What’s Happening at Cheshire Library in September

September 2, 2015August 28, 2015 / cheshirelib / Leave a comment

Did you know that September is Library Card Sign-up Month? A time to remind parents and children that a library card is the most important school supply of all. While you don’t need a library card to participate in our great programs, there are a lot of great things your library card can do for you, so don’t miss out!

On our program roster this month:

Mindfulness Workshop for Kids

Thursdays, September 3, 10, 17, 24, October 1, 8, 15, 22 at 4:00 pm.

Children are leading an increasingly busy life with school, sports events, music lessons and more. So they also experience that rushed pace. Mindfulness techniques train you to pay attention to those things in the present moment in a nonjudgmental and accepting manner. This gives children the opportunity to stop and choose a response thoughtfully rather than reacting impulsively. Parents/caregivers will be participating in this 8-week program as well through mindfulness exercises with your child and through a book discussion. The book Mindful Parenting by Dr. Kristen Race will be used to discuss techniques for mindful parenting. Register on our website beginning August 15.

SAT Preparation Seminar

Tuesday Sep 8, 2015, 6:30 – 8:00 PM

Prominent language arts tutor, Ellis Ratner, will present this free SAT Preparation Seminar. This program will address all aspects of the Reading and Writing Sections, including sentence completion, reading comprehension, grammar and essay writing. Attendees will also receive, free of charge, an SAT Preparation Primer authored by Mr. Ratner. Please register on our website.

Bouncing Babies

Mondays at 10:00 AM

This new drop-in program is a special time to interact with stories, songs, rhymes, and lap bounces. This fun and interactive time features music, repetition, rhymes, puppets, instruments, and felt boards. A must-do for babies and toddlers! Ages birth to 2 years.Drop-in, no registration required.

Curious George Curiosity Day

Thursday Sep 17, 2015, 6:00 – 6:45 PM

Each year fun-filled, family-friendly “Curiosity Day” celebrations occur in cities around the country celebrating everyone’s favorite monkey, Curious George. Come join the Cheshire Public Library Curiosity Celebration full of stories and songs, and a snack even Curious George would love. This program is a family friendly program, best for kids ages 2 and up. (REGISTRATION?)

Fab Film Saturday: Disney’s Cinderella

Saturday Sep 19, 2015, 2:00 – 4:00 PM

Come enjoy some great box office kids’ movies with Fab Film Saturdays at Cheshire Public Library!

Disney’s CINDERELLA (2015). Celebrate Disney’s CINDERELLA, a modern classic that shines with beauty, imagination… and magic! Despite being bulled by her stepmother (Cate Blanchett) and stepsisters, a spirited Ella (Lily James) resolves to take charge of her fate. Add a royal ball, a Fairy Godmother (Helenal Bonham-Carter) and a glass slipper, and suddenly — magic becomes reality! Running Time 2 hours, 24 minutes. Rated PG. No registration required. Feel free to bring your own snacks!

Cigar Box Purse Craft Class

Thursday Sep 24, 2015, 6:00 – 8:00 PM

Please join Vanessa Fasanella as she teaches how to make cigar box purse in this adult crafting class. Design purse and handles; transform a recycled cigar box into a usable purse. This adult only class is free and all materials will be provided. Registration required as space is limited so register early. Registration on our website.

Town-Wide Photo Scavenger Hunt

Saturday Sep 26, 2015, 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM

Grab your friends, family, and mobile device for a scavenger hunt that will take you all around Cheshire! To participate, form a team that will fit in one vehicle, pick up a list of clues from Cheshire Library on the morning of the hunt, and drive around town solving each clue. Post a photo of each clue to Instagram and use the tag #cheshirehunt2015, then return to the Library in the afternoon for refreshments and prizes. Prizes will be chosen across several categories, such as creativity and number of clues solved, and by random drawing.

Pre-registration of teams is required. One team and one Instagram account per vehicle.

9:30-11:00 am – Clue pick-up in Baldwin Room (Instagram help will be available)

10:00 am – Donuts with Grownups Storytime on the Third Floor

3:30 pm – Post-hunt party in Baldwin Room
Please register on our website.

Donuts with Grownups Storytime

Saturday Sep 26, 2015, 10:00 AM

Donuts with Grownups Storytime is designed especially for working families with children ages 3 and up who can’t make it to our regularly schedule storytimes during the week. Enjoy crafts, activities, music, stories and of course Donuts as a family! This program is designed as a family event to give bonding time. Each session will also have a literacy building station to help young ones start building necessary pre-literacy skills or enhance those skills for older children. Best suited for children age 3-8. No Registration Required. This program will meet on the Third Floor of the Library.

Help, I’m Addicted to Sugar! (and white flour)

Monday Sep 28, 2015, 6:30 – 8:00 PM

Are afternoon and evening munchies getting the better of you? Do chips, cookies and breads call your name – even though your good intentions and knowledge try to push them away? Getting over these uncontrollable eating urges can be a lot easier than you think, and it doesn’t even have much to do with willpower at all. This is a highly motivational presentation showing exactly why this “vicious cookie cycle” occurs – and most importantly, what to do about it. Seating for this event is limited. Please register online or call 203-272-2245, ext. 4.

