Multnomah County Library’s Summer Reading Program

From MultCoLib’s website:

Free fun and prizes at the library this summer! Babies, kids and teens can play the Image result for multnomah county library summer reading 2018Summer Reading game by starting a daily reading habit. Libraries will have free live performances, arts and crafts, and more in addition to the Summer Reading game. It all kicks off June 15. Libraries rock!

The game runs June 15, 2018, through August 31, 2018.

New this year! High school teens can play online (paper gameboards are still an option).

Volunteer for Summer Reading

Information for Teachers

I put a handful of game boards for both grades K-5 and 6-8 in the Little Free Library. If you don’t find any, ask your local library for a game board.

Check out the rest of the details on the website or go to your local library and ask a librarian for more information.

Let me know if you’re playing. And especially let me know if you win!

School’s Out – Time to Read for Fun!

School’s out – time to read what you want, just for fun!

Over the next several weeks, there will be a LOT of children’s books and YA books in the Division 92 Little Free Library. Over the last week, we received four grocery bags’ worth of books from schools and personal collections. While most of the books are in English, a couple dozen are in Spanish, and a few picture books are in Mandarin and Vietnamese.  There will be a few instructional books as well – not textbooks, rather books about approaches to teaching and how to teach certain concepts. I’ll also try to keep some adult fiction in there as well.

(Please note: the Vietnamese picture books have the Tucker Cat seal of approval!)

 

 

The Problem with Being Nuts

“The problem with being nuts, she thought, is that you don’t always feel as if you’re nuts. Sometimes, in fact, you feel perfectly sane, and there just happens to be a trailer-shaped dragon crouching in the lot next door. Not that she was ready to go out and proclaim that fact to anyone, because no matter how sane you feel, some stuff just sounds too crazy.”
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, by Christopher Moore (p 90)

Happy Birthday, Richard Scarry

Richard Scarry’s “Best Word Book Ever” was one of the first books I ever read that wasn’t in English – mine was the French “Le Livre des Mots”. My mom learned French in high school and college, and did what she could to keep it up. One of the things she did was read to me in French. It’s part of what got me taking French in school too. That book is one of the handful I still have from the first house I remember living in.

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Books illustrated/written by Richard Scarry

12 facts about Richard Scarry

I just had a quick look through my book. It’s from before some of the cultural changes were made – it still features a “cowboy”, an “indian”, and several “traditional” gender roles that have since been updated in newer publications.

This book is *not* in the Little Free Library. I’m gonna hang onto this one for a good long while!

Recently Read: Rock Steady

I just finished reading Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life, by Ellen Forney.

This is an awesome book for folks with Bipolar I, Bipolar II, Depression, Image result for rock steady ellen forneyAnxiety, and Mood Disorders. Based on her own experience with Bipolar, it’s a terrific read. Lots of great advice for readers newer to their diagnosis or new to building their toolbox, and lots of great reminders for readers more experienced with their disorders.

The illustrations help make this a less formal-feeling “self-help” book, while it’s clear through the text that Forney really knows her stuff. Between two decades of her own experience and the research she’s done, there are lots of good, accessible ideas with the reasoning behind each one.

It’s not the kind of book you would simply hand to a friend or family member who is new to your diagnosis, but once you’ve read it once or twice, it would be a good book to go through together as a starting point.

 

Why a Little Free Library: Repost

I wrote this back in 2013, when I was first getting the LFL going. Then one thing and another demanded my attention (or, I’ll be honest, was just shinier). But it’s finally here!  Looking forward to meeting you and to sharing books!

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We’ve been working on our yard, spending the last few years turning it into a bit of an urban farm. One of the changes we made was to take out the 8-10 ft tall arbor vitae that had been completely blocking the view of the house from the street. It had been nice for privacy, but then again, we’d been robbed twice in a year thanks to all that privacy. Since then, we’ve put in a 3-ft wire fence that now supports grape and cucumber and bean vines. You can see everything in the yard from the sidewalk, and we can see everything on the sidewalk and street from the house. It’s been awesome – we’ve had people stop at the fence when we’re working in the yard, and they tell us how nice the yard looks with all the work we’ve done on it, that it’s so much nicer than when those other people lived here. We mostly just smile and say thank you and don’t tell them we are those other people.

We’ve met bunches of neighbors and passers-by because of the yard. People will ask what we have growing in the fruit & vegetable beds, they’ll ask about the grapevines on the fence, they’ll stop and watch the birds, and they’ll stay an extra moment and say hi and sometimes introduce themselves. We have some… I don’t know that ‘friendships’ is the right word, but definitely friendly acquaintances with some of the regular passers-by.

I’ve been a fan of BookCrossing for years. I love sending books out into the world and hoping to find out some of their stops along the way.  The Division92 library is a way to share books with the neighborhood. It will be easy enough for me to put books out there for others to take. I’m looking forward to seeing who decides to contribute to the library. I’m looking forward to meeting people at the library.

Introducing: Little Free Library #8219!

That our LFL made it out of the back of the garage and out by the sidewalk is due almost entirely to our friends Coral and Ryan. It had been sitting in storage for close to 5 years – “Oh, I’ll get to it eventually”, I kept saying. Then Coral offered to paint it. I said “yes please!” so fast I think I surprised both of us. She and Ryan helped us install it, and they even brought a bag of books to help stock it!  You can see her pictures here on Facebook. I took some pictures as well. Come by and check out our books. If we’re in the yard, please say hello!

empty LFL

Got the post set in!

ryan screwing

Adjusting the latch

behind ryan

The other side

coral stocking

Inaugural stocking of the library!

back of LFL

Back – it’s our dogwood tree!