Juvenile Blu-Rays

Question: Does the Tigard Library carry Juvenile Blu-Ray movies?
Answer: Why, yes, as a matter of fact, we do!

Question: Where does the Tigard Library keep Juvenile Blu-Ray movies?
Answer: At the very end of all the Juvenile DVDs, where the Spanish movies used to be.

Question: Well, then, now where are the Spanish movies?
Answer: They are now kept in front of the Juvenile Non-Fiction DVD collection.

I know at least one person who is ecstatic about this news: my husband! And I hope you are, too!

We have moved all the family Blu-Ray movies into the Juvenile collection, and though it is now fairly small, I will be working to beef up this collection with popular feature films. If we don't own a Blu-Ray title you think we should, let me know and I'll see what I can do!

Meet the Collection Monday: Juvenile World Languges

Did you know that not only do we have English and Spanish books, but we also have a selection of other world languages in the Children's Room? This includes Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Tagalog, Somali, and Vietnamese. The Juvenile World Languages books are located in the last set of shelves parallel with the Picture Books, across from the Early Readers, just behind the Parenting section. We have Board Books, Picture Books, Non-Fiction, Early Readers, and chapter books all shelved within each language area.

Most of the books are geared for younger readers, but there are some longer popular chapter books translated from English such as Harry Potter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Percy Jackson in some of the languages. Some of the books are bilingual, good for native speakers of the respective languages to learn English, but also good for native English speakers to learn other languages.

I always welcome purchase suggestions for the Juvenile World Languages collection, so if you speak any of these languages and know of any titles you would like us to own, please let me know! I'll do my best to purchase them for our collection.

Meet the Collection Monday: Juvenile CD-ROMs

We often get asked for video games at our library, and though we don't carry the games that go with video game consoles, we do have a collection of CD-ROMs for your PC or Macintosh. The Juvenile Multimedia CD-ROM collection is located between the Juvenile CDs and the Picture Book Kits right in front of the story time room. It consists of materials to meet the recreational, developmental, and informational needs of children from ages 0 to 11 with an emphasis on pre-school age. This collection includes but is not limited to educational materials supporting reading, math, science, languages, and typing; literature-based games; and interactive story books.

Often I will be sitting at the Children's Desk and kids go running straight past me. Even if their parents don't know where they're going, the kids know: directly to the game computers! The bank of computers next to the window, in case you don't know, are Early Literacy Stations; they are loaded with fun, educational games. I have done the best I could to buy the same games for the CD-ROM collection. Here is just a small selection:

• Arthur's Teacher Trouble
• JumpStart Advanced
• Math Blaster
• My Amazing Human Body
• My First Amazing History Explorer
• Reader Rabbit
• Stellaluna
• World Explorer

 

Bilingual Spanish books

I'm a librarian nerd. I admit it. That's why I am SO excited to announce that we now have Bilingual stickers on our bilingual kids' Spanish books. We often get the question, "How do I find books in both English and Spanish?" Until now, we have always had to tell patrons to find books that have both English and Spanish on the spine. Just turn yourself sideways, practically upside down so you can get at the right angle to look for books that have both English and Spanish words. No joke. That really was about the easiest way to find a bilingual book in our Juvenile Spanish collection. Now we have a nice brown and white "Bilingual/Bilingue" sticker that is much easier to pick out just scanning the shelves.

Meet the Collection Mondays: Juvenile DVDs

Our very popular Juvenile DVD collection contains educational, informational and feature titles for children up to age twelve. The collection consists of a varied selection of feature films including current movies and family classics, as well as collections of children’s programs such as Scooby-Doo, Dora the Explorer, Sesame Street and other popular offerings. Non-fiction titles include well-loved subjects such as animals, trucks and other vehicles, languages, music, sports and dance. One important difference between books and DVDs is that DVDs only check out for ONE week instead of three. So come on in and borrow some movies for FREE...but don't forget to bring them back on time!

Meet the Collection Mondays: Big Books

The key feature of most Big Books is that they are in a patterned and predictable language format. These kid-favorite titles are packed with everything from rhyme & repetition to rhythmic language and more! Our Big Book collection is nestled lying down on the shelves at the end of the Parenting collection and contains a wide choice of charming stories filled with marvelous illustrations that everyone is sure to enjoy.

