People are always telling me I shouldn't quit my day job for writing. "Silly people!" I say. "As if I'm qualified for a day job."
Before it was a Newbery/Coretta Scott King winner, Jerry Craft’s graphic novel New Kid was our book club pick (I’m not smug about this at all). Graphic novels have always been the biggest hits at my tween book clubs, so I was ready for this to be an unanimous favorite among my kids. I was … More Tween Book Club: New Kid
There are some things we do a display for every year: Black History Month in February, National Poetry Month for April. In March, of course, we celebrate Women’s History month! When I do a display on a subject like Women’s History Month, I use a mix of fiction and nonfiction books. Nonfiction books, like biographies … More Favorite Reads for Women’s History
Oh no, STEAM Lab is tomorrow. For whatever reason, STEAM Lab is one of those programs that sneaks up on me. Other programs, I can devote months of meticulous planning to, but STEAM Lab often involves me wandering into our program supplies closet and going, “Welp, what can we make out of this crap?” For … More Recipe for a STEAM Lab: Boats!
Originally, I didn’t even want to do storytime. As a library aide (some places call this position a page), I wanted to put books away and generally be left alone. But my manager approached me and gave me the hard sell to go to storytime training. He claimed to believe I would be good at … More “Where are all these babies even coming from?”: Handling storytimes with giant crowds
I love me a spooky story. Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series was my jam as a kid. Are You Afraid of the Dark? was my idea of a perfect Saturday night. Despite the fact that I was a Generally Anxious Child, who sometimes still cried from fear of the dark … More Tween Book Club: Small Spaces
Although I live and work in California’s Bay Area, where we only have three seasons (Rainy Season, Fire Season, and Everything Else Season), I love snow and winter, and I always feel a pull to incorporate some seasonal programming into the calendar at the library. However, I’m a big believer in No Religious Programming (yes, … More Recipe for a STEAM Lab: friction with sleds!
It’s been one of my dreams since I first started working with kids in libraries to throw a Mo Willems party, and although I love the Pigeon, I’ve been working on expanding our offerings for the school-age crowd and so I was excited to put on a Piggie & Gerald party this fall. I was … More This Program Is (Surprisingly Not) Bananas: Piggie and Gerald Edition
You don’t need me to tell you that tweens are nuts for graphic novels. And who can blame them? Graphic novels are currently some of the funniest, most innovative, and most authentic middle grade books being published today. If you need to reinvigorate your Tween Book Club, try a graphic novel. Why use graphic novels … More Tween Book Club: Graphic Novel edition
My favorite STEAM Labs are one that require only the smallest of set-ups, and almost no instructions. The fewer instructions you have to give, the freer the kids are to experiment and design without the structure of my preconceived ideas of how a project should go or what it should look like. A great example … More Recipe for a STEAM Lab: Parachutes!
When I started my new job, I knew that I wanted to continue running a Tween Book Club like I had in my old position. It took me almost a year and a half, but this fall I finally got it up and running! Our first book: Aru Shah and the End of Time, by … More Tween Book Club: Aru Shah and the End of Time
Chelsey In The Stacks 