Oklahoma Librarian

Marcus Vega is quiet, 6 feet tall, looks like a teacher and he's only in eighth grade. His main goals in life are to help his mom, protect his younger brother Charlie, and meet his dad. When the nasty bully decides to call Charlie an insulting name in front of Marcus, all bets are off. The bully gets a bloody nose and Marcus gets suspended just before spring break. His mom wants the family to take a break and visit the place where Marcus was born, Puerto Rico. Which just so happens to be where his dad lives. He's on a mission to find his family and might learn some Spanish along the way.  This is an enjoyable book that hits many different topics like bullying, absent fathers, learning to accept yourself, and coping with change. It's character-driven with great development from our main characters. It's perfect for kids in middle school and adults who want an emotional and hopeful read.

What is the Summer Reading Kickoff? This event is a party that kicks off our Summer Reading Challenge. We want to let everyone know that they can sign up and start earning prizes just for reading. My idea behind this event was to combine local organizations, outdoor games, and snakes to create a cool event.  Description: Embark on a thrilling adventure as we launch into summer with our Summer Reading kickoff event! Prepare to journey through games, mingle with fellow adventurers from the community, and chart your own course by signing up for our Summer Reading program tailored for adventurers of all ages. We will have: Outdoor games Regional Food Bank of America Fire Department ONIE Project Pet Food Pantry Oklahoma County OSU Extension Snakes Raffle

What is a take home kit? A take home kit is where we put together crafts for guests to take and do at home. A library program in a bag if you will. These kits can range widely from soap-making for teens to gluing colorful streamers to a cotton ball cloud for toddlers. I aim to make kits for elementary-aged kids from 6 - 11 years old. Below, I have the poster, description, and instructions. I found that I rarely get feedback on kits but I'll mention it if there was any. Feel free to copy any of these! The Kits This is a super cute and easy kit for everyone. It's one toilet paper roll cut in half with paper, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes. It's perfect for quick craft for valentine's day. You can find my  instructions here .  Description: Celebrate the upcoming holiday and express your love with our Love Bug kit! Inside, you'll uncover everything needed to craft these charming love bugs. Each kit makes two bugs! I made this kit to help promote my  Great Backyard Bird ...

What is Spring Crafternoon? This is a fun event that my programming department works together to make happen. This is the 4th 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.  Description: Pop by the Midwest City Library for a fun and open Crafternoon. We will provide an abundance of supplies for families and friends to create fun craft projects! All ages welcome.  What I did to prepare I put together two crafts that felt like they belonged in Spring. I gathered all the supplies and cut out shamrocks and scrap paper. I bounced around during the event to make sure everything was running smoothly. We opened up our regular event space for additional seating and had a person stationed in the room. This made the ...

What is a take home kit? A take home kit is where we put together crafts for guests to take and do at home. A library program in a bag if you will. These kits can range widely from soap-making for teens to gluing colorful streamers to a cotton ball cloud for toddlers. I aim to make kits for elementary-aged kids from 6 - 11 years old. Below, I have the poster, description, and instructions. I found that I rarely get feedback on kits but I'll mention it if there was any. Feel free to copy any of these! The libraries in my area promote Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. If you don't know, Dolly mails free books to kids under the age of 5. It's an amazing program that helps lots of kids. You can read more about it and sign up here: imaginationlibrary.com . Dolly's birthday is January 19th so we're celebrating!  The Kits I've been collecting tissue and glove boxes for the better part of a year to do this take home kit. It's an easy craft that mostly takes tr...

What is a take home kit? A take home kit is where we put together crafts for guests to take and do at home. A library program in a bag if you will. These kits can range widely from soap-making for teens to gluing colorful streamers to a cotton ball cloud for toddlers. I aim to make kits for elementary-aged kids from 6 - 11 years old. Below, I have the poster, description, and instructions. I found that I rarely get feedback on kits but I'll mention it if there was any. Feel free to copy any of these! The Kits I always loved making these as a kid. I found a website called  firstpalette that had a template for these. In my opinion, explaining how to cut the paper was the hardest part of this craft so a template was an amazing find! Description: Fold and cut paper into amazing three-dimensional snowflakes to hang around your home. While supplies last. Instructions I found this idea on Pinterest that lead me to krokotak . There weren't any written instructions so it was a bit of t...

  What is a take home kit? A take home kit is where we put together crafts for guests to take and do at home. A library program in a bag with instructions if you will. These kits can range widely from soap-making for teens to gluing colorful streamers to a cloud for toddlers. I aim to make kits for elementary-aged kids from 6 - 11 years old. Below, I have the poster, description, and instructions. I found that I rarely get feedback on kits but I'll mention it if there was any. Feel free to copy any of these! This month was all about the dinosaurs! The Kits I loved origami as a kid! I wanted to give the opportunity to do some free origami with this kit. This kit really needed a video attached to it so my instructions were a QR code with a short explanation. I bought green origami paper for this and was able to make 48 kits! This is a link to the pdf instructions . I ended up putting the document into two columns to save paper.  Pinecone dinosaur! Everyone loved this kit and the...