Winter Display

Rather than doing a typical holiday display for the month of December, I decided to share my love of children's winter themed books with a snowy display.  One of my all time favorite characters is Peter from Ezra Jack Keat's Snowy Day so I made Peter first.  I adore his cute little red snowsuit.  This display also gave me the opportunity to share my love of terrible puns by creating the headline, "SNOW Better Time to Read!"  I know that Corduroy is not a snowy character, but I wanted classics so I put him in a pair of ice skates (removable, of course, so I can use him in future displays!)  Finally, I finished up with the Snowman from Raymond Briggs' classic.  I vividly remember watching the film adaptation of Briggs' wordless picture book The Snowman as a child, and it is still (obviously) one of my favorites.

Winter Mitten Craft

Although I did not work the day of our holiday party, I did offer to help by preparing materials for a fun craft the kids could do.  Since it is a holiday party, I wanted to do something winter themed that could be used as a pretty decoration for any holiday: mitten ornaments!  I pre-cut pairs of felt mittens in an assortment of colors using the AccuCut (I don't know how I could live without this thing in a library), and made a little slit in the top of each one, connecting the pair with a pipe cleaner.  You could also use yarn, but the pipe cleaner was easier to use, important when you are preparing sixty pairs of mittens.  Finally, for the fun part, I decorated the mittens with glitter glue, sequins, cotton puffs, and foam letters.  Staff reported that the mitten craft was a definite hit!

Five Little Snowmen

My new winter storytime flannel board staple:

"Five Little Snowmen"!
(chant to the tune of "Five Little Monkeys")...

     Five little snowmen riding on the sled!
     One fell off and bumped his head!
     Frosty called the doctor and the doctor said,
     "NO MORE SNOWMEN riding on the sled!"

(Continue verses with 4, 3, 2, 1, etc.)

Happy Howlidays!

This post really isn't library related. But at least I can say I have an occupation where I could wear something like this to work and it would be completely socially acceptable, and anyways this little gem is quite crafty.  My cousin and I made new holiday sweaters.  I just got a new black labradoodle puppy named Oliver and so my sweater obviously pays homage to him.  The writing was done with sparkly glitter glue, and we used hot glue, craft fur, and of course googly eyes for the rest.  If you have a cat as a pet, your sweater should say MEOWY Christmas!

The Mitten

Jan Brett is one of my favorite authors.  I used her version of the folktale The Mitten to adapt a flannel board story.  I made a large white mitten out of felt and drew and colored the animals onto white foam paper, with sticky velcro on the back.  As each animal "enters" the mitten, you can see how crowded the mitten ends up getting!  I like snowy winter stories for this time of the year because it reminds us of the coziness of the season.  And as I have stated before, I love a story that lends itself to visual adaptation.  It really helps to have visual props especially when storytelling to a large audience, like I do in my storytimes, where I have up to 75 little viewers!

Design Challenge: Catapults

As an alternative to the typical arts and crafts programs we often see in libraries, I decided to do a little something different by creating a "Design Challenge" for the kids.  As opposed to simply creating something, the kids are challenged to build a structure using engineering skills and applied science concepts.

This week I decided to have the kids build catapults. I introduced the idea of catapults used for battle during the Trojan War of Greek Mythology, telling a short story about the Trojan War as background.  I like to tie the design challenge back to some literary elements whenever possible.  This also gave me the opportunity to offer books on Greek Mythology available for checkout at the conclusion of the program.

While I do offer a "model" structure for the kids to look at to base their own structure design on, I encourage them to experiment with different elements of the design to see if it makes a difference in its functionality.  For example, by offering the questions, "I wonder how we could make the catapult shoot farther?" or "What would happen if the catapult's base was wider?" or "Does the amount of rubber bands I use make a difference?", kids are prompted and encouraged to explore different design techniques and each child ends up with a unique and individual product.

Once the kids have built their catapults, it is time for battle!  I provided little colored pom-poms for them to load and launch from their catapults.  They can try to achieve different goals such as going the longest distance, shooting the highest, or hitting a specific target.  The possibilities are endless in this Design Challenge program!

November Crafts

I am a little late on this post but I was too busy stuffing myself with turkey this weekend to get to my blogging.  Since November is over, however, I thought now's the time to showcase my November crafts before it's too late!

