This week at the library; Summer reading week 1

Programs

• Paws to Read
• Teen Engagement
• We Explore (storytime) (Tues/Thurs)
• Project Explore (Teen Engagement)

Self-Directed Activities

• SRP Activity kits - balloon poppers or catapults
• Read and Grow
• Senses scavenger hunt
• Pokemon Hangout
• Construction Hangout

Meetings, Hosted events, etc.

• Managers' meeting

Notes

• Although this was the first week of summer reading, I did not actually spend that much time on programming or SRP. I did a lot of administrative work, jumping on and off desks, and finishing projects. I'm still working on the JBC (beginning chapter collection) updates, but I did at least get a summer new book spotlight out.
• Summer book spotlight: https://tinyurl.com/mwsj9vak

This month in the collection: May 2025

I had preordered items coming in this month, but I am trying to set aside funds for a big purchase to replace JBC - juvenile beginning chapter books - after I finish that weeding and relabeling process. I'm sort of maybe about halfway through?

Library Pinterest - new materials

Summer 2025 new book spotlight
Unless otherwise noted, all items were purchased for or added to the library collection

Board Books

• Who's the boss? by Emile Jadoul
• Yes Chef! It's snack time by Emily Love
• Leo at the farmer's market by Anna McQuinn
• Peekaboo: Dog by Camilla Reid
• I cannot find my belly button by Eva Treistman

Picture Books

• Bear feels sad by Karma Wilson
• So tortoise dug by Emmy Kastner
• Every Monday Mabel by Jashar Awan
• Diggers, Dozers, and Dumpers by Ole Konnecke
• Mistaco! by Eliza Kinkz
• My dad is a unicorn by Bill Canterbury
• Runaway pancake by Tiny Fisscher

Juvenile Fiction

• The story spinners by Cassandra Federman
• Meet me at sunset & Written in the stars by Lee Heart
• Continental Drifter by Kathy Macleod

Juvenile Nonfiction

• Call the bee doctor by Sandra Markle
• You decide your adventure by Bear Grylls
• Scat by Anita Sanchez
• Is it real? by Candace Fleming

Teen (young teen/middle school collection)

• Meet me at Wonderland by Julia DeVillers
• Tiffany's Griffon by Magnolia Siddell
• Love Report vol. 3 by Beka

Young Adult

• Blades of Furry by Emily Erdos
• Gay the pray away by Natalie Naudus

This week at the library; first week of summer, but not summer reading

Some of our visitors for the SRP kick-off.
The calico was feisty and tried to whap
kids with her teeny-tiny paws, which was
hilarious and made the kids giggle.

Programs

• We Explore (storytime)
• Drive into Summer
• We Explore (storytime)
• Summer reading kick-off

Self-Directed Activities

• Senses scavenger hunt

Meetings, Hosted events, etc.

• Girl Scouts
• Managers' meeting

Notes

• It's a whole new experience to have a week before summer reading starts, but not be doing field trips and class visits every day! I have to keep reminding myself that I have time and don't need to panic and rush.
• I want to do a new post on my summer reading program, but I've got a lot of other things on my plate, so maybe later.

This month at the library (yes, a whole month)

Columbines in my garden
(I didn't plant them there, that was their own choice)

Programs

• Paws to Read
• Family Storytime

Visiting a school class

Outreach

• High school graduating seniors
• 5K-5th grade at three elementary schools
• Blend of class visits, field trips, and hired performers.

Self-Directed Activities

Reading "Butt or Face"
to graduating seniors

• Scavenger hunts
• Read and Grow

Meetings, Hosted events, etc.

• Managers' meetings
• Birthday book club (school district)
• Head Start family night

Notes

• This year was the first time we visited the graduating seniors at high school. It's muggy and hot - next year I shall bring a fan. I read them Butt or Face (mostly it was just 50 seniors yelling BUTT at the top of their lungs, but they enjoyed themselves), talked about library resources and what kind of libraries they might use as they move forward in their lives, and then we updated and issued library cards. We need to have a second computer next time - we had two people but only one computer and it got backed up. We also gave out stickers and I need to remember to put the flyers out in the lobby with the library cards.
• 2nd grade field trip. I fell in love with Don't trust fish and I don't want to do tours b/c of our upcoming renovations, so I did a fish storytime and activity with this class, about 20 kids. I did forget to put tape down on the floor to mark out the children's area. Can't wait for renovations...
• As well as class visits and field trips (some of which had to be rescheduled b/c some people are wimps and can't handle refreshingly cool rain and wind) my staff and I organized the basement. We are not going to actually clean, due to the potential risks of what's down there, but we did wade through a lot of dirt and dust and we still have quite a few loads to haul up to the dumpsters.
• I also did some preliminary planning for next year's programming, in view of renovations and changes in the school district, and I'm working through updating the juvenile beginning chapter book collection.

cleaning basement

Picture book neighborhoods: Birds, Fiction and Nonfiction (with a mention of amphibians)

   Having finished the general animals section, I'm now moving on to the specific animal categories. I'm skipping the amphibians, cataloged as AMP, because it's a very small section of only 30 titles. The main thing to note about this section is the current popularity of axolotls. Moving on to birds!

