Month: September 2015

The award-winning team of Philip and Erin Stead have written and illustrator their third book together titled “Lenny & Lucy.”  Moving to a new home is always an emotional experience for any child, especially if the child is very reluctant about the move. The very first words that Peter utters as the story begins are “I think this is a terrible idea.”

As Peter travels to his new home with his dad and dog Harold, the reader only sees a dark and forbidding wood.  Erin Stead uses various tones of gray to illustrate the things that Peter finds discomforting and threatening.  As he looks out his bedroom window each night, Peter sees a bridge and the woods where he believes terrible things live.  To protect himself from the dangers hidden there, he creates, out of blankets and pillows, an enormous, very colorful “Guardian of the Bridge.”  He names the guardian Lenny and eventually also creates a companion for him named Lucy.

Eventually, Peter and his next-door neighbor Millie become friends. Together with Harold, Lenny, and Lucy  they wonder and watch out for things they can’t see that might be interesting.

Geared for children ages 4 and up.

To celebrate September as library sign-up month, the local public librarians visited William O. Schaefer School.Today, I visited with kindergarten and first grade classes at WOS.  Many students in these classes have already visited their local public libraries and have gotten their own library cards.  Others were anxious to do so.  After explaining the process of how to get a card, many students indicated that they would visit their public library soon.

Visiting with these young, eager children is always fun.  What made this visit extra special is how the library and teaching staff incorporated a lesson in verbal communication with how important it is to visit the library.