Fancy Nancy Tea Party

Join us this Saturday September 5th, 2009 at 2:00 p.m.

Arrive in your dress ups and get ready for a tea party in honor of our favorite fancy book character "Fancy Nancy".

Enjoy some very fancy stories, crafts and treats with your fancy friends at the library.



Check out these photos from the 2008 Fancy Nancy Party

Virtual Zoo Visit

Click this button to cyberzoom to the Panda exhibit at the National Zoo in Washington, DC. Warning: You may have to click on Camera 2 -- Pandas don't sit still very long! Watch the Pandas and then click here ( http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/ ) to choose another exhibit to visit. It's not as great as seeing the animals in person at our Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, but it's a fun way to spend part of a stuck-inside-afternoon.

Barr Street Market & Taste of Fort Wayne: Fruit and Veggie Prints

Barr Street Farmer's Market is open today from 8am to 4pm. Note the extended hours - stop by during Taste of Fort Wayne. The market is located at the corner of Barr Street & Wayne Street in downtown Fort Wayne. The market runs through Saturday, September 12th.

Visit the ACPL Children's Services booth to create a fruit & veggie print card. See you there!

Let's Go Outside!

As children get older and more socially active, it becomes
harder and harder to come up with stimulating outdoor activities that
appeal to them and allow them to connect with the whole family.
Let's Go Outside by Jennifer Ward
is full of great ideas to get the 8 to 12 crowd away from the electronics and enjoying the last few months of good weather!

The Blessing of a Skinned Knee

Every parent hopes their child will be self-reliant, optimistic, and well mannered: which can be a challenge in our current culture. Dr. Wendy Mogel's The Blessing of a Skinned Knee offers a commonsense and down-to-earth approach to child rearing. Mogel encourages parents to slow down and value each moment and to enjoy the uniqueness of each child. She warns against parental pressure and over protectiveness and champions time-tested values of moderation. Although she draws strongly from her own Jewish faith, her wisdom is applicable to families of all beliefs.

More people have dogs for pets than any other animal in the country!
Why?
Because they are loyal, loving companions.
Before you and your family choose a dog, visit the library to "bone" up on which dogs will make the best pet for you!
Top Ten Dogs for Kids is just one of the many books we have about pet ownership.

Activity TV

If you're looking for fun activities to do with your kids, check out Activity TV -- its a website, not a TV station. It's loaded with crafts, games, dance moves, recipes, magic tricks -- and there are videos that show viewers step-by-step instructions. You can check out Activity TV DVDs from the library too!

Environmental Games Online

There are a variety of fun games about the environment for kids online. In this game, "The Great Garbage Caper" you have to solve a mystery of trash and help to reduce waste. For more games on this topic click here.

Early Learning Center Mailbox

Emma,

Thank you for sharing your mermaid drawing with us. We hope that you say hello to us the next time you are at the library!

Sincerely,

ACPL Staff

Barr Street Market: Underwater Adventure

Barr Street Farmer's Market is open today from 8am to 12pm. The market is located at the corner of Barr Street & Wayne Street in downtown Fort Wayne. The market runs through Saturday, September 12th.

Visit the ACPL Children's Services booth to go on an underwater adventure. See you there!

Have You Heard of INSPIRE?

If you are a resident of Indiana and have Internet service, then you need to know about INSPIRE.


INSPIRE, a service of the Indiana State Library, brings magazine articles, encyclopedias, photos, almanacs, biographies, and much more right to your computer screen.

Families with children will want to be especially aware of these databases:

Kids Search, a child-friendly database for kids to find information for reports and school projects.



Indiana Memory, a treasure trove of historical documents related to the culture and history of Indiana.



What Tree is That?, an online guide to identifying trees.



INSPIRE can be found at http://www.inspire.in.gov/. Check it out today!

A Child's Book Review: Toys Go Out

Toys go out : being the adventures of a knowledgeable Stingray, a toughy little Buffalo, and someone called Plastic by Emily Jenkins was reviewed by 5-year-old Helena:

I like the bumpy washing machine and everything like it. I like all the animals too, they're all very funny. This is my favorite book in the world. I like this book more than Pippi even.

Toys Go Out was also reviewed on this blog by Fiona.

Submit your child's book review to me via email and you may see it in a future "A Child's Book Review" blog post.

Today is National Aviation Day

Stop by the library and check out
these books about aviation.

Calling All Preschoolers!

Wednesday is an exciting day for Preschoolers at the Main Library. Please join us Wednesday morning at 10:30 a.m. for a fun storytime, "Do A Dance!" Then, take your favorite adult with you to the Early Learning Center for Letter Play Day. This month, Letter Play Day is brought to you by the Letter D. Delightful activities will be available all day until the Early Learning Center closes at 8 p.m.

Children's Chess Tournament 2009

Over 100 kids in preschool through Grade 5 signed up for the Children's Summer Chess Tournament which was held last Saturday at the Main Library.



Studies show that chess can help children improve reading and math skills as well as improving their concentration skills and their ability to focus. And... it's fun!

Congratulations to all the chess players who played a full day of chess and showed such good sportsmanship while playing. A special THANK YOU! to the many parents, grandparents, and other adults who encouraged them.

Early Learning Center Mailbox

Dear Ethan,

You are welcome. We are so glad that you have fun at the Thank you for the wonderful letter. It is always nice to hear "thank you".

Sincerely,

Library Workers

"Firsts" can be difficult for little ones: first sleepover, first day of school.

Introducing adorable Kevin!

Bold graphics, friendly faces and a toddler's-eye view make Kevin a must for little ones just beginning to explore and understand their world.

