Come to Candyland!

Friday, December 28, 2007
11:00 AM
Need something fun to do around the holidays? Come and play the life-size version of the board game Candyland. You'll marvel at the Candy Castle and get a surprise once you pass through it. All ages welcome!

Gingerbread house

There are some famous people in our gingerbread library!
















August Wilson - Who was heard to say that he "graduated" from our library.

Andrew Carnegie - Who bankrolled the library and the initial branches! Take a look at our milestones.

Megan MacDonald - Who used to be a librarian here in our Children's Department!

We're getting a new magazine!

Lucky us! We're starting a subscription to a magazine entirely en Espanol called Iguana. You can read about it in Spanish or here in English. It's meant to be for children ages 7-12, but I'm sure that it will definitely be on our list of recommended reading for students of Spanish at any age.

So all of you who (very smartly!) come to the Children's Department to find foreign language publications to help you with your learning interests, we've got another for you!

The subscription starts in January and yes, you will be able to check it out and take it home with you!

The Trees are up!

I showed you one of the ornaments in progress here on our blog. But here is the whole tree in the Carnegie Museum of Art Holiday Display in the Musuem's Hall of Architecture. Isn't it beautiful? Can you see the orange and purple CLP "L" down at the bottom right hand corner? And of course, the presents under the tree are all stained glass related books!

You've really got to see it in person to fully appreciate it. The sparkling of the lights off of the glass ornaments, the music in the background, and the sheer scale of the Hall make it a magical place to be.

Neil Gaiman tells us about his children's books

I don't know how long it has been there, but while I was sick at home and missing everyone here I found an interview with Neil Gaiman done by his daughter Maddy.

This interview blew me away. Yes, it is interesting to hear the background behind several of his stories that we know and love. But just listen to his voice! Every nuance of tone conveys his love and delight for his child. Don't miss it.

Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures, please, PLEASE bring Neil Gaiman to town! For Black, White and Read All Over, or Drue Heinz Lecture series or something - Just get him to Pittsburgh!

Maybe they need some loving words of encouragment from you, their patrons.

It's Paul "Ogre" Zelinsky!

Here he is reading you a poem from Awful Ogre's Awful Day by Jack Prelutsky.

More hot dog related content.... I wonder why all these children's authors love hot dogs?

Mark your calendars: Dec 1st is Paul O. Zelinsky!

Caldecott Medal-winning Paul O. Zelinsky is coming! He'll be here on December 1st for Black, White, and Read All Over.

Fingers crossed that our friends at Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures will have more tickets for us to give away!

It's a GIANT stained glass ornament!

Miss Patte is working on a GIANT ornament! It's going to go onto one of the huge decorated trees that will be part of the Carnegie Museum of Art Holiday Display. Every year the library decorates one tree in the Musuem's Hall of Architecture. You can come and see some of your favorite stories up there on a tree! This scene shows St. George and the Dragon. It's done in stained glass in honor of Pittsburgh Celebrates Glass 2007.

It's made of plexiglass, stained glass paint, and the blue background is actually just tissue paper and watered down white glue. Miss Patte said to make sure to tell you all how to do it because now you can make one at home! If you do, I sure hope you'll show it to us!

Mo Willems has a message for you! But just the kids! Grownups, hide your eyes! No peeking!

Heh. He's sideways. Miss Constance is still learning about taking video :D

We met Mo Willems! And he took a picture with us!!! Waaahhhh!!!

Yes, we were super excited! We love to see authors and sometimes we even get to introduce them. This time Miss Kathy got the honor!

Ticket Giveaways for Mo Willems this Saturday Morning!

We still have 3 pairs of tickets to give away for Saturday's lecture by Mo Willems! He's written lots of books for children, most notably Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and Knuffle Bunny. I was also excited to learn that he is an Emmy winning writer for Sesame Street!

His appearance is part of the Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures series for children called Black, White, and Read All Over.

If you would like tickets, we're giving them away on a first come, first served basis. Give us a call at 412-622-3122 and we'll put your name on the envelope and you can pick them up at the Children's Department before the 10:30 program begins at the Lecture Hall located off of Schenley Drive. The Lecture Hall will not be accessible from the library.

The brand new Dinosaurs in their Time exhibit is opening on Saturday (for members only until 21st November) and the parking lot and street parking will be packed. The museum will be open from 6am to 12midnight. You will probably want to come plenty early and take public transportation or walk if you can! Additional parking information is available on the Museum website.