One of the crafts I did was simple bears.  I wanted to do something that brought attention to the changing of the seasons, and used the "Teddy Bear" craft to talk to kids about how bears hibernate for the winter.  I also put out lots of bear books on display for checkout.  Who doesn't love a classic teddy bear book?

I gave the little ones a wide selection of multicolored "puff-balls" (I actually have no idea what those little buggers are called) so that they could be creative and make their teddy bears any size, shape, and color they wanted.  I ended up seeing many different types of bears!  It was a simple craft, only requiring glue, puff balls, and googly eyes.  (Number one rule of crafting: googly eyes make everything better).

For a Thanksgiving craft, I had the tiny tots make paper bag turkey centerpieces.  I really wanted to do something different than the old traced hand routine.  This was by far the best turnout I have ever gotten for a craft event, and kids and parents alike got really involved and had a lot of fun.

 I pre-made the turkey "bodies" by crumpling a paper bag, inserting that into another paper bag, and then twisting the top around to form a head; finally gluing that piece down.  I also pre-cut turkey feet, waddles, and beaks out of colorful foam paper.

Along with these materials, some feathers, and of course googly eyes, it was up to the little ones to decorate their turkeys as they saw fit.  And we ended up with some very gorgeous turkey centerpieces; even one with false eyelashes!  I hope the children proudly displayed them during their Thanksgiving dinners!

The Five Finger Rule

I get a lot of children and parents who come in and have no idea where to start in terms of picking out a book that is appropriate for the child's reading level. (The fact that the child is in "second-grade" tells me nothing... there is a huge range of reading ability at this age and frankly at any age).

This is especially frequent among those who are perusing the "Easy Readers" section, a section of books that is devoted to introducing children to reading on their own.  They are arranged in a chapter book format, with large font sizes and pictures throughout the book so as to not be too daunting for the early reader.  They also range in difficulty level from levels one through four.  When a child needs help determining his or her reading level, I like to introduce the "Five Finger Rule", something I found to be quite useful during my time student-teaching in a school library.

Basically, you tell the child to open up to any page in the book.  Have the child begin reading that page.  For every word that the child needs help with, the child puts up a finger.  Zero to one fingers means this book is too easy.  The reader should challenge him/herself a little more.  Two to three fingers indicates a "just-right" book: the reader will be learning new words without the book being to overwhelming.  Four or more fingers shows that this book might be too challenging for independent reading, so the reader may need a reading buddy to help.  I created a poster to put near our easy readers that would hopefully help our patrons with this "rule", which is not necessarily a rule per-say, but rather an easy way of determining a general appropriate reading level for beginning readers.

Thanksgiving in the Library

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  Yes, it is because of the food and the fact that my mom is an incredibly good cook.  Thanksgiving dinner is the best meal of the year!  This wonderful holiday also gives me the opportunity to have all sorts of fun with construction paper.

For our large bulletin board, I created a "Cornucopia of Books".  This was especially fun for me because I got to showcase many of my favorite titles that I have read as a child and throughout the years... Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods, Judi and Ron Barrett's Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and Ludwig Bemelman's Madeline, just to name a few! 

I also created little paper pilgrim hats for our library giraffes, Miss Mildred and Humphrey. Could they be any cuter?

Humbug Witch

Our Halloween party yesterday was so much fun.  We had Trick or Treating around the library's various department, and awesome photo booth, a scavenger hunt, and make your own spiders, mummies, and monster crafts.  We kicked off the party with a special Halloween storytime for all ages.

 For the storytime, I adapted Lorna Balian's Humbug Witch to a flannel board display.  This story adapted well because at the end, the witch starts to take off her "witchy" gear, finally revealing that she was a little girl all along.  It is a fun surprise ending the for the kiddos, and is definitely not a scary book so it is suitable for all ages.  I had fun telling the story and I think the kids had fun listening to it!

Frog and Toad Display

And my adoration for Arnold Lobel continues.  I decided it was time to spruce up our Easy Reader display, and who better to spruce up the easy readers than Frog and Toad?  Don't they make you want to cuddle up and read a good book?

