Book Club - Franny K Stein

In my spate of catch-up posts about book club, I hop in my wayback machine to February of 2009. During that Valentine happy month, we read Attack of the Fifty Foot Cupid by Jim Benton, the second in the Franny K Stein series. Normally I try to feature the first book in a series in book club. However I had received a large number of free paperback copies of the second title in this series, so we went with the giant cupid. If you're not familiar with Franny K. Stein, she's a lot of fun as a beginning chapter book for guys or girls. She's a mad scientist (though not evil) kid who does wacky science things worthy of any film noir villain, but does so with humor and surprising humanity.

Book: Attack of the 50-ft Cupid by Jim Benton, part of the Franny K. Stein series.

Introduce Yourself
What is your name, age, and favorite subject in school?

Discussion Questions

1. Is Franny a likeable character? Why or why not? (Make a pro/con list! I love lists!)
   
2. Why do you think Igor the dog likes her?
   
3. Does Franny get more or less likeable during the story?
   
4. What do you think of Franny's valentine's generator?
   
5. Did you make/give valentines this year?
   
6. Is it better to valentines once a year or to show love all year long? (these last two questions break my own no yes/no question rules but they lead into the next few questions)
   
7. How can you show love all year long? Does Fanny understand this? How so?
   
8. Which is your favorite of Fanny's inventions?
   
9. What would you invent if you could invent anything?
   
10. What would you "biggerize"?
    
11. What would you make manifest?
    
12. Do you like science?
    
13. Have you ever done a science experiment before? What was it like?

Acitvities
I've previously posted a Gross Science Program and any of those ideas would work. We made silly putty (erm I mean the non-trademarked pushy putty). Each kid got their own ziplock baggie full of fun. Pro tip: have hand wipes and clean ziplock bags available for transport home. Here's the recipe I used:

Pushy Putty/Flubber
Add 1/4 cup water to 1/4 cup Elmer's Glue
Squish together in ziplock bag with a few drops of food coloring (optional)

Make Borax Solution:
Take 2 tablespoons borax (found in the laundry aisle), add 1 cup water and stir

Add 1/4 cup of Borax solution to water and glue mixture.

Knead together. Let dry for a few minutes then store in an airtight container. It will be smooth and rubber like; it can bounce, pick up pictures from paper and more!

Science Experiment Take Two:
A great, fun, amazing, and simple science experiment demonstrates the law of gravity (that it works equally on all objects regardless of weight). Drop a ping pong ball and a golf ball from the same height at the same time. Guess which one will hit the ground first. (Hint, they'll hit at the same time.)

Snacks!
Obviously you'll be serving valentine candy you quite wisely bought on the 15th for a deep discount.

Readalikes
You can read the rest of the Franny K. Stein series by Jim Benton for a good start. Also fun is: Andrew Lost (series) by J. C. Greenburg, The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey, and The Zack Files (series) by Dan Greenburg.

Book Club - Legend of Spud Murphy

Our first book club of the new year, at the end of January, was The Legend of Spud Murphy by Eoin Colfer. This book got rave reviews from our kids (remember our audience is first through third grade). I admit I'm not good at posting book club activities, but I save all my notes and I mean to! Since I'm doing a presentation at the Alaska Library Conference next week on book clubs, hopefully I'll get a bunch of these back notes put up. Helpful hint, while I always want to pronounce Eoin like Ian, I listened to an audio book of one of the Artemis Fowl series and they pronounced it more like Owen. I'm assuming the audio people would have pronounced the author's name correctly.

Book: The Legend of Spud Murphy by Eoin Colfer

Introduce Yourself
Name, age, and your best adventure story (one you read or one you lived)

Discussion Questions

1. What are the boys' favorite types of books to read? (Action/Adventure)
   
2. What are your favorite types of books to read?
   
3. How do the boys know which area of the library to stay in?
   
4. What areas of the Loussac Library are you allowed to be in? (all of them) Where are you not allowed to be? (you can go anywhere, but you do need to respect quiet zones)
   
5. Why do you think kids weren't allowed in other sections of the library?
   
6. Why were the kids so scared of Ms. Murphy? Was she really scary? Why or why not?
   
7. Do you think librarians are scary? Why or why not?
   
8. What do you think Ms. Murphy meant when she said she sometimes forgot the library was about books?
   
9. What else is the library about besides just books? (hint programs, information, helping people)

Activities:
Library Tour!
We spent about half our time on a tour of the library. Even though these kids are regular library users, they all said they learned stuff, and they all enjoyed it. Of course at the end, they got a READ temporary tattoo.

