We hope you’ve enjoyed International Games Week! Miss Alice shares why your family will enjoy Scooby-Doo! Betrayal at Mystery Mansion – a more challenging (and haunted) game for ages 8+! Find this game and more at the library!
FDL Game Reviews are back, just in time for International Games Week! Miss Alice shares why Just One is the perfect party game, even over Zoom! Find this game and more at the library!
Join FDL in celebrating International Games Week November 7-13! You know we love games at FDL… because games of all types hold educational, recreational, and social value, and playing games is a great way to connect with family, friends, and your community. While we can’t host our annual full-day event due to the pandemic, we’ve got a few fun events throughout the week this year. Show your Super Smash Bros. skills in our tournament on 11/9, or make a Jenga Block Keychain on 11/12. We’ll also have printable games for adults and children to take home throughout the week. Plus, you can win our Golden Ticket Game Giveaway by checking out a game from our collection of more than 200 games – find the Golden Ticket and win your own copy of the game, courtesy of our friends at Cabbages and Kings Games! Game on!
Hi everybody! We were really sad to have to cancel the Big Rig Petting Zoo again this year due to Covid-19. Since we couldn’t have a big event, we have a surprise for you! We collaborated with the Fon du Lac Park District Police and East Side Community Media (Channel 22), to make a video that highlights the rescue equipment they use, including 4 big vehicles that are always favorites at the FDL Big Rig Petting Zoo. So cool!
We want to send out a huge THANK YOU to Chief Johnson and Sergeant Keil from the Fon du Lac Park District Police and Deral and Susan Dixon and Paul Coussens from East Side Community Media for making this video possible!!
But wait, there’s more Big Rig fun at the library! After you watch the video:
While you’re in the Youth Services department check out some of the great Big Rig books, in the Nonfiction Section, Board Books, and the GO Section in the Picture Books. Don’t forget online resources like Libby, Axis 360, and Hoopla. You can also browse our catalog, put books on hold, and pick them in person or at the drive-up window.
Here are just a few of the many books Big Rig books you can find at FDL:
Nonfiction
Fire Trucks: Racing to the Scene by Molly Aloian
The Usborne Big Book of Big Trucks by Megan Cullis
Humvees by John Hamilton
Trucks: The Ins and Outs of Monster Trucks, Semis, Pickups, and Other Trucks by Jeff Young
Tractor Trailers by Lola Schaefer
GO Section
Five Trucks by Brian Floca
Dump Trucks by Judith Jango-Cohen
Trucks Galore by Peter Stein
Grandma Drove the Snowplow by Katie Clark
I Stink! By Kate McMullan
Board Books
Construction Zoo by Jennifer Thorne
Busy Builders, Busy Week! By Jean Reidy
B is for Bulldozer by June Sobel
Colorful World: Construction Site by Nastja Holtfreter
Colorful World: Vehicles by Nastja Holtfreter
eBooks
Police Cars Machines with Power! by Amy McDonald (Libby)
Heavy-Duty Trucks by Joyce Milton (Axis 360)
Snowplows by Rebecca Pettiford (Hoopla)
Coast Guard Boats by B. J. Best (Hoopla)
– Kris, Youth Services Specialist
No time to browse? Our Book Bundles for kids are a great way to quickly pick up books for your child, or discover new books by specific subjects, read-alikes, or reading level. Each bundle contains 5 curated books centered around a theme and grade level, and each includes a corresponding craft or activity. Bundles can be requested through the online form, by email, or by phone. Choose from more than 20 topics, including adventure, mysteries, own voices, science, and more! Additional Bonus Bundles are available to check out monthly in Youth Services on a first-come, first-serve basis. Learn more at fondulaclibrary.org/book-bundles/.
Miss Alice thinks you’ll love learning all kinds of cool facts in the fun Who Would Win? series that pits two different types of animals against each other to see what might happen if they were to meet face-to-face! Head to our catalog to place one on hold!
