Thursday, October 1, 2026

STEAM Activities: Pumpkins


It's really hard to find science projects involving pumpkins, so this is another one that is mostly art.
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Friday, September 25, 2026

STEAM Activities: Leaves

 


This set of activities is a little tricky as it relies on A. leaves having changed color and B. not being soaking wet. We set it up with a few green/dry leaves we managed to gather. Mostly toddlers came and they enjoyed painting, sometimes with the die-cut paper leaves, sometimes just painting.

Canva files

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Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Collection Development: USA 250th Anniversary


 There's a lot of discussion and different perspectives in libraries around the commemoration of the United States' 250th anniversary. I have my own thoughts on this, but since I don't generally do programs with specific themes that particular aspect is not relevant. I have been looking at books on the topic of US history, geography, and the US in general and here I have to focus very firmly on putting on my librarian hat.

  Whatever my own thoughts and perspective, my professional responsibility is to purchase items that are of interest to my community and that include accurate information. This seems straightforward, but it's actually really tricky; if a book's information is accurate but it limits or ignores some perspectives is it truly accurate? But if I purchase books that are accurate and cover all perspectives and they don't circulate, am I really meeting the needs of my community? It does help that my library is part of a larger consortium so there is access to more materials than are just in my library.

Anyways, this is a list of US-themed materials I have purchased so far this year. This is the update for the fall and I will do one final update at the end of the year.

Board Books

  • Hello World! USA 9798217223145

Picture Books

  • 50 states of love: A celebration of America 9781836006077
  • Copland: A story about America 9780593693711
  • Make a pretty sound: A story of Ella Jenkins the first lady of Children's Music 9781452170640
  • The 50 states: Things that go 9781419779725
  • Land of the free: America's ABC 9781668979020
  • The Navajos 9780823460977
  • America the beautiful 9781836008774
  • Baseball for breakfast: A (mostly) true story 9781623545703
  • Main Street: A community story about redlining 9798217002672
  • You are the land 9798217003495
  • Once a wasteland: From toxic dump to national park 9781534113480
  • Fly rod was first: Cornelia Crosby's adventures in angling 9781534113602
  • The flag we love by Pam Munoz Ryan (new edition) 9781623548445
  • Charley's honky-tonk mission 9798217003693
  • Ghost army: the troop of artists who helped win WWII 9780593691717
  • Bald Eagles by Gail Gibbons (new edition) 9780823462889
  • Houdini's library: how books created the world's greatest magician 9780593570135
  • Sing the 50 United States 9798217228560
  • Our Congress 9780807512401
  • Women who won the vote: 5-minute genius stories 9781454961673
  • Heroes of 1776: the story of the Declaration of Independence 9780063473973
  • Hot dog! The history of America's favorite sausage 9781250388032
  • The great pumpkin pancake party 9781250375995
  • We are mighty: 12 ordinary Americans who did the next needed thing 9798217033331
  • Swing! by James Yang 9780593693100

Juvenile Nonfiction

  • History Comics: Ellis Island (prebound) 9781250768780
  • My bicentennial summer by Greg Neri 9781536239577
  • If you lived during the American Revolution by Chris Newell 9781338845655
  • America's founding myths ...and what really happened! by Christy Mihaly 9798888599082
  • Red, white, blue, and Uncle who? (updated edition) 9780823464135
  • Happy birthday, America: 250 years of the United States 9798217137053
  • America celebrates 9780760398609
  • America as it happened 9781804661673
  • National parks of the USA (updated) 9781836006138
  • Explore! America's journeys 9781684645657
  • A kid's guide to New York City: let the adventure begin! 9781837585243
  • Unequal: a story of America by Eric Dyson 9780759557031
  • History Comics: Great Depression (prebound) 9781250810335
  • Twice enslaved: liberty and justice for Henrietta Wood by Selene Castrovilla 9781662680748
  • Record-breaking USA: celebrating America's biggest, brightest, and bravest! 9781836002475
  • The British are coming. The graphic edition vol. 1 9780593799321
  • Diamond fever! A true crime story in the Wild West 9781250265746
  • Alice Piper speaks up 9781597147057
  • The space race by Kate Messner 9780593902363
  • George Washington: a revolutionary life by Tim Grove 9781419780936
  • Liberty's forgotten hero: the revolutionary life of James Forten 9781643795799
  • Lost women of science 9780593896747

