Upcoming February Vacation Activities

Please sign up for these fun vacation activities by visiting our Calendar of Events.

Babymouse Etravaganza- February 23rd, 3:30-4:30pm. Are you a fan of Babymouse? If you are then you should stop by the library, where you'll create your own Babymouse comic, make sweet strawberry mice and play games. Registration is required. For ages 6 and up.

Feeling the Beat, Feeling the Spirit with John Root - February 24th, 3-4pm. This program invites children to flex their bodies, voices, and imaginations. Children will help create and enact new verses to familiar music and movement songs to John's instrumental accompaniment. All ages are welcome.

Stuffed Animal Sleepover– February 25th, 7-8pm. Bring your favorite stuffed animal, enjoy some great stories, a snack and make a craft. Your stuffed pal will stay over in the library and have his or her picture taken. Please come and pick up your animal the following day and get your picture. Registration is required.

The Book Bunch - February 25th, 3:45-4:45pm.Join us for a couple of fantastic read aloud books and a craft. This book club is meant for children ages 6 to 8. Registration is not required.

Fashion Cuff for Teens and Tweens Workshop- February 26th, 3-4pm.Make a cute cuff that you can wear anywhere! Registration is required

Leon and the Spitting Image

The Middle School Book Group will be discussing Allen Kurzweil's book, Leon and the Spitting Image, on February 18th at 6:30pm. Here's Amazon.com's review:

Leon Zeisel is in big trouble. He is perpetually exhausted due to an overactive icemaker in the hotel where he lives, he discovers in his mother's desk a confidential envelope from his school announcing that he displays "a troubling lack of fine motor skills," and worst of all, he begins fourth grade under the tyrannical tutelage of Miss Hagmeyer, a black-cloaked, black-wigged, mushroom-eared woman who is obsessed with sewing, a fine motor skill if there ever was one. Insisting that all instruction should stem from the Middle Ages and "The Heavenly Stitches of Virtue," the Hag forces her students to sew an "animile" per month, a stuffed animal of sorts that is not to exceed four s.p.i. (stitches per inch) in the inseam. What happens when Leon decides to sew his end-of-year "Master Piece," the "spitting image" of Miss Hagmeyer, an exact miniature replica down to her liver-colored panty hose? Allen Kurzweil creates a magical, eccentric world where, as in many of the most satisfying children's books, adults are benevolent but flawed--and kids are in delicious control of them. Fans of Daniel Pinkwater's novels will feel right at home with this clever and suspenseful underdog-turns-champion story with a dribble of magic.

Sounds good to me!

You can find copies of the book at the children's room desk. Oh, did I mention that we'll also play Apples to Apples after our discussion? Yay, it will be fun!

New Graphic Novels!

We have some awesome new graphic novels that have just been added to the collection. As requested, there's more Pokemon and I've also added a new series called Yotsuba&! Yotsuba is a green-haired four-year-old girl, who loves exploring her environment. Her excitement is absolutely contagious, but is there something strange about Yotsuba's lack of familiarity with the earthly world? Read this adorable series to find out!


Check out the following new titles:

Yotsuba&! - Vol. 1, 2 and 3 by Kiyohiko Azuma
Magic Pickle and the Garden of Evil by Scott Morse
Star Wars The Clone Wars by Crash Course
Cat Burglar Black by Richard Sala
Avalon - The Warlock Diaries - Vol. 1 by Rachel Roberts
Avalon - The Warlock Diaries - Vol. 2 by Rachel Roberts
Pokemon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea by Makoto Mizobuchi
Pokemon - Giratina and the Sky Warrior by Makoto Hijioka
Fun With Pokemon by Horoshi Takase
Happy Happy Clover by Syuri Tatsuyama
The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time - Part 2 by Akira Himekawa

New fiction!

We have tons of new fiction in the children's room. Here's a short list of the latest releases, which I recommend. These books can be found in the New Books section.

Chapter Books:
NERDS: National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society by Michael Buckley
A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts: A Collection of Deliciously Frighting Tales by Ying Chang Compestine
Dilly for President by Cynthia L. Copeland
School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari
Dodsworth in London by Tim Egan
The Transmogrification of Roscoe Wizzle by David Elliott
In Business with Mallory by Laurie B. Friedman
Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
The Doll Shop Downstairs by Yona Zeldis McDonough
Calendar Mysteries- January Joker by Ron Roy
Dork Diaries: Tales From a Not-So-Fabulous Life by Rachel Renee Russell
Mr. Putter & Tabby Spill the Beans by Cynthia Rylant
Gullible Gus by Maxine Rose Schur
The Bugman Lives by R.L. Stine
Spellbinder by Helen Stringer

Graphic Novels:
Peach Fuzz by Lindsay Cibos
Amulet. Book 2. The Stonekeeper's Curse
Red Ted and Lost Things by Michael Rosen
Little Mouse Gets Ready by Jeff Smith
Kit Feeny: On the Move by Michael Townsend

Picture Books:
The Jungle Grapevine by Alex Beard
The Strange Case of the Missing Sheep by Mircea Catusanu
Applesauce Season by Eden Ross Lipson (teaches math skills)
What Sisters Do Best/What Brothers Do Best by Laura Numeroff
Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School by Herman Parish
One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor J. Pinczes (teaches math skills)
Bear's Picture by Daniel Pinkwater (Ladybug Award Winner)
Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle (Ladybug Award Winner)
Acorns Everywhere! by Kevin Sherry

Matilda is here!

We now have copies of Roald Dahl's Matilda, which are located at the children's room desk. Please pick up a copy for the next Junior Book Group meeting, which will be held on February 4th.

Bookclubs

The Amherst Town Library has three book clubs that are specifically for kids. The Book Bunch is for children that are ages 6 to 8. The Junior Book Club is for kids that are in grades 2 through 5 and we also have a Middle School Book Group. All groups meet once a month on a Thursday evening (6:30-7:30pm) or afternoon(3:45-4:45pm). Parents are more than welcome to join their child in the Junior Book Club meeting. In fact, we get a kick out of hearing what the parents think of a book during our lively discussions. The Middle School Book Group meets once a month on Thursday nights, where we not only discuss the books, but also end up playing a fun game at the end of our meeting. So, if you've been thinking about joining us for bookclub, but have been kind of shy about it then I welcome you to come tomorrow night and observe or even participate in our discussion. Oh, I'll also bring a snack, so maybe that will be an added incentive to stop by.

Each month we also pick another book for our following meeting. I will announce the book on the blog as well as on our calendar and let you know when the books have come into the library, so that you can pick up a copy to read for our discussion.

What we're reading and when we're meeting:

Junior Book Group: January 7th, 6:30-7:30pm- Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Middle School Book Group: January 14th, 6:30-7:30pm - A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck

Both books are available at the library right now, so stop by my desk for your copy.

Future meetings:
Junior Book Group: February 4th, 6:30-7:30pm- TBA
Middle School Book Group: February 18th, 6:30-7:30pm- TBA

**New**I will also be running a book group called the Book Bunch for children ages 6 to 8. We will be reading some wonderful stories and making a fun craft. Registration is required for this particular group, which will be meeting on January 28th for an hour at 3:45pm.