Has your teacher assigned a country report assignment recently?  Do you need print and online resources to complete your assignment? Don't forget to check out Culturegrams. This database, which you can also access from home, has up to date information and is quite easy to use.  You can also find pictures, sound clips, and citing information for your report.  

Canton Leisure Services' Village Theater wants to take you to a play.  On Saturday, February 11 at 11:00 AM, The Village Theater presents Are You My Mother? based on the classic children's book by P.D. Eastman. Adapted for the stage by playwright and lyricist Greg Gunning and composer Richard DeRosa, Are You My Mother? it is an enchanting musical about Baby Bird’s journey-an adventure that overflows with love, dedication, and friendship, and it shows children and adults alike how loss can be turned into empowerment and how Baby Bird ends up finding more than she is looking for. 

The University of Michigan's Museum of Natural History presents a series of three fun family workshops about science. This year, to tie in with their temporary exhibition at the Museum called Evolution and Health (February 2012-January 2013), they are focusing on showing families what doctors mean when they talk about health, and how factors in our daily lives may affect our health.

We invite you to visit the Children's Library to tour Turner Town, a Turner Syndrome and Nonverbal Learning Disabilities Awareness Campaign, during the month of February (Turner Syndrome Awareness Month). This collection of doll houses is an interactive self-teaching traveling exhibit that depicts the everyday challenges of a girl with Turner Syndrome and Nonverbal Learning Disabilities from birth and through her later teenage years. It has already been displayed in Livonia libraries, the Plymouth District Library and the Detroit Children's Museum. We are excited to have it visit us as well! Turner Town will be on display for the month of February.

The American Girl series is moving from the series collection in aisle 19 to the J Fiction Collection in aisle 16. Because more than one author writes books for this series, it will be shelved by the series name, American Girl. Once again, we appreciate your patience and understanding while these items are temporarily unavailable in order to change the spine labels.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White, two figure skaters trained here in our very own Canton Michigan, just won their fourth consecutive U.S. Figure Skating Championship title. Not only that, but they're the longest running Ice Dance team in the U.S.! We make some mighty fine ice skaters here in Canton. Congrats to the medal winners.
[Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP]

Dead end in Norvelt by Jack Gantos — justly deserved winning the Newbery. It is an entertaining as well enriching read set in 1962 Norvelt, Pennsylvania — a real place. Indeed, the story is partly autobiographical which is why the main character's name is Jackie Gantos. Jackie is grounded for the summer for doing a couple dumb things. He ends up having to be the "hired hands" for an arthritic elderly neighbor, Miss Volker. As he transcribes the obituaries for the local paper, a sinister pattern begins to emerge — far too many of the town's elderly are dying in rapid succession by bizarre causes. Zany characters and wild escapades are intermixed with fascinating historical facts about not only Norvelt, but renowned figures in world history.

Guess what? Our beloved mitten state is celebrating a major milestone Thursday — 175 years of Statehood! Time does fly, doesn't it? We've seen both good and bad events in our historical journey through time, plus we have given birth to numerous famous people. On this date in 1837, President Jackson signed the bill that officially made us the 26th state in the union. There are lots of ways you can celebrate this momentous occasion including baking a cake shaped like Michigan, take pictures of your neighborhood, write what you love about our great state, or check out some of our wonderful materials on Michigan.

Hi Kids!
One of my New Year's Resolutions was to meet some new friends. It looks like I am getting a good start! Scaredy Squirrel visited the library the other day. If you haven't read the adventures of this little fellow, you really should! As his name suggests, Scaredy Squirrel is afraid of lots of things… like germs and unicorns, and crowds, and Godzilla. However, he always seems to manage to overcome his fears with a little bit of pluck, and by playing dead. Scaredy certainly enjoyed his visit to the library! You can check out pictures from his adventure over on Flickr! Hmmmm… now who should I meet next?
Bear Hugs!
Thorndyke

This episodic story was originally published online and was a collaboration between the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance and the Library of Congress's Center for the Book. It began as a national literacy project for young people to help launch the READ.gov website. Nineteen celebrated children's book authors and illustrators have joined together to write a fun, humorous, adventure tale like no other:

The American Library Association has announced the winners of the 2012 Youth Media Awards. Here are the winners, with special mentions below:

Winners

Dead end in Norvelt by Jack Gantos — Newbery Medal.

A ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka — Caldecott Medal

Dead end in Norvelt by Jack Gantos — has been awarded the Newbery Medal for 2012.

Newbery Honor books for 2012 are:

Inside out & back again by Thanhha Lai

Breaking Stalin's nose by written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin

Tim Heller, avid chess player, hosts informal open play on the second and fourth Sundays of each month in the Community Room while providing instruction and pointers on improving your game. Beginners welcome.

The fourth Sunday of each month also includes a tournament by "Library Chess Clubs." For tournament information and registration, please email clubchess@wowway.com.

Cam Jansen and Choose Your Own Adventure will soon have new homes in the J Fiction collection. Cam Jansen will be shelved under the author's name, Adler. Choose Your Own Adventure will be shelved as J Fiction Choose because more than one author writes for this series. Again, we appreciate your patience and understanding while these items are temporarily unavailable in order to change the spine labels.

Kids and Tweens in grades K-6, improve your reading skills and make a new friend by reading aloud to a dog. Sign up begins at 6:25 PM and is on a first come, first served basis. Sessions are 10 minutes long.
Program Date: Monday, February 27, 6:30-8:30 PM

If you are anxiously awaiting George R. R. Martin's next book, you may need some reading material in the mean time. Don't despair — there are plenty of great fantasy series available. Check out this list from io9 for some ideas.

Join us on Monday, February 20 for an all day family movie extravaganza starting at 10:00 AM with a film for our youngest patrons and gradually getting more sophisticated, until the 6:30 PM showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

• 10:00 AM — Winnie the Pooh (G)
• 1:00 PM — Kung Fu Panda 2 (PG)
• 3:00 PM — Mr. Popper's Penguins (PG)
• 6:30 PM — Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (PG-13)

You may bring pillows, snacks, even your own comfy lawn chairs if you like.

On January 23 at 7:45 AM, the 2012 Youth Media Awards will be announced at this year's American Library Association Midwinter Conference in Dallas, TX. The Newbery, Printz and Corretta Scott King for literature and illustration are just a few of the many accolades to be awarded. One of the most anticipated announcements is the Caldecott Medal which is awarded to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. It's always an exciting time in the world of youth literature and we will keep you posted of the winners as they are announced. In the mean time, you may peruse our list of past winners here. Stay tuned!

There was a man who loved a rat and other vile little poems by written by Gerda Rovetch ; illustrated by Lissa Rovetch — is full of colorful, short poems will make you laugh and declare how gross they are all at the same time! My favorites are the man who kept sardines in his pants, the man who baked bread with a snake, and the man who found a kidney. Which ones did you enjoy?

As we begin Bee Season, the Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee is a neat resource to help your student prepare. Spellers are given the definition of a word on screen. A recorded voice pronounces the word (multiple times if needed). Spellers can attempt to spell the word as many times as they like. After the first misspelling, Spelling Bee gives hints to help. Once a a word is spelled correctly (or the speller "gives up") a word map is displayed, given helpful hints to similar words and letter patterns. Try it out today!