Juvenile Beginning Chapters

  • Where is Arizona? 9798217053407
  • Where is Florida? 9798217051373
  • Where is Michigan? 9798217053285
  • Where is New Jersey? 9798217053315
  • Where is New York? 9798217051403
  • Where is North Carolina? 9798217053254
  • Where is Tennessee? 9798217053438
  • Where is Virginia? 9798217053346
  • Where is Washington? 9798217053377
  • Where are the rocky mountains? 9780593890905
  • What is American sign language? 9798217049288
  • Journey to freedom, 1838 by Sherri Winston (replacement)
  • Where is Colorado? 9798217244164
  • Where is Indiana? 9798217243372
  • Where is Maryland? 9798217244041
  • Where is Massachusetts? 9798217243068
  • Where is Missouri? 9798217243761
  • Where is Puerto Rico? 9798217244249
  • Where is Wisconsin? 9798217244133
  • Where is the International Space Station? 9798217051342

Juvenile Fiction

  • Opal Watson, private eye by Brittany Thurman 9780063326491
  • Opal Watson, a case most fowl by Brittany Thurman 9780063326545
  • Where only storms grow by Alyssa Colman 9780374392789
  • We the children by Andrew Clements (prebound) (replacement)
  • Road from nowhere by Avi 9781546179474
Young Teen
  • Sophia's war: a tale of the Revolution by Avi 9798347116539
  • Heartland by Jilanne Hoffmann 9780316580052

These are items I have read/skimmed and plan to purchase

  • Teaching for change by Yvonne Clark-Rhines 9780063251601
    • This is a powerful biography of a Civil Rights luminary. I'm very pleased to see more biographies of women and behind-the-scenes people from history and large-scale movements which are usually tied to a single man as leader.
  • When Paul Revere Rode by Sarah L. Thomson 9781662681387
    • A collection of poems from the different people involved in the events of "Paul Revere's Ride". Quotations from original sources and a brief explanation of each event are also included. Two enslaved men are quoted and there is an oblique mention of other riders.
  • It takes a family to serve by Lisa Wheeler 9780063283473
    • The subtitle is "A tribute to military families" and this does a really good job of showing a variety of different families and military personnel. POC and women are shown serving and a child is shown being raised by his grandfather.
  • Honor Flight by Jeff Gottesfeld 9781536230154
    • An honor flight as seen through the eyes of the author and the veteran he escorted.


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Saturday, September 5, 2026

This month in the collection


I've stopped saving new books on Pinterest - our new catalog overlay should be able to do it better, eliminating a step. Of course, I deleted the Pinterest boards before I had figured out how to do the lists...

 New Book Spotlight

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


Board Books

Picture Books

Beginning Chapter Books (new series)

  • Witches of Anderson House: A spell for disaster by Jennie Poh

Juvenile Graphic Novels

Juvenile Fiction

Juvenile Nonfiction

Young Teen

  • Heartland by Jilanne Hoffmann
  • Sleepless by Gordon Korman
  • Spirit service by Sarena Nanua

Young Adult Graphic Novels

    • I Love Amy vol. 1
    • My secretly hot husband 1
    • Bite me by Dugan

    Young Adult 

    • Prince among pirates by Katie Abdou
    • You jump first by Myah Ariel
    • Kingdom of waves by Melissa De la Cruz
    • Such a lucky girl by Wendy Heard
    • Where lost girls go by Kody Keplinger
    • No one leaves the manner by Kelly McWilliams
    • I didn't do it by Elle Gonzalez Rose
    • My killer family reunion by Dinesh Thiru
    • Murder hypothesis by Sarah Wishart
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    Tuesday, September 1, 2026

    Fall 2026 programs

     I planned a minimal slate of programs for this fall. Keeping the library open and maintaining programs and services throughout renovations over the past year has been overwhelming and there are still lingering issues and project to resolve and finish. Fall is also our Friends' big fundraiser and budget season for the city. There's just also a lot of other stuff happening. Usually I plan while thinking of the times when the most people can attend, but for this fall I am offering what our staff and resources allow.