‘Who Was’ Book Club: HELEN KELLER

Wednesday Sep 30, 2015, 4:00 – 5:00 PM

If you love reading books from the ‘Who Was’ series, than this is the book club for you! At the meeting, we’ll chat about what we discovered in the book and do one or more fun activities inspired by that persons life. No need to register – all fans of the series are welcome! Copies of Who Was Helen Keller? will be available to borrow from the Children’s Room.

Colonial Goodwife

Wednesday Sep 30, 2015, 6:30 – 8:00 PM

The “Not-So-Good Life of The Colonial Goodwife” not only makes audience members laugh and grimace, but it also honors our foremothers. It’s not about quilting bees and spinning wheels – it’s an interactive presentation about the little-known issues faced by New England’s colonial women.Enjoy a complimentary cup of organic herbal Women’s Tonic Tea as author Velya Jancz-Urban shares tidbits about issues faced by everyday 18th-century New England women. Seating for this event is limited. Please register online or call 203-272-2245, ext. 4.

Young Adult Books Without Romance

August 31, 2015August 4, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / 2 Comments

Do you love young adult books but have found yourself bored with the love triangles and angst that comes with the almost constant presence of a complicated love interest? Well, I have gone in search of young adult books that entertain and are romance free! Here are some of the best young adult books that steer clear of the expected traps of young love. Some of these might have some flirting, or some hints of possible romance in the future, but I aimed for the books with no romance at all. This turned out to be a harder list than I expected to curate; so if you have additional titles to suggest please share them in the comments. I know I cannot be the only one to notice the lack in this area.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
After a family tragedy, Jacob feels compelled to explore an abandoned orphanage on an island off the coast of Wales, discovering disturbing facts about the children who were kept there.

Sabriel by Garth Nix
Sabriel, daughter of the necromancer Abhorsen, must journey into the mysterious and magical Old Kingdom to rescue her father from the Land of the Dead.

Here, There be Dragons by James A. Owen
Set in 1917, an undergraduate is given a special book that he is told was the reason for his professor’s murder and so must now protect it with his life as he goes on a journey like no other to places that are only supposed to exist in history and dreams.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage and great courage as she relates what she must do to survive while keeping secret all that she can.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Leaving the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white high school, Junior struggles to find his place in his new surroundings in order to escape his destiny back on the reservation.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Dealing with an illness that will soon result in his death, 16-year-old Cam is intrigued by the stories told by an eccentric girl named Dulcie and so is encouraged to go on a wild road trip across America where their search for a special cure will lead them to the strangest places on the map.

For more romance free, or very light, here are some more suggestions; Deadline by Chris Crutcher, Katya’s World by Jonathan L. Howard, The Eye of Minds by James Dashner, The Alchemyst: the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott, The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Monster by Walter Dean Myers, Butterfly by Sonya Hartnett, Orleans by Sherri L. Smith, The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, The Hobbit: or, There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Maze Runner by James Dashner,The Sky Inside by Clare B. Dunkle, Watership Down by Richard Adams, The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, Killer of Enemies by Joseph Bruchac, or Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.

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Son Risen – Books about Children With Autism

August 26, 2015August 22, 2015 / Susan O. / Leave a comment

Barry Neil Kaufman’s son Raun was born in 1973, only to be diagnosed with severe autism by the age of one and a half. Refusing to believe the prognosis, the Kaufmans spent hours observing their son, and created their own special program for him long before anyone beyond Lovaas and Bettleheim were making any attempt to teach autistics. Three years later, their son showed no symptoms of autism, not even Aspergers. They named their program the Son-Rise Program, now taught at their foundation, the Autism Treatment Center of America in Sheffield, Mass. You can read their incredible story in Kaufman’s book Son-Rise, or the newer version, Son-Rise: The Miracle Continues, which includes the development of their foundation and follows Raun when he’s older. I warn you, however, the newer version gets a little heavy in the New-Agey/Hippie feel.

To prove that you didn’t need to start with an infant to get results, Kaufman also wrote up his work with a five-year old boy named Robertito, in the book A Miracle to Believe In. Again, Kaufman’s methods produced a child who came back from the depths of Autism to be a happy, intelligent, socially-adjusted verbal child.

Now Raun Kaufman himself, the director of Global Outreach for the ATCA, has written Autism Breakthrough, a book that details the process the Son-Rise program uses, so you can try it yourself. The basis for the program goes against modern practices – and Kaufman’s explanations make very good sense. In short, autism is a disorder of social-relational behavior; if you can’t fix that, then all the educational training in the world isn’t going to help. The program focuses intensively on connecting with the child by entering their world, and then drawing them out into yours. Once you have social interaction and communication, then education can fall into place easily and logically.

