“I’m so proud of you” – This is especially a favorite when she wakes up, although I have no idea why. She’ll just roll over and say she’s so proud of us. She also says it a lot when I come home from work. I’m betting she thinks this is another way of saying she loves us – at least that’s what I hope.

“I love it” – There’s a lot of love to go around in my daughter’s world. She says she loves things she really does love, but she also tells you she loves things she doesn’t like at all.  Such as certain kinds of food. I’ve told my wife she likes those foods from a distance – looking at them is fine, tasting not so much. I’m also an Iowa Hawkeye fan, and have taught her how to recognize a Tigerhawk, so now whenever she sees one she says “Hawkeye, I love Hawkeye!” I’m a very proud father.

“Deeeelicious!”  - She used to say this quite a bit, but not as much anymore. Every once in a while, however, if she’s really enjoying her food, it’ll come out and it sounds so cute.

“Fanks” – Otherwise known as “Thanks”, but it usually comes out with an f or ph sound. Right now just a cute mistake, as she’s started saying it more with a th, but one we think is adorable.

“It’s not a toy” – The best part of this is that it almost always is a toy. Of course, we’ve said this to her when she’s messing with things she shouldn’t be getting into.  But now she says it to us when we’re down on the floor with her playing with her toys.

“You do?” – This is something she’s started saying recently. If we tell her something she says this with a big uplift in tone on the “do” – like she’s really surprised that you’re telling her that. And it doesn’t really matter if you’re telling her that you have to do something. I could tell her Mommy’s at work and she’ll say it. In context or out, it’s pretty cute.

“So cute” – As with love, there’s a lot of cuteness in my daughter’s world as well. This is almost always in the proper context, but the way she says it is what makes it “so cute”.

“I was really crying!” – This is said as a general update for us after a temper tantrum. Just in case we missed all the screaming and tears that happened 20 seconds ago.

“What are you doing, Honey?” – This is another new one that has recently come out of the blue. Actually she’s started calling my wife and I honey in other contexts as well, but it’s usually when she’s trying to find out what we’re doing. Nothing like having a two year old call you honey. Actually it’s wonderful.

“Maybe later, Not really, Not today, Never Never” – Oh, the many different ways to say no. It’s especially humorous when we say “Let’s change your diaper”, and she says “Not today”. Or “Do you want some orange juice?”, and she says “Never, never”.

What fun things has your baby or toddler said or done? Whatever they are, be sure you keep a record of them, whether through pictures, videos, journaling, scrapbooking, etc. Here are some books in our collection that might give you some ideas on how to keep track.

Scrapbooking Baby’s Cherished Moments: 200 Page Designs by Rebecca Carter

Scrapbook Storytelling: Save Family Stories and Memories with Photos, Journaling, and Your Own Creativity by Joanna Slan

Week of the Young Child  –  April 14–20

If you have a child, you might already know the library’s committed to the growth and development of our community’s families and children. We’re raising the next generation of readers. Learning the building blocks of reading is the first step.

Two programs associated with Week of the Young Child help some of the youngest customers learn to read.

Timeless Tales with Boomer [2–5 years]
April 16, 17 | 10–11am Let your kiddo interact with others and build reading skills as we enjoy great stories, songs and fun, hands-on activities for preschoolers. Families and home childcare providers welcome. Cosponsored by Child Care Aware of Northeast and North Central Kansas. Call 580-4565 to register. Free book and activity packets for registrants on a first-come, first-served basis. (One per household.)

BLOCK Fest™ [8 months–8 years]April 19 | 9–10am, 10:30–11:30am, 1–2pm
Enjoy a block buffet with Topeka Public Schools Parents as Teachers BLOCK Fest™. Experience block fun with your child while they increase their math and science knowledge. Parent educators will be on hand to demonstrate techniques that parents can use to help their child become more of a math thinker through block play.