To create this, I drew a larger version of Lobel's illustration from Days with Frog and Toad onto a manilla poster board.  I colored it with colored pencils, and traced it and drew its opposite again so that the tree could be two-sided.  Finally, I glued each side of the tree together at the top, and onto a wood block at the bottom.  I also glued popsicle sticks in between the paper layers so it would have better support to stand up.  Finally, I tied on the sign with some pretty yellow string. Voila!

"Leaf Man" Flannel Story

Happy Fall!  The air is crisp, the wind is blowing, and the leaves are falling.  What a perfect day to read  Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert for today's preschool storytime.  As I read the story, I periodically "found" leaves along the way, creating my own leaf man for the children to see.

We talked about how leaves are different shapes and change different colors.  A lot of the kids eagerly explained that they had read this already, but the flannel board story kept their attention throughout this quiet and melodic text.

Divergent Party

This past Saturday I held a Divergent party to celebrate the upcoming release of Veronica Roth's final book in the trilogy, Allegiant, which comes out on October 22nd, 2013.  I had so much fun with the party and I consider it a huge success.  It was a teen program and attracted patrons aged 13-19.

The program was attended by both Divergent fans as well as teens who had never read the series.  I  took this as a great opportunity to do a quick booktalk and hopefully inspire interest in the series for those who were unfamiliar with it.  I explained it as a great readalike for Hunger Games, where the series is set in a futuristic dystopian Chicago.  The city is divided into five factions: Abnegation, the selfless; Dauntless, the brave; Erudite, the intelligent; Amity, the peaceful; and Candor; the honest.  Long ago, the government determined that it was these qualities of humanity that were necessary for society to function and therefore each citizen must be a part of one faction and act out its qualities to the utmost extent.  Some rare people, however, called the Divergent, have aptitude for more than one faction.  Tris, the main character in the series, was born into Abnegation but chooses Dauntless, after learning that she has aptitude for Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite.  Having divergence for three different factions is almost unheard of and we learn that this puts Tris in great danger, but also gives her great power.

The first part of the program was to have teens take a quiz that I created, entitled "Divergent Faction Aptitude Test".  This quiz was done in a infographic style, with questions similar to the scenarios Tris faces in the first book before the Choosing Ceremony (first question: "You see two baskets in front of you: one with a knife, one with cheese.  Choose one!").  At the end of the quiz, they have the opportunity to be Divergent by coming up with an idea alternative to the choices given in the quiz.  Once their faction is determined, participants could choose an activity based on their factions.  I also gave out stickers I made for each faction so that they could wear them with pride (I, for the record, belong in Amity!).  The activities I had planned for each faction are as follows:

Dauntless: Temporary tattoo design
Erudite: Play Scrabble
Candor: Play "Would You Rather?"
Amity: Make friendship bracelets
Abnegation: Make greeting cards

Overall, the teens seemed to enjoy playing "Would You Rather?" the most.  The questions I created sparked discussion and they all got really into it.  Most people did a few different activities as opposed to just doing their faction activity, which I took as an opportunity to explain their "divergence", inspiring further conversation about the book ("Can you imagine having to be 100% honest, all the time?  Even when it hurts someone's feelings?.. etc.).  I was thrilled with that fact that not only did participants thoroughly enjoy the program, but it also got a lot of them interested in reading the series.  I, for one, am anxiously awaiting October 22nd, so that I can read Allegiant.  I never thought that I would like a series as much as Hunger Games, but Divergent is a huge contender!

Catching Fire Display

It's exactly 50 days until Catching Fire is released in theaters on November 22nd, 2013.  To commemorate the exciting day, we will be holding a special Catching Fire movie release party this November, filled with super fun Hunger Games activities and games (spoiler: create your own victor!).  Because I am majorly geeking out over this, I couldn't even wait until November to start working on a display for this event, and let me just say, things got intense.  I am particularly proud of the flames coming out of the Mockingjay.  Get it? Catching Fire!