While I am a Kaufman guru – I’ve used many of their methods with a number of “throwaway” kids and made connections like no one else – there are places we’ll have to agree to disagree. Diet is one of them. If your child’s autism is cured by diet, then chances are it wasn’t autism to start with. While organic diets are wholesome and ideal for everyone, I do not recommend “assuming” your child has a difficulty with a food just because someone said so. I do not recommend filling your child with probiotics or supplements unless a doctor has proven there is a serious deficiency. Too much of the wrong thing can be just as bad as a lack of something, and certain vitamins can be toxic in large doses. He doesn’t mention honest-to-goodness physical issues, such as brain disorders, genetic issues (such as Rett’s or Fragile X, often lumped with autism), or seizure disorders. While he does mention that you should not allow your child to do anything unsafe, he makes no attempt to give guidance to parents whose children are severely hyperactive, sleepless, or self-injurious. It’s wonderful, it works, but he glosses over the amount of time it takes to make the program work and have even the most minimal semblance of a life. His own “cure” took a team of people working almost around the clock for more than three years. Most people can’t do that.

On the opposite side of the spectrum (no pun intended), hunt down A Child Called Noah, by Josh Greenfeld. Greenfeld’s son Noah was born in 1966, just a few years before Raun Kaufman. Noah was also born severely autistic, and his story is much more typical. His father, a screenwriter, documented their family struggles through three volumes, and the other year his brother, Karl Greenfeld, wrote Boy Alone: A Brother’s Memoir, on what it’s like to live in the shadow of an autistic sibling. What he chronicles is much more typical of a family with extreme autism. If your child is not or will not be a miracle, the Greenfelds will let you know you are not alone.

Soak yourself in the Kaufman’s program (he does have a chapter just for dealing with Aspergers). Of all the programs out there, this is one I can stand behind, but like everything else, take it with a grain of salt. Critics complain it is not possible to scientifically measure the program, therefore no aspect of it can be considered valid, others complain it is still a gentle teaching/ABA program under a different name; other parents have not seen such miracle results. Nothing is perfect, nothing works all of the time. But in the land of Autism, even a thirty-percent increase in functional ability is a landmark indeed.

Young Adult Spy Novels That Adults Can Enjoy Too

August 12, 2015August 4, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

Do you have a young adult reader that loves detective and spy novels but has moved past The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and N.E.R.D.S.? Perhaps you love young adult fiction and a great spy novel. Well, whatever the case, here are some of the best spy and espionage books to be had in the young adult section of our library. Did I miss one of your favorites? Please mention it in the comments so that others can enjoy it as well!

1. Stormbreaker (Alex Rider, #1) by Anthony Horowitz
After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle’s dangerous work for Britain’s intelligence agency, MI6.

2. I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls, #1) by Ally Carter
As a sophomore at a secret spy school and the daughter of a former CIA operative, Cammie is sheltered from “normal teenage life” until she meets a local boy while on a class surveillance mission.

3. H.I.V.E. Higher Institute of Villainous Education (H.I.V.E., #1) by Mark Walden
Swept away to a hidden academy for training budding evil geniuses, Otto, a brilliant orphan, Wing, a sensitive warrior, Laura, a shy computer specialist, and Shelby, an infamous jewel thief, plot to beat the odds and escape the prison known as H.I.V.E.

4. The Prisoner of Cell 25 (Michael Vey, #1) by Richard Paul Evans
Michael Vey, a fourteen-year old who has Tourette’s syndrome and special electric powers, finds there are others like him, and must rely on his powers to save himself and the others from a diabolical group seeking to control them.

5. Independence Hall (I, Q, #1) by Roland Smith
Teenagers Q (Quest) and Angela go on tour with married rockers Blaze and Roger and, while in Philadelphia, become submerged in a world of danger when they discover the identity of Angela’s real mother, who is a former Secret Service agent.

6. Code Name Verity (Code Name Verity, #1) by Elizabeth Wein
In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage and great courage as she relates what she must do to survive while keeping secret all that she can.

As always, I have trouble stopping with just a few. There are just so many great books out there. So, if you have already read the books on my short list, here are some more recommendations; Palace of Spies (Palace of Spies, #1) by Sarah Zettel, Spy Camp by Stuart Gibbs, All Fall Down (Embassy Row, #1) by Ally Carter, The Lab (Agent Six of Hearts #1) by Jack Heath, The Recruit (Cherub, #1) by Robert Muchamore, Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School, #1) by Gail Carriger, Alibi Junior High by Greg Logsted, Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy (Dukovskaya #1) by Elizabeth Kiem, Two Lies and a Spy (Two Lies and a Spy, #1) by Kat Carlton, Also Known As (Also Known As, #1) by Robin Benway, A Spy in the House (The Agency, #1) by Y.S. Lee, Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin, #1) by Robin LaFevers, Sekret (Sekret, #1) by Lindsay Smith, Fledgling (Jason Steed, #1) by Mark A. Cooper, SilverFin (Young Bond, #1) by Charlie Higson, and Spy High Mission One by A.J. Butcher.

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Books about the First Day of School

August 7, 2015July 15, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

The first day of school can be scary for all grades, but especially for those in Preschool, Kindergarten, and the other lower grades. New teachers, new schools, and new classmates can spark anxiety and excitement for every child. Whether they are worried about being away from home, making friends, or what to expect it can be a stressful time for children, and their parents. Here are some great picturebooks to read with children (or parents) that are a little worried about going back to school that can help them get excited, confident, and ready for the big day.