Barr Street Market: Cool Off with an ACPL Fan

Barr Street Farmer's Market is open today from 8am to 12pm. The market is located at the corner of Barr Street & Wayne Street in downtown Fort Wayne. The market runs through Saturday, September 12th.

Visit the ACPL Children's Services booth to cool off with an ACPL fan. See you there!

Gene Stratton-Porter

Just an hour's drive from Fort Wayne, you can find an Indiana treasure. The Gene Stratton-Porter Cabin, located on the shore of Sylvan Lake in Rome City is worth a visit this summer. Take a walk through the woods, sit on the dock overlooking the lake, tour the cabin or wander the flower garden which is now in full bloom. Check out this blog about the restoration of the wildflower woods and the tame garden.



Click here to find some of Gene Stratton-Porter's books in our library catalog.

Bear Hunt Tomorrow at the Library!

We're going on a bear hunt during Toddler Story Time!

If you feel brave, please join us at 10:30 or 11:00 Friday morning!

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is building a digital library. Some of the books from the Allen County Public Library are being included in this online collection. For example, all of the winning poems from our children's annual poetry contests are now available online in a digital format.

Click here to view the book and read the most recent book of winners from 2008. Or click here to read the winners from way back in 1984!

Wordle

This is a Wordle that I created with words from the ACPL Kids Blog. A Wordle is a text cloud that makes the most frequently used words larger than the rest. Click on the image above for a better view of the ACPL Kids Wordle or create your own Wordle here. Image courtesy of http://www.wordle.net

Chicken Dance Contest!

Here's a fun contest in celebration of the new book, Chicken Dance, by Tammi Sauer. The author and illustrator invite YOU to create a video and enter the Chicken Dance Video Contest!

Click here for all the rules.

Or check out the illustrator talking about the contest:

Have fun!

Help us "Test Drive" TumbleBooks!

Have you heard about TumbleBooks? They are animated, talking picture books which help kids learn about the joy of reading.

We are looking at this product and thinking about whether it should be added to our library collection. We'd like your help in this task!

We have access to TumbleBooks for a 30 day trial; here's how you can help:

• Go to http://www.tumblebooklibrary.com
  
• Log in using the username acpl and the password trial
• Play & read ... Encourage your kids to play and read!
• Report back to us what you think about this product and whether you think the Library should try to get it
• Submit your comments to us via email, or leave a comment on this post. We promise to take every comment into consideration!
  

Thanks for your help! We can't wait to hear what you think of TumbleBooks!

Barr Street Market: Make Tracks with Indiana Animals

Barr Street Farmer's Market is open today from 8am to 12pm. The market is located at the corner of Barr Street & Wayne Street in downtown Fort Wayne. The market runs through Saturday, September 12th.

Visit the ACPL Children's Services booth to make tracks with Indiana animals. See you there!

Back to School

It's almost time for kids to head back to the classrooms! At the Library, you'll find lots of Back-to-School books for kids, like these...


Wow! School!
by Robert Neubecker








or...


First Day Jitters
by Julie Danneberg








For more suggestions, take a look at our Going to School Booklist.

Masterpiece Art Storytime

Yesterday we had a storytime called "Masterpiece Art." We shared stories and songs. We talked about how art is created and about different types of art and artists. And then we created some of our own "Picasso-Like" artwork!

Take a look at some of the art Maeanna, Aly, Olivia, Angela, Troy, Sophie, and Rowan created:





Join us next Wednesday at 10:30 when we'll have more fun with stories! Our theme will be "C is for Crayons!"

Tie Dye on the Plaza Slide Show!

Check out these photos from our Tie Dye program held on the plaza last Saturday!

Masterpiece Storytime

Join us for Smartstart Preschool Storytime at 10:30 today to celebrate masterpiece art!

We'll practice one of the six early literacy skills as we read, sing and play. Don't miss the fun.

Newbery Books Ranked!

Since 1922, the single "most distinguished contribution to children's literature" has been given the annual John Newbery Medal by the Association of Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. Every list you've probably ever seen arranges these award winners by year of award, or perhaps by author. Not this one.

Finally, the list everyone really wants... the awards, arranged--not by year--but by how much a totally biased group of readers enjoyed them. Which Newbery winner, in this group's opinion, is the most fun to read? Well, read on...

For nearly five years, the completely biased, non-scientific, Newbery Book Discussion Group met monthly to digest a randomly selected past Newbery book and an equally random pot luck dinner. Group members were primarily teachers and librarians. All liked to read children's and young adults' books. None could pass up a Dove Bar while arguing the merits of the book under discussion. This Group read, debated, and ate its way to creating a list of Newbery winners in rank order of what we liked best.

In November 2000, the Group "reordered" the list and decided to discuss and add the latest Newbery winner each year. The annotations, like the ranking itself, reflect the flavor of the Group's discussion. In June 2009, we added the most recent winner, The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman, to our ranked list. See the list here.

Lego Contest Winners!

Congratulations to our winners of the "Do You Lego?" Contest!

Karson Miller ( 1st grade) and Isacc Hunsberger (3rd grade) had the greatest number of votes for their lego photos! The winning photos will be made into ACPL bookmarks for everyone to enjoy!

We had some really great photo entries for the "Do You Lego" contest. Thank you to everyone who entered and keep up the good work!

Early Learning Center Mailbox

Hi Elaine,

We love books too! We also love to see you when you visit the library. Thank you so much for the letter.

Sincerely,
The Downtown Library

Tie Dye on the Plaza Today!

Today!
Tie dye!
Library Plaza!
2:00 until 4:00!
Children of all ages!
Bring your own white t-shirt or white pillow case!