  This is generally divided into fiction and nonfiction, with a couple popular categories (hummingbirds, raptors, and penguins) having specific call numbers. Most of this section is nonfiction and penguin books. There are currently ~120 titles in this section.

Nonfiction and Fiction Authors

• Jim Arnosky
• Thunder Birds
• All about turkeys
• Nicola Davies
• Just ducks!
• Hummingbird
• Emperor of the ice
• Maxwell Eaton
• The truth about parrots
• The truth about hawks
• Susan Richmond Edwards
• Night Owl Night
• Bird count
• Maria Gianferrari
• You and the bowerbird
• Whoo-ku Haiku
• Hawk Rising
• April Pulley Sayre
• Woodpecker Wham
• Warbler Wave
• Seagulls Soar
• Vulture view
• Honk Honk Goose
• Cathryn Sill
• About parrots
• About seabirds
• About raptors
• About hummingbirds
• About birds
• About waterfowl
• About woodpeckers
• Susan Stockdale
• Bring on the birds
• Bird show

Highlighted titles, fiction and nonfiction

• Woodpecker wants a waffle by Steve Breen
• Tiny Bird: A hummingbird's amazing journey by Robert Burleigh
• Seven little ducklings by Annette Cate
• Stinkbird has a superpower by Jill Esbaum
• Smug seagull by Maddie Frost
• Nest by Jorey Hurley
• My Happy Year by E. Bluebird by Paul Meisel
• Brave baby hummingbird by Sy Montgomery
• Crick, Crack, Crow! by Janet Lord
• Hatch! by Roxie Munro

Other titles in this neighborhood I have reviewed in the past

• Super swifts by Justin Anderson
• Keep up, duck! by Ivan and Rachel Bates
• Weird but Cute: Barn Owl by Kathryn Camisa
• When penguins cross the ice by Sharon Cooper, illustrated by Tom Leonard
• Shake a leg, egg by Kurt Cyrus
• Harold finds a voice by Courtney Dicmas
• On the wing by David Elliott
• Have you heard the nesting bird? by Rita Gray, illustrated by Kenard Pak
• Odd Egg by Emily Gravett
• Hawk Mother; Hawk Mother returns by Kara Hagedorn
• Snow birds by Kirsten Hall
• A round of robins by Katie Hesterman
• A peek at beaks: Tools birds use by Sara Levine
• Waiting for mama by Gianna Marino
• All the birds in the world by David Opie
• The beak book by Robin Page
• Tanna's owl by Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley
• Carpenter's helper by Sybil Rosen
• Little bird takes a bath by Marisabina Russo
• Hello, Crow! by Candace Savage
• Birds of a feather by Sita Singh
• The nest that wren built by Randi Sonenshine
• Hoot owl, master of surprise by Sean Taylor
• Fly! by Mark Teague
• Mama built a little nest by Jennifer Ward, illustrated by Steve Jenkins
• On Gull Beach by Jane Yolen
• Birds of a feather by Jane Yolen
• Lali's feather by Farhana Zia

This month in the collection: April 2025

What even is time? As you can see from the late date, this month was super busy and I didn't get a monthly new book spotlight out.

Library Pinterest - new materials
purchased for or added to the library collection
**not yet purchased, but it's on a list!

