Looking to learn more about the Common Core State Standards? Here are a few great resources:

Presentation Slides from March 20, 2013 Panel Discussion

CoreStandards.org  The website that details all aspects of the standards. 

Connecticut State Department of Education 

About Common Core  Presented by the Connecticut Education Association 

Parent Guides to Student Sucess  Created by the National PTA, these are grade-level guides that detail the skills children are expected to master. 

Shifts for Students and Parents  Created by EngageNY.org, this document explains the six major shifts in English and Math that happen under Common Core. 

Congratulations to this year's ALA Youth Media Award Winners!

The Newbery Award for excellence in children's literature went to The One and Only Ivan by Kathryn Applegate. Newbery honors were given to Laura Amy Schlitz for Splendors and Glooms, Sheila Turnage for Three Times Lucky, and Sibert Winner Bomb.

This year, the Caldecott Award for excellence in picture books went to John Klassen, for This is Not My Hat. Klassen also won a Caldecott Honor for Extra Yarn, by Mac Barnett. Other Caldecott Honors were given to Peter Brown for Creepy Carrots, Laura Seeger for Green, David Small for One Cool Friend and to Pamela Zagarenski for Sleep Like a Tiger. Special Congratulations to Miss Kiera on her excellent work on the 2013 Caldecott Committee!

The Sibert Award for excellence in children's non-fiction went to Bomb: The Race to Build (And Steal) The World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steven Sheinkin. And the Geisel Award, for excellence in Early Readers, went to Up, Tall and High, by Ethan Long.

See a full list of winners below!

photo courtesy of Flickr user Eddie~S

From pushes on the playground to mean instant messaging, bullying is an issue that almost all children face at some time or another.  With a recent surge in media attention and a new focus on cyber-bullying, parents may wonder where and how to find the best information and ways of talking to their own kids about bullies. 

What if my child is the victim of bullying?

A recent article in Parenting magazine offered the following 3 Step process for parents:

Step One: Find out what's going on.  Get the facts and reassure your child that you will both work together on a solution.

Step Two: Help your child figure out how to respond.  Some responses include:

•  Stand tall and act brave
•  Ignore the bully
•  Stick with friends
•  Tell an Adult

Step Three:  Take action yourself.  Set up a meeting with the teacher, parent, or caregiver. 

What if my child's friend is the bully?

One of the hardest things for a child to learn is how to stand up for what's right, even in the face of possible scrutiny or embarassment. 

The US Department of Health and Human Services has a kid-friendly website called Stop Bullying Now that features info, games, quizzes, and webisodes all designed to address the issues of bullying , offer meaningful discussion starters, and help promote positive ways of combatting this childhood problem.  Check out this video featuring the character Melanie and her struggle with a friend who is a known bully.

What if my child is the bully?

It can sometimes be hard to tell if childhood squabbles are simply "kids being kids" or if there is a more serious problem.  

Stop Bullying Now offers the following advice to parents:

• Make it clear to your child that you take bullying seriously and that you will not tolerate this behavior.
• Develop clear and consistent rules within your family for your children's behavior. Praise and reinforce your children for following rules and use non-physical, non hostile consequences for rule violations.
• Spend more time with your child and carefully supervise and monitor his or her activities. Find out who your child's friends are and how and where they spend free time.
• Build on your child's talents by encouraging him or her to get involved in prosocial activities (such as clubs, music lessons, nonviolent sports).
• Share your concerns with your child's teacher, counselor, or principal. Work together to send clear messages to your child that his or her bullying must stop.
• If you or your child needs additional help, talk with a school counselor or mental health professional.

The Children's Library also offers some great books for both children and parents on the subject of bullying.  These are a few of our favorites: 

Miss Claire demonstrates some great apps.

On Thursday, the children's librarians hosted an App Chat. A small but enthusiastic group of parents met with Miss Kiera and Miss Claire to hear about great new apps for all ages and share their own favorites.

Click to view and print the handouts:

Awesome Apps for ages 2 to 5

Awesome Apps for ages 6 to 8

Awesome Apps for ages 9 to 12

What are some of your favorite apps- for children or grownups? Share them in the comments below!

