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Summer Reading Clubs

This summer the theme is “Make a Splash: Read!” Registration started June 21 and ends August 2 at 9.00 p.m. Special needs children are welcome with an adult.

• "Little Swimmers Read-to-Me Club" is for children ages 2½-5 years old
• "Deep Sea Divers Reading Club" is for children entering Grades K-5 in September 2010.

As the registration date for the summer reading club approaches, the Children's Room is counting down the top 20 reasons why your child should join the summer-reading club.

1. Reading sharpens minds.
2. The program is open to all children regardless of their reading level.
3. Reading as few as 4-5 books over the summer can keep elementary school students’ skills from slipping.
4. It keeps minds stimulated over the summer.
5. Summer-reading clubs are fun for children who are reluctant readers.
6. Summer-reading clubs promote reading for enjoyment.
7. Summer-reading clubs encourage parents to read to their children.
8. Summer-reading clubs may be the only non-sport activity available to children.
9. Toddlers respond to the sound of language.
10. Toddlers and preschoolers get the opportunity to hear wonderful stories for the first time.
11. When parents read, sing, and play rhyming games with their toddler, they stimulate language and vocabulary development and build important foundations for learning to read.
12. The program offers toddlers an opportunity for group interaction.
13. The program allows elementary age school children to experience different genres.
14. The program offers recognition to readers.
15. The program offers free incentives to read.
16. When parents read, sing, and play rhyming games with their toddler, they stimulate language and vocabulary development and build important foundations for learning to read.
17. The program offers toddlers an opportunity for group interaction.
18. The program allows elementary age school children to experience different genres.
19. The program offers recognition to readers.
20. The program offers free incentives to read.

Summer Storytimes

Summer storytimes will be held on Mondays: July 12, July 19, July 26, and August 2. No registration is necessary, but space is limited, so please arrive promptly:

• Mother Goose (ages 18-29 months with an adult): 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
• Toddlers (ages 2½-3½ with an adult): 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
• Preschoolers (independent listeners ages 3-5, not entering Kindergarten): 1:30 p.m.
• Kindergarten & First Grade (for children entering Kindergarten or First Grade in Fall 2010): 7:00 p.m.

The walls of the Story Time Room have a mural of favorite storybook and nursery-rhyme characters for children to enjoy. The mural was drawn and painted by Library Aides Liane Mallon and Amelie Alford. Such favorite characters of children’s storybooks as Arthur, Curious George, Max and Ruby, and Madeline adorn the walls. In addition, classic literary characters like Alice in Wonderland and nursery rhymes like "Hickory Dickory Dock" offer children the opportunity to test their knowledge about traditional children’s stories and rhymes. Librarians Barbara Grace and Donna Furey have surprised children visiting the Children’s Room in the New Year by inviting class visits and story-time participants to name all the characters and stories that they recognize.

Book Discussion Groups

All book discussions are 45 minutes long. In-person registration only.

Lunch Bunch

• For children presently enrolled in Second Grade.
• Bring a brown-bag lunch. A beverage and dessert will be provided.

  July 22 at 1 :00 p.m.
  Get Ready for Second Grade, Amber Brown, by Paula Danziger
  Registration begins July 8 at 9:30 a.m. in the Children’s Room.

3^rd Grade Book Discussion

• Bring a brown-bag lunch. A beverage and dessert will be provided.

  July 29 at 1:00 p.m.
  Calvin Coconut: Trouble Magnet, by Graham Salisbury
  Registration begins July 15 at 9:30 a.m. in the Children’s Room.

4^th & 5^th Grade Book Discussion

• Bring a brown-bag dinner and discuss the book. A beverage and dessert will be provided

  July 22 at 5:30 p.m.
  Toys Go Out, by Emily Jenkins
  Registration begins July 8 at 9:30 a.m. in the Children’s Room.

Accelerated Readers

Whether you’re looking to find books on a certain accelerated reader level or looking to see if a specific book is on the accelerated reader’s List, the children’s librarians can help! Just come to the Children's Room, where we have the Accelerated Reader Lists for both Stewart and Stratford Schools. You can browse through the lists or ask a librarian for help in finding a book that is both interesting and at the right level for your child.

