Monstrously Magnificent Picture Books

February 9, 2014June 18, 2014 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

If your kids are anything like mine, or were when they young, they have a fascination with monsters. Both my five and my seven year old love anything that they can slap a ‘scary’ label on, as long as it does not get too scary. Scooby-Doo, and an ever-cycling cast of creatures are the constant source of happy conversations and late night fears. Vampires, ghosts, zombies, mummies, and a wide assortment of creatures have become the focus of one or both of my children at any given time.

Some books, movies, and television shows featuring monsters are silly fun, others creepy and entertaining, while others cross a line (some times without me even realizing it until the questions or nightmares start) into the realm of actually scary. Finding the right balance of fun and creepy without crossing the line into actually fright inducing can be difficult. Here are some of the books that I have found to be entertainingly spooky or silly, without becoming too scary.

We have a Monster Lit Kit– a collection of books, activities, a CD, and a DVD to please young monster lovers. The lit kit is includes the books Bigfoot Cinderrrrrella, Birthday Monsters, Frank was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance, The Monsters at End of this Book, Monster Goose, My Monster Mama Loves Me So, Monster Manners, Monster Things to Make and Do, There’s a Nighmare in my Closet, and The Very Worst Monster. The music CD include is Scream Factory Favorites which is z collection of songs based on the characters from Monsters, inc. and the DVD included is Cookie Monster’s Best Bites. We have Lit Kits available on most topics out youngest readers, and their families or teachers enjoy.

Big Scary Monster by Thomas Docherty
Big Scary Monster is one misunderstood beastie. He loves to jump out and surprise his friends, but he’s not mean, really. Yet when his friends start hiding from him, he decides to look for new creatures to frighten, only to wind up finding out he’s a bit of a scaredy-cat himself!

Bone Soup by Cambria Evans
Retells the classic tale about a traveller, a ghost, who tricks a town’s witches, ghouls, and zombies into helping him make soup. A Halloween themed version of Stone Soup.

I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll
Checking under the bed for his monster, Ethan discovers that he is gone fishing for a week, and realizing he can’t sleep without him tries to find a substitute monster.

Leonardo, the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems
Leonardo is a terrible monster — he can’t seem to frighten anyone. When he discovers the perfect nervous little boy, will he scare the lunch out of him? Or will he think of something better?

The Monsters’ Monster By Patrick McDonnell
Grouch, Grump, and little Gloom ‘n’ Doom spend much of their time arguing over who is the “biggest and baddest” until they build a monster together that turns out to be very different than what they expect.

My Friend the Monster by Eleanor Taylor
After his family moves into their new house, Louis the fox discovers a very frightened monster living under his bed, and when he takes the monster to the park with him, the monster helps him make new friends.

Sally and the Some-Thing by George O’Connor
Stuck at home with her mom and her new sibling, Sally heads for the swamp with her fishing pole and bike. What she discovers, a slimy, slithery Some-Thing, is a new best friend. Mud pies, burping contests, snail racing–and sensational, beautiful artwork deliver plenty of kid appeal.

If You’re a Monster and You Know It by Rebecca Emberley and Ed Emberley
Monsters sing their own version of this popular song that encourages everyone to express their happiness through voice and movement.

For more monstrously fun reading, you might also want to check out; Bedtime Monsters by Josh Schneider, Some Monsters are Different by David Milgrim, Ghost in the House by Ammi-Joan Paquette, Monsters on Machines by Deb Lund, There Was an Old Monster by Rebecca Emberley, Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley, There’s a Nightmare in my Closet by Mercer Mayer, Most Loved Monster by Lynn Downey, The Monster Who Lost His Mean by Tiffany Strelitz Haber, Even Monsters Need Haircuts by Matthew McElligott, When a Monster is Born by Sean Taylor, Skeleton for Dinner by Margery Cuyler, Bedtime For Monsters By Ed Vere, Beasty Bath By Robert Neubecker, Goodnight, Little Monster By Helen Ketteman, or Broom, Zoom! by Caron Lee Cohen.

Top Audiobook Picks Around the World

February 8, 2014February 8, 2014 / Susan O. / Leave a comment

Do they even HAVE audiobooks in other countries? They most certainly do! Here are the number-one audiobook requests from iTunes around the world, so grab your earphones and go global with these best sellers. Can’t find it? Request it! We’d be happy to get it for you!

UK – Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy – Helen Fielding Bridget Jones has hit middle age, facing the challenges of single parenthood and re-entering the dating world with all its technological traps in this funny and enjoyable sequel.

France – Inferno Brown takes on Dante Alighieri and his Divine Comedy as Robert Langdon races through Italy to solve the clues and save the world from a terrorist plot to infect the world in his latest mystery thriller.

Canada – Winners – Danielle Steele Steele weaves together a tale of loneliness and companionship as a surgeon and her patient’s father are faced with grief and tragedy, and learn to live again.

