Pasadena Public Library
We had a wonderful group of smart, creative kids come to do some coding and art at our ArtNight program last Friday, April 16th. Kids 8 and up did the Artist Tutorial together on Code.org. The tutorial contains nine easy puzzles to solve, each one introducing a new concept about […]
For today’s Read Around the World Book Club meeting, we discussed the book Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell, set in Paris, France in the early 20th century. (Note: some reviewers say the book is set in the “Victorian era” but that’s INCORRECT. Faure’s Requiem wasn’t finished until around 1890, and had […]
There’s a new way for PUSD students to get access to free eBooks and audiobooks in the library’s collection, and it doesn’t even require a Pasadena Public Library card! Through a partnership between Overdrive and Sora, and Pasadena Public Library and PUSD, students can now check out books from the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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” […]
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 […]
Our first coding class for ages 7-12 on May 29 had a total of 115 attendees! 115! Not all of them could be there for the entire time. But still, 115 new or fairly new users were brought to the fountain of free learning and creativity that is Scratch! So […]