Well, isn't a fine kettle of fish

The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,


Gang aft agley,

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,

For promis'd joy!

(The best laid schemes of Mice and Men

oft go awry,

And leave us nothing but grief and pain,

For promised joy!)

Robert Burns, To a Mouse (Poem, November, 1785)

Scottish national poet (1759 - 1796)

I was expecting a quiet week: planning the winter programs, visiting with my families and cleaning up around the childrens area so that the childrens area would remain beautiful and inviting. Instead I am home placing my winter programs on hiatus, visiting with my family and am not allowed to any cleaning at all. Fortunately, for all the pain there is joy. So if you are following this blog: I wish you the happiest of holidays and I will see you next year!

10 1/2 days until Christmas

I am constantly amazed at how fast the year has gone.  The leaves are just about gone. There is snow in the Midwest, I have just about finished my Christmas shopping and the parties are beginning.

As it gets closer to when the school lets out, check out "Windblowne", a childrens book, I thought it was very good. I've joined a state group for critiquing books. I hope to let people know more about the new books coming out.

Blessed Solstice

For 21 more days, our days will be getting darker and darker. On December 21, it will be the winter solstice and after that our daylight hours will start getting longer again. I can't hardly wait.

Fall is ending and winter will be here soon.

Well , I have had my first cold of the season. My fingers are crossed it is the only one, but that seems a tad unlikely. I want to encourage people to come to the library. We have a lot going on. In the community room, we have the student art show. The annual winter raffle has started. The Friends are selling their cookbook for 12 dollars. It would be a great Christmas, Hannakah, Kwansaa, Birthday, or "Gee, I think you are a great friend" gift!

Remember the library will be closed on Veterns day!

Autumn leaves and five years

It has been five years since I have arrived in Bellingham. Time has just flown by. After all this time, I feel like I have more friends then there are leaves on a tree. I am greatful for that. (My spelling hasn't gotten any better, but it hasn't gotten any worse either.)

Over time I have completed so many of my goals that I have been working on and so now I am asking: What would you like to see happen in Childrens? Young Adults? Is there programming you would like to have or additions to the childrens room? Are there books you want?

Here come the witches and goblins and cats, oh my!

It's time to begin the holiday run. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are looming before us. I can't wait for this year. To kick of the season, I have Halloween cooking and Crafts AND the 2nd annual Boo Bazaar the second weekend of October. I hope to see lot's of people there!

NEW PICS ON FLICKR!

Check out the new summer picture that are now online. More are coming soon.

Cool down time

I have been reflecting on summer, planning for fall and gearing up for winter. So much is happening at the library.

This summer, we changed up the Picturebook area and now it looks so much larger and friendlier. Our first annual Battle of the Books was amazing fun. We gave away over 150 books to our Summer Reading Program readers. How exciting is that!

 Our fall classes have started with a bang. Ringading is back to it's regular schedule and is as much fun as ever. The Kids Club is just as much fun. The art classes are full. It is such a pleasure to see our newcomers as well as our regular patrons.

Winter will be upon us soon along with the holiday season. Candymaking and Gingerbread Houses are high on my list of fun things to do. Keep a weathered eye out for the dates.

Congratulations to the winners of the Battle of the Books

The winner of group one battle teams were:

THE BOOKWORMS

Isabella Donofrio

Paige Goddard

Caela Hurley

Gina Priscella

Bharathi Subbiah

The runners up were:

THE AWESOME MACY READERS

Erin Bartelloni

Lily Bartelloni

Lily Garten

Molly Garten

Tyler Garten

Brad Swain

The winner of the group two battles were:

THE RADICAL READERS

Bryn Gregory

Wyatt Gregory

Max Kolp

Jeremy Payson

The runners up were:

THE BOYS

Ian McCue

Caleb Brant

The other participants were:

Sonal Radhakrishnan
Cameron Hasselbaum
Alexandra Connor
Noah Hanson
Matthew Eggleston
Hailey Brant
Ashleigh Eggleston

Congratulations to all our contestants. You did an amazing job!

Here it is - the end of July

I cannot believe that the summer is two-thirds gone and so is the summer programming. I have decided that summer programming is like a birthday. You spend so much time planning for it, waiting for it and then when it gets here, it's over before you know it. Yesterday, I made the library staff's day when I started talking about Christmas programming! ;-)

As I have been prepping up for fall, I have been trying to figure out how to best meet the needs of all my patrons. I think....ok, I hope, that I have succeeded in creating fun, exciting and educational programs for a wide range of students. Please let me know what you think.

Summer Reading Kick-off program

David Polansky is going to kick off our summer reading program on June 30 with a family concert. We will get to sing-along with songs that everyone knows and loves. I can't hardly wait for this to happen. I hope I see lots of my Bellingham friends on Wednesday night. This program is sponsored by the Bellingham Cultural Council a branch of the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

The very next day, we will be having our fourth annual 4th of July crafts day. So far, I have several patriotic crafts planned including a 4th of July centerpeice. This one starts at 10:30 am. I hope to see you there!

End of School, Summer Reading beginning

Well, in just a week and half, the kids will be out of school. The school year seemed to just fly by. Time to start thinking summer programming. We have planned a truly exciting summer for everyone and we can hardly wait for it to get started.