Reserve a good fridge magnet because we return to a paper time tracker for those who like to keep their progress front and center. Look for the time tracker in backpack mail and in the June/July edition of Library News. If you prefer digital, we’ve got you covered too. Online registration begins April 1 at summerfest.tscpl.org. This year for the first time, you will not need a library card to join the online reading program. Crack open that first book for summer on May 22 and begin recording your hours or books read on the paper tracker or at summerfest.tscpl.org. Share the news and let’s get everyone in the county signed up.

We’ve got a reading program for the youngest through the oldest in your household. This is the second year we’ve offered prizes aimed specifically at infants, 0–18 months; Mom, Dad, Grandma, please ask about our Bee a Reader program; after all, learning starts by being read to. We’ll be giving away BOOKS, provided by the Friends of the Library, to kids who read at least 12 hours. Teens receive a free book at 12 hours too – plus a Best Buy gift card for the most prolific teen reader. Adults read 8 books to be part of weekly prize drawings – so be good role models and show kids around you how it’s done. Readers who get through 8 books (for adults) and 12 hours (for kids and teens) will be entered to win eReaders and other cool grand prizes.

Our reading program dovetails with Topeka Public School’s “I Read for 20” reading program, which during the school year encourages students to read 20 minutes a day. Our time tracker is set to 20-minute reading intervals too. Reading practice during summer ensures that your child heads back to school maintaining or improving reading skills. The program has been set with vacation, ball games, swim lessons and lazy days in mind. There’s no excuse for not reading to 12 hours and earning a book to keep.

You know you and your family should read. We’ve made it easy to get it done and have fun doing it. Sign up online beginning April 1 and watch for a paper reading tracker in this publication in June/July.

One such book is Lois Lowry’s The Giver. Usually read by 6^th or 7^th graders, this book is dystopian-lite, and Lowry does a great job explaining the dystopian elements. Another is The City of Ember, about a dysfunctional underground city by Jeanne DuPrau. Both books have multiple sequels.

A recently published junior dystopian novel is The Wikkeling by Steven Arnston. The main character Henrietta is a young girl who struggles with school and friends.  She and two other children who become her friends realize they are being stalked by a strange creature called the Wikkeling. While Henrietta and her friends try to solve the mystery of the Wikkeling, they discover a strange room in her house that acts as a sort of time portal, a book-reading cat, and a huge hidden library where print books are kept.

A library full of print books may not sound like much of a discovery, but in Henrietta’s dystopian/consumer society, print books do not exist. Everything is computerized, including education, and all the fun has been stripped out of life by an overabundance of safety rules and regulations, a child’s dystopian nightmare. But the dystopian elements in The Wikkeling are not nearly as heavy handed as those in The Hunger Games where a power thirsty government punishes its citizens. In Henrietta’s world the only oppression comes from over regulation, rampant consumerism and an ineffective educational system, which are mostly things kids easily relate to.

So I’m taking home The Wikkeling to see if my daughter will read it. If she likes it, we’ll see about her reading The City of Ember and The Giver later on in sixth grade, due to its more mature content. And I suppose after that she may be ready for the gruesome dystopian violence of The Hunger Games. Orwell’s 1984 will have to wait at least until high school.

As a working mother, this is my dream. Being able to cook one meal that my whole family will eat. Fast, Fresh and Easy? Yes please. And if it makes leftovers or can be made ahead and frozen? Even better.

I skipped right over the baby puree section, both because I no longer have a toothless infant, and because my kids didn’t much like purees of any kind when they were younger anyway.

For a Weelicious experience, I involved my kids in browsing through the colorful pages of this cookbook, choosing recipes and food they wanted to try to make together. Then I made a grocery list and we went shopping for the ingredients for six different recipes. Most of the ingredients were things we had around the house already, and we just needed to get fresh produce.

