Area Events This Month

Huntsville

Scare on the Square -- October 25th from 2:00 - 4:00p.m.

2nd Annual Haunted Hayride -- October 25th from 6:00 - 10:00p.m.

Crockett

Crockett Trade Days -- October 17th - 19th

78th Annual World Fiddlers Festival -- October 25th from 9:00a.m. to 5:00p.m.

Livingston

Livingston Trade Days -- October 17th - 19th

Summer Reading Program Announcement

The 2014 Fizz Boom Read Summer program offers age appropriate stories and activities for children ages 4 - 13! The program will be held each Thursday from June 5 through June 26 from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. 

The weekly topics are:

June 5th -- Egg-tastic Experiments

June 12th -- Weather Wonders

June 19th -- Ooey-Gooey Week

June 26th -- Wonders of Nature 

This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Blanche K. Werner Public Library.

Graphics courtesy of Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP).

Houston Author Bash

The Houston Author Bash will be on February 22, 2014 from 9:00am - 6:00pm.

For more information about this event visit here.

To register for your ticket to this FREE event visit here.

Event Location: 

Harmony Science Academy of West Houston

22400 Grand Corner Dr.

Katy, Texas 77494

Marissa Meyer's Winter 2014 Book Tour

New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer will begin her Winter 2014 book tour this month. Her much-loved Lunar Chronicles series began with the release of her debut novel, Cinder. Meyer is scheduled to visit the Montgomery County Book Festival in The Woodlands on Saturday, February 15th.

The Montgomery County Book Festival is a FREE event held at the Lone Star College - Montgomery. The festival is from 9:00am to 5:00pm.

For more details and a map to the event, visit the Montgomery County Book Festival website. To see a full list of authors scheduled for this exciting event, visit 2014 authors.

What is Cinder about?

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Lunar Chronicles Reading Order:

1. Cinder
2. Scarlet
3. Cress
4. Winter (To Be Released in 2015)

 

The Wonderful World of Reptiles Takes Over the Library

On Saturday evening, the Library became a fascinating reptile exhibit as exciting as a trip to the zoo. The Friends of the Library hosted this amazing free educational event which included photos of a variety of animals and reptiles from various areas, live reptiles, and many other fascinating things related to reptiles, like snake skins.

The hosts for the evening were Russ Walker and Carol Miserlian (Friends of the Library President). The evening began with a thoroughly entertaining and educational slideshow highlighting snakes, lizards, turtles, and more from various parts of the United States, as well as other countries.

Once the slideshow was completed, we moved on to items that had been confiscated or abandoned at the airport, as well as other fascinating items. All of the items were passed around the audience, which thrilled the adults as much as the children.

The item that received the most attention from the children was the extremely large snake skin.

Finally, the moment all of the children had been waiting for...the live reptiles. Many live reptiles were passed around the room, some in containers but not all of them. We began with small snakes and lizards, slowly working our way up to the larger reptiles.

With each container, the level of excitement amongst the kids elevated. They all listened so intently to the information about the reptiles throughout the event, proving that learning can be exciting and FUN!

I have to say that this was a fantastic library event. The community showed up in full force to support the library and learn about our reptilian friends. If you were unable to attend The Wonderful World of Reptiles event, you can see some of these amazing reptiles during our annual Earth Day event this Spring.

A special thank you to all of the members of the Friends of the Library group for hosting this fascinating educational event and bringing the Library and the community closer together.

Storytime: Once Upon a Time...a Wolf Cried BOY!!!

Our weekly Storytime program has continued to be a huge success. Even though school is back in session, we are continuing to offer our Storytime hour on Thursday afternoons from 4:30 to 5:30.

Mrs. Laura captivated young readers with two exciting stories about wolves,  "The Wolf Who Cried Boy" by Bob Hartman and "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig" by Eugene Trivizas.

"The Boy Who Cried Wolf" -- Little wolf that is tired of his mom's cooking. It's the same old thing night after night, Lamburgers and Sloppy Does. The little wolf wishes his mother would serve up a nice platter of his favorite dish: Boy! But Boy is hard to come by these days. As Little Wolf trudges home from school one day, he decides to postpone his boring dinner by shouting "Boy! Boy!" But what will happen when a real boy finally comes along?

"The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig" -- When it comes time for the three little wolves to go out into the world and build themselves a house, their mother warns them to beware the big bad pig. But the little wolves' increasingly sturdy dwellings are no match for the persistent porker, who has more up his sleeve than huffing and puffing. It takes a chance encounter with a flamingo pushing a wheelbarrow full of flowers to provide a surprising and satisfying solution to the little wolves' housing crisis.  

After enjoying the hilarious tales of little wolves and the big bad pig, we created our very own wolf. Each child designed their unique and very colorful wolf. Some of the wolves were pink, purple, blue, while other had stripes of many different colors. No two little wolves were alike. We used the printable wolf craft template at Learn Create Love.

I'd like to take a moment to say 'Thank You' to all of the wonderful volunteers that help us to make the Storytime program a HUGE success. We appreciate the many hours of assistance you provide and look forward to your continued support of the library. 

If you are a student and would like to earn community service hours, enjoy working with children or would like to be a valuable part of your local library please call or stop by the library for more details on how you can help.

Storytime: Gone Fishing...at the Library

Last week's Storytime theme was fishing.

Our volunteer reader of the week, Mrs. Jeanne, shared a wonderful story with the children called "Tiny Learns to Fish" by Craig Bartlett.

Tiny Learns to Fish is about a fishing trip. Mr. Pteranodon takes the kids to the pond to teach them how to fish. There's just one problem. Tiny can't catch a fish, and Buddy can't fly, so they team up to catch fish together! 

In keeping with our fishing theme, we did a little fishing of our own at the library. With fishing poles at the ready, we took a chance with our imaginary pond and landed a ton of colorful fish. We even had a mermaid fish in the bunch! 

After all of the kids caught their share of fish, we wiggled like worms on a hook to the snack area. Would you eat a worm? Some of the children didn't think they could. While some of the kids turned their noses up to our cherry flavored jello worms; others jumped for the chance to give them a try. The fishing themed cupcakes were a big hit amongst all of the kids. Thank goodness! To be honest, the creepy, wiggly jello worms were absolutely delicious! 

 

Local Author Mary Keith Inspired Little Authors at Storytime Last Week

Last week at Storytime the children met local children's book author, Mary Keith. Mary's debut children's book, "Little Sister and the Gink-A-What," is a true story about Little Sister (Mary) and the GINKABOODLE. The Ginkaboodle is an animal that lived in her brother, Jimmie's, imagination. The book illustrates the wonderful creations and ideas that come from within a child's mind.

The cover is a reproduction of the original drawing of the GINKABOODLE, done when the author's brother, Jimmie, was about 10.

After listening to Mary's wonderful and inspiring story, the children began working to create their own Ginkaboodle and a story to go along with it. They had a great time sharing their artwork and stories with us. It was a lot of fun watching the kids create exciting and very unique characters for their stories. Who knows one of the children could become a famous author one day! 

Here's a look at some of the books created this week.

Join us next Thursday afternoon from 4:30 to 5:30 for another exciting story and activity.