The Children's room has recently added 30 LAUNCHPADS to our collection!  They are self contained, handheld tablets, preloaded with educational and entertaining apps.  They are easy to use and ready to play!

Made by the makers of Playaway, they are appropriate for children age 3 up to Grade 5.  They may be borrowed for 7 days, one Launchpad per library card.  

Color copies of the Launchpad titles  can be found on the display bookcase in the children's room.  The apps are grouped by subject area and age.  Ten apps per tablet. 

No internet, so they are 100% secure with no risk of exposure to unintended content.  Each tablet is a new adventure!

                      Here is a list of our Launchpad titles

Our summer reading club was a big success with hundreds of registered readers who enjoyed a host of lively programs and events including storytimes, Craft Buddies, movies, live animal shows, science and museum programs, yoga and fitness classes, baby and toddler sing-alongs, a visit from Ronald McDonald, comedy jugglers, and of course, Summertales with Mr.B!  A performance by Music for Aardvarks and two Lasermania shows closed out the summer!  Thank you to everyone for your participation and support of the reading program.

  Enjoy the following pictures from our summer of fun!

 

 

 

The children's summer programs at the library are coming to a close!  

Tickets are still available for LAZERMANIA, our summer reading club closing party.  There will be two shows, at 3:00pm and 4:30pm.  Come down and pick up your free tickets!

The Babies-Read-To-Me closing party will be held at 10am on Tuesday, August 11th, for all of our babies that participated in the reading club.  Tickets are still available.

 

The Children's Book Council is now honoring the best "Mathical" books for  children! Mathical: Books for Kids from Tots to Teens recognizes popular math-related fiction and nonfiction for very young children through   teenagers.  These books are recognized by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute and the Children's Book Council as outstanding books that inspire young readers to approach math in an inviting way.  Best of all, no text books!  Below are two of the 2015 winners.  For more information and  the complete list of winners, follow this link to the Inaugural Mathical List.

                                ZERO THE HERO by Joan Holub

                                

Poor Zero is having a hard time proving himself as a superhero.  Folks mistake him for a doughnut, and the rules of addition and subtraction render him useless.  But when our hero disappears, things get rough in the number world.  Math lovers and math phobic will enjoy the visual jokes and graphic elements in this humorous tale.

                          BLOCKHEAD - THE LIFE OF FIBONACCI

                                            by Joseph D'Agnese

                                      

This entertaining biography of Fibonacci will engage children and adults alike.  Who was he?  Fascinated by numbers, Leonardo Fibonacci was a daydreaming boy in Medieval Italy who found something to count everywhere, earning him the nickname Blockhead.  As an adult, he worked out a math problem that involved reproducing rabbits and he discovered a pattern that repeats itself in nature! This was later dubbed The Fibonacci Sequence, making him one of the greatest mathematicians of his time. The illustrations help to re-create a medieval setting, while the last page lists things to find in the pictures, as well as activities to reinforce his concepts. 

    

New Books for Spring!

FLOWERS ARE CALLING by Rita Gray

A new book from the same team that brought us  Have You Heard The Nesting Bird? " Flowers are calling a little black bear. No, not a bear!  He doesn't care.  They're calling a butterfly to dip from the air."  In rhyming text, Rita Gray shares the beauty of natural cooperation between plants, animals, and insects.  Flowers depend on winged visitors to spread their pollen to insure that they thrive, and winged pollinators depend on flowers for food.  The illustrator Ken Pak provides a luminous close-up of each flower, inviting children to take a closer look.  Ages 4-8.

THE BEE WHO SPOKE by Al MacCuish

"Once upon a time in the great city of Paris, near Rue Saint-Rustique in the 18th arrondissement, there lived a girl named Belle. " On Belle's family's annual summer holiday in the French countryside, Belle pedals off into the countryside, where she meets the title's bee.  The talking bee teaches her about the wonders of the natural world, the way bees pollinate flowers so that humans can eat delicious food, and the symphony of all of nature working together. The illustrations by Rebecca Gibbon reinforce the originality of this fantasy-and-nonfiction book. A list of "delicious foods" needing bee pollination is appended. The environmentalist message makes it a nice picture book  for older readers. 

WHEN YOU NEED A FRIEND by Suzanne Chiew

Badger helps his friends prepare their homes for a storm, but runs out of time to protect his own home.  When the storm has passed, his animal friends offer him a place to stay while they band together to help him rebuild.  Children will enjoy the soft detailed illustrations by Caroline Pedler.  A classic tale of friendship, teamwork, and community.  For Ages 3-7.

Winter Reading Club 2015!

OLAF thinks reading is COOOL... so do Elsa and Anna and all their friends!  If you like to read, why not sign up for our Winter Reading Club and read, read, read for fun and prizes?

Beth and Scott and friends will be here on Sunday, January 25 at 2 pm to help us kickoff the festivities.  Tickets for this live performance will be available beginning

 Monday, January 12 @ 10 am .  All ages.

Pick up a Reading Record Chart and a FROZEN themed bookmark at the Children's Desk beginning January 25th.  Read as many books as you can, record the titles on your chart and submit the chart by February 13 to receive a goody bag, raffle ticket and an invitation to the closing party on Sunday, February 22 @ 2 pm.