The very size of the Big Book makes it a novelty which attracts young children's curiosity as well as sustains their enthusiasm. Children are easily able to track and differentiate the printed word in this format individually or in a group.  In the classroom setting, the enlarged text in a Big Book allows students to focus on the text much the same way they do when experiencing one-on-one reading with their individual caregivers. This is significant in light of the attention span of young children and the challenges of large classrooms. The reading process is a visual task as well as a hearing task and by using a Big Book instead of a traditional sized book in a group setting, young readers are readily able to follow their teachers lead in modeling various reading skills.  Positive shared reading experiences focus on the enjoyment of the story. Pre-readers and readers alike readily model reading behaviors in socially rewarding and risk-free environment. Reading a favorite book over and over again, no matter what format, helps build experience with handling books and the reading process itself long before children actually learn to read.

Don't forget to extend the fun of your Big Book choices with our wonderful collection of Puppets!!!

Meet the Collection Mondays: Juvenile Music CDs

One of my favorite collections to buy for is the Juvenile Music CDs. This collection is located right next to the story time room across from the Juvenile Non-Fiction.

The Juvenile Music collection includes but is not limited to folk songs, rock, pop, classical, holiday, educational, and popular children’s entertainers, characters, television shows and movies. Children's folk songs are very popular, along with certain established children's music such as Disney, Kidz Bop, Raffi, and the Wiggles. In addition, music by popular and independent artists enjoyed by adults and children alike is highly circulated. We also have a lot of soundtracks from kids' movies.

I read a couple of different blogs to help me keep up with the "Kindie" (Kids Indpendent) music, and I find myself checking out a lot of them to share with my kids. Here are some of my favorite artists:

• Frances England
• Milkshake
• Recess Monkey
• Brady Rymer
• They Might Be Giants

Meet The Collection Mondays: Young Adult Non-Fiction

Welcome to the world of Young Adult non-fiction!

To find your next favorite Young Adult non-fiction book, you first get to go on a treasure hunt through the adult non-fiction stacks. Shelved among adult materials, you can find excellent teen-oriented reads on many subjects.

DNA: Do you like your science with a lot of pictures? The Stuff of Life is a graphic non-fiction guide to genetics and DNA. Usually an overwhelmingly complicated subject to delve into, The Stuff of Life almost makes genetics seem simple.

DIY: Get inspired to sew your own plush dolls with Plush You, profiling artists who make everything from socktopusses (octopus sock monkeys) to felt eggs and bacon. Or crochet your own pepperoni pizza scarf following step-by-step instructions in Twinkie Chan’s Crochet Goodies for Fashion Foodies.

SPY: Perhaps you’ve always imagined having a life as an undercover operative. The Real Spy’s Guide to Becoming a Spy will prepare you for your ultimate career.

In addition to these gems, you will also find many other materials to support the educational, recreational, developmental, and informational needs of young adults from 6th through 12th grade. Whether you are writing a school paper, looking for some fashion tips, or interested in finding more information about your favorite skateboarder, the Young Adult non-fiction collection has something to offer. Come visit at the Young Adult reference desk, and we will help you navigate the non-fiction stacks to find the materials that best suit your needs.

Meet the Collection Mondays: Juvenile Magazines

Our collection of 30+ magazines for children and parents, housed together to the right of the Alphabet Chair in the Juvenile Fiction area, includes titles to support the recreational, developmental, and informational needs of children 0-11 years of age and their parents/caregivers. One of our selections, American Girl, has been the most popular magazine in the whole library for the past several years! Other great titles include Discovery Kids, Babybug, and Sports Illustrated for Kids. Magazines for parents and teachers include Familyfun, Working Mother, and Book Links. Current issues are displayed in protective covers and don't circulate until the next month’s issue is received and processed.  Back issues of the current and previous years circulate for three weeks, just like books. Mosey back to the corner marked "Periodicals" and check out some magazines today!

Meet the Collection Mondays: Juvenile Audiobooks

As a huge fan of audiobooks, I love telling our patrons about all the wonderful titles we have at the library.  I am pleased to tell you about our Juvenile Audiobook collection which consists of Fiction Books on CD, Non-Fiction Books on CD, Fiction Book Kits with CD's and Non-Fiction Book Kits with CD's. The book with CD's kits are also referred to as "kits". We no longer carry cassettes as CD's have become more popular.

