Wednesday, October 28, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Nature - Seasons


 This is one of the original neighborhoods and an obvious and popular one, although it does move seasonally. Fall and winter are the most popular seasons, and at those times of the year there's usually an empty or mostly-empty shelf. Spring goes out briefly (much like the season) and summer mostly circulates right before summer to teachers. When I removed our holiday section a few years ago I moved some of the holiday books here if I felt they emphasized natural seasons.

Series that span the seasons

ALL - general seasons, all four seasons

FALL - fall

SPR - spring

SUM - summer

WIN - winter




Monday, October 26, 2026

STEAM activities: Slime


 I don't know what the ingredients of biocolor putty solution are - they stopped manufacturing it after I bought a bunch. I think it's probably a pre-mixed borax solution. It's really simple though, just mix it with some glue and paint. I really thought we'd have a big turnout for this, but not even for slime.

Complete resources on Canva

Thursday, October 22, 2026

STEAM activities: Sounds


I planned this for a full day, having mixed up the calendar and thinking there was no school. Basically nobody came.

 Full resources on canva 

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

STEAM activities: Gravity


The afternoon STEAM storytime we were offering had to be cancelled, so we only offered this for a few hours once a week with a couple families attending.

Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Nature - Fun


 This is my newest section. I had been putting the camping books into Sports and felt they were a better fit for Nature. I also have a lot of interest in fishing and outdoor activities in my area and I frequently get requests from teachers for books on camping and hiking, so I wanted them in an easy place to find. My initial plan was for the Dewey number to mark nonfiction, realistic or instructional books and the fiction portion would be more purely fictional titles, but they've gotten a bit mixed.

799 - Realistic, informational, and instructional books about outdoor activities

  • Red canoe shows up at two by Victoria Allenby
  • Forest School (series) by Ruth Symons, illustrated by Sebastien Braun
  • Fly rod was first: Cornelia Crosby's adventures in angling
  • Far, Far away by Molly Beth Griffin
  • One frozen lake by Deborah Jo Larson
  • My first day fishing: a beginner's guide by Will Millard
  • Fly fishing with Papa by Christopher Robbins
  • Dawn patrol by Rob Sayegh
  • Down by the river: a family fly fishing story by Andrew Weiner

Fiction about outdoor experiences, including nature observation and appreciation



Saturday, October 17, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Nature - Earth


 This section is divided by Dewey numbers, although the titles are not necessarily nonfiction, but mostly a mix of informational and fiction.

363 - Taking care of the earth: Conservation, Earth Day, and Recycling

550 - Earth Science: Geology and Volcanoes

577 - Habitats and Biomes. Day and Night. General nature-themed books

577 FOR - Forests and trees

577 OCE - Oceans

577 WET - fresh water biomes including rivers, wetlands, and lakes



Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Nature


 If I remember correctly, this section started with Seasons and Weather and maybe Space? The first two are an easy choice of course. I wanted to separate the space books that are about planets from the space books that focused on rockets etc. but there's definitely some crossover. The section I've played around with the most is the "Earth" section. Originally, there wasn't a subheading for this section and I just put general environmental books here. At one point I had all the plants, gardening, and tree books here. I also had a lot of requests for and donations of books about fishing, camping, and hiking. 

I ended up making an "Earth" section and putting all the habitat books there (the gardening and food plants went to Community/Farm). I also moved the general ocean books from animals to this section. The last section I added was the "Fun" section - the line between nonfiction and fiction is especially blurry here.

The most popular section here is Seasons, although each section goes out, well, seasonally. Except for snow books, weather and space circulate about equally.

Monday, October 12, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Go - Trains


 This section has existed from the very beginning. Although trains are no longer as extremely popular as they were back in the heyday of Thomas the Tank Engine, they're still a popular collection. I do put items in here that emphasize the vehicle, rather than just anything riding in a train.

625 - Train nonfiction

  • Big book of trains, DK publishing
  • Listen up! Train song by Victoria Allenby
  • Big Boy 4014 and the Steam Team by Marsha Arnold
  • I drive a freight train by Sarah Bridges
  • On the train by Carron Brown (Shine-a-Light)
  • My big train book by Roger Priddy
  • Mighty steam engine by Yvonne Ng

Train fiction

  • Thomas the tank engine: The complete collection by W. Awdry
  • Cats in conductor hats by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen
  • Mr. Complain takes the train by Wade Bradford and S. Britt
  • Train driver by Phoenix Bright
  • Two little trains by Margaret Wise Brown
  • Hey! get off our train by John Burningham
  • Choo Choo by Virginia Lee Burton
  • Night train, night train by Robert Burleigh
  • Train by Elisha Cooper
  • All aboard the Moonlight Train by Krystin Crow
  • Rain train by Elena De Roo
  • Snakes on a train by Kathryn Dennis
  • How to train a train by Jason Eaton
  • Littlest train by Chris Gall
  • Dinosaur train by John Gurney
  • All aboard the Alaska Train by Brooke Hartman, Illustrated by John Joseph
  • Follow the track all the way back by Timothy Knapman
  • Sleep train by Jonathan London
  • All aboard the dinotrain by Deb Lund
  • Trains run! by George Ella Lyon
  • I'm fast by Kate McMullan
  • Trainbots by Paul Miranda
  • Smokey by Bill Peet
  • Little engine that could by Watty Piper (original)
  • Let's build a little train by Julie Richardson
  • Steam train, dream train by Sherri Duskey Rinker
  • Night train : a journey from dusk to dawn by Annie Cronin
  • Trains don't sleep by Andria Rosenbaum
  • Choo-choo school by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
  • Big Choo by Stephen Shaskan
  • The Christmas tree who loved trains by Annie Silvestro
  • The Goodnight Train by June Sobel

