Black History Month
February is Black History Month. In 1926 Dr. Carter G. Woodson started Negro History Week, a celebration of the achievements of African Americans throughout the history of the United States. Through the years it evolved into a month-long celebration. While Black history should be studied and celebrated all year long, take time with your family during this Black History Month to visit the following websites to either learn more, or to test your knowledge, do an art project or play a fun game.

• Can you figure out who the famous African Americans in the six photographs in the game “Oh, Grow Up!” are? The childhood photos are of Condoleezza Rice, Eddie Murphy, Venus Williams, Stevie Wonder, Thurgood Marshall and Oprah Winfrey. See if you can figure out who is who!
• Visit PBS Kids’ awesome African American World for Kids to play the game “Find the Face.” See if you can match the African American heroes with the events that made them famous.
• Create your very own stamp! Numerous African Americans have been selected to have their images put on United States postage stamps throughout the years. Who do you think deserves to have their own stamp this Black History Month? Print out the blank stamp and draw a picture of the person you selected.
• Learn more about some important African Americans and Canadians from black history by reading the article “Quick facts about 10 black historical figures” by Jay Somerset.
• Has your family visited the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit yet? Visit the museum’s website to learn more about what the museum has to offer. The museum’s “A is for Africa!” exhibition is an interactive learning experience specifically for children from preschool through fourth grade. Children under three years of age are admitted free.

National Children's Dental Health Month
This month-long observation was originally a one-day event. On February 8, 1949, the American Dental Association held the first nationally celebrated Children’s Dental Health Day. The observation eventually turned into a weeklong celebration in 1955 and then finally extended to the entire month of February. Visit the websites featured below to learn more about why children’s oral health is so important and to play some fun dental-related games, too.

• The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research offers publications that are both printable or can be viewed online related to children’s oral health. One offers tips about how to keep babies’ mouths healthy and another is a coloring book for children 4 to 8 years old that teaches the importance of calcium.
• Information related to protecting children’s oral health is available on this website from the American Academy of Periodontology. The website lists types and signs of periodontal diseases in children and gives advice for parents.
• Teach your child more about the dentist’s office by playing the game “Visiting the Dental Hygienist” with them.
• In “The Smilestones Teeth Cleaning Game” try to stop the germs from attacking the teeth by using a toothbrush. If you do not attack the germs fast enough plaque builds up on the teeth.
• Various dental-related crafts for all ages can be found on this website, including printable coloring pages, a tooth pillow craft, instructions for how to make your own tooth keeper and a toilet paper roll Tooth Fairy craft.
  

Groundhog Day (February 2, 2007)
Will Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow? According to legend we will have six more weeks of winter if he does. If Phil doesn’t see his shadow then we are supposed to have an early spring. Start a new family tradition by celebrating Groundhog Day together this year. Click on the links below for tons of groundhog-related information, activities, recipes, even songs and poems for Groundhog Day!

• Learn more about the marmota monax, that’s the scientific name for groundhogs, including info about their habitat, diet and more.
• Interactive fun from punxsutawneyphil.com including free electronic post cards and a groundhogese translator.
• Poems and songs for your Groundhog Day celebration.
• Play “Tic-Tac-Toe Groundhog” with Billy Bear. Instead of trying to get three Xs or Os, try to get three groundhogs in a row to beat Billy Bear.
• An irresistibly cute Groundhog Day cupcake recipe from familyfun.com.
• A recipe for yummy Groundhog Cookies from the official site of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. Don’t worry – no groundhogs were harmed in the making of this, or any other, link.

Valentine's Day
February 14 falls on a Wednesday this year. Check out the links below for electronic Valentines, craft ideas, printables and online fun.

• Send your Valentine an ecard this Valentine’s Day.
• Valentine’s Day Crafts and Gift Ideas
• More Valentine’s Day Crafts and Gift Ideas
• DLTK’s Valentine’s Day Printable Activities
• Make a Valentine Online
• Valentine’s Day songs

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Presidents' Day
Presidents’ Day is February 19 this year; the holiday is celebrated on the third Monday of February. The links below offer presidential trivia, crafts, printable coloring pages and online activities.

• Test your families’ knowledge about American Presidents with this 10 Question Online President’s Day Quiz.
• Printable coloring pages of all 43 of the United States Presidents.
• Play “Name that President,” an online game where you have to match the president’s name with their image.
• Make a stovepipe hat similar to the one Abraham Lincoln wore.
• Make your own quarter out of paper.
• Wonder what it would be like to be President? With National Geographic’s Inside the White House you get to pretend that you were just elected President.

2007 Children's, Tween and Teen Book Awards
The American Library Association announced the following 2007 Youth Media Awards on Monday, January 22.

Randolph Caldecott Award
Honor: Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet - David McLimans
Honor: Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led her People to Freedom - Kadir Nelson
Medal: Flotsam - David Wiesner

John Newbery Award
Honor: Penny from Heaven - Jennifer L. Holm
Honor: Hattie Big Sky - Kirby Larson
Honor: Rules - Cynthia Lord
Medal: The Higher Power of Lucky - Susan Patron, Illustrated by Matt Phelan

Schneider Family Book Award
Children's: The Deaf Musicians - Pete Seeger and PaulDuBois Jacobs,
illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
Middle School: Rules by Cynthia Lord
Teen: Small Steps by Louis Sachar

Coretta Scott King Book Award
John Steptoe Award for New Talent: Tracy L. Jones - Standing Against the Wind
Illustrator Honor: Jazz - Illustrated by Christopher Myers
Illustrator Honor: Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes - Illustrated
by Benny Andrews
Illustrator Medal: Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom - Kadir Nelson
Author Honor: The Road to Paris - Nikki Grimes
Author Medal: Copper Sun - Sharon Draper

May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture
David Macaulay - author of the New Way Things Work, Black and White, Castle, Cathedral, and Building Big

Mildred L. Batchelder Award
Honor: Miramax Books - The Last Dragon - Silvana De Mari
Honor: Delacorte Press - The Killer's Tears - Anne-Laure Bondoux
Medal: Delacorte Press - The Pull of the Ocean - Claude Mourlevat

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award
Honor: Freedom Riders - Ann Bausum
Honor: Quest for the Tree Kangaroo - Sy Montgomery
Honor: To Dance - Siena Cherson Siegel
Medal: Team Moon - Catherine Thimmesh

Laura Ingalls Wilder Award
James Marshall - author of George and Martha, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Miss Nelson is Missing, and Red Riding Hood

Andrew Carnegie Award for Excellence in Children's Video
Knuffle Bunny - Produced by Mo Willems and Paul R. Gagne of Weston Woods Studios

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award
Honor: Move Over, Rover - Karen Beaumont, Illustrated by Jane Dyer
Honor: Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride - Kate DiCamillo
Honor: Not a Box - Antoinette Portis
Medal: Zelda and Ivy: The Runaways - Laura McGee Kvasnosky