Best of 2008

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Storypockets' 2008 was a year of amazing artwork, beautiful books, and creative costumes.




We're taking a fond, nostalgic look back at 2008. Click here to join us on a walk down memory lane.

2008 brought some children's books superstars to the Children's Department via the Black, White and Read All Over program.

The Kinderprep program was so much fun in 2008!



We made handmade books and magnificent masks,



traveled all over the world,



and made up marvelous stories.



We remembered our neighbors,



and made some new friends.



We took in a show! (Several shows.)

Thanks for visiting us in person or online in 2008.

We're looking forward to your visits in 2009!

Local Illustarator Nora Thompson

We're so proud of our local authors and illustrators!

Pittsburgh illustrator Nora Thompson has a new book out.

Yikes! Wow! Yuck! offers dozens of science fair ideas, accompanied by detailed, energetic, and engaging iluustratons.

Sodapop explodes from a two-liter bottle. Pieces of fruit hang mysteriously suspended in green Jello. Multi-colored candy spills temptingly from a bag. These pictures do more than show us what the science experiments are about. They depict the action and excitement of scientific discovery.

Some of the illustratios reflect the title. Check out the rotting jack-o-lantern on the back cover. Yiles!



Click here to visit Nora Thompson's webstie.
Click here to request your copy of Yikes! Wow! Yuck!

Local Author Rebecca O'Connell

We're proud of our local authors!

Pittsburgher Rebecca O'Connell is Storypockets' Miss Rebecca -- me!

And I'm proud to tell you about my new book.

In Penina Levine Is a Potato Pancake, sixth-grader Penina is having the worst Hanukkah ever. Her beloved teacher is abandoning her. Her best friend is deserting her, and her little sister is hogging all the Hanukkah candles. Can Penina turn this holiday around? She's going to try, with a zillion zillion hand-cut snowflakes, a game of chance, and a plate of delicious potato pancakes.

You're invited to the Launch Party for Penina Levine Is a Potato Pancake on Saturday, December 6, 1:00-3:00 at the Lawrenceville Branch Library. Enjoy some cookies and cider and get your own signed copy of the book. I'd love to see you there!

Click here to request Penina Levine Is a Potato Pancake.

Click here to visit my website.

Dancing With Our Stars!

Oh, you hop a little on your little left shoe,

You hop a little on your right one, too.

You kick a button like the Scots kids do,

It's the Hop-

Scotch

Polka!

Music at KinderPrep can help tell the story,

or it can help us to learn together --

or to learn alone --

or to just jam with a friend.

You can sing way up high,

or beat way down low.

However you move --

it's the KinderPrep Boogie!

Carnegie Museums $1.00 Admission with ACCESS Card

ACCESS/EBT Card participants, come visit the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. If you show your card and a photo ID, museum admission is $1.00 per person. This includes Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Science Center, and The Warhol.

Carnegie Museum of Art and Carnegie Museum of Natural History are right next door to the library, so please make sure to stop by and say hi before or after your museum adventure.

Local Author Sydelle Pearl

We're proud of our local authors.

Pittsbugher Sydelle Pearl wrote Books for the World, The Story of Jella Lepman.

After World War Two, the children of Germany were cold, and homeless, and starving, but they were also hungry for books.

Sydelle Pearl's book tells the true story of how Jella Lepman, a German Jew who escaped the Nazis, brought books to the children who needed them.

"If one is to believe in peaceful coexistence, the first messangers of that peace will be these children's books," Jella explains.

Books for Children of the World brings Jella's words--and her work--to life.

Click here for your copy of Books for Children of the World.

Clilck here to visit Sydelle Pearl's webiste.

Snacktivity

What can you do with food in the library?

You can read about it, or --

You can talk about it, or --

you can paint with it, or --

you can build with it, or --

you can arrange it, or --

you can create with it, or --

you can conserve it very carefully, or --

you can share it with friends, or --

you can savor every morsel!

What began as a simple snack to energize active children has become a highlighted activity at KinderPrep. Hence, the term, "snacktivity" (as coined by Miss Constance), is another way to engage pre-kindergartners with Pennsylvania Learning Standards. Whether they are organizing their fruit alphabetically, or identifying the food groups in this thing called a "pyramid", these children are involved in the preparation and presentation, as well as in the eating, of a simple snack.