What's inside?

As you walk through the Children's Department of the downtown library, do you ever wonder what is inside the big blue bags? Or what is inside the small blue and yellow bags? Or what is inside the boxes in the PTC section?
Well, if you have ever wondered about any of these things, the display in our glass case is for you!
We have displayed the "insides" of these items.
The big blue bags are our Kits for Kids. The Kits for Kids encompass an enormous array of subjects. They hold eight picture books, one DVD or CD and usually a book from our PTC collection.
The smaller blue and yellow bags are our Parent and Child Sets. Each bag focuses on one letter from the alphabet or one number. Inside the Parent and Child Sets are applicable books to help your child learn their letters and manipulatives that might be a lacing letter or a letter stamp. There are also activity sheets to provide ideas to further your child's letter and number knowledge.
The Character Education boxes are from our Parent Teacher Collection. Each box contains a DVD, a picture book, an activity book, an evaluation book and a home ties book. These boxes are great and fun ways to teach character.
Please stop by our Children's Department and let us help you find the perfect kit, set or box!

Puppet-palooza!

Last Thursday at our Puppet-palooza Event, a group of creative homeschoolers learned about puppets and how to plan and prepare for a puppet show. Everyone got to pick out a puppet, then they practiced different voices and tried to show different actions and emotions with their puppets. Finally, they rehearsed and then performed a puppet show to the rhyme
Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar .




Didn't they do a GREAT job?

Don't forget, Children's Services will be presenting their annual Spring Puppet Show this week! Make plans to attend one of the following performances with your preschool-age children:

Sunday, March 21, 2:00 p.m.
Monday, March 22, 9:30 and 10:30 a.m.
Tuesday, March 23, 9:30 and 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m.
Wednesday, March 24, 9:30 and 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m.
Thursday, March 25, 9:30 and 10:30 a.m.

WatchKnow.org - A Video Organizing Site for Students, Parents, and Teachers

Teachers and parents -- did you know there is a website that collects and organizes videos for kids ages 3-18 from sites like YouTube, SchoolTube, and Google Video? WatchKnow catalogs online videos by topic and by age, and also allows viewers to add videos to its collection.

If you don't know what you want to watch, browse the topics on the left side of the page -- you're sure to find something interesting!

2009 American Library Association Awards

John Newbery Medal:
"The Graveyard Book" written by Neil Gaiman

Newbery Honor Books:
"The Underneath" written by Kathi Appelt
“The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom” written by Margarita Engle
"Savvy" written by Ingrid Law
"After Tupac & D Foster" written by Jacqueline Woodson

Randolph Caldecott Medal:
"The House in the Night" written by Susan Marie Swanson, illustrated by Beth Krommes

Caldecott Honor Books:
"A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever" by Marla Frazee
"How I Learned Geography" by Uri Shulevitz
"A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams" by Melissa Sweet

Sibert Medal:
“We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball,” by author and illustrator Kadir Nelson

Sibert Honor Books:
“Bodies from the Ice: Melting Glaciers and Rediscovery of The Past,” written by James M. Deem
“What to Do About Alice?: How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy!” written by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award:
"Are You Ready to Play Outside?" by Mo Willems

Geisel Honor Books:
"Chicken Said "Cluck!' " by Judyann Ackerman Grant, illustrated by Sue Truesdell
"One Boy" by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
"Stinky" by Eleanor Davis
"Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator" by Sarah C. Campbell

Coretta Scott King Author Award:
“We Are the Ship: The Story of the Negro League Baseball,” written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson

Coretta Scott King Author Honor Books:
“The Blacker the Berry” by Joyce Carol Thomas, illustrated by Floyd Cooper
“Keeping the Night Watch” by Hope Anita Smith, illustrated by E.B. Lewis
“Becoming Billie Holiday” by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Floyd Cooper

Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award:
“The Blacker the Berry,” illustrated by Floyd Cooper, written by Joyce Carol Thomas

Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Books:
“We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball” written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson
“Before John Was a Jazz Giant” by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Sean Qualls
“The Moon Over Star” by Dianna Hutts Aston, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney

Pura Belpré Author Award:
“The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom” by Margarita Engle

Pura Belpré Author Honor Books:
“Just in Case” written by Yuyi Morales
“Reaching Out” written by Francisco Jiménez
“The Storyteller’s Candle / La velita de los cuentos,” written by Lucía González