In her new book, Jefferson's Sons, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley does something truly remarkable. She takes a complicated and controversial idea, that Thomas Jefferson had children by his slave Sally Hemmings, and writes about it in a simple, eloquent way that children can understand.

This book is definitely for advanced readers. The themes it tackles are complex and readers need a working knowledge of early US history to understand the world that Beverly, Harriet, Madison, and Eston live in. The story does not shy away from the horrors of slavery - families are broken apart, friends are sold, and slaves who run away are punished when they are caught. However, by presenting the book from the perspectives of children, Bradley is able to convey her story without graphic details.

This book is generating a lot of Newbery buzz for its honesty and the high quality of its storytelling. There is a recomended reading list at the back of the book, and Bradley writes an afterword in which she details how she did her research and where she located most of her information (in primary sources from Monticello.org).

I would recomend that parents read this book themselves if they have a child who would like to check it out, as it is a tale likely to generate a large amount of discussion.

Further reviews can be found here , here, and here. Highly recomended for children 9+.

Kids Book Club Kits

Kids and parents can easily host their own book clubs.  We'll get you started with multiple copies for your group, a discussion guide, and even a space to meet. 

Click HERE for all the details.

Welcome to the Innagural Fantasy Friday Post!

Kate Milford's The Boneshaker: a book I would highly reccomend it to everyone who likes thrills, chills, visions, prophecies, the midwest, history, and battles with great and terrible Evil.

It's 1914, and Natalie Minks lives in a quiet, sleepy town. A slightly strange, quiet, sleepy town, situated just down the road from the former town. Old Aracane burned  to the ground under mysterious circumstances 200 years before, and the crossroads it stands on have been known to flicker in the night.

Natalie loves two things more than anything else in the world. She loves the legends her mother tells her each night before bed, strange stories where men meet the Devil at the crossroads and survive, or don't. And she loves her father's mechanic shop, where she spends her days learning how things work.

Life is great until the day the doctor leaves town to help with a mysterious flu epidemic 200 miles away. As the doctor leaves town, Dr. Jake Limberleg's Nostrum Fair and Medical Show arrives. And there's something not-quite-right about Dr. Jake, who wears clothes from a 100 years ago and won't ever, ever take his gloves off.

Worse, there's something truly wrong with the medicines he begins to dispense to the town and the men who help him dispense it. Somehow, Natalie knows that there is a great evil at work in Arcane. And she may be the only one who can stop it.

Have you ever met the Devil at the crossroads? Because it looks like Natalie's about to...

Stories come from all sorts of interesting places.  Sometimes we find great stories within the pages of a book at the Library.  Other times we may hear a terrific tale from a grandparent or teacher.  Sometimes, we create our very own! 

The collected anthology below contains real life stories written by the fifth graders at Holmes Elementary who participated in the Writing Workshop.  Each writer began by creating a writer's notebook and selecting two original stories as seed ideas.  Then they each chose two drafts to revise, edit, and ultimately, publish. 

The Darien Library is proud to host these wonderful original works for the entire community to enjoy.  Click the page below to open. 

Whether you get your news from tv, the web, radio, Twitter, Facebook, or a newspaper, you've likely seen the headlines about the death of Osama Bin Laden. For adults, news like this can bring up a variety of emotions and take a while to fully process. Imagine then, the difficulty that many children have in trying to contextualize and fully absorb current events of this magnitude.

For tips on talking with children about tough issues and somewhat scary current events, check out this article from PBS.org.

Since many young children were born after the events of September 11, 2001, a conversation about the history leading up to this week's news may be in order. The Children's Library offers several child-friendly databases for history, social studies, and biographies.  These online resources, while compiled from print sources (and thereby appropriate for most homework assignments), are updated continually and offer the most current information for students. 

For additional resources and information, stop by the Children's Library or contact us at childrenslibrary@darienlibrary.org.

photo courtesy of Flickr user Abhisek Sarda