2024 NATIONAL MEDAL
for Museum and Library Service Finalist

Kids

Winter Holidays: A Time for (Word) Families

If your family has a beginning reader, here's an idea for a great way to spend some time together during the cold weather.  Snuggle up with a word family book!  Word families help kids learn about sounding out and rhyming as they learn to identify predictable sounds in words that sound similar.  As kids learn these "chunks," they discover that they can figure out other words that have the same vowel sound and sequence of letters.  

Kids, Please Vote!

Voting for the Garden State Children's Book Award is open now!  Kids, don't forget to cast your ballot in one or all of the four categories of nominees.  Librarians in public and school libraries throughout New Jersey have put together a list of the best books for children published in 2016.  (Yes, we know it's 2018.  This way you've had a few years to read some of them!)  Now we need your help in choosing the best of the best.

Property of the Rebel Librarian

June Harper is a rule-following, flute-playing, avid reader -- in short, a good kid.  But when her parents deem a book from school "inappropriate," a massive book ban at June's school ensues.  Suddenly, everything June loves is gone.  Then she discovers a Little Free Library in town and with her access to contraband (books!), she begins running a secret banned books library from an empty locker and unexpectedly becomes the most popular girl in school.

Seriously, could we not feature this book on the library's website?

So Thankful for New Picture Books!

We notice many families find it hard to walk past the new picture books on display without picking one up.  Ahhh, the lure of a new book!  The stories, the illustrations, the crisp pages, the scent of fresh ink...  (Nope, it's not just you!) 

Would you believe our library currently has over 500 books in this new picture book category?  We hope those of you who have some of them checked out right now are enjoying them!