Kids with Glasses in Books

Today I'm back with another post about a useful resource for librarians, teachers, parents, and caregivers. My littlest dude wears glasses. He started wearing them when he was 2 and I never really noticed before but there aren't many babies and toddlers in glasses. Case in point - people would stop and ask me why he wears glasses and how it was determined at such a young age that he needed them.*

With this new adventure, I set out to learn about kids in glasses and had the wonderful fortune of finding an excellent and informative community called Little Four Eyes. Bonus: it's founded and managed by a librarian. 

Little Four Eyes has a resource page of books depicting children in glasses and other vision needs. Please check it out for your own collection development.

If you're in a library, you probably have the winner of the 2011 Schneider Family Book Award, The Pirate of Kindergarten,  which tells the story of a girl with glasses and an eye patch. What else do you have? What are we missing on this page?

This recent picture book by one of my favorite illustrators caught my eye:

Big Little Brother by Kevin Kling and illustrated by Chris Monroe

Check out the group's active Facebook and Pintrest pages.

*In our case, he has congenital unilateral cataract. His lens was removed when he was 1 and he currently wears a contact lens with glasses to improve his vision. For more info: Aphakia and Aphakic Yahoo Group.

Pintrest: Book & Library Activities

Hi, All!

I'd like talk a bit about my latest online time waster: Pintrest. In addition to looking at lots of pretty pictures and wishing I a) had a sewing machine/knew how to sew b) had a craft closet of unlimited supplies AND a totally cool workspace that I -of course- made myself from Ikea hacks and goodwill finds c) had lots of time to putz around the kitchen ...there are loads of great ideas to use in a classroom or library.

I find fun craft ideas that I wish I knew about when I was doing storytime or having a teen craft.  Here's a sampling of library, book, kid related pins.

Have fun and remember - it's for work! :) 

Pintrest: a beginner's guide

PAGE CORNER BOOKMARKS

Bottle Cap Snowmen Craft

Stay Put Puzzle (or, another use for book jackets!)

One Tough Customer

Girl: Do you have books about wizards?

Me: Of course! Is there a specific book that you're looking for?

Girl: No, just books about wizards.

Me: let's go over here (we walk to the stacks) Oh great, How about So You Want to be a Wizard? (I hand her the book which unfortunately has an old ugly cover)

Girl: I want a book about wizards where they learn to be a wizard, make mistakes, have adventures. Yeah, books like that.

Me: (thinking....um that's exactly what I handed you, but let's take another look) Ok, let's keep looking to find some other ones. Ok, how about this (can't remember the books but they were wizard school books)

Girl: (looks at me crazy) "Um, I want a book where the dad is a wizard and he marries a wizard and then she dies and he marries a non-wizard and things get complicated, yeah, books like that."

Me: Is this a specific book about wizards that you've heard about?

Girl: No. I just want a book like that.

Me: ....(thinking that her request is pretty specific, but I guess it's always good to know what you want) Well! It might not exist yet you might have to write it!

Girl: *smiles*

We did end up finding her books. The Children of the Lamp to be exact.

Things You Find at the Library, Part 2...

I was inspired by Patti's note found by the computer and thought I'd post a couple of my good found items, too. I have these teen picks cards next to a box in the teen area so people can write short reviews of things they've read and I'll display the review next to the book on the shelf. It has turned out to collect nearly as many confessions and random statements as actual reviews.

Things You Find at the Library...

I found this cryptic note beside one of our teen computers. I don't know about you, but my favorite part is that the enterprising young person spelled "happened" semi-phonetically. Oh, and I am also sort of tickled that they didn't know how to spell the F word.