Board Books

• Get dressed, Belly Button by Lucie Brunellière
• Parts of us by Shannon Hale
• Where is baby's belly button? by Karen Katz
• New edition of a classic
• One-osaurus, two-osaurus by Kim Norman
• Board book edition of a great picture book read-aloud

Picture Books

• Meet the mini-mammals by Melissa Stewart
• Papilio by Ben Clanton
• One day at the bottom of the deep blue sea by Daniel Bernstrom
• Behold the chameleon by Suzanne Slade
• I love blueberries by Shannon Anderson
• Perfect nest by Catherine Friend
• I requested a Paw Prints prebind of this favorite read-aloud
• Who ate Steve? by Susannah Lloyd
• Little Blue Truck and Racer Red by Alice Schertle
• If you find a fawn by Kellie Gillis
• Great pollinator count by Susan Edwards Richmond
• Down, Down, Down a journey to the bottom of the sea by Steve Jenkins
• I requested a Paw Prints prebind of this favorite read-aloud
• The bakery dragon by Devin Elle Kurtz

Early Readers and Transitional Chapters

• Biscuit's Puppy Sleepover
• Fairy finds her song by Bea Jackson
• Bulldozer's big rescue by Elise Broach

Beginning Chapter Books

• Search for the silver shell by Robin Yardi
• Lost and found in the city by Cam Higgins

Juvenile Fiction

• The enemy's daughter by Anne Blankman
• Marshmallow and Jordan by Alina Chau
• Paw Prints prebound replacement
• Into the wild by Anh Do
• House with a dragon in it by Nick Lake
• Outsider kids by Betty Tang
• Serge & Roscoe by Len Vlahos

Juvenile Nonfiction

• Earth day and the environment by Kate Messner
• Scat by Anita Sanchez
• Fun with nature by Mel Boring
• Replacement. I always have requests for this.
• Power to the parasites by Chelsea Wood
• Purchased with a collection-specific donation
• Voices and votes: How government works in Wisconsin

Teen fiction

• Rebellion 1776 by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Love Report 3 by Beka
• Tear this down by Barbara Dee
• Resist by Alan Gratz
• Rival Darling by Alexandra Moody
• One wrong step by Jennifer Nielsen

Young Adult

• Blue Lock 17
• After life by Gayle Forman
• Block'd by Brian Hawkins
• Among serpents by Marc Gregson
• All better now by Neal Shusterman

This week at the library

Programs

• Teen homeschool hangout
• Paws to Read
• Family storytime (2 sessions)

Outreach

• Lakeland school

Self-Directed Activities

• National library week scavenger hunt
• Read and Grow
• Construction Hangout
• Open Storyroom/Construction Hangout

Meetings, Hosted events, etc.

• Managers' meeting
• Staff development day

Notes

• We're winding down programs and getting ready for field trips. I actually went on a trip this weekend and I have a week off - I'm going to focus on catching up on all my reviews, so you publishers who are waiting on me, they're coming next week!
• I'll also be posting a single monthly post for May instead of weekly posts. We will have minimal programs (just my school colleague doing a couple weeks of storytimes and Paws to Read - see adorable puppy above) and will be focusing on field trips, cleaning the basement in preparation for renovations, and getting ready for summer.

Picture Book Neighborhoods: General Animals, Fiction and Nonfiction

  I'm continuing my posts on the picture book neighborhoods, section by section. After the favorites and classics, next up is the Animals. I love nonfiction, especially science and animals, and this is a favorite section of mine. However, I will note that, especially in the picture books, Dewey numbers do NOT denote strict nonfiction vs. fiction - they are categories. There are plenty of items in the "nonfiction" Dewey numbers that are informational or that I just wanted in that section for ease of use.

  The first part of the section includes general nonfiction and fiction about animals. There are two Dewey numbers - 590 for general animals and 591 for eggs/animal babies. I've tried to make the animal fiction in this section primarily realistic, not anthropomorphic animals, although some of them do talk. I've also found that general animal books that might otherwise go in the juvenile nonfiction do better in this area. There are a couple major authors and then some specific titles I'd like to highlight.

  Some especially prolific authors have had titles weeded and not replaced and some, like Nicola Davies, had or have very popular titles that are sadly out of print. There are currently ~150 titles in this section.

Nonfiction Authors

• Jim Arnosky
• Frozen Wild
• Suzi Eszterhas
• Baby animals moving
• Baby animals playing
• Maria Gianferrari
• Terrific tongues
• Play like an animal
• Martin Jenkins
• Find out about animal tools
• Steve Jenkins
• Egg: Nature's perfect package
• Lita Judge
• Born in the wild: Baby mammals and their parents
• Jess Keating
• Cute as an axolotl
• Eat your rocks, croc!
• Pink is for blobfish
• What makes a monster?
• Melissa Stewart
• Beneath the sun
• Can an aardvark bark?
• Pipsqueaks, slowpokes, and stinkers
• Susan Stockdale
• Spectacular spots
• Stripes of all types

Fiction Authors

• Alison Lester
• Noni the pony counts to a million
• Gianna Marino
• Night animals
• Night animals need sleep too
• Il Sung Na
• Opposite zoo
• Welcome home bear
• Book of babies
• Jane Whittingham