Ireland – The Garden Party and Other Stories – Maeve Binchy. A collection of short stories by best-selling author Maeve Binchy. Stories included are: The Garden Party read by Niamh Cusack; The Special Sale read by Dervla Kirwan; The Sensible Celebration read by Doreen Hepburn and Dollys Mother read by Stella McCusker.

Portugal – The Blood Crows – Simon Scarrow Two thousand years ago, Prefect Cato fights with native tribes to maintain Roman control over Londinium and England. Back in Rome, Emperor Claudius struggles to maintain his empire with or without England.

Sweden – The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho Santiago, a simple Andalusian shepherd boy, dreams of finding the greatest worldly treasure ever discovered. From Spain he travels to the markets of Tangiers, across the Egyptian desert, to a fateful encounter with the mysterious alchemist.

Netherlands – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon A moderately autistic boy witnesses a crime, and struggles to make understanding of what he saw.

Greece – Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach The 197o best-seller about the spiritual journey of a seagull, who thinks soaring is a loftier goal in life than eating. A short book of few words, it packs a powerful punch as the seagull learns to realize that sometimes personal goals may not be popular with those around you, but the journey of self-discovery is sometimes the loftiest goal of all.

Germany – The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. In order to avoid his 100th birthday party, Allan Karlsson climbs out the window of his room at the nursing home, heads to the bus stop, steals a suitcase from a fellow passenger and winds up on a strange and sometimes dangerous adventure, which is nothing new to a man with a lot of history under his belt.

Denmark – The Preacher by Camilla Lackberg A child stumbles upon the body of a murdered woman. Soon two more bodies are discovered, and another girl disappears. Can the constable find the murderer and find the missing girl before it’s too late?

Linda Reads: Let Me Be The One by Bella Andre

February 6, 2014September 15, 2014 / Linda / Leave a comment

Let Me Be The One is book six in The Sullivans series. All of the books in this series can be read alone. This series of books is beautifully written and a joy to read.

Ryan and Vicki were best friends in high school, but have long since gone their separate ways – Vicki to Europe as a sculptor and Ryan as a star baseball pitcher in San Francisco. After a failed marriage, Vicki finds herself in San Francisco applying for a prestigious position in the art community and finds herself in an awkward position with one of the judges. Even though she hasn’t seen him in years, her first thought is to call Ryan for help.

Ryan volunteers to be Vicki’s “pretend boyfriend” to protect her from the unwanted advances of an influential judge. But both Vicki and Ryan have trouble with the “pretend” part. Neither wants to ruin their friendship by becoming lovers, but that’s proving to be quite difficult. No matter how hard they try, their “love” for each other overtakes their “friendship”.

Touching, sweet, romantic and sexy, with likeable characters, this book is my favorite so far of the series.

Museum Passes at CPL – Mystic Aquarium and Mystic Seaport

February 5, 2014July 25, 2014 / cheshirelib / Leave a comment

Cheshire Library has a collection of museum & state park passes that are available for Cheshire residents to check out. CPL Staff member Lisa is writing a series for our blog about the museum passes we offer, along with related reading material. Thanks, Lisa!
Featured Museum Pass: Mystic Aquarium

This pass is good for $5.00 off admission for up to 4 people.
A little history on the Aquarium: Mystic Marine Life Aquarium was founded in 1973 to serve as a living laboratory and major public exhibit, highlighting some of the most intriguing species in the world. The Aquarium established itself as a progressive research entity under the leadership of its first director, Dr. Stephen Spotte, whose publications became the cornerstone of modern aquarium keeping.

In 2012 Sea Research Foundation marked the centennial of the maiden voyage and tragic loss of the RMS Titanic with the opening of Titanic – 12,450 Feet below. This exciting new exhibit was a collaboration between Dr. Robert Ballard, who found her in 1985, and former Disney Imagineer Tim Delaney, and was made possible by a $1 million donation from United Technologies Corporation. Located in the renamed Ocean Exploration Center, the exhibit promises Titanic fans of all ages the chance to experience the fanfare of her maiden voyage, the fateful night of her sinking and the moment she was found. For more information on the history of the Mystic Aquarium check out: http://www.mysticaquarium.org/about/history.

For additional information, including Hours of Operation, check out their website at http://www.mysticaquarium.org/ or contact the Aquarium at 860-572-5955.

Featured Museum Pass: Mystic Seaport
This pass is good for 1/2 off admission for 2 adults and 2 children. The passes are good for specific days so be sure to borrow the pass for the specific day of the week that you will be visiting the Seaport.
Mystic Seaport’s mission: “Mystic Seaport is a museum that strives to inspire an enduring connection to the American maritime experience.”
A little about Mystic Seaport: “Discover maritime history firsthand throughout our re-created seafaring village that is bustling with the sights and sounds of 19th-century life. Climb aboard historic vessels, including the last wooden whaleship in the world, the Charles W. Morgan. Visit the Boathouse to captain your own rowboat or sailboat and take a cruise down the Mystic River aboard the wooden, coal-fired steamboat Sabino.

Explore interactive exhibits and see a working preservation shipyard in action. Watch interpreters demonstrate maritime skills and listen to chanteymen perform music of the sea and shore. Stroll through gardens that accentuate the beauty and historical context of the river and do a little stargazing under the Treworgy Planetarium dome.”

For additional information, including Hours of Operation, check out their website at http://www.mysticseaport.org/ or contact the Seaport at 860-572-0711.

If you enjoyed the Mystic Aquarium and Mystic Seaport, you might also enjoy reading:

Plastic Ocean by Capt. Charles Moore. In the summer of 1997, Charles Moore set sail from Honolulu with the sole intention of returning home after competing in a trans-Pacific race. To get to California, he and his crew took a shortcut through the seldom-traversed North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a vast “oceanic desert” where winds are slack and sailing ships languish. There, Moore realized his catamaran was surrounded by a “plastic soup.” He had stumbled upon the largest garbage dump on the planet-a spiral nebula where plastic outweighed zooplankton, the ocean’s food base, by a factor of six to one.
Moore’s sobering revelations will be embraced by activists, concerned parents, and seafaring enthusiasts concerned about the deadly impact and implications of this man made blight.

Titanic : Legacy of the World’s Greatest Ocean Liner by Susan Wels. The tragic fate of the Titanic is well known. But now, an astonishing wealth of new information about the people, events, and artifacts of that fateful night has been uncovered. Containing interviews, excerpts from actual passenger diaries, photographs, and replicas of items recovered from the ship itself, this book is published as a companion volume to the traveling 1997-98 Titanic exhibit.

(Borrow the pass for Mystic Aquarium and check out nearby Old Mystic Village with over forty shops of unique items and restaurants. Borrow the pass for Mystic Seaport and check out the shops in downtown Mystic and stop for lunch at Mystic Pizza, made famous by the movie starring Julie Roberts. Make a day of it and borrow the passes for both locations since you are able to borrow two passes at a time.)

Guiding Reading What? (What Kind of Reader is my Child, Part Deux)

February 4, 2014June 18, 2014 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

So, if you read What Kind of Reader is my Child? you will have a understanding of the general terminology about reading development and where your child might be in the process. But what about all those crazy level letters and numbers at the end of each definition? Well, here is some of the basic information and resources that can help you get a handle on that part as well. I am going to toss in an extra one, which I know some local schools are assigning to advanced readers.Which systems you need to pay the most attention to will vary by school. Most schools do use the DRA testing system. However I know that Cheshire, Southington, and Wallingford also use the Fountas & Pinnell Guided Reading Leveling (GRL) system for classroom use. You can use this chart on the Scholastic website to help understand how the levels correspond. You will note that there are even more leveling systems included on the chart, but I am going to focus on the most used systems in our area.

Fountas & Pinnell Guided Reading Leveling system (GRL) starts with level A, being the easiest, and goes up to Z. These levels are based on benchmark assessments or other systematic observations are used to determine the instructional reading level of each student. Our library offers a variety of fiction and non fiction books from level A through G labeled and sorted by level for check out. Feel free to browse the collection or help finding books, but if you would like help, please stop by the children’s desk for assistance.

Developmental Reading Assessment system (DRA) also starts with level A for the easiest books, but switches to numeric levels which run from 1 to 80. A child’s DRA reading level is based on is a standardized reading test. During the test students read a selection (or selections) and then retell what they have read to the examiner. Most of our area schools use this standardized testing system to help gauge reading skills and comprehension, but many combine the information they get from this system with the GRL system.

A Lexile text measure is based on the semantic and syntactic elements of a text. A Lexile reader measure can range from below 200L for emergent readers to above 1600L for advanced readers. This system tends to be the hardest translate from skill level and rating to book recommendations, at least for me. Most of the focus on these numbers come into play after children are fluent readers. For charts that break down which Lexile ratings are average by grade and further details, I highly recommend exploring their website. The site offers a search tool that allows you to find books based on Lexile level and then limit by age and interests so that you can find reading material for just about any fluent reader.

For more information on the stages of reading development and encouraging reading check out: Early Literacy by Joan Brooks McLane, Gillian Dowley McNamee, Straight Talk about Reading: How Parents Can Make a Difference During the Early Years by Susan L. Hall and Louisa C. Moats, Matching Books to Readers: Using Leveled Books in Guided Reading, K-3 by Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell (reference book that cannot leave the library), The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child by Donalyn Miller, Games With Books: 28 of the Best Children’s Books and How to Use Them to Help your Child Learn by Peggy Kaye, Raising a Reader: Make Your Child a Reader for Life by Paul Kropp, and The Between the Lions Book for Parents: Everything you Need to Know to Help your Child Learn to Read by Linda K. Rath and Louise Kennedy.