Books for Them

 



Beanstack is a new library resource that matches your child to quality children's literature, from  board books for babies to pre-teen fiction.

Just Imagine
Imagine your own electronic librarian, one who knows your child and can recommend books that meet their needs. Each week, your "Robo-brarian" would let you know about worthwhile books that fit your child's tastes and reading level. It would track reading, reward achievement, and suggest enrichment activities.

What Does Beanstack Do?
Beanstack sends e-mails with book suggestions tailored to your child's interests. The website features themed combinations of booklists for reading, subject exploration  learning tracks, and learning tips.

How To Begin
To begin with Beanstack, parents (or computer-savvy kids) fill out a reader profile with contact information, reading level, and reading likes. Explore the service. Enter what books are read. Earn colorful badges.

Oh, The Things You Can Do!
Beanstack's learning tracks are aimed at children from pre-readers to twelve-year-olds. Learning tracks are grouped sets of activities about animals, plants, cultures, behaviors, famous people, and other topics. Each theme has its own activities to engage young minds and reinforce learning skills. For example, the learning track on "Autumn" includes seven books to read, music to listen to, crafts, games, and fun facts. This FREE service helps prepare youngsters for a lifetime of learning. Come on! Climb the Beanstack!

What to Do? What to Do?

School's over, and you're...bored. Looking for something to do? Wander in the Internet to the Fresno County Public Library’s database page, down to the Hobbies and Crafts Reference Center, and you’ll find a world’s worth of things to do.

Articles, book chapters, and other sources on various pastimes are ready to read, look at, or spark creativity, and it’s all FREE with your library card! You can find information on hobbies as common as:

Scrapbooking

  
     or Chess

    


or as unusual as:


Bell Ringing

or Bungee Jumping.

You can learn about:

• Mosaics (tile and grout are extra),
• Woodburning (Be careful! It’s hot!),
• Sketching (landscapes, still lifes, and more),
• Coin Collecting (foreign or domestic),
• Basketry (coiling and weaving and twining, oh my!),
• PEZ Collecting (Did you know they have the Star Trek crew on dispensers?),
• Candlemaking (dipped or poured),
• Postcard Collecting (“Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here”),
• Board Games (from Monopoly to Snakes and Ladders),
• Batik (wax-dyed fabric),
• Crochet (Hook it!),
• Knitting (Knit one, purl two, OOPS!),
• Origami (It looks like…folded paper),
• Model Trains (All aboard!),
• Cross Stitch (decorate clothing and ornaments),
• Lego Models (You’ve seen the movie, now step on the blocks in the middle of the night),
• Macrame (Knot, knot! Who’s there?),
• Bird Watching (the original tweets),
• Hang Gliding (“Is this thing safe?”),
• Geocaching (Hide-and-Seek for the GPS generation),
• Scuba Diving (“Under the Sea”),
• Magic Tricks (“Now you see it….”),
• Puppetry (strings, hands, and shadows),
• Piano (tunes at your fingertips),
• Astronomy (Star light, Star bright....),
• Robotics (Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto),
• Papermaking (What’s a deckle?)

and a host of other pursuits, trivial or otherwise.

Look at all the things you can do, and you’ll go “WoW!”

Stories…and Beyond!

One of the most important steps in learning to read is making that connection between letters on a page and words that mean something. On the Fresno County Public Library website, one of the best tools for doing that is a FREE service called BookFlix. All you need is a library card number to unlock dozens of hours of reading and learning!

It features animated videos of picture books for children. Each one is read aloud, with the words highlighted as the story goes along. Since schools are moving into non-fiction-based learning, each fictional story is paired with a book that gives facts about a subject connected to the story.

The non-fiction book can be read aloud for you, or it can be read without audio help. Words that might be new to the reader are highlighted, and their meanings are revealed with a click of the mouse.

 

The book-pairs are fun and interesting. Bark, George, about a puppy with a strange problem, is teamed up with Pets at the Vet, which tells how veterinarians take care of animals and help them get well.

