Blog Post
Transportation: Past, Present, and Future
by evelyn
If you’ve got a little one who loves planes, buses, trucks, cars, and more, check out some of our new transportation books, featuring images from the past, present, and future!
French illustrator Alain Grée’s wonderful illustrations from the late 1960’s have been bundled into the fabulous book Transportation, which will satisfy any young readers with an interest in cars, buses, planes, trains, and more. Simple illustrations and facts will help children learn about transportation. The plane illustration may make adults jealous of the early travelers pictured reclining in great comfort! Because this book originated in 1968, adults reading it to little ones may want to explain some anomalies, such as why almost everyone in the book is white, that Native Americans don’t actually travel by canoe anymore, and that spaceships look somewhat different than they used to.
If you want to learn about futuristic machines, we’ve got lots of new youth books that will help you out! Check out the books Hovercraft and Drones. For military machines, look at Denny Von Finn’s military planes series, or Ryan Nagelhout’s books Air Force One and Fighter Planes.
Finally, for older readers looking for a history of flight, you can’t do much better than Tim Grove’s colorful and detailed book First Flight Around the World: The Adventures of the American Fliers Who Won the Race. Published with the help of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, this book contains a plethora of pictures, maps, and primary source material. Readers will love this exciting story.
Public Event
Kinder Concert
Friday May 13, 2016: 11:00am to
11:30am
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
2-5 Years
Public Event
Kinder Concert
Friday May 13, 2016: 10:00am to
10:30am
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
2-5 Years
Crafts
Star Wars Reads Day Crafts
Saturday October 10, 2015: 12:00pm to
1:00pm
Pittsfield Branch: Program Room
Youth In Grades K-5.
Blog Post
Library Lists: Best Board Books!
by eapearce
Language learning and picture recognition both begin at a very young age, an age so young, in fact, that often babies can’t yet handle the delicate pages and covers of real books! This, of course, is where board books come in. The AADL has a great collection of board books that we replenish regularly and keep at all of our locations. Here are some favorites, from alphabet books, to shortened versions of classic children’s stories, all available at the library!
Rhymoceros: In this adorable book, a bright blue rhinoceros demonstrates pairs of rhyming words by attempting various feats and experiments.
In Small, Smaller, Smallest, flaps and tabs help demonstrate different sizes of colorful objects and creatures to curious young readers.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Colors Primer introduces babies to colors, using the familiar figures of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion. Also in this adorable series are Frankenstein: An Anatomy Primer, Anna Karenina: A Fashion Primer, and tons of others, all by author Jennifer Adams.
Little fans of trucks, trains, planes and other vehicles will enjoy Steve Light’s board books such as Planes Go, Trains Go, and Diggers Go, where they can see, sound out, and recreate the noises of lots of different moving machines!
Sandra Boynton’s board books are hilarious classics that are not only fun for kids, but are amusing for adults too. Try Blue Hat Green Hat, which features a turkey who can’t quite seem to get dressed properly or The Going to Bed Book to start.
Little Pear Tree is a beautifully illustrated book with flaps to lift and unique words to learn and creatures to discover. Readers will enjoy seeing a pear tree and its surroundings change throughout the seasons.
Yusuke Yonezu’s fun board books about fruits and vegetables are fascinating for the littlest readers: pairings of different foods morph into animals when a page is shifted or a flap is lifted! Try Guess What?-Food and Guess What?-Fruit.
Alphablock is a fantastic first alphabet book for babies. With thick pages cut into the shape of each letter, young hands can really FEEL how a letter might be written or drawn. And of course, there are lots of items and creatures that begin with each letter on the pages so kids can begin to learn what words are associated with them.
If you’re looking for more fun and interesting board books, check out this list!
Blog Post
By Mouse & Frog
by manz
By Mouse & Frog is a new picture book by Deborah Freedman. It features a nice, quiet mouse who is writing a story. A fantastic story! So many ideas are flowing out of his pencil! But Frog is super duper enthusiastic about the storyline and keeps interrupting Mouse’s writing process with his own ideas.
