Upcoming Movies From Books

Click on each movie title for more information.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants II

August 8th Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist October 3rd City of Ember October 10 (not a book, but it'll be a big deal) High School Musical 3: Senior Year October 24th Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince July 17th Twilight November 21st The Tale of Despereaux December 19th Inkheart January 30th Coraline February 6th Other movies that have no release date but have been "announced" are as follows... 2008-- Ender's Game, Flipped, A Great and Terrible Beauty, H.I.V.E., Larklight, Stargirl, Uglies 2009-- The Alchemyst: Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel; The Amulet of Samarkand; The Book Thief; Cirque du Freak; The Fantastic Mr. Fox; Everlost; The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp; Peter and the Starcatchers; Peter Pan in Scarlet; Ramona; The Secret Diary of Adrain Mole; The Subtle Knife; The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle; Where the Wild Things Are 2010-- Alice in Wonderland; Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader; Diary of a Wimpy Kid; The Great Gilly Hopkins; Guardians of Ga'Hoole; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1; Here Be Monsters; Maximum Ride; New Moon; Septimus Heap: Magyk; The Sisters Grimm 2011-- Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair; The Giver; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 For a full list of upcoming movies based on books: Check IMDB here.

Storytime: Sports

I was requested to provide teamwork/"always strive to do your best" books for older kids (grades 3-5). I put the books, not in the order I read them, but based on how well they were received by the group.


 
Wilma Unlimited
by Kathleen Krull and pictures by David Diaz





Miss Nelson Has a Field Day 
by Harry G. Allard and pictures by James Marshall


 
JoJo's Flying Side Kick
by Brian Pinkney


 
Little Granny Quarterback
by Bill Martin, Jr. and Michaek Sampson
and pictures by Michael D. Chesworth



Salt in His Shoes 
by Deloris Jordan and Roslyn M. Jordan
and pictures by Kadir Nelson

Storytime: Wonders of Nature

I'm doing storytime for Parks and Rec this summer (older kids, grades 3-5).  This week they requested "The Wonders of Nature", which is very vague.  So, I kind of went for animals and crazy weather.

 
Is A Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is? 
by Robert E. Wells
(Not a hit in the park in the summer. So I switched it for the second group to my next book.)




Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
by Judith Barrett and pictures by Ron Barrett
(For being so long, they listened really well.)


 
Actual Size
by Steve Jenkins


 
A Frog in the Bog
by Karma Wilson and pictures by Joan Rankin
(One kid rolled his eyes, "Not a rhyming book!" But they were all attentive once I got into it.)


 
A Zooful of Animals 
edited by William E. Cole and pictures by Lynn Munsinger
(Excerpts from this one. Not nearly enough time for the whole thing.)

An Oldie But a Goodie

Today, I could not remember how to pronounce Tomie de Paola's name, so I looked it up on the web. Lo and behold, I ran across one of my favorite articles from my Resources for Children course in my MLIS program. Could Jon Scieszka be any funnier? Here is the classic Horn Book article, "Reader's Reqeust, or, You Asked for It" by Jon Scieszka

Brightening Your Day

My apologies for not posting in awhile. I've been on vacation.

As a fan of both libraries and Star Wars, this absolutely made my day.


Here's Live Oak Public Library's "Star Wars" Program Photo Set on Flickr.

Storytime: Flowers and Things That Grow

Great springtime stories for preschoolers.

Fran's Flower
by Lisa Bruce and pictures by Rosalind Beardshaw
( I love this one, and so do the kids.)



One Little Seed
by Elaine Greenstein



Up, Down, and Around
by Katherine Ayres and pictures by Nadine Bernard Westcott



Counting in the Garden
by Kim Parker



Max Loves Sunflowers
by Ken Wilson-Max
(Another favorite. The preschool teachers were really impressed by this one. It has moving parts, and the kids loved when Max and the pig were dancing-- they even danced along.)



Songs:

This is the Way We Plant Our Seeds

This is the way we plant our seeds,
plant our seeds, plant our seeds.
This is the way we plant our seeds,
so early in the morning.

This is the way the rain falls down,
rain falls down, rain falls down,
This is the way the rain falls down,
so early in the morning.

(Other verses)
This is the way the sun shines bright
This is the way the wind does blow
This is the way we hoe the soil
This is the way the seeds grow up
This is the way we pick the beans


Fingerplay--
A Little Sun

A little sun
(arms up in a circle for the sun)
A little rain
(fingers mimic rain)
And then we pull up weeds
(pulling motions)
Our flowers grow all in a row
(hold up all ten fingers)
From tiny little seeds
(show how small the seeds are)

Web Browser for Autistic Kids

I ran across this AP article by Brian Bergstein today. Grandfather builds Web browser for autistic boy Basically, it's about a web browser that was created especially for autistic children to help simplify the web experience. But really, I think this would help any child. The majority of web pages are poorly designed, and for anyone using the web for the first time it's like learning an entirely new way of reading. Simply learning how to click on a link is difficult. For example, on this page alone anything with blue letters is a link, but so are some of the pictures (but, not all of the pictures). We are so steeped in the web, that we forget how hard it was to learn. Every time I help a child with research or finding pictures on the web I am amazed by how much they don't see or don't understand. Simple skills like scrolling down the page, are just something they have never encountered or never been taught. In general, I think librarians need to be assisting patrons more with learning this new information literacy. The anyone-can-do-this attitude leads people to settle for low quality information, and there is so much fantastic content out there that they are missing. Browsers and browser add-ons are underutilized resources in libraries. I wish I knew more about programming myself because I would love to create kid and research friendly browsers. Wouldn't it be amazing if your library had a catalog search right next to the google search on public access computers? Or tabs accessing news and databases right under your patrons noses? Ah, to dream (and to have a team of programmers at my disposal)! Until that day comes, you might find this Zac Browser to be useful on library computers, or simply a recommended resource for concerned parents. More information and the download is available at http://www.zacbrowser.com/.