American Girl Tea Party & More Events

Lately I've been busy getting ready for the American Girl Tea Party. It will be on Saturday, April 14 at 11 a.m. for kids ages 3+. At the party, kids will do crafts, paint pictures, play a spice guessing game, and enjoy a little luncheon: sandwiches, fruit, yogurt, cookies, tea, and juice. Kids can dress up and bring their dolls if they want. Please register if you're interested!

I've also been busy planning out the summer reading program. This year, the theme is Reading Is So Delicious, and we're going to have a lot of really fun food-related programs - and a bunch of free food! There will be an Iron Chef program, S'mores & Stories, Food Stacking & Building, and much more. Stay tuned for more details on that as we get closer to June.

So Many Books! So Little Time!

The book order I mentioned last week has arrived, and I had placed so many holds on those books that now I'm not sure how I'm going to get them all read! I'm still finishing up my Rebecca Caudills (I've read 16, working on 2 more, and I have the last two on reserve) and I have lots of really delicious-looking books for teens on my to-read pile. Among them are Everybody Sees the Ants by A. S. King, The Always War by Margaret Peterson Haddix, Legend by Marie Lu, and Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet. And I have barely even started thinking about the Bluestems, though I'd like to get most if not all of those read as well. Plus, I've just discovered David Baldacci - I'm working on his newest novel, Zero Day, right now.

Too bad I won't have a ton of time to read this weekend - I'm going to see the Hunger Games movie! Who else is going? If you've seen it already, tell me what you think.

Busier and Busier

I feel like I'm catapulting into springtime with all the stuff that's happening here at the library! First, I've been really busy preparing this Saturday's Hunger Games party. It's at 11 a.m. for tween & teens who have read the books. We're giving away lots of prizes and we will have cool activities and snacks. Registration is a must!

I'm also planning out April's American Girl Tea Party (April 14), the Library Luau on May 12, and of course the 8-week summer reading program starting on June 4. On top of that, I've been getting a lot of special requests for books outside our local system since Champaign and Urbana got their own computer software, so that takes up a lot of time... and I've been trying to learn new songs and flannelboard routines for my weekly storytimes and lap times to keep them fresh. Phew!

I'm also working on ordering some new books so we have cool shiny things for people to check out when they come in for the programs. Let me know if there's something new and interesting for kids that caught your eye, and I will try to add it in.

The Value of Storytime

Storytime is more than just a way to entertain preschoolers for 45 minutes! Reading to small children helps them develop six very important skills that help them later on when they are learning how to read. The six skills are:

• Print Motivation: Kids are interested in and enjoy books. That's why I try to make storytime as fun as possible!
• Print Awareness: Kids know how books work (the way you hold them and turn the pages) and understand that print has meaning. Sometimes while I'm reading I point to the print as I read each word. It helps the kids make the connection between the words and the marks on the page.
• Vocabulary: Picture books can contain some great big words! I really like the Fancy Nancy books because they have big words AND definitions in the text.
• Letter Knowledge: Kids learn that every letter looks different and stands for a different sound. Alphabet books are great for this skill.
• Phonological Sensitivity: Kids learn to distinguish the small sounds (called phonemes) that make up words. Books and songs that rhyme help develop this skill.
• Narrative skills: kids learn how a story works, and can guess what might happen next in the story.

Parents can develop all these skills at home while reading to their children - but of course we love to see you at storytimes!