To make this display, I drew the mockingjay logo on yellow poster board, about one foot wide.  Then I traced over it with a Sharpie and cut out the middle pieces.  I coated the entire piece with some glitter glue I found in the craft closet, using a paintbrush.  Then, I layered red, orange, and yellow tissue paper and cut out a flame pattern.  I stapled the folded layers together and crumpled them up to give the flames a more fiery look, and layered the flames beneath the mockingjay.  Finally, I glued all of it onto a poster board, where I have written with cut-out letters: "May the odds be ever in your favor".  I obviously had a little too much fun with this one.

Birthday Cake in the Oven

I am always trying to think of clever ways to use felt and make new flannel board displays.  I love the visual element that it adds to rhymes and songs.  I made this birthday cake display to go along with "Pat-a-Cake".  

First, I ask the little ones who likes birthday cake.  Then I tell them that we are going to bake a cake just like in the rhyme!  If they are old enough, I can ask them for suggestions on what we should put in the cake; otherwise, I just list off the ingredients as I put them on the board: flour, sugar, eggs, milk, and butter.  Then, with the felt cake layered underneath, I put the oven on top of the ingredients.  We all count to five to let the oven "warm up" so the cake can cook.  

After that, I carefully peel the oven off revealing the cake underneath!  The kiddos were pretty thrilled with this; it seemed like a magic trick to them.  Finally, as another counting exercise, I count five birthday candles to go on top and our birthday cake is done.  I think that this is a great exercise to show kids patience, counting, and of course a fun surprise!

Banned Books Storytime

      To honor the last day of Banned Books Week 2013, I held a special "Banned Books Storytime" today.  Featured books include H.A. Rey's Curious George, The Family Book by Todd Parr, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (of course), Brown Bear Brown Bear by Bill Martin, Jr., and Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford.  Each of these titles were challenged for various reasons.  My favorite has got to be Curious George and the reasoning behind its challenge: the monkey is not portrayed as anatomically correct (he's missing his tail).  The book to leave most patrons dumbfounded, however, is Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  What could it possibly have wrong with it? Bill Martin's name was confused with another Marxist Bill Martin. 

In addition to reading these books, I created some rhymes and flannel board activities for the kids to do.  I made 5 felt balloons for Curious George and asked the little ones to help me count them so George could fly away, followed by Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.  I have a flannel board activity where I hide a felt mouse underneath one of five different colored houses and have the kids guess until they find him.  For Banned Books Storytime, I thought who better to hide than Waldo?  Finally, I had the kids do "Wild Thing Wild Thing" (turn around... touch the ground... etc.) and "If You're a Brown Bear and You Know It".  The little ones really seemed to enjoy this storytime as banned books are often classics and they got to see a lot of familiar characters.  At the end, I even had a child who wanted to take a picture with my Wild Thing stuffed animal, in front of all the banned books.  The theme was probably a lot more important to parents than children, but I did try to help kids understand the theme by opening the storytime by asking them if they could imagine the library without Curious George and various other characters.  None of them thought it was a good idea!

Book Review: "Fall Ball" by Peter McCarty

I picked up this book off of our "New Books" shelf for a few reasons.  One, I love Peter McCarty's simplistic inky illustrations.  Two, its title is a pun (need I say more?).  Three, my favorite season is FALL and it's here!

This book makes me want to put on a cozy sweater and make hot cider over the stove.  It is sweet and simple, a story of changing seasons and playing in the leaves outside.  The sun goes down early, but that won't spoil the children's playtime, because there's pie, pajamas, and warm blankets at home.  I think that this would be a great bedtime story.  In fact I think I read it way too early in the day, because now I've got snuggling on my brain.  

Lights, Camera, Read!

It is impossible to live life without regrets.  Sometimes, you don't regret things until after the fact.  There are those things, however, that you do that you just know you are going to regret.  I put watching the movie before reading the book into that category.  I try not to let it happen, but sometimes it is inevitable.  Take "The Wizard of Oz", for example.  I think the first time I saw that was before I could even read.  It has been my favorite movie of all time ever since, and the original book is still on my endless "to-read" list.

Today, I created a book display housed quite intentionally right on top of our DVD stacks to help patrons avoid this same fate.  It reads, "Lights... Camera... Read!  If you liked the movie, you'll love the book."  Front and center are copies of some of my absolute favorite books turned movies: A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling, Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and Matilda by Roald Dahl, just to name a few.  I not-so-secretly love it when I book I have read becomes a movie because I can see how the filmmakers' version compares with that of my imagination.  It is impossible to do this if you watch the movie before you read the book because your mind's eye automatically resorts to the images already provided by filmmakers.  If I can help one patron check out the book along with the movie, then my work here is done!