Kits: Our kits are mainly geared towards Preschool children through second grade.  The collection is mainly comprised of picture book and early reader read-alongs. The collection also includes non-fiction titles, such as books that help children learn a foreign language. It also contains publications such as Wee Sing that includes a CD with an accompanying music booklet.  A majority of all these titles have a track or separate CD with page-turn signals, making it easy for children to listen to the book on their own and to know when to turn the page without adult assistance.  Children who listen to a read-along kit are receiving the same benefit as though they are listening to a parent or another adult read them a book, as they are still picking up and learning new vocabulary and other early literacy skills.  Kits are a valuable resource for pre-readers because it helps them develop early literacy skills such as print awareness. We have numerous kits that contain wonderful sound effects.  I highly recommend Hondo and Fabian, The Librarian from the Black Lagoon, and Dooby Dooby Moo.  For elementary school ages, try The Composer is Dead, and Jazz.

Books on CD: For all of the books on CD, every effort is made to

make sure there is a print edition of that title located somewhere in the overall children’s collection. This is helpful when a child would like to read along with the print book.  This option is especially important to children who struggle with reading as it will  help aid and assist them in their reading comprehension and is an excellent way to extend the story beyond their imagination as many audiobook narrators use a wide range of expressions and characterizations to make the plot more realistic than what's just printed in the book.  A good narrator can really bring a book to life.  As I've listened to probably 80% of the titles in our audiobook collection and have served three years on a national audiobook award committee (going on four), I can assure you that a good match between the narrator and the text makes all the difference in the world for a phenomenal audiobook experience.  To the novice listener, this may be hard to justify, so here are some great fiction examples to try: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and The Alvin Ho Collection: Books 1 & 2.  And for an exceptional non-fiction audiobook experience, try We are the Ship, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! (with a full cast) and Marley: A Dog Like No Other.

Why should children listen to audiobooks?
Some may think that listening to a book on CD is a way to cheat on reading the print book. However, this is not the case, as they provide many benefits for children such as:

• Improving listening and comprehension skills
• Increasing vocabulary
• Learning the proper pronunciation of words
• Learning to "see" a story by using imagination instead of illustrations
• Getting motivated to read more by an author they've been introduced to through an audiobook
• Engaging a child's interest in a way that a parent reading aloud may not
• Supplements print book reading
• Another way to experience literature besides through printed books
• Providing an enjoyable family activity to share literature together

For more detailed information on the benefits of listening to audiobooks, read this article from Reading Rockets: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/64/. 

I also encourage you to come to the library and check out an audiobook today!

Meet the Collection Mondays: Puppets

The Library maintains a circulating collection of puppets for the purpose of encouraging creative play and enhancing the home storytelling experience. Juvenile Puppets circulate for three weeks and are kept in open bins next to the Board Book collection in the Children’s Room.

Puppet play and child development tips
A child's natural approach to learning is through play and the development of imagination plays a critical role in life long problem solving and learning. When children act out stories or life events through dramatic play a variety of senses are used. Through play, your child is learning to identify and internalize a story or an event in an immediate way. Something as simple as playing with puppets helps build your child's vocabulary, self expression, relationships with others and an understanding of their world.

Stop by the Children's Reference desk for some fun book suggestions to go along with your child's puppet playing experience!

Meet the Collection Monday: Juvenile Spanish

I also get to take care of the Juvenile Spanish collection. There are 6 sub-collections within Juvenile Spanish: Board Books, Picture Books, Early Readers, Non-Fiction, Fiction, and Graphic Novels. The Juvenile Spanish collection is housed between the Picture Books and Early Readers in the Children's Room. All of our Spanish books have orange labels on them.

The collection is used by native Spanish speakers as well as native English speakers who want to learn Spanish. We have some books written entirely in Spanish, and some in both English and Spanish. The bilingual books are good for Spanish speakers trying to improve their English, and English speakers trying to improve their Spanish.