Survival Games
Using various survival guides such as The Boys Book of Survival or The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook and we played a quiz game with situations such as what would you do in a bear attack? (This is Alaska - they might need that! Of course they're less likely to be stuck in a hurricaine.)

Exploding Popsicle Stick Frisbees
Because my library is WAY more fun than Ms. Murphy's library, we made the exploding popsicle stick frisbees featured in The Outdoor Book for Adventurous Boys.

Potato Gun
I wish. We didn't do this, but how cool would that have been?

Snacks
We don't do snacks any more, but it would have to be something spud based. Tater tots if you have a way to heat them, or potato chips. (The healthy kind of potato chips, er the healthy-ish kind.)

Readalikes
There are two veins to go when kids like Legend of Spud Murphy. The easiest is to go with similar humor books. I'd recommend Frindle by Andrew Clements (or pretty much anything by Andrew Clements) or any of the Joey Pigza books by Jack Gantos (first title is Joey Pigza Swallowed The Key).

You can also go with survival stories, anything by Will Hobbs or Gary Paulsen (though those tend to go to a higher reading level). Gordon Korman is also a really good choice. And I tend to really like non-fiction books as well. Thus I recommend The Outdoor Book For Adventurous Boys by Adrian Besley and The Boys' Book of Survival: How To Survive Anything, Anywhere by Guy Campbell and not to leave the girls out we have The Daring Book For Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan.

Book Club - Bunnicula

Just in time for Halloween, on October 23rd, my 1st through 3rd grade book club read and discussed Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe. This was a quite popular book and many children took home the next few in the series. This was also our first book club since the furlough closed the library on three months of Saturdays so I was thrilled to see that we hadn't lost any people numberwise. (We had some new kids, some kids didn't returned, but by the numbers it all evened out.) I've done this book club two years ago, in Kansas City. Here is a conglomeration of everything we did both years. Once again the questions are a mixture of things you would know if you read the book, and things anyone could answer.

Book: Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe

Introduce Yourself
Name, age, and do you have any pets?

Discussion Questions

1. How did they choose names for Chester? (Chesterton the author) Bunnicula (Like Dracula, the movie at which he was found)
   
2. Do you know how your parents chose your name? (If not, and most of my kids did know, then this is a good question to ask your parents.)
   
3. Have you ever read to your pet like Toby reads to Harold?
   
4. Did you think this book was scary? Why or why not?
   What is the scariest book you've read? Movie you've seen?
   
5. What is Harold's favorite people food? (Cupcakes, chocolate cake)
   Does your pet have a favorite people food?
   Are all people foods safe for pets? Is chocolate safe for dogs? How can you know what is safe?
   
6. What is Harold's bad behavior? (chewing shoes)
   Do your pets have any bad behavior?
   
7. Garlic scares away vampires. What is your least favorite smell?
   
8. List some weird things about Bunnicula and Chester in the book. We used a big sheet of paper to do this together.
   
9. What is the weirdest thing your pet has ever done? Also on a big sheet of paper.
   
10. Who in your life is most likely a vampire secretly?
    
11. What about some other secret creature/mythical creature? (ie fairy, bigfoot...)
    
12. If you were secretly a monster or mythical creature, what would you be?
    
13. What would you do if you thought one of your pets was a vampire?
    

Activities
Fact or Fiction Game - Vote with your feet
We're in a room with large stairs (it's a theater, they're for sitting upon) and so we stand on the middle step and jump forward to the lower step for "real" and backward to the higher step for "not real". You can also do this by having kids start in the middle and run to one wall or the other. They love this game, and emphasize that this is just what you THINK not a right or wrong choice. So vote with your feet if you think these are real/not real:

• UFOs
  
• Aliens
  
• Loch Ness Monster
  
• Yeti - the abominable snowman
  
• Mermaids
  
• Vampires
  
• Fairies
  
• Unicorns
  
• Phoenix
  

The Nose Knows
Harold is quite proud of his nose. I put a number of strong scented things in brown paper bags and then we guessed which was which. You could have students write them down, but for simplicity sake we all took a turn smelling and then guessed all together verbally. The objects I used included: coffee, orange, lemon, oregano, chili powder, cinnamon sticks, chocolate chip cookies, a wet wipe (for that nice disinfectant smell), and garlic.

