Kid knitting

You may already be aware that there is knitting going on at Marshall Lane.  It is the brain child of the lovely woman who is responsible for the blog My Material Life.  She's also a mom at our school.  She approached me some time ago to find out if I'd be interested in helping with a knitting class that she wanted to launch.  Of course I was game to be a helper and I let her do all the footwork to get it going.  She's done an amazing job!  Today was the third day of class and I've been enjoying it immensely!  We've got 23 kids in the class (nearly twice the original limit we intended!) and they've been great.  The first week we showed them how to make toilet paper roll knitting nancies and got them started on knitting long tubes.  This was an instant success.  They have been bringing their projects to school and inspiring other kids to make their own toilet paper roll knitters!

The second week we introduced them to needles.  Colleen put together project bags for all the kids and gave them a pattern I wrote to knit a small coin purse.  This project will teach them how to cast on, garter stitch, make a button hole, cast off, weave in ends, sew up seems, and attach a button.  These are a lot of skills for a beginning knitter.  Turns out, 8-10 year olds need lots of one on one instruction to get the hang of knitting and I was afraid that some of the kids left the class pretty frustrated.  But a few caught on.  And the best part, some went home and got help from their mothers and grandmothers.  It made me really happy to hear that some of the kids were giving their mothers and grandmothers the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience.

After last week's session, Colleen and I talked about how we could clear some of the stumbling blocks the kids were having so we started our session with a story to get us all in the mood.  I read Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen and showed them the picture of the author and illustrator with the finger mustaches that I made for them.  Then we split into small groups, gave some intensive one on one instruction, and we had a lot more clicking this week.  We used the old verse for teaching kids to knit:

In through the front door
Run around the back
Out through the window
And off jumps Jack.

One girl was having a hard time getting her head around the 'Out through the window' part.  I pointed to the loop between her needle tips and said, "That's your window.  The tip of your needle goes through there." And that's all it took!  It clicked for her and she was off to the races!  She was so pleased with herself.  Most of the kids had this kind of 'A-ha!' moment today and it was very satisfying.  I look forward to seeing the kids progress and help them improve their skills.

New Books and wonky formating

 

 

 

 

 

New Books from Junior Library Guild!  Come check them out from the library!

"I have seen my hat." - Bear

You may remember back in January, I wrote about a new book called Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen.  It is such a delightful book and has become a big hit in the knitting community, especially among knitting librarians.  The library will be getting a copy from Junior Library Guild this month.  Actually, I will also be donating my old copy to the library because now I have a new copy signed by both the author and the illustrator!  Mr. Barnett and Mr. Klassen visited Hicklebee's today.  They took turns reading books and holding books.  Mr. Barnett read his hilarious book Guess Again!, then Mr. Klassen read I Want My Hat Back (squeeee!), and finally Mr. Barnett read Extra Yarn.  Here's some pictures of the action (you can see Miss Valerie in the first picture):

After the reading, Mr. Barnett explained how books are made.  It was very enlightening!  I had no idea that pirates and fire breathing sea monsters were involved in the book making process.  We also learned that the Pacific Ocean is made of Mac Barnett's tears.  Later, while taking questions from the audience, Mr. Klassen revealed the true fate of the rabbit in I Want My Hat Back.  But I won't say it here because that's not my question to answer.  All I can say is that your worst fears have probably come true.

Afterwards, Mr. Barnett and Mr. Klassen signed books and I had decided - as soon as I found out they were coming to Hicklebee's - that I would bring them a gift made from some of my extra yarn.  So last night I made them each a finger mustache.  Here's a picture:

You may also remember how I was inspired to make Bear's pointy hat.  Well, I also decided it would be fun to give that hat to Jon Klassen to thank him for writing such a fun book.  Also it would be fun to see it on his head:

Turns out is was super fun!  I'm absolutely delighted! Thanks again, Hicklebee's!  And thank you Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett for writing and illustrating (not respectively) such wonderful books!

Hey kids!  Be sure to check out the Brixton Brothers mysteries by Mac Barnett at the library.  They are hilarious!

Mythology and Fairytales

I'd like to tell you about two books that I've recently finished.  The first is The Underneath, by Kathi Appelt. This book was a Newbery Honor book for 2009.  It is the story of a hound dog who is chained to the porch of his sociopath owner's run down shack and befriends and protects a cat and her newborn kittens.  Alongside this story, we learn the mythology of Grandmother Moccasin who lies imprisoned in a clay jar for 1000 years.  The stories intertwine throughout the book and finally intersect at the end.  I don't want to give too much away because the unfolding of Grandmother Moccasin's story is far more interesting than the story of the animals under the porch.  The story of tragedy of the pets of cruel masters has been told and retold but here, with the added flavor of myth, the story is given more depth.  I thought the book was good, though I didn't love it.  It seems like the kind of book that librarians would want kids to read.  Even I want kids to read it but I fear it will have little appeal for most kids.

This next book I finished this morning.  It's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin and it was a Newbery Honor book for 2010.  As The Underneath was steeped in mythology, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is steeped in fairytales.  This is a wonderful book about a girl who seeks the Old Man of the Moon to ask him how she can change the fortune of her family.  Along the way, she meets a variety of people and creatures, all of whom share their stories with her.  Each story she is told provides her with important information to help her on her quest.  In fact, it is the stories her father tells her that propel her on her journey in the first place.  As in fairytales, her cleverness, kindness, selflessness, and thankfulness earn her her good fortune in the end. I enjoyed this book very much.

