2011 Caldecott Winner

Have you seen the Caldecott Collection in the corner of the Library? The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats happens to be a Caldecott winner, which might be a very fitting book to read with the upcoming weather!

The Caldecott Award is given each year to the most distinguished American picture book published by an American Publisher in the previous year.

The 2011 Caldecott Award winner was announced this morning, and the winner is…drumroll, please…

A Sick Day for Amos McGee written by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by Erin E. Stead. This is a charming story of a man who takes care of others every day, but one day, he is sick and needs others to take care of him.

The Caldecott Honor books included
Dave the Potter written by Laban Carrick Hill and illustrated by Bryan Collier
Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein

Miss Julie and Miss Elizabeth participated in a Mock Caldecott program where we read all of the books that were eligible to receive the Caldecott Award and the following books are some of our personal favorites.

Miss Elizabeth
All Things Bright and Beautiful by Cecil Alexander
LMNO Peas by Keith Baker
My Brother Charlie by Holly Robinson Peete
Please Take me for a Walk by Susan Gal
Tiger and Turtle by James Rumford

Miss Julie
Mama Miti by Donna Jo Napoli
Gumption! by Elise Broach
Beaver is lost by Elisha Cooper
Willoughby and the Moon by Greg Foley
Art and Max by David Wiesner

Snow better time to read!

It may not be snowing outside, but a blizzard is in the forecast for the Library with all of the Winter Reading sign-ups! The Youth Winter Reading program starts today and goes through February 27 for infants through fifth graders.

We want you to make reading a habit, so all you have to do is read OUT LOUD or be read to OUT LOUD for fifteen minutes a day for 21 days. Keep track of your reading with a log and stickers, which you can pick up from your friendly Librarians. When you return your log you will receive a Reading Buddy*!

All participants in the Winter Reading Program will be represented by a snowflake on our bulletin board, so we really are looking forward to the oncoming blizzard!

With the cold weather outside, there is SNOW BETTER TIME TO READ!

*The first 400 kids to turn in reading logs will receive Reading Buddies; everyone who completes the program will be entered into a raffle to receive an Amazon gift card.

Earthquake in Indiana! Did you feel it?

We had staff on the third floor of the library hear and feel the seismic activity just before 8 AM this morning. The staff on the first floor did not notice a thing. We checked the building and everything has held in it's place.

Rumbling into a new year!

Let us know if you heard or felt the earthquake this morning.

Happy Holidays!

Happy holiday wishes from the Youth Services Department! The busy little Librarian Elves are hard at work planning a great program line up for 2011. We want to thank all of our patrons for the sweet treats that have been keeping us going-yum, yum!


If you’re looking for some last minute gift ideas for your young reader, here are a few of Miss Julie’s favorite chapter books…

The Tale of Despereaux, Kate DiCamillo
Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart
The name of this book is secret, Pseudonymous Bosch
Percy Jackson Series, Rick Riordan
39 Clues Series, Various Authors
Holes, Louis Sachar
Tales of a fourth Grade nothing, Judy Blume
Sideways School Stories, Louis Sachar

NERDS, Michael Buckley

Sisters Grimm Series, Michael Buckley

If they can handle a little bit of dark humor…
A series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snickets
Edgar and Ellen series, Charles Ogden
The Spiderwick Chronicles, Tony DiTerlizzi

For the Girly types…
The Penderwicks, Jeanne Birdsall
Allie Finkle Series, Meg Cabot
Judy Moody Series, Megan McDonald
Clover Twig and the magical cottage, Kaye Umansky

Can you share any book titles that your child just couldn't put down?

Thinking about a Kindle? Think again.

I hope I'm not too late in telling you this: Think twice before buying a Kindle for Christmas.

I was just thinking about getting an ebook reader as a Christmas present for my mom. Maybe a Kindle? I realized that would be a bad choice. Mom borrows books from the Brownsburg Public Library. You can't use a Kindle to read an ebook from that library. In general, you cannot use a Kindle to read an ebook borrowed from any library, including our favorite library.

Ebook and audiobook downloads offered by Hussey-Mayfield come from a company called OverDrive. OverDrive and Amazon (the source of the Kindle) haven't agreed on terms that would permit OverDrive to offer Kindle-compatible ebooks.

Fortunately, there are many e-reader devices -- including the iPad, iPhone and Android devices -- that you can use to read ebooks from libraries.

Or save your money and keep life simple by reading your ebooks on your PC. I use my 4-year-old IBM Lenovo laptop to read ebooks from Hussey-Mayfield AND ebooks from Amazon. Kindle-formatted ebooks from amazon.com will work on almost any PC. You just need the free Kindle for PC software, which you download from amazon.com. To read Hussey-Mayfield ebooks on your PC, you just need free software from OverDrive. I use them both.

Have a merry Christmas and a New Year full of happy e-reading!

Mrs. Claus and the Musical Elves

Lots of little elves helped us jingle through a rousing good time last week!


Elfin Julie, Laura, and Kelli led us in some fun songs and Elfin Jazzy Matt spiced things up with his awesome drumming. We hammered toys, donned reindeer noses, and shook our Christmas bells while Mrs. Claus knitted by the fire and passed out special treats and holiday cheer. What a fun time!

From all of us to you...Happy Holidays!!!

And the Mock Newbery Goes to...

...Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper!!!

Our Mock Newbery Committee met Sunday, December 12 for our first Mock Newbery Election. Eleven students, led by our own celebrity reader/blogger Laura Rodgers, reviewed the award and its rules, and discussed and voted for their choice recipient of the 2011 Newbery Award. Also, a fair amount of snacks were enjoyed!

The group also chose three Honor books: Keeper by Kathi Appelt, One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, and The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan.

We anxiously await the results of the official Newbery winner, which will be announced on January 10 at 7:45am to see if the official committee agrees with our choice!

What a cool experience!