The Scoop on Poop 💩

Book cover illustrated by Anna Su¨ßbauer

Mileage may vary on this one but one thing is for sure — kids find bodily functions and potty humor hilarious. Embrace their fascination with the foul through books and programming! 

Melissa Taylor notes in her post on Read Brightly, "Young readers will adore these stinky stories of our grossest yet often hilarious bodily functions: farts and poops. If your kids love potty humor in their picture books, these titles will be their next favorite read-alouds. Because whether it’s people or animals, poops and farts happen."

See her entire list here. [Gross Me Out! Hilarious Poop and Fart Books for Kids. Taylor, Melissa. Brightly blog.]

Then check out the Programming Librarian Interest Group on Facebook for program suggestions! Like this Poop Party post featuring TP races, Poop Shoot, Put the Poop in the Potty, and a photo booth! Or this thread discussing ideas and advice for a poop-themed programs for ages 6-10. From reaching out to local wildlife resources to teach scat identification and pairing it with a storytime featuring similarly themed books to DIY Poop Emoji squishies, this thread includes a ton of great ideas.

Are you on board with a poo themed party or have you already held one?  If so, please share your experience! Inquiring minds want to know, how did the poo party go? 

Free Storywalk from Curious City & Child's Play!

The fine folks at Curious City and Child's Play have joined forces to offer a super cute, super FREE Storywalk for the book Cat's Colors by Airlie Anderson!

Click HERE for a preview and to register for the files!

Princess in Black Party

I'm sure most of you are familiar with the super rad Princess in Black series by Shannon Hale.  (If not, get thee to a library and join in the fun!)

This is one of those go-to series when it comes to recommendations (at least in my experience!)  Just the other day, a mother come in into the library, thanking me for recommending it to her daughter who has been heading to her room to read without prompting, whereas before she had to be coerced.  *cue happy dance*

Needless to say, I'm a big fan. (Can you tell?  I hide my emotions so well, I know.) 

Last autumn, we decided to hold a Princess in Black Party in celebration of the newest addition to the series.  The participants were encouraged to dress up in their fanciest royal attire...but also to be prepared to battle some monsters, should any goats find themselves in immediate peril.  One of the little boys even brought his own mask and cape, ready and rarin' to be the Goat Avenger!

We decorated wands and crowns, played Pin the Horn on the Unicorn, ate sparkly snacks, read the first chapter of The Princess in Black, and--once they had completed their various tasks and deemed themselves ready to be superheroes--everyone was given a mask, a light-up sparkle ring, and sent on a goat rescuing mission! 
             

Goats were hidden around the Children's Room, as were monsters!  Our heroes needed to reassure the goats they would be safe--"It's OK, little goats!  There's nothing to fear!" and wage battle with the goat-'noming monsters. (which consisted of shouting "Twinkle, twinkle, little SMASH!" and throwing a giant puff ball at the offender.

This party was a BLAST, well-received by participants of all ages, and I'm already planning on a round 2. 

What are some of your favorite book parties?  Share them in the comments!

Elephant and Piggie Party!

Brought to you by Susie Menk at Manitowoc Public Library

Manitowoc Public Library Children’s Department recently hosted a Mo Willem’s Elephant & Piggie party as a wrap up to our winter readathon. The readathon was for children up through grade two. Children needed to read ten hours in a six week period. Children who completed their reading logs by March 7 received a little elephant water squirter. 

Then we had an Elephant & Piggie party. Children played games based on Mo Willem’s Elephant & Piggie books. There was a bird’s nest relay race, an Elephant & Piggie photo opportunity, a dress up bin, Elephant & Piggie crafts, as well as pin the trunk/nose on Elephant or Piggie. The kids had a great time! Door prizes of Elephant & Piggie books were given away to round out the party. 

Many of our ideas were from Abby the Librarian’s post or from other Pinterest sources. We just tweaked them a little to work for our patrons!

Star Wars Reads Free Stuff

I bet you are excited about free stuff as the next person, aren't you? And free stuff to help you promote reading?  Even better.  Star Wars Read Day is October 11, and publishers of Star Wars books are happy to help you promote it with an event kit, plus a bunch of other promotions, like free posters, stickers and buttons.  Orders are due September 19, so you even have some time to figure it out!  Check out the promo information here.

Happy Pig Day!

Thanks to Esther Burns, YSS member and youth services librarian at the Marion Public Library, for this terrific guest post.

Here at Marion Public Library, the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems are very popular.  So it’s logical that we celebrate with an Elephant and Piggie Party!  I found a lot of my ideas and resources through Pinterest- isn’t the internet awesome?

We started out with our first book—Happy Pig Day, of course!  After reading the first book, we headed over to our craft tables to make Piggie masks, so we could all pretend to be pigs like the animals in the book did.

posing with piggie masks

Next up was the book I Am Invited to a Party!  After the book, we played the costume game.  I had three volunteers, and took them each to a back room one at a time, and they picked a party that they were invited to.  Then I helped them get dressed up, and when they came out, the other kids had to guess what kind of party they were invited to.

Dressed for the library pool party

The kids got a HUGE kick out of this game!  There were lots of giggles, and if I had more time and costumes, they could have played the game all night.

Next up was the book Are You Ready to Play Outside?  After the book we headed back to the craft area to make rainy day pictures.  The kids colored umbrellas, cut them out and glued them onto blue paper.  Then they put big dots of white glue all over the pictures, and tilted them so the glue would run.  After drying, the glue looks like rain drops on the umbrellas.

umbrella work

 

The next book we read was I Am Going!  Since Piggie and Elephant have some lunch in this book, we had some lunch too.  I bought pig and elephant shaped cookie cutters from Amazon, and made ham slices shaped like pigs, and cheese slices shaped like elephants.

ham piggies...

I served these with crackers, and the kids gobbled them up!

gobbling up the snack

While they were eating, I finished up with reading I Will Surprise my Friend.  Every child then got to take home their own surprise.  I also had a selection of Mo Willems, Pig and Elephant books available for checkout after the party.

Our Pig Day party was a huge hit!  I had a great turn out, even on a chilly (and snowy) Monday Evening. Everyone had fun, and the best part was that the parents stayed and participated with their children, and seemed to have just as much fun as the kids did!  It wasn’t a ton of work for a party that lasted around an hour long, and I think I had as much fun planning it as my kids did participating in it!