Here is my family review of the recipes we have tried so far:

• The Breakfast Cupcakes were a hit, and about as healthy as pancakes.
• My kids refused to try the Slow Cooker Lentil-Veggie Stew, although I thought it was delicious, and it made lots of wonderful leftovers for the grown-ups.
• Making our own Graham Crackers was awesome, the kids loved rolling out the dough and cutting the shapes with cookie cutters, and I loved giving my kids slightly healthier “cookies” that we made together.
• The Brown Rice and Veggie Casserole was delicious, with vegetables that were chopped up small enough to be indiscernible to my kids and the cheese prominently visible on top. We all happily took leftovers in our lunches the next day. I was glad it was a hit, because I made up two extra casseroles at the same time, to freeze for later.
• Corn Dog Bites on a Stick are pieces of veggie hot dog dropped into home made cornbread, baked in mini-muffin tins. Simply genius, and easy enough that we made this one on a week night after work. My kids would eat this every day.
• Veggie Nuggets were advertised as a replacement for the kinds sold in stores. My kids were not fooled, although I didn’t think they were too dissimilar. We’ll have more either way, since I made a double recipe and froze them for later.
• Spinach Ricotta Bites. Delicious and baked in mini-muffin tins. Apparently my kids will eat anything baked in a mini-muffin tin. This is genius.
• Mushroom Barley. Kids wouldn’t try it, but the adults loved it.
• My kids haven’t really had pudding before. Chocolate-Peanut Butter Pudding food processed blend of greek yogurt, cocoa powder, peanut butter, honey. Cold, thick, delicious.

The book includes 40 pages of short articles on healthy habits, cooking, shopping, eating. She mentions her own lifestyle and nutrition choices for her family, like avoiding packaged snacks and choosing organics where possible, but she doesn’t make her choices seem judgmental or the only option. Catherine McCord has a Weelicious blog with videos and recipes similar to the book.

Because my household is vegetarian, many of the recipes didn’t work for our food preferences, but there were enough vegetarian or adaptable recipes that I want to make again or try that I decided to buy this cookbook instead of paying late fees on the library’s copy. If making meals that your whole family (even the preschoolers!) can enjoy together is a dream come true, check out this new cookbook for ideas and recipes.

Photo credit: Those are my kids, Kivrin and Travis. They love visiting the library and hope you do too!

Brain Camp, by Susan Kim, Laurence Klavan and Faith Erin Hicks

Both Jenna, whose parents expect her to be a classical music superstar, and Lucas, whose abusive alcoholic mother thinks he’s a loser are sent to Camp Fielding to be turned into “winners.” But of course, not all goes as planned as spooky and funny events occur.

The Arrival, by Shaun Tan

The Arrival is an extraordinary wordless graphic novel that tells the story of a man who moves to a foreign land to secure a job. And while the plot may not be complex, the novel engages the reader through the mysteries and details that lie within each frame of the artwork. *Jeff Smith, author of the Bone graphic novels calls it “shockingly imaginative.” And unlike Emily the Strange, it’s utterly void of sarcasm.

Emily the Strange, created by Rob Reger

As the title suggests, Emily is strange. And as the cover of her first graphic novel suggests, she’s dark, lost, more dark and also bored. So Emily’s imagination is usually wandering, leading us into, not stories really, but black, white, red and gray-colored episodes of her life. These episodes are quite funny, as Emily is uncompromisingly sarcastic. Surprised? I understand that young men may not want to read the musings of a thirteen-year-old girl, but if you like goth-tinged satire, give Emily a try. But of course, she doesn’t care whether you read about her or not.

Mother, Come Home, by Paul Hornschemeier

The first few pages of Mother, Come Home illustrate how graphic novels can express what other media cannot. While listening in on a man’s random thoughts, we learn that he is looking for someone whom he misses very much. But through the artwork, which shows his sagging body floating listlessly over a variety of landscapes, we understand the depth of his sadness and that the loss of this person has caused him to become lost himself. In a movie this might seem silly, and in a novel the thick melancholy essence of this scene could be described but not quite communicated to the reader. Basically, words tell while artwork shows. Of course, I’m not saying that graphic novels are superior to traditional novels. Oh yeah, the rest of the novel, about the coming to terms with that lost, is as compelling as the first few pages.

