Misc. Thoughts Before I Forget Again

 

8-30-2024

The English teacher in me is currently being held in chains. I have a list of items to write about whose only connection is that I’ve been meaning to do so for weeks.

1. For the Summer Reading Program, children are given essentially a bingo grid. Twenty minutes of reading allows them to cross off one square. The equivalent of one line across earns them a ticket for the prize drawing. Both the June and July grids also offer them two free squares: one for a food pantry donation, one for a Lakeland Animal Shelter donation.

This year we collected more for each organization than the two previous years I’ve worked here, enough to fill our contains more than once. Donations to the animal shelter were sent piecemeal as a patron who volunteers there would frequently take the lighter items while Miss Connie took the heavier ones on her monthly trips to the shelter. Food pantry donation, however, I delivered and am proud to say patrons donated 134 pounds of food to the local pantry.

2. Tovah Anderson, the marketing department for our Prairie Lakes Library System, sent out a mailer to residents of the system’s three counties who moved the first six months of 2024. The postcards act as a welcome and invitation to visit the local library and sign up for a library card. What is particularly helpful is that the postcards also act as proof of residency, which is probably the biggest stumbling block in a world when even the DMV allows for online address changes.

3. The last two articles announced new fall programming. Those are easy to write about. Continuation of programs are less easily slide in but just as deserving of attention. I’ll list them here. For children we will continue to host Lego Club on its new night, Wednesday. It has been several years since the therapy dog was part of that event. That will return on the first Wednesday of the month. Thursdays will see the continuation of the Preschool Play Group and Teens & Tweens, while Storytime remains on Friday mornings. For all ages, though admittedly usually adults, the Yarn & Stitch Group continues to meet the second and fourth Mondays of the month. Lori continues to volunteer the second Saturday of the month to answer IT questions. Finally, the Adult Book Club offers two opportunities to discuss the same book. Readers may select the second Tuesday or Friday depending on their schedules.

4. Labor Day closures will see us enjoying a three-day weekend. The library will be closed Saturday, August 31^st and Monday, September 2^nd.

That’s the list for now. Next week I believe it will be time for BadgerLink’s new offerings.

Reading Now: Mistaken Identity by the Van Ryan and Cerak families

Listening to Now: Fear on the Fens by Joy Ellis (DCI Nikki Galena series Book 13)

The Great Debate

 

8-23-2024

I’m feeling a little out of touch this while writing this from home at the end of a four-day weekend minus an afternoon impersonating a strict librarian for the 2024 Scavenger Games on Saturday. For those who remember, the wedding was lovely, I did decide on a hair style for the Games, and I took my daughter and grandsons to the zoo on Monday. (Sorry, Mom. I’ll call you tomorrow about the cataract surgery.)

What I do remember, is the plan to continue previewing fall programming with this article. Last week was about the Serial Sampler book club and Writer’s Workshop. This week will cover Pokémon Open Card Battles and August’s upcoming 5^th Thursday.

Pokémon Open Card Battles are scheduled for Mondays so they seem like a good place to start. To be specific, they are scheduled for the 2^nd and 4^th Mondays of each month. If that sounds familiar, it may be because the Yarn & Stitch group meets on those mornings at 10:00 – 12:00. The Pokémon group is scheduled for 3:00. We do understand that it takes some time for students to make their way to the library after school. Drive safely and arrive in one piece. All ages are welcome. All that’s needed to participate are cards.

The other reasons the 2^nd Monday may sound familiar is that in last week’s article I mistakenly named that the day for the Serial Sampler Book Club. The date I gave, September 16^th is a better indicator of what I meant as that’s the 3^rd and correct Monday of the month.

There was a Great Debate at the library regarding what to call this program. The issue at hand centered on the number of formats Pokémon takes: card game, augmented reality mobile game, video game, movie, stuffed animals, graphic novels, etc. In this case, we do mean card game.

We were fortunate to select Monday night as that also happens to be the day 2TO16 Games in Mukwonago is closed. Located in the small strip mall on the corner of Rochester and Lake Streets in Mukwonago, 2TO16 Games offers open gaming for Pokémon as well as Magic the Gathering and board games. Bryan has agreed to spend some of those days off, the 2^nd and 4^th of the month, at our program teaching participants new to the game how to play.

As for the 5^th Thursday in August, the published weekly schedule names a different activity for the first four Thursdays of each month this summer. August is the first month with five. This coming week we will be showing a movie staring my mom’s favorite lasagna eating cat. That starts at 3:00.

Reading Now: Mistaken Identity by Don & Susie Von Ryn and Newell, Colleen & Whitney Cerak

Listening to Now: Marshlight by Joy Ellis (DCI Matt Ballard Bk 4)

Fall Program Preview

 

8-16-2024

On Saturday the ETLPL is participating in the second 2024 Scavenger Games sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. If you participated in the June games, know Miss Maria has created a completely different scavenger hunt. The clues and format are all new, but library skills will still be helpful. While Miss Maria works on that, I’m focused on how to do librarian hair given that I did not keep my vow to maintain long hair until the final games in October. I prioritized comfort and the family wedding on Friday. I should be ashamed.

We have also been working on Fall programming. Miss Anna created a September-December Calendar similar to the Summer Calendar handed out in the library this year. The fall calendar will also be handed out and run in the Fall Park & Recreation Guide. That meant being much better about planning ahead then in the past few years.

Two new programs I’d like to highlight are the Series Sampler Book Club and Writer’s Workshop.