Holiday Books are flying off the shelves!

We only have four Thanksgiving books left! I hope that you are enjoying them at your houses! Our Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas books are ready and waiting for you to come check them out.

Fun at KinderPrep today

Some of the parents at KinderPrep today enjoyed our Community Helpers Pocket Flash Cards. Miss Laurel found them at Holcomb's, but the link above will take you to a site where you can learn more about the cards and order them if you wish.

If you are visiting the library and would like to play with them, you are very welcome to do so! Just ask to borrow them at the reference desk.

A wee bit 'o Scotland shortbread recipe

Miss Julie served this traditional Scottish cookie, made from a family recipe, to the children and adults attending our Passport to the World: Scotland program. Her Scots Irish great great great grandfather, John Gibson, settled in Southeast Ohio around 1800.

After a bite, one smiling child commented: "This is GREAT!"

Ayrshire Shortbread

Yield: about 70 small pieces

l lb. butter
l cup sugar
1/2 cup brown rice flour
4 1/2 cups flour

l. Leave out butter at room temperature until soft.
2. Combine sugar, brown rice flour and flour, mixing well.
3. When butter if very soft, add dry ingredients in small amounts, working them in with a spoon.
4. When the dough becomes difficult to work with the spoon, knead in the remainder of the dry ingredients with your hands. Knead until you have a soft, well-mixed dough.
5. Pat the dough out on a cookie sheet (I use a large jellyroll pan) in a square or round until it is 1/2 inch thick. Make sure the dough is a uniform depth. Press the tines of a fork on top to form a loose pattern of parallel rows.
6. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove cookie sheet from oven and cut shortbread into finger-length pieces. Return to oven and bake 15 minutes longer.

Enjoy!

3rd Annual Mother Goose Poetry Slam

Once again our children's librarians participated in the School of Information Sciences Mother Goose Poetry Slam to celebrate the School's "i-fest". It's a fast, fun mini-workshop for students interested in library services for young people to present short storytime elements, hear tips from current professionals, and make and take away materials to use with young people. This year we had songs, rhymes, stories with flannel boards, and learned to make wooden spoon puppets to use in storytime.

We're going to have a real bagpiper at the library!

This Saturday we are super lucky to have George Balderose join us at 2pm for this month's Passport to the World program on Scotland!


This whole weekend Pittsburgh is going to be all about bagpiping with the First Annual Balmoral Classic. The Junior Piping competition during the day is entirely free, and a great way to experience this exciting music!

Fun From Across The Pond

Are you looking for some new family friendly games? Miss Evelyn found lots of fun ones at the BBC 7 Kids home page.

You can also listen to books and learn more about some of your favorite authors from Eoin (it's pronounced just like "Owen") Colfer, author of Artemis Fowl to Katherine Paterson, author of Bridge to Terabithia. BBC 7 has great features for parents, too.

Our Own "Pumpkin Jack!"

Our jack-o-lantern is looking just like Pumpkin Jack! Do you think it is time to compost the jack-o-lantern?

Add our program schedule to your Google Calendar

Add our program schedule to your Google calendar!
Subscribe to our program schedule by searching Google public calendars for Children's Programs at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (Oakland). It's a public calendar to which you can subscribe, putting our schedule right in there with yours!

Clarence the Copy Cat

Pennsylvania illustrator John Manders created the library in this book by Patricia Lakin by visiting the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Main. Come check out the book and the architecture at the same time!

Halloween Fun at the Library

We had a great Halloween party last night! The young storytellers from Winchester Thurston school told some spoooooky stories to a packed house. After the stories we had a parade and came back to pumpkin prizes.

Jokes and songs for Halloween Fun!

Here are a few good jokes to try on those trick or treaters coming to your door tonight:

What kind of a sandwich will a vampire never eat?
A STAKE sandwich!

What musical instrument does a skeleton play?
The trombone!

What do polite little ghosts never do?
Spook until they're spooken to!

What are the best kind of hot dogs this time of year?
Hallow-wieners!

Looking for a fun song? Charlotte Diamond has recorded a wonderful spooky song you can sing at home! If You're Scary and You Know It you can sing too!

You can ...
show your fangs
stir your brew
flap your wings
rattle your bones

What other spooky things you can think of?