Highlighted titles, fiction and nonfiction

• Best foot forward by Ingo Arndt
• Handa's surprise by Eileen Brown
• Oh no! by Candace Fleming
• Underground by Denise Fleming
• Eggs 1 2 3 who will the babies be? by Janet Halfmann
• I am a potato by Ziggy Hanaor
• Night creatures by Rebecca Hirsch
• Tiptoe tapirs by Han-Min Kim
• Butt or Face? by Kari Lavelle
• Daylight Starlight Wildlife by Wendell Minor
• Not your nest by Gideon Sterer
• Except Antarctica by Todd Sturgell
• Wanted: Criminals of the animal kingdom by Heather Tekavec
• What will hatch? by Jennifer Ward

Other titles in this neighborhood I have reviewed in the past

• Do fish go fishing? How animals eat by Petra Bartikova
• Glow by W. H. Beck
• Blink! by Doe Boyle
• Eye Spy by Ruth Brown
• Predator and prey by Susannah Buhrman-Deever
• Animal Superpowers! by Amy Cherrix
• What happens next? by Nicola Davies
• Open Wide! Jaw-dropping mouths of the animal world by Dr. Letizia Diamante
• Creature Features illustrated by Natasha Durley
• Sleep by Barbara Herkert
• Savanna Animals by Deborah Hodge
• Thump goes the rabbit: How animals communicate by Fran Hodgkins
• Come back, moon by David Kherdian
• What do they do with all that poo? By Jane Kurtz
• All of those babies by Mylisa Larsen
• Masters of disguise: Camouflaging Creatures and Magnificent Mimics by Marc Martin
• North and South: A tale of two hemispheres by Sandra Morris
• Animals...and their families by Barbara Nascimbeni
• Animal ABC by Marcus Pfister
• Who was here? Discovering Wild Animal Tracks by Mia Posada
• One North Star by Phyllis Root
• Animals: Here we grow! by Shelley Rotner
• I'm a hare, so there! by Julie Rowan-Zoch
• Meet my family by Laura Purdie Salas
• In Between by April Pulley Sayre with Jeff Sayre
• Run for your life! Predators and prey on the African Savanna by Lola M. Schaefer
• Snake Milker and other animal jobs by Stepanka Sekaninova and Jakub Cenki
• Solitary Animals: Introverts of the wild by Joshua David Stein
• Kay Kay's Alphabet Safari by Dana Sullivan

This week at the library

My hyacinths are doing well this year.
Do not talk to me about tulips. Or squirrels.

Programs

• Family storytime
• Homeschool Hangout - safety presentation
• Teen Advisory Board
• Family storytime
• Teen engagement

Outreach

• 1st grade Library on the Go storytimes (3 sessions)

Self-Directed Activities

• Read and Grow
• Reading scavenger hunt
• Pokemon Hangout

Meetings, Hosted events, etc.

• YS planning meeting
• Managers meeting

Notes

• What even is time? People were sick, plans were made, outreach was cancelled, field trips were scheduled.
• When I sent out field trip scheduling invites to one school I phrased it so badly that they thought I was telling them there were no field trips this year. Thankfully, one of my staff checked in with them and I still have time to schedule them. I need more sleep.
• I finished a bunch of small collection updates - juvenile magazines, Spanish, Parenting, etc. I'm still working on some other sections and getting shelves labeled and a concrete plan made for our upcoming renovations (my small part I mean, not all of it thank wombats).

This week at the library

Scilla hiding under a pot,
surrounded by even
more evil invasives
(ground elder)

Programs

• Paws to Read
• Family Storytime
• 4K annual event: Incredible insects
• Family Storytime
• Teen Engagement

Self-Directed Activities

• Read and Grow
• Book-themed scavenger hunt
• Construction Hangout

Meetings, Hosted events, etc.

• 4-H meeting
• Girl Scouts

Notes

• Our grant process is involving a lot more work than any of us had expected! So many potential changes under discussion, lots and lots of measuring, etc. We hope to have a finished plan for the public in the near future though. I'm also deep in summer planning; we don't do a lot of programs and we're certainly not doing a lot this summer, but I have a ton of small updates for our summer reading itself, school field trips to coordinate, and our very complicated desk schedule. I'm also working on a bunch of collection projects. I took Thursday "off" and we were closed Friday.
• I have not stopped blogging! I am still working on my category by category overview of the picture book neighborhoods. However, I want to link to all my past reviews and I am updating, reformatting, and transferring them to Flying Off My Bookshelf. I also have a big stack of review copies ready for reviews but, as above, I am incredibly busy. Hopefully once we get into summer things will slow down a little, but it is more likely that I won't really get a break to catch my breath until next year.

