Free Astronomy Programs

We had an amazing free program at our library last week. The Atlanta Astronomy Club sent volunteers to give a talk about the moon, and then another talk about comets and asteroids. Art Zorka, who was the main presenter, has a very laid back style and was able to put complex astronomy in terms that even the youngest audience members could understand. He brought a collection of rocks - some of them meteors, some of them ordinary rocks you might find in your yard and had everyone try to guess which was which. We had a great crowd and the speakers were terrific. They're affiliated with NASA's Night Sky Network; I've been lucky to be able to set up programs like this in several states, and I don't think I've ever really been disappointed. 


In Texas, I had author Jane Ann Peddicord come and read from her book Night Wonders. She asked for volunteers from the audience to demonstrate the motion of the planets around the sun, using hula-hoops. Brilliantly, she had the kids in the audience "twinkle" by waving their hands. When I was visiting friends in Baltimore, I had the chance to go to an astronomy program where the presenters brought a giant tarp printed with a photo of the sun and invited children to hop up and down as if they were sunspots. They also brought a telescope with specially darkened lenses so you could look directly at the sun. When I was in Los Angeles, I had a group bring in multiple telescopes to compare and contrast what each one does, as well as a felt board story illustrating the phases of the moon. Don't overlook this great opportunity for a free program at your library: if you're interested in having some local, amateur astronomers give a presentation go to Night Sky Network's website and check out your local chapter.

Harriet the Spy Remake

I just heard about the new Harriet the Spy remake that Disney is releasing, Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars.  In this version, Harriet is a high-school student, competing with a popular girl for the spot of official school blogger.  I have to admit, I'm feeling pretty skeptical.  Part of Harriet's charm, at least for me, is she's part of that generation of urban independent girls with hands-off parents.  A bit geeky, and socially awkward, sure, but intrepid and loveable, just the same.


The upcoming film adaptation of Cleary's Beezus and Ramona also ages the characters by about five or six years, which, for some reason, doesn't bother me as much.  Even though Ramona is going from being a five year old, to a ten year old, she's still a kid.


Here's the Blog Wars trailer.

Exciting stuff

Cecily von Ziegesar’s bestselling "Gossip Girl" novels are going to be re-released in a manga format this year.

I think the storylines of this series will lend themselves really well to this format. The art for the first in the series, Gossip Girls: For Your Eyes Only looks great! I'm looking forward to it.

Also, very exciting, The Babysitter's Club by Ann Martin is coming back into print. Martin will be writing a prequel, called The Summer Before, due out in hardcover in April 2010, to be followed by the re-release of the rest of the series in paperback. I'm amazed to report that I still get requests for this series.

I'm surprised that girls still want to read them, especially with some of the dated covers (the first book, Kristy's Big Idea, originally came out in 1986.) I'm very curious to see how they'll be updating the covers, and if they'll be making any other changes to the books. Check out Stacey's side-ponytail in this picture. For serious.

Interestingly, the graphic novels based on the original series, published in 2006, only seemed to fan the fires for the original chapter books, at least, with my patrons.

Wild Things

It's opening weekend for the movie release of Where the Wild Things are. I'll definitely be seeing it, but not this weekend. I'm excited about the movie, but a little trepidatious too. I'm not much of a movie person, so I think I'll wait a bit to see what other folks have to say about it before I decide whether or not to shell out the money to see it in the theater.

For anyone in the L.A. area who missed their chance to see Terrible Yellow Eyes up in Alhambra, today's the last chance to grab a peek at the Wild Things installation at Space 15 Twenty in Hollywood.

The LAist has some photos of the exhibit, as does Latino Review. The costumes by Christian Joy are amazing! There's more Wild Things goodness to be had on the blog, We Love You So, which features pictures of opening weekends and the like.

Makes it all worth while...

I recently got some thank you letters from students from some of the library tours I did for school classes this past year. Now that the school year is out, it's fun to look back.

This picture kills me. I like to finish up a tour with a story if we have time. Sometimes, to keep things exciting, I have the kids vote for which one we want to read. Here's a depiction of me at vote time. I like how I've been depicted with looong bendy arms, reaching to the books.

In this next piece of collage art, the 6-year-old student has depicted herself as a cool teen talking on the phone, while I am represented by a chocolate brown puppy.

Here's a quote from another one of the letters:

Thank you Man Madigan

for letting us in the library even ta tat that it is closed. x from Joshua

back plese

ta and letting us see

the books.

No, kids. Thank YOU! This is the kind of stuff that really makes my job so awesome.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I am just returning from vacation, and haven't had the chance to update for a few days.

My trip consisted of planes, trains, automobiles and just about every airline travel mix-up that one can imagine.  It was a pleasure to see my family in Maine again, and be there for my younger sister's wedding.  But, my goodness, it is so very far away!  And it's good to be back.

I had the opportunity to mingle with my passel of nieces  and nephews who were all in fine form, and (not that I'm biased) possibly the cutest, funniest, smartest group of young folks you could ever know.

In the meantime, I direct your attention to the Los Angeles Public Library Kid's Path website, where kids are free to post their reviews of books read this summer.  Scroll down for a few of my favorites: "I thought that Kit Saves The Day was a little boring in the middle but the rest was fine."  Or this review of Five Silly Turkeys by Salina Yoon: "I think that's silly beacause the turkeys are doing silly thing. I like this book!!"

Spring Party!

One piece of advice that I’ve often heard given to new librarians is, “Never host an egg hunt in the library.”

As luck would have it, at my current branch, I inherited an annual Spring Party (including an egg hunt) from my predecessor.  Each year, she would invite families with small children to come into the branch where she’d hide plastic eggs ALL over the library.  The families and kids would ransack the place, overturning books everywhere to get to the eggs, but nevertheless, a good time was had by all.

Well.  I must say, I wasn’t enthused about handling the clean-up after an event like this, so I set my brain to work on how to incorporate a really fun party with a minimum of havoc.

In general, I tell some of my favorite Easter/Spring/St. Patrick’s Day stories at the event.  I do that for about 20 minutes. Then, storytime “ends” and I roll out some crafts.  We do that for about 20-30 minutes.  Finally, we do an “egg hunt” in the library.

My compromise was daringly inventive, if I do say so myself.  Using my background in theatre I came up with a few ideas to make our egg hunt more workable.  All egg hunts must take place within the confines of the community room.  Those participating must move as silently as a bunny, with an exaggerated slow tip-toe motion.  This was huge success.  The kids loved it.  The parents loved it.  The clerks at the library loved it.  Fantastic.  Friends, you haven’t lived until you’ve witnessed a group of madly, silently tiptoeing grade school children, eagerly scooping up armfuls of eggs.

This year I was able to book a very (very!) last minute performer, an Irish dancer, who came in, was low-key and charming, gave a few informative talks about Irish dance and a few demos.  She also brought a wonderful, sequined Irish dance dress, which of course, the kids totally loved.

In addition, I put up a huge display of St. Patrick’s Day/Irish themed books, Easter, Passover and Now Rouz books, which all checked out, I also (in a fit of desperation) included additional books on flowers, springtime and even potatoes.  They all checked out.  I think we can call this year's Spring party a total success!

Happy Spring!