The Knitting Witch ~ Book Review

 

The Knitting Witch by Norma Kassirer

5 stars

Remember those creepy children's books from the 60s and 70s? This is one that was lost to time. Recently published by the author's daughter.

I LOVED it. When I saw the cover, it reminded me of my time in the school library as a child. Reading every creepy kids book I could get my hands on. The story is a little bit folktale, a little bit Grimm's fairy tale. With a lesson learned in the end. The story follows a family and a witch with an interesting magic. The cover art, endpaper (it's paperback but the inside of the cover has illustrations!), and illustrations inside the book are all beautiful with almost an Edward Gorey style. This would be a great book to read at bedtime with young school age kids. Takes about 20 minutes or so to read, longer if you let them look at the pictures and then the final paragraph ends nicely for goodnight.

See my review on Goodreads.

Geocaching 101 - Adult Library Program

Geocaching has maintained it's popularity over the years. Albeit quietly, but I think that's the point. I noticed that our Main branch had a cache and would occasionally get folks seeking it out, so I thought it might be a good idea to highlight it.

I hosted the program on a Wednesday evening at 5:30 for adults primarily, but in the event description on our website, I made sure to note that families were welcome. We had a very small turnout, however, every single person was very interested and engaged, so I count that as a win.

The program started with a short PowerPoint presentation and we encouraged questions along the way. We demonstrated how to use a phone or a computer to geocache. Then we had an opportunity for folks to make some of their own swag.

For those feeling brave and ready to practice hunting, I created a riddle based hunt throughout the library. If you'd like to use my file, here's the Canva link. To make edits, click "make copy" to save it to your own Canva account and make changes. I made the caches with film canisters and put swag in each one, usually stickers.

A few of our folks then went on to find the official geocaches on the property. The squeals of delight as each of them found it is something I won't soon forget.

Overall I believe this was a good adult library program and worth revisiting. I think moving it to a Tuesday or Thursday might be better and aiming for Families rather than Adults as the age group might attract a few more folks.

Messy Playdate Preschool Program

Summer usually means nice weather, so I planned a fun outdoor program for preschoolers: Messy Playdate. The idea is that kiddos and their grownups could get literally play and get messy without worry. Everything was set up outside, with wipes and a garden hose nearby. Easy cleanup!

I held this program twice on a Friday morning at 11am. This was a decent time for this age group. The first session we had 13 participate and the second session we had 8. Only one family was present both times. I think in the future a little bit more in the description of what to expect would be helpful to attract wary grownups.

I set up the lawn with a few stations:

1. Gel paint and shower curtains. One article I'd seen suggested hanging up the shower curtain. I laid it flat on the ground with a tub of homemade gel paint on each corner. The kids loved this station the most. The sensory experience of hand painting won out over using the basting brushes to paint.
2. Bubbles and sidewalk chalk. Although not all that messy, we had a wonderful strip of sidewalk along the lawn so I just had to use it for the kiddos.
3. Shaving cream and sponges. For this station, I laid out another shower curtain and emptied two cans of shaving cream all over it. A bucket of water sat on each corner to hold it down and there were some sponges in those. The kids loved getting the suds on their feet!
4. Baking soda & vinegar play. We have cafeteria style trays that I lined the table with. Then put vinegar in little cups and baking soda directly on the tray. The kids could pour the vinegar on the cup and see the reaction up close. Some kids brought over a little gel paint to test that out.
5. Ice painting. Simply freeze some ice cubes up with flakes of watercolor or other water based paint in it. The kids use their hands to paint on paper while the ice cubes melt and "paint."

Overall, I think this program is worth doing again, maybe adding a few more messy stations.

Have you ever held a messy playdate program? What did you do?

RPG Game Cafe - Adult Program for Beginners

Last night I hosted my first RPG Game Night. I floundered a bit, feeling underprepared but then everything worked out great. It was a very rewarding program, with simple set up. Anyone can do, especially anyone with a little creativity.

Oregon Trail Challenge

Our theme for summer reading is Adventure Begins At Your Library. So most of my programs this summer are adventure-themed. I'm also a sucker for nostalgia so from that arose... the Oregon Trail Challenge for teens. This was a life-size board game with STEM challenges and the opportunity to play solo or in teams.

Horror Book Club ~ June 2024 ~ What Moves the Dead

 For Horror Book Club this month I wanted to feature an author whom identified with the LGBTQIA+ community. So I went with one of my favorites, T Kingfisher. I was so excited to introduce my book club to their work. They were excited to see a thinner book! Ha.

What Moves the Dead was one of our first readings of an outright retelling. It being The Fall of the House of Usher. I didn't tell them that ahead of time, so it made for interesting discussion during group.

Some discussion questions I used:

1. What was your first impression of the cover?
2. Do you think the title fits the book?
3. Would you read more books by T Kingfisher?
4. Who was your favorite character?
5. What did you think about the world-building?

We kept on track and discussed this book for the full hour. Each of our folks loved the book and was excited to hear of the sequel!

Speed Friending - Anti Valentine's Day Program

February 13th is "Pal-entine's Day" and also "Gal-entine's Day." Both are an anti-Valentine's Day kind of celebration. All about platonic love. For our friends and for our girl-friends, respectively. I decided to try a new program: Speed Friending. Details and free resources below!