Audio Books

Listening to books on tape or CD can enhance your children's reading development and broaden their exposure to a different genre. They can also make a car ride shorter and more pleasurable. Take an audiobook along for the ride. The Children’s Department has a a wide variety of popular titles, authors, and genres for you to check out. New audiobooks include: Judy Moody Goes to College, by Megan McDonald; Ivy & Bean Take Care of the Babysitter, by Annie Barrows; Eliot’s Park: Saving Mr. Nibbles! by Patrick Carman; and Encyclopedia Brown Saves the Day, by Donald J. Sobol. There’s sure to be an audiobook that the whole family can enjoy!

Looking for a new way to share books with your children and improve their early literacy skills? Take a look at one of the Children’s Department’s CD sets! Your child can follow along with the text and illustrations while the narrator tells the story. If you are looking for a new way to share books with your children and improve their early literacy skills, CD sets are a good way to develop listening skills and deepen comprehension of elements like structure and character. Children will also learn how to read with expressiveness and inflection. There are a variety of picture books and early readers available, like Eliot’s Park: Haunted Hike, by Patrick Carman; John, Paul, George and Ben, by Lane Smith; Giggle, Giggle, Quack, by Doreen Cronin; and Fiona’s Luck, by Teresa Bateman, as well as classic titles and favorites.

The Children’s Room has recently added some new audiobook kits. Each kit comes with a specially designed media player containing recordings of four different books, so children can read along while they listen. The first kit includes a castle shaped plastic media player and the books, Alice the Fairy, by David Shannon; When Sophie Gets Angry - Really, Really Angry, by Molly Bang; Ruby the Copycat, by Peggy Rathmann; and The Little Red Hen, by Lucinda McQueen. A second kit includes the books How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight, by Jane Yolen; Is Your Mama a Llama, by Deborah Guarino; I Love You Because You’re You, by Liza Baker; and Pigsty, by Mark Teague, along with a plastic media player shaped as a yellow school bus. For those interested in winter stories, children can check out the audiobook kit which includes a snowman-shaped plastic media player and the books The Night Before Christmas, by Clement Clarke Moore; There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow, by Lucille Colandro; The Biggest Best Snowman, by Margery Cuyler; and Five Little Penguins Slipping on the Ice, by Steve Metzger. Earphones are required, but not included.

We also have books on the computer for the children who enjoy listening to stories.

DVDs

The Library has a collection of DVDs for children, too! During this economic downturn, rather than buying DVDs to entertain your child, come browse the DVDs in the Children’s Room as well as in the Media Center on the lower level.

The Children’s Department strives to bring our patrons the best in DVDs for young people. We have copies of recent theatrical releases, like Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Wall-E, and Space Chimps, as well as episodes from the best series in children’s television, such as Backyardigans, Go! Diego Go! and WordWorld.

The collection also includes entertaining educational and instructional DVDs. Whether your child needs help with reading (try Meet the Sight Words, Vol.1-3) or improve at sports (for example, Better Golf for Kids or Littlest Leaguers Learn to Play Soccer), there are titles for every interest. Budding scientists will enjoy the Popular Mechanics for Kids series, and young poets will like Classical Baby (I’m All Grown Up Now): The Poetry Show. Each volume in the Holidays for Children series explores a different and unique holiday. If you want to learn more about history, you can borrow the DVDs for the animated series Liberty’s Kids, which tells the story of the American Revolution through the eyes of Benjamin Franklin’s two young apprentices. To help improve children’s literacy skills, check out the latest DVD volumes from the children’s television series WordWorld, Rocket to the Moon, and Sheep’s a Star.

Other new DVDs include: The Best of Bob the Builder, Bill Nye The Science Guy: Chemical Reactions, Sesame Street: Elmo’s Rainbow and Other Springtime Stories, The Princess and the Frog, and many more!