Board Books are specifically for babies and toddlers learning how books work. The Picture Books have a broad range of levels, anywhere from just a few words per page to several paragraphs per page. There are even a few Picture Books that include CDs along with them. Early Readers are great for native Spanish and native English speakers to learn how to read Spanish. The Non-Fiction section has a broad range of topics that can support kids in homework and is particularly good for parents whose primary language is Spanish who want to help their kids with their homework. Non-Fiction also has some high interest topics (vehicles, animals, biographies, fairy tales, etc). Fiction is made up of chapter books anywhere between 1st grade and 5th grade reading levels. Almost all of the chapter books are written in Spanish only. We have a very small, but hopefully growing section of graphic novels, or comics, shelved with the Fiction.

Many of the Spanish books are translations of popular books originally written in English (Harry Potter, Mo Willems, Dr. Seuss), but I also work hard on finding books that were originally written in Spanish. It is often hard to get Spanish translations, and they are often published way after the originals in English. Once in awhile, though, I can actually get a book in Spanish before it is published in English, like the Tunnels series, by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams.

Meet the Collection Monday: Juvenile Fiction

Welcome to the Juvenile Fiction collection!  I order all of the chapter books that keep 2nd through 5th graders happily reading!

The Juvenile Fiction collection (also referred to as chapter books) is designed to meet the recreational and educational needs of children with a second to fifth grade reading level. The collection includes modern selections in genres such as mystery, fantasy, science fiction, sports, adventure, humor, historical fiction, plus many others.  It includes lots of series books, and novels about contemporary boys and girls (also known as realistic fiction).  Plus it also includes a lot of classics, in various editions, from authors Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain. Award winners and honor books of awards such as the Newbery Award are included in the collection. Current year Children’s Choice Award Nominees are included in the collection such as the Oregon Reader’s Choice Award and the Beverly Cleary Children’s Choice Award. Current year Oregon Battle of the Books are included in the collection, as well as local school Battle of the Books lists.

The level of the juvenile fiction collection begins a step above early readers in difficulty and length. The books may or may not have illustrations, but the concepts, styles, and treatment of the text are the significant parts. These books cover a wide range of subjects, themes, life situations, and developmental tasks. A variety of characters, settings, and writing styles are represented with difficulty ranging from simple stories for readers who are making the transition from early readers to chapter books to books for sophisticated readers with a large vocabulary, wide literary knowledge, and high reading skills.

So if your upper elementary school student needs to read a fiction book for a school assignment, or just something for fun, please stop by the children's desk as we have a wide variety of books that the librarian can assist your child in locating.  We also have a bunch of suggested reading lists that contain a whole bunch of good books to read too!

Meet the Collection Monday: Juvenile Non-Fiction

The next collection I want to share is Juvenile Non-Fiction. It's shelved right next to the Juvenile Biographies in the back of the Children's Room, right by the story time room and family restroom.

The Juvenile Non-Fiction is catalogued according to the Dewey Decimal System. Each subject has its own unique call number. But don't worry, you don't need to know the call numbers to find what you want; just look it up in the catalog or ask your librarian and we will be happy to take you out to where you need to be.

You name it, we hopefully have it! Kids use this collection heavily for school assignments like state and country reports, animal reports, and science projects. They also use it just to satisfy their own interests. We have huge dinosaur, bug, and animal sections. Fairy tales and folk tales are also a part of non-fiction under 398.2. Just beyond that, we have books all about dragons, vampires, mythological monsters, etc. Kids who want to know about the Bermuda Triangle or Bigfoot will be happy to find the section devoted to the Unexplained. World records are a common request we get, and we have plenty to satisfy a kids' curiosity. Cookbooks, art books, magic, sports, history, big movie books (there is a huge book all about Vader, for the Star Wars lovers), Legos, I could go on and on.

Some of my favorites to recommend are the Eyewitness books. They have great pictures with a lot of accompanying text, and come in pretty much any subject area you can think of.A lot of the books are shared in an informational format like the Eyewitness books, but a lot of them also read like stories, especially in the history section.

Thinking about your next family vacation?

While summer vacation has come and gone, did you know that the Parents Collection located inside the children's room has a plethora of family oriented travel books?  It sure does!  You no longer have to drag the kids all the way upstairs to look in the adult non-fiction collection (unless you really want to!)  So if you're ready to plan your next family vaction or a weekend getaway, stop by the library to get a headstart on your next trip. We've got books for local adventures in Portland and Seattle, guides to Disneyland and Walt Disney World, major cities in the US, plus other US attractions.  We also have a handful of books with steps on how to make your next family trip just a little bit more successful and how to travel with baby too! 

