First Teen Program a Success

We made cool things with beads, we ate a lot of popcorn, we played Apples To Apples, we brainstormed ideas for future teen events, we ate pizza & we watched "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride." Fun!

Library Cats

Yay! Now I'm happy! I got my picture made with Baker & Taylor, the mascots of the Baker & Taylor company (who supply most of the books purchased by the library.) When I realized I'd left my camera card in the card reader in my hotel room I raced to get it before the photo op was over... huff, puff, whew! I am getting some good exercise at the Hynes Convention Center today (including 25 minutes of lap swimming at the hotel pool this morning.) Even though I am staying at the convention the rest of the afternoon, must now pack my bags and start loading the car because must check out of my room by noon.

More PLA

I haven't had the best luck getting good pictures here at PLA. This picture of me was taken on Wednesday at a delicious free lunch given by EBSCO, which provides databases to libraries (including ours, through the state). The person across the table who I recruited to take the picture did take it, but then made a disparaging comment about people who have pictures taken of themselves. I thought it might be a little more interesting than a sign like I posted earlier, though! It also makes clear that I need to ease up on the blush a bit - my goodness I look sunburned!

The highlight of my day today was a luncheon with children's author John Szieszka (prounounced "Sheska," rhymes with Fresca) who wrote The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Math Curse, and the Time Warp Trio books, among others. His hilarious talk was about attracting boy readers to the library, especially through humor. He had the enthusiastic audience laughing non-stop. I think I have a favorite author now. I deeply regret not getting a good picture of him... Actually, I really wanted a picture of me AND him, but I was afraid that woman would give me a hard time about it, ha!

Linda Ellerbee

The opening session of the Public Library Association 11th annual conference featured keynote speaker Linda Ellerbee, the maverick print and television reporter who does things HER way. For the last 15 years she's been talking to kids about news in the headlines and how they feel about the world in her show "Nick News" on the Nickelodeon channel. She was funny and interesting and a great advocate for public libraries. I should put me in this picture with Linda, but I don't have the photoshop skills for that. Time to head to the exhibits! I brought an old backpack of Mary's so I can stock up on freebies... Hope I get some good stuff...

In Boston for the Public Library Assoc. Conference

Hello to Freedom from cloudy Boston where I am attending my first Public Library Association Conference. This morning I went to "Book Buzz" hosted by Nancy Pearl - you may have heard of her: there is a librarian action figure modeled after her! Panelists from 4 different publishing houses including Random House and HarperCollins had the difficult task of each selecting 10 upcoming books to recommend. I got some great ideas for book purchases that I think Freedom folks will enjoy. I was 20 minutes early to this presentation and found the ballroom absolutely jammed with people. I finally found a seat, but probably a hundred others weren't so lucky and had to listen from out in the lobby. There were so many people I couldn't take a decent photograph and could hardly see from way in the back, but here's a picture of the sign!

"Crash"

Film Series attendance spiked to 29 this Sunday. It seemed like most people who came thought "Crash" was deserving of the Best Picture award it received at this year's Oscars. 21 people stayed afterward for pizza dinner - many thanks to Freedom Market for not only giving us a great deal on pizzas, but bringing them to us! After dinner the gathering whittled down to 10 diehards. We played a rousing game of Apples to Apples. Peg & Joel tied for first place but we all had lots of laughs. Here are some pictures to prove it! Click on any image to see a larger version.

Our new trustee!

We are pleased that Peg Scully was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Freedom Library at Town Meeting on March 14th! Peg has been a faithful library volunteer for many years. She will continue to work her weekly shift on Fridays while also serving as Secretary of the trustees. Joyce Silke will now move into the position of President and Chuck Depew will continue on as Treasurer. Joan Grossman is now off the board, after seven great years as library trustee. Bye, Joanie! Don't forget to come water the plants!

