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Almost a year and a half after the inspiration session “I Want a Truck Book!” at ALA’s Annual Conference in 2012, my library’s picture book reorganization project is finally done!

The catch is that I thought our project was done in February when we finished relabeling the last English language book in our department. But over the next few months I began to think — why shouldn’t we do this project with the Spanish language books too? If the goal of the project is to help patrons find books, only reorganizing the English language books only helped some of my patron base and not all.

Since it was so close to summer reading, I knew I had to wait until the kids were back in school. And I began to formulate my plan. In English, we called our subject areas “neighborhoods” and our picture book area “Picture Book City” after reading Amy Koester’s post on her blog last summer. The system was already in place since we knew we wanted consistency between both areas.

In Spanish, we would have “vecindarios” and “La Ciudad de Libros Ilustrados.”

I’d taken three years of Spanish in high school and college, so I knew that I would be able to read most of the books in order to decide what neighborhood they belonged in. But I didn’t feel comfortable writing and approving the translations for the labels and neighborhoods. All of our Spanish-speaking employees met with me and, together, we decided what our translations would be.

That meeting resulted with us changing “Fairy & Folk Tales” neighborhood in English to “Cuentos de Hadas” in Spanish so it would fit on the label. It meant our Circ./Tech manager taught the Technical Services department how to use alt codes so that our label “Transportación” would be correct. And finally, we changed the order that the neighborhoods appeared in, re-alphabetizing. “Bedtime” comes first in Picture Book City, but “Hora de Dormir” is seventh in La Ciudad de Libros Ilustrados.

And of course then it was time for reading and re-labeling. The bilingual books were easy to determine and most Spanish-only books were doable for me. When books gave me trouble, I used the subject headings and pictures to help provide context clues; I checked the catalog to see if we had the title in English or could get it from another library; I used Google Translate in a pinch; and I had a small pile of books for my Spanish-speaking co-workers to vote on.

Three weeks later, and we were done. We created a face-out display, information sheet, and talked it up with our patrons. After a month, our circulation in that area has already risen by 25%.

Have you thought about doing picture book reorganization in another language? Do you have any tips to share? Or any questions for me? Let me know in the comments!

- Katie Salo
Youth Services Manager
Melrose Park Library
http://storytimekatie.com

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I’m reminded today, this Friday the 13th, of the good magic in our lives and of the magic we perform every day by matching kids to books. Actually, I’ve been reminded this whole week!

As one of my favorite movies states:

“When you read a book as a child it becomes part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your life does.”- You’ve Got Mail, 1998

I’ve experienced this phenomenon a number of different ways. This week, our Adult Services department reminiscied about their favorite childhood reads and the favorite reads of their children after the Overdrive announcement that Fancy Nancy: Super Sleuth was the next “Big Library Read”. Their favorites included Tomie de Paola’s Pancakes for Breakfast and Pierre by Maurice Sendak.

It happened again when I opened up School Library Journal and found my beloved childhood reader series that is being reprinted! I jumped up and immediately was able to recall the opening rhyme that each Magic Castle Reader had: “Come to the magic castle when you are growing tall…”

And lastly — after a frustrating experience with sixth graders in the library last night — I went home to read a YA title that I had enjoyed as an actual teen and spent the night sighing over the cliche romance in its pages. I found comfort in its pages, since nothing can beat the actual tumultuous time of being a teenager!

This magic is alive in your library every day as you put a book in a child’s hands that has the potential to stay with them into adulthood and beyond.

Surely that’s enough to counteract a little bad luck, right?

What are your childhood favorites?

- Katie Salo
Youth Services Manager
Melrose Park Library
http://storytimekatie.com

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Yesterday, I had to say goodbye to a lot of my storytime friends because they’re going to school this fall. To help ease them into this transition and get ready for school, I made our last summer storytime all about school. With less than a week until school starts in one of our districts, I hope that the kids will remember that school means friends and teachers and happy times instead of worry.

One of my new favorite school books is “Foxy” by Emma Dodd. Emily is nervous about her first day of school and hasn’t gotten all the supplies she needs. But Foxy’s magic tail can easy provide her a pencil, right? Magic hijinks ensue and I think the ending hits the perfect note of reassurance without being overly sweet. And my parents and kids agreed with me!

Since I know many of us are facing that time of year when nervous kids and parents are appearing in droves, I thought I would share some more school books!

• Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? by Audrey Vernick
• It’s Time for Preschool by Esmé Raji Codell
• Kindergarten Diary by Antoinette Portis
• The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
• Llama Llama Misses Mama by Anna Dewdney
• Maisy Goes to Preschool by Lucy Cousins
• Mouse’s First Day of School by Lauren Thompson
• Pete the Cat: Rocking In My School Shoes by Eric Litwin
• Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton
• Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes
• Wow! School! by Robert Neubecker

Did I forget your favorite? Let me know in the comments!

- Katie Salo
Youth Services Manager
Melrose Park Library
http://storytimekatie.com

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While at ALA Annual, I was super excited to see some of the new additions to familiar series that are forthcoming and it started me thinking about why series books are so popular, both for patrons and librarians.

Series books are all about familiarity. Patrons recognize characters from an early age and will eagerly settle into a new adventure with an old friend. Similarly librarians know that if they offer a Pigeon book to a young reader, there will be more books for that young reader to devour once they are done.

But my personal favorite way to use series books are in storytime. Librarians can easily use series books as a way to update older storytime plans. You’ve got a llama theme? Make sure you put the newest LLama LLama book in there and it’s suddenly fresh again.

It’s obvious why we should include these books in storytime, when kids suddenly shout delighted, “That’s an OLIVIA BOOK.” Their eyes light up and you see them settle down on the rug for a familiar character, for a brand-new adventure, for an excellent story.

Here are some other favorites to use in storytime, though I’m aiming to be a bit more contemporary since everyone knows about Arthur, Max and Ruby, and Curious George already:

• Baby Owl, originally from I’m Not Cute by Jonathan Allen
• Bear, originally from Bear In Underwear by Todd Doodler
• Elephant and Piggie, originally from Today I Will Fly! by Mo Willems
• Little Quack, originally from Little Quack by Lauren Thompson
• Llama Llama, originally from Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
• Olivia, originally from Olivia by Ian Falconer
• The Peas, originally from LMNO Peas by Keith Baker
• Pete the Cat, originally from Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by James Dean and Eric Litwin
• Pigeon, originally from Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
• Rocket, originally from How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills
• Scaredy Squirrel, originally from Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt
• Splat the Cat, originally from Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton

But which series books are your favorites to use in storytime? Am I missing any that you love? Let me know in the comments!

- Katie Salo
Youth Services Manager
Melrose Park Library
http://storytimekatie.com

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Like many of you, I use a lot of music in my storytimes. I really believe in the importance of singing to help build early literacy skills and I place a high priority on singing three to four songs in each storytime.

I have always been comfortable singing in front of a crowd because I’ve been in choirs since I was a preschooler myself, so I do sing my songs a capella. All of my welcome/opening/goodbye songs are sung to familiar tunes (“If You’re Happy and You Know It” and “Farmer in the Dell”), but my storytime parents do not sing along with me!

I realize that there are lots of reasons why parents might not be singing. Many of my storytime parents are not native English speakers, and I’m sure that some of them feel their voices are not singing-in-public voices. But I want to make it easier for parents and kids to connect with music in storytime. So, I’ve been searching for ways to make songs more accessible for my storytime parents.

One of the things I’ve found to be successful is using hand-held musical instruments. We have egg shakers and wrist/ankle bells for both kids and parents to use. Kids, of course, love making noise and the parents will eagerly pick up an instrument instead of singing.

I’ve also found that using books I can sing along with will prompt my storytime parents to join in on the chorus. Some of my favorites include the Jane Cabrera books: “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” and “Wheels on the Bus.” I think having a book to help parents remember the words definitely helps and I also think that having the kids focused on a book might make it easier to chime in.

This summer, I’m going to be creating easel signs with the words to my most repeated songs, as well as a song dice for the kids to roll to see which songs we’ll be singing. I plan to include really familiar tunes so that everyone will hopefully get comfortable singing along by the end of our eight-week session.

How do songs work at your library’s storytimes? Do you use recorded music? Does that seem to get parents singing along? Let me know!

- Katie Salo
Youth Services Manager
Melrose Park Library
http://storytimekatie.com

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Currently, at my library we are on a storytime break! That means for two weeks, I will not be doing my regular morning storytime session. We have five sessions a year of seven or eight weeks. [For those interested, these are the sessions that I traditionally do: Winter (Dec-Jan), Spring I (late Feb-Mar), Spring II (mid Apr-May), Summer (mid Jun-early Aug), and Fall (Sept-Oct).]

