Poetry Friday--Happy International Tiara Day!

Grab your tiara and plop it on your head--it's International Tiara Day! Don't have a tiara? That's no excuse not to celebrate--visit the Library and borrow Crowns and Tiara by Kerri Judd [YA 745.5 JUD] and get busy making your own!

Since you're going to be wearing a tiara, why not take tea with the King and Queen? Beatrice Schenk de Regniers wrote about tea with the King and Queen in her 1965 Caldecott Award winning picture book, May I Bring a Friend? [JP DER]. The book is written in rhyme and is a real treat for tiara (or crown) wearing royals! Here's the opening:

The King and Queen
Invited me
To come to their house
On Sunday for tea.

I told the Queen
And the Queen told the King
I had a friend
I wanted to bring.

The King told the Queen,
"My dear, my dear,
Any friend of our friend
Is welcome here."

So I brought my friend...

The first friend to come along is a giraffe, followed by hippo, followed by a zoo-ful of others. If you've never read May I Bring a Friend? you should really make a point of visiting the Library to borrow it!

Hopefully your tiara hasn't fallen off yet! Hold onto it before heading off the this week's Poetry Friday Round-Up being held at Jama's Alphabet Soup. Jama always has something wonderful cooking at her blog!

What Are You Doing This Weekend?

If you don't have plans for the Memorial Day weekend, then let me suggest a trip to Boston and the Museum of Fine Arts. This weekend the MFA is having a special "Free Memorial Day Community Weekend" in which admission is free Saturday through Monday!

Graphic courtesy Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild.
A special feature this weekend at the MFA is "To Boston With Love."

Visit “To Boston With Love,” an installation of hundreds of hand-sewn squares created created by quilters in the US and around the world, including Canada, England, Ireland, France, Holland, Australia, Japan, Brazil, and Africa. Each mini quilt delivers a message of peace and hope and is signed on the back by the artist, with his or her country.

The Marathon bombing was an event that scarred not only Boston, but all of us here in the region. It is comforting to receive a show of support, and what better way than through the gift of a warm quilt.

You can preview the exhibit by visiting the "To Boston With Love" flickr group. As of Monday, there were over 400 photos!

If you don't get to the MFA this weekend, reserve the Library's pass for another time (the exhibit will remain at the MFA until July).

A word of advice: don't go to the exhibit without a hankie!

Jello Molds And Other Treats

You may have heard of jello shots, but you've never seen jello shots molded the way The Jello Mold Mistress of Brooklyn makes them! Take a look at this--

Courtesy of The Jello Mold Mistress.
If you like "booze-infused" desserts, then look for Spiked Desserts: 75 Booze-Infused Party Recipes [641.62 SPI], and, if you're particularly fond of jello, you may be interested in Jell-O: A Biography by Carolyn Wyman [664 WYM].

Experience Is the Best Teacher

Labor Pain Simulation from Kensington on Vimeo.

This video made its way around Facebook after Mother's Day. I hope you find it as amusing as I did!

We have plenty of books on pregnancy and childbirth found in the 618.2 section, with cutesy titles such as Pea in a Pod, Expecting 411, or Belly Laughs: The Naked Truth about Pregnancy and Childbirth, however, for the gentlemen in the video, I'd like to direct them to Motherprayer: The Pregnant Woman's Spiritual Companion by Tikva Simone Frymer-Kensky [296.7 FRY].

Remembering Bernard Weber

News came of the passing of children's book author and illustrator, Bernard Waber. He was 88. Waber's long publishing career included the popular titles, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile [JP WAB] and Ira Says Goodbye [JP WAB]. We have 20 of Waber's picture books in our children's room, many of which feature the lovable Lyle.

Here's a preview from the Seattle Children's Theater's production of Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. Waber's books have been performed on stage as musicals!



HBO has also produced Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile as one of its series of "Storybook Musicals."

Bernard Waber will be missed, but his characters will live on.

Poetry Friday--"Two Horses"

Today is the anniversary of the first running of the Kentucky Derby. The event took place in 1875 at Churchill Downs. This year's Derby, the 139th, was run on May 4. There's an awesome picture of the 2013 mud-covered winner, Orb, on the Kentucky Derby home page.

Today I have a poem by Mark Strand called "Two Horses." It appears in the "Everyman's Library Pocket Poets" anthology, Poems about Horses (edited by Carmela Ciuraru) [808.819 POE].

Two Horses

On a warm night in June
I went to the lake, got on all fours,
and drank like an animal. Two horses
came up beside me to drink as well.
This is amazing, I thought, but who will believe it?
The horses eyed me from time to time, snorting
and nodding. I felt the need to respond, so I snorted, too,
but haltingly, as though not really wanting to be heard.
The horses must have sensed that I was holding back.
They moved slightly away. Then I thought they might have known me
in another life—the one in which I was a poet.
They might have even read my poems, for back then,
in that shadowy time when our eagerness knew no bounds,
we changed styles almost as often as their were days in the year.

Ed is the host of the Poetry Friday Round-Up at Think Kid, Think!

1901 photo of Churchill Downs courtesy Library of Congress.

Energy Saving

Early education is the key to our planet's future. If we can educate children to value and appreciate the planet and its creatures, then, when the debate finally comes round to saving the planet, we stand a chance of achieving that goal. Good.is posted an interesting article back in January, "Solar Panels and Schoolyard Chickens: A Net-Positive Campus". From the article we learn that cities around the country are now working on "net-zero energy" buildings for schools. You can learn more about green schools through the Green Schools Alliance.

Along with schools, there are other public buildings that can be built green, and, if you think that net-zero buildings can't be constructed in New England, think again! Click here for the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association's 2013 Zero Net Energy Building Award, which was built on the coast of Maine.

If you're ever up in Portsmouth, visit the Portsmouth Public Library to see what has been done to reduce energy use here in New Hampshire! (They have a brochure on their website that explains their new building.)

Private citizens, too, can think about energy efficiency in new building projects, or in renovation. We have several books in our collection that touch on green construction, including The Everything Green Living Book by Diane Gow McDilda [640 MCD]. We also have a 3M ebook, Building Today's Green Home Practical, Cost-Effective and Eco-Responsible Homebuilding by Art Smith, which you can download on your phone, tablet, ereader, or computer.

And, don't the U.S. Department of Energy's website where you'll find energy efficiency information and tips.