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?