Top 5 for Friday - The Eclectic Mix

I was struggling for a theme for the Top 5 blog this week. We have been rushed off our feet during the school holidays (Good) but it means that some days pass in a haze of racing from one job to the next with no time to draw breath in-between (Bad). So I thought I would share five things that I have found over the last two weeks to help with the Winter Warmers School Holiday programmes, or that just piqued my interest.

1. Let's Play! (Shelalagh McGovern) and Small Fry Outdoors (Susie Cameron & Katrina Crook). Two books of games and inspiration for how to deal with (and what to do to entertain) two to twelve year olds. Very simple ideas, without the need for a lot of extra equipment. As the days lengthen out and summer approaches (crossing fingers) they will get even more use. I used one of the ideas at short notice for my evening storytime on Wednesday night (when Plan A turned out to be a bit of a flop) and it worked really well.


2. Trouble Maker: the graphic novel (Janet and Alex Evanovich). Like so many other current authors, Janet Evanovich has made it into the graphic novel format with the Barnaby and Hooker series (also appearing in Metro Girl and Motor Mouth on the adult fiction shelves). It's fast paced with a sense of humour and works really well. I discovered it while looking for the Walking Dead graphic novels for someone who couldn't wait for the TV series to start this week.


3. Best Shorts: Favourite short stories for sharing (selected by Avi). I was looking for a really good short story I could tell at our Milo and Marshmallows Family storytime so I went through two or three books of short stories, classic fairy tales and fables. In the end I narrowed it down to two - The Boy who Read aloud by Joan Aiken (which appears in Classic Fairy Tales to read aloud) and the eventual winner by New Zealand's most famous librarian - The Librarian and the Robbers by Margaret Mahy which appears in the noted book.


4. The Putumayo children's music collection. I also spent some time listening to CD's to discover some new and different songs to spice up storytime sessions. I have become addicted to these CD's with irreverant lyrics (The Belly Button Song) and jazzed up, reggae, african, carribean or blues versions of old favourites such as Old McDonald. The adult collection is well worth a listen to as well.


5. The Day of the Rain (Joy Cowley). I also went through a reasonable amount of picture books with the holiday programmes and storytimes. This Kiwi favourite is the one the kids liked. First published in 1993 they loved the pictures of the classroom floating along the motorway, down Queen Street and out into the Hauraki Gulf. The Wide-mouthed Frog Iain Smyth) was a big hit with young and old at storytime last night so takes the runners up spot.