Miss Maria is organizing the Series Sampler to replace the summer’s Choose Your Own Adventure Book Club. SS is also geared toward late elementary/middle school.  The book club will meet the third Monday of each month at 3:00 pm. She’ll start with an activity and snack to break the ice and allow time for students to make it here after school before the discussion begins. Each month will feature the first book in an age-appropriate series.

The September Series Sampler book is The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. The first book of this series finds Roz, a robot with amnesia, waking up alone on a remote, wild island. The September 16^th discussion will take place eleven days before the movie’s release.

Copies of the book are available at the library for checkout.

The Writer’s Workshop will be led by Julianne Carlile. Prompts will be provided for writers who would like them; however, they are not required. The focus is on developing writing skills so writers will have opportunities to provide and receive feedback. Our target audience is adults, but high school students with an interest are more than welcome.

Writers will meet with Julianne the third Tuesday of the month 3:00 – 4:30 pm beginning September 17^th. Bring the writing you’d like to discuss and/or the means of writing. The library will make copies for discussion, but they cannot be on thumb drives.

 Reading Now: A Man of Two Faces by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Listening to Now: White Teeth by Zadie Smith (PBS Great American Read book)

Summer Thank Yous

 

8-9-2024

Until last year all facets of the Library’s Summer Reading Program, reading incentives and programs, came to an end the last Monday in July with the Pizza Party. The incentive portion of the reading program does still end with the party, but programming continued last year due to the late scheduling of Snake Discovery. This year two more Monday programs and the Choose Your Own Adventure Book Club keep our special programs going. We also have one more visit from the therapy dog on August 16^th.

The first two months of summer are the expensive ones, making this a good time to say thank you before officially promoting our fall schedule.

We try to make it clear that the Friends of the East Troy Lions Public Library or FoETLPL are the major supporter of our extras: reading programs, experience pass, and furniture. This summer is no exception. The programs are also sponsored by the Prairie Lakes Library System. They schedule and pay four of our Monday performers including Snake Discovery. That is why other libraries in the system offered the same performances. The other programs were thanks to Ryan Holle and the ETHS’s FFA and Tim Giffin and his crew with eTREC. Tim is donating the rocket launcher to the library, so stop in if your organization has a need.

The year we had fewer tickets to give away as there really isn’t a conveniently located Fazoli’s. We should thank the Wisconsin State Fair for continue to make children’s tickets available. As much fun as the State Fair can be, a bigger thank you goes to Tanis Construction for providing Walworth County Fair tickets for children in the reading programs of all Walworth County libraries.

Miss Maria brought a new idea with her. Kwik Trip has a program for teachers and libraries called Kwik Books. In June and July, we handed out certificates for a free slice of pizza or a garden salad to elementary age children for completing their monthly reading grid. That was a delicious addition.

My final thank you goes to Genoa’s pizza which always offers us an amazing discount on the pizzas. It takes a lot of pie to feed over 100 people.

Now we’re turning our attention to this week’s special programs:

IT with Lori on Saturday, August 9.

Yarn & Stitch and Music & Reading with local author Chet Celenza on Monday, August 12.

Adult Book Club discussion of Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by Anderson Cooper on Tuesday, August 13 followed by the Library Board Meeting.

Books, Crafts & a Dog on Friday, August 16.

 Reading Now: A Man of Two Faces by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Listening to Now: White Teeth by Zadie Smith (PBS Great American Read book)

The Party's Over, but the summer isn't

 

8-2-2024

The Party’s Over. As I started to write those words in reference to the Pizza Party for this year’s Summer Reading Program, I could not quite hear the lyrics to a song play in my head. It remained just elusive enough to fall into the 21^st century traps called Google, Wikipedia, and YouTube. There I learned it was originally written for the musical Bells Are Ringing and sung by Judy Holiday. Since then, it has been recorded over 100 times by singers such as Nat King Cole and Leslie Odom, Jr. The internet even kindly explained that the song meant something pleasurable has reached its end or the party’s over.

Perhaps the best find was the one selected to hear the lyrics. Bypassing Nat King Cole as an obviously smooth sound and going for Willie Nelson. Proving visual expectations and reality don’t always mesh, it wasn’t until his distinct voice started singing that I connected the short- haired all-around clean-cut male in the close-up with Willie Nelson. Who knew he had a career before pig-tails? I’ve never used that many hyphens in a sentence before.

Those revelations aside, back to the meaning. In this case it’s the literal definition: the party’s over that applies here. The pizza party with it’s 110 attendees, 30 prize giveaways, Walworth County Fair tickets, and 20 pizzas that is over; however, the fun or pleasure of summer at the library is not.

This year Monday programming continues through the first two weeks of August with three events. First off is the double feature beginning at 1:00 on August 5^th with the reschedule FFA Petting Zoo. They are coming a bit early as we already had Sensory Playtime for preschoolers schedule for Playmore Park at 1:30. This way they can start with the animals and then switch their attention to the sensory event. We know better than to compete directly with a pony.

The final Monday program on August 12^th, Music, Movement, and Story with Chet Celenza, brings in a friend of Miss Maria’s. Chet Celenza is a music teacher at Prairie Hill Waldorf School in Pewaukee who has also authored a children’s book. Students from Humble Oak may recognize his name as he has a relationship with that school as well. That event will be filled with, you guessed it, music and movement. Sounds like a party to me.

Now back to Google where I will either close tabs or be sucked into the vortex involving the Top 20 Songs with Harmonies that Give Us Chills.

 Reading Now: Trust by Hernan Diaz (2023 Pulitzer Prize winner shared with Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead), The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen (short stories), and Vanderbilt by Anderson Cooper (August Adult Book Club selection)

Listening to Now: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn