Posted on May 5, 2016 by Nichole Brown

Happy Mother's Day

The best Mother's Day present one can receive, is the gift of making a parents life easier. The Oakland Public Library gives all parents the gift of Tumblebooks for Mother's Day. You're welcome.

                                 Picture courtesy of ElvisKennedy.com via Flickr Commons.

There is this saying that "Motherhood is the hardest job you will ever love."  It's true. I love my children and I love my job.  My love for my job shows whenever I have the oppertunity to read stories to children. I sing, I dance, and I have a great time. Afterwards, it never fails:  several  parents will compliment my reading style, and follow- up with the question/statement: You must read to your children all the time! 

My answer always is: ABSOLUTELY NOT! 

I love my kids don't get me wrong; but at the end of the day I am a momma just like you (unless you're a poppa but you get my point) and I don't want to read a

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Posted on April 12, 2016 by Nichole Brown

Potty Training Adventures...

When your child is ready for big kid pants, the library is here to help.

Sunday afternoon I walked into the living room and saw this:

As shocking as this sight was, I became very excited. This is the first sign he might be ready to start potty training. The second sign was the next morning when he woke up shouting "Momma, I gotta pee pee!" YEA AGAIN... except, I don't know how to train a child to go pee pee. This is a problem when I have an excited toddler ready to get rid of his diapers. So off to the library I go, and here is what I brought brought home for him:

               

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Posted on April 5, 2016 by Laurie Willhalm

Oakland Celebrates Día (Diversity in Action)

Celebrate children, books, and diversity at Oakland in April and May!

Día, celebrating its 20th year in 2016, is a nationally recognized initiative that emphasizes the importance of literacy for all children from all backgrounds. It is a daily commitment to linking children and their families to diverse books, languages and cultures. We uphold this daily commitment, and this April and May, each Oakland Public Library location will celebrate Día with one of the following performances, followed by a book giveaway. Please join us.

Image advertising Alphabet Rockers Alphabet Rockers, a hip hop, rapping, moving kind of group, is Oakland's answer to "Sesame Street." They amplify family fun in their new show: "The Playground Zone." This hit new show for kids age 3-9 and parents uses hot beats, hip hop moves, and rap lyrics.

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Posted on April 1, 2016 by Jacqueline Overlid

Words with Wings: Children and National Poetry Month

Celebrate National Poetry Month and support early readers!

 

"He liked the word - its smallness, its density, the way it rose up at the end as if it had wings.  Poetry."  

-Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo     

April is National Poetry Month, what a wonderful excuse to share poems with youth! Story poems filled with adventure and glee, short bite-sized poems to fit in your pocket, classic poems to carry them through school, poems that rhyme and will forever be stuck in your head, and so many more! Language is beautiful and poetry is a wonderful way to encourage youth to play with words. 

                                         

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Posted on March 3, 2016 by Nichole Brown

Radical Princess and Pioneer Barbie

Celebrate Woman History Month by embracing the imagination within our girls.

                                  

March is Women's History Month and OPL is hosting a Women's History Celebration in many libraries across the city.

But did you know that OPL's Womens History celebration was inspired by a costume contest? That's right, a simple game of dress-up resulted in the RADest Women's History celebration OPL has ever seen. 

I am bringing this to your attention because I want to remind you that our little girls play dress-up every day. Disney sells millions of dollars in costumes for Elsa, Ariel, Tianna and Merida et. al. During Woman’s history month, I don't want you to forget the power of a princess.

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Posted on February 4, 2016 by Nichole Brown

Black History Homework Re-Imagined!

Are you looking for a twist to writing your Black History Report?

Yesterday while talking to my friend who is a teacher she was bemoaning how bored she was with Black History and how she wished she could just "cancel the whole thing." 

To say I wasn't thrilled with her comments was an understatement.

But trying to give my soon to be ex-friend the benefit of the doubt, I asked her to clairify her statements. She continues by saying that although she enjoys celebrating Black History and loves the oratorical  competitions, she absolutely HATES reading 25 biographies about President Obama, 5 about Michele Obama and maybe 3 about a current Black celebrity or athlete. 

And just when I was about to shout 

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Posted on January 28, 2016 by Amy Martin

Introducing Cleo!

Is this the start of the best new middle grade series? We hope so.

Cleo Edison Oliver will be your boss someday. For now, she attends the fifth grade, endures her mom's health food experiments, and dreams up new businesses. She also wonders about her birth parents; Cleo is adopted, and has two adopted younger brothers. How should Cleo react when kids at school tease her for being adopted? And what makes her family her family? 

Cleo's world is warm and supportive, and readers will appreciate the strong depiction of a multiracial family: her father and brothers are African-American, her mother is White, and Cleo herself is Filipina and African-American. Readers who love the Clementine series by Sara Pennypacker will love Cleo, too, for her scrapes and flashes of inspiration.

CLEO EDISON OLIVER: PLAYGROUND MILLIONAIRE is by Sundee T. Frazier, and just launched this week, so keep an eye out for her! OPL has already ordered copies, and you can

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Posted on January 14, 2016 by Amy Martin

#Winning: the 2016 ALA Youth Media Awards

A banner year! Check out this year's Newbery, Caldecott, and other medal winners.

Big news from the 2016 ALA Youth Media Awards! This year's Newbery Medal went to LAST STOP ON MARKET STREET, a picture book by Matt de la Peña--notable because the Newbery is the award for outstanding writing, not illustration. There's only been one other picture book in the almost-100 years the award has existed that beat every novel released that year for the esteemed prize.

de la Peña, who's most known for his young adult novels, is also the

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Posted on January 9, 2016 by Annabelle Blackman

Preschool Adventure : Exploratorium

Discover & Go with the preschool and under set. Indoor, FREE fun during the winter.

If you have encountered me at all, chances are I have talked your ear off about OPL's Discover and Go service. It is one of my favorite services!

Museum passes for FREE! How can you not like that?!?!

If you have been raising a preschooler in California, they have spent their whole lives in drought weather, and this rainy, wetter than usual winter is driving your household crazy. 

What do you do when you can't run them ragged at the park? How are you going to expend their energy?

My answer: Discover & Go Adventure Days

This month, I'll share our Exploratorium adventure with you.

Reserving an Exploratorium pass through Discover

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Posted on January 7, 2016 by Nichole Brown

New Year, Old Me.

This year, instead of changing into someone new, resolve to embrace the old you, and celebrate your uniqueness.

Last year my New Year’s Resolution was to give up dieting. Surprisingly, keeping this was harder than it sounds. Nonetheless it was the first New Year’s resolution I kept until bathing suit season. So with this whole “new year new you” mantra upon us again, I am asking myself, what is the point? Seriously, why should I try to change anything? What if I believe the old me is pretty cool and I don’t need to change anything? Would embracing the old me change how I raise my kids? Would accepting the old me help  my child embrace his uniqueness and understand he is special in his own way?  Maybe instead of a new year’s resolution that rejects the old me for the new, this year I’ll resolve to embrace the old me.

I invite you to join me. Instead of trying to change your future, why not try looking in your past and maybe you will realize just how awesome you are. Share with your children who are our future just why the past makes them so special. Here is what I’ll be sharing with mine: 

 

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