This week at the library

What's going on; in my head and at the library

• This is a shortened week because we're closed on Monday. I'm really trying not to be stressed this year. I've made a simpler summer reading program, I'm "only" doing 3 programs a week, and I've gotten two volunteers lined up to take care of summer reading on Thursday and Friday mornings so I don't have to work 10-12 hour days or simultaneously run srp and a program. Some days I feel confident and energized and Ready For Summer. Some days I can't breathe for the anxiety. Baby steps...I've been telling kids for the past 7 years that the only "rule" for summer reading is to HAVE FUN. So why am I not having fun?
• This is the first year I've let people sign up early for summer reading. I'm hoping this gets a better turnout, means we don't lose those folks who go on vacation as soon as school ends, and cuts down on the crazy first day of summer reading registration. I also used class lists to sign up the 180 kids who visited the library this week. We signed up about 20 kids on Tuesday, so that was a good start!
• This week is also when my school visits start in earnest. All the titles I booktalk (my school visits are basically orgies of booktalking) can be found here on the library's Pinterest page.
• Apart from the school visits, this week's big project was cleaning out the storyroom storage closet. I worked on it basically all week! I still need some more shelves - will wait to see what the circulation staff don't want after their workroom is reorganized in the near future. I also took out two old wooden shelves and repurposed them for the juvenile video games.
• The weather kind of made the school visits weird. I rarely have kids come to see me, but I had two big groups who wanted to. We had to reschedule the third graders twice and the second graders ended up coming for two hours because their tour of town got rained out. I added summer reading and the first grade scavenger hunt to stretch things out.
• The third graders finally made it on Thursday. This was a group effort - one of our staff covered the information desk and Jess supervised butterfly mask decorating and scavenger hunts. Meanwhile, I booktalked, promoted summer reading, and held my own against the flood of kids desperate to touch the shiny books. We figured out we need a scavenger hunt for 3rd graders - I had a mix of the 1st grade and my 5th/6th ones, and neither was quite what we needed. Anyways, even if I am overly perfectionist, the kids and teachers had a great time and are already planning to come back next year.
• Even if not all the sixth graders listen (or come back and do summer reading) I am still reaching people - even if it's just the teachers! Some were very excited to find out about class cards, so they don't rack up fines during the school year.

Some Projects Completed/In Progress This Week

• Cleaned out storyroom closet

Programs

• West Side 3rd grade field trip (4 classes) (divided with Jess)
• Tibbets 2nd grade community walk (3 classes) (divided with Jess)
• EAMS sixth grade (1 team, approx. 100 students)

Ongoing and New Stealth Programs and Displays

• 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten
• Summer Reading
• Display: Heroes of the Ancient World
• Middle School Madness: Guess the Superhero

What the kids are reading; A Selection

• Haven't seen these two in a while, but they wanted WWII books that they hadn't read and mysteries/Harry Potter read-alikes for a long trip. Fortunately, since they hadn't been in in a while, I had some new WWII books - the young reader's edition of Atkinson's D-Day, Pure Grit, and The Boys Who Challenged Hitler. We looked at a lot of other things for mysteries/Harry Potter read-alikes and she ended up with about 10 books.
• Heroes of Olympus
• One of my sixth graders came back with his mom after I visited today - a high lexile reader and we spent a lot of time figuring out what he could/should read and whether or not his lexile was going to get so high there was nothing he COULD read. I showed him some teen books he might like and then he hung out with another middle schooler, who helps me out after school a lot, while his mom and I talked.
• Booktalking notes
• As I expected, Roller Girl and the new colorized Babysitter's Club are going to be HUGE. I should have bought more than one copy.
• Also lots of excitement for the true I Survived backstories
• Unexpected, but very welcome, teacher interest for Castle Hangnail. That always ramps up the kids' interest
• One class had just read Frindle and so was very interested in Map Trap
• Lots of 3rd graders knew Ellie McDoodle - both boys and girls! and are absolutely thrilled that the author is coming to visit!

The glory that is my reorganized storyroom.

I used to have a shelf against the wall and a bunch of stuff crammed back here. Alas, no more. The tape of NO has been administered.

But I'm still allowed to keep my kleenex box stash behind the roof access ladder

Top shelf - Pattie's toys and birthday bags
1st shelf - aprons, tubs, containers for messy programs, bubbles, glue, and water (because I have no sink)
2nd shelf - the red totes hold staplers, tape, hole punches, big scissors, and duct tape. The large container has mixed sand
3rd shelf - the blue tub holds chalk, the green pots hold paint brushes, then comes colored masking tape, glue, and colored sand
4th shelf - paint
5th shelf - paper goods (plates etc.), snacks, and a box of a gazillion little paper pads donated by an insurance company

The giant tubs hold the balls for the baby ball pit
The drawers hold our puppets

The bags hold bells, shakers, a parachute, and bubble wands.
I would like to have another shelf here, so this space isn't wasted, but Pattie's giant water toy does take up a lot of space

Yes, we need a stool to reach the top of this, even me
the tubs on the very top have all our fabric paint and markers, because they're used rarely, then a lot of misc. stuff, beads, then markers and crayons and other stuff.

The tubs and dishpans include various things from craft supplies, glitter, bleeding art tissue paper, stickers, and popsicle sticks to misc. supplies (stencils, iron) down to Pattie's small toys and our tablecloths (i.e. old sheets)

The complete view

These are the two shelves that were in the storage room - one where the yellow tape is, one in the cleared space. I put them under the bulletin board and moved our games onto them so now the kids can reach the games and we have a new display space.