Summer @ Your Library: Week Two (June 11-13) by Stacy

We had an amazing turn out the Sunday before last with over 125 people on hand to kick off the summer reading fun.  A big thanks to the Young Professionals with the Chamber of Commerce!  The kick-off gave kids a chance to register for the summer program, and we are already racking up huge numbers this year.  Over800 children and 200 young adults have already signed up for the library’s reading club!  The first week of the program may be well under way, but there is always time to get signed up and started on our summer adventures!

This week’s excitement begins on Tuesday, June 11 at 10 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., when magician Kevin Wade will delight audiences with his mysterious, interactive tricks and illusions.  Kevin has been a favorite at our library because he always gets kids involved in his act, which is top notch!  Kevin has been performing magic for nearly 20 years and has even produced tricks used by some of the top acts in the world.  Your family will not want to miss him!

 

On Wednesday, June 12 at 2 p.m., young adults will hop onto the “Graphic Novels & Humor” underground subway line which will take them to their “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” craft destination.

 

The crafts include ones that will reduce stress and anxiety, including making worry stones and learning how to do the hip new art of Zentangling.

 

The program for the week is based on the book “Happyface” by Stephen Emond which is about an introverted teen who decides to throw off the shackles of shyness and be more outgoing and upbeat at his new school. 

On Thursday, at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., we invite families to snuggle together in our cool theater with a warm bag of popcorn to enjoy a Pixar animated classic.  

This film features an idealistic young ant named Flik whose inventions accidentally destroy his hive’s food supply.  Follow Flik and his ragtag troupe as they set off to save the day.  This G rated film last 95 minutes.

For more info about “Summer @ Your Library,” call us at 405-372-3633 or check our website at library.stillwater.org.

Summer @ Your Library: Week One by Stacy

 

We are so excited that summer reading time is finally here!  Each week the library will offer fun, free programs and challenging reading club activities to fill up the whole summer! 

  

 

The first program takes place Tuesday, June 4 at 10 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.  Participants will become part of the Oklahoma Science Museum’s dynamic program about the elemental forces that shape our planet.  Kids and parents will experience the exciting science behind volcanoes, geysers, and earthquakes.

 These OK Science Museum programs are always very high quality, interactive and bunches of fun!

  

One thing we want to stress this summer is that seating is limited to 300 people at each children’s performance.  We urge you to come at least 15 minutes early and to consider attending the 3:30 p.m. performance which typically has fewer attendees. 

On Wednesday, June 5 at 2 p.m., the Teen program kicks off with “How to Survive an Apocalypse” inspired by the novel “Catching Fire” by Suzanne Collins.   Young adults going into grades 6-12 will participate in challenges like making a shelter, constructing items with duct tape, putting together a survival cache, survival trivia and more!  

We’re really hoping young adults will make it their goal to read more than twenty hours this summer, so we are once again making the stakes high!  Reading cards submitted after the twenty hour card will count double in our end of the year drawings for two Kindle Fires!

  

We finish out the week on Thursday, June 6 at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., when families can enjoy popcorn and fun at our first “Summer Cinema” of the year.  We’ll be showing an animated, Rated G movie about neighboring gnome families who are at war with each other, but two of the gnomes are in love.  Can their love last?

For more info about “Summer @ Your Library,” call us at 405-372-3633 or check our website at library.stillwater.org.

Books about Books by Jay

Book lovers are always on the lookout for new, exciting and highly recommended titles.  One fun way to find these is in books about books.  We have several fantastic new ones that can help you find out about great new reads.  One of my favorites,

“Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore” by Robin Sloan, illustrates the power of books.  This book shows what happens when the full force of Google’s servers are pitted against book readers trying to solve an age-old mystery.  Other novels highlighting the power of books in peoples’ lives include:

“Firmin” by Sam Savage- a rat learns to read causing him to become alienated from his rat family, but he is incapable of communicating with the humans who love literature as much as he does.

“About the Author" by John Colapinto - a mystery set around a New York book store, the publishing industry and authors.

“Utopian Man” by Lisa Lang - an award winning book set in the gilded age of Australia that describes literature in a fast changing world.

         

Non-fiction books about books are also great sources for reading suggestions and for tales about the power of books.  

Joe Queenan’s “One For the Books” is funny and insightful and explains his life immersed in books.

“The Child That Books Built: a Life in Reading” by Francis Spufford is a wonderful evocation of a child’s reading life and the importance of books for children and young adults.  Nancy Pearl is the master of book recommendations and any of her always entertaining books about books will keep you reading for years.  

A deep and meditative look at the power of literature in shaping a moral and full human is “When I Was a Child I Read Books” by Marilynne Robinson.  

John Leonard collects his reviews of a lifetime of reading to understand our world in "Reading For My Life”.

Three new books about books are more lighthearted and funny while also giving an interesting take on reading. 

In “Seeds :one man's serendipitous journey to find the trees that inspired famous American writers from Faulkner to Kerouac, Welty to Wharton” by RichardHoran, the author visits other authors’ homes to collect tree seeds to plant, and to think about the context of each author, their writings, and American history and geography.

“Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading” by Nina Sankovitch chronicles her attempt to read a book a day, while raising her family and working.  Last, Lauren Leto writes a tongue-in-cheek look at books, readers, and their possible love-lives.  The book, 

“Judging a Book by Its Lover: a field guide to the hearts and minds of readers everywhere” is both a funny and serious love letter to books, reading and book lovers of all kinds.

Why? By Mary

“Why is…?” “How does…?” What makes…?”  If your children have presented you with the previous questions, then you have a good foundation for having scientific discussions with them.  Science is all around us—in the things we see, in the things we use, in the things we dream.  Children are naturally curious about all things in their world and they want to know why!  An easy answer is “BECAUSE”, but a better way to explain is to create an experiment.  For some assistance in this task, several authors have compiled some fantastic and easy experiments for you to try. 

“See For Yourself More than 100 Experiments for Science Fairs and Projects” by Vicki Cobb shows how to do science with items from the toy store.  

“What? Experiments for the Young Scientist”by Robert W. Wood provides experiments for young engineers, astronomers, chemist, meteorologists, physicists, and biologists.  

Another favorite title I discovered is “Homemade Slime and Rubber Bones” by William Wellnitz.  How fun does that sound?  

Janice Van Cleave has several books with fun and easy science experiments on all sorts of topics. 

For the nature scientist try “The Big Green Book of the Big Blue Sea” by Helaine Becker; 

“The Big Book of Nature Projects” produced by the Children’s School of Science; and 

“Plant and Animal Science Fair Projects Using Beetles, Weeds, Seeds, and More” by Yael Calhoun. 

Questions your children raise may also be answered by observation.  Help your child become a citizen scientist, a backyard observer of both plants and animals.  Keep a journal of your observations and then discuss these notes.  Use your senses to learn.  

“Citizen Scientists” by Loree Griffin Burns explains this technique.  

To read about actual scientists and what they do to learn, the series “Scientists in the Field” is very informative.  

 

I also discovered a delightful poetry book titled “Spectacular Science,” by Lee Bennett Hopkins.  The first lines of one poem ask-“What is science? So many things.”  The last line of the poem states, “We question the how the where when and why.”  So please, go out and discover the where, the when and the why by stopping by your public library.