    Fall events handout

    Self-directed activities, available during all open hours

    • Read and Grow
    • Scavenger hunts
      • September - tools (we are transitioning to a reusable scavenger hunt to save paper)
      • October - ghosts (this is an all-library scavenger hunt run by the circulation department)
      • November - food
      • December - space
    • I spy aquarium - coming in October
    • Mystery sticker picture - while supplies last and then we'll think of something else
    Self-directed programs, drop-in during specific times
    • STEAM activities, based on the activity calendars
      • These will be offered on some Mondays and possibly Fridays, when there are no other programs, but regularly on Wednesday mornings. The Wednesday morning sessions are aimed at homeschoolers, although all are welcome.
    • Pokemon Hangout
    • Homeschool Teen Hangout
      • This is during the same time as the Wednesday STEAM activities and is basically an opportunity for the teens to use the Create Space. I don't know how this will go - we might end up with a lot of younger kids in the space or need to have a staff presence. Or nobody will show up at all.
    Storytimes
    • Paws to Read (outside presenter)
    • Family Storytime (school colleague - alternates at the library and the Rec department)
    • Wiggles and Words
    • STEAM storytime (afternoon storytime themed with the activity calendars. It's run by two Library Board members who are also teachers)
    Other events
    • Itty Bitty Bopping Bakers. This is a storytime/cooking event run by our school colleague in conjunction with the nonprofit we partner with who offers services to adults with disabilities.
    • Jory John's Food Group party. One of the TAB members wanted to have an event and I gave them a time and they are planning it.
    • Live animal presentation - this is one of the Preschool Family Fun nights run by my school colleague and hosted by the library.
    Teen events/Create Space
    • I have a monthly TAB meeting planned - the November one is the Food Group party and I told the kids we'd have a cookie party in December. Otherwise they have to figure out what they want to do.
    • Teen hangouts in the Create Space - the teens get to come and make stuff. They enjoyed this over the summer, but I don't know how their schedules will work out during the school year.
    • My teen volunteer opportunities this fall will be opening the Create Space on specific afternoon/evenings. I will be doing some training for them and the times I've picked are when I am available at the youth or information desk. I don't know how this will work out - I can't advertise it, b/c I can't guarantee that volunteers will show up, so there might or might not be kids coming. Still, if it ends up with teens hanging out on their own that will be fine too. And if nobody comes at all, I tried. I've also scheduled some groups (like Girl Scouts) to use the Create Space.

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    Sunday, August 30, 2026

    Picture Book Neighborhoods - GO

     I've rearranged the sub-sections of this neighborhood a bit, going back and forth between fiction vs. nonfiction, or arranging by different types of machines. I've had this organization for a while and will probably stick with it. Pretty much anything in this section circulates, although there are definitely popular authors or series (even if those go out of print very rapidly, like Sciesczka's Truck Town).

    The general GO section, without subheadings, includes all of the stories and informational stories about vehicles. A few that could technically go in a separate section are included here to stay together by author and farm machines, including tractors, are in the Community/Farm books.

    Published 2025-2026
    Series and Authors (3 or more titles)
    Other titles I have previously reviewed

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    Sunday, August 23, 2026

    Picture Book Neighborhoods: Fun - STEM


    This was one of the original collection when I created the neighborhoods and I had a lot of arguments with other staff about including math in the FUN section. Which just goes to show that adults absolutely pass their attitudes on to kids! I overhauled this section in my last update and created additional Dewey numbers. This section is one that has a lot of fiction in the Dewey numbers - as I explain to the kids, the numbers are a classification system, not fiction vs. nonfiction.

    This selection doesn't include nonfiction series or some older titles. The biography section isn't heavily used, but I do pull a lot for school requests.

    500 - General Science

    507 - Experiments

    513 - Math

    514 - Mapping and Patterns

    620 - Engineering

    921 - Biographies

    Fiction (selections)



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    Friday, August 21, 2026

    August in review, looking forward to September

    Part of one of our play areas. This is actually very tidy.

     Technically, we still have a week of August left, but summer reading ends this Saturday and I am more or less off until Monday, so as far as I'm concerned we're done.

    This summer was, in terms of summer reading, traffic, circulation, and programs, extremely successful. As far as staff morale and stress levels, it was... overwhelming. We went straight into summer with no break after a year of stressful renovations. Additionally, it turns out that the repurposed space amplifies sound - combined with the increased traffic the noise is relentless. We also had illness, personal losses, and some major weather events. I try to make summer as simple as possible - I don't want to be one of those libraries that dreads summer or end with my staff and I being burned out and exhausted - but I just couldn't avoid it this year.

    In the past, I've offered no programs in August, just summer reading, but this turned out to be problematic between school not resuming until after Labor Day and previous library boards not wanting a program break. I compromised this year and offered a couple simple storytimes and drop-in events (no teen volunteers - those were all scheduled in June-July). However, one thing I've discovered this summer is that the only program our patrons are really interested in is storytime. Otherwise, they are satisfied with the repurposed space, which has three play areas.

    We will be taking a long program break, not resuming until September 21. In addition, this fall I am doing a very simple slate of programs.

    During our program break my staff will be helping out other departments (we had a pivotal staff member move on), finally getting the Create Space arranged, and tackling the endless to-do list of projects that have been set aside before and during the grant renovation process. The last weeks of August I will be spending writing reports and organizing data and then the beginning of September I am going to actually take some time off, handle collection projects that have been languishing, and potentially work through the last projects as the grant draws to a close. It will still be very busy, but hopefully we can be more relaxed and as traffic slows down as people go to the fair and return to school the noise levels might abate.