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat shows a worn-out coat that becomes a jacket, a vest, a scarf, and other things as the remaining pieces are remade into useful items.  That book is featured with Recycle That, about new uses for old trash.
  

BookFlix is a great way to make reading a habit, building a bridge between the printed page and a world of imagination and information. WoW!

P.S.--The FCPL also offers "Dial-A-Story," a call-in recording where a book is read by library staff. It's a great bedtime-helper, with the story changed every few weeks. Call 559-600-8253 (600-TALE) and give it a listen!

Shaking the Family Tree

Do you have any famous ancestors, like:

Henry VIII?     

Marian Anderson

Alexander Graham Bell











Billy the Kid

     

            

If you don’t know, and you want to find out, the Fresno County Public Library offers Ancestry Library Edition, a FREE version of Ancestry.com.

Let the Search Begin!

Start with the basic facts you know about an ancestor or relative:

• Name
• Birthdate (you can even find a lot of information with just a year or decade of birth)
• Where they lived (born, died, or any place an important event in their life happened)
• Other family members (parents, children, spouses, brothers/sisters)
• Something important about that person (military service, profession)

With just a few bits of information, you’re on your way to discovering your past!

My Family Story

I’ve always been fond of the stories about my great-grandfather, Alexander Baird. Using Ancestry Library Edition and his name, where he was born and the year (Scotland, 1830 or 1832), I found:

• His parents (Robert Baird and Agnes Bell)
• His wives (married 4 times: one divorced him, one died)
• His children (22 of them)
• His military service (3 tours in the U. S. Navy; he was with Commodore Perry’s expedition to open Japan to Western trade)
• His theatre company
• The name of the ship he took to bring his family to America (The Cynosure)
• A story about the hand-me-down gun he took on his trip West across the Great Plains (one shot could bring down 20 birds)
• 3 obituaries
• His prison record

(Some sources say he was the man on the far left. I think he was the bearded one on the right.)

You may not locate as much information as I did about Alexander when you search for your relatives, but—whatever you find—it will make you go “Wow!”

Library Databases for Parents

Parents worry.

• Are my children healthy?
• Are they learning what they need to know?
• How do I keep them busy and happy?

The Fresno County Public Library has databases that will help you take care of your children and meet their needs…for FREE.

Keep Them Healthy 

• Medline Plus is a website that has easy-to-understand articles and features on health issues from information on common childhood illnesses to health quizzes.

• Consumer Health Complete has information that is generally on a medical-journal level, but it is available in 17 languages.

Keep Them Learning

• Student Research Center is for middle-school and high school students, with encyclopedias, magazines, maps, and flags.

• These Reference Center databases focus on important school subjects and issues, and the people who made a difference.
• Science Reference Center
• Point of View Reference Center
• History Reference Center
• Biography Reference Center

• Kids Search is designed for elementary-school students
• Funk & Wagnall’s New Encyclopedia is a go-to resource for all members of the family.

Keep Them Happy

• Hobbies & Crafts Resource Center has articles and videos that cover everything from camping safety to making pop-up greeting cards.
• Bookflix teams video picture books with read-along non-fiction books that cover similar subjects for preschoolers and grade-school students.

All of these resources to help your family are FREE. Explore the Fresno County Public Library. You’ll be surprised at what you will find.

What Do You Read When You've Read It All?

You’ve read everything that writer ever wrote—what now? Try Novelist Plus, the go-to place for finding read-alikes, books by other authors that have elements you might like.

If You Like This, Try That

Looking for people who write about tough-but-suave spies? Type in James Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, and you’ll get Clive Cussler, Adam Hall, Ted Bell, Jeffrey Deaver, Upton Sinclair, and Greg Rucka.

A fan of Lilian Jackson Braun’s The Cat Who… books? Take a look at Nancy Atherton’s Aunt Dimity series, Rita Mae Brown, Shirley Rousseau Murphy’s Joe Grey stories, or tread the furry mean streets of Las Vegas with Carole Nelson Douglas’ Midnight Louie.