As the only librarian in my library who does storytime (and that’s not my only responsibility!), these breaks give me time to re-cooperate from one session and to plan the next session in its entirety. Also, it gives me time to cull our registration list — if patrons are signed up but do not attend any weeks during the session, I’m able to move people up on our waitlist.

Recently, I’ve been wondering about whether other small libraries take storytime breaks like this and why you might do so! Do any mid-sized or large libraries also take storytime breaks? Let me know in the comments!

- Katie Salo
Youth Services Manager
Melrose Park Library
http://storytimekatie.com

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I spoke a little bit about our new storytime mascot, Applesauce, on my last post here at the ALSC blog. Today I want to spend a little bit of time talking about why I decided to get a storytime mascot — to create a storytime tradition at my library.

My library is a medium sized public library, just two towns away from a library school, and it’s located in a very urban area. All of this, I believe, leads to a lot of job roll-over and changes in our staffing. Since I’ve been at the library, *SIX* different librarians/library assistants have been in charge of storytime duties.

When I took over storytime in the fall of 2009, I wanted to first get my bearings, build our attendance numbers, and then I wanted to re-assess what was needed. Once I accomplished those first goals, I really found that what my community needed was stability — in staffing, in days/times storytime was offered, in structure of the storytime, etc. And while I can’t promise to work there for the next thirty years, I can create some traditions to carry on even after I leave.

I was greatly inspired by my friend Sharon, and her library’s storytime mascot Miss Mouse. Miss Mouse has been enhancing storytime (and the library as a community) for over 25 years! I definitely encourage you to read Sharon’s post about this amazing tradition.

Applesauce was my small beginning to start our own storytime mascot tradition. And already I am seeing the benefit of having him at storytime — shy preschoolers who light up when Applesauce interacts with them and kids who shout out “Applesauce” even if they can’t say many other words in English.

Even though most days I feel like a storytime veteran, there’s always more to learn and do to make storytime a better experience for our patrons!

Do you have any storytime traditions in your library? If so, I’d be very interested to hear about them!

- Katie Salo
Youth Services Manager
Melrose Park Library
http://storytimekatie.com

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Storytimes have been and will always remain the main source of preschool programming at my library. But, I always try to provide additional programming to meet the needs of patrons and their families who do not attend storytimes, regardless of the reason why. Here are just a few of the ideas that have worked for us:

• Book/Character Parties: I’ve done “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” “Olivia,” and “Max and Ruby” at my library. Other staff members have done “Clifford” and “Dora & Diego.” These programs are a great way to incorporate books with activities like crafts, snacks, and games. I often borrow ideas from birthday parties online.
• Bubble Party: I did this program in the summer of 2010. I bought a bunch of bubbles at the dollar store and let the kids play with bubbles. We read “Bubble Trouble” by Margaret Mahy before I bought out the bubbles. I ended this program by painting with bubbles!



• Chalk Day: Preschoolers and their parents joined us for a June day on the sidewalk next to the library to play with chalk. I purchased the chalk in September, when it was on clearance, so I was able to get a lot of different sets with new techniques. (Who knew there was 3D chalk?) This was a great family program, and we had preschoolers through teenagers participate. It was also great publicity/advocacy for the library to see so many pictures of people reading and messages like, “I love my librarians.”
• Kids Art: This was a program where I paired a book or two with a larger art project. And I’m not talking quick art projects — these mostly involved smocks and paint and a big mess. Parents were thrilled with this program because their kids were able to really have fun with art, and they weren’t stuck with the clean-up. My only advice is to make sure to publicize that it’s a messy art program so that patrons will come dressed appropriately.

This spring/summer, I’m planning a Rainbow Day (filled with rainbow crafts, games, and books like “Wow! Said the Owl”), finally doing a Stuffed Animal Sleepover, and a giant Candyland day for preschoolers. I’ll also be starting Kids Art again, and we will likely keep doing Chalk Day until our chalk runs out!

What about you and your libraries? Do you do programming for preschoolers outside of storytime? What have been your success stories?