After School at the Library

Our first Friday after-school event was a big success on March 5th with 25 students participating. Bonnie Burroughs led the Beading Basics workshop and the kids were thrilled with the bookmarks, bracelets and necklaces they made. Lots of boys participated in the Lego Club and were proud of their creations too, many of which are currently on display in the library. A record-breaking 40 adults and children attended the Pizza & Movie portion of the day where "The Iron Giant" proved to be a popular movie choice especially among the boys, whose laughter, hoots and comments entertained all the adults present. See below for a gallery of photos taken that day... and stay tuned for more fun at the Freedom Public Library!

Here's where everything went when the kids piled off the bus...















Bonnie helps Bryce with beading.

There was plenty of opportunity to be silly AND creative at the beading workshop!

Good friends Elizabeth & Heidi pose together

The boys had lots of fun with the Lego's

Pictures Galore!

Samantha Baker brought cupcakes, juice boxes and cheesecake with two toppings to last week's story time. Samantha runs a baked goods catering business called Bakers R' Baking.

Karen demonstrates on Spencer a grandmother's tried and true method for cleaning a baby's fingers.

Maggie hugs the puppy.

Henry chose a good day to visit story time!

Spencer wants to see baby Tava.

Thank you to the Friends of the Library for buying the library a camera. As you can see, I am putting it to good use!

Snuggle Boy

Louie can't get enough of Mary!

Scenes from Storytime

As you can see, we have a lot of fun on Wednesday mornings at Storytime!

Twister!

Freedom students often take the bus to the library on Tuesdays. Last week Devan and Liz got an idea to play Twister in the children's room and they got Judy to spin the spinner.

"The crows are calling my name," said Caw

Congratulations to yet another contest winner. Nathaneal put all his creativity to work in coming up with a name for our new crow puppet. The best of the names were chosen by library staff and those top names were voted on by patrons. "Caw" won by a landslide. Nathaneal chose three books from our children's books for sale as his prize and graciously posed with Caw for the blog.

We have a winner!

Congratulations to Alex, pictured here, who was the closest guesser in our most recent "Guess How Many" game. There were 396 cheerios in the jar and Alex guessed 302. Our adult winner was Dick Clough who guessed 350. Enter every day you come into the library! Maybe you'll be the lucky winner next time.

Frogs! and Cookies!

Five green and speckled frogs

sat on a speckled log

(that Judy made!)

Samantha Baker made cookies to share after story time today. Here's Atticus & his cookie.

Jassmyn has one too.

Our newest patron

Cora and Anya introduced us to our newest patron, their little sister Tava. Pretty soon she'll be singing, "Sit down, it's story time and we're going to have some fun" just like her big sisters. Welcome to the library, Tava! We are so glad you are here!




Here's another picture of Cora and Anya... they are just too cute!!

Catching Up

We kicked off the Winter Film Series on Sunday Jan 8th with "Mrs. Brown." Everyone loves Judi Dench so this movie was a hit before it even started. We all know a lot more about Queen Victoria's post-Albert days than we did before. Anyway, hope you'll all make it to The Motorcycle Diaries on Sunday, Jan 22nd. I'm hoping the Patriots are not going to compete with the movie which is showing at 4:00.

I finished my first book of 2006 yesterday, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Excellent book! We have two copies of this book and an audio version (CD) on its way. I keep a list of the books I read, do you? Last year I read 46 and plan to beat that number in 2006.

Today the 2nd graders came again. Look how engrossed they are in the books and magazines they selected in the picture above! I just love it when they come. Unfortunately no one in this class was the closest in the Guess How Many game this time. There were 67 crayons in the jar. Better luck next time, kids! If anyone has a great idea about what to put in the Guess How Many jar, please let me know.

Fistful of money

Here are Elizabeth & Audrey (what great thought is Elizabeth thinking do you suppose??), ready to pay for their pizza Wednesday night. Pizza & Movie Night was a lot of fun with 20 children and adults eating pizza and watching "Brother Bear." We'll have another Pizza & Movie night in early February with another great animated flick, "The Iron Giant."

And he's off!

Our treasurer Chuck Depew leaves the library with a big smile on his face. He is off to Toledo, visiting family & friends along the way. Bye, Chuck, and good luck!

Louie Louie Up On Top

You never know what you will find at the Freedom Public Library!

