Words To Live By for Summer

We have had a whole month of exciting, kid-filled summer reading promotion. My TMJ is aching from all the talking and singing! These past few days brought hundreds of kindergarten and preschool children to our library for tours and summer reading motivation. It was so great to have Cynthia there to add to the excitement and do the whole dog and pony show----or should I say shark and squid show, along with me. We made a shadow puppet show of the Kevin Sherry book "I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean". Then we sang the baby shark song and ended it by squirting the kids with our squirty sharks. That certainly brought down the house! By the end of the day yesterday, I was so sleep deprived and punchy the puppet show took some unexpected twists......but it was hilarious fun.

 Cynthia is a force of nature. She is astoundingly and remarkably creative. She has boundless energy. She is so much fun. She makes me laugh.....alot. She can sing really well,too. She is so tiny she can almost fit in my pocket, which is especially handy for school visits. She can leap tall buildings in a bound...really.
Sometimes she just seems to pop up out of nowhere. She can make amazing creations out of cardboard. She always wears really fun clothes and jewelry. I am so glad we can finally work together.

I am taking a vacation in a beautiful part of the country where the sun shines most days. When I get back from my vacation it will be the first day of our summer reading program. It is almost time to unleash that flood of summer fun and pandemonium, to register readers, to keep displays full, to keep the prizes ready, to watch months of planning and preparation come to fruition.

Words to live by this summer..............keep your squirty sharks loaded    :  )

Everybody's Gone Surfin'

Great idea! Melissa at The Imaginary Librarian blog, created a surf shop for her Teen area, in honor of the summer reading program. I appreciate the creativity and thought, not to mention the time and effort, that goes into all of the environments librarians create for kids and teens.

Thank all of you bloggers for sharing great ideas, trials and tribulations, and the pictures to prove it. Visit The Imaginary Librarian: Hang 10 Surf Shop.

Move Over Fellini

In an effort to save voices and energy, Cynthia and I made a video to use for summer reading program promotion.

We created a set, made a shark choir (we wanted their mouths to be able to move...oh well...where is that animator nephew of mine when I need him? Does he REALLY have to work at Disney when the SRP is at stake?) and then wrote the script. I should probably add that we had a very small budget (nothing) and very few actors to choose from (puppets and staff...or ARE the puppets actually the staff?). We had lots of fun making a short film to show at the schools as part of our presentation. It will hopefully help to save our voices and the waning energy factor that comes from repeating the same thing 25 times in a day.

Turns out movie making is not as easy as it looks, but we sure had a lot of laughs!

Next week Cynthia and I will don our shark hats and head over to the first school of our promo tour. If I can't get the Baby Shark song out of my head right now, I shudder to think what it will be like after all the school visits!
doot ....doot.... doot....Make a Splash at Friday Library doot.....

Pause For Squeaky Shoes

Last September I posted an entry about a new walker who came into the children's room wearing some shoes that squeaked when she took a step. That little girl, her big sister, and their mother, are bright lights in my days at the library.I have never seen them without a smile----never. I have watched those babies grow inside their mother, held them as newborns, and heard some of their first words, cheered them on as they took first steps. I have enjoyed the delight on their faces when we sang and read fun stories. I have witnessed them making friends at story time, friendships that have blossomed and grown.

What a privilege it is to be a part of so many children's lives! Not only do I have the opportunity to share books with them, but actually become part of an extended family of sorts. Plotting and planning what to do for programs and purchasing, I take my responsibility seriously-----what can I give them? Without even trying, they give me the world.

Yesterday, I received an email telling me Little Miss Squeaky Shoes has an inoperable brain tumor. It does not look good. Please pause a moment and offer some positive energy to she and her family.They will need all the prayers and wishes our world can offer, during these coming weeks.