Crafts
Pet Picture Frames
We used blank mats and ribbons, markers, and stamps to make frames for our pet photos.

Nightime scenes
Use black paper and light colored paints to make a nighttime scene from Bunnicula

Snacks
Obviously veggies. Just carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, and ranch dressing work great. Or you could give everyone a glass of veggie juice. (One child had hoped they would get chocolate cupcakes with creme in the middle like Harold likes, but no going.)

Readalikes
And book club is most a success if they leave inspired to read more books. I recommend:
Bailey School Kids series by Debbie Dadey (mythical creatures abound!)
Hank the Cowdog series by John Erickson (a dog solves mysteries)
and of course the many other books featuring Bunnicula and his friends by Deborah and James Howe.

Pre-Marketing is Confusing

There is a certain segment of the population that finds pre-marketing confusing, and this segment is larger than you would expect. Thus when they see an advertisment for a book, they immediately come to the library and ask for a copy. Now as soon as a book is put on order by the library, we can place a request or "hold" for you on that book. So that when we get the book, you'll already be on the list. This doesn't mean we have the book yet. And thus the confusion begins.

Of course you heard that Sarah Palin's book is coming out. Naturally we're already getting requests; they started the day after the announcement. So the conversation goes something like this:

Confused Patron: I'd like Sarah Palin's book please.
Patient Librarian: That won't be out for six weeks, can I place a request for you?
CP: But they were talking about it on the news.
PL: That is because it was just announced, but it won't be available for another six weeks.
CP: But they were showing it on the news.
PL: The cover art has been released so they can show the cover, but it is not available yet. Can I place a hold for you?
CP: But I saw it in Barnes and Noble!
PL: I believe you saw a poster advertising pre-ordering the book as it won't be available until Nov X. (at this point I'm usually pointing to the bolded release date on the amazon.com screen) Can I place a hold for you on the book for when it does come out?
CP: And how long will that take before I get the book?

And on we go. I have this conversation dozens of time whenever a new hot book is released, or getting ready to be released for either kids or adults. Recently (and by recently I mean for the last four months), I've been having this conversation with children about Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney, the fourth book in a very popular series which I promise is not going to be released until October 12th. No your friend didn't have it, they had an ad for it in the back of the last book, no you didn't see it in Barnes and Noble, you saw a poster, yes I'm sure, no I'm not trying to keep you from getting the book.

I feel sorry for these people. Do they go to the movie theater and demand to see a movie right now that won't be released for weeks? (But I saw it on TV! But they showed it on Letterman!) It seems like a tough way to go through life if you don't understand pre-marketing.

Extremely Exciting News!

I have been selected as a participant in the American Library Association Class Emerging Leaders Class of 2010. This is a great honor and a fantastic opportunity to learn about my profession, and meet some of the best young librarians out there. I'm literally walking on water. It all kicks off in January at the ALA Midwinter Conference in Boston. No complaints about Boston in January. I'm an Alaskan girl now, I'll be brining the bikini.

Picture Book Picks for October

Every month, I've been recommending new and fantastic picture books for our bookletters service. We're looking at migrating over that service to a blog format and this is a trial run. So here are some fantastic picture books for October. Some are pure Halloween fun, but others feature ghouls, ghosts, monsters, and witches dealing with life on every other day of the year. But all of them are new, shiny, and fantastic. Enjoy!

How to Potty Train Your Monster by Kelly DiPucchio; illustrated by Mike Moon
Congratulations! Your monster is growing up, and up, and UP!
Now it's time to potty train him!
Potty training is not always the easiest task to navigate-especially for growing monsters. Thankfully, with the help of this easy-to-use guide, young ones can be sure not to forget any steps in the process. With hilarious text and playful, energetic illustrations this potty training guide is a must-have for little kids and little monsters everywhere.
Check the Library Catalog for this item!