- Katie Salo
Youth Services Manager
Melrose Park Library
http://storytimekatie.com

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One my absolute favorite things about the invention of Twitter is sharing ideas with librarians all across the country and globe. It was through Twitter that I discovered a group of children’s librarians sharing flannelboard ideas on Fridays.

Flannel Friday was started by Melissa of Mel’s Desk, and gained popularity quickly! To participate, all you need is a flannelboard idea or creation.

Even if you don’t have anything to contribute, you can gain valuable ideas just by looking through the past blog posts. Anne from So Tomorrow keeps an archive of the posts, and a lot of the ideas have been pinned on Pinterest if you’re more a visual person. (Like me!)

I have found so many new ideas, enough to keep me busy all year long!

Do you have some favorite stories that you’ve flannelized?

- Katie Salo
Youth Services Manager
Melrose Park Library
http://storytimekatie.wordpress.com

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Most children’s librarians are nearing the end of their summer reading programs and are finally feeling a bit of relief from their busy schedules. As for me, I’m already jotting down notes and making plans for improvement for next year.

A few years back, my staff and I decided to create a separate program for children not yet reading independently. We created a new reading log, set a goal of listening to 25 books over an eight-week period and ultimately put the decision in the parent’s hands as to which program their child would register for. The program was a moderate success and we’ve continued it since then.

Even though we didn’t get the immediate response I wanted from the community, it was an easy program to do because we used the same prizes and the same reporting system as the youth program. It was worth it to see the accomplishments and the pride that our littlest patrons had on their faces.

This year, however, my library had a pretty large increase in pre-readers registering for summer reading. And now I’m thinking about making the program bigger for next summer now that I have a larger base group to work with!

Instead of just books, I want to incorporate literacy activities. I’ve already thought of a few, and have plenty of time to research for next year. (I’m especially interested in the re-tooled Every Child Ready to Read package!) But I have to ask — do you have any tried and true literacy activities that you’ve used in summer reading reporting?

I’ll be eagerly awaiting your ideas!

- Katie Salo
Youth Services Manager
Melrose Park Library

http://storytimekatie.wordpress.com

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So, what do you do when your K-3rd graders think they’re too “old” for storytime? (When, of course, we as librarians know that they love being read aloud to and that they need multiple role models reading to them.) At my library, we choose to focus on a popular character and call it a “party” instead of a storytime.

Last month, I hosted one of these party/storytimes based on the Olivia books by Ian Falconer.

I always start the program off with the books part. This time I read three Olivia books and did a flannelboard before it was on to the games!

(I used the puppet templates from Nick Jr. to make the flannelboard pieces — there are puppets for each member of Olivia’s family.)

Most of my ideas were found online on either the official Olivia page (most publishers have PDFs of activities for teachers and librarians for their book series) or on Nick Jr.’s website.

For our craft, I used the puppets and puppet scenery from Nick Jr. to make this portable puppet theater:

And as for the kids? They loved this program, and it was a big hit. When one of my little girls left, she asked her mom if they could come to the library every day.

This was such an easy program to put together that I just had to share! Have you had any other successful character storytimes?

- Katie Salo, Youth Services Manager
Melrose Park Library

http://storytimekatie.wordpress.com

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I hate to admit it, but I sometimes get bored of the same old storytime themes. There are points in each of my storytime sessions that I cannot even think of giving the traditional seasonal storytime. Where if I look at one more book about birds or bears, I will throw my hands up in the air.

That’s when I decide to pull out the unusual storytime ideas; the ones that I’m not sure are really going to work.

Some themes make me work harder; especially last fall when I began planning opposites storytime. Books were the easiest part and, for me, always are. But finding extension activities and a craft led to some creative solutions:

Opposites Storytime Craft — a coloring book pre-made by volunteers for my preschoolers to color in.

I keep trying to push the envelope by working with new themes as often as I can: shapes, hello/goodbye, and playtime to name a few.

And some of my unusual themes have actually made planning storytimes easier. This past month, I’ve been doing a weekly storytime for a local daycare and I choose to do a different color each week instead of rehashing my weekly storytimes. For the color red I had stories about apples, pizzas, the little red hen, and firetrucks. This made planning a breeze!

I’m always on the look-out for a fun and original storytime theme. Do you have any ideas to pass on? What storytimes have you done at your library that are unusual?

– Katie Salo, Youth Services Manager
Melrose Park Public Library
Melrose Park, IL

http://storytimekatie.wordpress.com

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