*amazon.com

Bark, George. . .and More Doggie Tails

Buddy

The Chubbchubbs

Dino Dan: To Catch a Dino

Frankenweenie

Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Season 2

Kung Fu Panda Holiday

Land of the Lost, Season 1

Littlest Pet Shop: Blythe’s Big Adventure

Monster Truck Adventures: Picking Up Speed

Monster Truck Adventures: Straight to the Finish

Monsuno: Destiny

Nickelodeon Let’s Learn: 1, 2, 3

Nickelodeon Let’s Learn: ABC

Peter & the Wolf (2006)

Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 1

Power Rangers Super Samurai: A Team Divided

Power Rangers Super Samurai: Rise of the Bullzooka

SpongeBob SquarePants: Extreme Kah-Rah-Tay

Teen Titans: The Complete 4^th Season

VR Troopers: Season 1, Vol. 2

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!: The Best of Widget

Kids, especially, have it hard. With 20 kids losing their lives in Newtown, many of our own children are wondering why these events happen or how to comprehend such a loss to their family or community. How do we talk to kids about these events? What can we say? What resources are available?

Youth Collections Coordinator Wendy Lukehart at the Washington D.C. Public Library has put together a useful and informative online guide, Comforting Kids in the Face of Tragedy. In it you’ll find this help:

• Web resources
• Print resources
• List of books to help kids quickly return to their everyday lives

Do you know of any great resources to help parents, caregivers, or teachers to help kids cope? Let us know in the comments below.

We will have Hobbit related crafts, games, trivia and other activities in Marvin auditorium on Wednesday, December 12^th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Join us for all the fun! Feel free to dress up as your favorite character.

And even though it’s a long shot, I’m trying to get one of the characters from the book to make an appearance at our program. So far, no luck. Here’s a partial transcript of my conversation with Gandalf.

Me: So you won’t be coming to our program The Hobbit: A Party at Bag End?

Gandalf: I didn’t say I wouldn’t come. I said you should talk to my agent.

Me: Why would you, a great wizard of Middle Earth, need an agent?

Gandalf: Because people like you keep asking me to show up to their events.

Me: You pay someone to say “no” for you? Hmm. What about Bilbo? Maybe he would come.

Gandalf: (laughing) Fool! We all have agents now, and Bilbo’s is an especially tough negotiator! He hired a dwarf, after all. (He puffed thoughtfully at his pipe) Of course, there is one character in Middle Earth without representation . . .

Me: Really? I’ll take anybody! Who is it? Oh no! It’s not-

Gandalf: That’s right, Gollum. He’d do it for a bucket of fish. And maybe some stray jewelry.

Me: Well, I guess the price is right. Do you have Gollum’s cell phone number?

Make an appearance at the program yourself to see if the creature Gollum shows up.

”Wake up, Boomer!”

Boomer, the loveable bear puppet, often steals the show at storytime, but that’s okay because he helps get kids excited about reading. Boomer’s a busy bear. He travels with the library’s five Outreach Storytellers to 75 daycare centers and preschools, helping tell stories to more than 3,700 children ages 3–5 each month.

Say hello to Boomer Bear. Ask for him at the Youth Services desk

Children have an opportunity to get up and dance with librarians. They have so much fun they hardly realize they are learning vocabulary skills, narrative skills, letters and shapes. Storytimes allow them to practice the concentration skills they’ll need in school. The stories, props and music spur their creativity.

“Our kids can never get enough books, songs and stories. Storytime unites the kids. They anticipate the visits from the library,” said Angela Stous, Building Blocks director. “Reading is magical. No matter where you are in life, reading is important to help you challenge yourself.”

For these children who cannot yet read, the challenge is fairly rudimentary and includes things like following text left to right, and being able to describe what they see on the page. These simple steps spark an interest in reading that will last their whole lives through.

The Outreach Stortyellers often give day-care activity directors ideas for everyday story sharing. The storytellers share 188 storytimes each month, lasting about 30 minutes per visit. To discuss the possibility of a visit by a Outreach Storyteller to your facility, call Youth Services at 580-4565.

We have stories and activities to raise a reader, especially programs geared toward the 3-5 age range. See Library News for upcoming kids programs on page 13.