Inside Scoop: Gearing Up For Summer

So we’re coming up on the first long holiday weekend of the season. For me that means I have one extra day with my foster kiddos,  a panic inducing thought because I’m taking care of three male teens – 16, 17 and 18. Yikes. What the heck does a middle-aged woman like me do to keep these guys entertained? The solution can be found within my badly worded question, because “entertaining” them should really not be my goal. Better for me to ask: what can I set up that will allow them to entertain themselves? Whew! That sounds much more do-able. And fun.

For all you parents, guardians, nannies, aunties, uncles and grandparents out there looking ahead to a summer of endless days filled with sun-charged children, the Handy Dad series has a new book to the rescue.  Todd Davis, TV host and extreme sports athlete, has written a book that we can all use to get our kids out of the house and into some real world adventures. Handy Dad in the Great Outdoors: More Than 30 Super-cool Projects and Activities for Dads and Kids, gives the low-down on everything from choosing the best campsite to geo-caching, including making daisy chains and playing flashlight tag.

Many of these activities can be done in the backyard or local park, and the detailed instructions and full color photos will make just about everybody feel capable of leading the summer fun. And remember: it’s not your job as elder to make their fun, or have their fun for them, but to guide them so they can make their own fun. Don’t forget to check out other books filled with exciting projects for the whole family:

Handy Dad: 25 Awesome Projects for Dads and Kids, by Todd Davis; Be the Coolest Dad on the Block: All of the Tricks, Games, Puzzles and Jokes You Need to Impress Your Kids, by Simon Rose; The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science: 64 Daring Experiments for Young Scientists, by Sean Connolly; Tree Houses and Other Cool Stuff: 50 Projects You Can Build, by David Stiles. And lastly, a book to help you conquer those parenting fears that keep you and your kids from living full-out: Free-Range Kids, How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry) by Lenore Skenazy. — Erin

What I’m Reading Now: The Drama Years – Do They Ever End?

The “drama years” – that really could describe just about any period in one’s life. It’s all a matter of perspective. But in this case it refers to a new book by Haley Kilpatrick and Whitney Joiner titled The Drama Years: Real Girls Talk About Surviving Middle School – Bullies, Brands, Body Image, and More.

If you are over the age of 25 the experience of Middle School in the 201x’s is nothing like you remember. While we may all recall the anxieties, insecurities, and difficulties of those years the pressures on current tweeners is unprecedented. In addition to all the normal stresses, these tweens are on the front-lines trying to survive the new world of sexting, internet predators, digital bullying and more. As adults it is hard not to get caught up in the drama of it all. But what these kids need more than ever are elders who understand what they are really going through so we can provide them practical advice, thoughtful guidance and loving support when it gets hard.

Haley Kilpatrick is the founder and Executive Director of Girl Talk, a national nonprofit organization through which high school girls mentor middle school girls to help deal with the trials and triumphs of the “tween” and early teen years. This book is filled with insights from actual tweens and their high school mentors and is a must-read for teachers, counselors, health-professionals, friends, moms, dads, grandparents and anyone who works with, or cares about this age group.

Another great book, filled with practical advice based on 40 years of parenting, teaching, and counseling experience, is Taking Charge: Caring Discipline That Works at Home and at School, by JoAnne Nordling. Nordling is co-founder of the Parent Support Center in Portland, OR. The advice and methods presented in this book are based on kindness and respect for children, and are designed to correct misbehaviors rather than punish “bad children”. The techniques work for children aged 2 to 20, helping you set healthy limits and curb self-indulgent behaviors, while enriching your adult-child relationship and nurturing the development of responsible, confident, caring youth. This book is for anyone who is in a position to love, care for and guide children. –Erin

Blurbs From the Branch- Oregon Battle of the Books

Another school year begins and that means it’s time for the new year’s Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB)!  For those of you who may not know what OBOB is, it’s a statewide voluntary reading program aimed to get kids reading and increase their reading comprehension. There are three grade divisions, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12, and each division has a list of sixteen books which includes a mix of classics and new books. Kids can then participate through their schools in team competitions where they answer questions about each book. Kids who have participated in the past have had a great time!

 Over the summer, I read most of the OBOBs, and thought I’d share my personal favorites from each division! It’s hard to pick a favorite from the 3-5 division because it includes classics such as E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web,and The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. However, I love Grace Lin’s Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. Lin’s novel has all the elements of a Chinese fairy tale: a family looking to improve their fortune, talking goldfish, a dragon that can’t fly, and an old magical man who lives high on a mountain, close to the moon. The author’s beautiful full color illustrations heighten the magic of the book and take readers to a whole new world!

 My favorite book from the 6-8 division is, hands down, Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. This book takes place in an alternate 1914 Europe at the dawn of the first World War. The world is split into two groups: the Darwinists, who fabricate new species of animals, creating all types of living machinery; and the Clankers, who work strictly with gears and metal, creating massive walking machines. The chapters alternate between Alek, the Austrian Prince who is fleeing from his country to avoid be killed, and Deryn, a Scottish girl who poses as a boy, Dylan, to enlist in the British Air Force. This steam punk adventure is full of intrigue, action, and humor. I couldn’t wait to read the next book in the trilogy!

Finally, for the 9-12 division, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. This book follows Isabel, a young slave girl during the American Revolution as she leaves her home in Rhode Island to be sold to a cruel couple in New York. Isabel’s new masters are British Loyalists in rebel America at the beginning of the war. In order to fight her way to freedom, Isabel becomes a spy for the rebel army. This book is extremely well researched and is full of historical information, including interesting fashion trends from the time, such as women gluing mouse hair to their eyebrows to make them look bushy! This book also left me wanting more, which readers are lucky enough to get in the sequel Forge, and the upcoming conclusion Ashes.

You can pick up a complete list of this year’s OBOBs at any library or online. Please be aware that there may be long holds lines for these titles and that your child may not be able to renew them. Have fun!

-Becca

The Inside Scoop from Technical Services – In the News

If you are up on your news you know that the Mississippi River still has not crested. Meanwhile, millions of people wait to see if the Army Corps of Engineers can siphon-off enough water using dams and spillways, to keep down-river homes, businesses and communities from being swept away. Wicked river: the Mississippi when it last ran wild, by Lee Sandlin takes us back to the days before engineers and spillways when the river, and the people who lived next to it, did indeed run wild. Other new books that cover issues in the news are:

Wikileaks: inside Julian Assange’s war on secrecy, by David Leigh

 Rewired: understanding the iGeneration and the way they learn, by Larry D. Rosen

 The heart and the fist: the education of a humanitarian, the making of a Navy Seal, by Eric Greitens

 What’s gotten into us: staying healthy in a toxic world, by McKay Jenkins

 Speaking Christian: why Christian words have lost their meaning and power—and how they can be restored, by Marcus J. Borg

 In-laws, outlaws and granny flats: your guide to turning one house into two homes, by Michael W. Litchfield

     

Blurbs from the Branch – Delirium

Lovesick. Lovelorn. Heartbroken. When’s the last time you wished you had never been dragged down by these wretched conditions? I was excited to find Lauren Oliver’s second novel, Delirium, on the Best Sellers shelf a couple of weeks ago, and was happily engrossed from the first line: “It has been sixty-four years since the president and the Consortium identified love as a disease, and forty-three since the scientists perfected a cure.”

 If you haven’t discovered Oliver’s first novel,  Before I Fall,  you’re in for a double treat. Both are shelved as Young Adult novels, but I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in two different tales of “what-If” and “how could this happen?”

- Laurie B.