A Star Is Born

Look out for the activity table in your library during December.
You can make a festive star or two and it's available whenever the library is open.
The sheet of card has one star to colour in, cut out and assemble and two stars to use as templates to cut out a design you like. Use the Christmas cards we have recycled from last year.
Take note of where you need to cut the stars to join them together, cut it in the wrong place and it won't look like a star when you put it together!

Class Visit

A class from St.John's RCP visited The Wheatsheaf Library on Monday. I shared some stories with them, Nick Sharratt's Once Upon a Time, where you make up the story each time so every telling is different, one of my favourites. That was followed by Sam Lloyd's You're not so scary, Sid, another brilliant story which has a hand puppet monster in the book. Then followed the usual organised chaos as all thirty children looked for books and all wanted to ask me questions at the same time. As usual, the library was buzzing. Nothing unusual in that, I've been doing it in Rochdale alone for the last twenty two years. What made a difference was staff and public commenting on how vibrant the library was with the children so enthusiastically lively in it.
And we had about a dozen new members for the library and the Young Surfer's Club, our way of ensuring they can use the People's Network with parent's consent.

Beauty and the Beast

We have a competition to win a family ticket (two adults two children) to see Beauty and the Beast at The Gracie Fields Theatre.
Sounds easy but it isn't that easy - you must describe the story of Beauty and the Beast USING JUST SIX WORDS
Hurry - entries must be in to your nearest Rochdale Library by saturday 27th Novemeber

V.I.P. Table at Holy Family School

The highlight of my week was to be invited to Holy Family RCP as one of two V.I.P.'s on the top table at lunch. This came from my work in the school a couple of weeks earlier, when I received this wonderful letter from the Headteacher, Helen Arnold "Dear Ray, I am writing to thank you for your recent visits to our school this week as part of our Book Week activities. The children in Key Stages 1 & 2 had a wonderful time. You brought the books to life for them and your visit really was a highlight of the week.
We look forward to planning visits to Balderstone Library in the spring term for the Key Stage 2 children and we hope to see you then.
Once again, many thanks for a truly engaging and stimulating experience for the children into the world of literature."

For the V.I.P. Lunch pupils had been chosen to join us and staff waited on table. Apart from an excellent lunch the company was brilliant. All the children were spellbound by the occasion which was really special. Although a one off at the moment it may well happen again. I asked Shane, sat next to me which other V.I.P.'s he would invite next time. "I don't really know any V.I.P's apart from you"
"Well, How about celebrities then?"
"CHERYL COLE!"

Home Educated Children

We were involved with a session at Rochdale Town Hall for Home Educated Children. It was a well supported and very encouraging afternoon. As a result we now have a library card on offer for parents of home educated children to borrow resources from the library. It works much the same as our teacher's ticket does for teachers in sschools.

Balderstone and the Monster in the Park

I was asked to create my Frankenstein's Monster story at Balderstone Library, or more accurately, in the park surrounding the library. The Friends of Balderstone Park provided refreshments and a huge number of families were scared to death (not) as I told the tale of the building of the monster. This is helped along by "feely boxes" representing bits of the monster, for example, "The first body wasn't very good, but Igor managed to find some fingers and toes that he though could be used - and in a box only big enough to get one hand in you are encouraged to feel the fingers (part cooked carrots smeared with margarine). My favourite (and last) part of the monster is the brain - a par-boiled cauliflower, liberally covered in marge. Even the smell adds to the atmosphere of the story.
This year the story ended "and with one sigh deep in it's throat the monster came to life. It spoke "I want......I WANT hot dogs and jacket potatoes, now being served by the Friends of Balderstone Park" stampede of eager hungry listeners!

Rochdale Readers

Rochdale Readers goes from strength to strength.
Originally a children's reading group, it has now evolved into a creative writing group. We meet about once a month and poems are published on the blog. There is a simple craft activity for the younger ones and perhaps a few stories too. The age range is from 3-13 at the moment!
you can find them at
http://rochdalereaders.blogspot.com

National Poetry Day

We teamed up with the Youth Bus and created poems at the secondary schools on the theme of "Home" for this year's National Poetry Day.
Rochdale's take on the theme was "Home Is Where the Art Is" Siddal Moor and Redwood schools produced some fantastic poems which have been printed in a booklet to mark the day.
here's "Our Tin Can" from Redwood afternoon group

From a mass of people
The grey Beanie-Genie
Magics out of the tin
Wearing a very fetching
Carmen Miranda fruit salad
On his head

for a full explanation you will just have to get in touch!

Space Hop - The story so far

Over 1,300 children have signed up for Space Hop but there's still plenty of time to start. The challenge is to read 6 books and visit the library four times - once to start and the next three visits to tell us about two books you have read. There are little prizes along the way to keep you coming back, my favourite is the rainbow pencil.

Aliens from Outer Space Invade The Wheatsheaf Library

Families from Newbold Children's Centre came to The Wheatsheaf Library to join in the fun today.
Q Pootle 5 with his alien voice machine and flying saucer was the star of the story show, putting Hebden Rat's nose out of joint as his retelling of The Pied Piper of Hamelin came a close second in popularity despite a rousing chorus of "Dem rats, dem rats, dem bad rats!" We told that story as we had travelled down a time portal to Hamelin.
Speaking of time portals, don't forget to check out the kids' portal on our website. click here
you will see the entrance to the kids' portal on the top line of the screen.
When we got back there was just enough time to make an alien mask, I'm sure it was modelled on me!

