A Dragon-rific Storytime to Celebrate Chinese New Year!

Another fun storytime! Today we read about dragons & rabbits for Chinese New Year (this is the Year of the Rabbit) and then everyone made their own dragon puppet! Plus, each child received a paper lantern to take home in celebration of Chinese New Year. 

Chinese New Year begins February 3, 2011 so why not celebrate with some stories, songs, and make some paper lanterns of your own! 

Don't forget, we have Toddler Storytime every Friday here at Central Library at 10 & 11 so stop by! See you next week!

Staff Pick: Rules by Cynthia Lord

Some rules keep us safe, some don’t always seem necessary, and some can usually go without saying…, rules like “Keep your pants on in public”, and “If the bathroom door is locked, KNOCK!”

Meet 12 year old Catherine.  Her younger brother David is autistic. She sometimes feels neglected by her parents and her love for her brother is as real as her frustrations and embarrassment by his behavior.  While attending David’s therapy session Catherine meets Jason, a surprising, new sort-of friend who can talk only by using cards, and Kristi the potential next-door friend she’s always wished to have.  Catherine begins to learn and understand that normal is difficult. She starts to look at things differently.  Rules of behavior are less important than acceptance of others.  Catherine is an endearing narrator who tells her story with both humor and heartbreak.  Rules by Cynthia Lord is a heartwarming first novel.

Family Night @ The Library with Marcus Miller

The Friends of the Burbank Public Library presents "Rhythms from Around the World with Marcus Miller" which focuses on the historical and cultural significance of drumming. Tap into your inner rhythms through the drum and catch the drumming bug! 

This is a great event for the whole family!  Family Night with Marcus will be at the Buena Vista Branch Library this Thursday night at 7 pm and held at Central Library Thursday, 2/10 at 7 pm so don't miss out!  For more information call the library at 818-238-5610.

Storytime is Back!

Storytime is so much FUN! We read chilly stories & made penguin families Friday at Toddler Tales Storytime. Don't worry, if you didn't make it because Toddler Tales Storytime is every Friday at Central at 10 & 11 am so drop by and share a story or sing a song! See you next week!

And don't forget, there are Preschool Storytimes on Wednesday at 10 at our Northwest Branch and on Thursday at 10 at Central so there is always some fun stories being shared in Burbank!

Puppy Tails at the Library!

 This is an exciting new program designed for 1st-3rd graders who would like to practice reading aloud! Therapy dogs are a proven tool to enhance a child's reading and communication skills.  Registration is required as space is limited at these sessions.  Call the library or sign up at the Reference Desk at our Buena Vista Branch Library.

Staff Pick: When You Reach Me

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, a Newbery Award winning novel full of twists and turns, perfect for kids who loved A Wrinkle in Time or The Giver. 

Sixth grade is a year Miranda will never forget.  Things start to unravel when Miranda’s best friend Sal gets punched by a kid on their way home from school, for what seems like no reason, and he shuts Miranda out of his life.   Someone steals Miranda’s apartment key that her mom keeps hidden for emergencies, and then Miranda starts to receive a series of strange notes starting with the first one:” I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own.” The other, “I ask two favors.  First, you must write me a letter..." The notes keep coming and Miranda slowly realizes that whoever is leaving them knows things no one should know. Each message brings her closer to believing that only she can prevent a tragic death or is she too late?

This novel takes place in the real world but holds a fantastic puzzle at its heart.



Staff Pick: The Ultimate Dino-Pedia

NEW EXCITING NON-FICTION:  The Ultimate Dino-Pedia:  The Most Complete Dinosaur Reference Ever By Don Lessem.  What’s special about this book from National Geographic for Kids?  Well for one thing, all the illustrations are new art work and have been done especially for this book, and they are terrific.  This is the book to pick up if your interest is in the fabulous variety of dinosaurs, because everything is here and the entries on each dinosaur are only a single page, so you can get the facts quickly.

Staff Pick: The Fablehaven Series

IF YOU LIKE HARRY POTTER…Then try the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull.  Follow the adventures of Kendra and Seth Sorenson as they help their grandparents, caretakers of a reserve for magical beings, fight the forces of evil to protect their family, friends, and the world from falling to a mighty demon. Ogres, giants, fairies, and dragons populate this fantastical world, soon to be a major motion picture!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Party!

We're going wimpy here at the library on Saturday Feb. 12 at 2:00 with a party to celebrate Greg and all his pals! Join us for a fun cartoon class with Dave Boatman, snacks, giveaways, and a preview of the trailer for the new movie, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules coming out March 25, 2011. The event is FREE but registration is required, call the library for more info at 818-238-5610.

