Printing from the Treehouse!

Booklists will now be in a much more "printer friendly" format on the kidsite. Look at these examples of the regular page and the printable page created by clicking on the print icon.

Summer Reading Recommendations

Sorry to remind you, but summer reading is fast approaching. I am updating the Books by Age/Grade Level lists and would love some input. Grades 2, 3 and 4 are in the most need of updating. Take a look suggest a few titles.

What other reading lists would you like to see and Tales Treehouse for the summer (or beyond)? More If You Like..., genres, "Creative" books? Comment away!

Children's Choice Book Awards

The voting is open (for kids and teens) for the Children's Choice Book Awards. Last year over 55,000 kids voted. The winners will be announced during Children's Book Week, May 11th-17th. All the nominees and a link to the online voting are up on Tales' Treehouse.

A Place of Our Own

Hi all

I wanted to share with you this tv program that I think is great for anyone involved in Youth Services. The program is called 'A Place of Our Own.' It airs on PBS every morning at 5am (I dont get up that early to watch it, I DVR it,) but a few discs are also avalible through prospector. Its a great program that deals with child development, education, literacy, etc. The hosts of the show are usually preschool teachers, nannies, or parents, but I think that many of the topics could also apply to libraries. One of the episodes I watched discuss teaching children through cooking, even little kids. They talked about pairing books with food, such as reading 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' and then making spaghetti. I really enjoy the show and I think there are some great ideas that could be incorporated in to ALDs Youth Services.

If you don't want to wake up at the crack of dawn to watch the program, they do have a decent website with lots of ideas.
http://aplaceofourown.org/

I Love My Library

A friend of mine just tipped me off to the kids' band Lunch Money and their Bestest Ever Song: I Love My Library.

Listen to it & catch the lyrics. If this doesn't make your day better, I don't wanna know about it!

Picture Books that Push and Stretch

Picture books that get forgotten because they are challenging or have an oblique message can be perfect in certain situations. They are not the ones for preschool storytimes, but they most definitely can stimulate discussion and deliver a punch and a pause to older kids and adults
One example is the picture book, Jumanji and its partner Zathura by Chris Van Allsburg which leave the reader with a puzzling conclusion. Movies have been made from each of these books, but the movies don’t replace the book experience.
Chris Van Allsburg has written several others that offer challenges and great rewards. Three of my favorites are The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, TheWretched Stone and The Sweetest Fig .
In the district’s collection one copy remains of the true and heart-wrenching World War II story, The Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya in which the zookeeper tells of three performing elephants in the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo whose turn it is to die because there is no food left for them.
Just one copy of Yellow & Pink byWilliam Steig remains in the district. It is a witty conversation between two dolls on the nature of existence, and is great for starting a discussion.
Fortunately, a challenging picture book that won’t be weeded because it won the Caldecott Award in 1991 is David Macaulay’s Black and White which is actually four stories going on at once, interconnecting to make a fifth story and proving that nothing is really black and white!
In the 1997 picture book, The Bird, by Nicholas Allan, the story can be appreciated by kindergartners while the humorous connection to a familiar story will bring unexpected surprise to older kids.
There are so many more! Do you have a favorite picture book for older children and adults? Please let us know about some good ones!