For those who have VCRs, there is also a wide array of VHS for circulation. Visit the Audio-Visual Center on the lower level to browse the entire collection of DVDs for parents to watch too!

Easy Readers

Located along the back wall, our very popular Easy Reader section is the area for the child who is ready to start reading independently. All of the book spines are marked with either a pink or a red tape.

Pink tapes are aimed at those children who are just starting to read on their own. They feature very few words on a page, and a controlled vocabulary. Often they focus on particular sight words, letter sounds or rhyming sounds. These are literary skills that will be worked on extensively in Kindergarten and First Grade. Some series to try are the Rookie Readers (with books authored by Patricia McKissack, Larry Dane Brimner, and Melanie Davis Jones, among others), the Sound Box Books, by Jane Belk Moncure, or the Sandcastle books (First Rhymes, First Words, First Sounds). Or, for a blast from the past, there’s the Read with Dick and Jane books, recently reissued.

Once the pink-tape books become too easy, it is time to try a red tape. Red tapes are longer, with more text per page, and featuring a wider vocabulary. The storylines are more complex, the characters more interesting. There are lots of great red-tape series, like the classics Amelia Bedelia (Peggy Parish), Nate the Great (Marjorie Sharmat Weinman), or Frog and Toad (Arnold Lobel). They are joined by newer favorites Henry and Mudge (Cynthia Rylant), Minnie and Moo (Denys Cazet), and soon to be favorites Houndsley and Catina (James Howe) and Poppy and Max (Sally Grindley).

Graphic Novel Collection

Looking for something to interest your reluctant reader or a new challenge for the child who has read everything? You might want to check out the Children’s Department’s Graphic Novel Collection. Often dismissed as mere “comic books,” graphic novels do contain many pictures, but also many different stories and characters. Reluctant readers are often drawn to the images and shorter text of a graphic novel, but any reader can find their interest engaged and their literacy skills challenged by the different style of storytelling found in a graphic novel. The graphic novels in the juvenile collection have been reviewed and recommended by librarians and are intended for children ages eight and up. Recent acquisitions include Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom, by Eric Wight; Magic Trixie, by Jill Thompson; Jellaby, by Kean Soo; and Magic Pickle and the Garden of Evil, by Scott Morse. If you are unfamiliar with this entertaining and diverse genre, check it out!

Large Print Books

Is there a reluctant reader in your house? If so, come into the Children’s Room and check out the newest acquisitions to our collection - LARGE PRINT BOOKS. According to studies, words are easier to decode when they are in large print. Also, the larger font and increased amount of white space on a page are beneficial to children with reading disabilities. Titles that are in the collection include: Al Capone Does My Shirts, by Gennifer Choldenko; Because of Winn-Dixie and The Tale of Despereaux, both by Kate DiCamillo; The Janitor’s Boy, Lunch Money, and The Report Card, all by Andrew Clements; Joey Pigza Loses Control, by Jack Gantos; The Pepins and Their Problems, by Polly Horvath; Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls; and A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle.

Magazines

Did you know that the Children’s Room has a multitude of subscriptions to many magazines for all ages covering many different topics? Those titles include:

Ask: A magazine that examines a variety of subjects for younger readers.

Click: This magazine for 3-6 year-olds is a children's magazine for science and exploration that satisfies the craving to learn that comes naturally to young children. It helps little ones understand the world around them.

Cricket: This magazine has delighted and entertained young readers ages 9 to 14 for over 30 years. It is a 64 page joyride of fiction, fantasy, folk tales, adventures, poems, history, and biography. The stories are written by top-notch writers and illustrated by award-winning artists.

Dig: Featured topics include crime-scene investigation, mummies, and pirates.

Junior Scholastic: This magazine for Grade 5+ integrates national and world events into the social-studies curriculum through even timelier, kid-friendly news articles than ever before.

Kids Discover: This magazine brings award-winning nonfiction to children of ages 6 and up, providing them with lively prose, beautiful photography, and rich illustrations.

American Girl: This is the most popular magazine in America for girls 8-12 years old. Award-winning American Girl magazine offers great topics and activities that girls love and moms trust.

