Book Give-away in Orange Cove

As part of our Summer Challenge events, and thanks to a generous donation from the National Book Foundation, we gave away free books at the Kuffel Terrace Housing Authority Apartments in Orange Cove last week.

The National Book Foundation is a nonprofit organization that presents the National Book Award each year.  Through their Book Rich Environments initiative, they seek to form connections between communities and local libraries while also providing books for children to build up their own personal libraries. 

Everyone got to pick a few books to take home (and keep!), sign up for the Summer Challenge, do a craft, and blow giant soap bubbles outside in the shade.

 

At the craft table, kids could create their very own robot, sparkly pompoms and all.  You can spot one eager reader in the background of the photo above.

As an added bonus, the Healthy Smiles Dental Mobile was parked outside the community meeting room for anyone to come in for a teeth cleaning.

 Our children's programming librarian, Nicole, engaged our youngest guests in a robot-themed storytime.  The theme for this year's Summer Challenge is "Reading by Design" and when kids sign up they receive an activity log designed to help them stay active during the summer through reading, playing, and creating. 

Thank you to the National Book Foundation's Book Rich Environments initiative, the Fresno Housing Authority, and the Healthy Smiles team for a successful event!

Summer Challenge Fun Part 2

Fae Giffen has added more windows and some musical notes to the Fresno city skyline by completing four more challenges from the Teen Summer Challenge list. You can read about what music she streamed on Freegal, what new genre she read, how she connected with the library on social media, and how she had fun outside over the weekend on the Fresno teen blog.

The Summer Challenge is for children and teens and each participant is given a log with different activities to complete. The participant is entered into a raffle to win a prize after they have completed a certain number of tasks. For more information on the history of the Summer Challenge and how to participate, please click here.

Summer Challenge Fun

Community Librarian, Fae Giffen, has decided to complete the Teen Summer Challenge during this summer by completing fun activities from the list and documenting her experiences on the FCPL teen blog.

The Summer Challenge is for children and teens and each participant is given a log with different activities to complete. The participant is entered into a raffle to win a prize after they have completed a certain number of tasks. For more information on how to participate and to view the raffle prizes, click here.

For her first week, Fae read for 10 minutes, watched a sunset and said "Hi" to a librarian. Be sure to check the teen blog, http://www.fresnoteens.org/, every week for her updates. Follow along as each completed activity leads to a new design in Fae's Fresno skyline.

#Yum

Last month, we wrote about our Taste the World – Community Potluck event.  We hosted this potluck at the Reading & Beyond Mosqueda Community Center on Saturday, April 29^th.  We had over 20 dishes at our event.  Here is a small sampling of the foods that were brought for all to share:

Zweiback

Cardamom Bread

Sopes Station

Kalua Pork

Southern Greens with Turnips

Noodles          

Swedish Butter Cookies

Pure de Papas (mashed potatoes)

Apple Pie

Peanut Butter Pie

Before: Tres Leches Cake

After: Tres Leches Cake

At each dish was a handy Potluck Pal sheet we found at www.eclecticaffinity.com.  The designer was thrilled to let us use them for our event.  These Potluck Pal sheets listed allowed us to neatly list the ingredients of each dish to help eaters decide what to try and what they would want to admire from afar.  

Story for the Kalua Pork

Participants were also encouraged to share their stories or the history of their dishes.  Some brought their story already prepared and others
used our blank-pages cut-out to share their stories.  It was great to see and try dishes from so many different places. 

This event was the first of a series as a part of the California Center for the Book’s program: Community Conversations about Immigration.  We want to thank our sponsors for the event, too.  Reading & Beyond was incredibly gracious is donating the use of their wonderful banquet room at the Mosqueda Community Center.  And the Friends of the Fresno County Public Library were instrumental in providing support for this event.

For part 2 of this series, “California: The Journey,” check out the New Americans page on our website.  If you’re interested in submitting a story (or a recipe etc), just follow the directions listed there.  Keep an eye out for Part 3 of the series, an Art Hop night at the Betty Rodriguez branch in September.