Learning | Non-Fiction Christmas Books

It's the most wonderful time of the year.  Maybe we are busy, but I hope we're not too busy to read.  I'd like to point out that SSJCPL has a veritable plethora of Christmas books for your reading pleasure. 

Sure, there are picture books for the wee ones, and stories for us bigger kids of all ages, but today I will draw your attention to non-fiction books about Christmas.

Don't forget that we have books that will teach you how to do things, or tell you why things are the way they are. 

• Need recipes? We have them.  
• Craft projects? We have them.  
• Decorating ideas? Party planning? We have them. 
• Christmas traditions around the world? We have them. 
• Christmas music? We have it, in the form of sheet music and recorded music.

Santa and the Rockettes, from Alex's photostream on Flickr.com. Some rights reserved.

There are also some inspirational Christmas books.  I just checked out one of our newest books, Charles Edward Hall's Santa Claus is for Real: a True Christmas Fable About the Magic of Believing. This man learned the true meaning of Christmas, by playing Santa Claus in New York's Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular for nearly three decades.  When he started, he was more like Scrooge than Santa Claus. I can't wait to read about it.

Do you have a favorite Christmas book? Leave a comment below, and tell us about it.

She's Crafty | Crafty Resources

When you think of resources that might be available at your local library for crafting the first thought is obviously going to be about books. Library...books...they kind of go hand-in-hand. But did you know your local SSJCPL branch has more than books to help you in your crafty quests? Yuuup, we got the stuff...

In this post I'm going to introduce you, dear reader, to two resources you can access at your branch or on our website easy peasy.

The first resource is a database.

da.ta.base 
noun 
digital information collected and organized in one place from a variety or sources.

Easily searchable, retrievable, printable and sharable, databases are a very handy tool to have.

With our databases you can:

• Find repair information for your vehicle through the Auto Repair Reference Center

• Find your next read by browsing NoveList

• Perform searches of articles and pictures especially for children in Kids Search

Of course, I'm especially excited to talk about one database in particular, the Hobbies and Craft Reference Center! You read that right, crafters, we have an entire database bursting with all sorts of crafty information! Annnd you can access it 24 hours a day 7 days a week from home or during any hour your local branch is open on one of our public-use computers.

Yeeeah baby!

How does a database help you craft? Say you heard a friend talk about a papercutting craft called scherenschnitte and you wanted to learn more about this German art of cutting paper. This reminds you that you just recently read a blog about a library database that might have information about what you're looking for. You hop on your computer or head to your local branch and hop on one of theirs and...

ssjcpl.org -> Research -> Databases -> Fun!

1. Go to ssjcpl.org. 
2. Mouse over to Research.
3. In the menu that pops up, click on Databases. This will bring you to the Database Category page.
4. In this example, to reach the Hobbies and Craft Reference Center, you would click on the Do It Yourself category.
5. You would then click on the blue and underlined title for the database you want to play with.

Once inside the database you have a few options to find information.

• performing a Search
• browse by Category
• browse by Popular Sources
• clicking on the Featured Video
• or pressing the Get Started! button in the Crafts Spotlight area.

To continue our example, let's perform a search for "scherenschnitte".

At the very top of the search results is a promising entry, "Simplified Scherenschnitte". The search result entry tells me that it comes from a periodical, who wrote the article, which magazine it came from, and the date. It will also list thumbnails of pictures featured in the article. At the bottom of the entry it will have all the related files associated to this specific article; be it PDF, HTML, video, and animation. Click on the one you want and it will open your article or media in the browser for immediate consumption.

Once you open the article you have the option to simply read the article, print the article, email the article to yourself or a friend, find out how to cite the article in various formats (helpful if you were writing a research paper on German papercutting), get the permalink for blogging or share the article through your favorite social media sites.

Let's just say, you have options galore.

The next resource I want to highlight are magazines. 

mag.a.zine
Fun, floppy bundles of paper with photographs and/or illustrations.
Also known as: periodical, journal, glossy, zine...