Boo to You! by Lois Ehlert
The harvest garden is bursting with delicious vegetables, the pumpkins are decorated and lit, and the mice have their costumes ready. Everyone is looking forward to the annual Halloween-night feast. Scary Cat wasn't invited to the party, but he seems to think he's coming anyway. Hmmm, time to come up with a clever mouse-style trick to outsmart him! Done in Ehlert's beautiful and signature collage style, these mice might inspire your own little artists.
Check the Library Catalog for this item!

There Was An Old Monster! by Rebecca, Adrian, and Ed Emberley
In this variation on the traditional cumulative rhyme, a monster swallows ants, a lizard, a bat, and other creatures to try to cure a stomach ache than began when he swallowed a tick. He swallows progressively bigger animals until he tries to swallow a lion... Children will laugh, dance, and sing along with this delightful book.
Check the Library Catalog for this item!

Bone Soup by Cabria Evans
Retells the classic tale about a traveller, a ghost, who tricks a town's witches, ghouls, and zombies into helping him make soup, fulfilling his voracious appetite, and beginning a Halloween festival.
Check the Library Catalog for this item!

Boo, Bunny! by Kathryn O. Galbraith
Halloween can be especially spooky for a shy bunny. But when that shy bunny bumps into another shy bunny, friendship scares away fear. Once they join forces, not even the darkest night can stop them two brave bunnies from having the best Halloween ever. Full of sounds, spookiness, and sweetness, this dynamic picture book celebrates the best part of Halloween: friends!
Check the Library Catalog for this item!

Monsters Don't Eat Broccli by Barbara Jean Hicks
What do monsters eat? In this rollicking picture book written by Barbara Jean Hicks and illustrated by Sue Hendra, monsters insist they don’t like broccoli. They’d rather snack on tractors or a rocket ship or two, or tender trailer tidbits, or a wheely, steely stew. But boy do those trees they’re munching on look an awful lot like broccoli. Maybe vegetables aren’t so bad after all! This hilarious book will have youngsters laughing out loud and craving healthy monster snacks of their own.
Check the Library Catalog for this item!

Ghosts in the House! by Kazuno Kohara
Just the right mix of sweet and scary for the youngest trick-or treaters. At the edge of town lives a clever girl with a spooky problem: Her house is haunted! Luckily, she happens to be a witch and knows a little something about taking care of ghosts. She catches them, puts them in the washing machine, airs them out to dry, and gives them new lives as sofa covers, table cloths, and, of course, bed sheets to cozy up under. Fresh and charming illustrations in dynamic orange, black and white bring this resourceful heroine and these spooky ghosts to life.
Check the Library Catalog for this item!

I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll
A unique monster-under-the-bed story with the perfect balance of giggles and shivers, this picture book relies on the power of humor over fear, appeals to a child’s love for creatures both alarming and absurd, and glorifies the scope of a child’s imagination. One night, when Ethan checks under his bed for his monster, Gabe, he finds a note from him instead: "Gone fishing. Back in a week." Ethan knows that without Gabe’s familiar nightly scares he doesn't stand a chance of getting to sleep, so Ethan interviews potential substitutes to see if they've got the right equipment for the job—pointy teeth, sharp claws, and a long tail—but none of them proves scary enough for Ethan. When Gabe returns sooner than expected from his fishing trip, Ethan is thrilled. It turns out that Gabe didn't enjoy fishing because the fish scared too easily.
Check the Library Catalog for this item!

Do Not Build a Frankenstein! by Neil Numberman
A Frankenstein is big.
He could push you really high on the swing. He'd never get tired of giving you rides on his shoulder.
A Frankenstein would be the perfect new best friend.
Maybe you could build one. . . .
No!
Wait!
Whatever you do, Do Not Build a Frankenstein!
Check the Library Catalog for this item!

Monster Baby by Dian Regan
Mrs. Oliver's dreams have come true when her husband finds a tiny baby on the doorstep of their farmhouse. He looks like any other newborn—well, except for the fur, the tail, the pointy teeth, and the horns. But to Mrs. Oliver, he is beautiful. Olly begins to grow at an alarming rate, and in just three days he's big enough for kindergarten. He makes friends with the children at school, but his size keeps getting him in trouble . . . until he realizes all the things it allows him to do. After graduating from college two weeks after coming to live with the Olivers, Olly is adopted by his new parents. Even better, someone new—and equally unusual—moves into the farm down the road.
Check the Library Catalog for this item!