FREE Family Fun: LACMA is Free on MLK Day

Target Free Holiday Mondays at Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Monday, January 17  12-8 pmThe museum is free (all day!) with excellent exhibits and a live performance with the legendary jazz group the Pan Afrikan People's Arkestra.  See the museum's site for more information http://www.lacma.org/ and after enjoying Van Goghs and Renoirs on Monday, stop by the library on Tuesday to check out all of our great art and drawing books for kids!

FREE Family Fun: Celebrate the Lunar New Year!

January 29, 11am-5pm at the Pacific Asia Museum in PasadenaThe Lunar New Year celebration on January 29th will be a FREE, fun-filled day for the entire community. Held throughout the Museum including a fully tented parking lot, all the galleries will be open to enjoy along with crafts, demonstrations and hands-on activities, food and gift vendors, plus live music, dance, martial arts, acrobatics, magic and more onstage. A great chance to enjoy China Modern before it closes February 6. Come help welcome in the Year of the Rabbit. Free and fun for all ages!

Staff Pick: The Homework Machine

Meet four 5th-grade students, Sam, nicknamed Snikwad, Kelsey, Judy, and Brenton. Four different personalities, brought together by one very big secret, all in trouble for one thing: cheating on their homework with the homework machine they code named Belch.

Brenton didn't intend for Belch to become so powerful; he invented it for himself because he wanted to save time for the things he really needed to study for like psychology, physics, and medicine. But when the parents and first-year teacher, Miss Rasmussen, start suspecting the kids of some wrong-doing, someone tips the police off to the homework machine and who's using it. The foursome become instantly worried and feel guilty that they are going to get caught. Who broke their bond of secrecy about Belch? Was there great harm in getting their homework done by a machine's brain instead of their own?  Soon the kids are in a race against their own creation and they could end up in jail or even worse!

Dare to read this silly tale of friendship among the most unlikely group of friends. What would you do given the choice to do your homework on your own or by someone or something else?

If you do decide to read this book, remember…do your homework first.

Lego Club is coming to Central Library!

Do you love Legos?  Creating unique structures out of these fun, little plastic building blocks?  Then Lego Club is for you!  We'll have piles of Legos for you to use and play with here at the library on the following Saturdays: Feb. 26, Mar. 26, and May 21.  The fun goes from 11:00-12:30 so stop by and get creative!  This is a fun program for the whole family and toddler-safe Duplo Legos will be available for those years 2-4.  (For safety reasons children must be accompanied by an adult or guradian)

Staff Pick: Number the Stars

Set in Denmark during World War II, “Number the Stars” is a book about two friends who live in Copenhagen.  One of the girls, Ellen Rosen is Jewish and it is very dangerous for her and her family to stay in Denmark while the Nazi’s have taken over the country.

Ellen’s parents leave town when they hear that the Nazi’s will be transporting all of the Jews out of the Denmark, but she is left behind with her best friend Anne Marie’s family.  Anne Marie and her relatives have to fool the Nazi’s to keep Ellen safe.  This riveting book shows what life-threatening steps the Danes took to save their friends.  Would you be willing to be so brave?

Staff Pick: What Goes on in My Head? How Your Brain Works...

What Goes on in My Head?  How Your Brain Works and Why You Do What You Do, by Robert Winston.   

This is a fabulous fact filled overview of how your brain works:  touch, logic, speech, intelligence, emotions, sight, logic senses, memories, personality, movement, sleep, instinct, laughter, and all that.  It’s got some pretty surprising stuff, and even includes some activities that you can try to test in action how your brain works!  My favorite chapter was “Why Have a Brain?”  If you don’t have any ideas about this already, this book might not be for you.

Staff Pick: Here There Be Monsters

Here There Be Monsters:  The Legendary Kraken and the Giant Squid by H.P. Newquist

Ancient maps of the oceans used to show in various known and hardly known areas of the world pictures of strange sea-monsters, drawn according to the eyewitness accounts and tall tales of sailors.  This book looks those legends developed and  the real sea creatures that probably gave those stories their start.   There is something irresistible about a monster rising from the deep sea!

Staff Pick: Nature Got There First

Nature Got There First:  Inventions Inspired by Nature, by Phil Gates.   If engineering challenges and the cleverness of mechanical inventions are something that interest you, this is your book.  So many of the mechanical inventions we take for granted were things simply modeled on designs and inventions of nature.  See how building design mirrors bone structure, pincers and tweezers were inspired by the jaws and appendages of insects, and your running shoes take a few tips from the feet of the cheetah.

Staff Pick: Play Like the Pros series

If you play a favorite sport & want to get better at it, or if you just want to know more about the game so that you can get more out of watching your favorite team in action, Sports Illustrated has some interesting new books for you in its “Play Like the Pros” series. We just got in “Play Baseball Like a Pro.” It’s ...full of tips and techniques, some basic and familiar, some you’ve probably forgot, and some you’ve never heard of, all nicely illustrated by great action photography. Other volumes on basketball, football, and soccer will be in the library soon.

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