Meet the Collection Mondays: Juvenile Biographies

One of the collections I am responsible for is Juvenile Biographies. This collection is comprised of biographies and autobiographies. Kids and adults often confuse the two. Both are true stories about the lives of people. An autobiography is the author's own story. A biography is written by somebody else.

There is a range of reading levels from easy picture books to fairly in-depth chapter books. Topics include contemporary and historical US and world figures and leaders, authors, artists, athletes, entertainers, and pop culture icons. I try to have a broad selection of biographies that kids can read just for enjoyment as well as a good range of books they can use for school assignments.

Assignments often require kids to check out non-fiction books; if they are like me, they may not like reading books that aren't stories. Biographies are a great option for fulfilling class requirements but also keeping kids interested.

See one of my recent postings for some recommendations: Other People's Lives

Another couple of favorites are Menno Metselaar's Anne Frank: Her Life in Words and Pictures from the Archives of the Anne Frank House, and Peg Kehret's Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio. Kehret's memoir is the single most commonly requested biography in the collection. Kids LOVE it.

Meet the Collection Mondays: Early Readers

Welcome to Meet the Collection Mondays!  Every Monday from now through winter, librarians and staff from the youth services department will discuss each one of the collections they are responsible at the library.  We feel this series of posts will be a great way for everyone to know more about the children's and young adult collections and the special care that is given to each one.  Today we will begin with the Early Reader Collection.

The Early Reader Collection is comprised of books for children who are learning to read. The collection consists of books with limited and/or repetitive vocabulary and larger print size, specifically designed for beginning readers.  These books contain anywhere from one word to several simple sentences per page. Books can be individual stand-alone titles or are part of a series.  The collection also contains a number of sets focusing on each letter of the alphabet, plus many sets that help readers develop and proactice their phonics. 

Many people ask if the collection is organized by reading level.  Unfortunately, we can not accomodate this request as there are so many ways of interpreting this, due to the fact there are numerous leveled reading programs.  However, many of the books are rated by the publisher's own intepretation of a reading level, so parents are encouraged to use this as a way in deciding which reading level is best for their child.  We do keep the collection in order by the author's last name, or if it is a series by multiple authors we will shelve it by the name of the series.

The Early Reader Collection is housed beween the Juvenile Spanish and Juvenile Non-Fiction Collections.  You can spot these books by the green labels on the spines with the letter "E", which represents the term, "Early Reader".

Here are some of my favorite Early Reader Books from my childhood: The Frog and Toad Series, Amelia Bedelia Series, Big Dog Little Dog, Bears on Wheels, I Wish I Had Duck Feet, The Eye Book, and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.

Miss Rhonda's Readers

Did you know that there is an alternative to the ever popular BOB Books? Let me introduce you to Miss Rhonda's Readers. This two volume set includes 8 books each for beginning readers. The books contain adorable colorful artwork that is gentle and pleasing to the eye. Each book is almost double in size to the BOB books and contains a larger print size. These fun and easy books will make for an enjoyable reading experince for your beginning reader. For more information, visit http://www.missrhondasreaders.com/

Phonics Fun!

Did you know that our Early Reader collection at the library not only contains books for beginning readers, it also includes a number of books that focus on phonics? We just got in a whole bunch of new series sets which focus on Silent Letters, Homographs, Homophones, Compound Words, Long Vowels, and Vowel Blends. We also have a new set of alphabet books where each title in the series focuses on one letter of the alphabet. Come take a look at these books on display in the Early Reader section today!

Music for Kids (That Grownups Like Too!)

Listening to music is great for learning. Hearing words broken into beats helps with recognizing that sentences are made of words which are made up of syllables which are made up of sounds. Music that grownups enjoy listening to too doesn't hurt! Here are a few you might like to try.

New Orleans Playground This Putumayo recording features traditional New Orleans sounds that kids love to dance to. Washboards and accordians create fantastic sounds.

Family Time by Ziggy Marley. Excellent rhythm, sweet lyrics and tunes that stick in your head (in a good way!), make this a great listen. A relaxing and cheerful recording.


Wiggleworms Love You Classic kid songs sung with a folk twist, this recording will have you remembering songs that Grandma sang.