This week at the library

Chevy had a motor
that just didn't stop!

Programs

• Paws to Read
• Family Storytime (2 sessions with my associate. Bat theme)
• Sewing workshop - no attendees

Outreach

• 3K-4K outreach storytimes (5-6 sessions)

Self-Directed Activities

• Read and Grow
• Book-themed scavenger hunt to coincide with National Library Week
• Pokemon Hangout
• Homeschool Hangout

Meetings, Hosted events, etc.

• Youth department summer reading meeting
• Managers' meeting
• Staff meeting aka measuring party

Notes

• Measure, measure, measure. It was not what I would call a party, as it involved a lot of staring at diagrams, measurements, blueprints, and numbers and constantly going back and forth and measuring things. Far too much like geometry. However, I don't particularly like parties and I have had much more miserable social experiences, so there's that. It's quite a process but we hope there will be a final plan we can make public in the near future.
• I am in full swing of planning/scheduling summer so I was not really very upset that the folks who registered for sewing didn't manage to make it. My associate covered storytimes and did a marathon of outreach storytimes - our regular storytime provider, a colleague from the school, is involved in a new testing (Act 20 for those of you in WI) and getting ready for the big annual 4K party next week.

This week at the library

Programs

• Itty Bitty Bopping Bakers
• Teen Homeschool Hangout (no show)
• Paws to Read
• Family Storytime
• Teen Engagement
• Youth D&D
• Family Storytime

Outreach

• Elementary classes at Lakeland School

Self-Directed Activities

• Open Storyroom

Notes

• I was supposed to do an outreach visit on Tuesday, but I just couldn't fit it in and I needed to cover the desk instead so I had to cancel it. I took Thursday and Friday off, but came in for a meeting with our design firm for the grant committee. It was a weird week because everyone was kind of in recovery mode from spring break, we had an election on Tuesday (our local school referendum did not pass, so there will probably be a lot of changes ahead in our partnership with the school district), and I got started on summer reading projects while my staff continued shifting. With Monday being the 31st that seems to have thrown everyone off, not just us, as people showed up for meetings that are usually on the first Monday, or didn't show up, etc. It was the quietest Monday night I can remember in a long time!
• Exciting things I did on my long weekend - purchased a load of dirt, arranged all the garden pots, distributed the dirt (with help from my upstairs neighbor), cleaned things, thought about cleaning things, caught up on some reading, sorted out some boxes of miscellaneous junk, put off doing laundry.

This month in the collection: March 2025

I was still purchasing replacements and updates for the picture book neighborhoods this month, but I also jumped over into a new project in high gear; weeding our young adult fiction and creating a new middle school/young teen collection. A lot of materials purchased this month were still replacements and that will continue into April. We also had staff out and various things going on, so it was a small month as far as adding materials to the collection.

Library Pinterest - new materials
Purchased or added to the library collection, unless otherwise noted.
**not yet purchased, but it's on a list!

Board Books

• Yeah, Baby!
• Firefighter Flo by Andrea Zimmerman (board book edition)

Picture Books

• Cat's colors by Airlie Anderson
• A prebound replacement of one of my favorites.
• Crack goes the cascaron by Sara Fajardo
• This is HILARIOUS.
• Bruce saves the planet by Ryan Higgins
• Not my favorite, but a new Bruce book is always nice.
• Lily's dream by Bea Jackson
• This book bubbles over by Nora Nickum
• Wrong-time rooster by Michael Parkin
• Katy No-Pocket by Emmy Payne
• A prebound replacement of a favorite of mine.
• Hello I'm an axolotl by Hayley Rocco
• The Sioux by Virginia Sneve
• An updated and republished series. It could easily be juvenile.
• Don't eat the cleaners by Susan Stockdale
• A day on fluffyville farm by Britta Teckentrup
• A new I-spy style book - very cute.
• Alpacas here, alpacas there by Carrie Tillotson

Early Readers and Transitional Chapters

• Stop that mop by Jonathan Fenske

Beginning Chapter Books

• Emerald Egg (A to Z animal mysteries)
• Penny and the tragic voyage (Girls Survive)
• Just started moving this series to JBC.
• Bigfoot by Dinah Williams (Unsolved Mysteries - new series)
• Adrift on the Indian Ocean (Wilderness Survival - new series from Capstone)

Other

• Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
• The first "new" book in our new young teen/middle school section!