Shelf Notes

We talk with Diane about what happens when you have to close the library for big chunks of time - how do you handle patrons and balance life and library? We also talk about Kristi’s huge project of corralling all of her Five In A Row books and her Picture Book Preschool books. We go over how she is sorting, tagging, and marking those books so that she can pull them easily when her patrons want them. Sherry talks about her continuation of inventory, curation of theme boxes, and her summer reading program. And Sara talks about her renovations and how she is setting up Picture Book Preschool pouches to be easily checked out across her dozen interested families. https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/our-librarian-life-may-2024/

Picture Book Preschool is a lovely book list with about 400 great picture books organized into weekly themes. Each week has seven books and maybe a bonus one or two. (And, Sherry Early is in the process of massively updating PBP with more books – coming soon!) The trick has been to figure out how to adapt it into library use. If you have a small library with only one or two patrons using PBP, you can probably use it just as it is written. I, however, have twelve (and counting) families committed to using it. Fifty-two weeks, divided by twelve families, with thirty-day checkouts was a bit tricky to organize. I did a test run this spring and learned some things. I will take you on my journey and show how we have it set up for the upcoming school year.

In this article in the Ask The Library section of The Card Catalog, Sara explains how she is adapting Picture Book Preschool for large scale use in her library. Included in that article are links to free downloads of all kinds of design elements she made to support her work which you can use in your library.

Since 2003, Sherry Early of Meriadoc Homeschool Library has been writing thoughtful book reviews on her blog, Semicolonblog.com. Sherry’s two decades of blogging have made Semicolonblog.com a treasure trove of book reviews!

Diane Pendergraft and Sara Masarik got a little bit of a later start… they have also been aggressively reviewing nearly everything that they have been reading since 2016. Despite their late start, PlumfieldandPaideia.com is also packed with careful reviews of books new and old.

Now, the two blogs have been combining forces to read and review books for the 1924 and 1964 projects, Picture Book Preschool, Landmark Books, and other large bookish projects best tackled with friends.

Many readers and librarians have asked how they can stay connected with all of the newest reviews. We decided that it made sense to launch a twice-monthly newsletter with teasers and links to all of the newest reviews. Instead of getting an email or seeing a social media post every time there is a new review, by subscribing to this newsletter, you can get a digest or roundup on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of every month.

Sign up for the newsletter here.

In the Small Publishers corner of the newsletter each month, we hope to draw your attention to something lovely from one of our beloved small publishers. We are so grateful for the good work these publishers do to revive otherwise lost good, true, and beautiful books!

First, mark your calendars for the Smidgen Press Christmas in July sale! Plan now, but at the end of July, both the L.M. Montgomery Christmas Collection and The Story of the Other Wise Man will be on sale!

Second, a note from Jody Skinner at Smidgen Press that has us Plumfield girls jumping with joy!

After a rather extended late-winter-turned-spring break, we're coming back for our next Smidgen Press classic reprint release.

It's going to be an Alcott!

So following our last author "L.M." (Lucy Maud), we decided this "L.M.," Louisa May Alcott, should have her own blog post writeup.

Louisa had such unique experiences, even in just the first decade of her life, and diving into the things that made her the writer she is was both a delight and a challenge. Some aspects of her timeline aren't 100% agreed upon, like when and where her father was shunned for allowing a Black student to join his school. But the impact Louisa's upbringing had on her stances as an abolitionist and a voice encouraging women to exercise their newly legislated voting privileges ... what a collage of life experience. (She was the first registered woman voter one place she lived—do you know where?)

As to the next book ... we're reprinting Little Men as our first Alcott, with more of her writing planned for reprints down the road. (We are requesting some illustrator permissions for Little Women, so if this release seems out of order ... we have reason.) Little Men will have Clara Burd's beautiful artwork, so make sure you're on our newsletter list to get a sale notification AND Burd's artwork printables when they're ready!

You can read more about it here.

This month we want to make sure that you have seen the He Went With series republished by Living Book Press. Master storyteller Louise Andrews Kent invites our readers to go on epic adventures with heroes (and villains) of history. Kent writes beautiful prose, develops exciting fictional characters, and pairs them with real people from history. This historical fiction is exciting and rich and would help to bring history to life for our patrons. You can find them at a bundle price here.

