Julie Nutt - Fondulac District Library

Children’s Book Highlight: Let’s Fill This World With Kindness

Title: Let’s Fill this World with Kindness: True Tales of Goodwill in Action

Authors: Alexandra Stewart and Jake Alexander

Age: Grades 4-6

“The perfect book for troubled times, this collection of over twenty-five real-life stories shows how heroic acts of kindness can change our world for the better.

Let’s Fill This World with Kindness explores the science of how our brains and bodies behave when we give and receive kindness. Featuring biographies of thinkers and philosophers from across different cultures who have celebrated the power of goodwill toward others, each chapter concludes with a list of questions for readers to help them reflect on the ways they too can be a kindness superhero.” (editor’s notes)

Highlights:

There are examples of kindness in a lot of ways – in sports, towards animals, in the face of prejudice, during war, and more. Every section includes some critical thinking questions too.
This book is really optimistic! Yeah, sometimes humans are mean to each other and life is unfair. But when you go looking for the helpers, you’ll still find a lot of people.
Kindness is infectious! The book talks about the science behind kindness but the stories share many examples about how the kindness of one person encourages similar actions in others.

-by Alice Mitchell, Youth Services Manager

Julie Nutt2024-11-08T16:19:25-06:00November 8th, 2024|

Spooky Halloween Writing Contest Winners

The results of our Spooky Halloween Writing Contest are in! Three winners were chosen from each of the Teen and Adult categories. We’d like to congratulate the winners and thank all of you who participated!

Teen Winners

Trick or Treat by Mercy M
The Escape Room by Harlow Sharum
The Cabin (Anonymous)

WINNING STORIES (TEEN)

Adult Winners

The Diary of Shadows by Rachael Montgomery
Visage by Susie Sato
The Legend of Strongman Mike by Michael Sue

Winning Stories (Adult)

Julie Nutt2024-11-05T10:50:05-06:00November 4th, 2024|

New Book Highlight: Young Zoologists

Title: Giant Panda: A First Guide to the Bamboo-Loving Bear from China

Author: Vanessa Hull

Age: 6-8

With the return of Giant Pandas to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, I thought it would be interesting to learn more about these mysterious mammals.

This is a very informative book. There are lots of bite-sized facts about the life cycle and behavior of the Giant Panda. Also included in this volume are chapters on the threats and conservation of Giant Pandas. I love the colorful illustrations which are lifelike.
The copy of Giant Panda that I read and listened to was a Chapter Book That Talks, so I could get a good look at the wonderful picture while I listened to the information. Best part, you can actually hear the noises that Giant Pandas make and what they mean.
If you have a budding Zoologist, you might want to check out this book, or any of the other books in the Young Zoologist Series. FDL has 5 books from the series:

by Kris Tyler, Youth Services Assistant

Julie Nutt2024-10-29T11:27:51-05:00November 1st, 2024|

Fall Reads for Kids

With us reaching towards the end of October, it is finally starting to feel like fall. The leaves are changing and the temperature is cooling down. It is truly one of the best times of the year. It brings us fun holidays with Halloween and Thanksgiving. There are so many great things to do such as visiting orchards, carving pumpkins, and reading books! Here at FDL, we offer a great selection of fall themed books to enjoy. Here are some selections that are perfect for this season!

Picture Books

It’s Fall! by Linda Glaser

A child explores fall in nature outside. Also includes fall activities for children.

Apple Cider Making Days by Ann Purmell

Some children help work on their family’s apple farm.

More Picture Books

Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks by Margaret Sutherland
A child thinks about what he is thankful for at Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Town by McKy
A story about a town that is taken over by pumpkins and the brothers that help solve the problem.

J is for Jack o’ Lantern: A Halloween Alphabet by Denise Brennan-Nelson
This book goes through the alphabet with Halloween topics for each letter.

Juvenile Non-Fiction

Carving Pumpkins by Dana Meachen Rau

Learn how to carve pumpkins with this fun book!

Fall Crafts Across Cultures: 12 Projects to Celebrate the Season by Megan Borgert -Spaniol

This book includes festive crafts that celebrate fall.

More Non-Fiction

A Fall Treasury of Recipes, Crafts and Wisdom by Angela Ferraro-Fanning
A beautifully illustrated book filled with fall activities for families such as cooking, crafting, and gardening.