“Once upon a time Mouse was trying to tell a story, but Frog bounced and bounced without listening to Mouse!”
Will Frog stop interrupting? Will Mouse get to finish writing the story? Will teamwork be involved at all?! This charming book will make you giggle and smile and appreciate the balance that's in every friendship.
Public Event
"We Want Mo'!": A Mo Willems Celebration
Saturday November 14, 2015: 1:00pm to
2:00pm
Pittsfield Branch: Program Room
Preschool Through Grade 2.
Blog Post
PreK Bits - "A" is for Amphibians (aka Frogs+)
by ryanikoglu
Who let the frogs out ?
Ms. Rachel let the frogs out for storytime!
We learned WHY The FROG HAS BIG EYES by Betsy Franco
Ms Sara and her banjo played with our children's choir to sing and count “Five Green Speckled Frogs” ...who were eating most delicious bugs … "YUMM!".
We also sang an all-action song "She'll Be Coming 'Round The Mountain". You can hear Jewel's version on the CD The MERRY GOES ROUND.
We found who upset the ONE DOG CANOE by Mary Casanova
For more amphibious antics try the following frog tales:
FROG And FLY: six slurpy stories by Jeff Mack
THAT”S MINE! by Michel van Zeveren
A FROG IN The BOG by Karma Wilson
TUESDAY by David Wiesner. Frogs rise on their lily pads, float through the air, and explore the nearby houses while their inhabitants sleep. The 1992 Caldecott winner.
CROAKY POKEY You can read this book and then DO this book all together.
999 TADPOLES and 999 FROGS WAKE UP Ken Mimura. These will tune-up your counting fingers well.
Blog Post
Rad American Women A-Z
by evelyn
Wow! I want to shout about this book from the rooftops! Rad American Women A-Z, written by Kate Schatz, and illustrated by Miriam Klein Stahl, is the best introduction to women’s history in America I’ve ever seen!
Written in the form of an alphabet book, the 25 women in this book (X is for the women we don’t yet know) are an impressive group. Clear thought has been given to diversity of accomplishments, race, time period, and more. My favorite thing about this book is that the women represented in the pages are ones that children may not have heard of- Dolores Huerta, Kate Bornstein, Temple Grandin, Hazel Scott, Wilma Mankiller, and Yuri Kochiyama, just to name a few! Although this book is written for children, the gorgeous art and smart summaries makes this a winner for all ages.
Rad American Women A-Z picked up quite a bit of buzz prior to publication- check out articles about it from The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, and more. You can also look at the images made available for download from the publisher.
Now go check out this book!
Blog Post
Gorgeous New Youth Non-Fiction
by evelyn
If you’re looking for new books with beautiful and interesting images, look no further than our Youth Non-Fiction section!
First up are the companion books Amazing Animals: A Collection of Creatures Great and Small, and Beautiful Beasts: A Collection of Creatures Past and Present. These books are light on text but littered with gorgeous drawings of all kinds of animals, from the cute to the gruesome. The animals are organized by color, but also by more unusual ways, such as speed, tails and even ear size! With some of the most lovely illustrations I’ve ever seen, these books are sure to please everyone.
If the above books leave you wanting more information about animals, check out Information Graphics’ Animal Kingdom. With bright colors, tabs dividing sections, and quick, interesting animal facts, this book wonderfully compliments Amazing Animals and Beautiful Beasts.
Finally, Matthew Burgess’ new biography of E.E. Cummings, Enormous Smallness, will delight even readers who are unfamiliar with the poet. With text that swoops all over the pages, and beautiful illustrations by the always fantastic Kris Di Giacomo, this book captures E.E. Cummings’ unique style. A chronology, selected poems, and author’s note complete this book, providing extra information to curious readers.