Property Of The Rebel Librarian by Allison Varnes

This is a story about June Harper, Her parents, the school board, Ms. Bradshaw, Mr. Beeler, and The teachers. June Harper’s parents caught her reading “The Makings of a Witch”, and they thought that books like that were too inappropriate for 7th graders. They took all of her books away, and then they went on to her school. 

It was an exciting book, although it took a while to get interesting. I for some reason liked all of the drama and I liked when they stood up to the teachers in the end and I liked the speech that June gave. When we were reading it, it felt kind of long. (Especially since I could have been reading comics or something like that).

By the way…  Don’t let the kitten out of the bag

Lumberjanes: Jackelope Springs Eternal by Shannon Waters

This is a story in the series Lumberjanes, about Mal, Ripley, April, Jo, Molly, (the Roanokes) Jen (the counselor), and Emmy. The Roanokes are scared of “The Voice”. That wanted to terrorize their camp and used some of them to do so, so their counselor gets them to start hunting for a Jackalope But instead, they find a cowgirl with the oddest herd ever and a lonely tornado.

It was a funny book with some diversity... it was really fun to read about all of the sweet little (giant) animals with odd stories. I really liked when Diane said “I refuse to use my unfathomable goddess powers on a stupid branch.” I didn’t really like that it was hard to understand the storyline since I didn’t read the book that came before it (oops on me). I would recommend this book because it is a funny book, but not until you read the ones that came before it.

Speaking of mythical creatures... look at this ferocious kitten!

The Nameless City by Faith Erin Hicks

This story is about The Dao, who are soldiers who took over the Nameless City. They want to have sole control of the city, so are protecting their ownership of the city. Kai is a Dao soldier and Rat is an orphaned girl - Dao soldiers killed her parents. Kai and Rat meet and learn to trust each other, and work together to save the leader of the Dao from assassins.

I first picked this book because I was bored and the cover looked really interesting. When I started reading it, it was so good that I couldn’t put it down (even when the teacher told me to). I really liked the overall book and the way the main characters learned to trust each other. I would recommend this book because its plot makes me want to keep reading. I can't wait to read the second and third books.

Goodnight Moon

Like you need me to tell you anything about Goodnight Moon. We have two copies, and I'm sure you have more. But I have to tell you this story.

We've been reading Corduroy and Goodnight Moon religiously twice each day for a couple of months now, right before sleep. A long time ago a professor advised that I should always tell the name of the author and illustrator of each book I read. So I do. Why not?

Well, Nana babysat last night. When we came home she said she picked up the two bedtime books and read the title, "Goodnight Moon". Maya immediately said, "Marget Wi Brown, pictures Clem Hud." Which is her translation of, "By Margaret Wise Brown, pictures by Clement Hurd."

She always waits to show off to the new guy I guess.

Speaking of bedtime, here's how I found Maya the other morning. How does she sleep like that?

Who Am I?

Last week at Jammies Storytime I had to give an apologetic look over to the librarians when we sang a song about Two Little Dinos, "...one named Quiet and one named Loud". This week when we sang it as Two Little Kittens, we left that verse out.

Maya got a little loud in the library herself when she figured out the book/toy Who Am I? (a novelty book by Begin Smart Books). It doubles as a mask with two eye holes in the middle and handles on the edges. Each page has a different animal face. Just hold the book up to your face and make a noise.

When Maya found the cat page she began running around the library, "MEOW! MEOW!" Thus our quick departure (of course we checked out the book and took it with us).

Now Maya did have trouble figuring out that she needed to point the kitty away so others could look at it. So at home we tried it in front of the bathroom mirror. That worked well.

Here's a picture of Maya in another disguise. See if you can guess which piano key plunker she is.

Good Luck Bear

Maya's second birthday last week was close enough to St. Patrick's Day that we made it an Irish affair. We had corned beef and cabbage with shepherd's pie on the side. Not bad. On the day, Maya got a green bowler from her Aunt Marty, who loves all things Irish.

For storytime Tuesday night we inserted an appropriate book into our dinosaur theme. Good Luck Bear, by Greg Foley, is about a lucky little bear who is searching for a four-leaf clover. He's having trouble finding one, and the other animals aren't helping at all. Monkey says there's no such thing, Rabbit finds one but eats it, and Groundhog asks, "If you don't find one, does it mean that you're unlucky?"

Poor Bear feels like the most unlucky animal. But he is lucky. Why? Because he has a friend like Mouse, who brings to him not a four, but a five-leaf clover.

In the past, I usually ignored St. Patty's Day, because I couldn't find any books I liked. But now I'll keep this one on my list for years to come.

I mentioned Maya's birthday. Here's a picture of her blowing out her candles with a little help from Cousin Addy, who had experience from a couple months before.

Dinosaur vs. Bedtime

If you're on facebook, you've seen those 25 Random Things About Me lists. One of Nathan's, a librarian friend of mine, is that his new favorite storytime book is Dinosaur vs. Bedtime, by Bob Shea. We of course immediately checked it out from the library.

Maya loves it. Like Maya (though she's building her lexicon daily), Dinosaur is a creature of few words. In fact his most used word is one of Maya's favorites - ROAR!

Dinosaur takes on all comers. "Dinosaur vs. a bowl of spaghetti! ROAR! ROAR! ROAR! CHOMP! CHOMP! ROAR! ROAR! ROAR! DINOSAUR WINS! ROAR! ROAR!" I think you can see the draw here. There are a minimum of three roars on each page.

A nice side effect is that Maya now trots around the house saying, "ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!" in various tones of voices. It's pretty funny.

Dinosaur finally meets his match when it comes to bedtime. The ROAR begins to be drawn out and turns into a snore. "Bedtime wins. Good night, dinosaur."

I suppose a bad side effect would be if Maya adds roaring to her anti-bedtime routine. So far so good.