April is National Poetry Month, and the best way to celebrate is by embracing poetry and all the joy it has to offer. Through poetry one can express any feeling and many fine writers have. Here are ten of my personal favorite books of poetry:

• The Beauty of the Beast: Poems From the Animal Kingdom J811.008 BEA
• Big, Bad, and a Little Bit Scary: Poems That Bite Back! - J811.008 BIG
• Creatures: Poems J821.008 CRE
• Exploding Gravy: Poems To Make You Laugh J811.54 KEN
• A Foot in the Mouth: Poems to Speak, Sing, and Shout J811.5408 JAN

Tumblebooks has something to enhance the reading experience for every young reader! This database is designed with young children in mind. Tumblebooks uses Flash animation to animate picture books. Additionally, Tumblebooks has wonderful games related to the books. You can find the link to this excellent resource right on the Commack Public Library home page (http://commack.suffolk.lib.ny.us/), or just click the icon below for more information on this wonderful database:

As winter changes to spring and March melts into April, why not celebrate both Women’s History Month and National Poetry Month with poetry about women and girls? Check out some of the following titles.

• All by Herself : 14 Girls Who Made a Difference : Poems
• Amaze me : Poems for Girls
• Dreams of Glory : Poems Starring Girls
• Free to Be … You and Me
• Girls Got Game : Sports Stories and Poems
• More Spice Than Sugar : Poems About Feisty Females
• My Sisters’ Voices : Teenage Girls of Color Speak Out

Often when folks are looking for books to share in commemoration of St. Patrick’s Day, they search the holiday or the picture book shelves but they tend to overlook our juvenile folklore collection. International folktales, fairy tales, legends and fables are located against the north wall of the children’s fiction department.  The following titles are some of our newer additions to our Irish folklore collection.

• A Pot o’ Gold by Kathleen Krull
• The Prince of Ireland and the Three Stallions by Bryce Milligan
• Mrs. McCool and the Giant Cuhullin by Jessica Souhami
• Brigid’s Cloak by Bryce Milligan

• Bring Me Some Apples and I’ll Make you a Pie
• Most Loved in all the World
• Coretta Scott
• Barack Obama
• As Good as Anybody
• Keena Ford and the Second Grade Mix-up
• Groundbreaking, Chance-taking Life of George Washington Carver…
• Keeping the Night Watch
• A Thousand Never Evers
• Metal Man
• The Blacker the Berry : Poems
• Obama : A Promise of Change
• March On! : The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World
• The Moon Over Star
• Barack
• Bird

I spend a lot of time in my car. I’m sure everyone else does as well. Between school, extra curricular activities, ballet, Little League, and coming to the library, it’s a lot of time in the car! To help pass the time productively, I, and many other people, listen to audiobooks. They’re a great way to do some extra reading while traveling around!

If you haven’t tried the TumbleBooks  link on our Library’s home page take the time to check it out today.  TumbleBooks is an online site which the library subscribes to. The TumbleBook Library includes new children’s books, story books, puzzles and games related to the books, audio books, read-alongs (readables), and books in Chinese, French, Italian, Russian and Spanish.  The illustrations are gently animated and passages are  highlighted as they are read.  Just login with your library card barcode and your password from our homepage.  Click here for more information.

Posted by Ray Arroyo

Author - Title

Bemelmans, Ludwig - Madeline

Brown, M. Wise - The Runaway Bunny

Burton, Virgina - Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel

Cannon, Janell - Stellaluna

Christelow, Ellen - Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Dr. Seuss - Horton Hears a Who!

Feiffer, Jules - Bark, George

Flemming, Denise - Mama Cat has Three Kittens

Freeman, Don - Corduroy

Greene, Rhonda G. - Barnyard Song

Guarino, Deborah - Is Your Mama a Lama?

Hest, Amy - Kiss Good Night

Johnson, Angela - Julius

If your child’s teacher requests a reading assignment of a historical fiction title, you might try conducting a subject search of the genre, historical fiction, and then further limiting your search by material type, year of publication, audience, and, if so desired, by adding words to the title, author or subject fields. Remember to select the “sort your results by year” option to display the newest titles first. Try it out by clicking on the following link.

• Narrow Your Search

We have labeled our fiction genres to further assist you. Our new historical fiction classification label looks like this:

On Monday, January 26th, the American Library Association announced the winners for the Newbery and Caldecott Medals. The Newbery Medal is given to the most distinguished American children’s book published the previous year, and the Caldecott Medal is given to the most distinguished children’s picture book published the previous year.

Check out the winners for 2009:

Newbery Medal Winner:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Nobody Owens is a normal boy, except that he has been raised by ghosts and other denizens of the graveyard.

Newbery Honor Books:

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt