Make sure that you're reading! Lots of fun planned if you like hockey.
First there's the reading program. Read a "Hat Trick" (3) of books to get entered into a raffle for suite tickets on February 20.
Then on Monday, January 20th at 6:30pm you can join us at the library for a  virtual event with an Amerks player or you can do it from the comfort of your own home.
To register for PRIZES and the ZOOM link if staying home:
www.amerks.com/readingpowerplay
To register if you are going to watch with us:
https://calendar.libraryweb.org/event/8673722

Better late than never...
Haven't really had anything super exciting to post about recently. However we are starting to have meetings on moving the books to the new library (still don't know exactly when) and that has gotten me excited. I cannot wait for all the new space! Especially since the teens will have their own room. Its about time! You guys deserve more than a wall. :) Not only that but we will have an area for playing PS4 games (including VR!) Totally excited to see how that all works out.
We also are preparing some STEAM kits that include a Cricut Joy, ukuleles, and microscopes. Super excited to get those out eventually.
Any book or program suggestions? Feel free to let me know!

Sorry, its been a while! We've been trying to figure out what we're going to be doing in the new year. Everything is up in the air still, since we don't know what's going on health wise and since we are going to be going to the new library this spring at some point (date not yet determined).

One of the things that we are excited about is "Stories on Demand".  We will be doing 15 minute live storytimes with just you and your kids. We'll have times that certain staff are available and then you just fill out the form and let us know when you'd like to do it.

Also, in light of the fact that we are moving to a new building, we will be creating "make and take" craft kits that you can pick up during the week beginning in January (with the possibility of a "New Years Eve" one the last few weeks of December as well).  This will help us dwindle down all our craft supplies so that we don't have to move quite so much to the new building. It'll be you're way of helping us move!

So here are just a few things we'll be doing, but we have a bit of fun planned for you, so keep an eye out for everything.

On a side note, I have a new friend! Sparky the Caticorn. They're a friend of Spark the Unicorn, yet they can fit in my pocket! With that in mind, Sparky will travel around the library (and throughout the universe) with me via their Instagram page.

Tonight at 6pm we plan on a fabulous program on Dyslexia. Just register here for the Zoom information: https://calendar.libraryweb.org/event/7129596

Can't make it to the panel discussion? Check out some of our books about helping those with Dyslexia that we have at the library!

As a parent of an 11 and 15 year old, I have found that my job as Mom has changed quite a bit. That made me think, there are a lot of parents out there who have had to change. That's why when I found these kits I realized that I would be foolish not to purchase these, because we need to adapt and think in different ways. I'm hoping that this is one way that we can do this.

Here are the kits that I purchased:
All About Dinosaurs Kit
Electronics, Coding & Bots Kit
Engineering Gears and Mazes Kit
Everyday Science Kit
Examine Science and Nature Kit
Explore the Outdoors Kit
I Love Animals Kit
Yoga for Mindfulness Kit

Each kit has different items that make the learning experience more interesting. While we don't have all of them ready to check out, we have a few and we are getting more of them ready. We want to make sure that we can make change easier for parents and I think this is one of those ways.

Depending on the popularity we will make sure to get more (unless we run out of space!)

A big thank you to you parents who are having to change and adapt your jobs as parents. You are all awesome!

Cathy

I love comic books. I love that there are now so many topics ... not just superheros, but non-fiction, classic literature and real life happenings! I love that I can learn a little bit about dinosaurs or physics and a second later I can read the Babysitters' Club. Too much fun for one day. :) We have a HUGE collection of comic books just waiting at Chili for you, from Disney to Iron Man. Here are some suggestions that I have been reading recently:

Guts
by Telgemeier, Raina
Raina wakes up one night with a terrible upset stomach. Her mom has one, too, so it's probably just a bug. Raina eventually returns to school, where she's dealing with the usual highs and lows: friends, not-friends, and classmates who think the school year is just one long gross-out session. It soon becomes clear that Raina's tummy trouble isn't going away... and it coincides with her worries about food, school, and changing friendships. What's going on?

Bats : learning to fly
by Koch, FalynnEvery volume of Science Comics offers a complete introduction to a particular topic--dinosaurs, coral reefs, the solar system, volcanoes, bats, flying machines, and more. These gorgeously illustrated graphic novels offer wildly entertaining views of their subjects. Whether you're a fourth grader doing a natural science unit at school or a thirty-year-old with a secret passion for airplanes, these books are for you.
This volume: In Bats, we follow a little brown bat whose wing is injured by humans on a nature hike. He is taken to a bat rehabilitation center where he meets many different species of bats. They teach him how they fly, what they eat, and where they like to live.