The breakout Korean show Squid Game is captivating and shocking viewers worldwide. Whether you can’t get enough or are wary of the TV-MA rating, check out these YA dystopian thrillers – where the characters are thrown deep into playing a game, but their survival is never guaranteed!
For trigger warnings, please check out BookTriggerWarnings and/or visit Goodreads to see what other readers and reviewers have to say!
#murdertrending by Gretchen McNeil
Welcome to the near future, where good and honest citizens can enjoy watching the executions of society’s most infamous convicted felons, streaming live on The Postman app from the suburbanized prison island Alcatraz 2.0. When seventeen-year-old Dee Guerrera wakes up in a haze, lying on the ground of a dimly lit warehouse, she realizes she’s about to be the next victim of the app, but Dee refuses to roll over and die for a heinous crime she didn’t commit. Can Dee and her newly formed posse, the Death Row Breakfast Club, prove she’s innocent before she ends up wrongfully murdered for the world to see? Or will The Postman’s cast of executioners kill them off one by one?
Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
When Devon and Chiamaka are chosen to be their school’s top prefects, they think the school year is off to a good start – but shortly after the announcement is made, someone who goes by the name “Aces” begins to blackmail them with anonymous texts revealing their darkest secrets. With the game taking a deadly turn, Devon and Chiamaka have to stop Aces before their futures fall apart.
– New York Public Library
The Culling by Steven Dos Santons
For Lucian “Lucky” Spark, Recruitment Day means the Establishment will force him to become one of five Recruits competing to join the ruthless Imposer task force. Each Recruit participates in increasingly difficult and violent military training for a chance to advance to the next level. Those who fail must choose an “Incentive” – a family member – to be brutally killed. If Lucky fails, he’ll have to choose death for his only living relative: Cole, his four-year-old brother. Lucky will do everything he can to keep his brother alive, even if it means sacrificing the lives of other Recruits’ loved ones. What Lucky isn’t prepared for is his undeniable attraction to the handsome, rebellious Digory Tycho – but daring to care for another Recruit in a world where love is used as the ultimate weapon is extremely dangerous. As Lucky soon learns, the consequences can be deadly…
All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urban
What do the queen bee, star athlete, valedictorian, stoner, loner, and music geek all have in common? They were all invited to a scholarship dinner, only to discover it’s a trap. Someone has locked them into a room with a bomb, a syringe filled with poison, and a note saying they have an hour to pick someone to kill … or else everyone dies.
Amber Prescott is determined to get her classmates and herself out of the room alive, but that might be easier said than done. No one knows how they’re all connected or who would want them dead. As they retrace the events over the past year that might have triggered their captor’s ultimatum, it becomes clear that everyone is hiding something. And with the clock ticking down, confusion turns into fear, and fear morphs into panic as they race to answer the biggest question: Who will they choose to die?
Caraval by Stephanie Garber
Sisters Scarlett and Donatella “Tella” Dragna have always dreamed of going to Caraval-a once-a-year, multiday event that is part magical spectacle, part treasure hunt. With only a week before Scarlett’s wedding to a man she’s never met, Tella runs away to Caraval and arranges for Scarlett to be abducted by a sailor named Julian and secretly taken to Caraval too. But when Scarlett arrives, she discovers that Tella has become the prize of the game, and all the players are searching for her. In order to save both herself and her sister, Scarlett must figure out the ambiguous clues and confounding puzzles and journey through a magical world where secrets and plots abound, nothing is as it seems, and no one is to be trusted.
– Publisher’s Weekly
Endgame: The Calling by James Frey
Twelve teens who have prepared their entire lives for an ancient life-or-death game must finally come to terms with its arrival, forming tenuous alliances and killing each other for the chance to be the last one standing and the winner of the ultimate prize: the ability to save a select group of people from the end of the world.
– New York Public Library
Annotations from the publishers (unless otherwise noted).
Post by Katie Smith, Reference Specialist
Join us in celebrating the Friends of Fondulac Library during National Friends of Libraries Week, October 17-23! The Friends of FDL provide crucial support to the library through advocacy, financial support, and volunteerism. Our Friends are an amazing group of volunteers who dedicate countless hours of their time to the library. The Friends of FDL maintain our ongoing Book Sale and host the annual BIG Book Sale, volunteer for events like Star Wars Day and the FOLEPI Enchanted Forest, sponsor our summer reading programs and babysitting classes, and more! We’re so grateful for all they do!
