CHECK IT OUT:Listen to a podcast for library info

By Mary Ellen Bowman

April 29, 2007 12 AM PT

The first Newport Beach Public Library podcast is now available on our library home page, www.newportbeachlibrary.org. Click on the “Podcasts Now Playing” icon on the library’s website to listen from your home computer or MP3 player. Podcast information consists of new adult and children’s programs, special events, the latest in collection acquisitions and new library services. Customers who subscribe to the RSS feed can automatically receive new episodes when they are posted to the website. For clarification, podcasts are like radio programs, but in audio file format, that are updated with new information, called episodes, and are available by clicking an icon on our website. This is an exciting new way to access information about the library.

BOOKS AND BABIES

Due to popular demand, the central library will schedule an additional Books and Babies story time on Friday mornings in May. Beginning on May 4, babies and their significant adults can experience the joy of simple stories, gentle songs, short poems and stuffed-animal puppet shows. Registration is required for this story time.

Register online at www.newportkids.org. Instill an appreciation for language and expression in your baby from the start. Here are some new juvenile award-winning titles available in the Children’s Room to help you and your baby bond through books.

“Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale” by Mo Willems: Little Trixie loves her stuffed animal, Knuffle Bunny. When she helps her daddy do the laundry, Knuffle Bunny goes missing. Can Trixie and her daddy find Knuffle Bunny? This new picture book won the Carnegie Medal for author and illustrator Willems.

“Jazz” by Walter Dean Myers: Illustrator Christopher Myers celebrates jazz music with imaginative pictures that complement well-known author Walter Myers’s use of stories in rhyme about jazz musicians. This King Illustrator Honor new picture book brings a musical sensibility to words and drawings.

“Dona Flor: A Tall Tale about a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart” by Pat Mora: Dona Flor wants to protect her neighbors from a dangerous animal, but what she discovers is a tiny secret. Colon Raul illustrated this new picture book, which won the Belpre Medal for Illustration.

“Zelda and Ivy, the Runaways” by Laura McGee Kvasnosky: An Easy Reader book meant for reading practice by first- and second-graders, these three short stories about the runaway fox sisters are perfect for reading-aloud sessions with the youngest children. Zelda and Ivy have a series of adventures in additional titles. This particular book won the Geisel Medal.

“Not a Box” by Antoinette Portis was a Geisel Medal Honor book this year. Join an imaginative bunny in discovering what happens when you pretend all the things a box can be.

CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public Library. This week’s column is by Mary Ellen Bowman. Use your Newport Beach Public Library card to reserve these titles at www.newportbeachlibrary.org or call (949) 717-3800 and press 2 for more information.

CHECK IT OUT:Listen to a podcast for library info

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