Crafternoon: Dreamcatchers

As I perused through our luckily abundant craft closet this afternoon, I combed my brain for an idea for a meaningful craft activity for the kids to do.  I saw wire, beads, feathers, and yarn, and it hit me: dreamcatchers!  Dreamcatchers are a Native American artifact.  Legend says that if you hang a dreamcatcher above your bed, it filters out the bad dreams from the good ones, not allowing nightmares to pass through.  I explained this custom and belief to the kids before they made their dreamcatchers, and they were all excited about hanging them above their beds.

Materials:

• Wire hoop
• Yarn
• Beads
• Feathers

I started each child out with a wire hoop that I cut and twisted for them, along with a long piece of yarn (about 4 feet) tied to its top with a loop.  Then I instructed them to tie knots anywhere on the hoop to create a web, stringing beads along the way.  The great thing about this craft is that it is not a "cookie-cutter" craft; the kids can truly express their creative sides.  There are so many different patterns of yarn and knots, colors of beads, etc., that no two dreamcatchers looked alike.

Book Review: "Rump" by Liesl Shurtliff

When I saw this shiny new book on our "New Books" shelf, it caught my eye for two reasons: one, it is a fractured fairy tale and ever since I got my tattered copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales from a used book store at age ten, I have always loved immersing myself in a faraway magical land.  Two, its subtitle is "The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin".  Now here is a guy who really gets a bad rap, a true underdog.  I love underdogs.  I want to give poor little Rumpelstiltskin the benefit of the doubt.  Shurtliff's charming debut novel, published April 2013, shows readers that Rumpelstiltskin just may be a good guy after all.

All of his life, Rump has felt as though there was something missing.  Actually, he knows there is something missing because he was born with half a name.  His mother died during childbirth before she could utter the last syllables of his name.  So poor Rump becomes the "butt" of all jokes, literally.  He does have one true friend though, named Red who lives deep in the forest with her Grandmother (sound familiar? It should!).  Rump lives a dim and dreary life of being bullied and mining for what little gold his mountain village has left so that he can help his grandmother put food on the table.  Rations are slim, however, especially under the rule of a greedy king and miller.

When Rump discovers that he can magically spin straw into gold, he thinks his luck has changed.  But soon, the more gold he spins, the more trouble he gets into.  His piles of gold lead him on a quest through the mountains where he will meet pixies, gnomes, and trolls, and hopefully save a foolish princess from a terrible fate.  He may even find out his full name and destiny.  One thing is for sure; readers will never think of "Rumpelstiltskin" the same way again.  Shurtliff seamlessly weaves details from traditional fairy tales into her retelling, enchanting readers throughout each page.

Wonderful One's

Today was my first storytime for Wonderful One's.  Or as I like to call them, little puffer bellies.  I think that you could sing them or read to them anything and they would still look at you with wide open eyes like you are giving them the keys to the world.

I started out with one of my all time favorite stories, The Three Little Kittens.  I used Paul Galdone's version but also added my own little creative twist.  I like to use flannels any chance I get because I think a visual prop holds the babies' attention even more than just the book. With three little kittens, it also gives me the chance to count to three with them.  So I made three little kittens, three sets of mittens, and a pie.  I also made jelly splotches and soap bubbles for when they soil and wash their mittens.

Next, I sang "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" (definitely the perfect age for this song) and "Baa Baa Black Sheep"; another chance to count to three and another chance for me to take out my scissors, glue, and felt!  

I also read Teddy Bear Teddy Bear by Steve Scott, as well as Sleepy Oh So Sleepy by Denise Fleming.  I love her illustrations and the way the babies responded to the tiny baby animals with looks of pure adoration.  I think the parents and caretakers liked this book too.  When it says "Where's my sleepy baby", I pretended to look through the audience for a sleepy baby, trying to engage them as much as possible. I ended up very pleased with my book, song and rhyme selections for this age group but I had planned a thirty minute storytime that only went twenty five, so I need to be sure to watch my speed, or add another book and song just in case.

