Library Column for October 27, 2023

@ Your Library

Tuesday is Halloween, the last day of October, which means there are just over two months left in 2023. What do you still have on your goals for the year? Can the library help you meet any of those goals?

Speaking of Halloween, the library is having a Halloween scavenger hunt on Tuesday for children ages 12 and under. Stop by the junior room in costume (or not) and find a mini beanie baby to keep. We will have hidden lots around the junior room for children to find. Each child will be limited to one beanie baby.

Reading readiness is important for each child. The best way families (parents, grandparents, other caregivers) can make sure each child is ready to learn to read when they enter school is to read to the child regularly from the time they are born (if not before). The library wants to help encourage parents, etc. to read to their children so we have a Reading Ready program. Each child can get a free book each time they have been read to for 100 days until they enter Kindergarten. Stop by the library and ask for our Reading Ready backpack of information including a free book to get started with. Anytime I get a chance to talk about Reading Ready I remind people that even if you aren’t comfortable reading aloud at first, practicing will make you better. So if you start when the child is very young, they don’t care what you sound like, they just want to spend time with you and hear your voice. So dive in and make reading aloud to your children a habit.

Also, make sure your child is signed up for Imagination Library which mails a free book to the home addressed to the child monthly until they are five. Visit the library to pick up a registration form, scan the QR code in the junior room or visit https://imaginationlibrary.com/usa/affiliate/MNKOOCHICHING/ to register online. As your kids grow they will love to get mail on a monthly basis and you will enjoy having a new book to read to them.

Come check out our collection of Halloween stories for children including a new Mother Bruce title by Ryan T. Higgins Bruce and the Legend of Soggy Hollow, a retelling of Legend of Sleepy Hollow presented as a play by the animals. Your littlest ones will enjoy the newer Sandra Boynton title Boo! Baa, la, la, la! Pete the cat also explores Halloween traditions in Trick or Pete and Five Little Pumpkins. And if your family enjoys Tacky the Penguin stories by Helen Lester be sure and borrow Tacky and the Haunted Igloo, fans of Click, Clack, Moo by Doreen Cronin should read Click, Clack, Boo. Independent readers might enjoy Double Down by Jeff Kinney, a ‘diary of a wimpy kid’ book, Stick the Dog Craves Candy by Tom Watson or for a bit of a scare try A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting by Joe Ballarini.

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