We love our public library! There seems to be no limit on checkouts nor renewals (as long as no one had requested the same book). I search online and request a ton of books. Free holds helps a lot. I search by juvenile. Seeing page numbers helps too. A link directly to like AR (so I could gage interest level, reading level etc) would be icing.
I agree about story times being open to kids by ability. We also had some librarians (at other branches) be too strict about what for DD's age should have been a process based art activity rather than product oriented, and DD was quite bothered by that. She also freaked out when librarians acted out a scary poem. Sometimes librarians seem clueless about what's scary or mean in stories. I'm always cringing at puppet shows as the animals call each other names. Maybe not every kid will cry or repeat it forever but mine will
There's a Shakespeare reading club at our local branch and it was open to all ages, so I took my 6yo Shakespeare obsessed daughter ( I checked what play they were doing first) and she loved it. We all just read the plays aloud. The other readers (almost all elderly or middle aged, with an occasional college kid) seemed happy and welcoming. That was a fantastic experience for DD.
I remember looking for Les Miserables in sixth grade and being told it was not an elementary book. No offer to get it etc. the first week of junior high I checked it out and read it! DD's school doesn't even have a library (just big classroom collections) so we haven't had school experiences. I make sure we use our public library a lot, and I'm always checking out a huge pile of books.
Last edited by St. Margaret; 05/15/14 10:33 AM.
