Oklahoma Librarian

What is it a Puzzle Day Celebration? This event was made to celebrate National Puzzle Day by putting together puzzles.  Description: Celebrate National Puzzle Day with jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, logic puzzles, and more. This is a come and go event.  Feel free to bring a puzzle for our "Puzzle Swap" table. Puzzles must be in their original box, have all their pieces, and be in good condition. Happy trading!  Registration is appreciated but not required.

What is Noon Year's Eve? I got the idea from librerin . This isn't a new idea but I thought it was brilliant in a library space. We had a party to celebrate the new year at noon instead of midnight. Description:  Staying up until midnight is hard at any age. You don't need to have the fear of missing out when you join us for our Noon Years Eve event. We'll celebrate the New Year by making crafts, counting down, and releasing balloons at noon!

What is Winter Crafternoon? This is a fun event that my programming department works together to make happen. This is the 3rd and best one we've done. The idea is that we all put together the supplies and instructions for a few crafts that can be done during the event. We have 4 people that work with different ages so we planned 1 - 4 crafts for the group we work with. We set up in our lobby and couch guests through the crafts and other activities.  We went all out for decorations this time and it noticeably pulled more people in. The balloon arch is reusable and we plan to use it at other crafternoons as well as our summer reading kickoff. The tablecloths in particular nice because they made cleaning up a lot easier since we threw them away afterwards. We always schedule these when school is out such as spring break. We also had tables and chairs at the back of our area for guests to sit down and craft so they wouldn't take up space at the supply tables. We had so many people ...

Amari Peters is on a quest to find her brother Quinton. He had a mysterious job that he couldn't talk about and Amari thinks that's why he went missing. The police just assumed that he was getting into bad stuff because they live in the projects. Quinton did leave something behind though. A ticking briefcase with her name on it. Following the instructions left for her exactly introduces her to an entirely different world. One filled with supernaturals like mermaids, magicians; even her roommate is a weredragon. She also discovers that all trainees receive a supernatural talent. She's the last one to receive her talent which isn't just supernatural but super illegal. Can she use her talent to find her brother while learning about this new world? I enjoyed this book. Our main character is smart, lovable, and adds to the middle-grade fantasy scene by being a person of color. Amari's talent plays a huge role in this book and shows the adults around her that they need to...

  Faith Herbert is a regular teen who loves regular teen things like her friends, volunteering with animals, and watching her favorite TV shows. There is one thing about her life that's just a little odd. She was approached by a mysterious man who told her he could give her superpowers. With nothing to do over summer vacation, she agrees, and learns to fly—but not without becoming a science experiment first. After returning home and trying to return to her normal life, she meets an actor from a show she has been obsessed with her whole life. As they become more than friends, Faith notices odd things happening in her town—too many missing pet flyers, and the people experiencing homelessness have started to disappear. She's starting to look into these things while others are trying to silence her. Can Faith's new ability to fly be the key to saving her entire town? This novel is the origin story of Faith Herbert that follows the same story from the 90s comic series Valiant...

  What is Wrap and Yap? This is an event where library guests are invited to come in and wrap presents. Description: This season, we're here to help you get your presents wrapped and ready! Get into the holiday spirit and wrap your gifts in the shared company of others. We will provide the supplies; all you need to bring is a pile of unwrapped presents and some friendly chatter. Whether you're celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, a birthday, or anything in between, all are welcome. Oh, what fun it is...to spend a fun morning wrapping presents, listening to holiday tunes, and learning about everyone's holiday traditions!

What is Slime Party? Get ready for a day filled with fun, creativity, and learning as kids dive into the magical world of slime. Kids will get to explore different ways to make slime and create their own to take home.  I came across this idea when browsing the Ontarian Librarian 's blog. She outlined her program well and I took a lot of inspiration from her post. 

  January has lived as the ward of Mr. Locke as long as she can remember in a house full of locked doors. With her coppery-red skin and unusual name, she lives an isolated, pampered life but dreams of exploring the world with her father who brings home artifacts and curiosities for Mr. Locke and his Archaeological Society. When her father suddenly disappears and the annual Society party takes a sinister turn, January knows she needs to escape. Her situation seems more hopeless than ever with her friends kept away, her loyal dog beaten, too many secrets and half truths, and January herself imprisoned in an asylum with only a book for company. What January needs is a way out—if she could only find a door. With determination, she will free herself and discover the power of words and names that transcend worlds. The Ten Thousand Doors of January is Alix E. Harrow's debut novel and it's a doozy. This is an amazing fantasy book with elements of historical fiction. Many characters in ...

I have recently made all of my scavenger hunts for one year and wanted to share them in case anyone needs ideas! I started doing these in April. They were so popular that I made two for the summer months since kids were coming in more often. If you are planning to start your own hunt, I'll describe what I do now after a few months of trial and error. I make all the designs in Canva. My library pays for a Pro account which makes it a lot easier to make these. I started off making these too small. We got so many complaints because they were too hard to find. I now make them about the size of my palm and give them a white background so it isn't as hard to find. I learned very quickly that we needed two sets of each theme. We had a few bunnies and weather clouds walk away which makes the hunt impossible to complete. We now have an extra set ready to go at our reference desk.  If you don't already have one, ask for a Cricut and the software that comes with it. It has made the pr...

It's Dinovember! We created a super fun event with prehistoric activities, art projects, games, and more! This event was a lot of work but was well worth it. Set Up This took over a week to prep between myself and my colleague. We split tasks roughly down the middle and managed to get everything together in time! I put together a few decorations that will be up through the month. The first was our billboard. This was easy to put together compared to our more elaborate designs. Letters, boarder, dino, done. It looks great in space and I heard about a parent telling their child that dinosaurs indeed did not read and that they are dead because of it. The kid checked out a lot of books that day! Next is our follow the dino tracks passive program. This was simple in theory but took more time to put together than I thought. We purchased colorful masking tape and I did a bit of research on dinosaur tracks. I laminated everything and then taped a border around each picture before putting t...