Autumn by Phyllis S. Busch
Full of fall activities related to nature, this book explores how the fall season impacts plants and animals.

The Story of the Jack O’ Lantern by Katherine Brown Tegen
A spooky tale inspired by Irish folklore about how the Jack O’ Lantern was created.

Compiled by Angela Risinger, Youth Services Assistant

Julie Nutt2024-10-25T12:48:17-05:00October 27th, 2024|

New Kids’ Games for the Whole Family

As many of our patrons know, at Fondulac Library we love our board games! However, did you know we also have new additions to our children’s collection? Here are some of my favorite new board games for kids just learning how to play games with their family!

Bluey Scavenger Hunt

Who doesn’t like Bluey and Bingo?! This is another silly game, where the family draws cards and is tasked with being as goofy as possible. The game’s goal is to collect all the toys before bedtime. This is a great game for any kids who struggle with not winning. The family works as a team and loses and wins together!

Dogman: The Hot Dog Card Game

Just like everybody loves Bluey, who doesn’t love Dog Man?! Add hot dogs into the mix, and this card game just makes sense! The game is exactly like it sounds. One player slowly reveals cards on the table. As hot dogs appear, players must follow certain rules, then everybody tries to grab up as many hot dogs as they can before their opponents!

Happy Salmon

Happy Salmon takes traditional Go Fish to a new level! It is a matching game, just like Go Fish, but instead of hiding your cards everybody yells out what they have at the same time. Once you find a match for your card, both players do a silly action together and discard their cards. This game works for both kids who can read and kids who can’t read, because of how colorful and unique each card is.

Hurry Up, Chicken Butt

This game is “laugh-out-loud” fun for both parents and kids. The game consists of you passing a chicken around as it clucks. Each person who gets the chicken gets to shake it, draw a card, and do something silly. Every now and then a player must also run out of the room and find the “chicken butt” token as one of the actions in the game!

by Jacob Roberts, Youth Services Specialist

Julie Nutt2024-10-15T12:10:46-05:00October 21st, 2024|

Election Day for Kids

Election Day is coming up! Are you excited to vote? The library has a bunch of books to get the whole family motivated to get out to the polls and have your voice heard. Take a look at some of these books about the importance of elections and voting, and how our elections work. Looking for sample ballots or voter guides? Library staff have a variety of resources at their fingertips to help you out.

Picture books

Vote For Me by Ben Clanton
Vote for Our Future by Margaret McNamera
I Voted: Making a Choice Makes a Difference
by Mark Shulman
Your Voice, Your Vote by Leah Henderson
The Walk by Winsome Bingham
Vote by Eileen Christelow
I Can Be – President by Christy Webster
If I Ran for President by Catherine Stier

Chapter books

Sofia Valdez and the Vanishing Vote
by Andrea Beaty
Pizza and Taco: Who’s The Best
by Stephen Shaskan
Eva for President by Rebecca Elliott
Mayor Hubble is in Trouble by Dan Gutman
Heidi Heckelbeck for Class President
by Wanda Coven
The Case of the Crooked Campaign
by Lewis B. Montgomery
Jayson Goes for It by Brayden Harrington
Gabriela Speaks Out by Teresa Harris
Twins by Varian Johnson

Nonfiction

Why Voting Matters by Kip Almasy
Equality’s Call: The History of Voting Rights in Amerca by Deborah Diesen
Because They Marched: The People’s Campaign for Voting Rights that Changed America
by Russell Freedman
Give Us the Vote: Over 200 Years of Fighting for the Ballot by Susan Goldman Rubin
Political Elections by Davis Miller
Understanding U.S. Elections and the Electoral College by Grace Houser
Our Country’s Presidents: A Complete Encyclopedia of the U.S. Presidency
by Ann Bausum
Power to the People: How We Elect the President and Other Officials
by Kevin Cunningham

Julie Nutt2024-09-26T16:49:23-05:00October 2nd, 2024|

Digital Collections for Kids

With the school year in full swing, and our lives busier this fall, it might be hard to find time to stop by the library. The good news is, Fondulac staff have been working hard, not only for Summer Reading these past few months, but also to offer alternatives to our physical location this new school year. Of course, we have always had our digital collections, but over the summer we have added new collections! We hope our new digital collection makes it easier to access your library on your terms, with the content you are most interested in! Here are some of the new services we have added to our digital library!