Wow! Time flies! In December of 2022 the Plumfield Moms hosted Jill Morgan of Purple House Press, Tanya Arnold of Biblioguides and library lady Jeannette Tullis for one of our most favorite book club discussions: Landmark Books: Combat Nurses of World War II. This Landmark book is a favorite of everyone who reads it! At the time, we were so excited that Purple House Press was reprinting this gem so that a whole new generation of readers could fall in love with the nurses of WWII. Shortly after completing this book, Jill went on to reprint another Wyatt Blassingame WWII Landmark book: Medical Corps Heroes of WWII. Inspired by the fantastic photos in that book, she vowed to come and give the nurses the same treatment. Friends, this new edition of Combat Nurses is an absolute joy to behold! The photos are phenomenal and this book will fly off of your shelves!

You can listen to the podcast for Combat Nurses, here.

You can listen to the podcast for Medical Corps Heroes, here.

From 1953 to 1973, Glenn Blough and Jeanne Bendick collaborated on 14 delightful nature books for children. Blough, an educator and leader in children’s science education, wrote these informative, but also delightful science books for young readers so that children would become more curious about the natural world and feel more connected to it. Jeanne Bendick, a famous author, illustrator, and artist illustrated these books, taking the engaging content and bringing it to life with appealing and easy to comprehend pictures that instruct as much as they entertain. We are thrilled that Purple House Press is reprinting some of these books and bringing them to life for a new generation of budding naturalists in their new Nature Study Library series. This month, the newest volume and highly anticipated Who Lives At the Seashore? makes its debut at Purple House Press!

In our first year at the Plumfield Moms podcast we interviewed Jill and Tanya Arnold from Biblioguides about this fantastic series. You can listen to our interview with Jill and Tanya about the Nature Study Library here.

This month it is our pleasure to introduce you to another of our favorite small publishers: Story Warren Books. Originally created to support The Green Ember books by S. D. Smith, Story Warren Books (and its imprint, Best Medicine Books) has grown to include ten Green Ember books, two Jack Zulu books, Mooses with Bazookas, Team Burger Shed, and other fun new books coming soon! Story Warren and its imprints are dedicated to soul-shaping, difference-making, darkness-shaping adventures for kids and families alike. We have lots to say about S. D. Smith and Story Warren books over the next few months and hope to share a podcast interview with their team at the end of the summer! As much as we love the great old books from the Golden Age of Children's literature, we are delighted to be able to stock our library shelves with new stories that have old souls.

In the meantime, we want to make sure that you know about the Jack Zulu books. The Plumfield Moms interviewed father and son author team, S.D. and J.C. Smith, here. You can read Sara's review of the first Jack Zulu book, here. And the review of the brand new book, Jack Zulu and the Girl with the Golden Wings, launching this month.

In this section of the newsletter each month, we want to highlight book lists we have found to be particularly good for librarians. This month we would like to draw your attention to some books about libraries and librarians.

Taken from Diane Pendergraft’s review of Down Cut Shin Creek at Plumfield and Paideia:

What if you had never learned to read? Can you imagine going to a school where there were no books? What if the only books you had access to were those that libraries didn’t want anymore that, once discarded, had passed through the hands of hundreds more people and come to your house on the back of a horse in a burlap bag?

Kentucky’s Pack Horse Library Project was part of Franklin Roosevelt’s Work Projects Administration (WPA) begun during the Great Depression to help put people to work. The Pack Horse Library Project started in 1935 in two Kentucky counties and lasted until 1943 (having spread to thirty counties), when World War II brought the U.S. economy back to life.

“The way it worked was simple. The WPA paid the salaries for the librarians to maintain a headquarters library, usually at the county seat, and to carry the books on horseback throughout the county. Their circuits were worked out so that new books were dropped off at Center 1, the books already there were taken on to Center 2, and so on. A center might be a school, or community center, a post office, or even a home. . .”

Find out more here: https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/pack-horse-librarians/

In January we announced that the Plumfield Moms are creating custom book club guides perfect for librarians (and others) to use in their libraries. Each PDF guide comes with 25-35 pages of resources, questions, background information, invitations and book marks, participant journals, and more. Think of it as a book club in a box. All you have to do is print and host!

