By Kitty Felde It’s that time of year when we can almost feel spring in the air. Almost. It’s the time of year when many of us plan our gardens. One of the neighborhood kids is crazy about plants. Nothing gets him more excited than a packet of green bean […]
Young Readers: Kindles, Kindles Everywhere
By Kitty Felde If I open the kitchen pantry door and there’s a bag of chocolate chips in there, I eat them. I can’t help it. On the other hand, if the bag of chips is stashed in the back of the shelf, I don’t bother to look for them. […]
Young Readers: Clean Off Your Bookshelves
By Kitty Felde We’ve watched the ball drop in Times Square, cheered on our favorite teams in the Peach, Fiesta, Cotton, Citrus, and Rose Bowl games, made and already forgotten our New Year’s Resolutions. But we get a second chance at starting the new year right: Chinese New Year is […]
Innovative Design Inspires Reading
By Kitty Felde Most people visit art museums and monuments when they visit a new city. I visit libraries. I’ve visited a tiny community library in rural Oregon with its own vegetable garden and attended the grand reopening of a magnificent new library in Christchurch, New Zealand after a devastating […]
Young Readers: Why Should Dogs Have All the Fun?
By Kitty Felde There’s nothing like sharing a book with a friend. Especially if that friend has a tail and a lot of fur. Dogs are non-judgmental. They don’t criticize mispronounced words or sentences that take forever to finish. They just listen. Read-to-dog events have become part of regular programming around the […]
Young Readers: More Binge, Less Complaints
By Kitty Felde “It’s not that kids don’t like to read. It’s that they don’t like feeling like they’re forced to read.” That’s Eric Berman’s mantra. Berman is Teen Services Coordinator for the Alameda County Library in California. He says the key is getting reluctant readers hooked on something. Anything works, he […]
Young Readers: Facts To Sway Reluctant Fiction Readers
By Kitty Felde They say there are two kinds of people in the world: those who read fiction and those who read non-fiction. Fiction fans argue that stories improve a person’s capacity to understand and mentally react to other individuals and social situations. Non-fiction aficionados argue that fact-filled books help […]