Cheshire Crossing
by Weir, Andy
What happens to Alice when she comes back from Wonderland? Wendy from Neverland? Dorothy from Oz? The three meet here, at Cheshire Crossing -- a boarding school where girls like them learn how to cope with their supernatural experiences and harness their magical world-crossing powers. But the trio -- now teenagers, who've had their fill of meddling authority figures -- aren't content to sit still in a classroom. Soon they're dashing from one universe to the next, leaving havoc in their wake -- and, inadvertently, bringing the Wicked Witch and Hook together in a deadly supervillain love match. To stop them, the girls will have to draw on all of their powers... and marshal a team of unlikely allies from across the magical multiverse.

This whole year should have been Dear Diary Day. So much craziness going on you should have been keeping record of it. I tried to get my kiddos to do it, but could not convince them. I, however write in a journal every night. I do it electronically, but I use a stylus, because I like the act of writing. Since many of you have electronic devices for school, you could do it that way, or just use a notebook! Easy peasey.
It doesn't all have to be words either. It can be doodles or taped on images If you're going the electronic route, emojis, photos or other images could be used.
Need some ideas when writing your diary? Here are some books:

Diary of a wimpy kid : Greg Heffley's journal
by Kinney, Jeff
Can't start with anything but this "classic" ...
Greg records his sixth grade experiences in a middle school where he and his best friend, Rowley, undersized weaklings amid boys who need to shave twice daily, hope just to survive, but when Rowley grows more popular, Greg must take drastic measures to save their friendship.

The Night Diary
by Veera Hiranandani
(this one is available on Overdrive right now!)
It's 1947, and India, newly independent of British rule, has been separated into two countries: Pakistan and India. The divide has created much tension between Hindus and Muslims, and hundreds of thousands are killed crossing borders.
Half-Muslim, half-Hindu twelve-year-old Nisha doesn't know where she belongs, or what her country is anymore. When Papa decides it's too dangerous to stay in what is now Pakistan, Nisha and her family become refugees and embark first by train but later on foot to reach her new home. The journey is long, difficult, and dangerous, and after losing her mother as a baby, Nisha can't imagine losing her homeland, too. But even if her country has been ripped apart, Nisha still believes in the possibility of putting herself back together.
Told through Nisha's letters to her mother, The Night Diary is a heartfelt story of one girl's search for home, for her own identity...and for a hopeful future.

Diary of Sarah Gillespie : a pioneer farm girl
by Huftalen, Sarah Gillespie
Twelve year old Sarah Gillespie and her family struggled to make a life for themselves on the Great Plains. Crops and animals needed constant care. Neighbors depended on one another for survival. Through it all, Sarah wrote down her experiences in a diary. Read her story, and learn about the American frontier from someone who lived on it.

Dear America series
I thought my soul would rise and fly : the diary of Patsy,a freed girl
by Hansen, Joyce
This is just one of the many in this series that uses diary format to discuss what life would be like for kids during that time period.
Patsy, an orphaned slave with a bad leg and a quiet nature, is considered slow by the Davis family. But Patsy's smart -- smart enough to learn to read and write on the sly. After the Civil War ends and slavery is abolished, Patsy believes Master Davis's promise to pay the former house slaves and to educate the slave children. But when the master ignores his promise to establish a schoo, and the Freedmen's Bureau cannot provide a teacher, Patsy steps in to teach the students to read and write.

We did our first storytime of the season today at 10am and it was so much fun. We started with princesses, because some of our Zoom storytime regulars wanted to start with that, but we didn't use just normal princesses, we had some AMAZING princesses! :) Then we asked what they would be interested in next and one of the boys hollered DRAGONS! So next week we're all about ... you guessed it ... dragons! While its not as much fun as seeing you all live, doing storytime on Zoom makes it easier for our friends to feel comfortable wiggling and giggling a little more. Curious to see what happens? Sign up here: https://calendar.libraryweb.org/event/6860508
Have a younger child between birth-24 months? Why not join us on Facebook for a Live event Tuesdays at 10am. No sign up necessary, just go to our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/chililibrary

School is almost here, in its new sort of way, and with that comes fall and all of our fall programs. We're still going to be virtual this fall and we're going to take it easy this month so that people can get used to the changes, but in October, November and December we'll have some fun programs to keep you going.
You can look at the programs "calendar view" here, but here are our programs all pretty like. :)