Spring Break Crafts: Pretty Placemats

Today you can make a pretty placemat as part of the Spring Break Table Top craft program. There will be a different project each day this week!

Spring Break Crafts: Lovely Lilies

Visit Children's Services for Spring Break Table Top crafts every day this week. Today, you can make a lovely lily with your handprint

Check out the StoryTubes contest

Kids in grades 1 to 6 are invited to talk about their favorite book on YouTube for a chance to win a prize! It's simple! Work with your grownup to make a 2-minute-or-shorter video about your favorite book and upload it to YouTube. Then, go to the StoryTubes.com web site with a parent, upload your video and send the link to your video to the National StoryTubes Contest.

StoryTubes videos can be entered beginning April 1. You choose a category for your video:

• Hair-Raising Tales
• From or For the Heart
• Of Heroes and Heroines
• Facts, Fads and Phenoms

Each week, the top ten videos in each category will be featured for voting. Voting mania will then begin and happen each week in May! At the end ofeach week, one lucky contestant will win $500 in books. Their sponsoring organization (school, library or designated organization for
home-schooled youth) will receive $1,000 in books. Book prizes are sponsored by publishers Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, Eaglemont Press, DK Publishing, Charlesbridge Publishing and Shenanigan Books.

Get your story, camera (almost any digital camera will do) and let the streaming stories begin!

For more information, visit www.storytubes.info

W is for Woof!

Do you love dogs? If you do, then you just might love this book: W is for Woof: A Dog Alphabet. Much, much more than an alphabet book, this book has lots of great information about different dog breeds, how to take care of your pet dog, and other interesting and little-known facts.

We have lots of other fantastic books about dogs -- and other animals, too -- at the Library. Visit us soon!

Babies and Toddlers: Growing Up!

Tomorrow morning at Babies and Books and Toddler Time we will be reading about growing up!

If you can't make it to the storytime, but want to explore the topic of "Growing Up" with your baby or todder you can read the book When Poppy and Max Grow Up by Lindsey Gardiner and listen to the song "I Wonder If I'm Growing" on the CD Singable Songs for the Very Young by Raffi.

Babies and Books: Friday mornings at 9:15 a.m. (through April)
Toddler Time: Friday mornings at 10 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. (through April)

Please note that starting in May the times for Babies and Books and Toddler Time will change. Call Children's Services for details @ 421-1220.

Mentoring can be so much fun!

Last night was the culmination of a mentoring program for Northwest Allen County Schools. For the last few months, dozens of students have been shadowing and learning from area lawyers, architects, veterinarians, Mission workers, teachers, and other professionals. Last night the kids talked about what they learned through displays and speeches.

As part of this "PEAK into the Future" program, I was privileged to mentor 5th grader Olivia, who goes to Huntertown Elementary and who wanted to learn more about being a librarian. It was a great learning experience for both of us.

Smart Start Storytime: Alligators

Join us for Smart Start Storytime tomorrow morning (and every Wednesday morning) at 10:30 a.m.

Tomorrow we'll read about totally toothy alligators!

One of my favorite alligator books is A Girl and Her Gator by Sean Bryan. This silly, rhyming story is about "a girl named Claire, who discovered a gator on top of her hair." Check out the book to find out what Claire does all day with "a gator up there."