When Bean constantly distracts her while she tries to write, Bella finds her poems taking unexpected and silly twists, till she realizes she has written a wonderful poem about her best friend.

Mary and Clare do everything together at preschool, but Mary's birthday celebration puts a strain on the girls' friendship.

Kathy feels lonely and betrayed when her best friend goes away for the summer and has a wonderful time.

Budgie & Boo

Budgie grows flowers and Boo grows vegetables, and they are the best of friends.

Chester's Way
 Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes
Chester and Wilson share the same exact way of doing things, until Lilly moves into the neighborhood and shows them that new ways can be just as good.

Best friends Lily and Salma disagree over their preferred foods, but after trading sandwiches to see how they taste, the girls change their minds.

Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories
Three easy-to-read stories reveal the close friendship between Dog and Bear.

Best Friends
When the light in the classroom incubator burns out, two friends are brought together again as they act to save the lives of the unhatched chickens.


Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Children's Apps & Book Apps for Kids: What's Your Opinion?

Pop-Up Book Artist David Carter's new app.
Download for $3.00 at iTunes or try the Lite version for free.
According to the description on iTunes, "This eye-popping, interactive app invites toddlers and preschoolers to learn colors as they “spot the dot” in fun, engaging and highly varied interactive playspaces." Apps designed for children are popular, but have also sparked a lot of discussion among parents and educators.

Back in March of this year, NPR ran a story about children's book apps. This wasn't the first time children's books and apps were mentioned in the media together. Publisher's Weekly discussed the apps becoming available for Apple's iPad back in April 2010. Searching online - or on your smart phone or iPad - you can find plenty of discussion around children's book apps. The New York Times declared the iPhone a toddler's favorite toy  back in October 2010 - and, more recently, shared recommended children's book apps, which includes Wild About Books below.


You can also preview one of my favorite children's book apps, How Rocket Learned to Read, below:


Here at the library, we're curious:
Do you allow your child to use your smartphone or similar device to interact with apps designed for children?
Have you tried any of the children's book apps available? What do you think? Leave us a comment - we'd love to hear from you!

It's going to be a fun week!

Mother Goose Asks "Why?"
Join us at the Corvallis Library on Thursday, July 7th, 14th, and 21st at 10:00 a.m. for this fun preschool program that links reading to science and math by using picture books and family projects that make science learning fun! July 7th: Build It! with Shapes & Sizes, July 14th: Our Five Senses, July 21st: Sink or Swim?
 
leapin_louieLeapin' Louie: the Comedy Cowboy Show
On Thursday, July 7th at 3:30 pm, in the Corvallis Library Main Meeting Room, Leapin' Louie Lichtenstein, the comedy cowboy, brings lasso tricks, juggling, 6-foot unicycle, high-energy comedy, and audience participation to make reading really, really fun!