Program Highlight

Cast Your Vote for the Firefly Award!

By Cindy Hartman, children's assistant at Bremen Public Library

Did you know that there is an annual award given in Indiana for exceptional children’s picture books? The Indiana Early Literacy Firefly Award is an initiative of the Indiana Center for the Book and is administered by the Indiana Early Literacy Firefly Committee. This committee is made up of professionals throughout the state who are involved in early childhood development, including teachers, librarians, early childhood professionals, and project coordinators. The purpose of this award is to encourage parents, caregivers, and very young children to interact together with exceptional picture books. Picture books serve an important role in the first years of the life of a child. 

Who Can Vote? Children who are under age 6 as of May 1, 2017 may vote with some help of course, for the Firefly Award book here at BPL in the Children’s Department.

When Can My Child Vote?  Voting will take place during the month of April.

2016 Nominees are as follows:

· Race Car Count by Rebecca Kai Dotlich

· Grumpy Pants by Claire Messer

· Best in Snow by April Pulley Sayre

· Don’t Wake Up Tiger by Britta Tekentrup

· Music Class Today!  by David Winstone

We have all of these books in our collection here at BPL. We are not checking them out during the month of April so that they can be on display for everyone to see. Stop by and read them to your child and see which one is their favorite. See which book is winning here at BPL and on May 22, the State Firefly Award will be announced.

Previous Winners:

· 2016-  Hooray for Hat! By Brian Won

· 2015 - Don’t Push the Button by Bill Cotter 

Community Outreach

Spring cleaning? Consider donating to BPL!

By Cindy Hartman, children's department assistant at Bremen Public Library

It’s time to say goodbye to winter and hello to spring! This is the time of year that a lot of us will also be doing some spring cleaning. Sometimes finding something to do with what you no longer want can be just as time consuming as the actual cleaning and sorting process. We are in need of some items that you might be getting rid of at your home. If you have visited the children’s department here at the library, you will notice that we now have toys and different areas for the children to use their imaginations while here at the library. It takes a lot of items to make up the various imagination stations, and you might be getting rid of some of them when you do your spring cleaning.

Here is a list of some suggested items that we could use, while I tried to think of everything, it is not an all-inclusive list. If you have an item that is not on this list that you think we could use, call us at 574-546-2849, or e-mail us at chartman@bremen.lib.in.us and we will be glad to consider your item. We ask that all donations be clean and in good repair please.

Toys

· Toy fishing equipment
· Toy camp fire
· Toy grill
· Plastic toy foods
· Dolls with clothes
· Realistic stuffed animals
· Puppets
· Toy kitchen appliances/plates/cups/bowls
· Cars/trucks/planes
· Plastic insects
· Kid’s pool
· Doll blankets

Clothing Items

· Costumes
· Old uniform shirts
· Lab coat
· Smaller sized adult dresses, suit coats, shirts, fancy party dresses
· Necklaces, clip on earrings
· Smaller sized high heel shoes, men’s dress shoes, work boots
· Old glasses
· Glasses cases
· Fishing vests
· Hats (women’s dress, men’s dress, fishing…)
· Small adult sized bathing suits

Household Items

· Silk flowers
· Plastic vases
· Plastic pots
· Foam pieces used to arrange flowers
· Plastic fruit
· Plastic vegetables
· Baskets
· Small suitcase
· Manual typewriter
· Calculators
· Keyboard
· Wigs
· Wig stands
· Brief case
· Walkie Talkies
· Old cell phone
· Old phone
· Fly swatter
· Sleeping bags
· Old cameras/ video cameras
· Flash lights
· Binoculars
· Picnic basket
· Hand or table top mirror
· Food scale
· Apron
· Tongs
· Spatualas
· Thermos (non-breakable)
· Storage containers
· Eye droppers
· Beach towels
· Bushel basket

Pet Items

· Small sized dog collars/harnesses
· Dog/cat feeding bowls
· Dog/cat brushes
· Small sized dog clothes
· Dog leashes
· Bird cage (empty and cleaned)

Recycled Items 

(EMPTY AND CLEANED PLEASE)
· Cardboard tubes
· Small plastic containers
· Large plastic containers with lids
· Plastic and cardboard packaging
· Bubble wrap
· Small plastic bottles
· Foam pieces
· Large tins or coffee cans
· Cardboard boxes
· Empty sunscreen bottles
· Plastic mesh fruit bags
· Plastic strawberry containers
· Empty make -up containers
· Plastic scoops
· Packing peanuts
· Bubble wrap

Miscellaneous Items

· Child-size lawn chairs
· Small pop-up tent
· Fishing nets
· Scuba masks/flippers
· Canteen
· Plastic Easter eggs
· Pool noodles
· Golf tees
· Small sized tools
· NCR paper
· Stethoscope
· Clip boards
· Wrapping paper
· Tissue paper
· Ribbon (wrapping or regular)
· Corks
· Buttons
· Screws, nuts, bolts and fasteners
· Wood scraps
· Tool belt
· Tool box
· Craft items

Behind The Scenes

My First Mock Caldecott

Does this gold sticker look familiar? You may have seen it on certain picture books at the library. A book with this designation means that the illustrator has been awarded the Caldecott Medal for being the most distinguished American picture book for children.

Caldecott Medal Winners and Honor Books are determined each January by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association.

On the same day at the local level, the Children's Services Round Table gathers for a Mock Caldecott Day. Our Children's Librarian Brenda Anderson and Children's Department Assistant Cindy Hartman were lucky enough to attend this year's Mock Caldecott on Monday, Jan. 23.

The real Caldecott Medal Winners and Honor Books are selected from a pool of more than 700 children's books! Luckily, the local Mock Caldecott committee only had to review 175 books.

This was Cindy Hartman's first experience. She shared her thoughts here:

Local Winner

The criteria we used in determining our Mock Caldecott winner were similar to those used by the committee. We looked at the illustrations on the covers, end pages, title pages, and within the books. We looked at the form of art used to illustrate the books, and how well the story was told or enhanced with the pictures alone. Each participant had the difficult decision of narrowing their choices down to just four. So many awesome books! The votes were tallied and sadly books were eliminated. Small groups were formed and discussions occurred as to which book(s) on our table we would ultimately nominate. A brief presentation about the book was given and from there we voted on which we would ultimately choose as our winner. Our group chose They All Saw a Cat by Wenzel. While we didn’t pick the ALA’s award winner as our mock award winner, we did have most of the books on our honor list. 

ALA Winner

ALA 2017 Caldecott Medal Winner: 
Radiant Child by Javaka Steptoe

ALA 2017 Caldecott Honor Books: 
Leave Me Alone Illustrated and Written by Vera Brosgol
Freedom in Congo Square, Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, Written by Carole Boston
Du Iz Tak? Illustrated and Written by Carson Ellis
They All Saw a Cat Illustrated and Written by Brendan Wenzel

Click here to read more about this year's winners.