The staff and I are hard at work coming up with the questions for the first ever Battle of the Books. We have introduced it to the all the elementary schools and to the middle school. We have to read 30 books and come up with over 300 questions for the battles! Leslianne and I have been talking up the program at all the schools and hope to have an exciting time come August.

Wow, it's almost Summertime.

This spring has really flown by. Leslianne, the Young Adult Librarian and I have been hard at work at getting ready for all the cool things happening this summer. Check out the blogs to get all the information.

One of the things we have planned is to create trees in our areas, but they won't have any leaves. The leaves will be added to the trees as the kids read their books. They'll get one leaf for every book they read. We are hoping to have VERY leafy trees by the time summer is through.

Next week, people can start picking up the applications for their Rube Goldberg machines. I have been looking at the ones on YouTube and am just facinated with them. I can hardly wait to see what people create for our contest.

Now is the time to start creating teams for the 1st annual Battle of the Books mini-contest. We have three age groups:

• group 1: children entering first grade through children entering third grade
• group 2: children entering third grade through children entering sixth grade
• group 3: t'weens and teens entering seventh grade and up.

Sign-ups begin on June 15, 2010 and each team of 4 - 6 will need to read 10 book between them. The lists will be given out when the teams sign-up. We are also offering an individual competition for those t'weens and teens that want to read all ten books by themselves. They will be doing a Jeopardy style of competition.

Between Leslianne and I, there is something happening everyday of the week. I hope everyone checks it out.

Battle of the books

Summer is coming and we are gearing up for the "Battle of the Bands". For those of you that don't know what that is, this is a chance for children to show off their exceptional reading skills! We will be having three different age groups- group 1: children entering 1 grade through 3rd grade; group 2: children entering 4th grade through 6th grade; group 3: children entering 7grade -10th grade (and up). The children will form teams of 4 - 6 children or teens and they can sign their team up on June 15, 2010 at the library.

We will be selecting 10 books and the participants will have 8 weeks to read them. During the third week of August, we will then battle to see who is the best readers in Bellingham. On the last day of the battles, we will have an ice cream social for each group as we watch the last battle for each age group. Winners will get their picture taken to be hung on the library wall plus a prize (still to be determined). Everyone will receive a certificate for participating.

Upcoming Class Cancelations

Artsy Kids: Tuesday am-  May 4, 11, 25
                  Thursday am- May 6
Friday Crafts- May 7, 14
Ring-A-Ding-A-Sing Thing - May 5, 7, 12, 14, 19, 21 & 26

Happy News

I am proud to announce the arrival of my granddaughter Lea Marie. She was born on April 13 and is absolutely beautiful.

I just read the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riorden. Wow, was that good! I was totally surprised. When I heard that it was about greek mythology, I wasn't sure, but now I am glad that I read it.

Spring has Sprung

...and isn't it wonderful. I have loved watching the rain...not snow....falling.

We have several fun programs coming up for Spring break week, so if you are around you should check them out. Our first one is a drop-in Wii music play time. Come make music with your friends. We will be having a movie and craft afternoon on Wednesday. and finish up with a gardening project to start seeds on Thursday. It will be a fun afternoon.

End of March

Wow, March has been such a weird month. Did it come in like a lion or a lamb? Is it going out like a lion or a lamb? I haven't made up my mind.

I have been busy here at the library. We have three great programs programs for the spring break. They are on the website.

Our new, streamlined summer programming is now uploaded to our webpage! I have to say I am really excited about it. We have 7 really exciting performers coming in. A brand new program called "Battle of the Books" is for kids that really like to read, have to read or just like hanging out with friends. More information is coming out in May. We are having a "Rube Goldberg Machine" contest to see who can create the most complicated machine! I hope everyone who participate has as much fun as I had coming up with it. This year, instead of prizes, we will be putting leaves on a tree. For every book that you read, you will get a leaf to put the title on and your first name, then you get to stick it on the library tree. I can't wait to see how many leaves end up on our tree.

Hearts and Flowers

Valentine's Day is next weekend, which I am sure you knew, but just in case. Happy Valentine's Day to you and your family.

Next week is school break and we are offering two family programs: A movie with craft and a Wimpy Kid party. At the movie we will be learning the hula and basking in a tropical atmosphere. At the party, we will be having silly games and fun. I hope you can make one of the programs. Both programs require a sign-up.

Tomorrow THE STORM will be here. I hope you have some good books at home for you to enjoy while the snow falls. Remember you can always call the library to check if a program is running or if it has been canceled because of weather. As a rule of thumb, if the weather is bad-class is canceled but it never hurts to check. :-)

Keep warm!

January 28!

What an interesting winter this has been. I can't believe that yesterday I went outside with just a sweater yesterday. Someone said that there is always a thaw in January, but not like this. Of course this is just my opinion. I was expecting this type of thaw, say, mid-February. But the good part of this, is that it gave me the hope of spring. That was nice.

This is just a heads up for February....We are having a Wimpy Kid Party! Yeah. This will be the Friday of winter break. Keep an eye out for future updates!

The new year

The holidays have come and gone. Winter is half over. Quite honestly, I don't know where the time went. I hope your holidays were good to you.

With the cold weather here, this is a good time to snuggle up with a new book, some hot cocoa and family. I have been enjoying some of the new Young Adult materials as well as some of our new juvenile.

On an educational note, spending time reading with your children helps increase their vocabulary, their enjoyment of reading and helps develop narrative skills. This includes shared reading and being read to.