My First Storytime

Now I can truly say that I am an "official" Children's Librarian.  I have assisted with storytimes in the past, but until now I hadn't planned and facilitated one on my own.  Today I did a preschool storytime for 54 kids.  We have a lot of daycare centers that come to this library along with just a handful of parents and their children so the adult to child ratio is quite large.  The children were super cute as per usual, and were highly participatory which is what I love about this age.

 For this storytime, I chose two of my favorite books from when I was a child.  When I told the kids this, they looked at me like they were being let in on a big secret.  First, I read If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff, and had the kids guess the numerous things that that silly moose was going to need next.

Second, I read The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood.  I created a flannel board display to go along with it at the last minute.  I think that this visual prop really helped them participate with the story even more, as they suggested ways to disguise the strawberry along with the plot of the book.  At the end, I pulled the two halves of the strawberry apart and pretended to gobble up my half of the strawberry. They got a kick out of that.

The only thing that I would change about this storytime is that I think it needed more active songs and rhymes.  I did "The Wheels on the Bus", "I Went to Visit the Farm One Day", and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".  These songs and rhymes were fine except for the fact that none of them got the kids to stand up and move around.  For a thirty minute storytime, I think they need at least one way of getting some of that energy out.  So next time, I think I will do something like "If You're Happy and You Know It".  I will also skip "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".  I had originally thought that a lullaby would calm them down toward the end of the storytime, but instead they seemed a little to old for it and bored with it. Overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out and can't wait to do it again!

DIY Fingerpuppets!

Instead of jealously eyeing my colleagues' finger puppet collections who have been children's librarians much longer than I have been, I decided to do something about my finger puppet deficiency.  I wanted to do "Five Little Speckled Frogs" during a storytime, and since I need to limit the amount of money that Amazon gets from me, Crafty Cassie came up with an idea inspired by a lovely valentine received last year.

All you need is a marker, heavyweight paper, scissors, and a stapler (get as creative as you want by adding other materials)!

Steps:

• Draw or print images of your puppets; cut them out
• Cut 3"x 1" strips of paper
• Staple the strips of paper into a loop and press/fold down
• Staple the images to one side of each loop

Voila!  Hand-made finger puppets!

Banned Books Display

The month of September brings me two of my favorite things: the beginning of Fall... and Banned Books Week!  This year Banned Books Week lasts from September 22nd through September 28th, 2013.  Intellectual freedom is a subject that is very near and dear to my heart.  It is no surprise to me that many of the most frequently challenged books of all time also hold numerous prestigious awards.  I will have my banned books display up during the entire month of September (my only complaint about Banned Books Week is that it is only a week long!).  And the only good thing about challenged books is that you will never run short on them for a display.  I made bookmarks that say "I Read Banned Books" and inserted them into each book on the display so that each reader can read with pride over his or her freedom to read and right to intellectual freedom.  Don't forget to check back later this month to see what I am doing for my special Banned Books Preschool Storytime!

A Tribute to Arnold Lobel

Owl is one of my favorite storybook characters and always will be.  My favorite part of Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel is when Owl innocently lets Winter into his house, trying to be a kind and generous host, and suggests that he warm himself by the fire.  Owl is aghast when Winter barges in and makes a mess of snow and ice in his cozy house, turning his supper into frozen pea soup.

Many of Arnold Lobel's characters lend themselves to our Summer Learning Program goals, which are Read, Learn, Discover, and Create.  After a volunteer drew Frog and Toad, I decided to follow suit and draw Greg from Greg's Microscope (illustrated by Arnold Lobel), as well as Owl of course, Uncle Elephant, and Giant John.  I didn't have any idea how they would all turn out together but I ended up very pleased with the final product.

Full STEAM Ahead!

With a Summer Learning Program theme of "Full Steam Ahead", (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math), a display of reading robots only seemed appropriate.  The children helped me name them Marty, Milly, and Moe (Moe is the "little brother" with the glasses).  Each time the kids returned to the library they seemed genuinely excited to see the robots.  I loved making these little guys... and I loved the input that I got from the kids while working on them during my desk time!  Getting to show my creative side during projects like these is only one of many reasons why I love my job!