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    Wednesday, August 19, 2026

    In short, I am busy: We Explore Artist Tom Lichtenheld

    Art Project Part 1: Sketching
    I encouraged the kids to sketch out their ideas with pencils and erasers. I had lots of pictures of Tom Lichtenheld's art processes from Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

    Supplies
    • pencils, erasers, paper
    Storytime
    • Sing by Joe Raposo
    • Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton
    • Ten rules of the birthday wish by Beth Ferry
    • Exclamation point by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

    Art Project Part 2: Colored pencils
    The kids color their drawings with colored pencils; there are also activity sheets.

    Supplies
    • watercolor pencils
    • bleeding art tissue paper
    • water, paint brushes
    • paper (thick/stiff works best)
    Resources
    Evaluation

    • 8-19-26
      • I've only done this once before - it generally works better with older kids. I just read a couple stories (Sing, Shark vs. Train, and This is a moose) and then we used watercolor pencils and bleeding art tissue paper.
    • 6-28-19
      • Attendance: 21
      • Notes: I taped the samples of works in progress to a table for the kids to look at. I forgot to bring over toys for the little ones again. Most attendees stayed until 3 and had a great time.
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    Saturday, August 15, 2026

    STEAM Activities: Pattern Play


      Canva links to resources and posters

    Specific supplies

    • colored tape (thin masking tape)
    • shape stickers

    General supplies

    • paper
    • markers
    • pony beads
    • pipe cleaners
    • beading string
    • scissors


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    Wednesday, August 12, 2026

    In short, I am busy: We Explore Artist Sarah S. Brannen


    Books
    Art Project 1: Bleeding art tissue paper
    • Bleeding art tissue paper
    • Paper (thick, non-absorbent paper works best if you have it)
    • Water
    • Paintbrushes
    This is for toddlers or those who don't want to get messy. They just paint the water over the tissue and it "bleeds" onto the paper. It's sold in packs of all colors, but only the dark pink, blue, and purple actually work though. Little kids mostly just enjoy getting things wet anyways. You can either wait for the paper to dry and brush off the wet tissue paper scraps or peel off the wet ones, dying your fingers colors in the process.

    Art Project 2: Liquid watercolors
    • Liquid watercolors
    • Watercolor paper
    • Brushes
    This is for older kids - these paints stain. I store them in baby food jars and occasionally they dry out - just add a little water. Every once in a while they go bad though and all you can do then is toss them. Theoretically you could add water and dilute them, but that's a little too complicated for my audience.

    I had planned to pass out pencils and notebooks and go outside to sketch things the kids saw, but I had only a couple toddlers to start with and then a few older kids at the end come in to paint and it was hot and humid so I skipped that.
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    Saturday, August 8, 2026

    Picture Book Neighborhoods: Fun - Sports


     This section is one of the originals, but how I organized the books in it has changed quite a bit. I've played around a lot with the cutters of the nonfiction section but finally settled on, generally, cuttering them by sport with an additional cutter if there are more than 4 titles. I also include contemporary sports figures under 921 and historical sports figures in the US history section. (I don't have any picture book biographies of historical sports figures who are NOT from the US, and I'll cross that bridge when and if I come to it!). I'm pretty liberal in interpreting "sports" and have included some general dance titles in this section as well.

     I have a lot of nonfiction series on sports here, including titles from Creative, ABDO (those are old - I don't purchase from them anymore), Lerner, and Capstone. Overall, it's kind of a weird section, because there really isn't much interest in sports from preschoolers so this section is mostly aimed at elementary school kids.

    Biographies

    • Courage in her cleats: the story of soccer star Abby Wambach
    • The girl who figured it out: the inspiring true story of wheelchair athlete Minda Dentler
    • Tacko Fall: to new heights
    • Not yet: the story of an unstoppable ice skater by Zahra Lari
    • Flying high: the story of gymnastics champion Simone Biles
    • I am Simone Biles
    • Fearless heart: the legacy of an Olympic figure skater : an illustrated biography of Surya Bonaly
    • Heroic heart: an illustrated biography of Joe Delaney
    • Decoy saves Opening Day by Shohei Ohtani
    • Basketball dreams by Chris Paul
    • Simone Biles by Ebony Wilkins
    • Sisters: Venus and Serena Williams

    Previously reviewed nonfiction titles

    Previously reviewed fiction titles



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    Friday, August 7, 2026

    STEAM Activities: Mapping our world


      Canva links to resources and posters

    General supplies

    • Paper
    • Scissors
    • Markers
    • Crayons
    • Colored pencils
    • glue sticks
    • old magazines
    When I requested books for this project, in addition to picture books about mapping I also requested some art books about making maps and RPG fantasy map drawing books. I don't think anybody actually did it though - other than an extremely chaotic crossover with Pokemon Hangout, only a few people went in and just colored.

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