Making Beaded Wire Rings

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On Saturday, February 6, 2021 Pasadena Public Library had a craft program with Kaitlyn Chiu instructing us how to make beaded wire rings. The library provided a Take and Make kit to participants who registered in advance in January. The kit included two 18-inch lengths of 26 gauge silver wire, […]

New and Updated Booklists for Black History Month

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We’ve been working hard sprucing up our booklists for Black History Month! In case you weren’t already aware, the library is offering a Black History Month Reading Challenge this year, and all kinds of virtual events all month long, advertised in our special Black History Month Brochure. We have author […]

Read Around the World Book Club Visits Oman

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Today’s Read Around the World Book Club discussion focused on the country of Oman, after we read The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye. The book is a very quiet read, focused mostly on one boy’s love for his country and unwillingness to leave it, and his relationship with […]

Read Around the World Visits Navajo Nation

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To celebrate Native American Heritage Month, our Read Around the World book club for 3rd – 5th graders discussed the exciting middle grade fantasy/adventure book Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse, published by Rick Riordan Presents. Race to the Sun is set in Albuquerque, New Mexico and also Navajo […]

Read Around the World Visits Thailand

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Today our book club learned a bit about Chiang Mai, Thailand and discussed the book Tua and the Elephant by R. P. Harris. Nine-year-old Tua releases an abused elephant from its chains, but its angry and ruthless owners are on her tail and they’ll do anything to get their elephant […]

Read Around the World Visits Germany

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This month, the Read Around the World book club for 3rd through 5th graders read and discussed the book Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner. (The book is available on hoopla as an eBook.) This is a delightful romp through 1920s Berlin with a bunch of boys who are […]

Minecraft Designer Hour of Code: Kids’ Coding Club

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We had 198 participants in our Zoom coding workshop today! For today’s workshop I walked everyone through a Code.org Hour of Code tutorial on video game design with activities based on the game Minecraft. Kids learned how to code creatures like sheep, chickens, cows, golems, creepers and zombies, to: “spawn” […]

Take and Make Crafts

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This month we’re starting to offer a new option for kids and families to get their creativity on! Each week we will open registration for different “Take and Make” craft kits for various different age groups. Kits will contain all the basic materials you need to make the project. Check […]

Kids’ Writing Workshop: Summer Reading Inspirations

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On Friday we read excerpts from the middle grade books that are available as prizes for Summer Reading Challenge participants. Then we explored how those books can teach us something about writing. Hooks To learn about writing a first page that will “hook” the reader, we read the first page […]

Read Around the World Visits India

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At today’s virtual Read Around the World book club meeting, we took a tour of the Sundarbans in West Bengal, India and discussed the book Tiger Boy by Mitali Perkins! Mitali Perkins was born in Kolkata, West Bengal, (also known as Calcutta), which is a few hours’ drive away from […]