Posted in Explore and Discover on April 15, 2020 at 6:00 am
By Abra Cole Earth Day is next week. Our celebrations of planet Earth might be a little more DIY this year, instead of joining with others. You might get out in your yard and enjoy some dirt or take a walk around the neighborhood on a bear hunt, while social distancing, or enjoy a virtual […]
Tags: adults, celebrate, celebration, Earth Day, environment, hiking, indoor, kids, nature, outdoor, parents, reading, science, scientist, tweens, walking
Posted in Explore and Discover on September 11, 2019 at 6:00 am
By Abra Cole Earlier this month as my family prepared for a day-long excursion into Glacier National Park from our campsite, we discussed easy travel options for lunch. We had pasta salad and salami and cream cheese rolls, along with other not-so-typical camping fare. Ultimately most of us opted for a good old fashioned sandwich—simple, […]
Tags: adults, book list, books, food, kids, reading, recipes, sandwich, teens, tweens
Posted in Explore and Discover on July 24, 2019 at 6:00 am
By Dana Mannino The way I see it, there are two phases of summer: active summer and sedentary summer. For me, active summer occurs when temperatures reach 70–85 degrees. At those temps, I try to spend most of my time outside, preferably in the mountains or at a lake, in the garden will do as […]
Tags: active, activities, adults, bingeing, books, crafts, Discover Pass, events, hobbies, hoopla, indoors, kids, library programs, LinkedIn Learning, minecraft, Novelist, outdoors, parents, pronunciator, reading, recommendations, sedentary, SelectReads, streaming, summer, teens, tweens, watching
Posted in kids, Parents and Teachers on February 12, 2019 at 6:00 am
By Rachel Edmondson In my years of helping kids find books to read, one thing has remained the same—kids always want to read the same books their friends are reading. Often, a new title has gained traction. It’s also not uncommon for older series to suddenly come into popularity again, based on word of mouth. […]
Tags: book list, book recommendations, books, children, kids, kids books, reading, recommendations, tweens
Posted in Explore and Discover on January 22, 2019 at 6:00 am
By Caitlin Wheeler A young boy grows up poor, not looked after by his foster parents. Abused, neglected, and destitute, he expects little from life, and life expects little from him. Until one day, everything changes. The child in servant’s clothes now wears a crown, and his childhood among the people turns out to have […]
Tags: adults, adventure, Arthurian, books, Britton, Guinevere, heros, kids, King Arthur, knights, knights of the round table, Lancelot, legend, legend of Arthur, magic, Merlin, monsters, Morgaine, Morgan le Fay, Morgause, myth, Nimue, reading, round table, Saxon, tales, tweens, Welsh, YA
Posted in Explore and Discover on December 11, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Abra Cole The holiday season is here again! I love the smells of goodies baking in the oven, the peacefulness of the fluffy snow falling outside, and the excited sounds of kids clamoring to get the best spot by the Christmas tree and all the gifts. Usually at our house, that last one is […]
Tags: adults, adventure, books, classes, community, concerts, cooking, crafts, DIY, events, experiences, family gifts, food, games, gardening, gift of experience, gifts, hobbies, holiday gift guide, holiday gifts, holidays, kids, microadventure, microadventures, parents, sporting events, teens, travel, tweens
Posted in Explore and Discover on November 27, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Melissa Rhoades One specific morning in fourth grade still stands out in my memory. I arrived early to class, sat at my desk, and opened a novel I was midway through. I don’t remember now what book it was, but I do remember becoming completely engrossed, sinking into the world on the page. Which […]
Tags: authors, books, close reading, deep reading, diverse books, fiction, health, nonfiction, parents, patience, print books, reading, reading comprehension, reading diversely, reading resolutions, slow, slow reading, teens, tweens
Posted in Explore and Discover, kids, Parents and Teachers, Teens on November 6, 2018 at 6:00 am
BY SHERI BOGGS November marks the time of year when families start drawing close together for the holidays and you know what that means—lots and lots of family time! The Library District has got you covered with several themed booklists available on our popular OverDrive digital platform. FOR KIDS We Are Family is a handpicked […]
Tags: adults, audiobooks, booklists, books, devices, digital collection, digital library, eBooks, family, fiction, kids, Libby app, mobile, mobile devices, nonfiction, overdrive, reading, science fiction, technology, teens, tweens, YA, young learners
Posted in Explore and Discover, Parents and Teachers on September 18, 2018 at 6:00 am
by Melissa Rhoades Banned Books Week is September 23–29 this year. Did you know that at least 23 of the 100 books on PBS’s 2018 Great American Read book list have been banned or threatened with a ban in the United States? That means almost one-fourth of America’s “most loved” novels (as determined by popular […]
Tags: adults, ALA, American Library Association, banned books, Banned Books Week, book challenge, books, censor, censorship, fiction, intellectual freedom, kids, nonfiction, parents, reading, teachers, teens, tweens, YA
Posted in Explore and Discover, kids, Parents and Teachers, Teens on August 21, 2018 at 6:00 am
by Caitlin Wheeler When I was young, I loved C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. I especially loved The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a book that, in my eight-year-old estimation, had everything a book ought to: quests, nightmares, magic spells, enchanted islands, warrior mermaids, anthropomorphized stars, and of course, dragons. Eustace Claren […]
Tags: adults, authors, booklists, books, dragon, dragons, fairy tale, fairy tales, fantastical, fantasy genre, kids, reading, speculative fiction, teens, tweens, YA