• Lists

    12 Board Games for Family Game Night

    board games

    I would never categorize myself as a board game player. Mainly because they often take focus and concentration and when playing with friends or family, I want to hang out and socialize more than focus on what’s happening in the game. I’m a huge fan of Yahtzee – a game…

  • Lists

    12 Therapy-Positive Middle Grade Books

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    October 1 – 7 is Mental Illness Awareness Week and to boost the openness and acceptability of mental health, I’m sharing 12 therapy-positive middle grade books. I’ve got a number of other book lists available including 16 Middle Grade Books About Mental Health and 9 Middle Grade Books for World…

  • Reviews

    Simon B. Rhymin’

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    Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Synopsis: “A humorous and heartwarming bounce-to-the-beat underdog story about a young rapper whose rhymes help bring his community together. Eleven-year-old Simon…

  • Reviews

    Middle School Bites

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    Synopsis: “Thanks to a series of unfortunate bites, eleven-year-old Tom is a triple threat: he’s a Vam-Wolf-Zom. And just in time for the first day of middle school. So much for his Invisible Tom Plan. He never thought to make a What If I Turn Into A Vampire Werewolf Zombie Plan. Maybe…

  • Activities

    Virtual Programming: Book Talks

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    While we’re working from home, my children’s librarian and I have been sharing book talks for elementary and middle grade readers. This is an great program on a couple of fronts: we don’t have to worry about copyright issues it’s easy to do, especially if you’re a big reader if…

  • Activities

    25 Books To Get Your Tween Talking

    family

    If you’ve ever wanted to reach past the one-word answers in response to your questions to tweens, try books! Books are a great way to open up a discussion about interesting or difficult topics. With so many things changing in their own bodies and minds, tweens tend to not want…

  • Activities

    Book Talking 45+ Books in 45 Minutes

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    How do you learn about all the amazing books being published every year? It’s not easy, even for people in the industry! I use a mixture of review journals, social media, talking with colleagues, Netgallye, and Edelweiss. How do kids keep up? Usually, it’s from coming across titles that their…

  • Activities

    AtoZ Blogging Challenge – Zentangles

    Zentangle

    Program Name: Learn About Zentangles What: As part of our De-Stress December programming, I offered a Zentangle program at our library. “The Zentangle Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns.” There are a ton of resources available on the Zentangle website and on…