I did a quick search of all of our periodical titles and was blown away that at this moment the library has about 860 different titles! Even though this number includes all languages, all ages, archived titles, and reference items, it's still an awesome number to behold.

Magazines are great for inspiration pick-me-ups. When I'm dealing with the crafting ho-hums and I can't think of anything to make, or I want to make something but I'm having major craft block--flipping through an issue or two usually gives me all sorts of ideas to play with.

And the tips! You will not believe all the awesome tips you can find in craft magazines. I'm thinking of starting a special magazine tip notebook that I can refer to any time I want. 

Get Inspired!

One of my favorite craft magazines is Paper Crafts. This magazine features paper crafted items submitted by designers. The designs are collected into sections and articles based on a theme or to showcase a craft technique, trend, or layout. This magazine in particular is up-to-date and innovative when it comes to trends in design, color palettes, new craft techniques, and what can be done with new products and tools. I never lay an issue of Paper Crafts down without at least a few ideas rattling around in my head.

Well, I hope this post was helpful and enlightening! If I can encourage at least one person to visit the Hobbies and Craft Reference Center or check out a magazine then I say my mission is a success.

Until next time--stay warm, stay informed, and keep it crafty!

Malia & Kaye

Ms. Suzy Reads | Storytime, Storytime, Storytime

Hello, reading friends. Lately I've been reminded again and again and again of the importance of early literacy. One of my main goals for our weekly storytimes is to instill a love of books and reading in our very young children, so that when they are developmentally ready to read, they will already have the desire to read. 

So storytime is pretty darn important, in my humble opinion. And today I thought I'd share some of my very favorite storytime books. Check them out at a library near you!

Jan Thomas' Is Everyone Ready for Fun? is laugh out loud funny, except for chicken, who is not all that pleased with the happenings on his couch! This is one of my favorites because you can get children moving with the cows!

This next one has been around a while, but it's still one of my go-to favorites: Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion. It's the story of Harry, a white dog with black spots, who goes on quite an adventure in the city...all because he doesn't want to take a bath. Many children may recognize themselves in Harry in terms of bath avoidance! I love this story and I love the illustrations. A great one to share with children young and not so young.

I seem to be particularly fond of books that inspire movement and activity. And this next one does just that: We're Going On a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. Splish splosh through a river, stumble trip through a forest, and more! This is a lovely book to read aloud the first time, then act out all the movements the second time. This will also inspire a trip outside, so weather permitting, this might be even better as an outdoor read aloud!

Some of my favorite storytime books to share with young children! You really can't go wrong when reading with young children. Just make sure you read the book alone first so you can plan out voices and inflections. And read books that YOU enjoy yourself. 

Reading aloud = one of the greatest gifts we can give our young children.

And one more thing, find a library storytime near you on SSJCPL's Calendar of Events! Please join us!!

 

Just Life| Let It Snow

When I was a kid, almost every winter in Tehran, they would close schools for a couple of days due to heavy snow. 

I loved those snowy days.

It was great to skip school and to spend the day playing in the snow with the neighborhood kids.

But with snow, came the dreaded job of shoveling the snow. 

We have flat roofs in Tehran and in winter, you have to shovel that snow from the roof before it collapses on top of you.

Our rooftop looked like this huge rectangular cake covered with whipped cream frosting.

Then, we would slice and shovel this winter cake one row at a time until it was all eaten up by our hungry shovels.

Since my dad was a teacher, on those snowy days, me, my dad, and my brother would go to the roof to clear the snow.

My poor mom couldn't share our fun. She was in the Air Force and she had to show up to work even when they were dropping bombs from the sky. (Literally)

Anyway, 

The snow on the roof didn't have any place to go but on top of our flower beds in our front yard.

At the end of the day, we had this huge heap of snow on top of our flower beds that lingered sometimes all the way into Spring.

Here in Stockton, we never experience the beauty of winter first hand.

So, this winter, I wish upon the stars for some heavy snow, so our kids can skip school and stay home and play in the snow until their noses look like Rudolph.

Until then,

Let's just keep on reading.

Signing off until next Monday- Panteha