Coming Soon: Wreck It Ralph

Why I'm excited at the moment:

Wreck-It-Ralph, coming this November, is a brand new cartoon from Disney that features John C. Reilly as a video game villain who is tired of being the bad guy.  In an attempt to feel better about himself, Ralph hightails it out of his arcade game and begins experimenting in other games.  The below clip shows some pretty hilarious meetings with Jane Lynch in a war game, and Sara Silverman in a super-sweet and girly game called Sugar Rush.  But aside from the cool actors behind the scenes, I and I think most other video game lovers will be most frantic at seeing some of our favorite bad guys from real-life video games appearing in Ralph's support group.  I got a glimpse of King Koopa from Super Mario Brothers, Dr. Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog, and even a ghost from our beloved Pac Man.

I cannot contain myself.  Can you?

Pieces of Programming: Drama Club Spring Session Wrap-Up

Aside from my duties as a teen librarian, I keep my connection with the tweens by running our Youth Services Drama Club.  I think I inherited the club just by it being an open opportunity but now that I've had it for a while, and can see some of my tweens reaching the age that gets them into teen activities and the teen room, I can appreciate the bond it has helped me form with them so that it will continue once they are full-fledged teens.

The Spring Session was my best to date, I believe, and in it, I introduced three great things that helped me maintain my sanity:

Pieces of Programming: Making Puppets with Drama Club!

When I first started at my current library, drama club was thriving.  The kids had posed in front of our green screen, made great videos, and did a lot of reader's theater with the former librarian who served as their teacher.  One of my predecessor's last activities here was actually a drama club premiere party, where they got to watch themselves on the big screen (our projector screen), and see what they'd done all year.  I was impressed, and excited, but greatly intimidated.

I'd done drama club as a child myself, and I LOVE performance art, but teaching kids how to do it is not as simple a feat.  Kids are not only balls of energy, but tweens specifically are balls of emotions, and sometimes the drama part of the club is all I knew I could expect to see.  There were also the task of redefining what the club was for and how it ran for me, as opposed to what they were used to with the other librarian.  Her plans and outcomes were great, but I needed to determine my own goals.

2012 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Named!

Thanks to K.C. Boyd over at MissDomino, I've just learned something amazing!
Walter Dean Myers has been named the 2012 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature!
The quote found on Read.gov is just ONE of the many things I love about Mr. Myers and is his platform policy.

For more information on the office of the NAYPL, click the above screenshot.
For a truly inspiring post that says what I was thinking far better than I ever could, check out K.C.'s blog.

Picture Book Review: One Love by Cedella Marley

Sometimes the smiles on an illustration can make your own face light up.  I found that was definitely the case with "One Love".  Bob Marley's oldest daughter, Cedella Marley takes the basic lyrics of her father's well-known song and puts together a short and endearing little book.

Little C, a happy little brown girl with dreadlock pigtails, is joining her family and neighborhood to build "One Love Park", while she remarks on how she finds love throughout her world. Small nods to Bob Marley are found within the pages as his likeness is found on coffee mugs, t-shirts and posters.

Picture Book Reviews: Toddler Treats

Got a request for some great reads for 3-year old's!  Here's a few of my faves.


Lottie Paris Lives Here by Angela Johnson

Lottie Paris is a busy young lady today.
She and Papa Pete have to visit the park, Lottie has to build a castle in her room, host a tea party,  secretly steal Papa Pete's phone to play with, etc.  You know, normal busy little girl stuff!
Readers of other Angela Johnson stories will love Lottie Paris just as much.  Through the picture on their wall, it's clear that Papa Pete is a single father or maybe even an adoptive dad.  Readers never see his face, so the story takes on a very Muppet Babies feel (Nanny's legs), but he's got just as much personality . LOL
Lottie ends up in the quiet chair a couple times, and she's busier than a bee, but she's also cute as a button and very loving.  Little girls will love the cute and colorful pictures while adults will chuckle at the similarities to Lottie Paris and perhaps a similar girl in their life.  The illustrations are bright and cheery, and Lottie Paris is a serious cutie.

Are You Listening? *Giveaway*

As you can probably tell, I'm a bit of a nerd.
Aside from finding great nerdy things for myself, I tend to seek out nerdalicious things to share with my nieces and godchildren.  My goal is to make them the coolest little nerds you ever did see.  But I want them to have fun at the same time.

I came across the Noodleboro Playskool games on a recent trip to Five Below.  I like to keep games and books at my house for family members that visit, and I thought these would make for cute additions to my arsenal of activities.  There was a Pizza Listening game as well as a Manners game.  I grabbed the Listening game to try out.  What attracted me to these sets was the fact that each came with game pieces, a music cd, and also a book!  A complete activity set for $5!!

I knew I liked it, but would it pass the niece test?