BONUS PICK: Graphic Novel
Magic Trixie by Jill Thompson
For slightly more mature and adventuresome readers, try this new graphic novel series. Magic Trixie is an adorable witch who attends a magic school with her best friends (werewolves, vampires, mummies and more) all the while dealing with not-so-magical problems, such as a baby sister who seems to get far more attention than she does and finding the perfect trick for show or tell. Kids will laugh and relate to Trixie in all three volumes of this fantasitc new series.
Check the Library Catalog for this item!

Book Club - The Littles

The next installment on my series of book clubs for first through third graders features the classic book, The Littles by John Peterson. Because of book availability we read either The Littles or The Littles to the Rescue. This was the best attended book club we have had, and the most popular book. I remember loving these books as a kid, and they're still popular. After book club, every copy we had of any Littles book was checked out and I could have checked out three times as many. I actually did this back in November of last year, so that is how far behind I am on this blog. Here's what we did for our book club.

Book: The Littles; The Littles to the Rescue by John Peterson

Introduce Yourself
What is your name, age, and which Littles book did you read? (I was surprised by how many children read multiple of the books.)

Discussion Questions

1. What was your favorite part of the book? Why?
   
2. Which is your favorite character? Why?
   
3. What Little family member are you the most like? How?
   
4. Do you think there are tiny people living in your house? Why or why not? (at this point we stacked up the evidences on pro/con lists as part of our critical thinking skills)
   
5. Why do you think the Littles only take what the Biggs are done with? Is this like recycling? Bonus How can we recycle and reuse things at home?
   
6. Why do you think the Biggs have never noticed the Littles?
   
7. If you were a teeny little person, what would you "borrow" from your big house?
   What would you use for a bed? Blankets? Dishes? Tables?
   
8. Can you imagine how the Littles would use other things beside the telephone to communicate? (example a computer)
   
9. Lucy and Tom Little don't go to school. How do you think they learn?
   
10. Are the Littles brave? When were they brave?
    
11. What would be harder if you were noly five inches tall? What would be easier?
    

Activities
Postage Stamp Art
The Littles use postage stamps as art. I went to the post office to buy post stamps that looked cool and didn't have a lot of choices. I remember there being tons of choices as a kid. Fortunately I had an envelope at home of "pretty" stamps that are all the wrong denomination. I recommend asking your staff/family/friends for donations of "old" stamps (not valuable obviously) for this. We "mounted" the stamps on colored cardstock and made "frames" by gluing on colored toothpicks. I, naturally, had cut the colored toothpicks in half the day before. I also had blank spine labels and allowed them to draw their own miniature paintings.

Little Books
We used small strips of paper folded accordian styles and stapled between cardstock to create books. I had printed book covers in teeny miniature versions. Or they could draw their own cover on blank cardstock. Very fun and popular.

Food or Snack
I used the recipes on the fantastic Hamster Tracker in their Cooking for Lucy section. I made and brought in a few examples (the little burgers and little pizza) and sent home instructions on the "take home fun and activities" sheet. I used a picture from the site, and received permission from the site's author who was quite kind about it. I encouraged the kids to make their own at home since we don't do food here at the library. But it would be a fun group activity if the cutting was done ahead of time by an adult (naturally).

Take Home
I sent home a "Take Home Fun and Activities" sheet. It included the "micro-burgers" recipe and picture, a list of The Littles books, and instructions to decorate a "Little" house.

To Decorate a "Tinies" House
Start with a shoe box and set it up as an extra room for any visiting Tinies. An old sock (especially a child's sock) can be a sleeping bag. What other furniture can you find? Old water bottle caps make wonderful bowls. Hang up the art you made in book club. Make a tinfoil mirror. Use your imagination and have fun! (Remember to ask an adult before you "borrow" anything.)

Other Books
And of course I would be no kind of librarian if I didn't do a "if you liked The Littles, you should try..." segment. Here's my recommendations:
The Littles (series) by John Peterson (there are seven or so in the series)
Andrew Lost (series) by J. C. Greenburg
The Borrowers (series) by Mary Norton (for slightly more advanced readers)