The best way to support the Friends is to join them (annual dues are only $5), but there are many ways to support them throughout the year. This week, visit the library on October 20 to sign holiday cards for members of the U.S. military. Stop by the Clock Tower Bank on October 22 to meet members and learn more about the Friends’ services. Join the Friends to walk in the Veterans Day Parade on November 6 to pass out book sale coupons and give free books to veterans after the parade.
The Friends will also host their annual Holiday Gift Basket Drawing (for 3 family baskets) November 29 through December 12, and more treats, gifts, stocking stuffers, and handmade items will be available at the annual Friends of the Library Holiday Craft and Bake Sale on December 2, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and December 3, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Proceeds from the sale support the library and its programs.
When you mention “reading to children,” lots of people envision curling up in the rocking chair with little kids sitting quietly and listening to the story from beginning to end. Those day are wonderful and make lots of happy memories! However, there are also the times when kids are flipping the pages, crawling down off the chair, or crying because they have better things to do.
This happens occasionally during story time at the library, too. Kids are just finding their feet and going on adventures as they learn to move around. Children are often very busy! There is so much to explore, who can sit down?
On days when your children don’t want to sit down and listen to a story, interactive books may just be the ticket! Not only do interactive books let the child participate in the reading, there are also developmental benefits.
Touch and feel books offer sensory experiences. Pushing, pulling, turning, and lifting tabs help with the development of fine motor skills, as do touching and tracing the images on the pages. Tracing the words, starting at the top, moving left to right, down to the bottom of the page also gives children a very important beginning skill for learning to read.
Movement books help with the development of gross motor skills. Children learning how to walk, dance, run, jump, and wiggle will have lots of fun acting out the stories in these books. Interactive books make it easy to take a break from reading and ask some questions. Taking time to ask children questions throughout the story can help develop critical thinking skills. A great question is “What do you think will happen next?” This will help children make predictions, a skill that is very important throughout life.
Here are some fun books and activities that you and your child can interact with.
That’s Not My Giraffe … by Fiona Watt
P is for Puppy by Ellie Boultwood
Happy Thanksgiving Day! by Jill Roman Lord
What is Poop? by Katie Daynes
Jonny Lambert’s Construction Site by Jonathon Lambert
Peek-a-Boo Little Dinosaur by Yu-Hsuan Huang
Rapid Responders by Finn Coyle
From Head to Toe by Eric Carle
Boogie Monster by Josie Bissett
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
Dancing Feet by Lindsey Craig
Wiggle by Doreen Cronin
You are a Lion! by Tae-Eun Yoo
Is Everyone Ready for Fun? by Jan Thomas
Clap Your Hands by Lorinda Bryan Cauley
Move by Robin Page
Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson
If You’re Happy and You Know It by Jane Cabrera
The Itsy-Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani
Teddy Bear Teddy Bear by Timothy Bush
The Wheels on the Bus by Annie Kubler
We are the Dinosaurs by Laurie Berkner
Baby Shark by John John Bajet
Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
– Kris, Youth Services Specialist
“The only way to have a friend is to be one.” – Ralph Waldo Emmerson
Become a member of the Friends of FDL to support the library and give back to the community! The Friends group supports the mission of the library through advocacy, donations, and volunteerism – and their support is essential to FDL! These dedicated volunteers maintain the ongoing book sale, help promote the library throughout the community, support our collection and facilities, and sponsor and assist with important programs like Summer Reading. Members pay annual dues of only $5 and meet quarterly. There are several opportunities to volunteer throughout the year, because the Friends:
And if volunteering is not your thing, donations are always appreciated to support their endeavors and the library. Learn more at fondulaclibrary.org/support-fdl/friends/ and stay tuned for more ways to support the Friends during National Friends of Libraries Week later this month!