National Geographic World: This is a colorful, monthly magazine for ages 9-12, created especially for curious kids. Novelty and hands-on learning make a winning combination that has captivated World's nearly one million readers for more than 20 years. World's features encourage its readers to protect the planet's resources and to learn more about geography, adventure, wildlife, science, and youngsters of special distinction from around the world.

Odyssey: Features science topics of all kinds.

Ranger Rick: This magazine for kids ages7 and up is a wonderfully informational and educational magazine about wildlife and nature. Kids enjoy the articles, stories, and jokes, and best of all, they learn all about many different animals.

Sports Illustrated for Kids: This is the magazine for boys and girls who love sports. It present sports the way kids want to read about them, with great action photos, easy-to-read stories about star athletes, helpful instructional tips from the pros, and humor, comics, and activities.

Dig: This magazine brings the excitement, mystery, wonder, and fun of archaeology, paleontology, and earth sciences to children ages 9 and older to both entertain and educate its young readers.

Highlights: This magazine for children ages 5+ delivers puzzles, science projects, jokes, and riddles to challenge young minds, while characters in regular features like "Hidden Pictures," "The Timbertoes," "Goofus and Gallant," and "The Bear Family," keep children coming back like good friends should. This magazine first started in 1946.

Muse: This is a science magazine, a history magazine, and an art magazine - all rolled into one. With insightful articles on topics ranging from anthropology to zoology and just about everything in between, Muse will captivate curious readers ages 8 and up. Muse magazine isn’t a collection of facts; it’s a guidebook for intellectual exploration.

Your Big Backyard: This magazine for the children ages 3-7 has insightful articles on topics ranging from anthropology to zoology and just about everything in between.

Zoobooks: Simply written and beautifully illustrated for ages 5-12, each monthly issue "captures" one of 60 different animals through magnificent photography, illustrations, diagrams, and descriptions and includes interactive activity pages. Kids get "up close and personal" with the world's most amazing creatures.

Music

The Children’s area has a collection of musical CDs that can also be borrowed. Music ranges from favorite children’s performers like Raffi and Brady Rymer to Bruce Springsteen.

For music CDs featuring favorite storybook characters, check out Arthur’s Really Rockin’ Music Mix, Thomas’ Songs and Roundhouse Rhythms, or Hey, It’s Franklin. If you’re interested in songs and rhymes to teach different languages, you can borrow the CDs Baby’s First Steps in French and Baby’s First Steps in Spanish. We also have soundtracks of popular movies and Broadway musicals, including Seussical, the Musical, Fantasia 2000, and The Little Mermaid: Original Broadway Cast Recording.

The collection includes many other musical genres, including classical, instrumental, rock, pop, reggae, and marching-parade music. The Library is pleased to present a great variety of music that will introduce and assist children as they discover the wonder of music.

Programs

Our programs are funded by the Friends of the Garden City Public Library. Priority for registration and participation is given to children who are Garden City Public Library cardholders. Check the Calendar of Events, and watch for program flyers.

School Assignments

The Children’s Room is a student’s (and parent’s) greatest asset for school assignments. The librarians can recommend a good book for a book report or help choose non-fiction and reference books for a research project. They can also show you how to use the databases.

Many teachers in the Garden City School District let the Library know when a report is planned. The librarians choose the appropriate books and put them in our special “School Assignments” section with the teacher’s name on the shelf . If you are looking for an Accelerated Reader, the Library has the AR lists for Stewart and Stratford schools. If you need help with a book report or project, the Library is the place to check out for what you need.

Special Needs Collection

Come visit the Children’s Room to take a look at the new Special Needs Collection. The collection covers topics such as ADD, asthma, autism, cancer, diabetes, deafness, gluten-free eating, Tourette’s syndrome, and having a friend with a special need. Currently there are books (both fiction and non-fiction), DVDs, videocassettes, music, and games available. The games are appropriate for the preschool-Grade 2 child with special needs. They may be checked out for a two week period of time. The collection will continue to be expanded as time goes on.