Mythology and fairytales are very important to fiction, which is like saying water is very important to fish.  It's pretty obvious.  And while I didn't love The Underneath, I do appreciate the way that mythology was used to tell the story, to create parallels and symbolism.  I love that in fairytales, kindness, cleverness, and bravery are always rewarded and this holds true in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.

In other news, some author appearances of note: Kevin Henkes will be at Hicklebees on February 28th and Jon Klassen (I Want My Hat Back) and Mac Barnett (The Brixton Brothers Mysteries) will be at Hicklebees on March 6 for their new collaboration Extra Yarn.  The library will be getting a copy of Extra Yarn from Junior Library Guild in about a month or so, but I plan to have a signed copy for the library before then!  (Squeeee!  I'm so excited!)

Arbitrary Lists

The other day, Lisa Brown tweeted a link to this article listing the 100 'Greatest Books for Kids' which sparked a little controversy, as these types of lists often do.  But I have to agree with the consensus that it is a strange list.  It runs the gamut from Pat the Bunny to The Hunger Games.  It tries to encompass too large an age range and leaves out many beloved classics.

Then I thought to myself, this thing is so random, I could probably come up with a list of 100 best books for kids.  So I set out to do just that.  I started a list and got to number 38 before giving up out of exhaustion!  I didn't want to just list my own personal favorites, I wanted to include important books that have stood the test of time and also new books that may do just that. Like the controversial list above, I tried to include picture books as well as chapter books but it's just to unwieldy.  Maybe I'll keep working on it, who knows.  But for now, if you want to see my list of favorite books, you can see it in the library catalog under Staff Picks.

What books would you like to see on a list of 100 best books for kids?  Send me your titles and maybe I'll add them to my list!

Books! Books! Books!

Two days ago, the Newbery Award Winner was revealed.  So I promptly downloaded the audio version of Dead End in Norvelt, by Jack Gantos.  I finished listening to it today and I believe it is well deserving of the Newbery Award.  The story is based partly on the author's own childhood growing up in Norvelt, Pennsylvania in the 1960's.  Grounded for the summer, Jack spends his time reading books about history and helping an elderly neighbor write obituaries for the local newspaper, all the while battling his "nose problem".  But things are changing in the little town of Norvelt.  The Hell's Angels have come to town and the little old ladies of the town are dying off.  Could these two events be related?  Jack Gantos tells his semi-autobiographical tale with great humor and reverence for history.  Several times I laughed out loud while listening to the audio book, which, by the way, is read by the author.  Incidentally, the books that Jack reads in the book are from the Landmark series which were published in the 1960's.  When I first started working at Marshall Lane, the library had many Landmark titles from the 1960's on the shelves.  Our library has been updated quite a bit since then.

 The next book I want to tell you about is The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester, by Barbara O'Connor.  Barbara O'Connor is the author The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis which I wrote about here.  This adventure is slightly larger than that of Popeye and Elvis.  One night, while lying in bed trying to fall asleep, Owen Jester hears the distinct sound of a large object fall off a train.  The adventure begins when Owen and his friends search the nearby railroad tracks for the mysterious object.  What they find brings even more adventure.  This was really a delightful story.  I highly recommend it.

This next book is not yet in the library, but I hope to get a copy soon.  I had to buy this one for myself.  Extra Yarn was written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen, who you may remember as the author and illustrator of one of my new favorite books I Want My Hat Back which also earned a Geisel Honor.  Anyway, I follow both Mac Barnett and Joh Klassen on Twitter and was alerted that they had this book coming out so I pre-ordered it immediately, sight unseen, because it's called Extra Yarn.  The story is about a little girl  who finds a box of extra yarn and puts it to good use, but the box never seems to run out of yarn!   I have a box of extra yarn and it never seems to run out either!  It's a sweet story and our old friend Bear makes a cameo in the illustrations.

Well, that's all I've got for now.  There's a pile of new books waiting for me to finish processing them tomorrow.  Yay new books!

ALA Youth Media Awards Announced!

It's that time of year again.  When the librarians hand awards out for their favorite books.  May of this year's winners are already on the shelves at Marshall Lane Library.  For a complete list of the winners, you can go to the ALA website. Winners and honor books that can be found in the library are:

Dead End in Norvelt, by Jack Gantos.  This the Newbery Winner for 2012.   I haven't read this yet, but I've just purchased and downloaded the audio book so I can start listening to it right away.

 
The Caldecott Medal winner is A Ball for Daisy, by Chris Raschka.  Blackout, by John Rocco and Grandpa Green, by Lane Smith each won a Caldecott Honor.

 

Coretta Scott King Author Honors went to Eloise Greenfield who wrote The Great Migration: jOurney to the North, which was illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist and to Patricia McKissack for Never Forgotten, which was illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon.

Wonderstruck, by Brian Selznick won a Schneider Family Book Award for "embodying an artistic expression of the disability experience."

 

The Elephant Scentist, by Caitlin O'Connell and Donna M. Jackson and Drawing from Memory, by Allan Say are two informational children's books that were given Robert F. Sibert honors.

And most exciting of all, the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award went to Tales for Very Picky Eaters, by Josh Schneider, with honors going to Mo Willems' I Broke My Trunk, featuring local favorites Elephant and Piggie, and also to Jon Klassen's I Want My Hat Back which has become quite a favorite at the Marshall Lane Library!

I will do my best to acquire the rest of the award and honor books from the ALA list but until then, you can check these out at the library!