Saturday, October 10, 2026

STEAM Activities: Bears

 


This was the last week of offering STEAM activities on both Monday and Wednesday. It was also a pretty slow traffic week and my schedule this month is very in and out, so I didn't observe how the families reacted to this one.

Full resource pages on Canva

Tuesday, October 6, 2026

This month in the collection: September 2026


New Book Spotlight
on Canva

*Unless otherwise noted, all items were purchased for or added to the library collection*

Board Books
Early Readers and Transitional Chapters
Juvenile Graphic Novels (fiction)

Young Teen
  • The Princess swap. Beauty and the glass slipper by Kim Bussing (TAB vote)
  • Enola Holmes : the graphic novels volume 3 by Serena Blasco
  • Take it from the top by Claire Swinarski
  • The wingfeather saga. the graphic novel
  • Drama by Raina Telgemeier (Prebind replacement)
  • Flipped by Wendelin van Draanen (replacement)
Manga (new series) (TAB votes unless otherwise noted)
  • A cat is a cat in any life
  • The daughter of the demon lord is too kind!!
  • Beneath the fur
  • Hunter x hunter: 3-in-1 edition (I picked this one - I think One Piece fans might like it)
  • Jujutsu kaisen (written request on a survey)
  • Kuro : the complete edition
  • Luca the dragon vet
  • Nana (not a specific request, but a favorite of a TAB member)
  • Pass the monster meat, milady! (personal favorite)
  • Stella must die
  • You and I are polar opposites
Young Adult Graphic Novels
  • Hollow magic by Mars Lauderbaugh
  • Operation : true love (TAB vote)
  • School bus graveyard (TAB vote)
  • To dance the moon and stars by M. S. Tasia (TAB vote)
  • Love bites by Alicia Wallace

Monday, October 5, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Go - Space


 This section includes both nonfiction (629) and fiction about space vehicles. I also included astronauts in this collection. I tried to separate this from books about planets, which are in nature. 

629 - Nonfiction titles

Fiction about space

  • Bunnies in a rocket by Philip Ardagh
  • Rocket ship, solo trip by Chiara Colombi
  • Flying by Donald Crews
  • Astronaut training by Aneta Cruz
  • Dinosaur rocket! by Penny Dale
  • Snakes in space by Kathryn Dennis
  • Sadie Sprocket builds a rocket by Sue Fliess, illustrated by Annabel Tempest
  • Astronaut sisters by Julie Fortenberry
  • Little Plane learns to write by Stephen Savage
  • Astro Girl by Ken Wilson-Max

Saturday, October 3, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Go - Machines


 This includes all the nonfiction books about machines and is organized roughly by Dewey. It's mostly series nonfiction. A few more fictional titles have crept in, but I ignore them because my staff will probably revolt if I relabel anything else any time soon.

624 - Working machines and construction workers

629 - Cars, motorcycles, etc.

  • Individual Titles
    • I drive a snowplow by Sarah Bridges
    • Trucks (and other things with wheels) by Bryony Davies
    • Clever Cogz: The book of cars and trucks by Neil Clark
    • Drive by Nathan Clement
    • Spectacular science of vehicles by Rob Coulson
    • Colossal by Stephane Frattini
    • History of cars by Elliot Krusynski
    • Formula Fast by Matt Ralphs
    • Big book of vehicles by Randall Ronne
  • Series with multiple titles
    • Lerner - What machines do
    • Creative - Amazing racing cars
    • Lerner - Rev it up!
    • Capstone - Pebble
    • Lerner - Lightning bolt books, How it works
    • Lerner - Bumba books, We love...
    • Creative - Seedlings

September in review, looking forward to October


 Well. The month flew by - we didn't start programs until the end of the month, with TAB resuming on September 18th. Paws to Read won't start until October, as our volunteer is away. We've had a strong turnout for our morning STEAM activities and storytimes and very low turnout for afternoon events, other than the TAB meeting.

  There was no magical moment when the renovation was finished and everything was perfect. We are dealing with almost constant little issues like leaks and, of course, it's budget season which is always fun. My staff did major work on getting the program spaces organized - so far only the teens have used the Create Space, but I am working on collaborations to bring various groups in to use our spaces and we continue to have heavy traffic and a lot of circulation.

  My big nonfiction orders came in and I am working on several collection development projects, plus endless "little" things. We are somewhat settling into a routine, and I am looking at next year and summer as well, budget pending.

  October will see several of our staff off for long periods, I have to deal with a bunch of medical appointments for my mom. We'll continue to do a very simple slate of programming and focus on in-house activities, drop-in activities, and our space as a community hub.