Comics Plus offers thousands of comic books that the whole family will enjoy, completely free! The kids comics range from Minecraft-Inspired series to the Legend of Korra series. It also has lots of manga for teens and adults. If you are familiar with logging into Libby, Boundless, or your Fondulac District Library account, all you need is your library card number and PIN to get started! When first setting up this account, it will be important to make sure to help your kids sign up for the Comics Plus Children’s Library.

Kanopy is a great alternative to many of the streaming subscriptions that cost in our world today. Kanopy is completely free for our patrons. It offers tv shows, movies, and educational courses for both adults and kids! At FDL we offer 15 credits for our general Kanopy services per month, but the good news is kids are able to watch unlimited content in the Kanopy Kids section all month long!

FDL has also revamped our language learning services! We switched from Mango languages to Rocket Languages. This new language app can be used on the computer or with an app on your phone! It gives even more in-depth lessons than our previous service as well!

–Jacob Roberts, Youth Services Specialist

Julie Nutt2024-10-01T14:12:45-05:00September 27th, 2024|

New Kids’ Fiction Highlight: Dealing with Tough Stuff

My Brother is Away
by Sara Greenwood

Recommended Ages: 5-8

This is an interesting book that touches on a sensitive, yet realistic subject. A young girl must face her friends and her feelings because her older brother has been incarcerated. Her friends talk about her brother being a bad person. She must face the truth that he did something wrong, nonetheless she still loves him and misses him terribly. The little girl and her parents must take a very long drive to visit him at the prison where he currently resides. She is anxious about visiting her brother at the prison, but instantly feels excitement when she sees him and he greets her with a big hug. She quickly learns that she is not the only person to have someone they love in prison.

Gut Reaction
by Kirby Larson and Quinn Wyatt

Recommended Ages: 8-12

My reason for recommending this book is that it deals with a chronic illness (Crohn’s Disease) and all the obstacles that go along with being sick while trying to remain active and social. Tess is an 8th grader who has just moved to a new school and is dealing with the loss of her father while trying to fit in and make new friends. She believes her stomach pains are due to stress from all the new challenges she is facing, but later finds out she has a serious medical condition that she must learn to live with. Tess is also a very talented baker and is competing in an elite baking contest while dealing with her health condition. This book demonstrates the importance of mental and physical health and how they are so closely connected. It also endorses the positivity of friendship and support.

–Christy Schurter, Youth Services Assistant

Julie Nutt2024-09-17T12:57:04-05:00September 19th, 2024|

Library Card Sign-Up Month 2024

Beyond our community, Library Card Sign-Up Month is celebrated in September by the American Library Association and libraries nationwide to remind everyone that a library card is the first step towards academic achievement and lifelong learning. So this September, sign up for a new FDL card, renew your expired card, or replace your lost card to be entered into a prize drawing for an Amazon Fire tablet! Already have an FDL card in good standing? Use it to check out physical materials within FDL throughout September, and you could win an Amazon Fire tablet, too! Encourage your friends and neighbors to get their library cards, and discover all of the great resources and programs available at FDL!

For more information about how to sign up for your library card, visit fondulaclibrary.org/library-cards/.

Julie Nutt2024-09-04T10:22:12-05:00September 4th, 2024|

Children’s Book Highlight: Rose Wolves by Natalie Warner

Rose Wolves by Natalie Warner

Reviewed by: Alice Mitchell, Youth Services Manager

Genre: graphic novels, fantasy

Suggested Age: 4th-7th grade

What is the book about?

One day, a little girl picks an unusual flower from an unusual bush in the forest. Overnight, the flower blooms and turns into a magical creature: a rose wolf, missing a leg just like she is missing an arm. Together, the new friends must go on a journey to find where they belong. (From Amazon)

My Review:

The parallels between the little girl and the rose wolf make the story incredibly meaningful. They both begin their story a little growly and with missing limbs, and wind up finding where they belong together.

The entire concept of the rose wolf is wonderful, from the non-threatening design to the actual rose tail. I was sad to see the petals on the tail falling off and what that could possibly mean for the story, but it all worked out okay in the end.

What fantastic illustrations! I’ve seen a bunch of wordless picture books, but this is the first wordless graphic novel that I’ve read. This story has a lot of depth and doesn’t need words to get its message across.

Find it in the Youth Services Department or on the hoopla app!

Julie Nutt2024-08-07T10:59:11-05:00August 9th, 2024|