Children

Bonding

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The after school regulars at the library have been a bit rambunctious lately. Suffice it to say that a paper airplane zoomed across the children’s room on Thursday (this is where my experience teaching comes in handy: I boomed out in my best teacher’s voice, “Zachary! Here! NOW!!” and confiscated the airplane from the culprit), and that I’ve practically worn myself out getting up from my desk and asking the kids to quiet down. Not a role that I relish or desire. Time to explore alternate techniques.

So on Friday I channeled my inner Mom. My mom, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, was an extraordinary teacher who instilled her philosophy of teaching and learning in all three of her children. On Friday, wearing the silver ring that she made for me years ago (I save the ring for special occasions, since the edges are getting softer by the year, wearing down, I fear, to nothing at all), I approached the situation as I imagined that she would. When the boys came into the children’s room from school, I greeted them and asked them how their day was, what their plans were for the weekend. Zachary (not his real name) came over to chat with me, and got intrigued by the toy catalog I was looking at. I explained that I was looking through it to pick out summer reading prizes, and he shyly asked if he could help. Next thing I knew, Zach was behind my desk, looking through the catalog, saying, “Hey! That’s cool! Buy that!”. So I talked to him about my budget, and that I can’t afford any prizes that cost more than thirty-five cents each. “Wow,” he said, and then he focused on finding prizes for me that were in my budget.

And he did a great job. For the next twenty minutes or so, Zach and two others from the after school gang clustered around my desk giving me prize advice. They found prizes that I hadn’t noticed, and they were quiet and respectful the whole time. Eventually I gave them a gentle five minute warning, because I needed to get some other work done, and they happily wrapped up their prize advice session and moved on to quietly work on their homework at the chairs by my desk. When the others had left for the day, Zachary asked me to help with the bits of his homework that he didn’t understand, and I guided him towards how to find the answers (that teaching experience again).

At the end of the day, as Zach and I were saying goodbye, I told him that he had been an example of exemplary behavior (did he know what that meant? it meant that he had been really good and a pleasure to be around) and that I really appreciated it. We’re buddies now, and I spent less time talking to him on Friday than I had on the other days of the week when I’d been reprimanding him. Way to go, Mom. You were totally right that kids need and want structure, and that it’s important to remember that attention is attention, whether it be rewarding good behavior or disciplining bad behavior. Far better to reward that good behavior, you used to tell me, and create a cycle of happy interactions. Wise advice.

Spare time - Culture

Weekend

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A typical weekend in the life of a children’s librarian:

– met my friend Gayle at Daniela’s for a yummy dinner and catching up – decided to forgo El Presidente in favor of a Dos Equis (no need to put a DUI on my record)

– watched “The Pursuit of Happyness” after dinner

– took a field trip to Hutchins Farm to buy some bedding plants (Hutchins has the best bedding plants anywhere – it must be their organic growing methods) and to revisit one of my favorite spots in the whole world, looking out over their fields towards the Concord River

– ripped the vinyl siding off of the living room side of the house; or, at least, helped Jim rip it off and stack it

– measured for a new living room window, and took a trip to Concord Lumber to order the window

– weeded and mulched our perennial beds. Much as I dislike mulch, I hate weeding even more. Lesser of two evils.

– had cocktails on our front steps, enjoying the soon-to-be-demolished view of the derelict building next door

– took a walk down to the village, and made a spontaneous decision to go see “The Nerd” at Theatre III (they did a great job, and it was a fun evening)

– scoured the house and did the laundry; Mother’s Day is next weekend, and we’ve invited Jim’s mom to brunch

– paid those bills that have been sitting around

– wrote this blog entry while getting my second migraine of the day (blame all typos and grammatical inconsistencies on my inability to see)

– reading? Did I do any reading? Isn’t that what a good children’s librarian does in her free time? Hmmm, let’s see: I read the bills, and the playbill for “The Nerd,” and the bank statements; I read the Integrity by Marvin window catalog; and I read my reminder post-its stuck above the kitchen sink as I washed the dishes. As for books, can’t say that I’ve touched a book other than to dust around them. Life is so short, and it’s really hard to sit still on the weekends to read a book when I sit still all day every day at work. Does that make me a bad children’s librarian? I sure hope not.

Library events

Inauguration: Scott Jameson

Last night was a big night: the first event (other than the dedication ceremony, of course) in the new, gorgeous Volunteers Hall.  More than one hundred kids and adults packed into the room, settled into the comfy chairs, and enjoyed the show put on by Scott Jameson.  Scott’s show is a really cool blend of magic, acrobatic feats, audience participation, and a bit of humor.  Mary (the library director) was sitting next to me, and kept shaking her head and saying that she had never seen such a great performer at any of our library events.  What amazed me more than anything was that Scott was able to hold the interest of everyone in the group, from age two or three all the way up to a couple of grandparents who attended.  Without question, absolutely everyone who attended had a great time.  (And the one baby in the crowd slept through the whole show, despite the applause and music and laughter.)

