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Alphabet Soup Special: Summer Reading Club Kickoff!
Summer Reading Clubs Coming June 1!
Memorial Day: Monday, May 27
Whoo's Awake in the Night? Presented by the Virginia Wildlife Center
Author of the Month: Christopher Paul Curtis
Getting Inventive
Alphabet Soup Special: Summer Reading Club Kickoff!
Summer Reading Clubs Coming June 1!
Memorial Day: Monday, May 27
Whoo's Awake in the Night? Presented by the Virginia Wildlife Center
Author of the Month: Christopher Paul Curtis
Getting Inventive

Kids Blog

08/12/2010 - 12:14pm

You know how, once in a great while, you finish a book and it was so good that you want to start reading it all over again? That’s what happened to me with Frank Cottrell Boyce’s “Cosmic.”

As the book opens, Liam Digby is explaining that he’s not really on a school trip, as he told his parents. Instead, he’s lost in outer space aboard the rocket ship Infinite Possibility and he’s “all right…ish.” How did he get there?
 
Liam is a twelve-year-old kid who’s so tall that he’s easily mistaken for an adult, as he discovers when he and his classmate Florida wander around town together after school. Stopping by a car dealership, Liam is approached by the salesman, who assumes Florida is his daughter. Soon enough Liam finds himself invited to take a flashy Porsche for a test drive. To his relief, his taxi-driving father brings this unnerving experience to an end before Liam has to actually put the car in gear.  
08/10/2010 - 4:19pm

Have Captain Underpants fans in your family? Then you'll definitely want to place a hold on Dav Pilkey's new graphic novel The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Fung-Fu Caveman from the Future.

For more about Ook and Gluk, visit the Scholastic blog and  Dav Pilkey's web site where you'll find sketches of the book, behind the scenes movies and more!

Place your hold now!

08/05/2010 - 11:40am

It's almost impossible to find a CD that all the kids in our family car - ages 11, 9, 6, and 4 - will listen to. I know, however, that the kids will always be entranced by one of They Might Be Giants' (TMBG) kids CDs.  TMBG provides a great alternative for kids who are searching for something to listen to besides Radio Disney, Kidz Bop, and Hannah Montanna. Their album "Here Come the ABCs" may sound like it's only geared toward the pre-school set, but the songs are lyrically sophisticated and really catchy.

One of our favorite songs, "E Eats Everything" is a hilarious trip through the alphabet via letters with various food issues. "A" hardly has an appetite, "D" is disinterested in anything you've got, "F" is far too fussy and only eats with fancy wine, and H burns his food horribly. The song goes through the alphabet until we get to the letter z, where there's a big surprise. A song like this works on so many different levels - the older kids appreciate the humor of poor "I" always doomed to inhale H's smoke, while the younger ones are thrilled to repeat the refrain "E eats Everything." Other favorite songs are "Alphabet of Nations," "Clap Your Hands," and "Flying V." Check it out today!