The Height of Fashion

Dawn Alexander came straight from the Effingham Elementary School where she works as a reading specialist. All the teachers wore these snazzy Christmas shorts today (and Santa hats) and she graciously posed for a picture before she chose her books and was on her way!

Hooray, the 2nd graders came today!

Single-digit temperatures kept Mrs. Pohl and her 2nd graders from coming last week, but they made up for it today with an extra long visit. Not only did they all get to choose a book to borrow, but they had time for a story And to Think That We Thought That We'd Never Be Friends by Mary Ann Hoberman. That book has great rhymes. When I read to the class, I left out the final rhyming word and they came up with the right rhyme every time. Everyone entered the Guess How Many Game. This time they had to estimate how many paperclips were in the jar (69). Nicholas Farinella came the closest at 66. He happily chose two books, a Real Monsters book for himself and a Harry Potter book for his brother. He said he'd never won anything before! The class serenaded Judy and me with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" before they headed back to the school. We are already looking forward to their next visit in January.

All alone...

Here I am, all alone in the library on a snowy Friday afternoon. From 12:00 - 5:00, I had one patron who was not a volunteer or a member of my family. Do I look a little lonely? I was!

Christmas Louie

Louie gets into the Christmas spirit.

Winter Film Series

We've got a Film Series coming up at the library, nine films in all, two Sundays a month beginning January 8th. It was going to be a nice, neat every-other-Sunday until Lee Allison pointed out that 2/5 is Super Bowl Sunday. Shall We Dance is a lovely movie, but not sure it could compete against the Super Bowl (no accounting for taste). So we'll have two Sundays in a row in Feb, but otherwise it's every other Sunday at 4:00. See www.freedompubliclibrary.org for the complete schedule with descriptions or come by the library to pick up a flyer for your frig. Many thanks to Terry Leavitt who created the flyer and poster!! Here are the movies we'll be showing:

Mrs. Brown, Motorcycle Diaries, Shall We Dance, Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Run Lola Run, Crash, The Man Who Would Be King, Keys to the House, and Mad Hot Ballroom. I chose the films for their excellence rather than going for a theme this time. I know you will enjoy them all. Come on out... it won't cost you anything unless you buy some popcorn (I dare you to resist!)

Bingo, movie, pizza, oh my!

Yesterday was a great day at the library! The 2nd graders from Freedom Elementary visited around lunchtime, then a few students came after school to hang out at the library and play games. We played Pictionary Junior (fun) and Bingo (even more fun because there were prizes!) Here's a picture of the group concentrating intensely as Judy calls the numbers. In the evening 21 children and adults gathered to watch Secondhand Lions and eat delicious pizza. Many thanks to the Freedom Market for providing special pricing on pizzas so we can keep the cost down for our patrons. Even without the discount, the pizzas are very reasonable. We ate every bit of all six pizzas and everyone gave them a hearty THUMBS UP!

A good day for coloring

The snow is drifting down and we are feeling cranky about winter. It's a good day to come to the library and hang out. Here is a picture of Margaret and Joel who spent quite a while today coloring.

Owie

Am temporarily out of commission while I recuperate from carpel tunnel surgery.

Thanksgiving at Storytime

We had another high-energy day of music, stories and fingerplays at storytime today. Rhythm sticks were fun and we did a silly song called Singing in the Rain... by the end of the song we had our thumbs up, shoulders back, knees together, bums out, tongues out and eyes closed! Sylvia said that I looked so scary she was surprised the kids didn't cry HA. Then Sue helped the children made turkeys out of their hand prints and thought of a few things they are thankful for. See the picture of Skye who is thankful for the sky, for clouds and for puppies. I am thankful for being a children's librarian and having the excuse to play and have fun!

Charlie visits the library

Charlie the parrot visited the library today. Here he is with Jassmyn, who he calls "pretty little girl" and with Judy. Charlie has been Jassmyn's parrot for about a year. It was great to have Charlie come to storytime! He was a very good listener.

Rhythm Sticks!

Elizabeth, Bill & Sylvia try out the rhythm sticks. The preschoolers had a blast with them this morning, but obviously adults enjoy them too.