This will be a hard act to follow, but I suspect that it was just the first of many, many great events in Volunteers Hall.  Thanks to Scott for the great show, to the local Cultural Council for providing a grant for part of the event, and to the Friends of the library for funding the remainder.

Library events

Last Call

Thursday evening the library is hosting “Magic by Scott Jameson,” a show that promises to be tons of fun and totally involving.  Space is filling up very fast, but there are still a few slots available.  This will be the first performance in the truly incredible Volunteer’s Hall in the new library, a room which can comfortably seat ninety people, and which is climate controlled.  A far far cry from the facilities in the old building; it was difficult to squeeze thirty people into the old room, and it was torturously hot in that old space in the summer time.

Check out Scott’s website to see a video of one of his performances:  www.scottjameson.com

And thanks to the local Cultural Council and the Friends of the library for funding this event!

Librarianship

What to do?

When I was a kid, the after school hours worked a bit differently than they do now.  My mom didn’t work outside the home (except for a part-time gig for a few years teaching at a preschool), so most afternoons she was home when I got off the bus.  We had a big back yard bordering on woodlands, so I could go outside after grabbing a snack and run around and play with the neighborhood kids (or by myself) while Mom did her thing inside.  On the days that Mom wasn’t home when I got off the bus, I’d sit on the front steps and wait for her.

Things are a bit different now, obviously.  A lot more moms work full-time and can’t be home to greet the school bus when it arrives.  And every day there are scary stories about kids being abducted from their driveways or streets or yards – those woodlands of my childhood home would look a lot more sinister to a parent today than they did to my mom, and sitting alone on the front steps just wouldn’t be safe anymore.

Because times have changed, there are kids who can’t go home after school, and end up spending their afternoons in the local library waiting for their parents to finish work.  These are great kids; I’ve gotten to know a lot of them in the town where I work, and they are smart and interesting and creative.  But they’re also kids, who have been sitting in school all day and who are itching to do something beside SIT and be QUIET all afternoon.  I don’t blame these kids one bit – when I was a kid, I needed to run and be active after a long day of education.  And I don’t blame their parents, either – Jim and I keep delaying parenthood because we can’t imagine how we could afford it, even with both of us working full time.  But the fact is that the library needs to be a quiet place for the people who go there to study and research.  So what to do?

We’ve been running a Thursday afternoon game hour, run by teen volunteers, that has become pretty popular.  It’s a good outlet to be kind of loud and have fun playing games in a safe atmosphere.  So there’s an hour on Thursday taken care of.  On most Tuesdays I run book groups, but those are grade specific (the fifth grade group meets only once a month, and so on), and let’s face it, book groups are still a bit like school.  But at least they’re fairly popular.  So there’s Tuesday afternoons taken care of, as best I can.

But what of Wednesday and Friday afternoons?  The library closes at five on both days, so any activity I add would have to be finished up by 4:30 or 4:45.  Mondays I have a bit more leeway, since we’re open until nine.  And there’s also the issue of staffing, since I really do have other tasks that I need to be accomplishing besides running programs: I need to order books, I need to assist patrons who need help finding books, I need to plan storytimes and coordinate volunteers, and any number of other tasks.  Mary tells me that we have been gifted a soccer ball, which we could “check out” for kids to use on the front lawn; maybe we need to invest in a few other basic pieces of sports equipment, like a frisbee and a football, that could also be loaned out.  I’m not really sure what the solution is, but would like to spend less of my time “speaking to” kids who are really good people, just in need of some structuring of their free time.

Children's book reviews, Young adult book review

Reading Update

This was a tough week – long exhausting days – and I didn’t get much reading done.  Though I had been excited about it, I finally gave up on Keturah and Lord Death midway into the book.  There is something about Leavitt’s use of language that annoyed and frustrated me: she was aiming to create an atmosphere of lords and ladies and Black Death and the poor farming folk in the village, but the atmosphere became too heavy-handed and self-conscious by about the fiftieth page, and I just had to stop reading.  Blech.  What a disappointment.  [It should be noted that I rarely give up on books; I’m more likely to keep with a bummer of a book through to the bitter end, complaining loudly the whole way about how much I dislike it.]

Tuesday was the fifth grade book group, and we discussed Larklight by Philip Reeve.  I thoroughly enjoyed Larklight, but wasn’t sure how the melding of Victorian England culture and space travel and colonization would sit with the kids.  For the most part, the kids enjoyed the book, but they did struggle with the idea that the British could have had colonies all over the galaxy if they had had the technology to travel through space back in the Victorian era.  We talked a lot about suspension of disbelief, about finding the bits in the plot that work to tie everything together, and about why the prissy, overly feminine character of Myrtle makes sense for the times.  We also discussed whether it’s necessary to always like the characters in a book, or if, in fact, things get more interesting if you don’t like some of the characters.

