In loving memory

I would like to say a few words about Jeff Funk, a wonderful volunteer who recently passed away. Even though I have known Jeff since I was young, I knew him mostly through his service to the library. Every Thursday evening, Jeff would come in to help assist patrons and to shelve books. He also brought with him treats for the staff who were working that night. That is how Thursday became lovingly known as "French Fry Thursday". Luckily, I work on Thursdays 12-8pm, so I always had the pleasure of working with Jeff. He added something to Thursdays that I can't quite explain (not just the french fries). He added jokes and smiles...and he just had a way of making something ordinary be something extraordinary. Needless to say, Thursday was my favorite workday of the week, and I attribute that mainly to the fact that I got to spend it with fun and happy people. Jeff has been an example to me of someone who gave so generously without asking for anything in return...and who truly enjoyed life. So in honor of the tradition that Jeff started, French Fry Thursday lives on forever.
Thank you Jeff for your service, and kindness...and wisecracks--we will miss you more than you could know.
Love always,
Tessa

GETTING READY!!!

I"M GETTING READY....FOR SUMMER....MUAH HA HA HA HA HAAA!!!! Things are looking pretty amazing! Our theme is "Be Creative @ Your Library". I'm so excited.

Eggstraordinary

How could I forget? I almost forgot to write about our last week of Spring Story Hour!!
First and foremost, thanks to everyone who came to story hour and for all the help and donations and love and overall goodness all around. I love to see kids (and parents!) show such enthusiasm for reading and acting silly.
We always have a party for our last week of story hour, and party we did! The story we read was called "The Extraordinary Egg" by Leo Lionni. A sneaky library chicken always lays eggs in our yard this time of year and we have to gather them up! So we all made homemade baskets and went on an egg hunt. Luckily all of the eggs had a special treat inside of them....mmmm....
Everyone received a free book and a certificate of participation, and thanks to everyone's donations, we had healthy snacks and refreshments to finish off our story hour.
What a barrel of monkeys! THANK YOU THANK YOU MUCHO GRACIAS!

Write and Illustrate Your Own Book Contest!!!

Don't forget about the Write and Illustrate Your Own Book Contest for grades K-6. The deadline is April 30th! Children can write and illustrate their stories and compete to have them bound and put into the libraries permanent collection. The great thing about this contest is that it has been going on for years and we have books that were written and illustrated by many local people that are all grown up now. They are one of a kind and they are here at the library for your viewing pleasure.

Here are the rules (PAY ATTENTION!)

*Children must be Juniata County residents in grades K through 6.

*Both text and illustrations must be done by the children and all work must be original. Parents and teachers may advise children about punctuation and spelling, but may not rewrite the text.

*If two children submit a joint entry, and the joint entrants are from different grades, the entry must be submitted under the higher grade. Students may not be the author of one book and the illustrator of another.

*All edges of all book pages must have at least a 1.5 inch margin. Page size must not exceed 8.5x11 inches, but it may be smaller. (Margins are needed when binding the winning books)

*The final text should be neatly printed or typed on plain paper, not notebook paper. Parents may assist with typing. Avoid using pens or pencils that fade or smear. Do not write on your book after it is finished. Illustrations must not be pasted or taped to book pages. Do any drawing directly on the book page itself.

*The title page must include the name, grade, and school of the author and illustrator. Please indicate which student is the author and which is the illustrator. Attach a sheet of paper with the address and phone number of the students.

*The book may have a cover, but please don't laminate it. Please do not staple the book. Instead, use paper clips to hold it together. Do not use notebooks, binders or similar covers.

*Only one entry per child will be accepted.

*All entries must reach the library on or before the deadline of April 30^th, 2009.

*One winner from each grade will be selected. The winning stories will be bound and put into the library's permanent collection.

Chugga chugga

What kid doesn't like trains? Trains are big and fast and loud and they whistle and they carry stuff and they're just plain cool and amazing. So for our 7th (or 8th?) week of Story Hour, our theme was trains. And, in honor of trains, we created our very own "library train". Each kid was given a ticket at the beginning of Story Hour and after we did our stretches and read our story, we jumped on the library express and chugga chugga'd around the library. Again, not the quietest library activity but since when was Story Hour quiet? The stories we read were "Chugga Chugga Choo Choo" and "Train Song", and we made noodle trains (glued pastas onto constuction paper).

Spring has sprung!!!

It is officially Spring!!! For our sixth week of Story Hour we made our very own pots out of plastic cups that we decorated and planted beans and peas. We also read a few gardening stories which taught us about growing and eating healthy veggies. We read "Up, Down, and All-Around", "Oliver's Garden", and "The Gulps".
I'm so excited because this year we are attempting to make a library garden and grow our own vegetables right here. On April 25th, we hope to have United Way's Youth Day of Caring break the ground for our small garden patch. We would like to try and grow tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, broccoli, chard, and onions. We are also going to try to grow sunflowers, peas, and squash down along the bottom side of the building. Once the weather is warm enough, I would like to have a planting day and invite the children from Story Hour to come and help me plant some of the seeds we have started this spring.

If there is anyone who would like to help with our garden, please let me know! Or if you have any plants, tools, topsoil, etc. that you would like to donate. We will not be using any pesticides or herbicides--everything will be as sustainable as possible. This would be a great opportunity for someone who is not able to have their own garden but would like to. I can't wait!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss Week!

I'm a little behind on my blaug-o-rama, so I'll have to play catch-up. For our fifth week of story hour, we celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday. In honor of the late children's author, we read the story of "The Sneetches" (some with stars, some without stars on thars) and another short story called "What Was I Scared Of?"
If you've never read either of these stories, I highly recommend them. "The Sneetches" teaches a great lesson about acceptance and "What Was I Scared Of?" tells a story about fearing the unknown...(see comment). Plus, they're both just plain silly. Any story that features a character known as "the pale green pants with nobody inside 'em" has to be great.
We celebrated with a balloon hunt and then made our very own creative balloon creatures. Dr. Seuss, you were one crazy dude. Thank you!