Pure Belpré Illustrator Award:
“Just in Case” illustrated by Yuyi Morales

Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Books:
“Papá and Me” illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez, written by Arthur Dorros
“The Storyteller’s Candle / La velita de los cuentos” illustrated by Lulu Delacre, written by Lucía González
“What Can You Do with a Rebozo?” illustrated by Amy Córdova, written by Carmen Tafolla

Andrew Carnegie Medal:
Paul R. Gagne and Melissa Reilly of Weston Woods Studios, producers of “March On! The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World,”

Odyssey Award:
“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” written/narrated by Sherman Alexie

Odyssey Honor Audiobooks:
“Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady,” written by L.A. Meyer, narrated by Katherine Kellgren
“Elijah of Buxton,” written by Christopher Paul Curtis, narrated by Mirron Willis
“I’m Dirty!” written by Kate & Jim McMullan, narrated by Steve Buscemi
“Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale,” written and narrated by Carmen Agra Deedy
“Nation,” written by Terry Pratchett, narrated by Stephen Briggs

2009 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecturer:
Kathleen T. Horning, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC)

Mildred L. Batchelder Award:
“Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit” originally published in Japanese, written by Nahoko Uehashi, translated by Cathy Hirano, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu

Batchelder Honor Books:
“Garmann’s Summer,” originally published in Norwegian, written by Stian Hole, translated by Don Bartlett
“Tiger Moon,” originally published in German, written by Antonia Michaelis, translated by Anthea Bell

Art Out of the Box: Recycled Art

On Friday, November 14th, the Art Out of the Box homeschool group met to learn about artists in Indiana who make recycled art. Then the group turned library trash into wonderful treasure. The drum set shown above is made of broken computer components, VHS tapes & a broken software case! It is pretty amazing what you can do with the things that are thrown away! To see the rest of the recycled art creations click here.

Alphabet Books

Looking for some good alphabet books to share with your child or classroom? Check out our recently updated Alphabet booklist. Not only do we have a great & varied list of alphabet books, we also have a list of books that will help children learn the alphabet. If you prefer non-print alphabet resources, try this list or check out our list of alphabet websites.

If you don't care to look through a list of books, you can always fill out a custom collection form and librarians will pull alphabet books to meet your needs.

Don't Miss the Justin Roberts Concert!

If you don't have plans this afternoon, plan to attend the Justin Roberts concert at 1 p.m. If you DO have plans, change them! This concert is super fun with wonderful opportunities for adult and child play. Check out this short video to see for yourself.



See you at 1 p.m. today!

Jim Gill Family Room Concert

Almost 300 people attended the Jim Gill concert on Monday night! It was a jumping, dancing, clapping, singing good time! If you missed it, you can still enjoy Jim's music - check out a CD today. Or dance along with this great video.

Saxton Freymann at work

Saxton Freymann, the artist behind the books How Are You Peeling?, Dr. Pompo's Nose, and Dog Food, creates amazing art using food!

Hit this link to go to Teaching Books.net to watch a 4 minute video about Freymann's food creations and his books. In this video Freymann shows how to transform regular food into food with a mood. Take a look!

Teaching Books.net is a wonderful resource for parents, teachers and kids looking for author websites, book guides or booklists. Check it out today!

Silly Dance Contest

Before you hit "play" on this video call your children into the room and get ready to dance. Jim Gill's playful music is so much fun that you won't be able to sit still! If you like what you see here, check out one of Jim's CDs and dance some more.

If you would like to see Jim Gill LIVE AND IN PERSON, plan to visit the Main Library Theater on Monday, September 22nd at 6:30 pm for a fabulously fun family concert!

Our Children's department has changed through the years!

This is what the Children's Services department looks like now:




Click on this link to see what the Allen County Public Library Children's Services department looked like in 1928.

Check out the Allen County Community Album to see other great pictures of our Library and of our community.

Children's Notable Lists

Each year the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) compiles lists of notable children's books, recordings, computer software and videos. To see the lists for 2008 click here.

Where the Wild Things Are and Other Maurice Sendak Stories

Where the Wild Things Are and Other Maurice Sendak Stories is part of the Scholastic Video Collection series.

This title includes animated versions of: Where the Wild Things Are, The Nutshell Kids and In the Night Kitchen. While I love all of these titles, The Nutshell Kids presentation is my favorite.

The Nutshell Kids is made up of four stories from The Nutshell Library: Chicken Soup With Rice, One Was Johnny, Pierre, and Alligators All Around. The books are set to music and sung by Carole King. Watch them and you won't be able to keep from singing along!