school age

baby

Summer’s Coming & I Can’t Wait

And I mean it. Fellow YS librarians!  I know that this is our most stressful time of year: this lead-up to summer reading when all things converge into one mass of school visits, school tours, preparing publicity, lining up programs and getting ready for the crush of all those endless days of patrons, programs, and mayhem….

Read more »

dolls

American Girl Rebooted: What We Did & How It Worked

The key to unlocking American Girl was understanding that I had to understand the material AND that I should let the material guide me and guide the program. And not just the material as in American Girl but the material as in the specific girl I’d chosen: Rebecca. In reading the Rebecca books (I’m speaking here of…

Read more »

cobras

MAGIC TREEHOUSE @ Your Library!

Magic Treehouse was another event I decided to have based on the popularity of the books.  These books remain wildly popular at our library and the fans remain as dedicated and intent as ever.  We have multiple copies of each title and sometimes they are ALL checked out.   I figured with a fanbase this…

Read more »

mermaid

FANCY NANCY @ Your Library!

This program was a modified repeat of a program we had two years ago.  (Yes, you can offer the single-day programs again!) I know lots of libraries that have hosted Fancy Nancy events and I really suggest it. Fancy Nancy remains very popular at our library – often there are simply no Fancy Nancy books even…

Read more »

golden

NINJAGO @ Your Library!

I was inspired to have a Ninjago event because it was a word I heard over and over again on the lips of our 6-12 year old patrons.  This was my sweet spot of ages this summer, so it was in the back of my mind.  Then I read Sara‘s amazing and inspiring blog about…

Read more »

It’s A Party! Hosting Stand-Alone,Themed Events @ Your Library!

A few years ago, our library made a significant change in our summer programming offerings.  We switched from focusing mainly on sustained, multi-day programs to single day standalone events.  (We still have some of the multi-day programs and I plan to write about all the positive ways we’ve changed them!) We themed these days around…

Read more »

scaled

Spring Break Programming: We Did It (and so can you)

This year I decided it was time for our library to try out Spring Break programming.  I’d be reading about all these amazing youth programs happening at libraries, getting all inspired and fired up, and I decided five days with no school just seemed like too big of an opportunity to pass up.  Maybe we’d…

Read more »