And surprisingly, the kids in the book group weren’t very impressed with the packet we received from Andrew Clements.  Back in October, each kid in the book group had written Clements a letter, which I packed up and mailed with a cover letter talking about the kids and their discussion of Room One: A Mystery or Two.  Clements very graciously answered back with a personalized form letter complimenting the kids on their letters, a signed and personalized bookmark for each child in the group, a bookmark for me, and even a note to me that says:  “To Abby Kingsbury, a librarian who loves good books almost as much as she loves the children she shares them with.”  I love what Clements sent, and plan on framing my portion of it to hang in my office; hopefully the kids were more excited about it than they let on.  At least they now want to write to some more authors!  (Suzanne Collins probably will be the first choice.)

And that’s the update for this week.  Next Tuesday is the 6th through 8th grade book group, and we’ll be discussing Jennifer Roy’s Yellow Star and Julius Lester’s Day of Tears.

Children, Teaching

One of those great moments

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Thursday night, while tutoring A________ on one of the more difficult phonological concepts, I had one of those great moments that make teaching worthwhile.  A________, a third grader who had been totally confused and frustrated by schwa when taught it in school, excitedly declared mid-lesson: “I get it!  I understand schwa!”  And then, a bit later in the lesson, she looked up from her dictation page and said, “Thank you for teaching me about schwa,” then ducked her head and shyly added, “thank you for teaching me.”

Summer reading

New and Cool

On Wednesday, Maureen came from the Central Region to show me (and Lisa) how to use the really cool new summer reading computerized logging system.  In the past, kids always kept track of their hours spent reading by coloring in clock faces on a paper log.  Then they’d bring their logs in to the library to show to a librarian and receive the appropriate prizes.  This new software works on the same priniciple, but makes everyone’s lives easier:  kids can go to their local library’s website and follow a link to set up an account; once their account is set up, the kids can log in their hours read on the computer and the software will figure out what prizes they have earned; and then the kids can visit the library and talk to a librarian, who can access each child’s account from the library end of things, recording what prizes have been picked up, etc.

There are a few great reasons why I like this software.  First of all, at the end of the summer I can generate much more accurate reports than I was able to do previously, including exactly how many kids participated in the summer reading program, how much time participants spent reading, and the age distribution of participants.  Also, the software has a nifty feature built in that asks kids to write reviews of the books that they have read.  The reviews can be anonymous, and I can moderate the reviews to ensure that proper language and decorum are used, and the reviews are accessible to all participants.  It’s a nice way for kids to share with other kids what they’ve enjoyed reading, and it’s quite useful for me to see what kids are really interested in reading.

In addition, if kids go away for part of the summer, and have access to a computer while they’re away, it will be quite easy for them to keep track of their summer reading without worrying about lost paper logs (I can’t tell you how many logs get lost or mutilated over the course of the summer).  And, for those kids who either prefer to use the paper logs or are too young to happily make use of the computerized feature, we will still have the paper logs available, and we librarians can enter the information into the system for them.  Best of all, the software can be set up to automatically figure out prizes earned, making for a smoother summer for the library staff (it can be a bit overwhelming to calculate prizes while a group of six kids jostles for position in front of the desk).

Thanks to Maureen for discovering this software and for being willing to come out to the library to train us in how to use it!  I can’t wait to see how much easier this will make everyone’s lives this summer!

Etc.

Perspective

So I’m sitting here watching Idol Gives Back (as I’ve mentioned many times before, I’m an American Idol addict, big time), and feeling immensely guilty at the cush life I lead.  The library I work for is located in an idyllic, very wealthy, small country town, and despite long hours of work, I am comfortable and happy and fed and sheltered.  The images on the television right now are of sick children and adults, people living in illness and poverty, in conditions that no one should endure.  These orphaned children in Africa have so much more to worry about than the many children I see over the course of a day: not just what grades they’re getting, or the intricacies of the fifth grade social strata, but the most basic worries of surviving.  And then there are the children in New Orleans and Kentucky who seem to genuinely understand the value of reading and learning.

Am I doing enough for the world?  Am I contributing enough?  What more can I do?  Surely I could bring more to the world.  At the moment all I can think of is partnering with a library in a less privileged part of this country, but I’d like to do more.

Children's literature, Spare time - Culture

I can’t wait to read…

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Here are some of the books in my to-be-read pile on the coffee table:

Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

This looks like a great read-in-one-sitting, totally engrossing book.

The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean

I picked this one up at my favorite used bookstore, The Barrow Bookstore (see link at right) – they are fabulous because they have so many brand-new, recently published books for sale.

The Dragon of Never-Was by Ann Downer

This is for next week’s fourth grade book group.

Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost by Cornelia Funke

Patrons have been raving about this series of books by the author of The Thief Lord.  Many patrons have commented that they especially love the book on CD versions, because the reader is so good.

Dreadful Sorry by Kathryn Reiss

I loved Blackthorn Winter, which we read for the last teen book group, and can’t wait to devour this thriller by the same author.

What’s in your to-be-read pile?  I’d love to hear what is tempting you!

Reflections on children, literature, libraries, and life…and cats.