Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Books to help stir your child's imagination and give rise to a sense of creativity and play just for the joy of play.
One of the great pleasures of childhood is engaging in imaginary play, without having to worry about deadlines, goals, or expectations. Here are four books, each with a different approach, which may stimulate children’s sense of play. How many times have you heard parents say, “My child wasn’t crazy about the toy, but she loved the box”? In Not a Box by Antoinette Portis, an unseen narrator asks a little rabbit what’s he doing with that box, and the rabbit asserts each time, “It’s not a box.” Children will soon be chanting the phrase along with rabbit and telling you what the box has become – a car, a mountain, a building on fire, a robot. Not a Box cries out for follow-up play – with an actual box, scarf cushion, or pot, or wherever your …
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Celebrate the holiday by reading with your kids! Here are some charmin' tales of leprechauns, red-headed elves and girls named Fiona.
Ah, St. Patrick’s Day, a time for everyone to claim a cousin from two or three generations back who hailed from the old sod of Erin. Don’t worry, everyone gets to be Irish for St. Patrick ’s Day--we’re generous like that. If you’re looking for a way to explain the mad fun, sure and begorrah, swing by the Niles Public Library to pick up a few picture books. A Fine St. Patrick’s Day, by Susan Wojciechowski (see, I told you everyone gets to be Irish for St. Patrick’s Day), gives center stage to a red-headed elf. However, the real star is young Fiona Riley. She lives in the town of Tralee, and helps the townspeople come up with a brilliant idea to decorate for the high holiday. You see, every year the city of Tralee tries to beat the …
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Greta Ulrich reviews 'Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving,' a novel about a man who tries to regain a career by becoming a caregiver. What he learns from his patient--and the wacky people they encounter-- is more than he bargained for.
Book Review Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison Review by Greta Ulrich When Ben Benjamin signs up for a course to learn how to be a caregiver, he looks at this training as a last chance to help people. He has been a stay at home dad for ten years and has lost his family, his home, his self-respect and his sense of purpose. In the ten years he was at home the working world has passed him by and he now has few marketable job skills. He spends his time hanging out with his friends and playing darts. After completing his caregiver training Ben gets a job. He is hired to take care of Trevor, a young man with Duchene Muscular Dystrophy, and after some initial …
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Kids and adults can make a wide variety of relatively low-cost gifts. Here are books with instructions on how to use duct tape, gloves, and old neckties to make hand-crafted gifts.
Oh no, still need some gifts, eh? Christmas is just around the corner, your kids' banks, real or virtual, are depleted. What to do? You could look at Pinterest and of course there is Martha Stewart...but the advantage of browsing through a kids' craft book over googling for an idea, is that you can be fairly sure the result will be what is promised in the picture. This helps avoid a disappointing meltdown when that nifty idea for gluing macaroni to a can proves stickier than expected. All these titles can be found through the library and they will show each step of the process for each project. Being very practical, I like books that emphasize repurposing items in a truly useful way AND which have ideas that can be done with little …
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Take a guided tour of the Niles Library in your own language. This fun event will show those who primarily speak a foreign language what the library has to offer them.
Habla espanol? Mowi po polsku? Or maybe you speak Hindi, Korean, Bosnian, Gujarati, Serbian, Urdu, Russian or Croatian? People from all these groups live in Niles, and the Niles Library is inviting them for a tour and special event Saturday--in their own languages. Sasha Vasilic of the library's marketing department says it's one of the first major events in Niles for the town' many non-English speakers. The library is teaming up with the Niles Townships’ Schools ELL (English Language Learner) Parent Center for a World Language Celebration today, Sat., Sept. 29, from 1-3:30pm. Translators in each language will walk around the library with small groups, showing them books and movies in their language, and more. In addition, play games, …
Monday, August 20, 2012
Is your child worried about heading back to school? Try these books!
Shopping for school supplies is entering the final stretch, and some kids are starting to get a little apprehensive about starting school. Here are a few books to help ease those jitters! In Back to School Tortoise by Lucy M. George (Albert Whitman, 2010), a tortoise sets off to school with his backpack and his dapper red cap. Along the way, he starts to worry: “What if he tripped while getting lunch, and all the kids were mean to him?” Just as he’s persuaded himself not to go in, he gets to wondering, “What if…he made lots of new friends?” His gloomy attitude turns around, and in a delightful twist, “Mr. Tortoise” is greeted by his students. Robert Quackenbush’s First Grade Jitters (Harper, 2010) depicts a little boy who is so worried …
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
The Niles Library's plan to reconfigure its space moves forward as the board selects a construction management firm. If all goes smoothly, the library won't have to close during renovation.
The Niles Public Library board has taken another step forward in its plan to reconfigure its space. On Thursday, the board chose Frederick Quinn Corporation as its construction manager to manage its renovation project. It will work with the architect, Product Architecture +Design, and manage the day-to-day hands-on logistics of completing the task, according to Sue Wilsey, the library's publicity and marketing supervisor. If it does its job well and everything goes smoothly, the library will not have to close to the public during the renovation, Wilsey said, except for a possible day here or there when construction work would necessitate closing. Earlier: Library says it's responding to patrons The board received 11 bids from companies …
Friday, March 23, 2012
Action, action, and more action.
Not all boys like books (at first, anyway). So, how to get a boy hooked on reading? One way: find out what he likes, give him a book on that, and then introduce him to similar books. Plenty of time later to push for higher reading levels or character-driven books we call “literature.” Boys tend to like action or topics they find exotic (say, trucks or snakes), and there are plenty of such plot-driven and nonfiction books in the Niles Public Library’s Youth Services Department. Let’s start with a book for the very youngest… What boy could resist a zoo animal’s making a dash for freedom? This classic plotline (Curious George did it, for example) gets a new twist in Stephen Savage’s Where’s Walrus? Savage uses no words, only pictures, in this…
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Niles Library officials discuss strategic plan and anticipate changes with input from future studies.
The Niles Library board and and administration is working on a strategic plan, and trustees highlighted the next steps at Wednesday's library board meeting. Library officials developed the plan, which includes making renovations to the building, based on results from staff meetings and community input, but anticipate changes to the plan in the coming weeks. Earlier: Board will have more input “It’s a working document and it contains things like the core values. It also has seven different service priorities,” Sue Wilsey, the library's supervisor of marketing, said. “Because we have the funds in a special reserve for capital improvements, we’re required to have the strategic plan. There hadn’t been one.” What the staff knows The library …
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Monday, July 11, 2011
Teachers are on vacation, but nonfiction DVDs are a fun way to keep learning!
Summer… school’s over. The kids are home. Hopefully, they’re reading, either through their library’s summer reading program or on their own. But even when they’re not… Try turning your plasma screen into a learning machine! It’s easy to do with the right DVDs. Dogs, atoms, bugs, kitchen math and families around the world are just a few of the topics featured in new DVD releases! Check it out. May I Pet Your Dog? Intended for children from 4 to 8, this 14-minute-long DVD shows how to approach dogs safely and respectfully. Think of it as “doggie dos and dont's” – both for kids who already love dogs and kids who are afraid of them. “Harry the Dachshund” offers advice with help from dog expert Stephanie Calmenson. Kitchen Math & Measuring…
Clark Kent
8:20 am on Tuesday, August 23, 2011
"...a plan based on what we heard from the public...They need study rooms or small group rooms." More $$$$$$$ out the window! Study rooms? Then there would have to be construction, ventilation, electrical and other changes instituted. $$$$$$$$! Because the library is already too noisy in the evening? Control the problem and not isolate it. It seems everybody is too scared to tell a bunch of kids … more ›