Because you are a subscriber to Shelf Notes, you can download The Princess and the Goblin for free! Just email Plumfield and let them know you would like to have The Princess and the Goblin Book Club Guide (plumfieldandpaideia@gmail.com). If you would like to see more of the guides, go to the guide page, here. You can hear the story behind these new book club guides on the Plumfield Moms State of the Podcast episode, here.

Many of us grew up watching the Disney movie, 101 Dalmatians. While some love the movie and some loathe it, it was based on a truly excellent book that is often overlooked. The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith is a perfect family read aloud capable of being enjoyed by everyone from ages 1 to 101. Invite your friends, and join Pongo and Missis as they travel from London to Suffolk to rescue their puppies from Cruella de Vil. To help you enter into the story: we have a book review posted here and we have hosted a podcast discussion, here.

This guide has over 30 pages of everything you will need to host a memorable book club, from invitations and reading journals to enrichment suggestions and no-fail book club conversation starters and questions in one digital download. Our good friends at Biblioguides have generously agreed to host the purchase portal for this guide, click here to purchase. Find more guides by clicking here.

Is your library registered at the Private Lending Library Directory hosted by Biblioguides?

If not, is now a good time to add your library to the directory? It is free and easy and getting lots and lots of traction! Even if you aren't ready to lend yet, go ahead and register yourself and just note that you are still in development. It is so encouraging to be a part of that community! Just go to the Biblioguides Private Lending Libraries directory, and click on the "Add your library" link near the top of the page. It's always free and always editable by you at any time.

If yes, do you need to do any updating? The directory is a year old! It is a good time to go and see if your listing needs any updating. To update your library directory entry:

1. Sign in to Biblioguides. Use the "forgot password" link if you've forgotten your password.
2. Go to biblioguides.com/libraries (the Private Lending Libraries page) and find your library.
3. Click "Update Information" and type in the new information pertaining to your library. Easy peasy!

Summertime! We have new libraries added to the Private Lending Library Directory at Biblioguides. We have libraries reopening after repair and renovation. We have libraries with great summer reading programs. And libraries that are just moving along, checking out books, and delighting and encouraging readers.

New libraries:

Lilyvale Lending Library in Queensland, Australia. (Librarians: Scott and Ainsley Smith).

Cottage Acres Lending Library in Tulsa, OK. (Molly Kunkee, Librarian) is quietly celebrating the library's first full year membership. Another family is in the membership process, and nine others have been invited!

Old Roads Lending Library in Canton, TX (Emily Manning, Librarian) is now accepting patrons. Library access is by appointment only.

Newton Family Library in Clinton WA (Lorinda Newton, Librarian) is also new to the Private Lending Library Directory. The library is located on beautiful Whidbey Island, about an hour's drive north of Seattle.

Reopening Libraries:

Helen Living Library in WV (Amanda Moore, Librarian) has been closed for spring cleaning and replacement of the front door, but the library is back in business. They're organizing a bubble wagon and bubble-themed books as well as art supplies and LEGOs in anticipation of a book-filled summer.

Plumfield Living Books Library in Denmark, WI (Sara Masarik, Librarian) has also been closed for renovations, but library days are back once again. And Sara is filling Picture Book Preschool boxes and Wonder Boxes for parents of preschool and primary children to check out now (PBP) and in August (Wonder Boxes).

Other News:

Shannon Tobias Memorial Christian Lending Library in Farmington, MN (Jolene Ceravalo, Librarian) will be celebrating its 14th Anniversary in July.

FBC Library, Decatur, TX (Karen Mars, Librarian) is offering Treasure Chest Reading Rewards and Book Club Bingo summer reading programs at the library. See the library Facebook page for more information.

Do you have library news to share with Shelf Notes readers? We at The Card Catalog hope you are enjoying the resources we have provided there, and we also aspire to make our monthly newsletter, Shelf Notes, a valuable source for news and encouragement to the private lending library community. if your library story is not already published on our Librarian Notices page at The Card Catalog, we would love to talk to you about adding your story there. Please email us at thecardcataloglibarians@gmail.com to submit your library story to Librarian Notices.

Also we really enjoy hearing about what’s going on in your library and sometimes publishing that information in brief in Shelf Notes. If you have news of events or new endeavors in your library, please share with us by email at thecardcataloglibrarians@gmail.com. Thank you for all you are doing to connect children and families with good, life-giving books. Keep on doing what you are doing, and we pray for God’s blessing on all our work.