Pondering Ponds

I teamed up with Touchstones and Bob Bevan, the Broadfield Park Warden for a pond dip.




As well as learning about some fascinating wildlife right on the doorstep we found dragonflies, ramshorn snails, water boatmen, beetle larvae and many more! I was able to show the families that came along where they can discover more about ponds at their library.
As well as stories there are books on building your own pond, the creatures that live in them and how to identify what you might find on a pond dip. Don't forget there are some brilliant websites that you can find free by asking to use one of the computers in the library, for example
click here

Space Hop - The Rochdale Frontier

I've been telling as many people as I can about Space Hop - this Summer's Reading Challenge. I've been sharing my favourite stories along the way too. Here's me sharing "The Wide-Mouthed Frog"
Even if you're not a wide-mouthed frog there's still plenty of time to hop to your library and join Space Hop - we don't re-enter the Earth's atmosphere here in Rochdale until Saturday 25th September.

Wardle Tenants and Residents Association had a fun day so I took along "Uninvited Guests" from the Bag Books. A story with a water pistol on a hot day goes down a treat!

Rochdale Readers made "Five Little Men in a Flying Saucer" finger puppets - and I finally learnt the tune to go with the rhyme.

Two and a half thousand year old story found at library!

It's true!
Not many children know about Aesop's Fables these days, at least, not under that title but tell them about
"The Hare and the Tortoise" and the nods of recognition and "Ah yes!" goes round the audience. There's been a good book around for quite a few years now "Aesop's Funky Fables" stories retold by Vivian French and illustrated by Korky Paul.
You'll find "The Hare and the Tortoise" in the collection but my own favourite is "The Fox and the Crow" I like to tell it with puppets as it is a very visual story, especially the punchline where Crow opens his beak to sing and the cheese falls to the ground for Fox to eat - OH NO!- I've given away the ending! The picture shows Charlie Chough (he's the one with the cheese in his beak, mmmm! Looks like a nice piece of Gruyere!) and Basil in their favourite roles.

Cheering up a tearful vampire whilst calming tigers

I knew Bag Books were good but today I really did cheer up a tearful vampire and keep three tigers spellbound!
You may have guessed already but the stories were told at an event where face painting had been one of the attractions. I've been twice this week to tell stories at a get together for looked after children and the looker afterers! The three tigers said they had been earlier in the week! I know my memory is getting worse but I really think I would have remembered if tigers had sat down to listen before!

It's Magic at the Library!

Guy de Paul's magic show is out of this world. Here's a picture of him at The Wheatsheaf Library today. There are many more pictures of the fun things that go on in our libraries. Click on the link below to see just how many more.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34967699@N07/4842906885

He still has many more to visit, find out where at

http://www.rochdale.gov.uk/leisure_and_culture/libraries/childrens_library_service/magic_in_the_library.aspx
Would you like to be a magician yourself? The library has books to show you how to do magic tricks. Your first trick could be to make them disappear from the library shelves!

Bookstart

Every child in the borough is entitled to have a FREE Bookstart Bag at around nine months, eighteen months and thirty six months. They contain books for the child and other goodies too.

The health visitors usually gift the first two bags - the first is a nice cotton bag with long handles so it fits on the back of a pushchair, the second is a smart red briefcase style bag in hardwearing nylon. Then the Library Outreach Workers step in to gift the Treasure Chest, this is done in a nursery or playgroup setting and we gift the Chest to children who will go to reception class at the start of the next school year.

If for any reason you do not get your Bookstart pack in this way you can always call in to your nearest library in the borough and ask them for the pack. As you can see from the picture, the Bookstart bags last well, the one on the table has seen good service.

Mobile Youth Facilities (Youth Bus)

I've also been working with secondary schools and the Youth Service to take the Youth Bus to schools in the borough.

The bus (in fact there are three of them but we tend to use just one or two at a time) has internet access, so we could demonstate all the goodies we have online 24/7 on the library website. We also asked for opinions on the new library that's planned and some very good ideas came through.

If you see any of the three buses in your area take a look - they have X Box on board as well as computers with internet access.

Bag Books

Here's Suzi and me with "Kofi" at Smallbridge Library. I've been to Sandbrook with "Sea Rescue" this week and will go again with "Kofi and the Magic Shaker" and "Uninvited Guests" these holidays.
During the last term Redwood School and St. Peter's school have enjoyed me sharing Bag Books with them - especially the water pistol from "Uninvited Guests" on a very hot day! (yes, we do get very hot days in Rochdale)

Space Hop Magic

It's been a long time since I've blogged. The truth is so much has been going on that I've not sat down to record it!
I'll tell you all about the Youth Bus, BagBooks, Bookstart etc. etc. that's been going on but first, I'm really excited by our Space Hop activities so far, lots of libraries have rung up for more alien masks, we have a drop in activity at all our libraries for six weeks, the calls mean that loads of children have been through the doors.
We've had just two magic shows from Guy de Paul and numbers have been great, let's hope they keep coming back for the rest of the fun!